Oh it was a long long winter. No time for blogging, or fixing furniture, or brushing my hair. But now it's Spring, and while it is much colder then last year I am so thankful it is finally here!
The word of the day? Chicks!!!
A couple weeks ago, we had "Battle of the Hens"
You see, we have this small black mutt-like Bantam hen. She tried hatching in October. I told her it was a bad idea, but she was relentless and we gave in. she actually came very close to hatching them, but a predator intervened. This spring she sat somer ameraucana eggs, I do love my green eggs! All was well, and then...
We had our White Chantecler intervene. She stole those eggs! She hatched out about half, I think some were lost due to cooling during their day long argument. We gave her a few extras that we've hatched out and her and her babies are quite happy.
As for our little black Bantam? We gave her some new eggs! ... And then the rats came. Today, her prayers were answered! I hatched out 7 happy, healthy chicks in the good old 'bator' and she is too happy!
We also got out meat chick order in today. Last year we raised up the commercial broilers to 8 weeks. It was too long. There's just no way DH and I can consume 8lbs of chicken. The chickens were simply sad, they were too heavy to live comfortably. They ate and ate frantically. They were consuming a full bag of feed each day. They were dirty and featherless no matter how hard we tried. This year we will try "Cornish game hens" which are simply young commercial meat birds. At this age they will still have spirit, mobility and reasonable appetites. We are also going to try out tablescrap and fresh raw milk from Edie this year as well as naturally raised grains from neighboring farm. They are too cute that first day, and I hope to see them live happy, healthful lives without the tired struggle I saw the others endure.
We will be talking chickens this week, stay tuned! Pictures coming soon :)
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