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!!!

Here a chick, there a chick

Well, the hatch is over!!! 34 chicks, all tiny, fluffy, and loud!!!! We have quite the variety of them here in the house under brooder heater. Looking at them, you can tell we hatched out quite a variety of them. This spring once we get everybody situated, we plan on separating the breeds a bit, so that we can hatch out a few of just certain breeds. The main ones we want to try to hatch out are the Easter Egg chicks.

Sorry it took me so long to get these up, but this weekend has been absolutely insane!!!! The hatching was easy, it was more all of the socializing we did. We don't do that too often, but when we do, its always with the friends closest to us.

Anyways, hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and I'll try to get back with you all very soon with a new recipe or something.

Catch up part 2 The chicken addition

Alright! We got the bunnies posted about!!!! Now its time to move on to the chicken stuff!!! On Satruday, we butchered a bunch of chickens, with the help of My husbands Sister, and her husband. The kids came along, which was awesome, because they got to see where some of their food comes from. They didn't help, but I wouldn't want them to, unless they really wanted to.  We had so very many roosters!!! In fact, when I was out doing some of the chicken chores, I spotted what I think is a rooster, that we may have missed. I'm not sure yet though, because its very hard to tell with that one.
It was 17 roosters, and a Cornish rock, who is in the crock pot right now. She/he was a really big chicken!!!

My one lone Silver Lace Wyandotte has gotten quite beautiful. My Buff Orpingtons have finally started getting big, which is awesome. Sinatra is still ruling the roost, and I think is quite happy that there are not so many teenage roosters running around. Ralph, my Easter Egg chick, still has a very green head, which is good, because we have to deliver the chicks that belong to somebody else. (We went in on a chick order with somebody else) I think its going to be a bit hard to say goodbye to some of these chicks, because they have such personality!!!!! (its a good thing that these chicks are going to be for fertile hatching eggs.

So other than that, that's about all the chicken news there is...enjoy the following pictures!!!! And have a great Monday!!!!