Spring Follows the Ups and Downs of Our Little World...

Last year, we incubated and hatched lots of eggs, and kept or sold a fir number of chicks.  Somewhere in it all, we ended up with one single (hopefully) pullet in this age range. Not one of our better planning moments, but I had mandated that we turn off the incubator during the holidays, so there weren't any younger ones coming along to keep it company.

The little one, on the left in the photo below, was living in the house, mostly in the tough brooder.  As the only one, her interaction was with us, as well as with Shadow. As she had grown, she would get out of the brooder, go for a walk around the house, hang out with Shadow while watching Wyatt practice piano, and chat with me while I put on my shoes in the morning.

She has not been a tidy roommate, as you can imagine, but I just couldn't seem to come up with anyone for her to hang out with. Then, I found some black sexlinks, fully feathered, and near to her size at a nearby feed store. While I am normally not big on hatchery chicks, I needed someone to teach the little pullet that she was, in fact, a chicken, and help her transition to her pen. So Saturday afternoon, on my way home from work, I brought her friends and Wyatt got them all set up in the first step of the grow out pen. So far, so good...

While I was at it, Friday night, Wyatt helped me dig a hole for the lower section of this pond insert that Grandma didn't want anymore. He even helped me situate the bricks for steps.

The geese are truly loving their new pool!

The geese are also laying. Wyatt is concerned about the fact that some of the hatching didn't go so well last year, and because the first egg that Mother Goose laid was pecked by Miss Friendly. The clutch was at three eggs at last count, though it got dark quickly this evening when we got home and we didn't get to check. What would you do? Incubate or let them try to raise the little ones?

You saw the project Wyatt helped me with, but on Monday, as the boys headed off to pick up the feed store and Bailey and I were heading home from town after the gym, we knew this was to be our big project!

We started by pulling EVERYTHING out of the tack shed.

The only thing that remained was the shelf unit, which was pulled well forward and wiped down. The walls and floors were cleaned, and we organized and cleaned as things went back in.

It was dark when we finished, but so worth it to get things cleaned and ready for Spring, and especially to do it before the feed order went in.

And this was the end result! What do you think?

Well, with Sunday night closing out, and a new week beginning, more big projects await and more always being added to the list, it is time for rest and recharge before the coming week.

What is on your list for this week?

A Day in the Unfolding of the New Year

Trying to take on a few major projects while my work schedule is lighter, as well as help the kids with homeschooling and their own projects has kept me on my toes, but it has been quite rewarding. I will share more about the projects going on around here in the next few days. Okay, seeing how often I am too tired for blogging lately, how about I promise to do my best, but acknowledge they might be a bit late?

This blue Silkie pullet is one of a few new layers who have been contributing their first few eggs to the family here lately. This morning, she seemed bent on being broody, though she wasn't actually sitting ON the egg. Wyatt wasn't sure whether to be thankful she was making the collecting easy or explain how the whole broody thing worked, but since he was trying to get pens cleaned between storms, I think he was just happy for anything simple he could get!

Shine got to hang out in the house for a while with his buddy Shadow this morning. They haven't had as much of this time lately, since the rain and mud has led to some rather muddy hooves! On the flip side, at least the rain has the barrels mostly full again! Shine and Shadow sure enjoy the companionship, though, they were great friends when Shine was a house goat.

Later, Shine got to head down to visit friends at another 4-H club we compete with sometimes. A number of the youth are brand new to the group, but a few have grown up together showing as a group for several yers now. It is amazing to me to see them so grown up!

The older youth were examples and teachers, as they should be as Senior showmen. They also enjoyed laughing with each other and at themselves, I think!

Shine seems to be settling in to the showing thing, though he seemed to like raiding cookies from Bailey's pocket the best!

I think it is funny that after each trip off to training sessions, meetings and community outreach, both Shine and Shadow stop in the front yard to check all of the statues. 

I am not sure what they expect, but they are usually the only ones who move them!

FOr those of you following the saga of the lonely chick, I gave in this week and arranged for the little one to have some friends. A big thank you to Melanie for sharing some of her purebred Black Ameraucana stock with us, these will likely be te only new poultry stock until after county fair.The four little chicks have taken well to their new surroundings, and the slightly older Java of ours seems to also be taking well to having young charges to look after.

Some of the biggest news these days is that Miss Versie seems to be getting ready to kid. Bailey is spending lots of time out there, and we are tracking her progress. One interesting thing about her, Verse has taken in the last day to stretching out by climbing the fences of the maternity ward with her front hooves. I sure hope that means that the babies are settling well into proper position.

You can barely see Verse in this photo, she was in the corner of the pen after our last check. She really is a sweetheart. While I don't think kidding is truly imminent, I will head out there again in another hour and let Bailey sleep a bit. It never hurts to be on the safe side, these will be her first kids. 

On that note, I think I will squeeze in a short nap. While moping the kitchen is calling my name, I think it can wait a coupl eof hours and help me warm up after I traipse back out to the goat area in a spell. Hope you all have a wonderful night, I will share again when I can! Love to all.

Baby Chicks Available at Local Hardware Store

A little over a week ago brought a new adventure for the little chicks of Patriot's Dream. One of the local hardware stores has begun carrying chicks. They ordered in some Ameraucanas from a hatchery, and since things were going well they wanted to add some local chicks as well. Four little ones from our recent hatch went along.

Wyatt packed the little ones in a crate lined with towels and played with them in the back seat on the way to deliver them.

I don't think they were too sure about leaving their friends in the brooder!

Here is Wyatt with the little ones, riding in to town.

Initially, the delivery went really well. But the littlest was just too little for the digs there, so Charlie stopped to pick her up on his way home from work (in the middle of a big rain storm, no less!) That little one came home and nestled right back in here. The Silkies long thought they were her mama, since she was younger than the rest, though in the bottom photo, she is nestled in to the feathers of a slightly larger chick of her own breed who we didn't take along since we believe it will be a boy. You have to look really closely in order to see the little one tucked under and a little behind the wing.

One of the many benefits of working with a local breeder is the support you get, and the service. For us, we are thrilled that the three little ones were sold to local homes, and things went so well, they asked for more chicks! We didn't have any at that moment, as we had cleaned out the incubator, but likely will soon.

Well, pretty exciting to have such positive partnerships with local businesses and good people! More exciting news to come as well!

Redneck Engineering

Necessity is the mother of invention, right?  We have had goats and chickens for several years, now, and there are some things we continue to try to do in order to deal with the goofy little problems we encounter. 

Being that we are a chicken farm larger than most small hobby farms, but much smaller than the big guys, the practices used by others don't always work very well here. And with our lack of much natural browse or forage, and much less rain that most folks would get that would help disperse the goat and chicken poop or help to incorporate it into the soil and earth, we spend a good bit of time dealing with poop. Exciting, right?

While on the one hand, organic compost is great for the garden, too much of a good this is, well, too much. And honestly, there are a few issues in dealing with the same old problem on a different scale or in a different climate. So this is one of the things we are working on...

With chickens, most folks who raise organically also know that chickens will gladly eat ALL of the grasses near their coop, as well as many other plants. To still give our chickens plenty of fresh nutrition, we use sprouts. You have probably seen some of our sprouting experiments on the blog before. We are presently working on a larger scale system, and will share about that when we have more worked out. The really big production places leave the poop and don't worry about such things until the chickens are harvested. But I imagine you have seen many of those photos before. This is DEFINITELY NOT what we consider best practices.

Goats in the desert also means that we have less forage. Ours love the mesquite beans, and we are working on salad bars for the goats and the chickens in the early parts of the coming month, but  with the dirt, and the digging the goaties LOVE to do, we are trying to rake out goat "berries" without removing all of the soil. If you walk through our farm, you will notice many low places, and areas where it seems like you step up when you leave the pen. This is why, and we are trying to prevent and fill in so that we take good care of our land and also don't create place for water to amass in the livestock pens during our rainy season.

There are several neat rakes available for horse folks. The fact that there are so many horse supplies and so much horse research available to the public really deals with where the money in research and development is. Goats are long considered the poor man's animal, which also means less research dollars and fewer available resources, though we goat folks get good at adaptation. Whether we would beg to differ or not, this, combined with the unique climate we live in, gives us an extra challenge. (Goat manure is already ready to use in gardening, so leaving it in a large pasture works great in some areas.)

On and off, we have seen where folks have used these basket type manure forks with hardware cloth to capture the manure but not the dirt, so we wanted to give it a try. When I found one of the forks on sale, I bought it and set it aside for Bailey to experiment with. She used wire and tied some extra hardware cloth fro the pile of chicken supplies to the inside of the "basket" portion of this rake. She was going to trim the mesh down initially, but then tried out using it in the pens first.

It wasn't a perfect solution, to be honest. I found her outside trying to shake the dirt through at one point, which is terrible for her allergies, not to mention some other issues in our area, but she assured me not to worry since the goats were out wandering the rest of our property. I don't know what she thought was protecting her! 

Anyway, the extra hardware cloth turned out to be good. It allows for a little more to be raked into the "basket" so that more of the capacity of the modified rake has access to the surface area of the hardware cloth, allowing a little more dirt to fall through and not head off to the muck bin with the muck. Bailey found that adding more ties as she went helped her reduce the amount of muck between the mesh and the rake tines, but it still happens some. That part frustrated her, though it happens more when you run the rake along the ground toward the pile than when you rake the pile into the rake.  Both versions work, though better at different times.

I still managed to fill up this big green muck wagon four times in the buck pen when cleaning the other night, though there was less dirt overall than there often is when the same pen is cleaned. As a matter of full disclosure, I am not the usual pen cleaner, and I don't think we will ever get all of the poop when cleaning the pens. Those little manure pellets roll away very easily, and so much dirt still finds its way in the rake. But we are glad for the little improvements that help us do better.

I know there are some rakes which are a little deeper, and if I find one, we will likely make a second one for the goats and let Wyatt try this one out for the chickens. This leads me to ask, what have you all tried? If you have ideas or photos, all ideas are welcome and we love that folks share and help each other try things that might work or make life more simple or less wasteful. Hope you all have a wonderful night!

Moving Birds Around, Breeding for Demeanor as Well as Breed Standard

No matter how much feed is in the feeder, topping it off leads to chickens rushing up to make sure no one gets something they didn't. Plus, they really want those sunflower seeds!

The geese really do have their own area. And they know it, too. They like their little area, but really only want it when they have little ones or when the bucks are out munching on the mesquite beans near their area. The remainder of the time, they like the back yard, the dog's pool (so she bounces through theirs from time to time) and to wander around giving a piece of their mind to all of the other animals. Mother Goose, Mr. Wiggly and little Miss Friendly are quite the fun little family. I keep thinking that I need to adjust their area, but don't really know what to make different since they like to wander and keep away the hawks.

There were, however, a number of changes we needed to make this Spring. Funny thing how it struck me the other day, these (along with the three in the house) are the only little ones we have left from the Spring hatch. Three light Brahmas, a Polish, a bantam Cochin pullet, and a standard Cochin. Those in the house are two Silkies and a bantam Cochin. All of the others were either sold, or we knew they were roosters so when they were large enough, we sent them tot he freezer. I believe one of the Light Brahmas remaining is a cockerel, so because we like his personality, we will be keeping him as a backup to see how he comes out. (You should hear him practice crowing! Sounds awful, but hey, that voice changing thing...)

That is a LOT of animals off to their new homes beginning new flocks around Tucson this year!

In the process, we did a lot of moving around. This is Bucky. He is a Buckeye rooster who has been living with the laying flock in the big pen. He has been the backup for the Buckeye hens, and while he is very sweet and a good strong Buckeye, the other rooster in that pen was too rough to live with. After the other rooster went after both Wyatt and me, he was a marked boy.  Wyatt traded the two boys, just to see what would happen. The hens in the Buckeye pen MUCH prefer Bucky. And when the other rooster moved over to the big pen, Speckles (the roo that was in there) and the hens from the big pen set to teach him MANNERS.

So far, the manners thing seems to be working. I had wanted to not keep him, and hi son definitely didn't have a temperament I liked, but Wyatt wanted him to have a second chance. And I must admit, he is taking to that second chance. The jury is still out though, he and a couple of the Phoenix hens have had some seriously loud disagreements!

But when Bucky moved in the the ladies, things went randomly calm. The Light Brahma in the next pen over thinks he needs a regular talking to, but the hens are happy, and egg laying in that pen is up, too. 

We even moved these two little Buckeye hens in too. We did it at the same time, and gave them their new hanging feeder, too. We weren't so sure how it would go, and Wyatt stayed out there for some time cleaning other waters and keeping an eye on them, but they have acclimated quite well. We should begin seeing eggs from them in the fall.

We are still working on the last touches of the grow out pen, but did get the majority of the primer on. Hopefully in the next week we will be able to finish that and share it!

What are your Summer home, farm and livestock projects? We would love to have you all share them with us and the other readers!

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?

New Feeders! Always Trying to Improve!

For those of you who follow the blog, you are likely aware of the stages we have gone through with feeders. The chickens like to dump their food on the ground, and we also have issues with summer monsoons bringing water nearly parallel to the ground, wind gusts and micro-bursts, and also with wild animals. It is the wild animals that bring us the greatest concern, since they not only eat a lot of food, but also can bring disease, so we have been through several versions of feeders to try to come up with the best solution for our animals, who rather enjoy their treats along with their soy-free, corn-free, non-gmo organic feed!

Wyatt recently found these feeders he was hoping to try. So we purchased one and brought it home, hoping to see of it would help with all of the competing needs. The Silkie pen was first for this new feeder. 

Being that there was already a hook in the pen, and they don't have as much rain reaching the area where that would put hte feed, it was a good first choice. I added a scoop of feed, which would usually last 2-3 days with them. I didn't figure that would require filling it all the way, which would also mean that I didn't have to fret so much about losing a lot of feed if this idea was a bust with them!

I raided Bailey's stash of bailing twine, and tied the feeder to hang high enough that the Silkies stand properly as they eat, nothing can jump in it, but that the geriatric White Faced Black Spanish hens that are in retirement in the Silkies' pen can still eat just fine. This was very early last week, and it took them much of the week to go through the scoop I put in there. I regularly saw all of the different chickens that reside in there munching away, so I decided it was worth trying a wider spread application of the new feeder.

We cannot afford to purchase new feeders for all of the poultry at one time, but I did go ahead and buy two more last Saturday, and Wyatt and I stood and decided the next to pens for roll out were the main laying pens, the A pen and the Big pen. These pens usually go through about a scoop per day in this weather. So we started in the Big pen, where this 4x4 is angled near the doorway of their barn, helping re-frame it after a micro-burst several years ago. I ran in a longer, thicker cup hook. It wouldn't angled or hang properly if I left it on the hook, so  we put it high enough that the feeder would swing freely and not have any pests feeding on it from the support beam, but still have it centered in and back far enough from the opening of the barn.

As soon as Wyatt poured the scoop in, we were surrounded by hens who felt the need to push us out of the way so they could be among the first to enjoy their new feeder.

The A pen was a little more challenging. There is a metal support for the roof, which was pretty easy to tie the feeder to, since the corners are favorite roosting spots and we didn't want accidental poop in the feeder or rain from the monsoons. The blue in the edge of the photo is a plastic tabletop that we use for nesting boxes to sit on, and that arrangement may have to be revisited if they fuss over the feeder or knock into when they fuss over next boxes (don't all hens want to use the same box at the same time at your house, too?)

So far, all of the new feeders are working beautifully. Feed economy might be slightly improved, although Wyatt is having a hard time with filling the feeders which are slightly smaller than the feed scoop. I will have to help him find a better solution for that this week. We also found a couple white buckets that still have the handles on them, which we plan to try to rig as temporary hanging feeders in the grow out pen and a couple of the breeding pens, I will try to take photos when we work on those so you can try it too, just as soon as we get the buckets unstuck!

What all have you all tried? Where do you put the fodder feed for your chickens for those of you who also use fodder? Please share your photos and solutions with us, and let me know who to credit so that I can share them with others trying to learn! 

Have a great day!

Growing Young Polish- the first to hatch here!

This little goofball hatched a little before county fair.For some time, the chick only had a little pompapour poof as it ran around the brooder in the living room.

These days, the little White Crested Polish chick with a little dark in front has been working on growing a rather fancy "do", with the poof continuing to grow. It has also moved out tot he back porch brooder, with a few others.  It seems to have a rather dominant personality thus far.

I always hold out hope for girls, especially since these are part of a project for help out the other 4-Hers, and they typically need hens to balance out males they already have, or often aren't allowed roosters where they live.  What do you think? Pullet or Cockerel? I still think it is young enough that the feathers could tell us either way!

New Baby Silkies Hatching

We brought in new roosters to the breeding program this Spring. I kept thinking that I would get to show how well they did at the open show at the fair in April, maybe I will get to that tomorrow =).Anyhow, they turned out to be great, and they moved in with the hens to begin helping the ladies with their eggs a couple of months ago,

This week, the first two of them hatched!  The little one on the left in the photo had trouble, and Bailey had to help it a bit. Whenever that happens, we don't typically have great luck. Nevertheless, the little one was holding its own when the other one hatched the second day, so we let it move to the brooder and give it a shot. In the end, it just wasn't strong enough, but it;s blue friend is managing alongside the other chicks in the brooder.

This little one looks as though it will be blue in color. It is cute and friendly, and playing happily with the other chicks, though it of course spends more time near the heat source than any of the others.

I love how curious chickens are and the consider you, and your role. I love how as babies, they haven't yet decided that my role is largely to bring treats and hide eggs from!

While farming has greatly underscored the old adage about not counting chickens before they are hatched, I hope those little Silkie eggs due to hatch soon do well so that this adorable little one has a friend "her" own age!