Baby Jersey Giants

Here's the Daily Report on the chicks! The babies have been with us almost 48 hours and as of this morning they were very happy and very active. They seem to be thriving!

Their little feeder was getting full of bedding and I was getting tired of trying to get the shavings out of it. So I found a piece of plywood that just happened to be the perfect size to use as a platform for their trough. We'll see how it works out. It took a couple of minutes before they realized that their feeder was on the plywood or maybe they weren't hungry yet. All it took was one. One went over to check it out then all of a sudden the rest were over there checking it out too.

After a little bit of frolicking around their brooder they did this...

I'm kinda hoping that the one with the yellow beak is a rooster - I REALLY would like a rooster. Mostly because I am interested in doing the chick thing with one breed. Why not with these Giants?!

Jersey Giant Fact Of The Day

According to the National Jersey Giant Club:

Giants are the largest purebred chicken. The weight of mature roosters is 11 to 15 pounds and they are usally 22 to 26 inches tall. Mature hens 9 to 11 pounds and usually 16 to 20 inches tall.

We DID It!

Black Jersey Giant Babies

After visiting Thrifty Feed & Garden during my lunch break yesterday I thought it would be best to contact Pioneer Feed Co. in Ridgefield, just 5 miles from our house. I had hoped that they would get back to me with the information I was looking for, but they did not. I ended up doing a little research of the chicks that they had received and made an informed decision once I saw what was available.

It only took me a few minutes to change out of my work clothes and we were off!  There were 4 different breeds available and a big ol' tub of turkeys. In addition to the Black Jersey Giant chicks there were Welsummers, Black SexLinks and some meat birds and Bronze and White Turkeys. According to the schedule on the website the BJG chicks arrived on the 14th, however she said that they were a week old and pretty hardy, so I'm wondering if the schedule on the website is a little off. It really doesn't matter because the point of the trip was to find way young chicks and not 3 or 4 week old chicks - ones that have almost no chickie fuzz anymore.

So after a brief answer and question time (Tom had questions) I wanted to know how old they were and that was about it. We (I) decided that we should get 10 chicks (as opposed to Tom's 6 or 8) I figure that if we are going to go all in with the chickens let's be serious and get a double digit amount. OMG - they are SO cute!!

We arrived home and got them all set up in their super spacious deluxe accommodations and spent some time watching them and making sure that they "found" their water and feeder. Once one finds one, most of the others will figure it out. Well, except for the ones that are already starting to scratch like an adult and move their bedding around. Dinner happened and then I did my hoop house chores before watching the babies a little more. So fun!

I got over them a little quicker than Tom did and went in to get into my evening routine while he stayed out to observe them a little longer.

I'm so glad that he is excited about these little ladies (hoping for a rooster). He watched as they were sunning themselves under the lamp and how one would tunnel underneath the huddle and pop up in the middle of the bunch. Then just their little antics be-bopping around the brooder. He even went out to check on them when he got up this morning. I have to be honest here, I woke up and thought about them and hoped that they were doing alright, but then I went right back to sleep!

These little ones will definitely change the morning and evening routine for us, but in the end when they finally start to lay eggs it will totally be worth it!

This is what I have learned about this breed:

• They are slow to mature, so they could start laying eggs as early as 6 months, but could take longer.
• They are a dual purpose bird. Once their egg production slows down we'll process them. 
• They were originally devleoped to replace the turkey as a table bird.
• Roosters can reach an impressive weight of 15 pounds.
• Hens can get up to 10 pounds.
• Jersey Giants can lay during the winter season.
• They are docile

Overall, this was a good choice...and really the only choice since we wanted young chicks. There are some 2 month old pullets available from a family not far, so we plan to get a few of those to make sure that we achieve our goal of having egg layers this year!

But first...

This needs to be completed. Soon...it will be soon. Maybe even by the end of the month, if the wheels arrive in timely fashion. Come on Northern Tool!!

WOO HOO!!!!

photo credit Premier 1 Supplies

Oh yeah...we actually ordered this kit...AND it has shipped! Or is close to shipping. We'll have this in 3-5 business days - WOO HOO!!

We'll almost be ready to do this chicken thing...however the chicken condo is still in need of wheels which are also on order - WOO HOO!!

Oh...yeah, chickens we'll need some of those too. The brooder is ready to rock and roll so this week we'll get the babies - WOO HOO!!

and Pullets - WOO HOO!!

This hobby farm thing is happening - WOO HOO!!

Friday - Update!

It's been a pretty quiet week. Not a lot happening anywhere really.

This week has been somewhat of a whirlwind type of week. Work has been a little on the crazy side - it's Washington's Spring Break so people (with and without kids) have been off this week. At least I'm consistent this week. In at 8 and leave for the day at 5.

The week has also been a little depressing as far as the weather goes. All I want is some warmth or at least no rain, sprinkles, showers...you know precipitation. For instance today started out very windy...so windy that the parking lot is all  messed up!

What makes this really awesome...the trees are not on Fire District property. These trees are behind the dentist office next door. They should come clean this up!

Anyway...Once upon a time we had a big tree right behind our house -

However now we have a pretty somethin' somethin' to look at - 

April 1, 2017

So, what has been going on around here? Not a lot really. Things slowed down quite a bit this past week. There have been other things going on and the evenings don't always allow enough time to do a decent project. Once the days are longer and the weather improves (i.e. not nearly as cloudy) we'll be out doing more stuff. Stuff like cleaning up the garden boxes and the "free-range" garden as well as the bigger garden space. 

However, I did take another peek at my Flower Sprouts...which I am pretty sure a no longer flower sprouts. They were next to the Purple Broccoli (which is also doing nicely) and I suspect they made friends early on and I've got a Kale-Broccoli-Sprout going on. 

You can see the broccoli part in the center of the sprout itself. I'm not necessarily disappointed by this - everything right now is just an experiment. I did pluck one off and had a taste and boy it had good flavor! Definitely from the Brassicaceae family. I may go ahead and let some of these sprouts go to seed and save them for later this year and see if I can get this to happen again. (Update: Took a look at the plants when I got home and what used to be cute short little sprouts are now long "limbs") 

With all of the stuff I have going on in the hoop house, I needed some more storage in the form of shelves. I had the idea to re-purpose a shelf thing that Tom built when we lived in the last house to place trays on.

Originally this did not have access from the front - it just took a little bit to modify so that we could get the trays in and out.

This helped with making more room, on the bench, but I felt that there could be more shelves. So Tom got some of the shelves that were left over from the Dressing Room project and mounted those over the bench.

During the process of installing the shelves

Two more shelves!

All of the trays have been re-arranged (a couple of times) and my shoe rack is set up again at the far end of the hoop house. So there should be plenty of room for Mary when she comes to play too.

There hasn't been much progress on the Chicken Condo. We did manage to get the sides done and then get the whole thing OFF of the saw-horses. Maybe the roof will happen next we'll see. There won't be much of a hurry though... 

Mostly because we are going to start with chicks! The feed store that I used to visit with my family when we had chickens has a schedule of when they will be getting certain breeds of chicky babies in. We have a couple of weeks before the Mottled Java's and Rhode Island White's are available. So, we have a couple of weeks to get a brooder set up and all that goes with it. 

Mottled Java

Rhode Island White

(both photos  from Google Images)

Originally I was thinking of getting Rhode Island Reds - the better known Rhode Island chicken breed. After a little bit of research on the Livestock Conservancy website the Rhode Island White is not a prevalent as their red feathered counterpart - so I think I might try to breed some of these on our little hobby farm. That would be neat! However, this will not be in the same scope of my mom's chicken "collecting" tendencies.

Both of these breeds are considered Dual Breed. When their egg laying starts to slow down we'll be able to process them and put them on the dinner table! It will be a few years down the road (I think). We'll have plenty of practice when we do the meat chickens, but that's a different post altogether.

I love that we are going to go to the feed store that I remember from way back when! The store itself has changed and they offer more than just farmy types stuff now, but it's still a cool place! Go HERE to check them out.

That's pretty much what is happening around our little hobby farm. 

This dude had his bum tooth checked out - he is experiencing a tooth being reabsorbed into his gums...it's been a rough few weeks, could be a few months. He seems to be holding up okay - with his little bed in front of the heater though. 

He's not spoiled...just well taken care of!

It's the weekend again!!