Late spring excitement

Its late spring and the weather is cool. The moon is just rising over the farm.

The hunter is on the prowl for any lurking predator.

When out of nowhere the mommy hen let out a call. The babies ran for cover.

A local chicken hawk comes swooping in for a baby snack. Trying hard to catch one of the babies, they scurry around trying to escape when...
Sugar comes to the rescue, mouth open and hunger in her eyes. She trys to catch up to the chicken hawk, but alas the hawk escapes barely, fleeing from the certain jaws of death of a vigilant Sugar the guard dog.

Sorry no pictures of the hawk as it happened very fast and i didn't have the camera ready. But Sugar instantly identified the the target when i hollered to get it. She went straight for the hawk and not the chickens.
Today she gets a big atagirl.  :)

This dramatisation brought to you by life on the farm, happens regular. Ain't life grand

babies

The babies are 1 week old now and doing fine. As you can see they are growing like weeds. Soon the sounds of teenage chicks will be heard all around the year.

They grow up so fast!  :)

spring babies

So, ... how many chicks can you fit in a box?

 Well, 25 of course

and here is a small sampling of them

And here we are practiceing are drinking skills

We need lots more practice!

In case you haven't figured out. The baby chicks have arrived by post today happy and noisy.  Tonight they will get transferred to the mommy hens to start there new lives. Isn't spring grand?

I said   Isn't spring grand!!

Well, its been a long time since I did any updates, so I thought I would get to it.

Sugar has come a long way from a chicken catcher to a decent watch dog. She watches the chickens closely, maybe a little to close sometimes, but mostly watches. She likes to sit in the morning and watch for squirrels, which she will terrorize if they set foot on her ground. She has settled down some, minds fairly well and has even learned to play in the water some. A long road for us from rescued to chicken protector. She hates the crows, if a crow comes near she stalks them and rushes in for the kill, misses them but tries so hard. Yep a long road but well worth it.

This is one of the mommies, we have had several this spring, but she has taken them outside for the day. Sugar likes the babies way more then the mommy likes, but so far no chicken nuggets for her.

Here some of the chickens are getting a drink, its been hot here so they group up around the water.
The bee yard is expanding. I now have a hive of Russians, they seem to get on well with the Italians. several hives have gotten hot this year. They boil out when you open the top, it can be startling the first time you experience it.
More chickens, here the Americana rooster and a hen are walking around.

I'll post more later.

Baby Adventures

It seems the babies are flying better then ever. As you can see there is one on the eves of the coop, when I went to get the pictures there were three of them sitting up on top. They seem to enjoy stretching there wings.

Bad Buzzzzz

O this is bad, this is wax moth damage. As you can see they have eaten wax and made tunnels.


This hive was very weak. It went queen less for several weeks and had few bees and no brood. I added a queen and some extra bees but it seems it was not enough to hold off the pest. I will sanitize this hive and frames ad reuse in the spring.

On a happier note, some of the white rocks are laying, I think, here's a pic of one of them, she posed nicely for the camera.

Always something to do

The babies are growing bigger everyday, as you can see. They are now eating about 5 lbs of feed a day for the 25 of them. They have discovered that they like pumpkin, while the adults seem to not eat it, they babies devour it. Yellow squash and zucenni is also high on there list of favorites.

I've recently added some new concrete pads for the bee hives. I didn't like the leaning block foundations so i poured some larger pads. 1 pad will hold the block for 1 hive so it will be more level then before and more stable. The bees get lost if you move the hive a Short distance like this so I move it a foot or so every 2 days. This way they can find there way home and soon the hives will be on new foundations.

all new again

This little guy is a few days old and was hatched by the same mommy that raised all the post office babies. Another new chickens fun fun.

A garden update: everything drowned. We had 28 inches of rain in 5 weeks and the garden did not like it. Even the peach trees died, they couldn't handle that much rain. So, I'm preparing to start over for the fall.

On a side note: it rained bees today. It seems, one hive swarmed and settled in a small pine tree. I hit the pine tree with the tractor, completely by accident, and bees rained from the sky. For a few minuets is was exciting. I tried to get them out of the tree by hitting the branch they were on, no go. I cut the limb off, it pivoted on the last piece of bark and the entire swarm hit me in the side, woohoo. they moved then to another tree. this time with a friends help, i got the ladder under the swarm and set the hive body on the top. Then I pulled the limb over the box and shook the bees into the box. I left it there for a while to see if i had the queen or if they would move again. It seems after a few hours they were content to stay in the box and I moved it to the row of hives. That makes 4 hives now, fun fun fun.

Buuzzzz about the farm

The bee hive arrived today, how very exciting. They were a little irritated when they arrived and were untaped, yes, the openings were duck taped shut for transit, and upon release they were buzzing about.As you can see they have settled down some and were out looking for food already. I added some clay under the hive because this area is a little wet when we get a lot of rain.
And not to be upstaged, big mommie had the babies out most of the day. Here if you look in the brush on the right you can see some of the chicklets napping while mommie looks for food.

All in all a very exciting day. Woo Hoo

everything new

OK big update today and some of the pics may be hard to see but I will explain whats in them. This one is the melon patch, you can see the melons on the left, there's also some potato's and okra in there. The okra is just now coming up.

This is the corn patch, I will soon plant some beans in with the corn to help provide nitrogen.

This is the potato and cabbage patch. The potato's are just breaking the ground on the right so you cant see em. The stuff in the middle is cabbage and broccoli and on the left is onions and carrots.

And last but not least is the amazing mommie. When everyone else wanted nothing to do with the Babbie's, she stepped in and said. I can watch em all! So, she's not the mommie of 23 Babbie's and very proud of it also. Amazing!

babies,babies, more babies

The babies arrived this morning at the post office. I got them home and let em out in a box for the day, so they can eat and drink some before the big mommie test tonight. Well after dark I will put some under the one hen sitting and hope the helper mommie will take to the rest. Tomorrow will be a trying day watching them to see if it all works out alright.

I haven't heard from the bee guy yet today, they had some problems that needed dealing with so I hope he calls soon so the bee's can be added to the mix. Ain't farmin fun!

Babies, Babies, Babies

These little guys arived last night.

This little one is a few days old and momma has em out most of the days, running around and eating what they find.

More babies will be coming on Wednesday, so its spring time on the farm!

hachery started

with 3 hens sitting I decided to finely get started on the hatchery. It will be 8 x 12 and have 2 bays on the side with a center isle. This way i can keep the outer door shut and stop potential escapees for getting out. I can divide the 2 bays in half if I have to but I am hoping 2 hens will share the same area. But there is a plan if they don't. I can also keep food in the center so it's easier to feed them. the clay is to raise the floor level up some 4 or 5 inches to help keep out the water, if it ever rains again and it has a lot of sand in it so water should also soak thru. I have to hurry and get this done as next week I need to put fertilizer out and the week after is planting week. For some reason this doesn't seem like retirement.

eggs and things

The most amazing thing happened yesterday, I found this baby egg. It came from one of the chicklets but I'm not sure which, most likely it was the astrolorp cross as they are the fastest maturing of the breeds I have.

I've also been working on a compost pile, so i cleaned out the coop and dumped 8 wheelbarrow loads into a nice neat pile. Well, it didn't stay neat for long. It didn't stay a pile either. The industrious hens spread it over a 15 foot circle. I wasn't planing on leaving the compost there but since they already spread it for me, I guess it will stay there. So today I added some leaves, ran them thru the shredder to see what they would do. Oh look a pile of leaves. they weren't interested. Well i can fix that, I got a cup of scratch feed and spread it over the leaves. When i left them they were furiously looking for the scratch and of course, turning over all the shredded leaves. Ain't chickens wonderful!

Eggs

We hit a mile stone today. 20 eggs. The hens have been busy and as you can see, there are all colours. Most of them are large with a few mediums thrown in. Also pictured is some Cinnamon bread made fresh for the coop meeting tomorrow and some shortcake.

I'm having a real problem with the shortcake. It seems, every time I put some in a bowl and add some strawberries, it disappears. Just vanishes into thin air. I will have to keep making more until i discover who it is taking the shortcake. Hmm, maybe Ginger is doing it, I dunno.

Rooster Fun

Life on the farmstead is quieter these days. Since i got rid of the the Jersey Giant Rooster the Buckeye roosters seem to make less noise. I don't know if it's less competition or what but it seems less roosters means less noise.

We had an incident the other day. The family was over for new years day lunch and we noticed blood on one of the roosters feet and he was limping some. Well, being the well trained roos they are, i couldn't get near them to check him out. He was doing ok that evening and hoped up on the roost for the night. I got a good look at him later when they had settled. It seems he lost the end of his toe. I don't have a clue how but the end is gone from right behind the claw. He seems to be doing fine now. He still limps some but hes rooing around as usual so I guess he will be ok. On the bright side, he stirs up less dust with a claw missing.

The baby's are growing bigger. The buckeye chicklet is bold as i would expect. I feed the flock some corn bread the other day and of course they all gathered round in a large mass. When the cornbread hit the ground, it looked like a shark feeding frenzy and in the midst was the chicklet, snatching bread from under the mouths of the adult hens and ruuuunnnning away. It was very funny to watch, The giant cross chicklets stand at the edge and holler for someone to feed em like they are afraid of getting into the mix. It is amazing to watch the different behaviors of these silly birds.

Babys grow up

The last 3 days have been interesting to watch. The mommy hen has been getting on the roost and running everyone else off and then strutting back and forth, she calls the baby's to get up on the roost. If this hen had on boots and a campaign hat you would think she was a drill instructor. So, tonight the 2 biggest chicklets made it up to the roost. The third is in the nest with the helper mom trying to get the courage to fly up on the roost.

The sad and the funny

First the sad news. The little guy, the chicklet that was smaller then the rest was lost last week. I heard the mommy hen scream and by the time I got out there, no sign of em. I figure a hawk came in and snatched him before anyone knew what was up.

Here's to the little guy
Pass a pint around
If not for the little folks
Giants would abound

Ok, on to the funny, as you can see in the picture, the hens are acting goofy tonight. A giant set up house keeping, she doesn't know shes moving tomorrow, gona need a truck to move all her stuff. Then the babies settled in for the night with the first warm body they found, gona be chilly tonight. Then the mommy hen and helper mommy climbed in because the babies were in there. Can someone tell me why one of them couldn't just move over, hmmm. These chickens are funny creatures, no doubt.

Outside babies

The babies are doing well. Mommy hen has been looking after them with much fan fair and has enlisted the aid of her chicken friend in the chick keeping duties. One of the babies is a bit weak and spindly but seems to get stronger every day, we will have to see how this goes.

It looks like two of the chicklets are Buckeyes and the other two are Giant and Astrolorp crosses. As you can see from the picture, they are much bigger and the same age. It will be interesting to see how they develop.

Looks like the Giants will be leaving soon. There is a young man that wants to use them for a FFA project and his parents are getting them for Christmas, so there will be more room in the coops. Hmmmm, maybe time for more chicklets.

this picture was on the second day the mommy hen took them outside. She keeps them moving all day. At the end of the day when everyone goes inside, the chicklets don't even bother to eat, they crawl into the nest and crash. They must be tired.