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!!!

Another Day on the Farm

I've been trying to get some better pictures of my bunnies, but that's hard to do...but I managed to get some...I managed to get Hudsen, Fred, Cadburry, and Betty. I love me some Betty, she might not be the most loveable bunny, but man she is beautiful!!!

The weather has been really hot, I promised myself I wouldn't use the H word, but I just did...really its the humidity, and honestly, it doesn't bother me as much as it does the fact that I can't bring all of my animals in the house, so I spend lots of extra time making sure their water is cold, and that they have ice bottles to help keep them cool. I'm hoping that we will be able to have a building up by fall. Its not looking like summer time will happen, but hopefully fall will for sure. I'm just going to have to work extra hard through these summer months to keep them as comfortable as I humanly can.

Today I sent two of my roosters off to a new home. I was sad to see Spot go, but we can only keep so many roosters at a time. The other rooster that went with Spot, was one that we missed when we butchered the other week. I kind of feel like if he managed to blend in well enough to get missed, he deserves a pass to get to live.  They are going to live on a farm where they will be able to free range and live happily. (I know I'm not supposed to allow myself to get so attached to the livestock, but well this happens.)

We've been working with Bella on her house behavior. Its getting so much better. As of right now, she's not sleeping in her crate, which has made a huge difference in her behavior. She actually sleeps more solid at night, and is less wound up during the day. We've been trying not to put her in the crate during the day unless we are going somewhere, or if Sam and Jasper need a time out from her because she's gotten to be too wound up. Today was a much better day though, and she hasn't had to go in there. Instead of getting wound up when she gets tired, she's actually just laid down on the dog bed and took a nap. Little steps.

Well, the day is over, so I'm going to turn down the lights and put my feet up. I need to do a little bit of research, so I'm probably going to do that. I hope you all have a fantastic night!!!!

Just us Chickens

 

Chickens are so fun to watch!!! I love all of mine for the most part. They are entertaining, relaxing, fun, and yeah, a bit of work, but not that much really. I took these today when I was out there, I always have my cell phone in my pocket, and for the most part it takes better pictures than my digital camera, so I just use it.  

 

I think I managed to get just about every one of my chickens/pullets/roosters/cockerels in a picture today. As you can see, everybody is growing swiftly. When I look at all of the ones I've either hatched out, or had since they were just a couple of days old, I'm simply amazed at just how fast they have grown. 

 

From the experience we've had with the mail order chicks, I can tell you all that Ideal is a great company to order from. The prices are great, and the chicks are absolutely healthy. All of mine have grown wonderfully, have no health problems, and are most generally pretty happy.  If you are thinking about ordering, check out their online website, its easy to use. www.idealpoultry.com 

I cant say it enough about their website, its easy to navigate, and if you have questions they have all kinds of ways to get in touch with them, and they are super friendly.  (I guess this is my company review/plug for the day, and no I'm not getting anything for this, promise)

 

Its calling to get cold again this weekend, and for possibly more snow!!! Who's ready for winter to be over???? I know I am!!!

Good Morning!!!!

 

One of my favorite times to spend with my chickens is in the morning when I first open the doors to their house. Some come ripping out into the run to check the ground for bugs or bits of grass, or just whatever may be out there for them. Some of them decide that its time to eat and flock around the feeders.  And then some just jump up on the roost and watch to see what I'm doing or if I have any special treats in my pockets for them.  The two in the bottom picture I'm hoping will lay colored eggs for me. I'm not sure what eggs they hatched out of, but they are from my last batch that I hatched out, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they came out of the olive eggs that hatched out.

 

I got my Mc Murry hatchery catalog in the mail the other day, and it would seem its easy to spend hours pouring over one of those catalogs. By the time I was done looking at it, I had marked how many of each I wanted by the pictures of the chicks, and it would seem I want way more chickens than I have room for. I'm fairly certain though that Mc Murry would have had no problems whatsoever taking my money for that particular order.

 

This morning some of my young roosters (from the first batch of chicks we hatch out last year), have decided to be aggressive. I think maybe they were testing the waters...well one of them thought he was going to attack me, and he thought wrong. I don't think he will be trying that again any time soon. I think next month we will be processing some of those rooster chicks. We were hoping that the roosters from the last batch we hatched out would be able to be big enough for butchering at the same, but I don't think those boys are going to let us wait that long. Poor Sinatra ( my head rooster) is showing signs of battle. He has some bald patches from where it looks like they have been challenging  him.