I am here and alive! There have been so many things going on this summer that I did not have the time or energy to hop on here and do my thing. But I promise I will be on more now that the kids are in school.

One of the things we have been busy with is all the chicks! I have had 7 hens go broody this summer and of those 7, three have gone broody twice. There are about 25 chicks running around of all kinds of breeds that I will be so excited to have laying next spring. Most are mixed breeds right from my flock.

This is Fancy, she is a Silver Laced Wyandotte with feathered legs. I bought 14 eggs from a friend on Back Yard Chickens. I divided them up between two broody hens Fancy and Kristine who is a Black Cochin. Both of these ladies hatched out their chicks but found out that the chicks all responded to Fancy more than Kristine. After about 2 weeks Kristine gave up and let Fancy take over the care of all 14 babies. Sadly I am down to only 9 of these chicks now, most of them had been taken by some smaller predators while we were gone for a weekend on vacation. The latest one to have passed was my daughter Rylaya's favorite that loved to be held. That chick had tried drinking out of the pig watering tub and seems to have fallen in and not been able to get out.  Out of the 14 I have one Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and the rest are EE's and Olive Eggers.
Now both moms have moved on and begun laying again (Kristine might be going broody again)

For some reason my pictures of Kristine and her chicks would not load, but I have many many pics of Fancy with her chicks.

Are any of my fellow chicken peeps raising chicks through the winter to have them start laying next spring? And what breeds are you raising?

Break out new arrival equals a few sick chickens!

 A couple of weeks ago I got a call from the Bothell Feed Center. Now this was a particular nice day, the sun was beaming and the breeze was scarse. Not a great day for an animal to be traped outside in a box. That being said, the great people at the Feed center informed me that they had come across a rooster of some sort out in thier parking lot, packaged in a dark green tote and a wire mesh lid. They had no idea how long this poor guy had been out there. But he also had a note taped to the box with him that read; "My name is Charley, please help me find a new home". Well I ran right over to collect said rooster, see some of the workers there have chickens but are eather not aloud to have a rooster or do not want one. I had no problem having him untill I could find him a home.

But first I wanted to quarentine him as we had no clue were he came from. Regardless it is always a good idea to quarentine a new addition untill you know they are not sick from the previouse home or even because the stress of travel to a new home and new exposures can weeken their system temperarely and they can become sick. A good amount of time to keep them seperate is 2-3 weeks.

 I put him into his temperary encloser were he could see the flock but not come into contact with them. Apparently he had other plans. The next morning when I went out to check on everyone he was our frolicking with the ladies. I made the decistion to let him be out with everyone, which I have come to realize was a bad idea. I now have a few girls that have come down with a respitory issue. With the generouse help from some very knolegable people on the Where am I? Where are you? Washington thread of http://www.backyardchickens.com/ I now know what I need to correct this problem and am on my way back to healthy chickens.

 Here is a picture of the culpret who got me chickens sick:

One of these days I will tell you a bit about this interesting little guy, but that is a story for another day!

Do you always quarentien your new chickens or just throw them in and hope for the best?

On a side note, I am sorry for my bad spelling. I tried useing the spell check, but don't think it worked as there were not highlighted words. There is no possible way I spelled everything correctly, not even a chance! 

It's been a while!

  April was the last time I posted, and there have been many changes sense then. Good and bad, but we have survived and are thriving and will continue to do so.

  All my kids will be out of school this coming Wednesday!

  Well as far as chickens go, we are defiantly up a few from the last time I posted.
I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but as far as adults I now have about 25 Hens and one temp rooster.
  Then, well then there are the chicks and pullets..... Lets see there are 3 that are 15 weeks old, two pullets and one roo (that is my up and coming roo for my flock) 7 Silkies that are about 7 weeks old, one mixed girl from my flock that is also 7 weeks, 2 hen raised mix chicks that are 9 weeks old, 6 chicks that are about 13 weeks old, and 3 bantam unknown breeds from the feed store that are about 3 weeks old. Not to mention that I have two hens that went broody (these are my 4th and 5th hens that have gone broody) and I bought 15 eggs to divide between them. So one had 7 and one had 8.... Well one still has 7 but my other girl STOLE eggs from the other nest boxes, my last count under her was 11 eggs. I moved them into the broody area right away so that she could not "collect" any more! Those eggs were set on Monday the 18th. Today is day 4 and hatch day should be about July 8th (one of my dear daughters birthday, Rylaya)

 Well I think that is all for now, but hopefully I will have time tomorrow to post some pictures!

I know it has been a while, let me catch you up!

 I know it has unfortunately been a while sense I last posted. I tried to a few weeks ago but my computer tends to be a POS and after I had typed up a Very long blog and pushed post it would not load and did not save! Needless to say I was beyond mad and it sort of chased me away from blogging for a bit.
( as I type this I am hoping it does not happen again)
 So happenings sense then......
Well the 25 eggs that I was incubating got down to a small number of just six eggs for lock down. Sadly through out days 19 and 20 of incubation all remaining 6 died. 5 of them were fully developed.
That was very frustrating adding that to my first hatch with 31 eggs that went though a huge temp spike and I had to discard all of them.
But I am hopping things work out better this time around. Fist of all, I have a beautiful black Cochin mix that has gone broody (meaning she wants to sit and hatch eggs) and boy has she been a champ so far! The day that I planned on moving her into a separate safe area to lay peacefully she had stepped out of her box to stretch and eat a bit while allowing another hen to lay in her box. Now normally I stand guard while the "other" hen was laying in her box so that I could remove the new egg before Momma came back in that way I did not have to disturb her later on. Well this time I did not and when I came in to check on Momma and make sure she was back on her nest, I found her in the box right next door with out her eggs. Then I noticed that one of Mamma's eggs had been broken by the "other" laying hen and she got yolk all over all the Mamma's eggs (just not her own damn egg of course) So I had to discard all 5 of those eggs as most likely they would have been contaminated and would not hatch. I immediately cleaned up her box and gave her 6 more eggs, she watched as I did this and hopped right on over as soon as I began to walk away.
 I then went to work getting her broody room ready! Because she hunkered down so quickly onto her new eggs I just went ahead and moved her right then and there. ( Best time to move them is at night when they are sleeping and not really paying attention.) Momma had not problem with the move.
 Decided to candle the eggs a few days ago and found that 2 were not developing so I removed them. The rest are due to hatch around our youngest son's birthday April 27th. My excitement levels are so high right now I can't stand it. To be able to watch a momma hen hatch and raise her own young is going to be GREAT!

Also, I finally decided it was time to try my hand at incubating again. I put 30 eggs in my bater on April 17th at 10 am.(Hopping this time an even number will be more lucky for me) So far so good, temp is steady around 100 and I also bought an automatic egg turner so I only have to open the bater to candle my eggs. Really have my fingers crossed this time.

More Baby news, Hanna Bean is due to deliver next month around the 12th of May. I have already got her birthing pen put together in my "barn", although right now it houses my 5 7week old pullets whom will be going into a large dog crate at the end of this week and be put into the coop so the girls can all get used to them.

This birthing pen so to speak will also be used for many other things, like..... Brooding my baby chicks (such as now), separating sick chickens from the flock, quarantine for new hens that arrive from time to time, and if not being used at the time I will put all broody hens in there with nest boxes on the ground for babies to get in and out until ready to go into the coop with their momma.

And now for the grand finale, seeing as we are already on the large subject of babies....... We have come to find out that we are adding one more to our home! I am about 6 week prego!!!!! Yes people if you have counted that will be a total of 6 children in our home. As for your next question, after this one I am done.

I will try to post the progress of chicks and kids (goat babies) as we go along.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Whoot Whoot tomorrow is Friday!

Excitement, followed by sad findings....

The excitement I have for my lil chicks to be born is overwhelming! As is the excitement I get before I candle my eggs.

To be able to see the developing stages is amazing.

I began with 25 eggs, after a few days I decided to candle them for the first time and found two eggs that seemed to not have been fertile. Which is fine, I knew that not all of them were and that a few of these would not make it to hatching, that is just life. I was thrilled to see that two of the eggs I was positive would not be fertile for lack of seeing my rooster "get" those particular hens, were indeed fertile and developing! One was a white egg from my white Leghorn girl (cleverly named Ivory) and the other was from one of our first hens an Ameraucana (named after her Black Beard)

Unfortunately, after candling a few times I found the big blue egg had died. Sad but again it was OK. I was the most hopeful for my lil white egg because my rooster is a beautiful black Cochin with great feathered legs and I really wanted to see what would turn out from them combined.

Yesterday I was candling and was able to see my white egg baby move for the first time, she wiggled and twitched and fluttered in there as I watched on. At least she seemed to be keeping herself entertained! At this time in the game I had come down to 18 eggs that seemed to have life, although of that I had 4 that were questionable.

Well tonight as I candled them, I did as I always do and looked at my white egg first and here is what I saw.........

If a developing egg is not something you are used to seeing than let me explain.
This is a no longer living baby chick. What you want to see is the upper part of the egg (well in this pick) being pretty dark and only really being able to see a few even darker spots (as the baby) and an amazing spider webbing of veins. Although I can see a few veins, they are thin and no longer pumping also the baby was not moving.

To tell you the truth I should not have let myself get that excited about any of the eggs, it would have been a lot less upsetting. But sadly I am not that type of person.

So I continued to candle my eggs and found that I am down to 9 eggs that have moving, living chicks in them.

This is a blue egg, so it is very hard to see inside.

This is a very light brown egg, as you can see there are veins. At the bottom, the bright yellow area (from the light) is the air sac. The very dark area is the chick and boy was she bouncing around in there.

Not sure why this one loaded sideways, but again good lil growing chick in this one as well!

I will keep my head up as I always try (dose not always work) and I can always try this again. I have my fingers crossed for the rest of these eggs.

5 free chicks for me!

I have noticed that between taking care of the kids, husband, animals and the house, I don't put up many blogs about my animal adventures or at least as many as I should.

On one of my many trips picking up free chickens that I found on Craigslist, the woman I got them from told me to check out this feed store. Not only do they deliver for free and only use things from local farmers their prices are not to bad. Just so happens that they were having a free chick event (not the kind of "Chick" that the Chief was hoping for ;o) So while I was in the proses of building my first attempt at an incubator, I went and picked up my 5 free chicks on March 10th. I ordered 3 Barred Rocks and 2 Road Island Reds which just made my urge to incubate my own eggs just that much worse!

I turned my not so great home made "incubator" into a mini brooder for the first week or so. As they get bigger I will move these lil fluff balls into a large tote.

                                  I am not the only fan of our cute little peepers.

It gives you a small heart attack when you see your baby chicks sleeping for the first time, looked like I had a hand full of dead babies!

These two are my most curious lil "girls", any time I tap on the glass they come running up to see what it is. The other three could care less.

So I was doing my normal obsessing over taking pictures of things, this time it was my chicks. When I noticed that one of my RIR chicks has what looks like eye liner. I wanted to take a pic of it to show you guys, but as I tried taking her pic there was this black fuzz that appeared in the right side of the pic.

 I took another and yet again, the black fuzz on the right but it took up more of the pic this time.

(Notice the eye liner? I think I will call her Cher. Why I have not a clue, but that is what came to mind)
As I zoomed out to see what it was I realized that some one is liking the camera attention and wants to be in all the pictures.

       I love the look she is giving me!  "Yes, I am here. You may take my picture, cause I am so fuzzy."

So I leave you tonight with thoughts of lil fuzzies running around peeping joyusly.

And as a side note, I did candle my eggs tonight, but my camera was not cooperating with me. I will try again in another day or so.

Incubation update!

This message is brought to you by very sore hands and even worse arms and leggs!

Finaly finnished the turkey coop, but that is a post of pics for tomorrow.

Dun dun duuuuu,  Today is day three. I candled almost half of my eggs and all 12 of them are developing into lil baby dark spots and I saw definite vains in two of them. Oh I am so very excited.

I am even happier because the one egg that I thought would not be fertial, on acount of not seeing my Rooster get to my White Leghorn momma, is very fertial! I wish it was easier to see into the darker eggs, waiting to see if my blue and green eggs are fertial too...... Guess I'll have to wait untill I think day 10. Oh my Holly crap I am on pins and needles, I can't wait for 18 more days!

Definatly will make sure that i take pics next time I candle. I was just so excited to see behind the locked door to the baby room.

Anyone elts seen inside of a devolping egg? It is amazing!

Start the 21 day count. Incubating chicken eggs!

For the last few days I have been very busy building and building. House for new turkeys, coop expantion, and new goat area!  I will save some of those for another day.

The one I am most excited about is my incubator.

This chicken "Math" has really begun to add up at my house. I started off with 5 hens just after the new year and now I have 25 hens and 2 roosters. Alas, I am done buying laying hens. Now I am moving on to chicks and incubating.

                                           This is Lacey being checked out by Big Daddy Jaxx!

                 I really think there is a Love connection here. Hopefuly this results in some babies!

I have been getting alot of insperation from a site that I frequent often back yard chickens.

I decided to take a look at some ideas for a brooder as I am getting 5 chicks on the 10th, for free! But then I also went on to sneek a peek at all the amazing incubators that these brilliant people have come up with. I went threw the house and found that I had all the makings for an incubator made from one of my 10 gallon fish tanks. Before I really knew it I was gathering it all up and putting it together.

Here is where I was going to list the things needed to make my incubator and put pics, but I got tired that night and put this blog on hold and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and my temp shot up from 99 to 106 overnight. The reason for this is that about 15min before I went to bed I had truned the eggs and let the heat out. I wanted the temp to get back to 99 as fast as possible so I put a towel ontop of the lid to help. Well it helped the temp alright, but I forgot to take it off the lid and just went to bed.  So I had 31 cooked eggs in the incubator.

Well my wonderful husband, being the great Chief that he is, told me to just go and buy a real incubator. So I did! 25 eggs went into the battor lastnight around 5pm. That sets them up for an April fools day hatch! I am so very excited.

Thanks to a fellow blogger informing me that my colors on this here blog were to hard on the eyes I have changed them. I really hope that this makes it more pleasant to read! Again thank you for your input and sugestion.

Losses, new arrivals, and soon to be's!

The past week has been very interesting.

As you all know we welcomed Hana Bean to our homestead the Wednesday before last.
She had a bit of a hard time adjusting to her new home, but now all is well. Getting used to The dogs is a slow prosses for her as she had never been around any and Baricad and be a bit excited at times, it is all coming along though. The baby boys have taken a liking to Hana but it is not a mutual thing yet, as I am sure it will be soon.

Losses,

Yesterday I was running late and in a hurry. Normaly when I go out to do all the feedings my dogs are out with me, but this morning they were in finishing up thier breakfast. As I walked into the yard to feed the baby boys, I saw this dog like thing zoom by the outer property gate opening where all the chickens hang out and forage. I knew exactly what it was........A damn Coyote! I dropped those bottles and ran out after him, all the while forgeting that I did not have my Mommy protecters (the dogs) with me. I ran as fast as I could tward where he was heading, I figured he just came out for a shot at an easy breakfast and that I had cought him in the act and ran him off. I called for my 9 yr old daughter Rylaya to "Let the boys out now, HURRY!" They came bounding out of the fence.

By the time we got to where I thought he was, he was gone. So I turned right around and ran the other way to the lower property. I stoped at the top of the hill before the decent down and there he was at the far end, he even turned and looked right at me when I yelled at him. Then he ran into the creek and was gone.

I was worried there might me another one because they sometimes run in pairs, not often though. But I thought sence my luck was good enough to have coyotes in the middle of the city in the first place that I better not chance weather or not one was still here. Better safe than sorry. So I again turned around and ran back the other way. I checked on the girls as I ran by, I saw most of them. But wait, where are the newest three? I stopped dead in my tracks with the dogs going crazy by my side..... Shit..... Those three girls never stayed with the group, they always ran out to the front pasture every morning. I began to run again, hopeing that they found shelter in the thick black berry bushes that they like to wander underneath.

Nope. As I walked into the tree line there was the first batch of strewn feathers from one of my new Silver Laced Wyndottes. This group consisted of two SLW and one Elvis looking cracked out Road Island Red. I walked a bit ferther and there was another struggle site. Leaves cleared from the battle, dirt turned up and feathers all around. But no bodies, no parts, no blood! In total I found four spots where this had occured so I imagine that they gave a bit of a struggle, I praised them for that! Still I have not found any sign of RIR feathers. Maybe that kill was taken very quick and easy then left with to eat else where.

The boys and I continued our rounds of the property to scare any remaining coyotes looking for the breakfast buffet. Also so that I may continue yelling and curseing out that damn coyote that did get my girls, and warning him that he better not come back or I will be useing his beautiful hide as a bed or couch cover!

My own reaction and feelings in this are funny to me. Why? Well because you see, I have this soft spot for animals, it is called my whole self. I love animals with every ounce of me, just a bit under the amount I love the Chief and our tribe. Normaly if any of my animals had died in anyway, I would have just broke down and cried, and cried, or and cried some more. But those ways have begon to change after I started out lil homestead thing here. I killed my first chicken on Saterday or Sunday ( but that is a story for another day, coming soon) At first it made my stomach a bit funny, but as I began gutting it, I got better and then the feeling was gone.  So when I realized this coyote had taken two, possibly three of my girls I was not sad. No, I was PISSED the FUCK OFF!!!! This bastard took food off of my table, and out of the mouths of our tribe! Those two (or three) chickens would have brought us not only eggs soon, as they were not yet laying, but two dinner each! That is four dinners. It took me at least half the day to cool down from this insident. I think the Chief was really getting tired of hearing about it, which in turn made him more mad that this had happend cause he had to listen to me rant.

Well, after contacting the local Fish and Wild life in our area, and finding out that there is nothing I can do about it in the city limits (if they were to find out) The Chief sugested that we go pick up a high powered pellet gun, if not for anything elts but to make him think real good and heard about coming back again after his next atempt.

This has happend at a really bad time for our homestead as we are getting some additions. Which brings me to.....

New arrivals,

After scouring Craigslist as I do every morning and at least a dozen more times threw out the day, I found a lady in Seatac with three hens and a rooster 8 months old. She was giving them away for free. Would have been nice if she had decided this last week as I drove right by her house on the hour drive to get Hana Bean, would have been convienent. So I got ahold of her and arranged to go pick them up. For those of you whom do not know my area at all, this is 45 min away. Our scheduals conflicted so much that she told me just to go to her house and get them out of her back yard.......Right.

Well today I packed up the car with a few boxes, chicken treats and Mommy treats as well as my Smith and Weston M&P 9mm. I love this thing. See I am a very petite girl/woman and allthough I can certainly carry twice my weight in gold (not literaly, but alot ;0) the Chief insisted that when going to do dealings with people from Craigslist (becaue of the killings and robberies) that I carry my gun. Expecialy when I can't take Jazz with me ( Mommy protector #1)

It did not dawn on me untill I got there that Roosters can be VERY protective of their girls...Shit! So here I am thinking I am going to get my ass handed to me by a pair of spirs, but I though hell I came all the way out here, I'll give this a shot. I went into the yard and was greeted by these two beautiful Black Cochin hens and a Gorgiouse BC Rooster. The roo did not run after me, just stared at me for the 5 seconds it took me to get a handful of scratch out of my bag and throw it for them. I looked for the third hena and she was nice and snug in the nesting box waiting for me to wisk her away.

As I took chase around the yard, I noticed that there were eggs all over. One here, one there and then a nest of about 10 under the porch. The chase of the girls ended very quickly with the great help of some very ong branches that had fallen off thier trees. Then I went one round with the roo threw the yard and in the coop he went. Oh damn, what a shame sir. Here just let me close that door for you. So I closed the coop door and opened the nest lid, grabed out the hen and then used a small lil broop to make the rooster walk right to me. I was very worried about what would happen when I grabed him, but I prepaird myself and carfuly grabed him by the neck and under his burly chest. No struggle, in the box he went and out to the car.

The only way I had to contact this woman was email. So I sent her one to say thank you and let her know I was  heading out. And as if free chickens was not enough I asked her if she was done with chickens and I could have the water container. I waited a few minutes and then headed on my way as I wanted to get home and let these beauties out so I could stare at them in my yard. Now I am wishing I was a bit more patiencent. Not even five minutes later as I just got on the freeway she emailed me back saying that the chickens where her ex husbands thing, he left them there months ago and she did not want to deal with them any more and that I was welcome to any of the suplies I wanted.....Are You Kidding me! She even said if I had drove a truck that I could take the chicken coop. I had been nice enough to collect the eggs for her and put them in the nest box so she did not have to hunt for them and she said I could have taken those too! CRAP!!!! Because I was already on the freeway and did not know this area at all, also cause I didn't drive a truck, I drove home happy and bumbed at the same time.

Now just so you know because of how she openly let me into her yard, and how we do not trust people I made sure to leave a note on the door with my contact info on it.

Also the breed of the chickens was a mystery, I was expecting just either some mutt chickens or just some of the few I already have, which for freee is just fine by me. But no I got these......

For some reason, I didn't really ever want chickens with feathery legs. But now that I have them, they are awsome! It reminds me of bell bottom pants.

Then there is,

Soon To Be's

While on one of my Craigslist searches I also found a pair of Heritage Turkeys for $75. I got ahold of the woman that owns them and she is holding them untill Saterday for me! I was planing on just letting them be where ever they wanted with a shelter to go to and not fence, just roosting in the trees. But now with this coyote thing I am worried that I may have to cancle on buying them for now. Which sucks really bad cause all the other turkeys I have seen for sale are about $100 for the pair. I would really rather not back out. These turks are already at laying age and will hatch their own babies.

Apparently all my goats think they belong in my house!

Today was Finlay Wednesday, the day I went to get my new goat momma Hana Bean!

She kept nibbling on my ear!

Look at her perty widdle face!


I drove an hour and a half away to go pick up our new goat.  Sadly she does not look as good as I wished her to, just as far as her hoofs not being trimmed in a long time! But I will learn to do that tomorrow and fix them for her.

She did not take to Jazz or Baricade as well as the baby boys did, she instantly began to butt heads with Jazz when he was just saying hi. That is OK she will get used to him. To bad that even if she got along with Baricade his time is almost up. But that is a sad post for another day.

I figured because I have been feeding the babies in the house that it had something to do with them always trying to get in the house. But as soon as I let Hana Bean into the yard and I went inside she walked right in behind me...... WTF? She walked in as if she had always been here and was always let in the house. Well, I don't have to worry to much as I will be moving the goats out to the main yard instead of being in the dog yard. I just had the babies there so they were safe, but now they have Hana Bean to hopefully protect them.

It is almost time for the last feeding of the night for the baby boys, so I just wanna add that I am very excited for the kidding part of this and the milk to come.

Today was defiantly a MONDAY, a Monday that had a happy ending. (The appropriate kind)

I was pleased with my self first thing this morning because I woke up 10 minutes earlier than normal. No, not really that big of a deal, but I figured it was a sign of a good day to come......

Got most of the kids off to school without a hitch, but when it came to our oldest, who just came back from vacation in Disney land, it started. He got a bit of a late start on his day, but we got out the door on time but the bus driver apparently did not read the date that Chase would be back to school. So as the bus got closer and he began to get out of the car.......the bus just drove on by.

Good thing we are not that far from the school, I got him there on time!

Now back home where the last of the five is waiting with Daddy for me to get back. Getting him off to school went just fine.

I did my morning online reading and quick browse threw Craigslist, after my morning chores of course, and I came across #1. a female Oberhaslis goat that has already been bred, due in May and they only want $100 for her. Of course she is an hour away but still a great deal. #2. Three "laying" we'll see about that, hens $15 for all of them only 2yrs old. Granted my luck with getting things off of Craigslist is not all that great. But I got really excited anyway hoping to get return phone calls and emails.

I needed to run some errands so I loaded up into my car and got to the end of our driveway, and stopped next to our dumpster to empty the car of garbage. Then I came to realize that some how the car doors got locked. It gets better, although you would think it was good because I was just in our driveway, still at home. We do not have any spare keys for this particular vehicle. Along with that, my purse with all my money was in the car as well as my house keys, and I was blocking the whole driveway. At this point I felt very smart (sarcasm) and my enthusiasm for the day was beginning to fade. The Chief came out and rescued me with some lil car tricks he knows and off I went.

There is hardly ever a day that we catch the first light on our street when it is green, so no surprise that I again today landed at it being very red. But then the four lights on the way to the freeway were apparently all against my today as well. Which is crap cause I always get mostly green lights.

About noon I did get am email regarding the chickens. The man said I could have them and to come get them around 5 or 6pm tonight. Well between chores, dinner, bath time and animals I don't leave my house really after 4. After a few more emails back and fourth it began to look like it just was not going to work, our schedules just were not lining up. So I told him this and thanked him for his time.

I still had not got a call back about the great deal goat, so I figured that she was already gone.

A few hours later, one on top of the other, I got a return call on the goat and now I pick her up on Wednesday, and the guy decided to just bring the chickens to me tonight.

On top of all that, one of my baby goats was not eating as much as I would like until this afternoon. Then he jumped right up and sucked down his full bottle!

All this I thought was going to just be one of those Mondays, but it turned into a happy ending after all!

Baby goats are here!!!!

My babies are here..... Or well, my mommy protector Jazz (great dane) has claimed them as his babies!

This is him licking this baby clean.

My Jazz normaly listens very well, but when I told him it was time to come in the house, he looked at me and said there was not way he was leaving these babies. I had to DEMAND that he come with me at least 4 times before he very slowly walked twards me with his big head almost draging on the ground.

Sir Bently found them very interesting, not only did they touch noses a few times as well as taking turns fallowing eachother. But Bently took to garding the babies while they slept in their new lil house. He sat on the corner of their porch for a while, just sitting and sitting.

I don't quite understand..... Are they dogs? They don't smell like dogs....

These goats are called Oberhaslis, they are rare in the United States. Originating in Switzerland, they are a winsome and affectionate breed- even the boys are docile and easy to manage.
So I bought the two boys that I helped with the birth, and had planned to also buy a baby doe. But with everything figured out it came up in my thoughts that it would be at least a year before we got milk from her. This is due to that fact that she would not be old enough to be bred untill August of this year, 6 months from now, then it is about 130 days of pregnancy. Lastly it would be another 2 months untill the babies would be weaned unless they were sold before that. Comes to about a year.

I talked to the breeder and she will have a few females in March or April that will be in milk and that she will be willing to sell. So I decided that even though it will be a bit more costly than was initally planning at least we will get milk alot sooner! There for instead of $100 for a bottle baby doeling and buy one get one free for the males at $25. I had to pay full price $25 each on the boys right now and then when one is ready $300 for the female.

At least this will give me time to collect the things I need for the milking prosses and storage!

I am so excited for all these new happinings at my house.

Chickens are an Obsession now!

I never knew what kind of love and interest I would have for these lil feathered puffs of personality.

Rain or shine, after I am done feeding everyone that needs to be fed and running through my morning routine, I sit and watch my chickens. Any were from 15min. to an hour if I have the time. I love to watch them scratch, forage and roll in the dry dusty dirt for a bath. I think it is so adorable when they shake and get all puffy for a minute until their feathers lay down again.

Then there are Roosters...... Them bad boys are so elegant and beautiful. Most of the ones I have seen just have such a presents about them, I can't wait to talk my husband into me having a Roo. But for now the only Rooster that I will have (when he comes in the mail) is a cute "Littlest Pet Shop" Rooster.

On another chicken note, my Americana girls still have not continued their laying. The two of them gave my a slow total of seven eggs over a two - three week span, then I changed the coop a bit and they stopped laying also I threw in the four new working girls, I know that sounds like a different profession but I thought it was funny and in my head that is all that matters ;0) but they still have not resumed production. It is a but upseting only cause I was really enjoying finding blue eggs in the boxes. But happy to say that I three possibly four hens laying now. Also Elmo (RIR that was called captin) has ended her molt and her beautiful feathers are all coming back with luster and shine. Can't wait untill she and the Judds (two Buff O's) begin to lay.

I am hoping that this dose not make my girls stop laying but I am once again going to have to make some changes to the coop. All my laying girls are laying in the same box. I have noticed that this is probably because this box is the darkest of the four. So not only am I going to make it so they are all darker but would like to add another four boxes under the existing four, just for more options and for future flock additions. The Chief thought it was funny and just like a woman to need 15 hours of light (hence the light in the coop) but want the nest boxes dark!

Speaking of the Chief, he built me a new lil house for my baby goats. It is a very simple yet great design. Sadly all I can do is think about how to alter it to work for more chickens ha ha ha. I am really excited to get our babies, who wouldn't be, but I can't help but think maybe I should hold off for a month and then see if our breeder has or will have an adult that is already bred that she will sell me. My reason for thinking this is simple, I will have to bottle feed these babies for at least 2 months, not really a prob other than just another expense. But on top of that the doe will not be ready to be bred until August and then we wont have milk until she has her kids about 120-130 days after she is bred. Even then we will still have to wait until the babies are either sold or weened. That is right around a year or more from now!

I am thinking about only buying the boys that I helped kid (just cause that really bonded me to them) witch is only going to be $50 so that I have the babies and then waiting untill next month and buying an adult....... That might just be the way to go.

Anyone elts have a chicken obsession?

It was a bloody mess, and then amazing lil baby goats in my hands!

So this is how my adventure into goats is starting....

Friday while the kids were in school I drove about 20 min away to a place called St. Johns Creamery, to buy some fresh goat milk for myself and my family to try. While I was there Marcia (owner) was showing me around. Telling me as much information as she possibly could with each breath, I love people like that. To me it truly shows their passion for what they have.

This tasted so good!


 She showed me the beautiful baby Oberhaslis that were for sale (which I am contemplating) and then brought me with her to check on one of her kidding pens. There was one perty girl pacing back and fourth breathing very heavily and giving a very understanding and yet distinctive yell every few minutes. Marcia explained that she was due to kid. I thought that meant at some point that day.... Nope, she meant any minute. This turned my quick stop for milk into an hour and a half long, goose bump filled tear jerk er!

Originally when I realized Garnet was in labor I figured Marcia would kindly ask me to leave so she could take care of her girl, it was just the opposite. I ended up watching and comforting this doe while Marcia ran around and grabbed what she needed. And through all the progress and each step Marcia explained to me exactly what was happening.  As things got closer and the bubble came I sat with more and more anticipation. Out pop these lil white hoofs and a lil face with the tongue sticking out. Marcia grabbed onto those feet and pulled this beautiful baby boy out, plop right out onto the ground. I was in a state of absolute happiness. There was a second lil boy that popped out about 15 minutes later.

 So needless to say, I not only want to buy a doe for our milking girl but I want one of those baby boys. I do not know if I should buy one or two girls.......

Wow eggs are good for a LONG time!

 Have you ever realized how long your eggs are good for?

Before I bought our first chickens, I looked on line trying to find out how long my eggs were going to be good for after they were gifted to me by my hens. It was not untill I was looking up breeds of chickens that I found this video, how to read egg cartons! It is amazing that the eggs most people buy in the store thinking they are fresh, are actually about 2-3 months old or at least it has been that long from the date they were boxed!

Funny thing is, I find myself checking a few of the egg cartons in the stores when I am out shopping! Yes, that is me, the one getting funny looks because I am checking all the boxes and not buying any.

You should watch the video and then run to your fridge (you know you will) and check your fresh eggs and see how old they really are!

My grandma Evelyn was shocked, not cause of the eggs but because I knew this information! Ha Ha I figured I would share this with you and I wanted to also because I just figured out how to put a link into the middle of my sentance. Yes, it is the little things that make me happy!

Good Night, happy egg gathering in the morning!

Is that really and egg? Well ok, if you say so.

  My lil Flock band, is doing great today.

  Yesterday when I got my new hens home I just put them in with the oldies. There were a few lil squables, but nothing big. I think it probably helps that they have 7 acres to rome on so they were not all in some small little area that they had to fight over. But it does seem that the new girls have began to rule the roost.

  This morning when I went out to check on them and do my morning chores, I was not expecting any eggs. Black Beard and Golden Eye have stoped laying sense I made the changes to the coop and then threw in some new roomates and just having brought the new girls home I did not think they would be laying for a few days. I check on my chickens quite a few times durring the day as I am new to this and I am still waiting for some of the oldies to start laying and don't know what time in the day they plan on doing so. When I went out just before noon I found miss no name (Black Astralorp) in one of the nest boxes. Now she should have been named Pecky Peckerton as she does snip at you when being bothered. As I shoved my cold hand under this poor warm hen in the box and she tried to keep me away I did not find an egg, darn. But I just figured that it was not time yet, come to find out I may have felt the egg and not even noticed. Come to think of it, I don't think she knew she had even laid one untill she turned to look as she left the box. Here's why........

The great blue egg on the left is from Black Beard, the middle is left over store bought egg, and that little itty bitty, tan grain of sand on the right is from no name! I would imagine it just felt like passing gass, she probably was startled to find that there was somthing under her when she moved.


 I don't think that I have ever seen an egg this small from a chicken, has anyone else had tiny tinies like this?

Hope you guys are getting nice weather like we are! Happy homesteading....

It's all Flocked up around here!

  I know the title is cheesey but I really could not help myself.

 So I found this lady on craigslist that was down sizing her flock of hens that are about 1yr old. Turns out it is a home we lived by for 3 months (while waiting for our home to be vacant) that I always drove by and wanted to stop there to buy eggs from her, just never got around to it. This woman Beth, was just a great woman. I purchased 4 new lil year old hens from her, 2 Buff Orphingtons now named Wynona and Naomi "The Judds" lol along with a Beautiful Silver Laced Wyandotte whom is now "Lacey" and last but not least, a black Austrolarp currently with out name. Now I have a total of 9 amazing hens.

  I never knew how much I loved chickens. We had a few quick squabbles between some of the girls when I put them together, but all in all they seem to be fine. Although this was the first time I had to rangle up chickens for the night. The old girls just go right in. Plus I had one of the Buffs that decided she was going off on her own and came inside the house yard or "dog yard" that was fun getting her all the way back to where she needed to be.
  She yelled back at me as I chased her, aparently she felt she had the right to be where she was. But I showed her!
  Now they are all in the coop, deciding whom is going to sleep where. Not really any fighting just compromising.
  Oddly though, one of the Rock girls "Mrs. Pecky Peckerton" got into one of the nest boxes and made it look like she was going to lay for me...... She looked at me and told me I should go look it up and see if it was ok for her to lay this late in the evening. So I did, and yes hens lay at all times of the day. As I do I became very excited and went out to check on her progress, still there she sat in the box. I waited a few then out I went again... and .... there it was...... NOTHING! Nope, not a thing. I got a look of " ha ha I got you".

May have confused the chickens!

  As well as the roof on the nest boxes I also built a new feeder. Before it I was just using a bowl type thing that they would bury with the wood chips in their coop! I took some PVC pipe that I had laying around from the Chief's company and put the pieces together like this......

  It is working great! I have it filled to the top and it just flows nicely. I think that I might try and make one for water.

Excited, but almost overwhelmed! But Pig changes are next.

  Everyday after my morning chores, I sit down and read about Homesteading! I love to read about all the people that are doing these things that I want to and am working towards doing. I get so excited, and I wish that I was already there and doing it all.
  Right now the Chief runs his Construction business from home, which is great. But as for me, I have only got as far as having two pigs and 5 chickens of which only two are laying every few days. What do I mean by doing it all? Well, I would like to have at least 10 laying hens, two pigs a year, 2 dairy goats, a pair of breeding rabbits for meat and my own great lil garden of Eden! To go along with that, I would like to learn how to can and cook, jar my own spices for cooking and anything elts I can think of along the way. Then I get to thinking about it all at the same time. For some reason I can't just stay with one and I get overwhelmed. I don't even know how I came to want all of this. Yes I have always LOVED animals and always will, but I was not raised on a farm. No one in my family has a farm and neather does the one friend I keep. I live on a 7 acre farm that happens to be right in the middle of Richy rich town and know no one of the same thoughts as me as to how I want to live. I have no one that has done these things before to guide me. My husband is a great help as much as he can be, but again he has never done any of this. I just feel a bit boxed in. But hopefully through other blogs that I read and books I might be able to pull this off myself.

  Other than all that babble you just read, my thoughts for today are my realizing that I need to move my pigs from the all dirt area right behind our house, out to the lush green Field that is not being used for anything! There is so much free food for their enjoyment, I just need to figure out how to get to that point.

  This is what they have for now, and I can't just pick up the fence and move it. My father in law and the Instigator set this up for me. the fence panels are buried 2 1/2 feet down so the piggies could not burrow under them. Then I had the thought that this would also be great for our first garden area, obviously because it is now very fertilized and tilled as well as all the big rocks have been brought to the surface for easy removal. But also because I do have dogs that are not use to living on a farm and do not yet understand that there are going to be things that they will not be aloud to pee on. So the fact that it is already fenced will help with keeping them out and other pesky lil things that might want an easy meal! I am luck that these guys have not begun to stink to bad.
  My biggest dilemma about moving the pigs to the front pasture (which is 6ft chain link fence with a barb wire top) is that our property ends right on the road. All though this is a dead end road it is the beginning to a very popular city walk way. Not only are there always people on this street walking but there tend to be lots of teenagers who these days are not ones to respect peoples properties, which has resulted in our front property house (waiting to be remodeled and lived in) with many broken windows and stolen doors ( not sure why they would steel the doors, it must be a cool kid thing lol). So I do worry about putting animals our there. But even if they were not messed with my other larger concern would be that many moms walk down here with their young children and hardly anyone knows that pigs can and will bight. I don't want some lil munchkin running up to reach in and pet the cool looking piggies as mommy takes a picture and chomp, baby has one less finger. I really do need some help with ideas on this one. I was thinking hot wire, and I would set it up about 2ft back from the fence so no one could reach it or the pigs but I don't have the means for that right not either. Arrrg, what to do???????
 

Also, I was having problems with my hens roosting on top of their nest boxes that had no lid, so they were pooing in them. Eeww, I was having to got out and clean them out twice a day, which as you can imagine was using up quite a bit of hey. So I went out and had my brother in law (The Instigator that we love so much) show me how to use the saw and I made some changes to my coop! Sadly one thing I did not read before we built the coop was to have the roosts up higher than the nests so they would not poo in the nest boxes. I have sense come across that information!

 This is before, see no top and oh what is this..... Well it's Not an egg!

  So I did this! Ta Da, I added a top that they can't roost on, also there is now a roost in front of the boxes for easy access. Yeah me! Next I will be making them a feeder because they tend to poop in the bowl and that just does not work for me either.
  Now my other challenge that I need to concur is how to organize this blog of mine. I am not sure how to go about that.

Lots of snow days & now girl time!

  This is the lil bit of beautiful sun that we got between snow cession earlier this week!

This is Bently trying to avoid touching the snow.... It didn't work very well.

  Bently is now an indoor outdoor cat, but he is not to sure about this cold white fluffy stuff. At first he didn't even wanna touch the snow.

 We have been having a lot of fun in the snow with the kids and dogs, but aside from that we had a great dinner that the chief made from our left over ham the other night. He made amazing split pee soup! It looks horrible, but taste like heavenly goodness.
      ?????Not sure why this part is whited out????

 In  other food news we have a total of 3 blue eggs now. One of which is HUGE!

Bottom is our first egg, Top is the second, and middle was our third. I can't tell if they are from different girls or black beard is just getting a bit "loose". lol

The girls are not to sure about the snow.

The piggies could care less....

The dogs on the other hand are loving the snow. Jazz just wants Baricade to go away some times.

Well, I guess that is away to get a break from Baricade. There is no way Cade could get up there, his back legs and hips are not strong enough. Jazz got the idea from the kids being on the work trucks and machines for our snow ball fight.

Chase had the upper hand.

The boys are so good about possing for me when I take pics.

This was our sunset the night before it began to snow....

This is the creek on the lower part of our property, It is sooo beautiful. Summer it is great too.

Our 3 boys have gone to an uncles house for some fun as the girls just got back from there. So our two girls and my youngest sister Carmen are haning out, playing poker and planning on doing some baking!
  Other than snow and more snow along with no school, there is not much to report for the last couple of days.
Hope everyone is enjoying the snow!

It's not easter yet but I have a colored EGG!

  So These last few days have been full of great news. My cousin Karen and her husband Don had their first baby yesterday at 8am. Big boy, 8#'s 9oz. Just a cutie pie! Although I was not feeling great the other day and yesterday/lastnight I was in so much pain from my teeth, this morning it has gone away. I was doing my normal chicken checking and feeding this morning and noticed that Black Beard was not outside of the coop. So I checked inside, there she was checking out the nest boxes. I noticed that  she may need a bit more hey in boxes so I added that and had to leave. I went to my cousins to feed her animals and clean up her house a bit to help out. Only took about an hour. When I came home I figured I shoud check on Black beard, and low and behold, she was out of the coop and there sat a beautiful, warm, BLUE/GREEN egg! I am so happy, you don't even understand. I have been jumping up and down over one egg. I love it.

 Here is our egg compaired to a store bought egg....

Really helps you see the color of our egg! It's so much bigger too!

 

Good Job Black beard, Maxx will be so happy his chicken layed an egg!