Little Peeps

Sometimes things seem like a good idea when they are NOT! So I saw a photo online of 4 little chicks sitting in a Peeps box and thought to myself... "I should do that! It would be so cute."

So I went out and bought four different colored boxes of peeps, came home, removed the peeps from the boxes and headed to the barn.

I set up a table all ready for my "photo shoot." And got a box with 4 inch sides and went to the brooder to grab the lucky 12 chicks. So I put the first 4 in the box and by the time I grabbed the next two two of the first four had jumped out. (Since the box was in the brooder no harm was done, they just ran towards the other chicks.) ((Brooder = incubator for chicks - nice and warm))

Now realizing that I did not want chicks to jump off a table, or be chasing them around the barn my original plan would not work. I would have to do it in the brooder.

The chicks wanted absolutely nothing to do with the box! This is an interesting pic because you can see the difference between our Amberlinks and Austrolops. The black ladies are looking at it, and the white ones hiding their heads. We were told the Austrolops were more "aggressive" which is a potentially good trait for pastured hens, but so is knowing when to hide! The first several times I got a chick in the box they jumped right out (notice the legs, she is on the move, and her mouth is open, so is protesting!)

These two were OK standing in the box for a minute, but would not face the right way, and when I went to put a chick between them they jumped out...

Finally I got two to stand still and look fairly cute.

Now, hubby pointed out that the photo I saw was most likelyPhotoshoped, so I am working on that and will post one when I get it looking right...

In any case, after a half hour of fussing and stressing out my chicks, the moral of the story is one you would tell your kid... "THEY ARE NOT TOYS, LEAVE THEM ALONE!"

Cute things chicks do... Really...

Adorable little fluffy balls. How can they do anything not cute?

These little ladies keep climbing INSIDE their feeder! And we are finding them with their little heads sticking out.

Tuesday morning I went in at 6:00 am to check them after their first night. There was a chick in the feeder. The evening before we had pulled several out, unsure if they were getting stuck. So when I saw this chick laying in the feeder, and I gently poked her and she did not move, I feared that we had lost her, stuck since 10 the night before, unable to get water. So I opened up the feeder and she popped up looked at me and looked around, and off she ran.

As of this morning there were no more chicks in the feeder, so I think they are getting too big...

It is amazing how fast they grow... Like children.

Cute things chick do...

Chicks are a lot like any other babies. They spend most of their time doing one of five things; eating, drinking, pooping, sleeping, and crying (cheeping in the case of chicks.) And wow can 150 chicks CHEEP!

I can hardly express to you the volume they can produce. When the post office called on Monday to tell us they were here the call went like this:

"Hello, this is Leon with the Peninsula post office."

"Hi, Leon, are they here?"

"Yep, they just came in."

"Great!"

"Are you coming to get them now?"

"I will have my husband come get them."

"Is he coming now, because we close at 12 for lunch."

I looked at the clock and it was 11:35. I am at my "real job" and have no idea
what hubby was up to that second. He could be at Lowes, or muddy, or in the back field. "He will come in the early afternoon."

"oh...." And it was a defeated and depressed "oh...."

When he got there at 1:12 he was greeted as he opened the door to the loud and happy cheeping of little voices. Leon looked up and pointed at the cheeping box next to him "Are these yours?" Hubby confirmed it and Leon looked very happy.

Leon said that they had another chick order this morning, it came in with the first truck. A small box, the person came for them right around 11:00. He said he was happy for the quite. As soon as they were gone though another truck came in and this one had our mega box of 150 chicks. Poor guy.

I understand the feeling, because when I was putting them in the brooder I was about to go deaf! I put the box in the brooder and one by one had to pick them up, and dip their beaks in the water to show them where it was. That can take a while with 150, in the mean time they all are PISSED and loud. EVERY one cheeping for their mamas.

Well buddies, I am your mama! But bending over with my head a foot from them for about an hour, I really thought my ears would never stop ringing!

So I guess that is not really a cute thing, you will have to wait for another post for that! It will give me something to post about tomorrow!

(There farmer-boy, 2 posts in 2 days!)

Chicks are here!

This year one of our big changes will be the addition of lots and lots of chickens to the farm. These ladies below (150 of them) will make up the base of our egg laying flock. At peak production we expect them to lay somewhere around 65 dozen eggs a week.

They will be raised on pasture and their feed will be free of any animal byproducts. But that is in the future. In the video above the chicks are just one day old. So they need to stay nice and warm, under heat lamps (about 90 degrees for the first week.) When they are four to six weeks old (depending on weather) they will get to try out grass for the first time.

In addition to these hens we are planning on trying some broilers as well this year. We are planning on a slower growing red broiler, in keeping with the French Label Rouge type and requirements (obviously not certified as this is not available in the US.) If you may be interested in preordering a number of these please let us know and we will get you details as we go forward with this second project.

This is looking like a year of Chickens at our Farm!

First Day of Spring on the farm...

Chickens love spring. Bugs and fresh greens to eat.

Beekeeping...

More cities are realizing that allowing small scale agriculture in the backyards of their cities is OK. And this is a good thing. So keep bees on your roof, have a flock of chickens in your backyard, raise an alpaca in your garage!

Well, maybe not an alpaca in your garage...

But chickens and bees are a great addition to any backyard. Well, almost any backyard, do check with your city first and understanding neighbors are always a plus!

Even New York City recently re-legalized beekeeping in the city of New York.

Broody Chicken!

This little lady is starting to annoy me.

She is broody (meaning feeling like she should be a mom) and has recently NOT been happy when you take her eggs. She is a pretty hard pecker, when you reach under for her eggs! Typically, when a hen is unhappy she will half heatedly peck at you. Not this lady! She is not pleased that you are collecting her family for your breakfast, although I assume I would feel the same...

Finally Eggs!

It has been a while since we have had our own eggs. And pretty strange to have to actually BUY eggs! But since around July we have started getting no more then one or two eggs a day. Then around September they dried up completely! NO EGGS AT ALL! Our old chickens are apparently getting too old to lay and our young hens were no quite ready yet.

We expected to have to make due with other farmer's eggs until spring. Then on Thanksgiving we found one pullet egg! (Pullet eggs are the first eggs a hen lays and are half as big (or less) then a "normal" egg.)

Today when I went in to give them food I found five more pullet eggs! We should be getting 10 dozen eggs or so a week from our hens when they get up and going, but that is still months off, for now, I am happy that we are at least getting our own eggs again, although it probably takes three of these mini things to make one normal egg...

Am I a softie?

So, I’m a softie, I admit it.

My niece loves chickens. Other girls want ponies. She wants chickens. Other girls talk about being doctors or teachers or anything else when they grow up. Anything other then the owner of a chicken food store, and maybe a chicken vet. She even wrote me a chicken book to keep at my house so when she is ready to open her store I’ll have it for her. Because, of course, the chicken store will be on my farm.

Because I think this is all so cute I just ordered absurdly expensive chickens for my niece which will be delivered next week. Expensive because I only ordered 5. Typically you have to order 25 chickens at a time, but I found one place that will ship boxes as small as 3 chicks! Catch is you have to ship them express and you have to pay a “small batch” fee of $25. This fee pays for a box with a little heating pad in it so the chicks stay warm in transit (why most hatcheries send them at least 25 at a time so they can keep each other warm!) So these 5 chicks cost as much as 25… almost.

So why would I pay so much for chickens. Well, my little chicken fanatic niece (5) is coming up to visit starting May 28th for about 2 weeks. Our order of 25 Dominique pullets is not due for delivery until around June 11th. Either they will just miss her or I will be sending home a very unhappy little girl who got to see chicks for only one day.

So my sister and I talked and I said I’d try to find chicks. I looked and looked for someone who had some locally with no luck, and then on a chicken message board (there are such things) where I was begging for chicks, I ran across a mention of MyPetChicken.com. A company that will sell fewer than 25 chicks! So I called and they actually had some pullets (female chickens) with availability next week! The catch of course being the cost, but what a great thing for someone who only needs a few! It really opens up chickens to people who could not get them before.

So my sister and I are splitting the cost and I will go pick them up and bring home the chicks, to a very surprised little girl (who’ll be the best aunt ever?) These are White Cochin and are on the Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s watch list so they fit with our goals of helping to preserve heritage breeds. The chickens will be hers, but they will live at my farm. I think my hubby thinks I am silly, but how often can you make a little girl’s fondest dream come true and for only half of $60?

Future Farmer?

When my now 5 year old niece comes to visit the first thing she wants to do is go to the chicken coop and collect eggs. I will offer to make them for her but she looks shocked and says "NO!" As she holds the egg gently to her ear.

My sister says that they cannot buy eggs from the farmer's market, becuase she refuses to eat eggs that are not white.

For the longest time we thought she was hugging them, but then we realized that she was in fact listening to the egg,to hear the baby chick.

We had to explain to her that, as we have no daddy chicken there cannot be any baby chickens in the eggs. Not ever, it was OK to eat the eggs... But to this day she will only eat white eggs. We tell her that the color of eggs does not have anything to do with if chicks are inside.

I don't think she believes us still, just another adult trick to keep her from her own chickens!

This is the same child that told her mother a few weeks ago that she wanted to start a chicken farm in their backyard. When her mom told her no, she decided that a duck farm would be OK to...

When her mom told her no again she decided she needed to call her aunt (me) because I'm sure she thought that her farmer aunt would tell her mom it was OK for them to have chickens in their little backyard in on-base housing at Ft Campbell. I told her that chickens needed to live on a real farm, not on an army base. She then decided that she could have ducks instead, because they can be on base because they live in the pond.

When I told her that ducks needed water in their yard but she said that they could have her pool. And when I told her that they fly and could get away, she said they would a roof over their pen...

Maybe a future farmer? I felt so bad when I had to tell her "Well, I don't think your back yard is a good home for chickens or ducks, but ask your mom." I heard her ask and my sister say "No." And she seemed so deflated, it was sad... Her mom, sister and she will visit with us for a few weeks this summer, it should be lots of fun! We may even get her a couple chicks for when she is here...

Is reality too real?

Last week Jamie Oliver slaughtered a chicken on his show in front of a studio audience and 4 million viewers. Will actions like this propel the ethical meat and humanly raised movements?

NY Times Article

Cold chickens...

Usually as soon as you open the door on the chickens in the morning they rush the door and are all out in about 10 seconds, it is pretty funny...

This morning though when I opened the door one stood there and eyed me. Then another head poked out and she looked at the ground which still had some frost on it. They gave me time to get back and get a picture of the great emergence when they all decided a few seconds later that it may be OK to come out after all...