What we have been up to...

It was about time for an update! We have been making new, larger pens and moving chickens. For this week, we made a larger pen for the majority of the flock. There is still no roof, so they can get in and out when they like. The core reason for a pen at all stems from the need to have a place where the chickens can eat without the goats trying to steal their food. Since Hopper Spark has also developed an affinity for the taste of eggs, we would like to train the chickens to lay thier eggs in a place where it is easier to collect them, and the dogs cannot have them for a snack.
For those of you who followed the Name the Chicken contest, you might remember Empire. She has grown and changed into the chicken at the top left. Escapee, who spent almost a week on the run in the house, is above and to the right. He is growing into a silly, opinionated little roo.

On the left is one of the little white leghorns who came at around the same time. She is standing in a tree that is almost in the middle of the new poultry area. The pen itself is about 28x100. The shed which had blown away is being anchored with rail road ties, and takes up one corner of the space. Behind her, you can see one of the maternity areas, where a mama hen has eight little babies, born last week.

On the right and left are the two new Cochins, a Rhode Island Red and a Black Star. The new additions seem to be adapting quite well. When we moved the chickens into this pen, we combined the new young chichens from the Spring into the remainder of the flock. The young ones mostly keep to themselves at this point, but we haven't seen any problems.

The photo on the right is the view from the middle of the chicken enclosure facing NE. That is little Fly on the nesting box on the far right.

On the left is the newer mama hen of the two. She has eight babies. Two are the lighter color. The others are dark. They are about a week old.

On the right, Miss Jayda is letting us know what she thinks of our thwarting her plans to steal the chicken feed. Chicken feed is not good for goaties, but she finds that to be unimportant. So she is standing in the roof to one of the houses.

Glory is being quite tolerant of Princess Gala Buttercup, one of the hens who finds the new pen to be an unnecessary extravagance. She feels that she should be allowed to go where she pleases, and we should feed her there.

The hen to the right is showing what she find lacking in the new space- there is no mud puddle. If Wyatt would make her one, she might consider remaining in the new area, but as it stands, she wants to play in muddy water, not that clean stuff in the water buckets.

And this is the Mama hen with three little babies. She is a fierce one! Her babies are coming along nicely.

I also managed to get a photo of a little horned toad today, who was hiding out in the maternity ward. He is very luck to have not gotten himself caught in the mesh which is there to protect the babies.

Vegas is on duty! At 14, he can still defend the animals- and the fort, and chase bunnies with the best of them.

Hopper shows of her silly sneeze...

Remington saw me and came running.

Well, tomorrow morning, we have a yard sale to attend to at Grandma and Papa's, then in the afternoon we will finish off the bantam area. Watch for more to come!

An update on the new arrivals...

On he left is the Mama who hatched out the four babies last week. She never managed to hatch the fifth. She is so protective that she will bite the hand that feeds her still, but we expect her to tame a bit in time. One of the babies ad a night in the infirmary this week, but is back to doing beautifully. Mama was glad to see her back and she returned without incident.

This morning, Wyatt went out front to take food and water to the hen sitting on eggs under the front oleander, and found she had hatched out three babies, one being very light in color.

With all of the pens moving this week, we are presently building the new poultry maternity ward and will move them this evening.

For those of you who know our crazy crew, there is a phoenix hen who came to us as a baby, and turned out to be an albino. We call her Blondie. She loves to keep other hens' eggs warm when they get up, then leaves when they come back. For some reason, she has taken on this role, and there doesn't seem to be any fighting over it. Charlie feels certain that she was the color of this very light one when she came here. I don't have the photos from back then, so we really don't know for sure. I would have thought an albino woul have started light in color, as there is an absence of melatonin

causing the absence of color.

Only time will tell, I suppose. In he mean time, we will be watching to see how she does. She has been sitting on 13 eggs! Watch for more updates. By the way, the morning walks are back on schedule, leaving each morning at 6:30am, and we will be adding back porch yoga in the next week. Have a great day!

Guess who came to see us...

We went out to give the chickens lunch, and as we were checking the food and water in the hiding spaces for the Mama chickens who have been sitting on eggs, we found this Mama had hatched out three babies today.

This fuzzy picture was hard to take. See the hole? Its little egg tooth was working overtime. As exciting as it was, the Mama hen was getting stressed out by our presence, so we couldn't watch too long. The little egg was shaking, and the Mama kept trying to tuck it back under her. It was looking like in the Nutcracker when all of the babies keep escaping from under Mother Ginger's skirts.

When I went out a little while later, the fourth baby was hatched, laying on its back and peeping and waving its legs, but she quickly gathered it back under her. And I think I have my hands full with two. At this point she has four little babies, and one egg to keep up with.

The little family is rather exposed where she had hidden to sit on her eggs, so we are concerned about the predators like roadrunners, etc.

We went out a bit later to move them, and Mama carried the Mama hen (fighting from the moment hands went in there) where she could see her babies in a pig feed tub to the maternity ward. When we put them down, we noticed a hole pecked in the edge of the one egg left, so the boys are hopeful there will be five babies! She gathered her little brood up to her.

I love when they cuddle in her feathers. Guess it reminds me of when my own little Bailey and Wyatt used to cuddle up. They still cuddle up, but it is different when they are nearly as big as you are!

Anyhow, another day, another new set of triumphs and challenges. We will go check again in a little while, and hope baby number five makes it out and they all make it to adulthood.

The morning after...

I drug myself out of bed this morning at 5:30. The kids were out cold in the living room. I fed the dogs, gave them their morning pills and got ready for the morning walk. Bailey rolled back over, so I didn't even attempt to wake Wyatt up for the morning walk. Too much partying last night!

I went out to feed the animals, Rose is limping. She is resting now, and only likes Bailey, so we will have to tag team her when Bailey wakes up. Otherwise I worry she will fight me and hurt herself worse.

I fed the chickens, who basically follow anyone for food at this point. The 14 babies who moved to their graduation pen yesterday look almost ready to move out to the rest of the flock. Charlie told me when he and Wyatt went out last night, the frizzle had been standing in the big water tub. She seems fine now, though, hanging out with the other bantams. I get the impression she won't rest until she is a dominant chicken in that pen.

I increased to 3.5 miles today. If I had gotten out earlier, I would have tried to run some. But it is already hot. I have slowly been increasing since my return to the land of the living after being sick for a month at the end of the semester. I didn't realize just how run down I was until I spent all of that time in bed. And I lost a lot of muscle. Now I have to build it back!

Funny, I haven't gotten much done in the week and a half since school let out for the kids. Mended a couple fences, worked a craft show, done Aunt Leanna's laundry, worked on some inventory. But I am more relaxed and happier than I have been in a while. I feel much less pressured than I have in some time to hold so many things together. I know I can't be off like this all of the time, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts. Fall semester, school, football, 4H and basketball are right around the corner. This is the first time I have really been off in the summer with them. While we have a pretty big to do list, I am going to relax about how I look in a swimsuit for the river trip Monday, and I am going to enjoy being Mama. And run a business, and a farm, and ...

So what did we do to cap things off yeterday? You can already see some of the photos.

We started off by going to Krispy Kreme for a donut. Wyatt and I had iced with sprinkles, Charlie and Bailey went the creme filled route. That was fun. Donuts are pretty rare around here, so it made a fun outing.

Wyatt had been watching the commercials for Marmaduke, and knew it came ito theatres on his birthday, so that was his big request (outside of the crazy birthday cake which I will explain in a minute). A big tub of popcorn and a movie were next. Turns out, Marmaduke is realy cute. And is about being true to yourself. I realy enjoyed it, and the message. and we are pretty sure the peple that created ut know out dogs. Our crew definitely made it in there, although there were no farm dogs that tolerated and hung out with other species. If you get the chance, it is worth seeing.

We came home for ice cream cake and presents, although Wyatt was already attached to a Daffy Duck DS game Aunt Heather had sent. I think that is what he and Bailey had been doing until late last night. Wyatt cleaned up, with six new shirts, and new egg basket, a new eggs for sale sign, a football rug and a football piggy bank. Goodness, pretty lucky!

Grandma and Grandpa sent him new football pants. He is excited to try those on later.

On the left is the ice cream cake Wyatt ordered from Mama. The bottom crust is oreo, followed by moolenium crunch ice cream, sprinkles, mint chip ice cream, more sprinkles, oreo ice cream, oreos, and frosted with vanilla. This is so rich it will take us a week!

After all of this, we are going to try to have a family get together tomorrow. Aunt Vicki may come home after her shoulder surgery, though, so we will see.

Wow!!! What a big day. Charlie bought me some new shelves for my shed. I think he wants to make sure I am not searching on craigslist and coming home with more livestock... but anyway, I had better go get things done out there before it gets any hotter. We are expecting record heat this weekend, and I haven't put the ventilation in out there yet. Talk to you all soon!

EIGHT IS GREAT!

To begin his big day, Wyatt Clay got a birthday haircut for Summer.

He and Bailey went in the hot tub for a while before lunch. They played in the water together and dove for a dolphin.

Now it is time to get dressed and feed all of the crazy animals lunch, collect eggs, and get them set up for the afternoon. Next up, we are going to meet up with Daddy to go to Price Club and see Marmaduke. And it is National Donut Day, so junk food and all, we may have to celebrate with an annual donut. It is pretty rare that we eat donuts, but we shall see.

Anyhow, more updates soon!

More New Friends =)

My mother told me yesterday, that she reads this blog for the comic relief. Glad we coul provide a service, folks. Well, the day after the last post, the nice gentleman who had given us the cochins, frizzle and the new white silkie ended up giving us the remaining four members of his flock. We thank you very much, Scott, and we promise to take good care of our common friends.

On the right is the frizzle I neglected to post a photo of the first day. It is settling in so well that she is trying to take charge of the bantam area!

On the left in Wyatt's arms is the new Barred Plymouth Rock that came home. She is quite gentle, and is quickly finding her way around.

This other new friend is also finding her way around well. It took a bit, since two Americaunas initially took a dislike to her, and Wyatt spent over an hour working with them all. But she is doing much better now.

The red sexlink immediately ran off to meet new friends, and found Abby and Jalympics playing in a mud puddle. For all of the scrubbing of the waterers, they sure love the mud puddles!

On the right is another new silkie. She had suffered a broken wing in an attack at her old house, and Scott had carefully nursed her back to health. Her one wing doesn't work right though, so she rode home in Wyatt's lap to give them time to get to know each other in case Wyatt needed to help her integrate into the flock. She did well, though, and continues to make her way.

Farmer boy Wyatt is hapy to have new friends. As you can tell, no one has a name yet. Scott, if you are reading this, and they already had names, let us know. Otherwise Wyatt will pull out his list of names tomorrow, after today's birthday festivities! Have a great day!

Welcome Friends...

Yup, we have been at it again. Mama was on craigslist today looking for shelving for the shed, and came across two cochins who were being picked on at their home. We agreed to give the two girls a new home, and set out for a home near DMAFB.

As it turns out, the nice bird enthusiast there also had a silkie who was loud enough to be causing trouble with a neighbor, and a frizzle who was also being picked on. We came home with four new friends for the Patriot's Dream flock.

These are the two blue cochins. At first they were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of space they had to roam, but they quickly accustomed to it. They are still learning the lay of the land, but they nested in the doe pen together tonight. They are confident enough here that they did sneak up on Remington earlier. She didn't seem to mind much, she walked along with them after they got her, and they seem to have accepted goofy Remi.

Then there is the little Silkie. She is getting to know the others in her pen. Trouble isn't too sure about her, but she took over the nesting boxes along the North edge of the bantam area. She should settle in fine, from the looks of things.

I didn't realize until I got back inside that I missed out on a photo of the frizzle. She is white, and a little smaller than the Silkie. She is having a tougher time settling in, but we are watching it closely, and will continue to work with it.

After that, the kids were helping bag some trimmings from the main garden. I got an intereting photo, which will soon become a contest. Then I got some neat sunset photos from the perspective of looking NW from the bantam area. I liked the colors, as well as the variation in this one.