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!

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!

And a Beautiful Week Brought a Wild Wet Weekend!

The young Light Brahma on the left hatched on Monday morning, the little Silkie tucked between the stuffed puppy and the brick holding the water was hatched on Friday. So cute and sweet, and the first poster babies for the baby animal photo contest launching this week on the farm Facebook page.

These copper thunderbird and swarovski crystal earrings are one of the prizes for the contest!

The tomatoes are getting closer to being ready to go out each day. Perhaps by the time the storms pass, everything will be ready!

Kale and spinach growing in one of the lettuce beds. One of Wyatt's hens keeps sneaking out to play in the other lettuce bed and eat the seedlings and dust bathe in the lettuce bed, so I am going to replant that one after the weekend storm moves through.

The Pichu plants are coming back pretty well, thanks to those of you who gave me advice in how to prune them! I will be looking to see how they grow in compare to the seeds I saved from last year.

The chickens were loving the beautiful weather during the week, and particularly enjoyed dust baths...

Some were willing to share the craters they had dug in the ground...

others don't share very well and send the others off to find their own spots!

We have been continuing with the special coop project.  The kids got the panel of doors attached to the fence panels, but with the weather we were unable to get anything else done on the project yesterday or today. Hopefully the coming week!

I haven't gotten to tilling the main garden, though hopefully soon. Funny thing, Shadow is absolutely convinced that the owl on top of the clothesline is going to mess with her farm, so she keeps a close eye on it and tells it who is in charge...

For some reason, I am entertained with this tree that died in the buck pen. This branch makes nice firewood, though I miss the tree!

We believe silly Silver here is pregnant, though we haven't had her tested. Going to have to get her some more exercise, though,  I think she is a little big right now, and don't want that to cause problems.

I have been acquiring windows and glass panel doors for a greenhouse project to come. I am really looking forward to that project, but lately other projects keep presenting themselves, so hopefully soon!

We haven't had rain since back in November, as far as I remember. A big storm blew in yesterday evening, with mostly wind, but things were holding their own this morning. Then this afternoon, another big round of wind came. This is the doe barn, pretty much a total loss.  All of the animals are safe, though, so we are glad and will begin creating plans to rebuild.

This double rainbow appeared in the front. Funny thing about the wrath of a storm, so beautiful, yet leaving such destruction.

The geese are pretty much the only ones who are loving the weather, but I am thankful for the rain!

This single rainbow was to the North East of us.

  When life gets crazy, it is good to bring out the treats to brighten the day of the chickens!  Okay, so everyone got treats and the animals all enjoyed them, and we enjoyed breakfast for dinner. Now time for one last check of the night before bed. Hope you are all safe and sound and have a wonderful weekend!

Watch for that contest to come up this week., and set aside your photos you want to enter. Love to all!

Our First Polish Egg!

On Saturday afternoon, when we returned from town and got started with chores and feeding and changing waters, we found a new surprise int he Polish temporary pen- 

our first egg from these new friends!

It was tucked safely int he incubator with a couple eggs from the Light Brahmas, to hopefully see them hatch together. As this is their first egg since they came here, likely their first eggs wince the cooler months, the likelihood isn't all that great that it is truly fertile, but since the Polish project is all about seeing what we can hatch for the youth of the 4-H club for next year, we will try anyhow!

We will keep you up to date as we candle and watch for hte hatch. Have a great week!

Custom Hatch DC, part 4

Today was a big catch up day- again. I finally felt well enough to push the workout and work on projects on my list, as it has felt like treading water since I was sick and the beginning of the semester came with so many other commitments!

I wish I could say I had the video and other photos, but something went wrong with that process! Nevertheless, I finally got a chance to candle the second set of eggs for the DC Special Hatch.  You see, there is no candling eggs, or touching eggs or livestock when I am sick. The kids didn't complain at all about taking my chores, I take theirs when they travel or get sick.  So the candling, along with several other things, waited!

I am sorry to say, but this batch was also infertile. It came from a Dutch that belongs to a friend of ours, who has been laying consistently and is in with a rooster.  It was worth a shot to see if they would be fertile! We had hoped, but perhaps later this Spring we can try again and it will work better. =)

The Polish Project

After the freak loss of Bailey's little showmanship hen last week, she was down to her one and only backup bird for showmanship, and right before the 4-H ownership deadline for our county fair.  We were looking for another blue bantam Cochin hen, but didn't find any that would work alongside those she already had. Some cute ones, but not really what she needed.

Then I was talking with the 4-H leader about leg bands and some other things, and she said the club had been made an offer earlier yesterday. It seems that a local breeder was needing to refocus and downsize, and was going to offer the club a small flock of Polish in order to help the youth and carry on the line.

There was a cute little Splash colored hen, as well as a few white crested Black ones. And one Blue rooster.  There were a couple of other families who needed backups, as predators have been on an all out offensive lately, and a few odd things had happened.  But the leader wasn't sure what to do with the rooster, and part of the thought was that the youth would work with the breed.

To be honest, I don't know if she had already had the thought when she called or if it came in our talk, but we decided that one of the hens and the rooster would come here to our place, the birds could serve as my daughter's backup, and any chicks we could hatch out in our breeding program here would be next year's birds for youth in the 4-H club.

So, after teaching this morning, having a run in with the salesman at the tire store and picking up Wyatt's special order lumber, we met up with Connie along her road back from picking up the birds.  These two silly sweethearts have moved in to the quarantine pen as of this afternoon... 

FOr some reason, this boy really tried to escape when they were capturing him, but he rode home in Bailey's lap.  THe goofy hair has her talking about naming him torpedo.  Silly kid, silly bird, I guess, right? I suppose the silly name goes with it.

He really doesn't want to look at the camera for his cameo, though!

Here she is cuddling with the hen, who coincidentally rode home in my lap!  And for some reason, the name Checkers is rising to the surface as her name...

She kind of complied with looking at the camera, but it is pretty hard to see with those crazy Polish crests!

We will do our best to keep you up to date on this project.  Watch for the labels Polish Project, and others noted in this post, and feel free to follow the blog to keep up with the latest. 

Now it is time to let them settle in, and then hope for fertile eggs and a good time at the county fair!

This Morning's New Surprises...

This morning, at around six, the thumping in the incubator began...

With all of the pipping, I slept in the living room so I would sleep lightly enough to get up if anything needed my attention.  So at around six, the thudding began. So I got up, checked on the chick who was then jostling all the other eggs around, realized it was a Silkie, and then plugged int he brooder light to warm up for when the little one was dry.

Turns out, I needed the new light bulb I bought yesterday, the littler one wasn't enough in the Winter chill.

 Within a couple hours, the little chick was  wandering the brooder, giving the other one space to hatch without harassment.  The first chick was not happy about being on her own in the brooder, but made friends with the stuffed armadillo I put in the brooder, and then made friends with the thermometer, too.  

The kids got a good laugh out of that part, but hey, if they life at our house, they cannot be boring, right?

I snapped a couple pictures before leaving for the farmers market.  She was very content with the water, and made a few faces at me for the camera!

This is the other little one. She had just moved from the incubator when I was headed out. Apparently, the love for the thermometer and the armadillo flows in both of them!  Silly little ones.

Well, everyone is in the capable hands of the farm hands at home for now.  Plenty of eggs not in the incubator, too!  More adventures are always to come!

Sunday was crazy, but time to let it go and get a little sleep!

Busy day in town today, but did get a few things done there, now I just need to get some things done here!

Finally got Wyatt a haircut tonight. I thought about taking a photo of the HUGE pile of his hair in the floor as I was sweeping it up, but thought better of it. I knew he was shaggy, but that was extreme!

I thought I was going to get to bed a bit earlier tonight, but while I was loading the dishwasher, Shadow let she and her brother out the back door.  I finished loading the dishwasher, called them back in, and figured I would peek int he incubator really quick.

See that at the top of the egg? That is a beak!  I realized that I was going to be reading that book I borrowed from Bailey for a bit, trying to decide whether I should wait up. But the chick is resting now, and could be a while, so I am going to go ahead and crash for a bit.

I did take the time to put two cups of each- sunflower seeds and barley- in to soak overnight.  I have heard that the sunflower seeds take a good bit longer than the barley.  So with the four big boxes ready to reload with seeds in the morning, I look forward to seeing them grow side by side so I can see for myself!

Well, I have to leave for work early, and get up in the morning to put Wyatt's morning lessons together to work on with his Daddy who will be home for the day, while Bailey and I go to my work then she will take her permit test. Hope you think good thoughts for her!  I will catch you all up later- 

Have a Great Night!!!

Planting Away...

I am a little behind again, will try to catch up in the next day =). Last week, I FINALLY got busy with pulling out the dead plants that were lost in the freeze (so much for the fancy freeze cloth.)  Then I got going, planting lettuce- spinach and the brown seeded simpson that worked so well last year, and the darker greens, the kale and something else I cannot recall right now.

The random head of lettuce in that planter above is from a leftover seed group that I must have missed when I let the brown seeded simpson go to seed last year so I could harvest seeds for this year. It volunteered and grew of its own, and really, with not much water!

Above is a more shallow planter, below is a planter that I put some seedlings into. While I have often been told that rhubarb cannot grow here, it needs to much shade, I stuck a rhubarb plant int he end, in the hopes that the pesky shade that caused trouble with the cucumbers last summer would help the rhubarb thrive. We shall see. Also, there are some cauliflower seedlings. With the love my crew seems to have for potatoes, I look forward to trying some substitute recipes!

I am starting to see little seedlings pop up as well, so we will see how it goes.  Hopefully, well!

We are getting better at the sprouting, though I am having trouble with the proper measurement guesses.  For those of you who also sprout, how deep of a layer do you use in your trays?

So, yesterday, I stopped to visit with the vampires. Okay, not really. Just the American Red Cross blood donation folks. The pint was done in under 7 minutes, and I was feeling pretty full of my abilities, so we ran a couple errands, and got home to try a couple new recipes.

I tried a new soup recipe- a tomato herb cream.  I thought it was rather good. Apparently I am the only one, but I suppose that means a few meals in these two jars, right?

Well, about the time I got dinner almost made, I got woozy. Guess I shouldn't have popped right up and tried to take on the world.  So I ended up in bed, got up for a couple minutes, and then ended back up in bed for the night.  This morning, I taught class, and did some cardio, and when we got home, the kids worked on schoolwork, and I packed up all the Christmas decorations. 

It is always sad, packing away the decorations, but it is nice to get things cleaned up and ready to go for another year.

Also going on today? I prepped the incubator for lock down, disposed of the eggs that weren't going anywhere, and got rid of the turner sections where I could. As I was doing it, I realized that one of them was pipping! It is a day early, but that one threw off a couple chunks of egg and now seems to be resting, so maybe it won't be early after all. I cannot wait to see what we will get!