Chicks and Chickens and Rooster Goodbyes

Let me start by saying Happy New Year to you all!!! We had such a warm December, and a lot of rain over the past couple of months that the cold and sunshine of this month has been quite welcome. We ended up with so much rain, that Frank and I had to put a lot of extra oomph into the chicken run. We bought 8 bags of horse bedding, and covered the entire run!!! Then we put down 4 big bags of bedding on top of that, and it worked wonders!!! The chickens are happy, and we are happy. (Most importantly, the chickens are happy)

As you can see by the first few pics, our chicks that Hatched out December 14th have grown a good bit. I must say, these guys have been on the Chick feed from the local Co-op (Rockingham Co-op here in Woodstock). these are probably the healthiest chicks we've had, and they have grown and matured much quicker than most that I tend to forget that I'm going to need Chick feed until the wrong moment and have to dash to Tractor Supply and buy a more expensive bag of feed, that's not as fresh. Don't get me wrong, I like Tractor Supply, and think they are a great farm store, but the feed I buy from the Co-op is local, and fresh.  My Buff Orpington chicks look like they are going to be fantastic! Out of the 5 of them, only 1 is a boy, which works out perfect for us. Less meat in the freezer perhaps, but perfect, because we are adding Orpingtons to our breeding program. I'm really excited about that.

The 4th picture down are the "chicks" that we hatched out October 1st.  Those are our Tetra Tints, lots of boys there. We are going to have 3 to go into our egg layers. However, I have to find where I put the leg bands, because I need to make sure that I can identify these as being young, because I have 3 or 4 older ones in the main run right now that are older girls at this point, and are almost done laying. I have to say, if you want a bird that's not going to take up a lot of room, but is going to be a good egg layer, and not lay tiny eggs like most smaller breeds do, this is the perfect breed for you!!!  I really think they are pretty birds.

The rest are random pictures of our flock. They are a tad bit muddy, but hopefully getting to take the dust baths and such, they should get to looking better soon. (And trust me, they are taking some good dust baths in the bedding as it is.)

Now, as I said in the title, Rooster Goodbyes. I am very sad to announce that Sinatra, my oldest rooster, passed away of old age this past week. (Tuesday) He was a great boy, and will be missed enormously. I did order some Rhode Island Red Rooster chicks, which will be here before the end of the month. I ordered 3 just in case 1 doesn't survive the shipping process. I'm not going to give them names until they are mature, and are showing their personality. Some people don't like Rhode Island Red roosters, they seem to think that they are evil, I don't think they are. All of mine have always been very mild mannered, and Gentlemanly around me, but maybe its because they have all for the most part been used to me. Now, I'm not going to lie, Sinatra was our first rooster, and I was terrified of him at first. After all, I had always heard nothing but horror stories about roosters.

Well, that's it for tonight! I hope you all are having a great New Year so far! I know here, it did start out a bit sad with the loss of our Rooster, but I guess that's farm life!!!