Adding to the Flock

When I retired I had received a gift card to Wilco Farm Stores from the chiefs and other staff members. The card was for $150 - a very generous gift. It didn't take long for me to decide what I would use it on - CHICKS! Wilco starts making chicks available toward the end of January and continues through to late spring. Then they have more during the month of September. 

We need to back up here a little...

My M.O. has been to add pullets in September so that by the time Spring rolls around, they will be ready to start laying. Last September I added six Buff Orpingtons and six Sapphire Blue Plymouth Rocks. As of today we only have two of the six Buffs, but all of the Saffies. I'm a little disappointed, but those little Buffs decided to explore and didn't get into their house one night. Farm life right? We usually lose at least one once they are outside full-time, but to lose three at once? That was new.

One Buffy and One Saffy

The young hens are getting close to laying. They have been making the laying hen sound which is kind of a There's-Something-I-Gotta-Push-Out sound. In the next week or so we'll be moving all of the hens to the back of the property where it is nice and clean and not yet poopy or muddy. The young hens will be joining them out there as well. 

Okay, so yesterday Tom and I went out to Wilco in Battle Ground and I picked out a couple of breeds that I have been wanting to add, but either didn't want to spend the amount that they were priced at or they were not available. So, to give myself an idea of what might be available I checked out what they might have in stock starting this month. The breeds that I decided on were the Speckled Sussex, Cuckoo Maran and the Delaware. Of the three I really wanted the Speckled Sussex, but they didn't have that one. However, they did have the Cuckoo Maran (the most expensive of the three). The other breed that I decided on was the Easter Egger, which was listed as an Ameraucana Easter Egger on the receipt. I'm not sure what that means, but I wanted to add another color of egg to the mix. As the name implies, Easter Egger, they lay blue or green eggs. The Maran's eggs should be a dark brown - I've been wanting dark brown eggs!

The BEST part - during this month Wilco has a deal on chicks, buy two get one free. Score! Before I knew about the sale I was thinking that I would pick out three different breeds and get six of each. After I read through the last Wilco email that I got I decided to go ahead and get a dozen - which means that I would only pay for eight chicks. After my purchase I had to study the receipt to figure out how they charged me. This is the weird part, the Ameraucana EE's price was posted at $3.99, but the receipt showed $3.89. The Maran's were $5.99, but were $5.89 on the receipt. There must have been some other crazy deal that I'm not aware of, I'm not complaining. Just confused. Meh...In the end I got four of the Ameraucana's at no charge and paid for the remainder. Now, I have quite a bit left on the gift card, so I might just wait until fall and add more layers. We'll see.

A little vid from their ride home from Battle Ground...

These littles were quite lively yesterday afternoon I swear they grew!

So, why are we adding to the flock? Well, many of the girls are from our original 2017 flock and the average egg laying cycle of a hen is around two and half to three years. Rather than continuing to feed hens that are no longer producing eggs, we would rather add to the flock and process the older hens and use them as stewing hens. Yep, a purpose for everything. We are a little behind as far as culling the flock goes, but that should happen sometime this spring. Well, that's what I'm hoping.

Just how many laying hens do we have? The simple answer is that I don' know. I think a year ago we had around 30-ish hens. This number included the 10 hens that we received from one of the captains at the fire station. Currently I think we have maybe 25 hens, but 7 of them are not producing anything so the new buffs and saffs are their replacements. Once the new pullets are ready to join the flock we may be up to 30+ hens. 

In a way I'm ready to have eggs coming out of our ears and running out of space to store all of them! Since our last sale of one dozen eggs last month we have had enough eggs to meet our own needs. 

My goal is to have plenty of eggs available for those friends/neighbors who have been coming to us to buy eggs. Once all of the hens are laying we'll be able to use the egg money to offset the feed costs. Winter is not our favorite time as the hens are not laying much, if at all. There have been a few days when there were NO eggs. Fortunately, we haven't been totally out of eggs because the ducks are still laying. It would kill me to actually buy eggs at the store. Especially since we haven't bought eggs since the summer of 2017!

Farm Life, Best Life!

February Happenings

Wow, it's crazy that a month has gone by since my last post! So, what's going on at Pigs 'n Poultry? Well, let's get into this!

Our Greta girl decided to pop out an egg that had no shell. Not so unusual for a first egg so it wasn't totally a surprise. It was a surprise that she is now at laying age. She's been with us since May and boy that took a long time for her to start laying! I was curious so I did a little research - geese only lay during the spring months and they usually only lay somewhere from 10-30 eggs per season. I had read somewhere that geese CAN lay as early as their first fall, but it's not common. She did do something that looked an awful lot like nesting and it was in the yard in between two garden boxes. Weirdo! This week we got a big surprise - and I mean BIG...

This mutant weighed in at 248 grams!

This egg almost looks fake-o, but it's real. The grass and blood stuck on it when it was brought in...man I felt so bad for Missy Greta. To go from a pretend egg that just had a leathery "shell" to this behemoth! She can't go back now! Fortunately, her routine is every other day since this big one.

The waterfowl egg collection

We used the goose eggs to make a frittata and it was delicious! I think that if we were to use the goose eggs for breakfast we could probably get two servings from one of those eggs! I'm accustomed to the duck or chicken egg size. We will enjoy these while we have them though - they won't be coming all the time. I'm excited about these eggs and look forward to more eggs from Greta. It will be interesting to see how long her laying season turns out to be in the end. Once she is done laying she'll go into her first real molt.

The other thing that happened in the last couple of weeks - my co-worker/friend and his wife dropped off 10 more young hens. It took a couple of weeks, but we got the new hens...

So that afternoon our flock increased to 31. When Clint asked how many we had now, Tom first said we had 26 chickens I quickly piped in and said 31 because of the little girls. We tend to not think of them since they haven't started laying yet, so I'm sure that's why we kind of forget about them. They don't offer anything but a lot of cuteness!

The Buttercups tend to want to be together, but they have been accepted by the older girls. Back when they were a couple of months old Tom decided to convert a dog house that we got down the street from our house.

November 2, 2019 - The Buttercups are finally out of the Brooder!

The best sight ever! Chickens out on grass.

The dog house got a door, a heat lamp and a perch too! So for three and half months they have grown accustomed to their home. I doubt that they will want to move in with the big girls.

So the chick shaw is filled a few more chickens and they are getting along better with each day that goes by. The first day we had to catch each of the new girls and physically place them in the chick shaw. This is actually a funny sight in the morning when the girls are first released for the day...23-26 hens coming out of the chick shaw. You wouldn't think that so many chickens would fit, but they do! Can you say Clown Car?

We have been keeping an eye on Fiona and her belly! She is looking good, but not huge. According to some research that I did recently, she may not even REALLY look pregnant until she is about 3 months after she has been bred. So when we do our willy-nilly calculations based on iffy memories we think that she was in heat last in mid-November. So that would put her around 3 months now. Gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days - approximately. If she continues to have her hangy belly swaying back and forth when she is running toward us at feeding time we might see piglets during my vacation time or sooner, maybe.

We know that she is not fat because they have been on a diet since last summer and Rex is looking pretty darn good. It's taken some time, but he is finally not looking like a....well...a pig.

This month has been quite rainy and I'm ready for some dry weather - especially on the weekends. I have so many things that I want to do!

Also, looking forward to the day when I can be home doing the farm life and making my own schedule with the time that I have in the day...

This is my happy place!

Broody

We have been dealing with broody hens. It seems like several have been broody over the past couple of months and it is somewhat maddening. As of today there are three hens that have gone broody - for sure. There may be one more, but she has been blending in and hiding her symptoms pretty well.

Since they pretty much quit laying and have been hoarding all of the eggs in their vicinity I've been wanting to find a way to get them to STOP brooding and get over it all. Also, without Thor there is no chance of them actually getting eggs that are fertilized.

This week we got lucky and Justin Rhodes posted a video on how to break a broody hen:

We don't have a kennel, but we do have the old brooder...aaaahhhh - ironical right?

So before releasing the non-broody girls from the chicken mobile this morning we had to catch the three that spent the night under the egg cart. Tom was able to catch #1 pretty easily...before she could figure out what was going on, she was deposited in her old house from waaaay back when she was just a chickie. 

The other two proved to be a little more challenging. After a few minutes of chasing them around the pen, we let them calm down. Then one more time of the two of us chasing them around, this time Tom had the fishing net. That was a no-go. Okay fine, we'll just go along with our morning and we'll get them yet. 

Fast forward a few minutes and they had gone into the big nesting box and settled in for a day of just taking up space. Or so they thought. 

After I told Tom that they were settled in we promptly went over and he was able to grab one of the girls and I got the other and off to the brooder box they went - to be broody. 

They are set up with some water and some food. Hopefully we won't have to keep them in there terribly long - a couple of days maybe three at the most. I hope. We had to weight down the top with a plank and some pieces of firewood to make sure than they will stay in there. I hope they will still be in there when we get home later. It would be something if they weren't...

Look at their hackles...they are not happy!

Hopefully they will decide that being broody is not worth it and snap out of it. It would be nice if they would just realize that they won't be mommas anytime soon, not without a rooster anyway. 

Farm Life is the Best Life...

Even in the frustrating moments.

OH, Hey there...

Okay, so weeks and weeks haven't gone by, but it has been over a week since my last post.

Been a little busy with work and with home stuff, taking care of feathered creatures...getting seeds into soil blocks etc...SoWHAT has been happening?

Mottle Javas

Well, the little chickies are growing so fast! One morning this week, when I went out to do the chicken chores and went to open the tractor door up - I thought I was looking at full size chickens! They really have changed so much in 10 weeks! From the spazzy little fluff balls when we brought them home to this:

There is one in particular who has become my favorite...

A couple of them encountered the big girls one day last week after the neighbor boy was over and checking them out. And by checking them out, I mean he was walking (chasing) them toward the main flock and a couple got through the fence. Boy, oh boy...those girls didn't quite know what to do, neither did the hooligans. As it turns out, they are able to squeeze through the netting. It's a good thing the fence wasn't energized, that would have been a very surprising sensation for them. Anyway, maybe the transition won't go too bad afterall. They have be observing one another through the poultry netting, so it's not like they are unawares.

The girl Magpie ducklings were supposed to be delivered last Friday to the feed store, however a couple of days before then I received a call from the feed store and when I called them back, they had some bad new. The hatchery had called to notify them that their hatch was not successful and that there wouldn't be any ducklings coming. What?! How did the entire hatch fail? They tried to offer a different breed, but I still wanted the Magpies so I asked if they could check if there would be another hatch. The people at that feed store are so nice...they called and found out that the next hatch was scheduled for May 4. 

Fingers Crossed!!

April 27 UPDATE - the feed store just called and they received the ducklings today! I got the call this afternoon and we'll be heading over there tomorrow morning to pick up the newest addition to the farm. Wahooooo!!! For some reason I took a little time to get the brooder set up a couple of days ago. We have a waterer and a pan for food...that should get them started off right. 

Our Mr. Shelly duck is getting to be a bit much these past few days. Hoping that his little harem will accept him...and that he won't "love" them to death! It will still be a few months before they will be able to co-exist. This should be interesting. Once the girls arrive, maybe Mr. Lenny will get some peace.

The Duck and The Goose

This week the dudes turned 1 year old!

Helping in the garden! 

It's amazing to think that we have had these two goofballs for nearly a year. We brought them home when they were only three days old...

Gardens & Seeds

Since vacation time I have been getting seeds into soil blocks. Sometimes this time of year is frustrating for me. We'll have weeks of mediocre and coolish weather which keeps the hoop house on the cooler side of warm. Then because the weather can be wacky here we get ONE warm day which means the hoop house is HOT and my seedlings - complete with plastic domes get FRIED! I've had to get more soil blocks made and sow more seeds. So far so good. I've been keeping track of the weather this week and the seedlings are looking good. This weekend I will transplant some into plastic planters.

The garden boxes have been cleaned out and I have seeds in all of them. So far I've got radishes, spinach and arugula coming up. Beets in another box and a couple of green beans have germinated. I do like to start stuff from seed and my hope is that I will not have to buy any plants at the store to put into the garden. As easy as that would be I really don't want to spend money on stuff that I can grow. How am I ever going to figure out what I can grow and what I can't?

Once the free range garden is ready to plant I'll be getting more beans planted, this year will be the year that we process veggies for the winter and things that will store well through the season. However, before we can get anything planted out there we need to broadfork it and then add some sand and compost to fortify the soil. The chickens did a pretty good job with keeping things all cleaned up, but it will need more work. My hope is that this garden will be MUCH better than last year. 

Fruit Trees

At the beginning of my vacation in March we purchased three apple trees to start a mini orchard/food forest. 

I didn't do a very good job with researching varieties, but we are all about experimenting.

After we chopped off more than half of these apple trees, I was a little worried - what if they don't survive?! So for several weeks all we had  were sticks in the ground with all three of them sporting two or three branches. After awhile I noticed that the leaves were coming on and then the blossom buds were forming. This week we have actual blossoms! All three of the trees have leaves, but only two have blossoms. There is hope afterall and also relief that they aren't going to die - this year anyway.

American Guinea Hogs

Now that the weather has improved and has been mostly dry we are going to get an area ready for the pigs! We'll be adding a breeding pair next weekend and I am so excited! So far I have been able to keep all sorts of other outside creatures alive...this makes me confident that we'll be able to deal with a couple of pigs as well. 

I feel like I'm an "all-in" type of person. We can educate ourselves to the end of time, but I'm definitely a hands-on learner. So, with all that we have already learned from books, the interwebs and from the Mother Earth News fair our adventure into raising pigs will be fun! We'll spend the next few days getting supplies, making a shelter and looking for an appropriately sized pet carrier that will fit in my car. Yep - we are taking the Kia to pick up these pigs! There WILL be an update when that happens!

So, my work week is nearly done and I'm looking forward to doing more stuff in the hoop house this week, more prep work in the big garden and running errands tomorrow. We have a short list of things that need to be done and a long list of items that we need to pick up at the feed store and ducklings to bring home...

Farm life is the BEST life...

Finally Moved Out

EVERYONE has been moved to the field. There is no longer chickens or the dudes in the garden or the yard. I gotta be honest, I miss having them close to the house, but it was time. They did their job now I can do mine!

Tom took on most of the task of moving the birds himself this time. Saturday was pretty rainy and the Chicken RV lid hadn't been fixed yet, so it was going to be an interesting process. We couldn't keep the girls and Thor confined all morning, so out they went so they could eat and the girls could get into the nesting boxes. There is a routine so we gotta stick to it.

Once the roof was back in place and the portable fence was up,  it was time to start relocating all of big girls to the field - it's not that easy when they are already out and have been for several hours, let me tell you. The one thing that I learned from when I moved them by myself in November - the food cart is my friend and a handy tool/lure. Once the kids heard the cart Thor and a few of the girls that were minding him at the time started to follow.

Meanwhile, the two dudes were just wandering around watching the happenings, they were having a ball! They had lots of free ranging time that morning. Which actually works out as they are usually more than ready to rejoin the flock when we want them to.

Anyway, we got Thor and 6 of the girls into their new area. That left 4 more to corrale. Man! Those little girls are FAST! I needed Tom to help kind of keep them from heading back to where they were for the last 5 weeks...little escape artists! I think I was able to get one of the girls in by plying her with some scratch feed - that's how it's done people...get that scratch out!

The other ones were either uninterested in the scratch or were happy to be free from the other girls. There was one in a nesting box and when that was being wheeled over to the new space that particular girl didn't want the ride and hopped out. Eventually they were all lured back in (no easy task) and I don't remember if the little girls were still in the yard or if they already were moved.

Either way, they ended up next to the main flock and once they were out of the chicken tractor they started what they love to do best - FORAGE!

There must have been something interesting on that blade of grass

They don't seem to mind that the grass is taller than they are - the Jerseys were far too prissy to be in the tall grass and they did not enjoy it at all. These little Javas, they were having all sorts of fun! They are very adventurous and explored the entire perimeter - checking out the boundary.

Hide 'n Seek?

It was a lot of fun watching them running around and jumping and testing out their wings. I would have to say that they enjoyed their time out a lot!

Lenny & Shelly taking notice of the new girls on the block

Later in the evening when I went out to check on them and planned to get them into the chicken tractor the for evening. Well, they were NOT in the tractor, but in the tall grass instead - all hunkered down in a pile.

I get it, they didn't know...

So after taking one lap around their home ONCE I knew it would not be an easy task, so I had to get Tom to help. The way it is set up was unintentionally perfectly done - the fence opens toward the tractor going in, so it was easy to block that way - while I walked them around to the front and toward the door.  A couple of them got it and the others were just freaked out. After a couple of minutes of trying to coax them in they finally were all in.

I'm thinking it will be another month before they get to go with the big girls and the hooligans. At that point it will be perfect as our ducklings will be ready to go into the tractor themselves.

Ducklings should be arriving on Friday!! SO EXCITED!!

Escape Artists

These little girls are the BEST egg layers...with a record of 364 eggs in a year by some random Australorp way back when. 

The other thing that these girls are...

ESCAPE ARTISTS!

I don't really know what it is that they are looking to do - besides aggravate us. Every now and then (twice in the last 5 days) they like to escape the confines of their chicken arena. Which means one or both of us need to try to coax them back to the rest of the flock. 

From the time they were just a few weeks old and even now they still escape the chicken run. When it's just one of us it can get tiring and/or frustrating trying to get them to go back in with the rest of the flock. Try getting a little chicken to go INTO the chicken area is bad enough. Imagine the duck and goose who get to free range trying to get out! 

Today this happened to Tom while he was home....alone. When the little girl made her escape Tom had to let the boys out because well, they like to get out too. Then to "help" Tom out, they chased the little girl around the fence while the rest of the flock followed along from inside the fence. I would have loved to see that! In the end, with no help from the hooligan waterfowl, Tom was able to get the girl back in...for now.

They are nice girls though and I'm sure that they aren't trying to be a sneaky...or maybe they are. 

Happy New Year...

Yeah, yeah, I know...today is the 5th. I've been a little under the weather...

Starting today I am going to post about what I have been thinking about our mini-farm. I'll tell you now...I think a lot of things about our farm!

This morning I was thinking about how blessed we are that we are STILL getting eggs everyday! That's right...eggs. We get a few as 2 and up to 4 every single day. The little Australorps are doing a great job!

On New Year's day we got to use a dozen of those eggs for brunch....and it was so good! We invited a few of our favorite people over for Huevos Rancheros, Refried Beans, Cornbread and other yummies. It was a nice way to start off the New Year, sitting around the table and visiting with friends - long time friends and newer friends too.

Anyway, eggs...baby...we are still getting eggs! Every now and then one of the big girls (Jersey Giant) will lay an egg, but it's usually the little girls. I have read that Australorp chickens are very good layers and that one laid 364 eggs in one year!

The thing about chickens is that they require a minimum of 14 hours of daylight to keep egg production up. So the Jerseys are not keen on laying right now and we'll forgive them. The littles are doing a pretty good job, even 2-4 eggs a day is a lot for us actually. The days are very slowly getting longer, so the Jersey girls will be laying before too long!

Note to self: Always keep a few Australorps in the flock.

Making Connections

At one time during one of our small group meetings we had talked about goals or something ~ I don't remember what the focus was, but I do remember that I shared my big ol' dream to make something of the property that the Lord so graciously led us to nearly 20 years ago.

Overall, the goal of the church that we belong to is to be mission minded. Sharing who Jesus is in our everyday existence?

Oh sure...okay...hmmmm - Got It!

I keep wanting to say that I'm not very good at this whole sharing Jesus thing, but I forget that just being a friend to someone or encouraging someone who needs it is sharing Jesus in a very personal way. I was reminded of how we are connected with all sorts of people that we encounter in everyday places. So yeah, I guess I got this sharing thing down. 

What I'm learning about myself is that when I am home, I want to be home. Doing my own thing and not having to interact with more people than I really need to, because deep down inside I'm an introvert. I can socialize and be engaging for so long, but I need and LOVE my down time. However, if we are going to make something of this property I need to step out of my comfort zone and share what we have with those around us (our neighbors) and those who are a part of our church family, but mainly with the people who are not a part of our church family.

What am I getting at here? Ever since the houses were built across the street from us I had thought of ways to get to know our neighbors. More than the smiling and waving as we drive by. Anyone can do that! The more that I thought that we would create a little hobby farm for ourselves, the more I realized that whatever abundance we are blessed with the "extra" could be our way of connecting to our neighbors (aka "the world" per Felida Bible's purpose statement). I'll tell you what...this has been a project in the making, but this connecting thing is finally starting to happen!

Until this year we had been sharing what we have been growing in the garden and it's been fun bringing fresh tomatoes or whatever else we might have an abundance of to our neighbors and chatting with them for a minute or two. Seriously, nobody can turn down fresh veggies right? 

When we added the chickens to the mix in the form of baby chicks, that was the game changer. We started out with one week old chicks (straight run) and when we figured out how many of them might be little dudes, we added six more Australorps which were about a week behind the Jersey Giants and a good deal smaller. Eventually the sixteen chicks turned into five cockerels and eleven pullets. Then the cockerel count went to four (one died, let's chalk that up to Natural Selection) and then on Labor day down to one. 

Before we harvested the cockerels, one or two of the Aussies started laying. So, I was curious and really wanted to start understanding what kind of timeline we were working with I started reading about when the girls would start laying. Many of the forums had varied answers to my questions. Jersey's, being a larger breed, would start later than normal. The Aussies were pretty much right on track though and started laying at around 20 or 21 weeks which was at the end of August. 

Miss Chickie says "Excuse Me!"

At the beginning when the little girls (Australorps) started laying it was slow going, a couple eggs here and a couple eggs there. It stayed that way for a little while and I started having eggs for lunch! A couple of weeks ago things changed and all of the littles were laying then about a week ago we started getting more than 6 a day. Which meant that the Jersey Giant girls started to laying. The laying habits of the little girls is pretty much what I have read. The Jersey's were a different story. 

All of the things that I read about the JG's is that the grow fast and take their time maturing. Also, some people had posted that it took more than 6 months before they would see their JG's first egg. Well, the number started going up around October 4th - so either the Aussies are laying more than once a day or those BIG girls are getting into the nesting boxes and getting to work as well.

Good Girls!!

Now we are experiencing an abundance of eggs more than we can use in a week. It's time to get a little creative. One of the things that I was doing was making ice cream once a week with yolks in the base. The difference - my previous batches were made with store bought eggs - this last batch home grown eggs! We also an egg here and there for breakfast or for a special meal like Huevos Rancheros. So simple, but oh so good! Seriously, I need to get some more egg dishes going! 

Even so we still have quite a few eggs on hand with more eggs added to that daily so what do we do?!

Share them of course!

In doing this we have made some "deals" with a couple of people. The family directly across the street from our driveway asked if we wanted the eggshells back for the chickens - something I hadn't thought of...YES!! Somehow that turned into us also saying that kitchen scraps would be good too! Yesterday afternoon their two oldest boys (poor little brother had to watch from afar) came over with a little bucket with a few food scraps and tossed those into the chicken pen. Yay! Way to get the kiddos involved! One of them even asked if they could pet one of the chickens...oh goodness, that is cute!

Tom decided that we should take some to our Master Gardener neighbors who are in the older neighborhood just a little further down the road. I love their yard! They pretty much took all of the grass out of the yard and planted flowers and veggies (annuals and perennials) - amazing! So a few days ago we be-bopped over and presented a basket of eggs to Julie. She was surprised and so thankful that we would offer up the eggs for FREE. It was fun connecting with her and chatting for a few minutes. Before we went back home she mentioned how she had a friend who raised chickens and she used to get eggs from her and helped her process some chickens for meat. 

What the WHAT?!

That perked me up and little more about when we get raise the birds she could come and help with the harvest. That would also mean she take home a chicken or two. Man...we need to get out more!

This is just a step in the connection direction and things are going well right now. It amazes me how things work out when you say it out loud to a group of good friends who believe in encouraging each other and their dreams. So thankful for them!

Farm Fresh Eggs!!!

Now, I know that the egg production will go down during the winter months, but I'm not sure how much. That is the big question right now. I'm hopeful that the Aussies will continue to lay here and there when the days are shorter and cooler...there will be a report here when we are in the middle of our Pacific Northwest winter.

The other way I'm going to try connecting will be by growing veggies in low tunnels and the hoop house. I've already got the plants started, just need to get them into the beds and covered up before the month is over!

Oh man, connecting on the food level is AWESOME!

Success!

As far the garden goes...not so much. The garden this year has been very disappointing and when even the flower seeds won't germinate you know that something is not right. I have always had good luck with flowers in the garden - cosmos, zinnias, bachelor buttons, SUNFLOWERS....yeah, almost nothing came up!

This is a snapshot of what I planted

2 rows of  Cosmos...I got 4 or 5 sickly looking plants and even they never turned into anything.
1 row of sunflowers - NOTHING
1 row of Bachelor Buttons - NOTHING
1 row of Asters - okay, this was not surprising...got NOTHING.
1/2 a row of Borage - one plant.

I had all sorts of flower seedlings in the trays that I had hoped would be for a plant sale - it never happened mostly because the timing and the weather did not match up...so once I could get around to peddling them they were wilted and beyond saving. Although, I did get some of the marigold plants into the garden and they are happy.

Other items in the garden fare much better with the beans being eaten by something and a couple of my tomato varieties not doing much. Of the two that the plants are doing well, my San Marzano tomatoes are suffering from Blossom End Rot and so I have been picking a lot of those and tossing them aside.

So my enthusiasm for the garden has been very minimal.

Things changed last week and all of a sudden I'm excited about our little hobby farm...

The white egg is the store bought egg - needed to show some scale.

Thought there was only one, but there was another - and a third one that was broken.

This really lifted my spirits about what we are doing. I thought for sure that it would be at least another month before we saw anything egg-like from the little ladies.

Last weekend I was out taking care of the evening chicken chores and one of the little girls was making "that" noise...I KNEW when I heard it that she had something brewing. Since I didn't know for sure I didn't think much of it. THEN I think it was a couple of mornings ago and I was looking in on the chickens/duck/goose before heading to work and I witnessed one of the cockerels "violating" one of the girls...and there was NO PROTEST!

Okaaaay...

This is leading to something! Then the eggs happened. So we are doing something kinda right - hahahaha. So, layer feed is going out and we are now on the lookout for eggies hiding here, there and everywhere.

We know that the eggs are coming from the little girls...they are afterall not a big breed to chicken so it was about time. They are 19 weeks this week so yeah - they are on  schedule. The Jersey's will have to take notes until it's their time to lay, which I suspect will be a little while longer.

This is making me want to get more chickies next spring - DUDE fresh eggs!

Good Girls!

Dual Purpose?

So, these dudes & gals are part of a big plan. If you just wandering into this space these chicks are Jersey Giants. Yes, I called them chicks because they are only 13 and 14 weeks old. What we have are pullets and cockerels. Four cockerels to be exact - we are observing the boys in the the group and making mental notes for now. Once they are old enough, and filled out enough more, 3 of the cockerels are going to be "processed." There is no good reason to have more than one rooster. If there is I probably will still keep the "best" one. Besides I only thought of one rooster name - Thor. One of these dudes may be Thor, it's hard to tell at this point.

Anyway, back to the original thought...

Chickens can have more than one purpose with the most obvious purpose being egg layers. However, who knew that chickens could be for different purposes? I certainly didn't...chickens can be:

• egg layers
• grown for meat
• good at being broody 
• ornamental (?)
• for show (?)

Our little ladies and little roos are first going to be egg producers. Well, not the cockerels and especially the 3 that are destined for the freezer. And there is the second purpose...when the ladies are no longer laying as often we'll have to rotate a new bunch of layers to replace the ones that will turn into stewing chickens. So yeah...FOOD.

While those are the two main reasons why we have chickens there is another reason to add to the list of things that they can do - prepare a garden!

Oh yeah baby! Living rototillers!! If you have ever seen Justin Rhodes - Abundant Permaculture. He is the "Apron Wearing Permaculture Chicken Ninja Master" and swears by having the chickens do the work. We are just now starting to let the chickens into the areas that we mean to use for growing veggies. They have been happily scratching up a storm in the area that they are now occupying. The weeds have been picked at and they are kicking around all sorts of stuff! Just this past Sunday the little ladies and the dudes figured out that the garden box filled with old clover from last fall is a fun spot to root around. We'll keep them in here for a time, let them do the initial clean up and then we'll get the bed ready for the fall garden. I know that the ground will still be hard, but with all the poo that they are leaving behind the prospect of the soil being more fertile is what I'm looking for.

OH, one more to add to the list - garbage disposal. Until the chickies arrived we used to dump all of the kitchen scraps into the compost bin. However, when the chickies started staying outside full time I started to dump buckets of compost from the pile into their paddock to get them used to what to expect. So why not feed most of the kitchen scraps (including meat scraps) to the chickens? They eat most things and the things they don't like will continue to be scratched while they are out foraging which help the composting speed along. We have been able to give the chickens more of the old veggies (i.e. forgotten items). Which will help cut down on the amount of

The chickens are more than food providers (eggs & meat)...I never knew how valuable they really are! Here's to many more years of chickens on our farmstead!