For the love of Sibes

It's been a while since I've posted anything about Sam and Jasper. So I figured I would share a couple of pics so you know all is well and goos with my loves!!!

Eggs and chickens

Yes...I know, you can't have one without the other...:)

We have a batch of eggs in the incubator. I started out with 34, and now have 32. Today was day 7. One of them wasn't fertile, and one had a blood ring, so those two were removed. I an proud to say though, that those two weren't from my chickens, they were from the batch we bought to hatch out. I put about 4 or 5 in from my girls, and three are looking good. I'm really happy though that the olive green eggs are developing nicely. Now let's just hope they are girls, because I want them to be so bad!!!! Of course because I want them to be pullets and not cockerels, I'll end up with all cockerels 

My chickens are giving me 4 eggs a day right now!!! I'm pretty thrilled with that!!! Hooray...I have 3 that are laying daily, and then 3 that seem to be taking turns. I'm hoping my black copper marans take off again soon. One just finished multing, and her feathers are growing back now. I'm hoping that means I'll get something soon from her.

Hot chocolate

Baby it's cold outside!!! Multiple trips outside to the chicken house, and a trip to Tractor Supply meant that I earned a cup of hot cocoa!!! Yay!!! Unfortunately though, I didn't have any packets of hot cocoa, but fortunately I had cocoa powder and a recipe....and it's an easy recipe that let's you use the microwave...
Here's the recipe

Microwave single serve hot cocoa
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Dash of salt
1 cup of milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1) mix sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a large mug
2) heat milk in microwave on high for 1 & 1/2 min or until hot
3) gradually add milk to cocoa mixture, stir well, and then add vanilla.
4) ENJOY!!!!

Pictures!!!!

Here are those pictures I promised you all!!! More to come, Frank built a mini perch for the chicks this evening  so as soon as they are used to it, I'll get some pics taken of that.

Love my chickens

This is going to be one of my posts where I just talk about my chickens. Why??? Well mostly because. I have a few updates, and a funny story.

First of all, we have a shipment of chicks coming in on Friday. We ordered them through a company called ideal. There will be 5 Rhode Island Reds, and 5 white leghorns.  We Sid the math and they should start laying in late May, or early June. We wanted those breeds because they are great layers, AND because the leghorn mixed with the RIR will make what's known as a sex link, and those are super awesome layers. We have a sex link, and since she started laying, she has only missed one day.  Right now, she's my prized hen.

The chicks that we hatched out, have grown so fast!!! They're still small, but they are only a couple of weeks old. They have started getting their feathers in, and have started changing colors. Well the black ones are still black.

The girls outside have seriously slowed down on their egg laying production. Frank and I installed a light on a timer, and today for the first time in weeks I got 4 eggs. I had been just getting 2, and then this past weekend 3. I'll be happy when I get back up to about 5 - 6 a day. We have some people who we share them with for helping us with a few random things.

So, now...onto my funny story. So as you all know, I've not been around roosters until Sinatra came to live with us.  Well, one day I was our there checking food and water, and egg hunting, and I herd him making noises like a dog barking. I thought oh that's funny, I didn't know roosters made that nose. A couple days later Frank comes in and asks me if I've herd the rooster barking like a dog, I confirmed that I had  and didn't know they made that nose...turns out they don't. He had herd Sam and Jasper barking in the yard, and was imitating them. That really was funny when I realized that. Well yesterday, I was walking up to check stuff up there l. He had run the girls into the house and was standing in the middle of the run barking up at the trees. He was.barking at a hawk!!! I told Frank about that, and apparently he had watched the dogs barking at a turkey, and saw the turkey run away. I suppose he thought if stiff ran off when they barked at it, then it would work for him too. I love that rooster!!!

Sorry I have no pictures for you all right now, but I will have some in the next day or two.

Just in general

This has been sort of a domestic sort of day. I dusted the ceiling fan on the bedroom, washed and put away laundry, changed the bed stuff..etc etc...it's amazing how much housework there always is work only two people living here.

The sun has finally come out today, which is an awesome thing. It rained most of the day, so my furry friend were stuck in the house with me. Right now however they are outside being happy boys.

I've been quite the busy girl here lately. I've been getting ready for a craft show, keeping up with the housework, keeping up with chickens, and getting ready for some chicks that are due to be delivered on the 15th. We have 10 baby chicks coming. All girls. 5 white leghorn, and 5 Rhode Island Red. Yes, it would appear that with the 29 eggs we just put in the incubator, the 7 we have hatched, the 10 on their way, and the 9 chickens already I'm the back yard, that we potentially are going to be over run with chickens. Well, we will be culling a couple of the older ones out, and as soon as they ate big enough, the young roosters will be culled out.  We are expanding our run, so we will have room for all of the remaining chickens. Also there is no guarantee that all of the eggs we set will hatch. Plus we plan on selling some of those chicks when they hatch.

Anyways, time to get off of here and get back to work!!!

November

Its hard to believe its already time to take down the Halloween decorations, and start digging out what few Thanksgiving decorations I have. This year has basically flown by in what seems to be the blink of an eye...who knows maybe the weeping angels got me and I just don't remember it.

The baby chicks are 8 days old already. They have doubled in size, and are getting tiny little feathers on the tips of their wings. They truly are adorable. We are constantly changing out the bedding though because of the amount they poo...which is a lot!!!

We ordered some baby chicks. I need to go to the post office and find out how the delivery is going to work out on that. Depending on who is delivering the mail that day, they might not make it to our house until after 3. That's crazy, its this one lady who is incredibly slow, and if you have a package too big for your mail box, she will either try to make it fit, or sit at the bottom of the driveway and honk...we can't hear that!!! Always, I'm hoping that they are going to tell me I'll have to come in and get them, because I'll be there when the does open. We ordered 10 chicks. 5 white leg horns, and 5 Rhode Island Reds, and they are all girls. I'm fairly excited. We plan on doing a cull before too much longer. We are going to try to wait as long as we can, but with these 7, and them 10 more should they all survive, and then whatever hatches we will need to. Don't want to over crowed anybody.  Just want everybody to be healthy and happy. And yes, we are extending the run to make sure everybody has lots of space to run and play and do chicken stuff.

Well, I'm going to say good night. The hour is late. So I'll leave you with these pictures and wish you all a happy November....thought I would ad in some grown up pictures too, so you know we still love our girls.