Chicks, Salsa, Pickles, Soap... Repeat

With autumn in the air, house repair and maintenance, routine and otherwise, are in full swing- in large part to the credit of Daddy Dale's weekly assistance. Sean's parents routinely visit Maine each year. Over the past 4 years that I have gotten to know them better, I completely realize how blessed I am to have the BEST in-laws. I love spending time with them; attempting to win at Spades and utterly losing playing Dominoes, spending time at the local dog park, visiting with a glass of wine on the porch, the list is endless, but this blog is about our farm and it would be remiss of us not to mention all the time they have generously spent helping us around here this summer. Thank you. ♥

One of this summer's goals is to have the barn completely sheathed before the end of October when the weather will start to really turn. So far, the three 10x10 stalls for our goats and horse have been framed, the interior walls sheathed, and almost completely roofed. The front three 10x10 stalls earmarked for our milk room, birthing/isolation stalls, and tack room have been framed. The milk room has been almost completely sheathed outside. The current hold up is that one corner of our would be barn rests in an 8 inch decline. We are at a standstill for sheathing until a foundation for that corner can be poured. It is not a huge job in terms of time or effort. In terms of money, it is more than we have to spend today. We are on our way and there will soon be a post titled Barn Building: part 3. Until then, you can see from these pictures, our progress from last week. We sheathed the exterior of the milk room, framed out the door way and installed the window where it is going to permanently live. Now, to mow the grass inside the building.

Another project which was tackled last weekend, was the taming of our front yard. I think I have posted about the yard in front of our house that is determined to be 3-6 inches of water most of the year instead of a nice lawn area. It can't be mowed down because of how wet and unnavigable it is, so we have allowed it to pretend to be a pond until a true farm pond could be dug in that spot. And, I have resigned myself to occasionally sigh or glare at it when I drive into the yard each day. This summer has given us a bit of a break because of its relatively dry state.

With the help of Sean and Daddy Dale- since I was disinclined to attempt it myself due to its infestation with garden spiders- the spot has been mowed flat. It still needs a good raking and another go over with our new rider, but there is a glimmer of hope that a pond will be dug this year. I can already envision happy ducks and geese playing in it!

Three more chicks hatched from the four eggs in the nesting box outside. Two of them came on Thursday morning. One of these was a full blooded Americauna and the other we are hopeful will be an "Easter egger" cross. (We know the father is Americauna, but the mother is either a Buff Orpington or Rhode Island Red. We won't know if it carries the "blue egg" gene until it begins to lay its eggs in 5 months. We hope it does!) They have already moved into the brooder in the house and are keeping our other 2 chicks fine company. We had another egg hatch on Friday while we were at work. We found the chick when we got home from work, but sadly, it had not survived. There is one egg left in the nest box, which will be candled this morning to check for signs of life. If it hatches and lives, our hatch rate for the broodies is 85%. If not, our hatch rate was 80%.

I finally finished carving all the soap into bar shape and created pretty packaging for them (I like them, anyway. You'll have to tell me if you agree). And, I made another 2 quarts and another pint of home made liquid goat's milk hand soap from the left over shavings. I purchased some white boxes to help protect the bar version of my soap during shipping. For those of you who have requested samples, they were put into the mail this morning. I would really appreciate it if, when you get your sample, you would comment to let me know that it arrived. Also, you may have noticed a survey on the bar to the left of our page. Please, take a minute to leave me some feedback about the sample you received. I am really excited to hear your thoughts! Thanks!! ♥

Last night, Sean and I harvested more tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. With the weather beginning to change, our tomatoes are all ripening up and looking delicious. We grabbed a basket full of goodness while we checked on all the pens before settling in for the night. After a family dinner at home (of fried chicken, fresh corn on the cob, loaded smashed potatoes, and crescent rolls with Kristen, Meaghan, and their Dad, Chris) and seeing the girls off for their weekly sleep-over, Sean and I worked together to can 3 more jars of garlic dill pickles, and 9 pints of salsa. I love working together on these projects. So far this year, we have canned 19 pints of salsa, 12 jars of dilly beans, and 4 quarts and 4 pints of garlic dill pickles. It is not a lot, but it is a great start, I think!

 

Look at this guy! We found two of these on the cherry tomato plants in our back yard. They are HUGE, about 4-5 inches long and as thick as one of my fingers! They had eaten nearly all the leaves off the plant before we found them. Sean removed them after snapping this picture and rehomed them to the field where they would do no harm.

 

Curious to what they could be, we looked on line and think they might be Luna Moth caterpillars based on ---> this picture we found online. Looks similar to me.

What do you think?

We are glad you visited today. Come again, soon!
Sean and Sonja


Thanks to Tammy from Our Neck of the Woods for identifying this pest as a Tomato Hornworm. Are we glad to have taken them off the tomato plants! These beasties are capable of destroying our harvest. You can read about them on her blog linked above.

 

 

Ready or Not... More Chicks

 

I found the Americauna chick (larger one to the front right) this morning before I left for work. When I got home, he/she had a brother/sister. I think the new chick is a Rhode Island Red.

 

 

Taking pictures of chickens is a lot of trial and error- mostly error. They do not sit still for long, always busy with something and easily distracted from the task at hand. I took about 30 shots on my digital camera to get 3-4 that were usable. I loved this picture. It looks like they are talking with each other.

2 more chicks hatched- 4 more possibilities waiting in the nest. :) With these successfully hatching, that brings the ratio for this clutch to 14 hatched /20 eggs or 70% success rate. I like those odds. I will like them even more if the other 4 eggs cooperate and hatch chicks this week.

Now, it is time to get off my duff to start the morning chores. I wonder if I will have any surprises waiting for me. . .

Have a great day!
Sonja ♥

P.S. No new chicks hatched, but the ones from the coop came inside to their new home.

Vastly underwhelmed with their digs, they began searching the paper at once for better living quarters.

 

"It's upside down!"



 "This one looks nice. What do you think? Shall we go to see it?"

"Hmmm... Fireplace... good, good. Will our couch fit here?"

 "I love the bay window and all the light in this Kitchen... and parquet floors!"

Sonja ♥

 

A Trip to the Vet

At the beginning of this week, we noticed that Edith had been eating very little of her food.  We were concerned that perhaps her ever-growing teeth were causing problems. Sean trimmed them for her, but that did not seem to help. Her food bowl remained suspiciously full. Over the next few days, her water intake diminished to next to nothing. A check in her pen showed very few waste pellets in the litter tray. She began acting strangely, leaning on the corners of her pen and being very listless. We became very alarmed when she started to grind her teeth loudly, which is a sign that a bunny is in real pain. Sean checked her belly and thought he felt a mass there. A visit to the vets was needed- immediately.

We called Dr. Layhe and rearranged our schedule so Sean could drop Edith off for examination and doctoring before going to work himself today. I had scheduled 3 interviews for potential new crew members and an orientation class for today, so I could not rearrange my morning. I am very grateful that Sean was capable of taking charge of this dilemma for us. He called me later to relieve my worried mind with Edith's update. She has an impacted cecal. We thought the blockage might have been in her bowels, but it was higher up in her digestive tract. Dr. Layhe administered an enema to relieve the blockage and using a syringe fed her some pineapple juice for both it's benefits towards hydration and it's diuretic properties and some kale. The course of action is to offer fibrous greens and pineapple for food, a warm heating pad for her to rest on, gentle tummy rubs, and exercise to help get things moving. Edith has not responded to the intervention as of yet. Though this is very serious condition and can be fatal, it is also a very common problem with bunnies. We are hopeful for a full recovery. Since, Sean went in late to work, I complimented his effort at juggling all things, by getting out of work in time to help retrieve our bunny and take over "nurse" duty for the evening. I love this team that I am part of- it just works. ♥

When I checked the main coop today, all 6 eggs were in the nest box, but no additional chick hatchings. Broody Wyandotte was off the nest picking at food in the yard. I will have to keep an eye out for this. If she has decided to be done with her sitting duties, then back to the incubator the eggs shall go. ♥

I checked the bag of tomatoes and though they are beginning to show signs of wanting to ripen, none of them have obliged us with doing so- yet. I really hope they will cooperate before Sunday, so we can get some salsa canned over the weekend. ♥

In anticipation of our work day tomorrow, I had some plywood sheathing, OSB, and 2x4's delivered. The roof of the stable section of the barn will be completed and the walls to the milk room will also get sheathed tomorrow morning. When those projects are done, it is our intention to finish setting the tile for the walls behind where the wood stove will live. If we can set the tile tomorrow, we might be able to get the grout applied this weekend, too. I am really excited about that prospect, despite the temperature still reading a steady 80 degrees each day. Winter will be here for it's yearly visit in just a few months, after all. Tomorrow's post will have picture updates of the barn and kitchen.

Remember the most romantic gift I posted about HERE ? Well, I finally got the time to take some pictures of my beauty. I am in LOVE with my new toy. ♥  This was the absolute best anniversary gift I could have been given. Every day when I drive into the yard, I stare hard at our yard, just willing the grass to hurry and grow- so I can mow it again! Color this country wife, happy!

Thanks for visiting!

The Twombly Family ♥

Pickles, Soap, and Chicks

Problem: Our garden is producing enough veggies to eat for meals, but not enough to can in vast quantities all in one day.

Solution: We preserve just a few mason jars at a time.

Exhibit A:

I pulled 5 cucumbers from the garden yesterday. Not nearly enough for traditional canning methods. I created my own recipe last year and our family LOVES it. Besides tasting delicious, it is sooo easy to make and there is very little cooking involved and no canning necessary, either.

I heat 3 3/4 cups each of vinegar and water and dissolve 3/8 cups of canning salt into it and remove it from the heat. I like crunchy pickles, so I don't want the cucumbers to cook in the brine. Meanwhile, I slice my cucumbers into 1/4 inch slices. I add these, 2 heads of dill, 2 cloves of garlic (sliced in chunks), and 1/4 tsp Cayenne (to taste, really) to a mason jar. I pour the luke-warm vinegar mixture to cover the contents, leaving about 1/2 inch head room in the jar and cover with a lid. Most of the time, I find that these lids seal without any further processing. Even when they don't, the pickles are preserved in vinegar and salt, I feel that mine are safe to eat. (If you prefer to process them in a canner, you should.) The pickles are ready to eat in 2 days, but get better the longer they sit. What I love the most about these is that they start out tasting like garlic dill pickles and finish with a little spicy kick. The pickles stay nicely crisp. It is so simple, I can easily preserve just a few jars at a time as our cucumbers are ready to be picked. ♥

 

Sometime in the next few days, we will tackle our first batch of canning ♪ Salsa ♪ of the season. I am excited about this prospect. It feels like I have been waiting all summer for this... because. I. have. Spicy, delicious, home made salsa. Oooooh yeah. Sean and I spent a little time last night to pick the tomatoes and peppers we are going to use. We decided to pick some of the tomatoes even though they were still green on the vine because it seems lately that if we wait for them to fully ripen, the various bugs spoil them or they split open. I placed our pickings into a brown paper bag and stored them in a cool, dry, dark place to ripen over the next few days. When the tomatoes ripen, the salsa making will commence!

 

The soap came out really well. I love that it leaves my hands feeling soft for a long time after I have used it. I am definitely going to purchase two more soap molds because I think I prefer the clean, shiny, finished look of the ones that were molded in them. I like the homey look of the bars I cut and shaved into the traditional shape and size of soap, but I am not sure there is a market for these. The four bars in the top left corner are what the raw cut soaps look like. The lower two on the left are bars that I carved and smoothed out with a knife. I wrapped one in handmade paper and sealed it with a sticker. "E" to mark those with the eucalyptus scent. The four bars on the right were made with the soap mold. These are cucumber melon scented and look much more "finished". I would love your feedback on these.

Specifically:

 

1- Do you prefer the unfinished or finished bars?

2- Are the simple paper wrapping attractive?

3- How much would you expect to pay for a bar of hand made, goat's milk soap like the ones pictured?

 

I would love to get your opinion on the finished product. The soap needs to cure for 4 weeks so that when it is used, it doesn't melt away. The soap I will sell, will be aged for the full time recommended. But, I have 10 sample sized cubes of the eucalyptus soap, which I would love to send out for some of you to try out. If you are interested in receiving one, please request one via a comment on this post. I will honor the first 10 sample requests received. The samples will be provided free of charge and mailed to you, but I do respectfully ask that after you try the sample, you will share your honest opinion on the product. I will create a post on the blog specifically for you to leave your comments and improvement suggestions. ♥

 

Broody Wyandotte is proving to be as good a mother as Broody Barred Rock hen and better than the incubator! We now have 12 fluffy, peeping chicks living in the brooder inside the living room. I think I wrote you about checking the eggs inside the incubator already; how they are alive and developing, but seem to be younger than the ones from the nests outside. After 2 more chicks were hatched today, Sean and I candled the remaining 3 eggs in the outside nest. They are also alive and look suspiciously similar to those in the incubator. That being the case, Sean and I returned all 6 developing eggs to under Broody Wyandotte with the hopes that she will hatch the remaining chicks safely and naturally. The hens have a 12/20 hatch rate or 60% hatch rate as things stand now. If the other 6 hatch, that would increase the hatch rate to 90%- really Excellent, by any standards. ♥

How Cute Are THESE ????

 

I'm glad you stopped by for a visit.

Sonja ♥

 

 

Mazel Tov!

Instead of 8 little fluffy chicks, we now have 9 of them. In the nature versus nurture debate, I think nature wins.

Broody Wyandotte was not interested in my checking on her nest this morning and puffed up to scare me away. But, Sean had already told me that their was another chick in the box and I wanted to see it for myself.

I am glad I perservered and intruded for a moment to capture this picture. It immediately reminded me of the passage in the Bible recorded at Luke 13:34- "Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often I wanted to gather your children together in the manner that a hen gathers her brood of chicks under her wings..." Look at how Broody Wyandotte moved to protect her chick from my disturbance.

We were up and at it early this morning, so Sean could take my car to work, since his needs to go to the car doctor today. I wanted to get to the store before Sean left for the morning to pick up the borax and lye needed for soap making. Sean wanted me to be happy, so he obliged me in this matter. Before we headed out, Sean checked the nest box and discovered another newly hatched chick. This one, less than 12 hours old- was still very tired and covered in little specks of eggy membrane. He brought the chick inside both to present me with his treasure and because it was only mid 40 degrees outside here this morning. I love this picture. It never stops amazing me how such strong, working hands can be so gentle when they hold mine or how safe and protected I feel in Sean's very capable hands.

We thought the warm brooder would be more toasty for the new chick. And, it was, but the chick was soooo newly hatched and tired that all it wanted was to curl up and sleep somewhere. Hard to do with 8 curious siblings determined to say "welcome" via pecking and walking on you. So, the stay inside was short lived; we returned the new chick to underneath Momma's warm and sheltering embrace.

Can you spot the new chick?

When I checked the chick later in the morning, it had fluffed up and was doing grand. I'll retrieve it before it gets too active to avoid the chance of a mishap.

Current Tally for this Hatch:

We have 9/20 eggs hatched. That is almost a 50% success and we have 8 more still cookin' away inside their eggs.

Now, to post this update and get on with my first attempt at the making of some soap! I have all the ingredients ready. Be sure to check back to see how that goes!

Thanks for visiting this morning. Have a great day, friends. ♥

Sonja



One at a Time?

Count the number of chicks:

Sean went outside before me today for the morning chores, but he quickly came back inside with a delightful present for me. A NEW Chick! Day two of waking to the happy surprise of another chick born from nest #2. I give up; just when I start to think I might have some clue about what I am doing- I get thrown a curve ball. A happy, fluffy, peeping curve ball, but still...

Broody Wyandotte and Broody Barred Rock are taking turns sitting on this nest and apparently, this is working out for them. I do not understand why the chicks are hatching one at a time, but they are. On the bright side- at least, they are hatching. Maybe we are just going to get one each day until the eggs are all hatched? Maybe the hens in question are practicing Judaism and they are like Hanukkah Chicks- one gift each day for a week!?!?! Has this happened in any of your hatchings? I would be very curious to know.

Critter Update: we are still on the search to buy a registered Oberhausli doe and a registered Lamancha buck. Our girls are all in season and should be for a few months still. We still want to breed Leah, Rachel and Pepper this year in anticipation for lots of milk come Spring. The piggies are as ornamental as ever and grunt at me regularly. Jasmine is looking well- though Meg is definitely going to need to see to her stall today. I discovered Brighid hiding in the wood shed amongst the wood while I was out mowing the lawn this morning. The cats are not pleased with Daddy Dale locking their door while he painted the area, but once it dries and I let them in, I suspect they won't hold a grudge for long.

The house has been getting some maintenance and work done on it. Daddy Dale was here today and painted the trim he replaced for us earlier this week, which looks wonderful and is much appreciated. And, Sean started tiling the cement board where the new wood stove is going to live in preparation for a homey Maine winter this year. I am almost looking forward to the frigid temperatures, just to try it out. And, I love how wonderful the house smells by keeping a iron pot of yummy smelling oils simmering on the wood stove. Our next step is to set the tile on the walls and then, all the tiles will be set with grout. I love the hue of the tiles and how it compliments the color of the kitchen walls. We will have to replace some floor trim, too, but that is an easy fix.

I planned on making some soap today and may before the day is out, but I still have to pick up borax and lye at the store to be able to do that, so that project might be on hold until tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by!

Sonja ♥

Another Blessing!

I was up a goodly part of the night, feeling wretched and wondering what on earth I could have eaten to cause such stomach distress. In response, I am working from home today. I have to work on creating the "Thank You" notes for the tournament recently held, check for new applicants to schedule for interviews, and get started on planning Riverfest parade and fair activities. Plenty to be done- even moving slowly, which I am. Sean left for work hours ago. I assured him that Kristen and I would manage the morning chores without him, especially if it meant that he would be home closer to 3 pm than 4 pm today. (Meaghan left at 9 am to spend the morning with Grandma Becky intent on preaching the word- I hope she meets some nice people today). Before Kristen could break her fast this morning, -I am not eating ANYTHING solid for a while- we attempted to feed and water the critters.

Kristen was drafted into feeding the piggies and the chickens in the backyard. That left me to feed the chickens, ducks, and geese in the main coop, the pullet chicks beside the barn, the chickens in the front tractor, and the horse and goats. When I realized that I pulled the short straw on that deal, I added feeding the dogs and cats to Kristen, too. Fair is fair, after all. Besides, I had made her homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast yesterday and she was going to have the pleasure of eating them again this morning. Me? Not so much.

Sean reminded me to check for more chicks in the main coop as he headed out the door. I thought that he was being a bit too optimistic, since I was fairly certain that the eggs in the 2nd nest were at least a week or more behind the first nest. Imagine my chagrin when I opened the nest box to find this:

Another chick!

Sean was right.

It did not make sense to me why we would have another chick hatch out of the 2nd nest, but then remembered that Meaghan had so very helpfully collected all the eggs from the nests about 2 weeks ago and brought them inside. Sean simply divided the eggs into two nest of 10 eggs and returned them to the broody hens. Obviously, at least one of the eggs was in the wrong nest! Which also goes a long way to explaining why I have 3 eggs in the incubator at a much less developed stage than it's nest mates chirping away in the brooder. Now what? I removed the new, healthy chick from the nest and brought him/her inside, too. Now, we wait and keep watching for more chicks, of course! I suspect that we will have another mass hatching some time this week. I checked the rest of the eggs in nest number 2 and none of the other eggs have pips in them. I do not think any more hatchings are imminent, but what do I know?

Current Total Chick Hatching Count- 34

33 were healthy and lived.

6 were sold.

27 were added to our flock.

We still hope that most of these are hens. ♥

See you soon!

Sonja ♥



Nature Versus Nurture

What a happy, happy morning. ♪ Happy Dance ♪ worthy!

I was in the midst of finishing making some of my Greek Bruschetta for a gathering this afternoon when Sean came back into the house from caring for the morning chores. He asked me to come outside with him for a minute. I followed him outside.

We walked to the main coop area and Sean lifted the nest box cover to reveal broody Barred Rock Hen and 6 new fluffy day old chicks; 3 striped chicks, 2 black chicks, and one black chick with a white spot on its head. (According to the breeds we had mixing at the time these were set, the black one with the spot could either be a Barred Rock of either sex or a cockerel Sex-Link chick.)

I cannot express how much joy this discovery brought me. Of course, we have been waiting to see what would happen with the eggs hatching naturally in the main coop by our broody hens, but we were not getting our hopes up to any of them hatching successfully. She hatched 6 out of 10 eggs. And, when we candled the other eggs, 2 of the 5 others were developing and appeared to be alive- I would guess that they are at approximately day 11 of development. We placed them into the incubator inside. It is unlikely that broody Barred Rock would continue to sit until these hatch and even if she would, it is probably not the best for her to do so. Broody hens usually remain on their nests for most of their day, eating and drinking very little while they are sitting on eggs. Another 10 or more days of that would be an unnecessary hardship to her physically.

We gathered up the chicks from their nest and placed them inside our brooder area inside our living room. We made this decision to avoid the chicks from falling out and landing on the floor 3 feet below. Not only could the fall injure them, but it would be impossible for the chicks to get back into their nest. Also, chickens are carnivores. It would be terrible if one of the adults injured the chicks somehow. I felt bad for Momma hen, effectively losing all her chicks, but when we checked her this afternoon, she had taken the place of Broody Wyandotte sitting on her nest of 10 eggs. Broody Wyandotte spent the day in the main yard enjoying a dirt bath in the sun and the company of the other hens.

With these babies hatching, that brings our total new chicks hatched this year to total 33. Of these, 32 lived. 6 were sold and the other 26 were added to our flock. We are hopeful that many of these will be hens and not roosters. Our intention was to add more hens to increase the amount of eggs we have available to sell to Customers next season. I think we are well on our way. ♥



As I write, the chicks have settled in for the night. I love how soft and sweet they are. Thanks for stopping in for a visit!

Sonja ♥

What the WHAT????

The more you do something, the better you get at it. Right??? Practice makes perfect and all that. So, riddle me this...



Our incubator still set up and calibrating on the desk in the living room.

THAT is a pip. In an egg. That I could have sworn was not living when I candled them and decried the loss of my hatch.

On Tuesday, I was so disappointed that I had lost the entire batch of eggs Ryan and I set. I thought it might have been caused by a malfunctioning temperature gauge and Sean brought me home another one. As you can see, the gauge is reading differently, so that IS probably what happened. I had not disposed of all the eggs, though. Sean buries them for me and had not had the time to do so. They weren't hurting anything waiting in the incubator until he could. I also check a final, final time before any of them are discarded- just in case I missed something.

On Wednesday, I was picking the eggs up and the one on the front left moved- I thought. I candled it and *Surprise* it was alive and moving! I hadn't posted that update because I didn't want to update you all with that happiness only to have it not survive the hatching. I was waiting and planned to surprise you with the good tidings. I have been watching the incubator for 2 days since... just hoping and waiting.

Last night, when I went to bed (at 2 am because I was at the ER with my eldest daughter- who is fine.) there was no change to the eggs' appearances. This morning, (at 7am) there was a pip in an entirely different egg (that I had seen no life signs in.) I was excited to see this, until I realized that the chick inside, pipped and died all in a few hours. What the WHAT??? There was nothing to be done. Even if I had known it was alive, I would not have intervened until there was no progress for more than 12 hours. This is just the worst hatching. The little egg that I think may be still alive has not pipped through the shell, but definitely looked to have breached the air sac inside. I had to work today until 2pm, so if upon returning home, it has not made any external pips, I may try to see if I can assist it.

I had planned on sparing you all the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride of a hatch, but this is just too bizarre! I have no idea what I am going to find when I get home in a couple of hours. Any of you wanting to pray for wisdom for this farm girl and the safe hatching of any little guys that might be- are more than welcome to do so. I sure have been.

Sonja ♥

Chick-less...

I thought that we would have some chicks hatching (from the eggs we set when Ryan was here) over the weekend. I thought for sure by Monday, some would peep, pip, and get ready to join this world. I went into lock down on Friday and waited. I waited all day Saturday. I waited all day Sunday. And, after a 14-hour work day at the McDonald's Heroes Hope Healing Golf Classic today, I couldn't wait to see if some had obliged us by pipping in our absence.

Checking for chicks was one of the first things to claim my attention when I walked in the door. I approached the incubator and peered hopefully into the plexiglass windows on the top of it. Nothing. I lifted the lid and carefully checked each egg for signs of pips or sounds of peeps. Nope. Nada. Nyet. Hmmm... This is troubling. I am concerned that this batch did not survive to hatching, but I am not without hope. While the temperature remained constant for this hatch, it did not get up to 100 degrees for a couple of days- which could make today really only day 20-21 and therefore, hatching might be coming tomorrow... Maybe.

Even though it is past 10pm, part of me wants to candle the eggs to check for signs of life tonight. I am so tired, I am barely coherent and certainly not thinking clearly. The spirit is willing but the flesh will wait until tomorrow- after a good night's rest to reset my frazzled brain.

Tomorrow will be a good time to see if I can smuggle a few eggs from under the broodies in the nest boxes and see how they are faring, too. Broody-Barred Rock is sitting on 10 eggs; these seem to be days ahead in development compared to the other nest. Broody-Wyandotte has 8 eggs under her wings; I removed 2 eggs when I last candled her eggs. One of them was not fertilized; the other was not viable. I'll take some pictures and post an update in the afternoon.

Thanks for stopping in, friends.
Good night.
Sonja ♥

Wide Open Spaces

In an attempt to make further amends for the upset to their world, Sean and I worked for an hour and a half yesterday night to disassemble the temporary goat kid pen in our back yard. We decided to repurpose two of the 10x10 chain link panels that were in excellent condition to extend the size of the main chicken coop yard.

By adding the panels on opposite sides, we were able to give them an additional 200 square feet of green yard. The response from our feathered friends was unanimously positive. They immediately swarmed to the new grassy area and started scratching and searching for bugs. Even knowing that the grass would be decimated within a few days, it was wonderful to watch them clucking and having such fun in their expanded pen. And, again, we wished that they could just roam free, but that would be dangerous and fatal for them with threats of neighborhood dogs, wild predators, and the other enemies to watch for.

Our main coop is 8ft x 8f x 8ft. The yard measures 600 square feet of space.  It is currently inhabited by 2- American Buff geese, 8- Mallard ducks, 6- Black Swedish Cross ducks, 11- 2 month old pullets/possible cockerel mix, 10 hens; 2 of which are sitting on nests in the boxes, and 2 Americauna roosters.



From the side view, you can really see the difference in yard cover. We have to add fresh hay every couple of days for the chickens to play in and the ducks to build nests in. We will still have to do this even with the expansion. When confined to an area, fowl are very hard on the land.

I am pleased with the area we now have, but as always, it is a work in progress. The master plan calls for the geese and ducks to be located in a separated area with a HUGE pond for them to play in. But, it is finishing the barn that must take the priority for this year. It seems that the chickens are pleased with this new space, too. After getting only 4 eggs from the coops for the past 2 days, we collected 7 eggs today. No where near the 14 eggs we had been collecting, but hopefully, this gain continues and we will be back in business.

This weekend, Sean and I will be working on repairing the fencing for the horse paddock. If we have the time, we will also try to work more on roofing in the barn. Another project on the docket is to start sheathing the lower portion of the exterior wall of the milk room. The goat kids have been moved into the pasture and are in with Momma Ellie. We are hoping that their nursing will help to get her milk production up. It had declined to only 1/2 quart of milk at her milking times. We thought that keeping her with the kids for a few days might stimulate more demand and thus, more milk. Since the milk room is merely a framed out shell, if we sheath the lower part, Ellie can sleep there comfortably and safely at night. We can milk her first thing in the morning and then, move her to the main barn and let her remain with the kids all day. It is not a perfect plan, and it cuts down the milk we collect, but we should still be able to collect enough milk for my cheese making experiments. That's the hope, anyway.

Well, that's where things stand right now. We're still hoping the chicks in the incubator hatch out this weekend. And, we snuck a peek at a couple of  the eggs Broody Barred Hen is sitting on and they are looking really good; lots of movement and good sized air pockets. And, in a surprise result, we candled a couple eggs under Broody Wyandotte and were pleased to see development inside those eggs, too- though they are not as far along as the other nest. Still, things look likely. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks for visiting us tonight.
Sonja ♥

7-9 Days to Go...

I candled the chicken eggs, as promised, on Friday. I did not snap pictures, though because I wanted to do it quickly so the eggs would not cool too much and also there was only my set of hands to work with.  (Sean and Dale are currently occupied installing a new water heater to live in the basement. I am sure Sean would have helped, but I thought his project more pressing for his time and attention.) Add to that, my camping girls absconded with my good flashlight, so it was harder than usual to see through the shell. Is that enough excuses for my lack of photos?

I think the news is mostly good. With just over a week to go, I only removed 2 eggs that were definitely NOT developing. There are another 10 or so that are questionable, but all the rest seem to be growing and developing from dark, Chickie "globs" into the fluffy peeps we are hoping for.

On Thursday, we decided it was time to move the 2 month old chicks into the main coop where they belong. We had never really intended on them living in the chicken tractor for a long period of time, but it became a necessity while they were small enough to walk through the coop fencing. Having grown sufficiently that this was no longer a problem, we made the move. This freed the tractor for Rufeo (our Rhode Island Red Rooster) and his hens. With the hopes of being able to breed sex link chicks from him, we rehomed 2 Wyandottes and 1 Barred Rock. This arrangement was problematic in that 3 hens would not be suitable in numbers to avoid their being balded by Rufeo's romantic attentions. The 2 Australorp hens in the main coop were being exceptionally territorial to the new chicks; plucking feathers and chasing them mercilessly. So... we added them into the chicken tractor population, which worked out quite nicely for everyone. (The broody hens will also join Rufeo- once they are done sitting on their nests- bringing the ratio of hens to roosters to 7:1, a much better situation for them.)

The new additions to the main coop are settling in just fine. There are still some issues deciding who gets to eat first among the group, but by and large, they have at least been accepted, if not enthusiastically welcomed. They are developing lovely individual coloring traits, which means these will get their own names. In this photo you can see in the fore, a couple of (what we think are) pullets with interesting feathered crests. They are the black facing forward and the white with speckled feathers to the right of her.

Added to the list of unique traits, we hatched a gorgeous pure Americauna with ear tufts (that we suspect is a rooster- No!), a couple of blacks with gold markings and two blacks that resemble nothing so much as mutant crows! Check out the one pictured on the left. What do you think?

In addition to the eggs in the incubator, one of the Wyandotte hens and one of the Barred Rock hens have gone all broody on us and are each sitting on clutches of 10 eggs in separate nest boxes out in the main coop. We have never allowed our hens to hatch out their own chicks, but we thought to give it a try. We were remiss in informing Miss Meaghan of our intentions before she very helpfully collected the eggs for us Thursday afternoon. Sean returned them to some very annoyed hens who were not shy about pecking his hands and squawking their displeasure as he sought to return their treasured orbs. Unbeknownst to the ladies, they are sitting on a variety of eggs from the coops. It will be interesting to see what kind of assortment these hatch to be... if they hatch, that is.

Broody Wyandotte has since become confused about her nest and has moved herself three times. The first time I caught her in the wrong box, I put her into the correct one and she settled in nicely. Later Saturday afternoon, she was back in the wrong box sans eggs. So, thinking she just preferred that box more, I candled the eggs in her first box for evidence of life and put the viable ones under her in her new box. Broody hen moved them into the position she wanted them in and settled herself. When I visited the chickens on Sunday morning, she had moved once again- to a completely different box. The eggs in the nest were stone cold and it was pretty clear she hadn't been sitting on them at all during the night. Since the chicks had already started to develop inside the eggs, I think it is a pretty safe bet that they are no longer viable after many hours of 50 degree temps. This is sad, but sometimes, what happens. I suspect that in Broody Wyandotte's case, the idea of sitting on eggs was -and seems still to be- more interesting than the work actually involved in sitting on eggs. At least, Broody Barred Rock seems to be vigilant in her efforts to hatch a clutch. And, Wyandotte can move to the tractor, instead.

Broody duck(s) are sitting single-mindedly, too. This broodiness seems to be contagious. What started with one, quickly turned into two ducks sharing sitting duties. A third invited herself to the party under the guise that it takes a village. But, when a fourth hen and a drake tried to join the mix, one of the geese stepped in to moderate the debate and get everyone sorted. I captured this exchange on video. No musical soundtrack, though-


For those who cannot see this on a Kindle, try THIS LINK, instead:

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

Thanks for visiting with us today!
Sean & Sonja ♥

Ryan's Chicks

As I said we would, Sean and I took 10 minutes tonight (Friday) to candle and check all the eggs in the incubator. The temperature has been holding steady at 95-98 degrees since Tuesday. As best as we can tell, 21 of the 34 eggs in the incubator appear healthy.

We set 6 Cochin eggs and we have 3 with definite signs of development. Of the other 2 Cochin eggs, 2 may have a blood ring (indicating miscarriage) and one did not appear to be fertilized.

Of the 9 Americauna eggs we collected, 7 look promising. The other 2 might be fertilized, but it was very difficult to be sure because of the color and speckles on the shell. We marked these. We'll keep these in for another week and recheck them.

At least 11 of 19 "Barnyard Beauty" chick eggs look to be developing properly. Six of the remaining eggs are questionable as to whether or not they are growing chicks and 2 do not appear to be fertilized.

We will keep the questionable ones of these for another week, just in case we missed something. You can see the difference between the fertilized, development egg above and the unfertilized egg below.

Though Ryan and I set the eggs a week ago, I am really only counting that they are a couple days old because it took a couple days for the incubator to get to over 95 degrees. By my best guess, we should have chicks around August 11-14th. Can't wait! Thanks for visiting the farm today.

Sonja ♥

Abby Comes to Visit

Grandma Becky, Grandpa Dale, and Abigail (whom our Abigail is named for) came to visit tonight for lasagna, a cool off in the wading pool, a visit with the goats and chicks, and a few games of XBOX 360. It was a great visit.

First, we served herbed goat cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes, which everyone said they enjoyed and since they all disappeared, I choose to believe them. I love our creation, but I will admit to being worried that I think our cheese is better than it is. This starter was followed by lasagna, since I had been wanting some for a while and am returning to my diet tomorrow, which will NOT include pastas or processed foods. Becky brought the most delicious orange glazed pound cake. The human kids gobbled that up and returned for more!

After dinner, Dale and Sean screwed in more 2x4's to support the plywood sheets I ordered this week and extended the barn's roofed area another 8' ft square. Every little bit helps move us towards the finish line in this project. It is tediously slow work because we will not go into debt to build it or any other part of our farm. We pay as we go and built as we can afford to do so. While Sean and his Dad were building, we women-folk enjoyed watching the goslings grazing at our feet, the girls playing in the pool and talking.



Abby loved playing with Meaghan in the wading pool, but I coaxed her out of it to feed strawberries to the goats in the pasture with me. Uncle Sean distracted the goats, who are only too willing to push their nosy little noses into any unprepared visitor's face. We climbed onto the wood spindle and fed our supply of treats. Uncle Sean captured the video for us. Then, Sean fed the goats some brush branches while we slipped out of the fencing. Ellie happily followed us out for her evening milking. Dale, Becky, and Abby watched Sean collect our nightly quart of milk.



After Abby dried off and slipped into new clothes, it was time to be rewarded by holding one of the freshly hatched chicks for just a couple of minutes. All three of the chicks that have hatched so far all have Cochin fuzzy-feathered feet. The other eggs have not made any more significant progress, but we are hopeful that in the morning, others will have hatched. For tonight, the new chicks are dry, warm, and chirping in the brooding tank. We have another 25 eggs still in the incubator. I wonder how many will hatch by morning. I feel sort of like when I was a little girl and my parents would plan to drive to Maine to visit my grandparents in the middle of the night. I would go to bed early, so the trip would come all the sooner. It makes me want to go to sleep early tonight!



Abby and Becky also braved tasting goat's milk for what I am fairly certain was the first time. Abby drank hers still warm freshly filtered from the goat pale. Check out Abby's review in the video.

All in all, it was a great visit.

Sonja ♥

Chickens are Hatching: VIDEO UPDATE (Graphic)

We came home from our Sunday meeting and found that the chicks had begun hatching. I am so excited because I was unsure of whether any in this batch were going to make it. As of now, 6 have begun peeping out of their shells.



This baby is only a few minutes old, but listen to how loud this little one's lungs are!


With some encouragement from the chick hatched a few hours before, this little one finally flexes and breaks fully out of the egg. I was worried because this chick had not progressed for over 10 hours in its egg. I was worried that I was going to need to interfere if the stale-mate continued. Thankfully, that was not necessary.

As of Monday night at 10:30 pm, we have 8 chicks hatched and thriving. Two others have made pips in their eggs and several others can be heard peeping and pecking away inside their eggs.
We'll keep you posted! Sonja ♥

Building Chicken Tractors

Sean and I have been working on designing and building this year's chicken tractors. They are 5 feet wide, 6 feet tall, and 8 feet long. This one is going to house Aloysious (our Cochin rooster), 3 Buff Cochin hens, 1 Black Star hen, and our 2 Black Australorp hens. This mix will give us the probability of getting Cochin-feeted chicks at least 4 out of 6 times... I hope. I am no geneticist, but since the rooster is Cochin-footed, I think that will stack the odds a little in that direction, as all the Cochin hens MUST produce Cochin chicks and the black hens' chicks will also have a 50/50 chance of inheriting that gene from their Dad. I guess we will see what we end out with. I am, of course, keeping good records of this.

I love the design Sean created for our tractors. I think they look just wonderful already. The only thing left is to cut more than one entrance into the coop area. So far, I have no suggestions for improvements on them. They are just what I was hoping for. And, get this: EVERY SINGLE PART OF THE TRACTOR WAS FROM MATERIALS WE HAD UNUSED OR RECYCLED FROM OTHER PROJECTS. Total Cost? Nothing. Nada. Nyet. Love That!

Sean is making another one this week of the same design. In it will reside Rufeo (our Rhode Island Red rooster), 2 barred rock hens and 3 Lacey Wyandotte hens. This combination should give us red sex link chicks, called Red Stars. We will be able to tell hens from roosters when they hatch since the all hens should be red in color and the roosters should all be white. Very convenient, that.

This arrangement will leave Sebastian and White Snake (both Americauna roosters) to live with 2 Americauna hens, 4 Buff Orpington hens, and 4 Rhode Island Reds. Their chicks will be a mixed breed, but 2 hens in this group will produce pure Americauna chicks and the other 8 hens' chicks will have a 50/50 chance of producing chicks that will also lay green or blue eggs. I will only incubate the blue eggs found in this pen for the now, since I can guarantee myself those to be 100% Americauna. The other eggs will be sold by the dozen for eating purposes.

While I was attempting to capture some video of the first batch of hens moved to the first chicken tractor, I caught a video of Aloysious crowing, which was very cool. Then, I captured footage of him getting friendly with his ladies. I was worried that the hens would not enjoy this new arrangement. THAT is no longer a concern. With 6 ladies all to himself, Aloysious seemed to be doing just fine.



We will build a third tractor for the chicks currently living inside with us. The box will probably be affixed lower to allow them easy access, but this will give them a safe place to grow until they can be moved to live with an appropriate flock of chickens. Since we believe that most of the chicks we hatched already are Americaunas, they will live in the large pen and coop once they are large enough.

So much still to do, but it is moving along slowly and surely. Thanks for stopping by!
Sonja ♥

Kitchen Sinks, the Perfect Place for a Bath

The black chicks survived last night with no problems. They are still much smaller than their counterparts, but they are thriving and doing well. I have moved everyone into an empty parrot cage. The floor is lined with newspaper, which makes changing it easy. And, there is plenty of room for the chicks to settle under the warmth or move to the cooler side to be comfortable and for their food and water containers. Plus, as the chicks grow, they will use the wooden roost at night. To help control the temperature, I have pinned a white towel to 3 sides of the cage and hung a heat lamp from the ceiling- far away from where they can reach and injure themselves- and placed a thermometer at chick level. The whole arrangement is very satisfactory.


 

When I had finish settling the chicks to their new home, I ran some warm water in both bays of my kitchen sink for the ducklings and goslings to bathe in. Each morning, we wake to find their water container (which holds over a gallon of water) empty and the nice fresh shavings soaked with water. Ducks are messy little beasts! Kristen and Meaghan stood guard over the bathers while I scooped out the wet pine shavings and added fresh dry shavings. This would be the goslings first foray into bathing, but they seemed to enjoy it and know what to do about preening. Guards are necessary because neither breed of fowl seems to be afraid of jumping out of the sink and onto my counter, falling to the floor or into the very interested mouth of Fenn... lots of dangers to watch for!




The ducklings have grown and no longer both fit into one hand. They are just over 2 weeks old and are filling out nicely. The goslings are only about 1 week old and are just a little bigger than the ducklings. They are still very friendly, though they do not follow me in the same way the ducklings did. The ducklings are growing more bold of being on their own and become less frantic if I walk away from them, which is how it should be. In no time at all, they will be ready to live outside all the time.

I have marked my calendar and plan on putting the next batch of 36 eggs into the incubator. I will hatch out a mixture of americaunas, cochins, rhode island reds, and black sex links. I am planning on having them hatch for July 6th, while our niece, Abby is visiting us. (I think she will really enjoy playing with the new peepers.) This is perfect timing, too, in that our inside housing will be empty by then and ready for new occupants- after a good cleaning, of course! 18 of the new chicks are already spoken for, but I still have (potentially) 18 available for purchasing. If you are interested in adding to your flock, feel free to email me and we can connect. You can read about buying chicks and our pricing on that tab at the top of my page.

The rain is coming and going, but the sun is shining through. I hope that tomorrow clears so I can mow this lawn!

Thanks for visiting!
Sonja ♥

20 Multi-Colored Peepers Greeted Our Arrival Home

CAUTION: GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHS. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.

Compare the messiness from hatching with clean environment
of the last post, before they hatched. Sean had his work cut
out for him cleaning it again!

20 out of 27 eggs successfully hatching is not a bad result according to chicken hatching web sites, the average hatch rate being around 70%. Our eggs hatched at a slightly higher rate. That doesn't change my heart aching for the little lives that weren't. We had 3 eggs pipped through to the outside air, but the chicks inside were dead already when we got home. And, when we candled the other 4 eggs without pipping, there was no movement inside them. One was clearly dead and not developed with black spots throughout. The other three, showed no sign of life and no breach of the internal membrane. To be absolutely sure, we carefully breached the air sac to see if there was any sign of life or movement. There wasn't. Sean removed the dead chicks and buried them in a box in the woods. It seemed the decent thing to do.

I am trying to find comfort in the active and thriving 17 multi-colored chicks in the brooding tank. They are eating, drinking water, and peeping. I will post close up pictures of the different types tomorrow. For tonight it is best for them to stay warm, dry and safe. Additionally, I have 2 black chicks and 1 yellow chick wrapped in a warm towel, tucked into my shirt. The yellow one seems weak, which is worrisome. They are all so much smaller than the others, that they are getting trampled on. Sean cleaned out the incubator of the eggs and nasty water. It is heating the inside to 100 degrees again and these littlest guys will spend the night in there, to give them the best start possible. If they survive the night and seem more active, we'll put them in with the others. I hope and pray they will. (It is morning. The little yellow chick did not make it and died in my hand this morning, but the others are doing just fine. What a sad start to the day. The rain which has been abundantly present this weekend does nothing to improve my mood. Sean has asked me to remain inside while he "tries something." I suspect this has to do with Dilly. I just hope he doesn't do anything that could injure himself. I think a hot shower and redirecting my thoughts to focus on the 19 chicks that are alive will be more soothing to my heart.)

Sean and I have also come to a decision that Dilly must return to his home with Mr. Farmer. This has been a difficult decision to make. On one hand, I feel so badly for this animal. He needs the right home, situation, and attention to live the best life possible. I strongly feel that the only responsible thing to do is to have him castrated, which will cost about $390 and to let any prospective buyers know that he must be watched and cannot be added to any herd with females in it. I think that Mr. Farmer plans on bringing him to auction to resell him. I can only hope that the next owners are more qualified and better able to provide for his needs. On the other side, after doing more research, checking with our vet, and calling and talking with several experienced llama owners to potentially adopt him, we are convinced that we cannot keep him well here. This is not a good fit for him, and castration is too expensive an undertaking for us to pay for, only to find him a different home. I wish that we could, but we have other lives we are responsible to care for and money is tight. This decision was hard to make for both of us, but the thought of him dying of loneliness, being separated from having a herd or "pasture buddy" or his possibly injuring someone is too big of a risk to take. He needs to be castrated- he should NEVER be bred to pass on this aggressive tendency to his offspring- and find a home with an experienced handler in a herd of male llamas. I hope he finds that. Tomorrow is going to be hard.





It is late and we have a long day tomorrow. I'll write more later. For now, here is some video of fluffy chicks to make you smile. The top video is of the chicks doing well. The lower video is of the youngest, more frail chicks.
Goodnight, friends!
Sonja