Baby Chicks Have Arrived - A Bit Earlier Than Expected

The call came yesterday morning, thought I'd have until afternoon which was why I was a couple of hours away from my local post office at the time. I wasn't ready to panic, but the poor lady from the post office was quite concerned and feeling a bit helpless.

When I got there I heard them chirping away and saw the relief in her face. She had never heard about the fact that they live off the yolk at first and was relieved to learn it. I'm sure she was more than happy to get her day back to normal when I left.

They are just doing great! I ordered 10, and the hatchery sent 17! They're Old English, Wheaton and Jungle Fowl. This is the first time I've experienced the hatchery having included a heating pad in the box, I'm sure it helped a lot. Once home, I brought them out of the box one at a time, dipped their little beaks in warm water with a little corn syrup right away, so they're busily eating, drinking, and, of course, poop'n like normal.

I have two waterers in the brooder, the one with corn syrup added, and the other with an electrolyte and vitamin mixture added. Right away, I mixed a cup of water with Gro-Gel and put it on top of the egg carton feeders with chick starter in them. Of course I had the brooder pre-heated to 95 degrees F. They seem to be loving their new home . . . good old mother hen brooder. They need to grow big and strong, becoming beautiful will happen naturally. Some of them will be my show birds later this summer.

This is the time for great self discipline, tearing myself away from just watching the little guys. Nope, not progressing too well on that front right now. I don't pick them up and pet them for a few days so they'll have a chance to get settled, but sure am looking forward to that, too.

Hey, if you're one of those people still just thinking about getting chickens- seriously, you have to take the plunge . . . you'll love it, too! Want to learn more?  One source of information (all free) is http://www.fortheloveofchickens.com . Immerse yourself in all the information online about raising chickens, and you'll have plenty of confidence.

Showing Chickens at the Fair - Good Job, all!

Show chickens are relaxing and enjoying their homecoming after a few days at the fair this last week. How'd they do? Well, sure can't complain - 10 out of 10 isn't bad - for blue ribbons. Budget cuts reduced the ribbons to blue, white, and red this year, but there is a Premium check on the way -- it'll be enough to buy a bag of feed, so no complaints there, either.

Will take photos of each bird this next weekend (they deserve some R&R for a few days) with their ribbons, and post them ASAP.

There were fewer Open Class entries than last year (probably due to the economy), but a new young crop of competitors, which was great to see. If you're raising chickens, but haven't started showing them yet, be sure to download my free book over at my website to help you get started. I know you're gonna love it (the showing, more than the book, though it'll really give you an advantage)!

Baby Chicks Again

So cool to be a daddy again . . . 12 babies this time. This early batch of babies is made up of 2 Golden Sexlinks, 4 White leghorns, 4 Buff Orpingtons, and 4 Rhode Island Reds. All are healthy as can be, but I was worried about one of the Leghorns for a number of hours. The poor little thing must have just been worn out, lively as can be now, scratching around with the rest of them.

Sure do love baby chicks, but then, who doesn't? Judging by the crowd at the feed store their popularity is continuing to grow. Someone came in ahead of me and bought all 100 Barred Rocks, so I won't be getting mine until the next order comes in, but that's okay.

So, how about you? Getting any new chickens for Spring and the summer shows?

Egg Provider For All -- and Loving It

They don't exactly understand, but I pass on the compliments I get from co-workers to my hard working hens. Compliments like, "those are the best eggs I've ever tasted!" The word has spread and now even more people are asking to try some of my home grown eggs. I know, I should charge for them, everybody tells me that.

The thing is, these people do pay me for the eggs, in their own way. Just yesterday, a lady I work with brought me several jars of vegetables she'd canned herself. Can't wait to dig in! I don't do a lot of fancy cooking or baking, so it's always nice when someone brings breakfast burritos, a couple of dozen cookies, a bale of straw for chicken bedding, or even a bag of leftovers they think my chickens might enjoy.  The two pumpkins one co-worker brought right after Halloween sure were a big hit with my flock.

I love eating the eggs laid by my chickens, but sure can't eat them all. People appreciate getting them and it builds goodwill. One guy has even stopped calling me "birdbrain" and has replaced it with "chicken guy". Hey, you gotta be thankful for even the smallest improvements sometimes.

What are you thankful for this year?

Home Farm Movement, Food Always Within Reach

The growing Home Farm Movement is really revving up in the Northwest. People love the idea of having food within easy reach. There are farm tours, chicken coop tours and canning classes readily available. Who would have thought it would be possible just a couple of decades ago?

Seems like there were a couple of generations of young people who wanted nothing to do with the culture they'd been raised with . . . they deperately wanted out. So they moved to the city, intent upon shedding all signs of their shameful prior existence on the family farm and proving their sophistication and  awareness of all things "cool" in the city.

We've now come full circle with many of these same people involved with the green, organic, planet saving, frugality based ideas they couldn't bring themselves to embrace when they were young.

Doesn't matter what their motivation is, I'm just glad to be living during this resurgence of interest in raising chickens and growing veggie gardens.

Would be interested in what got you started with the chicken raising hobby, et al. Just leave a comment below, ok?

The Wonder of Chickens

Chickens allow almost anyone to enjoy farm life, at least to some degree. People are always amazed at how much fun I seem to be having whenever I get the opportunity to bend their ears talking about raising chickens and keeping them as pets. I know I have lots of company in the form of other people who love chickens just as much as I do, but unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to interact with them all that often.

One of the greatest things about raising chickens is that they're so small compared to other farm livestock that you can have a half dozen or so and get to see them as a social group. This is when you can really get a sense of how smart they are by watching the way they interact with each other. This is why I say I'm 'celebrating the beauty, charm, and intelligence' of chickens. Some people think chickens are dirty, boring, and dumb . . . but they are frequently surprised to discover their minds have changed after spending some time around them.

It's always rewarding to 'evangelize' the occasional friend, neighbor, or family member to the wonder of chickens. Kind of my life's work, in a way. How about you?

Found -- Secret to Growing Tomatoes

After writing about the Great Tomato Experiment in that last post, I came upon some info from notes written by my Grandfather, apparently in the late 40's or early 1950's. He was a small farmer in illinois, who did really well with 10 acres.  He operated a roadside booth and sold fresh veggies and strawberries to rabid, loyal customers from the surrounding area. Kind of like the Home Farm movement that's going on today.

Too little too late, should have read this good stuff before planting my little tomato garden . . . boy, did I ever mess up!
 
Well, they say 'live and learn' so I'll pass on his information to you, though you're probably a smarter gardener than I am. For what it's worth, happy to share.The one thing I did right was to wait 'til all danger of frost was past.

Grandpa's notes said to cover the small plants with a clay pot to protect them from the sun, but to uncover them at night and on cloudy days. He said to space them 24" apart if you weren't going to stalk them and 36" if you did plan to stalk them.

Whoa! I planted mine in a planter box only about 9" apart! Guess it's a wonder I had any to eat.

He said to put a paper collar 2" above and 2" below the soil, also. This prevents cut worms from getting to them. One thing he didn't mention is the benefit of having chickens around to eat all the worms before planting a garden. Suppose that could make a big difference. As the family story goes, he started raising chickens, but later discovered my Grandma had an allergy to them and got rid of them after a short time.

Next on Grandpa's list is mulch. he said to use 2-3 inches of straw or other mulch material. Scratch up the soil before applying mulch, he warned, as it protects against drying of the soil due to wind and sun.

Finally, he recommended hand fertilizing with a weak solution of water and liquid fertilizer. I think I managed to water my tomatoes "once in awhile" with plain water. Will do better next year.

Unfortunately, Grandpa died long before my Dad even met my Mom, so I never had the privilege of knowing him. From what I hear, though, we'd have become best buddies in a split second. Too bad he didn't have time to publish a book about his farming experiences.

Raising Chickens . . . For Idiots

Awhile back, I ordered some more books about raising chickens and had some time this weekend to read them. One of them is  The Complete Idiot's Guide Raising Chickens by Jerome D. Belanger, longtime publisher of Countryside Magazine and Backyard Poultry Magazine.  To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure whether it would be an over-simplified version that would talk down to the reader (aka, the complete idiot) or not.

Turns out, that wasn't an issue at all. This book was well worth the price, is well organized to lead a beginner all the way from making the decision to start raising chickens through butchering, cooking eggs, and plenty of resources-online and off.

Plus, this book is available on the Amazon Kindle . . . a really handy way to get information. I don't have a Kindle yet, but plan to get one soon -- should be a really convenient way to take in information, plenty of books to read, just one thing to carry. Once you get a Kindle, buying the books for it costs a lot less than buying the regular versions. I've been pretty slow to embrace technology, but could probably get hooked pretty quickly. Most people are way ahead of me

A few days ago I added the various Kindle's to my website, along with the chicken related books that are available with it. If you want, you can go here to check them all out in one place, there are an impressive number available.

My Pet Chicken Family, Adoptions Coming Up

Well, it's official, out of the dozen eggs my hen Henrietta was setting on, just five hatched.  My closest neighbors stopped by and she and her babies have now been spoken for. As soon as the baby chicks are 'raised', they'll all move down the road to their new home. All the babies look exactly like Barred Rocks, they're all healthy and the neighbors have been wanting a good mama hen for awhile now. Of course,I have visitation rights, will be fun to see all the babies after they're full grown. All pullets, from the looks of it.

Also, my neighbors bought several more of my menagerie for her boss, who runs a motel and restaurant at a tourist village a few miles away. He has a quality facility for them and features home grown eggs on his restaurant menu. He's right on the main highway and does a lot of business, especially during tourist season while the highway is open.

Getting another fellow worker into the hobby of raising chickens, too. He and his family are coming over this weekend to choose a 'baker's dozen' , twelve hens and one rooster. They want a good variety, so have come to the right place. I'm looking forward to showing them around. He's been building a chicken house and ordered all his supplies from Jeffers, through my website. That was nice of him, but he didn't do it entirely to be nice, he says he got a great deal.

I'll still keep my laying hens, some I've had as pets for several years and they still lay an egg every few days. I know, it's not financially "wise" to keep the hens so long, but here's how I look at it. Raising chickens is my hobby. I don't drink, gamble, eat out a lot or do anything else (well, except for buying chicken magazines and books) that the majority of people would consider wasteful, so I don't feel that keeping a few hens as pets for all their natural life is such a bad thing. They're about as special as my dog, cat, and rabbit.

If you're a die hard chicken hobbyist, maybe you'll understand. If not, well then, I'm still in the minority. Boy, I sound boring, don't I? Not bored, though.

The Home Farm Movement. . . Raise Chickens . . . Avoid Hunger

One of the best things about the home farm movement and raising chickens is the food. More and more people are taking part in this movement to become independent, insure survival in economic downturns, and eat a nutritious organic diet reminiscent of generations ago. Home prepared meals from home grown gardens, meat and eggs from chickens, and often the addition of a milk goat, bee hives, or whatever slice of country life the homeowner has the room for.

It's the life our grandparents lived, except for modern conveniences to cook and prepare food with. What we're now calling 'slow food' isn't nearly as slow to prepare as it used to be, of course. Frankly, I couldn't be more pleased that even people my age are beginning to want to live this way. One of the highlights of my childhood is visiting my grandparents farm. You see, my Grandma and Grandpa were pioneers, in a way. They scrimped and saved for several years after they were married, because they wanted a place of their own. Living in a tiny house while Grandpa labored day and night to keep up with the milking, plowing, and gardening for the owner of that house and farm was a way of life they desperately wanted to escape.

And escape they did. After having saved up a small nest egg, Grandpa refinanced his old jalopy to make up the difference between it and the $300.00 asking price for a 40 acre plot of land "out in the sticks". It was heavily forested, so they first had to harvest a few trees to build a tiny house that served them until they had two kids. Little by little, they added to their house until they finally ended up with a three bedroom home, plus a barn and shop. They put up with much doomsayers and criticism, but persisted with their plans, planting a garden that was the envy of all the neighbors every year and raising a variety of farm animals.

It's the fruits of their labors that I remember the most . . . Grandma's cooking. The refrigerator may have looked bare, but in no time flat Grandma would be calling us in for dinner. Her secret stash was in the "fruit room" (the first room of their house), the 1958 Coldspot freezer she was so proud of, and the root cellar. To this day, I can still almost taste her mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy, cole slaw, homemade bread, corn on the cob, apple jelly, and, of course, pie for dessert. The next morning, she served potato cakes from the leftover mashed potatoes.

After running ourselves ragged to and fro on Grandma and Grandpa's property, my brother and I ate like farm hands. Before going to bed on the pull-out couch in the living room, we 'helped' Grandpa chop kindling and bring wood in for the next morning's fire in the ancient dining room heater. We always woke up when Grandma started the fire in the morning, but being city kids used to a thermostat set at room temperature, we pretended to be asleep until the warmth of the heater began to spread throughout the room.

Throughout most of my childhood, Grandma raised chickens, and I took it upon myself to be the egg gatherer during our short visits. Mostly, she had White Leghorns she'd bought from a nearby neighbor. Grandpa was a logger before retiring, and had both eggs and toast, as well as oatmeal -- every single morning. They lived a simple life. worked hard, and lived frugally.

A visit to my grandma this last weekend sparked these memories . . . she doesn't really remember me, but I sure remember her . . . with great warmth, love, and appreciation.

The Coming Debut at the Fair -- of Pebbles and Bam Bam

Two county fairs are coming up in my area, which means it's time to prepare my pet chickens for the competition. Same with you, I imagine? If you're a fellow chicken enthusiast you probably have at least thought about taking the hobby one step further and showing your best birds.

This year, the fair may be the only indication that it's summer, here in the Northwest, anyway. BRRR!

Since so much is going on (including a 7 day work week-I know, I am grateful to still have a job in this economy) I decided to just show 4 or 5 birds this year. Two of my favorites are a pair of Japanese Bantams. The rooster is Pebbles, and the hen, Bam Bam. They're young, part of an order I sent off for in February, but they meet the minimum age requirement. Assuming all goes well (technically challenged) you'll soon be able to watch a video of them at five weeks where I check them out.

In the free report about fitting and showing chickens, which is available on my website, I talk about showing young chickens to avoid a fairly common issue. Often, when people are deciding which of their chickens to show, they'll put forth all the necessary effort taming and conditioning them, only to find that their chosen birds have started to molt when it comes time for the competition. This has happened often enough to me so that I started placing an order in late winter to avoid that issue.

Probably next week, I'll start cage training my entries. This is where you use a judging stick to go through the same steps the poultry judge will take while the chicken is in it's cage at the fair. You stroke the chicken with the rounded end of the stick in several ways to bring about show quality posture. This is part of the "fitting" or conditioning process. It's fully explained in the above report.

The first issue of the "Out of an Eggshell Newsletter" will soon arrive in your in-box if you've signed up as a subscriber. Like the report, it's free by just entering your first name and email address, and of course you'll be able to cancel if you don't like it.

Look forward to 'meeting' you.

To Life, Liberty, and the Independence of All

Happy 4th of July! My chickens are free now, more so than they've been in awhile. Finally captured the hungry raccoon that's been stalking and killing several of them this past month.

After living in a wilderness area for more than three years, this has been my first all-out war with predators. Thought I was living a charmed chicken-keepers life. Before moving my chickens in I armed the chicken yard with Nite Guard lights. Apparently, they did their job, as until recently I didn't lose any of my birds.

Well, there was one rooster who was snatched by an owl, but I solved that immediately by putting a couple of the lights on top of fence posts . . . duh, no more problems. Still miss the rooster.

Raccoons look cute, endearing, and so innocent, as you likely know if you have chickens, but they are smart, capable, and patient at getting what they want. I love all animals, but I was almost ready to shoot this particular one. Instead, I bought one of those HAVAHART traps, set it, then waited. And waited, and then, you know . . . waited . . . some more.

Finally, yesterday morning I went outside, and there he was . . . peering intently through the wire enclosure at me. If I hadn't seen the evidence with my own eyes, probably would have freed him immediately. Turns out, the little bandit was more attracted to dry cat food than the canned tuna I'd been using to entice him into the trap. Glad I keep my cat inside!

As soon as my chores were done, I put him in the back of my pickup and went for a long drive, past the wilderness parks, over multiple bridges, down narrow winding logging roads, and well into the dense forest. Every once in awhile, I'd glance back at him. He seemed to be playing hide'n'seek, covering one eye and peeking playfully out at me.

Eventually,I stopped, brought the trap to the ground and quickly lifted its door while backing away at almost the same instant (hey, it was my first time - was a little afraid he'd attack me). He was gone in a flash. By now, he's no doubt happily exploring his new habitat . . . forty miles away from my chickens.

Wow! What a great weight off my shoulders! And my chickens can get back to their normal routine.

If you're having problems with raccoons, first of all, you have both my sympathy and empathy. I have learned that the traps do work, so I can recommend them, but I'd understand if you prefer the more immediate method of assassination (all the experts point to just the two solutions). And, certainly, shooting the little rascal would have been a lot less expensive and time consuming.

I'm curious about how you have -or would have- handled the situation. Do you think I behaved like a coward, an extremist animal rights activist (please, no!), or did I do the right thing?

Did I mention that I enjoyed the ride, anyway? Guess that means it wasn't entirely a waste of time.