Poultry updates

The chicks that hatched out 2 months ago have all found new homes.  Our friend Jennifer took the Brahma Cochin chicks and the RIR/Copper Moran cross chicks.  She posted a picture of them on Facebook.  Very cute!

Jennifer's chicks

Friends Mark and Lisa came on Tuesday and picked up the RIR chicks.  Here's a picture I took of them on Monday.

2 month old RIR chicks

We had the incubator set up and had 18 guinea eggs and 18 chicken eggs set.  And we got 3 chicks.  Not sure if the hatch rate was so low because of storms... muddy conditions on the eggs - killing the embryo?  Temperature wasn't right???  It's frustrating.  But, it seems I have the best hatch rates first thing in the spring.  The later I try, the lower the hatch rate.  Anyway...  We got 2 RIR chicks and one Brahma Cochin chick.  The Cochin chick had a "birth injury", it's one leg was twisted.  And the poor little thing expired yesterday.  These 2 chicks are promised to our friend Beth.  She got 8 RIR chicks from us last year.  Six were hens and 2 roosters.  One rooster has since become Sunday dinner.

Anyway... here's a picture of the 2 newest chicks.

Rhode Island Red chicks hatched 6 days ago

The chicks that our Bantam hen Pebbles hatched 6 weeks ago are doing well.  Pebbles is done raising them, and has started laying again.  So, she's back in with the rooster Fred and the chicks are in a cage by themselves.

Bantam duck wing chicks 6 weeks old

Fred and Pebbles

It's been a week since my husband had surgery on his neck, having a plate inserted to help stabilize his vertebra.  The surgery went well, and he's recuperating nicely.  His horrible migraine headaches seem to have been cured.  That is a great relief for him.  He's suffered with daily headaches for the past year.  Any relief he can get will really add to his quality of life.  His Parkinson's seems to be a bit worse though.  His shaking doesn't stop...  Maybe another week or two of recovery will  help.

Grand-daughter Ariel seems to be enjoying the summer so far.  We took another trip down to the creek and caught crawfish on Tuesday afternoon.  Josh tried to do a little fishing.  But it seems all the larger fish went downstream after the last big rainfall we had last week.  Oh well.  There's always the Spring River.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their late Spring/early Summer.  It's not really Summer until next week after the solstice.  But it's been 95 plus the past few days.  Thankfully, we have air conditioning!

A beautiful day

Oh yesterday was so beautiful.  Sunny and warm.  The high was 74!  We all got outside as puttered around for awhile.  I played fetch with the dog.  She chased that evil chipmunk that lives in the woodpile.  She just hates that poor little guy.

On evil chipmunk watch

I moved some of my birds around.  You see, I had 4 bantam chickens in one "chicken tractor".  Two roosters and a hen with her baby.  Well, the baby has grown up and turns out to be ANOTHER rooster.  So that meant I had 3 roosters and 1 hen.  Not good.  So, baby Snow (not much of a baby anymore) and his father Fred got put in another cage.  (The weather didn't cooperate this morning.  It's pouring rain.  So I don't have any bird pictures for now.)



But before I could move them, I had to move 2 quail rooster out of the cage.  I set up a small cage I had used for a quail pair last year.  Now I have 3 quail roosters without any mates and 2 bantam roosters without any mates.  I'm blessed with roosters it seems.

I usually try to give roosters away.  Surely, there must be SOMEONE in our area who needs a rooster.  I know we could have them for Sunday dinner....  but these are my friends.  I'll try finding them a home first.

My 2 Rhode Island Red hens, Sissy and Missy, and their husband Hexter are all molting right now.  So I'm not getting any eggs from them.

Sissy and Missy

 And my young Black Copper Moran hen Jet is molting also.  She's laying about every other day...  So my Brahman Cochin trio are the only ones producing faithfully.  My little Bantam hen Pebbles is trying, but I think the roosters were eating the eggs sometimes.  Maybe now that I have Fred and Snow in another cage she'll have a chance.  I think I'll let Pebbles raise another clutch on her own.  She's a good mama and raised Snow well through the winter.

I haven't been posting much the past week.  My elbow is very unhappy!  I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon last Wednesday.  I need to have outpatient surgery to remove the bone spurs.  That will happen on Tuesday (3/12).  Depending on what he finds happening in there, I might just come home without any cast at all.  I would really like that.  I'll have a follow-up appointment within a week and find out more...

This elbow difficulty is painful.  And it puts me behind in everything.  I have to get one of my guys to move heavier things for me (heavier being about 10 pounds).  Even kneading bread was very painful!  This sucks!

Let's talk eggs

I love my chickens.  I really do.  But the thing I love most about my chickens is getting fresh eggs every day.

Here's the haul from the past 2 days.

Eggs gathered the past 2 days

Fred, Pebbles and BamBam

It smallest egg you see here is from our Duck Wing Bantam hen, Pebbles.  She's a good looking lady!  She's a great mama. 

Gus and Greta

The smaller, lighter colored eggs are from our Braha Cochin Greta.  She's a nice hen & a great egg layer.  I haven't given her the opportunity to be a mama yet.  I may let her try this year.  We'll see.








The larger brown eggs are laid by our Rhode Island Reds Missy and Sissy.  They are great egg layers.  They each give us about 320 eggs a year.  I haven't let them be mama's yet either because I wanted the eggs... and once a hen starts setting, she's not giving you any more eggs for about 3 months.

Sissy and Missy

The darkest egg comes from our Copper Moran, Jet.  She's about 8 months old and just started laying in the last month or so.

Henry

Right now, Jet is housed with Gus and Greta, Margarette and Henry.  In the Spring, Henry and Jet will be getting their very own accomodations.  Henry is the same age as Jet.  He's a nice Rhode Island Red.  If I was a purest, I'd continue to keep my breeds separated.  But Gus, Greta, Sissy, Missy and Hexter were born during the 2009 season.  So, I need to get another pair mated and established before something happens to the trio's I have established now.  Margarette is the same age as Jet and Henry.  Being a Brahma Cochin, I'm going to keep her with her breed.  I'm hoping Jet and Henry will start my "yard chicken" flock. 

I don't let any of my chickens out "free range" right now because the guineas pick on them horribly.  And every other predator within 1000 acres wants to eat them for dinner.  But, I'd like to start raising some smarter chickens... my own kind of chicken... in hopes that I could have birds out and about free range.  So, having a mixed pair might help with that.  It's an experiment I'm going to try.  Anyway, when Jet has enough eggs laid that she gets broody, I'll let her sit on them.  And we'll see what happens from there.

Here's a picture of some of the chicks I've hatched out in the incubator in the past year.

Rhode Island Red chicks

I love my chickens.  They're my friends.  I'm very particular about the feed I give them.  Layer crumbles is what I prefer.  I don't give them medicated feed, since they have NEVER been exposed to any other poultry.  The chickens, guinea and quail get the same feed.  I even use the same feed for chicks (I just grind it up finer in a mortar). 

I love the sounds the birds make.  I really enjoy listening to them interacting with each other - even when Sissy and Missy have to argue over who's turn it is to be in the nesting box!  And we really enjoy the eggs.  That's the special bonus of having chickens.  Eggs. 

And we're an egg loving family.  Custard, pickled eggs, pudding, quiche, egg salad, cake, omelet, fried poached or scrambled.  We love eggs.