Chicken dreams

When I had to stop working because of a back injury, I was concerned about my then husband & I... and our finances. I kept having a dream that there was a chicken living in our kitchen. Of course, there WASN'T... but I went to the library and looked up the symbol of a chicken in several traditions. It seems, in Eastern European tradition, a chicken symbolized "enough". I then understood that as long as I had a chicken in my kitchen, I'd have enough. So I went out and bought a beautiful chicken figurine for my kitchen counter. My then husband was quite pissed off by this. He considered it stupid & superstitious. And when we divorced, he made sure I took that chicken with me. I still have it in my kitchen... and I still have "enough". New, more in tune, husband. New home in the woods. Loving family. That chicken dream really made a difference.

I have lots of them now. Inside and out. People keep giving them to me.

And now that I have real, live chickens, I give eggs away. I raise chicks and give them away. I think of it as "paying it forward."

The chicken figurine I bought

Hatching out chicks in the incubator my husband made

Chicks in the brooder

Winter is coming!

Ten days until Christmas.  Wow. The past month has really flown by!  It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since I got back from PA.

I've been working on gifts & charity knitting objects.  And baking, of course.I haven't gotten much weaving done.  Oh well, there will be plenty of time during the upcoming winter season.

The weather forecast is looking very odd.  Here's what KAIT 8 has to say...

We have all kinds of weather to talk about over the next few days. Tonight, colder air will continue to push into Region 8 and overnight lows will go into the low and mid 20s. Tomorrow looks very cold, with many areas not warming much above freezing. Warm air surges into Region 8 LATE on Friday, giving way to a few showers and storms. We start our Saturday with temperatures in the 60s, but end the day in the 20s with a chance of light sleet or snow. Any accumulations will be light. VERY cold air for Sunday and Monday. -Ryan

Brrrr.  Sounds like I'll be staying in side this weekend.

I need to get the lamp in the chicken run, my birdies need to stay warm.  I also need to make sure the plants in the greenhouse survive.  Busy, busy.

I'm hoping to get all the packages in the mail today.

Summer fun in the making

My son Joshua and I traveled to Ellijay, GA to pick up my granddaughter Ariel.  The trip there and back were uneventful (which is how I like my driving adventures).  We had a good time visiting with my daughter Tammy (Ariel's mom) and her partner Ricky, and Pete the wonder dog.  Tammy and Josh's mom Margaret spent some time with us.  That was good, because Josh hasn't seen her in a year.  We had a nice seafood meal.  Crab and shrimp.  Yummy.

We're back home in Williford now.  We had some more bantam chicks hatch out while we were gone.  I was talking to my hubby John one night on the phone and he told me "your banty hens sprouted extra legs today.  One has 8 legs and the other 10"..  And I was totally baffled by this!  "WHAT"???  "More chicks hatched out Penny."  Duh. 

So now we have 10 bantam chicks, 2 maran/RIR, and 1 cochin/RIR.  I hope they aren't all roosters!

Here's some baby chick pictures to make you smile.

A little bird has built a nest in the dashboard of our golf cart.  Tiny little speckled eggs, 3 I believe.

Ariel, Cricket and I walked down to the spring yesterday.  It rained quite heavily a few days ago.  Now we have a large oak tree down over our lane.

Our good friend, Joe Barnett and his son Matt, also cut down a dead and leaning hickory tree for us.  It was beginning to threaten our workshop.  They also brought us 2 nice cedar logs.  I see lumber and firewood in our future.

Getting back into blogging.

I haven't been inspired to write lately....  I felt like I was boring people.  Is anyone interested in what I'm cooking today?  Did they care about my flower and veggie garden?  My pets?  My knitting? 

I enjoy my lifestyle very much.  I'm blessed to be in a position to spend my days with my husband and son.  We enjoy each other's company.  We get along well.  We each work on our projects.  If we're working on something together, we communicate well.  No raised voices (except to yell NO!!!! at the dogs when the UPS truck comes). 

So anyway, here's what's been going on here.

My elbow and hand are slowly recuperating after surgery earlier this year for carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve compression.  My right arm and hand are still numb.  This makes me even more awkward than I was because of my Parkinson's.  This is frustrating!  I have cuts and scrapes on my hand & I have no idea I've hurt myself.  It takes me longer to do my crafts.  Hand sewing and beading are very slow... Fingerweaving is also very slow.  Kumihumo isn't really effected, as I can use my left hand to move the threads.  Spinning is a bit slower, but not too bad.  Knitting and crochet are slower, but I am completing projects.

The flower beds are all weeded, the veggie garden is planted.  We've been harvesting asparagus and mixed salad greens.  Tomatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, bell peppers, potatoes, rhubarb and Jerusalem artichokes are up and growing.  The fruit trees have fruits growing, as do the berry bushes.  That makes me happy.

Both dogs are healthy.    Our cat, Rusty, died in January.  This made me very sad.  I miss him.

We lost a hen and a rooster this past winter.  I also gave a trio away.  So, we're down to a Rhode Island Red trio, a Black Copper Maran hen and a Brahma Cochin hen, a trio and another pair of duckwing bantam, and a pair and a trio of guinea fowl.  A grand total of 5 large chickens, 5 bantam chickens and 5 guinea.  I do have eggs in the incubator.  They should hatch on the 21st. 


Our granddaughter, Ariel, will be spending the summer with us again this year.  I really enjoy our time together.  She's growing up so fast.  She's 12 this year.  Not a little girl anymore.  The past 10 years have really flown by. 

Spring may have sprung!

Monday morning I went out to feed the chickens and discovered my banty hen, Pebbles, had 3 little chicks!  Wow!  What a surprise!

Pebbles with her babies.

My hellebore have been trying to bloom since before the sleet/snow we had recently.  And now that the ice and snow are all gone, they are blooming merrily.  The daffodils are not far behind.  Everything is waking up and poking their little heads out of the ground.

Hellebore by the den

The south entrance to our home

Yesterday's high was 80!  What a change!  Last week we had ice and couldn't even get out to the highway, today we have to fun a fan!  Amazing.

I went to our friend Doris' on Monday night to help start the Hardy Homesteader's Quilt for this year.  We're doing a nice queen size quilt, the motif is Candy Corn.  I spent the evening ironing the fabric before we started cutting the pieces.  I think we'll get it all cut next week and can start to sew after that. 

This quilt should go together rather quickly.  The blocks are 12 inches square.  Background is a nice autumn leaf fabric with greenish blocks at the intersections.   I'll post pictures once we've got something together to show you.  Here's a link for the basic block. Basic Candy Corn quilt block.

We've lived here 8 years now!  Time is flying by.  One of the items we love to eat, but have a bit of a challenge finding is bulk dried fruit.  I love snacking on raisins, figs, dates... and John loves pineapple.  Josh loves apricots.  We have to drive about an hour to find bulk goods.  The little Memmonite store in Dalton is great.... West Plains has Meadowbrook...Meadowbrook Natural Foods.  There's a store in Jonesboro also, but we don't get to Jonesboro very often.

So, several families we know have decided to go together and make bulk orders from Country Life Natural Foods. Country Life Natural Foods We get our first order today.  It's being delivered to my friend Gena's house, because we don't have a garage or anything that would be a good place to sort out a large bulk order.  If you live in our area and want to be part of our "Co-op", please let me know.

A cool, foggy morning

I guess Fall is fully here.  It was 39 this morning and foggy.

Our garden looks pretty sad.  Tired.  Done.  Although the Jerusalem articokes on the right in this picture are still standing proud.  Not everything is completely done.  Our small orange bell peppers and the nasturtiums are still growing and producing.

My husband laughed at me and said "it looks like the plastic faerie has been here again"... because I put the plastic over the chicken cages.  But I knew it was going to get cold.  So, I got them covered up.

The new puppy, Cricket is really growing.  She's taller than Peanut now.  Of course, being a shorty Jack Russell standing 11 inches high, this isn't really much of an accomplishment. But, I hope Cricket doesn't get MUCH bigger.  Her mom was about knee high and dad is unknown.  So I guess she'll be whatever size she is!

So, for some entertainment this morning... I made a short video of inside my chicken house.  Not very exciting for people who don't live on a farm... but I enjoy my chickens.  I hope you do too.

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!

Gardening woes

We had beautiful weather at the beginning of the week... and then this massive cold front moved in.  It rained buckets.  The temperature dropped.  It was 89 degrees on Wednesday (May Day), and by Thursday night it was 35!  Damn!

We got 2 1/2 inches of rain.  Luckily that's less than the previous rain front that moved in, which resulted in 6 inches of rain.  But it's been a wild and wet time the past 2 weeks or so.


When I checked on the veggies on Wednesday; we had tomatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, squash, melons, cucumbers, okra, asparagus, rhubarb, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, onions and potatoes growing.

Our veggie garden when planted on 4/16/2013

 This picture was taken after I had all the seedlings in the ground.  It's hard to see those little plants in this picture, but it does show how the garden is laid out.  The square on the upper right is the bed for carrots and beets.  The radishes are adjacent to this.  The asparagus and rhubarb are located on the lower left of this picture.  The artichokes are off the picture, on the extreme left.

Our NE flower garden on 4/30/2013

The row of potatoes and onions can be seen in the background of this picture, to the left and behind the irises and the peach tree.

Each of the lilac trees bloomed this year, for the first time.  We planted them in 2009, and I think they're doing very well.

 I wonder what I'll find when I check it later today.  My friend Julie said the deer came along and ate EVERY plant in her garden.  Bummer!  Now she's got to start all over.

I had my chicks out in the sun on Wednesday.  Then the weather started to turn and so I decided to put them back in the cage with a light bulb for heat... and 1 of the Brahma Cochin chicks was gone.  Poof!  Damn.  I guess a snake got it.  That's the only thing that could have take it out of that cage.  All the other chicks were alive and well.  It's a mystery to me....

Mama Bantam Pebbles still has 5 little fuzz balls she's minding.  She's a great mother.  She keeps her little babies under close guard. 

My Black Copper Maran, Jet, is very broody.  But she doesn't have any eggs in her nest, so her hopes of motherhood aren't very likely.  I haven't been taking her eggs, so I think the rooster, Henry, is eating them.  Or maybe she's not laying.  Again, it's a mystery.

Henry and Jet

I'm making a trip to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds today with my friend Michelle.  I've never been there, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.  Here's the link for them.  http://www.rareseeds.com/

Spring has resumed

Well, the snow is gone.  Today it's raining and 42 degrees.  But we're supposed to have high winds and possibly more snow tonight!  I guess maybe a few more cold nights to come...  but that's to be expected.

I've got 34 eggs in the incubator.  I told a couple I know that I'd hatch some Rhode Island Red chicks for them.  While I was hatching, I thought I'd hatch some Brahma Cochin also, and a few of the Black Copper Maran.  I love having baby chickens!

Here's a few pictures of chicks in the past.

Rhode Island Red chicks from 2012

Newly hatched RIR chicks from 2011

John built me this incubator.  He's such a great husband!

Young mixed birds from 2010

 I didn't hatch any eggs in 2010... but I did get my birds I have now as adults from a lady we know down the road.  She raised birds for a living.  I raise birds because I like birds.  Not the same, at all.

Most of the chicks I raise I give to other people I know who are trying to get a small flock started at their homestead.  I've lost a LOT of young birds to blacksnakes, opossums, racoons... I've lost a few to cold, mostly banty.  They just don't have the body mass to survive the winter without some kind of windproof shelter.  We did much better this year, because I wrapped all the cages in plastic.  And I put much heavier mulch in all the cages.

Our peach tree is in bloom.  I hope they don't get frozen in the next few nights.  I really love having home grown peaches.

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.

Another cool foggy morning

It's another cool morning here in the woods.  It rained most of the day yesterday.  And so now the ground is nice and wet.  And this morning it's 32 degrees.  I know my poor chickens have cold feet!

Gus and Greta

Gus and Greta do pretty well regardless of the weather.  Now Gus is a big rooster.  He's a Brahma Cochin.  Brahma for big and Cochin for feathery feet.  He's a good guy and treats his hens well.  He clucks to them and shows them where the goodies are.  And they make great eggs and babies.






I enjoy taking care of my chickens every morning.  Peanut and I go out and make sure everyone has food and water.  Water is so important, cold weather and hot.

Peanut

Peanut is the self-appointed critter checker.  Notice our lavender guinea Curly Joe behind Peanut in this picture?

Peanut makes sure EVERYONE is where they are supposed to be and doing what they are supposed to be doing. 

She makes sure there are no unauthorized visitors to the yard.... 

On chipmunk watch

No chipmunks allowed under the farm truck!

Rusty

 

But cat's on the truck is OK.













When I hatch out chicks, Peanut has to inspect the chicks each and every morning.  She has to make sure they're still in there!

Rhode Island Red chicks

You have to make sure you put rocks in the water dispenser.  No drown chicks for us!

Hope you enjoy the critter pictures for today.

The sounds of country living

When you think of country living, what comes to mind?

I think of the sound of wind chimes, roosters crowing (a constant around here starting at 4:30 each morning), trucks on the highway, a passing train, hawks crying and the guinea fowl response.... song birds, Peanut barking as a buzzard flies over.  Rusty yowling at 3 AM (darn cat).

I don't have the ability to make a video/audio recording and post it here.  But, I do have the ability to search out other recordings that are very much like what it sounds like here....  and so, here's a sampling of some I found.

We have 5 roosters.  Gus the Brahma Cochin, Hexter the Rhode Island Red, Henry the Rhode Island Red, Fred the Bantam and Splash the Bantam.  And so we have a day-long crowing contest every day.  Here's a picture.

Our chicken house

It sounds something like this.

Morning chicken sounds

And of course, the hens have to get in on the act too.  Hens make a specific sound when they are laying an egg.

Hens laying eggs

And when you feed the chickens, the roosters tell the hens where to find food.  They make a very cool clucking sound and call their girls.

Rooster calling his hens

Our guineas are free range.  We let them out in the morning and lock them up at night.  I've written more about this before...  Anyway, the guinea pair up.  They mate for life.  We have 4 pair, and 1 hen extra (Number 9).  Here's a few pictures of them out wandering around.

Curly Joe and Vera

Curly Joe, Bruce, hens and keets

Here's a guinea flock with some keets. 



Guinea hen with keets

(I've never let my keets out when they were this young, so I don't know how many they raised to adulthood.  But the babies sure are cute!)

And what to guinea sound like when they are startled?  Talk about an alarm system!  Holy cow!  These birds make noise!

Guinea fowl flight

Sometimes they come and look in to see what we're doing.  Talk about nosey... geeze!

Who's in there???

 Guinea fowl knock at the door


But, this guinea hen found her coop nice in the cold weather.

Gertrude sings "Let it snow"