As reported previously, I am anticipating an increase to my homestead poultry flock. In particular introducing Fred the Rooster to the girls, Penny, Prissy and Pick. My original flock of red speckled Sussex hens was decimated by the many predators we have around the house. Attacks from hawks, dogs, coyotes, racs, and possums left only three fairly street smart hens who now look to the sky and take cover if they see a circling shadow. Everything likes to eat chicken and the hens were so friendly that they would walk right up to the predator and allow the predator sufficient time to snatch and run. I understand now the importance of a rooster. As annoying as roosters can be they are definite plus for my flock's protection. Having grown up with very territorial roosters who attacked anything moving, I wanted to decrease the likelihood of the rooster attacking humans by getting a more stable breed. I decided on a double laced barnevelder for its dark brown eggs, for the stability of its roosters and as a declining heritage breed.
I ordered a straight hatch where the number of male to female chickens is a crapshoot. Out of eight chickens it could be half and half (best outcome), all male (worst outcome) or anything in between. Because of the order problem encountered, I know exactly what I will be getting now. I will be getting three roosters and three hen barnevelders and two buckeye hens. The original hatch date came and went and the company I order from, My Pet Chicken, called me to let me know the hatch for the type of chicken I ordered was not very successful and they could not fulfill all orders for the breed at that time. Future hatches were a big question mark. They worked with me to provide substitute hatch dates and other types of chickens. I have nothing but praise for how they handled the situation. Buckeyes have always interested me because an Ohio woman developed the breed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/buckeye_chicken
I wish I could come up with a breed of chickens that are friendly, quiet (including the roosters) but able to better fend for themselves against predators as well as egg productive. Why hasn't anyone tried to develop a rooster that has a soft, non irritating crow? Or they use their crow only as a protective device?
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/barnevelder
I have enjoyed watching my three remaining hens chase bugs in the mornings and afternoons. They make crazy eights in the yard chasing the winged things launching out of the grass and their craws are full of squirmy things. Makes me happy knowing that they are happy.
Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Glorious Beautiful Day after Storms
Today is a beautiful day; the bad weather from yesterday is gone. Our house and animals are fine and the cluck club are safe in their chicken yard. Other homeowners and farmers in the area are not so fortunate. There were several tornadoes around us yesterday. My work dismissed about 10:00 a.m. but I was unable to get on the road because the roads to my house were blocked due to emergency vehicles trying to assess damage. It was scary; it is always scary when bad weather happens.
On the sunny side today. I put together the galvanized steel raised vegetable beds and secured both with stakes into the ground before the storms hit. These are really, really big vegetable beds, 3 ft x 6 ft by 10 in, and I know I do not have enough compost yet to fill both. This is where ingenuity will help. I do have an electric mulching lawnmower and I purposely did not rake/burn leaves this fall. So I will be gathering more organic matter this month along with the overwintered chicken house pine mulch that should be hot and ready for the beds. The beds will empty my compost pile as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have just enough to fill both beds before I need to plant.
On the sunny side today. I put together the galvanized steel raised vegetable beds and secured both with stakes into the ground before the storms hit. These are really, really big vegetable beds, 3 ft x 6 ft by 10 in, and I know I do not have enough compost yet to fill both. This is where ingenuity will help. I do have an electric mulching lawnmower and I purposely did not rake/burn leaves this fall. So I will be gathering more organic matter this month along with the overwintered chicken house pine mulch that should be hot and ready for the beds. The beds will empty my compost pile as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have just enough to fill both beds before I need to plant.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
More spring time planning
I've decided on a rooster. Finally, after two years I found a rooster that I'm willing to bring into our farm life. It will be a day old chick and delivered about March 19th. Its name will be Fred. Fred the Rooster will actually be Fred the Roosters. I have ordered a straight run, which means about a 50/50 mix of hens to roosters. With the minimum run of 8, I will likely have 4 roosters and 4 hens. This is fine since predators will take over half the new flock. My plan is to put the young cockerel in with the 3 older hens once he is old enough to withstand their dominant personalities. Hens without a rooster tend toward the bossy side. At least one of the hens will take on male characteristics. Penny, my beauty Sussex hen, is the most rooster-like.
I have accepted that roosters are necessary for the health of a flock. Roosters will often turn away a predator, sometimes sacrificing his life for the hens. I also plan to raise babies and then begin to encourage the best characteristics for my little farm flock. I need quiet, friendly, egg-productive birds.
My Dad used to bring home fighting roosters and release them to forage for themselves. This meant turning a corner of the house and coming face to spurs with the rooster attacking you and then running like crazy to escape it. Once I had had enough. I mean, come on, can't I go outside in peace? So I beat that rooster until its wattle and comb were black and it was on the ground with its eyes closed. I was certain I had killed it. Nope, it got up and wobbled away to live another day. I believe we finally did put it to good use by eating it (sorry to offend any vegans but it was one mean, ornery rooster!)
Anyway, my memories of roosters made me very hesitant to introduce any here at 2-Dog Farm. Keeping my fingers crossed that Fred will be a worthy addition to our Farm.
I have accepted that roosters are necessary for the health of a flock. Roosters will often turn away a predator, sometimes sacrificing his life for the hens. I also plan to raise babies and then begin to encourage the best characteristics for my little farm flock. I need quiet, friendly, egg-productive birds.
My Dad used to bring home fighting roosters and release them to forage for themselves. This meant turning a corner of the house and coming face to spurs with the rooster attacking you and then running like crazy to escape it. Once I had had enough. I mean, come on, can't I go outside in peace? So I beat that rooster until its wattle and comb were black and it was on the ground with its eyes closed. I was certain I had killed it. Nope, it got up and wobbled away to live another day. I believe we finally did put it to good use by eating it (sorry to offend any vegans but it was one mean, ornery rooster!)
Anyway, my memories of roosters made me very hesitant to introduce any here at 2-Dog Farm. Keeping my fingers crossed that Fred will be a worthy addition to our Farm.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Fall is in the Air
Everytime I work outside, I work with my Dad. Images of him bending over his tractor and banging it when he got frustrated with it or cleaning his tools in an oil-soaked bucket of sand or just standing and looking out across his garden to the mountain in front of the house. His eyes a brilliant surprising blue against a sun darkened face. I loved my Dad so much and I miss him but I thank God for ending his life at the home he built with his own hands with his son and wife beside him when he breathed his last. He was a good, good father and a good man. He loved and was loved. He gave me so much love of the land and nature. God's Blessings to Art Oden this Sunday morning. Love you Pop!
Getting over an ugly virus this weekend so I am staying inside and inactive as much as possible. But I have my office window open and the breeze is blowing cool air into the house and I hear leaves falling and rustling. Ah, Fall is in the air!
So, here is my Fall To-Do list:
Clean up the electric push mower and store it in the shed.
Make sure it is fully juiced for storing and then check each month until spring.
Clean out and organize the shed so something as large as the electric push mower can be stored in it.
Make sure there are shelves and hangers aplenty.
Crack last year's black walnuts and hazelnuts to make a holiday nut torte (yum)
and to provide space for this year's harvest of nuts
Move my farming equipment (including my beekeeping equipment) to my shed from wherever else it is on the property!
Put finished compost into garden
Plant clover for a nitrogen fix into garden soil
Mulch the fig bushes, blackberries and blueberries. Apply some of the finished compost around these plants.
Plant some ornamental dogwoods and fruit trees along our property line. I want some pear trees for pear preserves in a few years.
Clip the chicken's wings.
Cull Prissy the white orphington and Pick the broody speckled sussex hen that is no longer laying from the flock. We'll be down to two chickens for the winter but we'll have lots of good tasting chicken & dumplings.
Order next year's flock.
Start the mushroom logs
Find the copperhead snake that has taken up home around my shed and eliminate him.
Thought long and hard about this one as I hate to kill snakes but a copperhead is bitey critter - no warning, all bite. It has to go before it gets me or one of my loved ones.
Get the big lawn tractor ready for winter storage.
Winterize the chicken coop for Peck and Penny and the new batch of pullets.
Start the bees on syrup for winter food. Once started, I'll have to keep it up all winter.
Look for parasites in the beehive and treat.
Sharpen my garden tools
Clean up my flower gardens.
Open up the bluff from the rotten tree debris and put some sitting benches along the scenic overlook.
Find out the cost for livestock fencing around one acre (through the woods, down hill and uphill)
Reconsider building a "true" chicken house - I have the plans - just need to do it.
All these tasks will take me well into Winter. I'll be lucky to have 1/2 of them done before fall is over.
My summer garden harvest was great. Good year for cukes and cherry tomatos. The heritage tomatoes I tried bombed. I had lettuce almost all summer and it did not get bitter. Next year we'll have a even better garden.
Getting over an ugly virus this weekend so I am staying inside and inactive as much as possible. But I have my office window open and the breeze is blowing cool air into the house and I hear leaves falling and rustling. Ah, Fall is in the air!
So, here is my Fall To-Do list:
Clean up the electric push mower and store it in the shed.
Make sure it is fully juiced for storing and then check each month until spring.
Clean out and organize the shed so something as large as the electric push mower can be stored in it.
Make sure there are shelves and hangers aplenty.
Crack last year's black walnuts and hazelnuts to make a holiday nut torte (yum)
and to provide space for this year's harvest of nuts
Move my farming equipment (including my beekeeping equipment) to my shed from wherever else it is on the property!
Put finished compost into garden
Plant clover for a nitrogen fix into garden soil
Mulch the fig bushes, blackberries and blueberries. Apply some of the finished compost around these plants.
Plant some ornamental dogwoods and fruit trees along our property line. I want some pear trees for pear preserves in a few years.
Clip the chicken's wings.
Cull Prissy the white orphington and Pick the broody speckled sussex hen that is no longer laying from the flock. We'll be down to two chickens for the winter but we'll have lots of good tasting chicken & dumplings.
Order next year's flock.
Start the mushroom logs
Find the copperhead snake that has taken up home around my shed and eliminate him.
Thought long and hard about this one as I hate to kill snakes but a copperhead is bitey critter - no warning, all bite. It has to go before it gets me or one of my loved ones.
Get the big lawn tractor ready for winter storage.
Winterize the chicken coop for Peck and Penny and the new batch of pullets.
Start the bees on syrup for winter food. Once started, I'll have to keep it up all winter.
Look for parasites in the beehive and treat.
Sharpen my garden tools
Clean up my flower gardens.
Open up the bluff from the rotten tree debris and put some sitting benches along the scenic overlook.
Find out the cost for livestock fencing around one acre (through the woods, down hill and uphill)
Reconsider building a "true" chicken house - I have the plans - just need to do it.
All these tasks will take me well into Winter. I'll be lucky to have 1/2 of them done before fall is over.
My summer garden harvest was great. Good year for cukes and cherry tomatos. The heritage tomatoes I tried bombed. I had lettuce almost all summer and it did not get bitter. Next year we'll have a even better garden.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Updates
I've been away for a month or two trying to sort out issues in my life that left me lethargic. My father died in early April, my step Mother fell at the end of April - a stroke and a broken hip. My beloved Aunt succumbed to heart disease and heart failure in June. I have some major life issues to address. Went to my new-old doctor who had been out of practice due to her own serious health issues. Went to her after she sent a letter to her former patients saying she was back and was in full-time practice again. I felt my current MD was not paying attention to my health issues. So I went back to her saying I was depressed and that I had a rapid heart beat and general listlessness. Rather than giving me anti depressants she did a full blood work up and it turns out that I have pernicious anemia. pernicious anemia is also termed Biermer's or Addison's anemia. Thanks WebMD.com, I found out the following information:
"Pernicious anemia is due to an inability to absorb vitamin B-12 (also known as cobalamin or Cbl) from the gastrointestinal tract. Humans get vitamin B-12 from animal products; both meat and dairy products are dietary sources of vitamin B-12. The body is able to store vitamin B-12 for a long time, so inadequate dietary intake must persist for years before a true deficiency of vitamin B-12 is reached. Because of this, the symptoms of pernicious anemia usually do not appear for years. While pernicious anemia is most commonly diagnosed in adults with an average age of 60."
"Feelings of numbness, tingling, weakness, lack of coordination, clumsiness, impaired memory, and personality changes can all occur. Both sides of the body are usually affected, and the legs are typically more affected than the arms. A severe deficiency can result in more serious neurological symptoms, including severe weakness, spasticity, paraplegia, and fecal and urinary incontinence."
"Pernicious anemia is due to an inability to absorb vitamin B-12 (also known as cobalamin or Cbl) from the gastrointestinal tract. Humans get vitamin B-12 from animal products; both meat and dairy products are dietary sources of vitamin B-12. The body is able to store vitamin B-12 for a long time, so inadequate dietary intake must persist for years before a true deficiency of vitamin B-12 is reached. Because of this, the symptoms of pernicious anemia usually do not appear for years. While pernicious anemia is most commonly diagnosed in adults with an average age of 60."
"Feelings of numbness, tingling, weakness, lack of coordination, clumsiness, impaired memory, and personality changes can all occur. Both sides of the body are usually affected, and the legs are typically more affected than the arms. A severe deficiency can result in more serious neurological symptoms, including severe weakness, spasticity, paraplegia, and fecal and urinary incontinence."
"As with other causes of anemia, symptoms related to decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood can include tiredness and shortness of breath. Vitamin B-12 deficiency also interferes with the function of the nervous system, and symptoms due to nervous system damage may be apparent even before the anemia is discovered."
"Symptoms of anemia are due to the reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, and pale skin can all occur with anemia. In anemia, the heart is placed under stress since it has to work harder to deliver enough oxygen to body tissues. This can result in heart murmurs, fast heartbeats, arrhythmias, an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly), or even heart failure."
"Pernicious anemia is most common in Caucasian persons of northern European ancestry than in other racial groups. In this population, 10-20 people per 100,000 persons are diagnosed each year with pernicious anemia."All of these symptoms are getting under control with weekly B12 shots, massive doses of calcium and vitamin D as well as just better health management.
All this time to myself has me thinking about what to do next on the homestead - I had given my chickens a chit for life long support because I raised them as pets. I had thought one could be a broody hen but that experiment failed grandly. She did not take to the fertilized eggs. These pets eat roughly $30 per year of laying pellets plus require significant pasture and time to keep their coop clean - and they lay less and less. So I'm thinking that with the cooler fall weather now in North Alabama it is time to cull the flock and then get a fresh batch of chickens for spring time laying. If I proceed butchering the chickens, I need to do it now.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Booger.
I ordered a broody hen containment system from Hayneedle for 79.98 <.http://www.hayneedle.com/Ware Premium Backyard Hutc>. It looks just like our hen house - cedar tee-pee style. And I ordered six fertile Easter eggs for our broody hen to hatch.
Unfortunately, the containment system is on back order but I received the fertile eggs. What to do?
Improvise. Necessity is the mother of inventions. I needed to get the broody hen out of the nest the other hens use for egg-laying duties and into her own area. I used what I had on hand, an old wire dog crate, poultry wire under the bottom, newspapers over that and a basket turned on its side and then some pine bedding and a tarp to keep the hot Bama sun off them mid-day. Ta-Da!
Now what would the broody hen and her sisters think of it?
 |
| Fertile easter eggers from My Pet Chicken |
Unfortunately, the containment system is on back order but I received the fertile eggs. What to do?
Improvise. Necessity is the mother of inventions. I needed to get the broody hen out of the nest the other hens use for egg-laying duties and into her own area. I used what I had on hand, an old wire dog crate, poultry wire under the bottom, newspapers over that and a basket turned on its side and then some pine bedding and a tarp to keep the hot Bama sun off them mid-day. Ta-Da!
 |
| The new incubation and containment system |
 |
| H'mmm, I don't remember leaving these eggs here. |
Maybe. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
A Grand Experiment
Is already hot today - the high is expected to be 97 degrees F - heat index well over 100. Chickens do not do well in heat. Heat stresses chickens much more than freezing temperatures. So lots of tender loving care for my little flock of ladies. Today also begins a grand experiment. It is time to cull my flock but before I do that I want a little broody hen, Pick, to incubate some fertile eggs for me. I have a new experiment to set up. I have ordered six fertile Easter eggs (type of chicken that lays pastel colored eggs known for their very low cholesterol). I have one very broody speckled sussex hen. Under the hen goes the eggs and in 21 days we'll see what we have. When eggs are incubated this way, ratio of hatch is 50:50. Ratio of hens to roosters is 50:50. So I expect 3 eggs to hatch and either 2 roosters and 1 hen or 2 hens and 1 rooster. Hoping for 2 hens and 1 rooster.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)