Bantam Cochins

I have been raising blue bantam Cochins. Pullets should weigh 24oz., while cockerels should weigh 26oz. Hens should weigh 26oz. and cocks should weigh 30oz. in comparison. Bantam Cochins are productive layers and lay light brown eggs. Cochins originated in the Shanghai region of China and were imported to England in the 19^th century. Queen Victoria made them popular birds, with their heart body shape. The disqualifications of the Cochin breed include the presence vulture hocks, bare middle and/or outer toe, complete absence of yellow in feet, and nonconformity to shank color as stated by variety.

Bantam Cochins are in the Feather Legged Class. Unlike Silkies, Cochins have red single combs, red wattles, and red ear lobes. The beaks of this breed should be swarthy yellow, as should the shanks and toes. The plumage should follow the variety standard, and the Cochin’s eyes should be reddish bay.  

Being that I show Blue Cochins, I breed to adhere to the standard and further the breed. The blue plumage is to be a gray blue with a lighter breast and underside, as well as wing tips.

Bantam Cochins come in a multitude of varieties including Barred, Birchen, Black, Black Tailed Red, Blue, Brown Red, Buff, Buff Columbian, Columbian, Golden Laced, Lemon Blue, Mottled, Partridge, Red, Silver   Laced, Silver Penciled, and White. Those are only the ABA(American Bantam Association) accepted varieties for Bantam Cochins. Others do exist, but there hasn’t been a large enough pool to begin acceptance of more varieties.

Poultry have specific parasites and diseases that infect them, and can be dealt with. Internal parasites of chickens include ascarids(large roundworms), cecal worms, thread worms, tapeworms, protozoa, coccidiosis, histomoniasis(blackhead disease in turkey). External parasites of chickens include lice and mites. Poultry diseases include Exotic Newcastle Disease(END) which is rapidly infectious, Avian Influenza which is the bird flu, Marek’s Disease which is the poultry form of herpes, as well as Gumborro Disease which is is noted by inflammation and atrophy. Poultry, as many issues as are possible, do not seem to contract them as much as might be projected.

Bantam Cochins are easily manageable, gentle, and easy birds. They make decent and docile show birds. 

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?

Phoenix Baby is On the Move...

Everybody loves a little ball of fuzz.  This is the little one hatched by the Phoenix mama in the big pen. At first, she was being really attentive and tremendously protective of her little one.  We occasionally caught her trying to divide her time between her little chick and the eggs she still had in the straw loft in the top of their hen house.

Then, last night, when we got home from poultry ans dog project meetings, we checked on the doe due to kid, fed everyone, and began our walk around.  When we got to the big pen, the mama and baby weren't in their usual spots, and my flashlight was dying (isn't that how it always works?) so Wyatt began helping me follow a quiet chirp. The mama had gone back up to the loft to sit on her eggs, the baby was alone on the floor in the corner.

I scooped her up and brought her into the house so Wyatt could finish a couple things, and she warmed up in my hands while I finished off in the baby wards.  Some girls just aren't meant to be mamas, the mama in this case really needed a better space for raising chicks, and she isn't tame enough to manage it.

Bailey took the little one out to the the juvenile area, and waited to see if she would do okay with the bantam Cochins and Silkies in there.  The little ones drew her in and the larger ones wrapped her with wings, and she settled in for the night.  We hoped for the best.

This morning, as I was rushing to work through my chores, I saw the baby was having trouble with the wire mesh cage floor. I hadn't thought about that, since she was raised on the dirt floor of the big pen. After checking on Glory, I handed Bailey a towel and the little one, she was going to evaluate her inside for a little bit.  Think good thoughts, every life is precious, we just hope she is able to integrate well into the group, since we won't have any more little babies for almost another month.

Such are the days for us livestock mamas, looking after the little ones and their mamas and friends.  FOr those other livestock mamas out there, and mamas in general, got any stories to share?

A Big Weekend at Our House...

Well, to begin our weekend, the kids were assigned to clean the tack shed! Funny note, they were required to get along to get it done, no mama intervention! Why yes, it did take all day, but they did a pretty good job,

and when I couldn't find the big black funnel today to fill my feeder, Wyatt could lay his hands on it immediately. The show box was even cleaned out!

If that didn't dub me the mean mama, Bailey came inside this afternoon, and asked if she could leave a brand new bantam Cochin baby with the mamas who really wanted to raise it. But after the four foot snake being found dead in the buck pen Saturday morning, with no explanation and us knowing that we have so many snakes this year, I had her bring the baby in. It settled in right away, cuddling up with the other little Cochins in the brooder in the living room.

What a sweet little face! It definitely looks as though we have a couple roosters in the bantam Cochin group.  Oh boy...

I still haven't gotten much done on the big sewing project, or caught you up on our neat adventure at Arbico, but I did get a nice big batch of soap made tonight- Orange-Vanilla Dreamscicle Goat's Milk.  It smells wonderful!

Wyatt and Shadow were cuddled up all sweet when I went in to turn off the light Wyatt had forgotten. Just as I went to snap the picture, Shadow picked up her head.

Well, it is definitely sleepytime for this mama. Have a wonderful week!

New little one!

Hi there!

I don't have a name yet. There are lots of snakes at the farm this year, so despite my mama hens fighting to try to keep me, Bailey and people mama  brought me in the house with three other little ones about my size.

I hear there are other babies a little bigger than us nearby, and soe a little older, too, because my friends say they all used to be together until they needed more space.

People mama tried to get good pictures of me, but I kept turning around and giving her the rear end! =)

Then I looked up at Bailey and talked. I told her to hurry up, because even as nice as she is, I wanted to see the world!

How ya' doing? Oh, swimmingly...

This morning, I checked on the new babies born yesterday. The Cochin mamas had been doing so much better with these two than the one they dropped so far from the nest, that Bailey was tempted to let them stay out there, yet with the current influx of snake incidents, we didn't dare.

I peeked into the brooder to find one of the new ones standing in the water bowl, shivering. Bailey came to help me clean it up and get it dry and warm, so I cleaned the brooders along the way, and we separated the older chicks to the brooder I moved the juvenile Brahmas and d'Uccle from yesterday.

The juveniles, by the way, did well overnight, and were running and playing in the large cage on the back porch.

Once everything was clean and reset, the smallest of the little ones settled in for a nap, with our little fledgling "swimmer" on the far right. At this point, no incubators going, but I hope to get them cleaned later today, and just a few eggs under three very determined Silkie hens and two goofy Cochin hens. Oh, and a little over a month until the first goat babies are due!

The larger of the babies in the brooder moved out to the juvenile area this afternoon.  They weren't too sure what to do with the different flooring, 

The six of them are feathering out nicely, I do believe there are a few roosters among them...

Oh, and I hear there are two new babies in the bantam Cochin pen...

Just right of the center in this photo is the beginnings of a cucumber.See the little flower at the end?

Here is a bit larger cucumber down lower in the garden box. This plant really struggled when I transplanted it, so I am thrilled to see it doing so well. Now to not let Wyatt see them until they are big enough to pick!

This is a volunteer plant that loves to creep up in this planter box each monsoon. I will try to look it up later, as I need to double check what it is (again.)

Here I go with sunset photos again. The storms were back, and parts of town got it good! We got a few sprinkles, but nothing much, it went around us. This is actually to the East, there were really good storms about twenty miles that way, as the crow flies.

This was to the South West, where there was actually a storm. As if on cue, it came back to drop a few more random drops after I took this photo. Still, nothing new in the rain carrels!

Anyone need prickly pear? In heavy production presently are the pomegranates and the prickly pear. We also have lots of spineless prickly pear plants available and herbs, too!

This barrel cactus is cute!I think it looks like it is trying for a cactus shaped like a snowman contest. Although he is really leaning over! leaning tower of cactus? 

Oh, well, time to get some work done! On a positive note, the missing goat registration paperwork has been found in another part of the state. A long story as to how it happened, but the folks where it was sent by mistake contacted me for the address today, so hopefully they are on their way soon!

By the way, these two items came home with me today from town. Any guess as to where this project is going? Stay tuned for updates, and have fun guessing along the way!

On a sad note, one of the old hens in the show pen, Annette the Silver Phoenix passed away this morning. Such a sweet, silly friend. She retired from showmanship a couple years back, since she only wanted to sit and nap on the table, but was very instrumental in keeping the young roo in the pen in line! I will make her a post a bit later.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Next Adventure!

It's hard to get rolling on a Saturday morning, but we are off to the races, so to speak. Bailey and I are loading up Powerstroke and Obediah and little Versie to head up to Cottonwood for a goat show! We won't be back until late tomorrow, so we are leaving the place int he capable hands of Charlie and Wyatt, as well as the farm dogs =).

Presently there are ten baby chicken in the house, five Brahmas, two Silkies, two Cochins and a d'Uccle.  The tiny Cochin front and center, as well as the little Silkie better seen on the right in the lower photo seem to ave the makings of being visiting chickens. They love being held and played with and jump right into your hand to go for a look around.

These group of them seems to like the camera, too! The remaining Brahmas hide when the camera comes around!

We have had five straight days with rain storms. Not all day, but at least once or twice a day. The geese are loving it, but the mud and the craziness have laying a bit off. The Ameraucana who laid this tiny green egg is two years old!

Well, with Bailey and I heading off, I thought I would share the contest one last time, and remind you to enter, we will draw winners shortly after we get back!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Share with friends and have a great holiday weekend, cuddle your animals and stay safe!

Sweet New Faces

I am finding myself up late in lesson plans and sitting with a sweet old dog who is sneezing a good bit tonight.

Since I wandered over to check for news, I thought I would take a moment and introduce a couple new little friends...

Please pardon the photo quality, but this first one was from yesterday i the little nest box when we went to check on the three broodies in the Silkie group. She was still wet, so she stayed with the hens until today. As we have been relocating snakes from near there again, we went ahead and pulled the little one to the brooder in the living room. I didn't get any new photos, though, Wyatt is beginning to take the two Silkies that hatched for this year's showmanship birds.

We still had six eggs in the incubator, and Wyatt thought for sure last night that one was talking. I thought he was just hearing the very loud little ones in the brooder, but he was right. Today, a little bantam Cochin joined us, running about the incubator happily.

Once dry, Bailey lifted the top, and the baby chick jumped into her hand. Old man Vegas had to see the new little addition. He isn't too fond of the loud brooder, but has a soft sweet heart!

Well, everyone seems to be quieting for the night, though Shadow did sneak in and lay on my side of the bed. She worries when her big "brother" isn't himself, especially if her doting kisses don't fix things straightaway, or with her bringing him the bowl.  I suppose I should get some sleep, morning comes early, and I never know what the new day will bring! Have a good night, all.