What Have We Been Up To?

And the farm animals take over the blog! Clearly, the humans have been too busy to blog lately, with their homeschooling and church and cleaning pens and stuff, so we thought we animals would share a few words on what we have been up to around here!

We finally got some rain around here, and the "goosies on the loosies" as that house mama calls us like rain better than any of the other animals! Why? To play in, of course! But also, because weeds mean that we eat fresh greens that the other animals don't reach. Mama says that means we are brats telling everyone else about it, but we are the guard geese after all, so we should get some perks!

House mama, also known as the feed lady, she tried to pull some weeds down by her garden recently. We told her this was unacceptable, as they were the salad bar we hadn't gotten to yet. Finally, we got her to leave the piles for a couple days so that we could munch a bit before she did more work.

She still has more to prep for our eating. We are done with the other piles, so she had best get busy!

Just because the geese roam all the time doesn't mean they are the only ones with good treats! Despite getting our own salad bar in our pen that Wyatt keeps stocked and growing for us, we still get baskets of sprouts!

It is like a party when the red baskets come out in the middle of the day!

We even share with the guineas! (Well, most of the time, anyway!)

Breakfast time is the best time in our pen! Okay, well, we think we get the best dinner, too! We have the house mama and our Bailey trained to bring us bottles twice a day, and then Daddy Powerstroke lets us have the feeder . This is our look that says, "We are cute!" We know you agree, and the Brahmas that share a fence with us in the grow out pen sing along with us.

The house mama is always excited to see melons doing well. What we like about melons, is that the chickens get lots of melon and then they are in better moods!  They complain less about us singing at night when they are in good moods, and I think I heard this kind of melon called a honeydew...

Just in case you were missing out on some of my cuteness, I am Freedom's Prayer!  I am pretty sure the world is here to cuddle me!

Did we mention we are masters as coexistence? The goats might say we complain about them singing, but we keep our rooster in line, and also have a pet snake in our pen. If you look closely, you will see his tail over by the old feeder we like to stand on.

This guy doesn't bother us hens, and our nesting boxes and new feeder are up off the ground. The desert comes with mice, so we let this guy wander around so the mice don't bother our nests, and in turn we nest up high and only try to sit on eggs up in the loft where Wyatt keeps our straw. The added bonus- the bigger our Wyatt gets, the funnier it is when he tries to get eggs from us up there! Then we all stand around in the door to our hen house and watch him... Did I mention bonus points for anyone who can get him stuck up there so he has to call for help?

Why yes, the chickens tried to take over! But guess what! We are just too cute to ignore!

My brother was being silly and trying to wrestle with our Dad, so I decided to play peekaboo from my favorite house. Dad also likes to pose. Don'e tell the house mama, but he leaves a pile of poop near where he poses on purpose. She says he wasn't well socialized before our Bailey brought him home, but Bailey says that means he will do just fine in our family of homeschool goofballs. Not sure what that means, but she always scratches our ears and brings us food. And, if we cry really loud, she will come out over and over to check on us!

Well, that is the world according to the bucks, the geese and the Big Pen. We dare the does and the others to outdo us!

Friends Do Everything Together- Including Cause Trouble...

It began with the Light Brahma who is on top in this photo. She prefers to hang out in the house. She likes to move the eggs around, sit on them, and sometimes eat them if we don't get to them fast enough.

I have to crawl almost completely inside this house and pick them up to get to the eggs!

On this particular day, I had to pick both of them up. They are friends, as you can tell, and they were trying to work together. They don't bite be, or even pretend to, but when I go for eggs, they whine. A rather high pitched, screechy whine. And as soon as I let one go, she jumps back on top of the other, thwarting my progress toward collecting eggs from this pen. I think they believe they will hatch the eggs themselves, though, they are notorious for having little peck holes in the eggs they are sitting on.

I have tried wooden eggs, and that usually works for about a week, until one of the kids inadvertently collects the wooden egg or they figure it out and leave me the wooden egg at the opening of the house.

These two have become best friends and accomplices, so I check them for eggs several times a day as I go past!

On this particular day, though, I wasn't fast enough. And if they thought they looked innocent when I walked up, here is the evidence: broken egg shell glue by egg goo to her leg feathering.  My son walked past when I was trying to deal with them, and he just said, " Mom, those girls are nuts. YOU are washing that bird!" Such a sweet boy... ehemmmm...

I suppose we all need a best friend- one to have fun with, and cause trouble- or get into trouble- with. Who is yours? And who are the best friend/ accomplices at your house?

Spending the week trying to get our feet back under us!

We are finishing a crazy time in our lives. I have been immensely thankful for having chosen to home school this year. We will spent a good bit of the hot, desert summer finishing up the studies, but we're able to be there with our family when we really needed to.  What a blessing. 

Sunday, we kicked off the week with a fruit tart the boys were craving before heading of to church. . Bailey is settling in to her new assignment teaching the 4 and 5 year old class,  and I got to help while Wyatt enjoyed helping lead games in the last hour of Sunday school next door. 

Monday was a big return to studies, and also the last official 4h meeting of the year. Little Let Your Light Shine wasn't thrilled with sharing his Bailey with her school work, so he embarked on a mission to eat her assignment list.

This was in the back seat on the way to town to go to the meeting. When we walked in to the meeting,  the club president automatically saw Shine, called out, and brought the attention to the club leader . Since Shine was a distraction, he and I were sent outside. 

The youth updated one another, and then voted on officers for the next year. Bailey was elected Vice President, but was the only one who had signed up to run for Treasurer, so she slid over to the Treasurer slot to give her friend the job he wanted for his last year.

After the meeting, we all went down to the park for a potluck.  The kids had so much fun that some of us didn't leave the park until well after 9!

Finally, I rounded them up, with big kids carrying little ones on and over their shoulders, since I needed to open the gym in the morning. 

After my morning shift,  I stopped by to donate my ponytail. I thought we agreed on 11 inches for the donation and enough left for a decent ponytail to stay back from my face while I am teaching, but instead the ponytail was cut off at about 14 inches. 

This is how it came out. It was a bit of a shock for me, but it will be pretty cool for hiking this summer. I have to admit, though, that when the other moms waited for me after girls group, I felt like part of the family. It reminded me of when Charlie had let Bailey take Wyatt ' s ultrasound to school years back (strange, I know, I wasn't going to tell anyone yet) and I got to the daycare after work to find all of the moms waiting for me. I really feel blessed to be finding a true church home. 

Shine is really settling in to living with his people and his four legged friend, Shadow.  He would like to watch the baby chickens in the brooder, but  isn't tall enough to peek. So at this point, he was perched up on a couple of my boxes just below the brooder.

Sometimes he hangs out on the trampoline next to this, but Shadow loves it too, and this was closer to the noisy little ones!

We tried hard so far this week to settle back in to homeschooling, and when the wind wasn't too bad, getting our work done outside. Shadow seems to really be loving that, she curled up next to Wyatt to look at the white board list while he was working on Spanish.

While they were working on this, I tried to figure out what to do with all the ribbons from fair. This pile took more than the bed, and didn't include any from the livestock. The blue rosettes were what they used for purple ribbons for photography this year. I think I will let the kids decide if they want any photos up in their room, and put it all in photo albums by year. 

There is just so much, and they really did learn from the process this year, as well as from the feedback on the judging notes. They have one final photo competition this weekend, but they seem to really enjoy telling a story with their work and having time to dedicate to it.

Shine and Shadow have taken to sharing bowls, but last night he was guarding his bucket of hay pellets. His actual bowl is next to Shadow's, and for as much as Shine is appreciating the company, Shadow is too. We have lost several very special family members this year, including Shadow's brother Vegas, and she likes having a buddy around.

Shine has taken to sleeping on the bed with Bailey, like Shadow does with Wyatt. Here, Shine was practicing Shadow's skill at keeping the kids company during Spanish studies. In the morning when I go to wake them all up, Shadow and Shine lay there awake and wait for me to call them.

The spring hatch continues, as little partridge Cochins joined us, along with light Brahmas and more.

There are three little new ones in the brooder this evening who hatched last night and this morning, with more talking and pipping away in the incubator now. There are also blue Cochin bantams, which came from the same stock as those bailey took to fair this year. They all earned blue except for one, which had a comb injury from earlier on when he had stuck his head through the fence. Wyatt is eagerly awaiting his next batch of Silkies, after selling his favorite hen in the auction and bringing in new roosters to improve his stock. Some are sue almost any day now.

This was the first Polish to hatch from the ones we brought home this Spring. Cannot wait to see how it comes out!

Well, we did get a little going to try to finish the new pen, and Charlie brought home the wood we asked for for the doe barn project.  We will see what we get done tomorrow! What's going on at your house?

Poultry Available

The chickens around here are used to being spoiled, or in the words of chief poultry man, Wyatt, "well-cared-for".  We often have chickens available, from day-old to adult, in a variety of breeds. We do our best to keep this page up to date, but if you are inquiring about certain ages, breeds or birds, please feel welcome to email or call us.

This is Trooper, a blue ribbon partridge Silkie hen. She is still a wonderful mama hen, who keeps things in line around the Silkie area. When a couple young roosters moved in recently, they thought they would tell everyone who is in charge.  Trooper used the back of her head and backed the two young roosters up to the edge of the coop, then gave them quite a talking to. Their behavior changed radically, and there has been peace in the coop since, with the hens settling back in and eventually returning to sharing nests and setting on eggs as a team.

This is a group of younger chickens in the grow out pen. The Buckeye in the foreground is a blue ribbon, best of breed rooster now, and we only have one young Buckeye available at present.  The light Brahma behind him is among the blue ribbon hens (one of whom has recorded best of breed) that is the mama hen to the current grouping of young Light Brahmas. We have these available from day-old up to adults. These have been champion heritage meat birds, as well as breed winners in their own right.

Some of the Brahmas we hatched last year. We no longer breed the Buff Brahmas, but do have a few left from last year's hatch. They have such a wonderful disposition!

This Buff Brahma was determined to hatch little ones from her favorite rooster! Funny thing about the Brahma roosters, the ladies prefer them so much, they stand and talk to them at the fence, with their own roosters getting rather frustrated!

More of last year's Light Brahmas in the grow out area.  We have one trio of these available right now, who are about 2.5 to 3 months of age. The standard bred heritage day old chicks are $5 up until the age of one month, then $8, then after two months $10, and up from there to cover the cost of the soy-free, corn-free organic feed we use. We have calculated that by the time they reach four months of age, they cost us on average $15, with $20 by 5 months and $25-$30 by point of lay.

These are the babies in the brooder as of the middle of March. Two more little light Brahmas were hatched last night, and are not in the photos below. The little barnyard mixes we also have are a mix of Ameraucana, Phoenix, Brahma and Buckeye. They should be fun! As these are not purebred, they are available for $2 each as young chicks.

The little ones in the brooder get along so well, and even young roosters care for the younger ones as they come along.

Still the young chicks can also be found cuddling up to stuffed animals for a nap when the others are playing.

Present Availability:

day old chicks:

2 Light Brahmas

one week and up:

4 Light Brahmas

2 Partridge Silkies

7 Barnyard Mixes

2.5 months and up:

3 Light Brahmas

1 Buckeye

1 Partridge Silkie

Point of Lay (7 months to 8 months):

not available until after county fair at the end of April

2 Light Brahmas

6 Partridge Cochins

While there are still several eggs in the incubator, after these hatch, we will not set any more until after County Fair, and those will be very limited. Discounts are available to 4-H youth.  Custom hatches are available, with a deposit to set the eggs.

Please feel free to call, email and message with any questions you have!

Adventures with Crazy Mama Hens

Remember those new babies we told you about last week? The ones hatched by the runaway hen who snuck out of the big pen to hatch eggs in the loft of the garden shed and eat all the lettuce from the raised beds?

This is a pattern for a couple of our hens, who are tremendously insistent upon becoming mamas, but are not all that good at selecting a safe place to hatch energetic little ones or good at managing their little ones once they arrive.

So once Wyatt found the little ones, we began the process of watching for babies to fall from the loft, and watching for the mama hen to be gone so we could relocate the chicks to the brooder inside. Then yesterday, Wyatt found three of the chicks in the floor of the shed and the mama running around outside of the shed, confused about managing the chicks in different places.

I was in town finishing work and some errands, and Bailey called frustrated with her brother for his insistence that the babies should all be caught, and with worry about his less than brilliant ways of climbing up to get them. I told Bailey that he was right, and told her where to find things so he could climb to the loft in a safe way.

When they called again a little later, the little ones wee in a crate of straw, on their way to the brooder inside- a total of six adorable little ones.

The little ones settled into the inside brooder right away, with the bigger chicks who were a week to two weeks older taking to the "mother hen" role instinctively.

By the time I got home from town, they were all doing fine, and names like Cinnamon and Cinnabun, Speedy and Speedy 2 were already in the works. 

 Care to guess which is which?

The largest of these are Brahmas who were hatched inside, there are also Silkies and the little barnyard mixes who seem so intent to be members of the flock.

The really red one just right of center is Cinnamon. Think Wyatt;s heart will ever be too full to love another little animal? I don't! And for all he says the goats aren't necessary, just wait until Silver kids... 

Well, that is enough of a break for me. We began work on the new doe barn this morning before Charlie left for work. He will pick up a few things for me tomorrow with the big truck, but for now the kids and I need to get back to that special project we started outside. We will share some photos of that tonight!