Hidden Treasures

Can you see the two little guys peeking out?

The first day of October brought along the discovery of some new little chicks peeking out from under a hen this morning.  Now comes the challenge of moving them all into the barn and off the top of the haystack where she decided to brood them.  I'll wait until Saturday morning though, to give them all time to hatch.  She has anywhere from 8-12 eggs under her.  I didn't count them for fear of losing a finger or two - she was so vicious while sitting on them.  Good mama.

Happy October to All ~ A

Relaxing Weekend

I made some progress this weekend, even though the weather is still not quite cooperating.  I sorted eggs and loaded the incubator with 41 of them, due to hatch March 23 (give or take a day).  And because I had so many eggs laying around (no pun there) I decided to make a lovely frittata sort of thing for my breakfast.  And that turned out to be a very good decision.

 

 

Then, I had to butcher a young rooster, who was approaching his 6 month birthday.

I also made some soup for my work lunches for the week.  How productive is that? 

I hope you all have a lovely week, ~A

Poultry Plans

Okay so I was dreaming about hot chicks the other day.  For those of you with dirty minds, I was thinking about the kind with feathers - as in poultry. I do hope I didn't crush anyone's fantasies...

Anyhoo, I decided its time to start the flock planning for the new year.  Last weekend I did a head count and came in at 29 hens, 4 roosters, 1 Blue Slate Tom Turkey, 1 Bourbon Red Tom Turkey, and 1 Bourbon Red Turkey Hen.  And last, not least...one lonely female Pekin Duck.  Hey, she lays an egg nearly every day, so she gets to stay. Most of the others will be headed toward the freezer over the next several months.  Hence, the "plan" to add to the flock.

It looks something like this...

Two scheduled hatch dates - March 1st and April 5th.  All eggs are going into the incubator because my hens suck at doing the job themselves (I won't go into details unless someone asks). I currently own and use the Farm Innovators Model 4200 Pro Series Incubator and have excellent results with it.  It's great for hatching forty or less chicks. So that is the way I do it.  Oh, and I schedule the hatch dates on the weekends because I like to be home to watch. I can't help myself.  I'm like a kid at Christmas! Now for the goal...

Hatch #1 (March)                 Hatch #2 (April)
25-30 chicks                         25-30 chicks
1-10 turkeys                         1-10 turkeys

Why so many??? Some for the fox, some for the hawk, a few for the weasel.... and the rest for me!

Poultry Restraining Cones (and cute baby chicks!)

Last Saturday and Sunday 17 little chicks hatched out and are now in the brooder peeping away.  Two died trying to hatch out, and two of the eggs never hatched (I gave them until late Monday).







That's about an 81% success rate - if my math is correct?  The chicks all seem very alert and healthy. I may give some to a friend, I might try to sell some on Craigslist, or I might just keep them all for myself.  We'll see.

The thought of keeping them all for myself led to the thought of butchering, which led to the thought of "Hey Farm girl, you really need to get one of those poultry restraining cone thingies so you can get the job done a little easier."  Did I just say "thingies?"  So then came a web search to find out how much those cones cost in the first place. Here's what I discovered:

www.coopsnmore.com  $23.99

www.cornerstone-farm.com  $25.00

www.mcmurrayhatchery.com  $26.00

www.countryhorizons.com  $33.99

www.meyerhatchery.com  $42.84

These prices were all for a standard, medium size poultry restraining cone. I also came across a site that offered a Do-it-Yourself solution to make your own at www.survivalfarm.wordpress.com but it called for a used, road construction cone, and I don't recall seeing too many of those lying around for the taking. But if you can find one, by all means recycle! I also thought about what I had at home that might work just as well. The only thing I could think of was to cut the corner from a 50 lb feed back and use that to restrain the chicken.  It would look similar to when you cut the tip off a pasty bag.  I think it might actually work.  If I get time I'm going to give it a try this weekend. So the lesson learned here is that it certainly pays to do a little research and shop around, doesn't it? But you knew already knew that. 

 

Farm Updates, and Good-bye February!

Its been kind of a typical week on the farm.  

I wormed the goat.  This is the first time she's ever been wormed. This month she turned one year old, so I thought it was time. The wormer came in a small bucket in pelleted form, which to my surprise she promptly devoured.  No problem there. And it's not like her to ever turn down a meal.

I walked the property and checked the fence lines.  Everything was secure. I thought about casting a line into the pond and trying for a fish or two.  But it was too cold out. Then I headed back up to the house and inspected the garden.  The garlic that I planted this past October has already sprouted, and so has the wild garlic on the southwest side of the house. 

I cleaned horse stalls, then visited a huge antique store on Saturday. I'd hoped to find an antique chicken egg basket.  I didn't find one, and so I didn't buy anything.

I stopped at an Amish lumber mill and checked pricing on bundles of slab wood.  I want to heat the house with firewood next season.  It's hard to start thinking about winter, when it still is winter, but now is the time to begin putting up wood so that it will be seasoned and ready to burn in December. The bundled slabs cost $15 each.  A great deal.  However, you have to hire a special truck to deliver them.  I still need to find out what the driver will charge.  Then, somehow, they have to be unloaded. The bundles are long, about seven to nine feet long.

I got a chance to look through some recent seed catalogs that came in the mail, and imagined what trees and vegetables I would like to plant this year.

I've taken the horses off the main pasture for the next three months to give it a break and a chance to grow some nice spring grass.  They'll only have access to a smaller, round paddock for the time being. Tomorrow one of the thoroughbreds will be shipped to Kentucky for spring training. 

And last, the 21 eggs I put into the incubator February 10th are due to hatch this Sunday.  This morning I moved them from the tray that automatically turns them throughout the day, to the floor of the incubator where they will lie flat until they hatch. 

They won't be turned anymore now, and this allows the chick time to position itself to hatch.  I covered the wire mesh floor of the incubator with cheese cloth.  I discovered that is makes clean-up a lot easier after the hatching is done.

Two of the eggs felt strange, and lighter than the others. So just for curiosity, I penciled an "X" on them so I would know if they did'nt hatch for some reason. Heck, they may be the only ones to hatch, you never know.  But wait! Stay tuned. Because we will know sometime around Sunday.

Let's Make Chickens!

Spring is on its way. Spring makes me think of Easter, and Easter makes me think of eggs.  And, well, eggs make me think it's time to hatch chickens.  Honestly, I admit, I'm really only thinking of hatching chicks because number one, I get a really big kick out of it! And number two, our flock is getting low.  Many chickens were invited to dinner over the winter months, and it's time to start succession planning.   In fact, I took inventory over the weekend and the count stands at five roosters and twenty-two hens (and two Pekin ducks).  Too many roosters for sure, but I haven't yet decided who's on the guest list for dinner.

So I pulled out my incubator, sanitized it, and loaded with twenty-one fresh eggs.

All of these eggs should be fertile. Four of my roosters are mating age.  They consist of a Turken (or "Naked Neck" if you prefer), a Black Copper Marans, and two others, which are a Black Copper Marans and Buff Brahma Bantam cross. The fifth little guy is also a Turken, but too young to mate.

The hatchlings from this new batch will be from any of the above fathers; and either a Turken, Buff Brahma Bantam, or Black Australorp mother. What a neat mix! I love suprises. And if we count twenty-one days from the date of incubation (February 10th), this should put us at a hatch date of about March 3rd.

A few tips I have read to ensure a successful hatch...

• Ideal pre-incubation storage temperature of 55 degrees and 75% relative humidity (I failed here, I like to keep my house a bit warmer than that.)
• Eggs should be turned daily and placed in the incubator within 4-7 days (did that)
• Store eggs with the pointed end down (yep - got it)
• A two week storage reduces the hatchability rate to 50% (these were only stored for 3 days)
• At three weeks, the chance of hatchability is nearly at zero (no chance any egg would last that long in my house)
• Run your incubator for 24 hours prior to placing the eggs in it to assure correct temperature is maintained. (did that)
• Warm your eggs at room temperature before placing them in the incubator to avoid condensation on the egg shell, which could lead to bacteria and disease (no problem there)
• Use only clean eggs. Do not wash and use eggs that were dirty. If you remove the bloom (the invisible barrier on the outside of the shell) you increase the chance of the egg not hatching, or hatching out a sick or deformed chick. (no dirty eggs here!)



I wonder how many will hatch?