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!

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!

Special Hatch DC- part 3

We do a number of special hatches here, yet hatching the eggs from other folks is more rare. Many of you saw the earlier posts about a special hatch for someone, using their own Dutch eggs.  Unfortunately, those were nt fertile, and since I was resetting more eggs in the incubator, I was able to start a few more for her again this evening.

Think good thoughts, we will share more when we candle them!

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!!!

Custom Hatch January 2014 and Special Hatch DC part 2

Hi everyone! Some of you are following the special hatch, others of you are watching the custom hatches going on, and still others just love to see babies and watch for them to come along!

We fired up the incubator before Christmas, knowing we had a few folks looking for Silkies, some for Brahmas, and a few more for Buckeyes. THey have slightly different timelines, and we like to have the 'bator going for a bit before we start hem, just to get it all in balance.

As of tonight, we are two weeks in on some of the eggs, and one week on the special hatch we introduced you to last Sunday. We quickly candled the first few rows of eggs, but left he others alone as they would be a week or less in development.  This is what we saw.

We chose to not remove the eggs that we weren't sure about. A few will likely be removed later this week as we prepare for the first of the eggs to hatch. The ones which seems unlikely, but are only a week along, could be due to a host of things, from too early to see well to just too much handling, or they could be newer layers who simply aren't ready to produce fertile eggs yet. We shall see!