Most Eggslent!!

At least 3 and maybe all 4 of the Silkies have started laying eggs.

16 eggs so far - and 3 of them were just yesterday!

Tiny little balls of fluff  to gangly adolescents to egg laying contributors to the good life!

Thanks Girls!


Silkie eggs seem to be 1/2 to 3/4 size of a regular hen's eggs. Perfect for Mum -just as planned!

busy bees

not literal bees but us ....

put up a garage in a box ... always a fun project - our last one made it through one winter before collapsing - so we were very careful with this one ...

got Silkies set up in their permanent yard ...

watched meat chicks grow and dogs play ...

I'm exhausted!

Sad update

We set up the chicks on Wednesday and went to the land for less than 2 hours... when we came back they were peeping and piled in one corner. I presumed they were cold or hungry so tweaked things a little and went to pull garlic. I checked them a little later and they were still piled in the corner so  I decided I'd better pull them out and see if there was any reason for their stress behaviour (the temp was 90 which should be just fine).

At the bottom of the pile there was one little chick with blood on his back. WEIRD. I felt carefully around the brooder - no edges, nothing apparent that could do such damage. I thought about it while looking at the chicks and suddenly realized the chicks were taking up less room than they had earlier.


I counted them. Including our injured boy there were 13 chicks. Where on earth had 8 chicks gone in 2 hours? And how?

Still not positive but strongly suspect either a rat or snake got into them somehow. We were shocked and sad but glad that for most of the chicks the death was probably fast. (The injured chick also died)

The surviving chicks were a little traumatized for  the day but, have been moved to the enclosed front porch, they are recovering nicely now. It's amazing how fast they grow.

here a chick, there a chick

everywhere a chick chick

it's late but it's that time of year

we picked up our chicks this am and Big T was very useful - I appreciated his help enormously!

We are doing a couple of things differently this year:
we have day olds instead of started (2 week olds)

unsexed run (last year was all hens but we have some people who'd like a bigger bird)

trying keeping them in the house shed rather than the house itself!

Chick, chick, chick ....

Silkie chickens arrived Friday

CUTE is about the only word that works ...

Buff, blue, black, red, and white babies - all growing like stink already!

Toronto council

rejected a motion to get a staff report studying the feasibility of back yard hens. 

From an animal control perspective I'm not sure it is a great thing to have hens (facilities/enforcement) but I'm not sure that the jerks don't have them (or rabbits or doves or whatever) anyhow

the folks that are waiting for it to be legal would probably have hens or the same reasons we do 

and the more people eating humane happy eggs the better - at least to my view!

knitting and chicks ...

Getting ready to order chicks
Silkies most likely ...in the hope that the girls come back to us for normal sized eggs ...

I'd love Ameraucanas, Runner ducks, Sebastopol geese and more too!
Nearly finished my fourth knitting project
first was a big work scarf for Big T
then two chunky wool scarves for the cousins Maddy and Jackie
finally a lovely tweed purple scarf for Mum

then one more city scarf for Big T and I'll be on to something else ... not sure what to knit next tho!

SO SO good

Chicken dinner was spectacular -not a word I generally think of in a food context but it really was!

Rikker was also quite amazing. A giving generous soul prepared to work hard for me - poor unfit dude! Missed Nelly but it was great to hop on another horse and find the skill set required there too. Rikker is a TB draft QH (?) mix. Very cute and quite the charmer.

Also played a little with the young ones - groomed them and worked on picking up feet! Next time I'll take a hoof pick out with me.

Chickens - dismissed!

slaughtered
butchered
killed
murdered
turned into lunch/dinner/soup
pink slipped



what ever you want to call it - today was D day for the flock.

Big T and I got up early and gently loaded the girls into the back of the truck -the truck was full of soft shavings and the girls travelled well and happily - I put the girl with mobility issues in an open topped box with bedding and she travelled easily too. We arrived and found ourselves one in a long line of cars. It was good we had a little time to wander and sort ourselves out as it gave us a sense of what was happening.  No panic, no stress just an easy rhythm to the process. Very few chickens seemed stressed (none of ours) and people chatted as we waited. It was respectful and unhurried. Everyone there expressed appreciation for the hands on nature of producing our own food - and horror at the way grocery store chicken is raised.

It was an important part of the journey of the chicken summer ~ while I'm not glad animals died I am glad I was part of the whole cycle. I took the responsibility for getting them out of the truck. Everyone picked up on my gentle vibe and handled the girls softly right til the end. I was glad to see that.  Picking the meat up tomorrow.

Dinner tonight included onions and garlic from the 20 foot diet. Yum.

wordless Wednesday

Done and Booked

Barring disaster August 12th, 2011, twenty one chicks will be turning into dinners, and dog food, and the cycle will be complete.



 Twenty one out of twenty one chicks is pretty good odds- the hatchery we got them from comes with all kinds of warnings about expecting loss with these big fast growing girls but they have done well. There is no doubt the heat was hard for them. But we managed to keep cool water available, and fresh cool grass daily for them to lie in. The breeze nearly always blows here too and I think that helps as well. Where they have been located is under the shade of a large glorious tree much of the day as well.



They have been pretty interesting to watch and learn from and I'm glad we've done  it. I wouldn't hesitate to raise baby chicks again although deciding about the meat chicks may be left until August 13th.

It certainly doesn't save money - chopped up chicken on sale in the big grocery stores is cheaper - but the organic free range, never on sale chicken is more expensive. Hopefully the folks enjoying these birds will enjoy them enough that we'll do it again. I really do like the theory of knowing my meat and being able to express my appreciation to it.

too much excitement for me

A lovely lazy day til the excitement started .. actually we were woken up by a thunderstorm but everybody was still snug in bed so it was no big deal

Lazy time watching things dry and the sun come out - cleaned out the front cupboard which was in desperate need - apparently plastic bags were having a party in there!

I left to go .... wait for it.... RIDING at Fox Field Farm... for a lesson with Katie Buxton. It was awesome. It had been a very very long time since I had been on a horse with any serious intention at all. I suspect 18 years or so. I rode a lovely TB mare - Nellie - who had a very Beau like head (Beau was my first horse). She was a sweetie - she wanted to offer a LOT more contact than I wanted to take though .. I was feeling hunter/pleasure and Katie wanted to see the mare warming up and bending ... we did a nice leg yield - amazed I automatically just did it and some how was never on the wrong diagonal without thinking about that either ...then ...I overheated ... which was fine by me - I suspect I had enough thinking and riding for one day ...

As I left the farm a massive storm blew up ...driving home wasn't fun - 2 Huge trees were down - which actually meant the highway was closed but I knew everything would be safe a secure at the schoolhouse. HA! The chicks pen had blown apart a bit - a huge sheet of plywood was on the other side of the road. The swing was upside down on the lawn. The bunny pen and hutches were a disaster (we might end up with some surprises in 30 days to remind me of the day the rabbits "played" together!) The laying hens were soaked and their feed shed was flipped face down - not a hope I could move that but I managed to right everything else.

What a day!!

everything is still growing ...

veggies, puppy, chicks .. I would have thought things would have slowed down but no everything is still chugging ahead ..tomato plants will not be spectacular this year - they are already fruiting instead of still growing but the peas have been awesome, beans look like they'll be fine, and squash are threatening to take over the planet! Potatoes, onions  and garlic are looking ok too.
Pretty fine start to my two months of farm life. Dogs and rabbits are THRILLED and the three laying hens are just a pleasure to live with.

Egg count - at least 30 - I think I'm losing count!!

Hot chicks .. do better in the shade ...

chicks are outside - my they poop a LOT! moved the pen a foot or two today - will repeat again tomorrow :)

3 hens a layin'

We have some fine ladies this year. 7 days .. 19 eggs. Not bad considering we were told they weren't laying!They are super super friendly hens now too. Quite the characters. They are easy to tell apart but I haven't named them yet. I'm sure something will come to me but ideas are always welcomed!

Won't you come out and play today?

Poor little chicks are so hot today - they moved to slightly larger accommodations and lost the completely solid sided walls on their brooder as they are just getting too hot. Can't wait to get them outside on grass I think they will be very happy. I hope so.

The new ladies are doing their job already - three eggs in 24 hours! They can slow down a bit if it suits them! They seem terrified to come out of their coop. Although one was letting me pet her and being quite calm so hopefully the great outdoors won't be so scary soon. (Yes, that's one of the ladies peering out at the great wide world.

Hay was cut yesterday. The annual YAY HAY shot!

Chicken Summer ...

If 2009 was the summer of Rabbit and last year was the year of the Great Garden this summer will be chicken summer!

We have 21 white rock crosses (if I buy grocery store chicken and hate doing so how can we not try raising ethical food- at least once?). We got 2 week old started pullets for our first adventure and so far it's going OK. The chicks are taming down nicely and growing well too. Alone they would be an adventure.

 

We also have three laying hens. Like the first summer we got chickens we have little to no story on them. They were basically dumped at a local feed store. I happened to ask if they knew anybody with laying hens that needed homing when they had boxes of hens about to turn to stew. We got three hens and despite being quite sure they wouldn't lay for awhile (they are nearly naked at the moment) they immediately rewarded us with an egg. If I get an egg a day from them that will be way up from last years production and I'll be happy. These poor ladies have been debeaked so I hope they can get bugs etc as well as the girls the last two summers.

and so the garden grows ..

and the chooks start laying eggs ..

and the rabbits escape and are captured

and dogs play




and weeds grow



and the summer winds on