Getting Eggy

I love the colors we have in our kitchen. Olive, pastel blue, eggshell white (see what I did there?), caramel, chocolate, salmon...

One of our layers is a frizzle olive egger. She lays the green egg in the middle.

We call her Tina Turner.




The recent big snows have chased our hens inside, but the ducks stay out in the snow as if it were never happening.




That's a photo of our lovely Beignet out for a stroll.

We also have been getting our first duck eggs:




We have a lot of eggs at the house now. I collect more than a half dozen per day. Friends and family are the ones benefitting from this!

First Egg

I have been lamenting the fact that I have seventeen chickens, several at "point of lay," and not a single layer!

Until now!




Thank you, Henrietta Torpedo!

Pining for Peeps

Our shipment of chicks arrives the week of May 6th. And I am dyyyyyyyyyyyying.

Seriously. Though, in reality, it's an ideal time. They arrive in the last week of my school semester. I will have time to devote to their early upbringing. The first week is the most stressful, as the chicks have just hatched and a few of them die. Last year, we had six chicks shipped. One arrived dead, and another died within two days. A third weakened within the week, and we ended up taking her to the vet. She is now a lively and healthy Bubo.

Bubo, a Golden Sebright

Our ten gallon tank will be furnished with sand, a screen cover, and a heat lamp. We have a waterer and feeder. I will have PediaLyte and baby parrot food on hand for any chick that looks like it won't survive. I will do my best to not have any casualties.

So, you want to know what kind of chickens I ordered? Of course I'd love to tell you! ;)

Blue Andalusian - a white egg layer developed in Spain

Black Copper Marans - a layer of super dark brown eggs and rare in the US

Blue Cochin - a brown egg layer and a Chinese strain of chicken

Blue Splash Marans - a dark brown egg layer

Buff Orpington - Brown egg layers and great personalities

Silver Laced Wyandotte - dependable and gorgeous brown egg layer

Blue Silkie - Funny, funny bird, from China

Easter Egger - we already have two, and they come in a plethora of colors

Partridge Silkie - LMAO

Mille Fleur d'Uccle - Funny little French chicken with gorgeous feathering

Appenzeller Spitzhauben - I will never be able to take this chicken seriously.

White Crested Blue Polish - I'm going to love this chicken.

White Crested Black Polish - I had a little roo of this kind when I was a kid.

Buff Lace Polish - Yep. That's a real chicken.

Possible substitutions:

Hatcheries give you the opportunity to sub chicks if for some reason a breed you ordered is not available on the day yours is supposed to ship. Our choices for substitution were:

Double Laced Barnevelder - layer of chocolate brown eggs

Buff Silkie - funny looking chicken

 As you can see, we come at this chicken keeping thing with a big sense of humor. How can you not when there are so many ridiculous looking breeds! And all the gorgeous breeds... Plus, our assortment of eggs is going to be the bomb.

What are your favorites?

Snowpocalypse and Chickens

Snow is my favorite part of winter. And did we get hit with it!


This is our backyard. The coop is almost covered. Our bench is that thing sticking out of the snow to the left, almost fully engulfed. I had to shovel a path out to the coop. As I got close, I called out, "I'm coming for you, chickens!" I was greeted with clucking and squawking.



We had 35 inches of snowfall. The door to the coop is right there. The girls heard me shoveling and started clucking again.


The bird netting tore beneath the weight of the snow. That'll be a new project next weekend to keep the hawks out.


There they are! The girls are not happy with this weather.

Snow got into the cage portion of the coop. I scooped out a bunch of it, but the wind blew quite a bit right back in.


Billina didn't seem too bother by all the hubbub.


Minerva on the other hand kept giving me looks of incredulity.


Camilla likes eating snow.


There's Lover shoveling his way to the shed!

All in all, a fantastic blizzard. I kept leaving the house to beat snow off of a favorite bush in the front yard so it wouldn't snap beneath the weight. I am looking forward to some snowshoeing travels tomorrow. The chickens have access to a heated waterer, and have plenty of food. I even made them a mid-morning meal of eggshell omelet! (Eggshells are a great source of calcium for the hens, and eggs provide protein.) So they had something warm to fill their bellies. Lover and I have plenty of food ourselves, and hot cocoa. Our power stayed on. I have had plenty of time to finish crocheting one baby blanket, and am about a third done with another. Seedlings are sprouting beneath the grow light in the basement - cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, thyme, brandywine tomatoes, and indigo rose tomatoes. I look foward to starting more seeds this week, even as the winter carries on in her fashion.

Happy Snow Days to those who can enjoy them!

New England Poultry Expo

Lover and I have OCD. By which I mean that we have "Obsessive Chicken Disorder."

So when I found out about the big time Poultry Expo, I told Lover and we immediately decided we would go.

Come Saturday morning, we took the hour and a half trip to Massachusetts. I spent part of the trip reading "This Fine Piece of Water: An Environmental History of the Long Island Sound" for my Long Island Sound class. We listened to a Spotify playlist of recent emerging artists. It was sunny and chilly, and a perfect day for a drive through Northern CT.

When we walked inside the doors of the Expo, I don't think either of us were prepared for the cacophony that assaulted our ears. Roosters crowed in the distance, but just feet away from the doors were the squalling shrieks and squawks of many, many geese, and the rolling gargles of turkeys.




Lover was ecstatic. He ran around taking photos, a big grin on his face. I never realized what a poultry fanatic he could be once I introduced him to the antics of chicken-keeping. Someday, we'll have ducks, too.




I also saw the cutest little quail! I love quail eggs. I am seriously considering quail.I don't have a photo though! Lover saw Serama chickens for the first time, which are the tiniest breed of chickens. They are super cute, and Lover now wants, get this, a Serama rooster. Check out the photo I found online:

Ridiculous, right!

Anyway, we went on looking at all kinds of birds.










We picked up a pair of silkies for a friend. They stayed overnight out our house. Once they were comfortable, the rooster started up his crowing. It was a fun morning!

This has made me all the more excited about getting our chicks in May. I want to create a new brooder for indoors out of a big storage tub. We have a brooder for outdoors. A couple of our big hens are going to Kentucky to live with Lover's parents. So, we're making room for our new lovelies!

Bunnies

I know I've mentioned in earlier posts that my friend Liz Lemon (not really her, nor is it my friend's real name) often need chaperones when we go out. We always end up bringing home crazy things.

On the fifth of November, Liz Lemon and I were driving to the Fiber Arts Festival (I love saying that). Twenty minutes from the festival grounds, Lover called. He was upset. Hs words were, "Something happened...a hawk..."

My heart stilled. Chickens are prey animals. Hawks are amazing predators.

"Little Beansidhe is dead. Wrex is missing. I can't find her. I'm standing here holding a dead chicken."

Devastation. LB was Lover's favorite chicken. Wrex was my favorite chicken.

What.the.fuck.

When I got off the phone, Lover was on a neighborhood wide search for Wrex. The rest of the chickens were safely locked up in the coop. I was sitting in the car next to Liz Lemon, silently regarding the situation.

Liz offered to turn around. I was no longer interested in any Fiber Festival, but I knew Liz was excited about going. She had been talking about it for months beforehand.

"No, we'll go. I might want to leave earlier than we usually do, though."

"That's fine."

We went the rest of the way in silence. I felt bad, but I was in no mood for chitchat.

When we arrived, I brightened slightly at the sight of alpacas. How could you not? They are so friggin' cute, like teddy bears crossed with llamas.

Then, in the third booth, an even more precious sight. A littler of six week old angora bunnies.

It was like someone had slipped me uppers. I asked to hold one and as I cuddled the little fuzzball against my chest, I had decided.

"Liz Lemon," I said to my friend (though I used her real name), "I am buying this rabbit, and taking him home with me."

Liz and I had talked before about raising angoras for their fiber. Our plans suddenly jumped up. Then we decided to bring home two rabbits.

Meet Blackula and Wicket. In this first picture, they are six weeks.




Now, they are three months old and almost ready for their first shearing!








In the words of my craftista friend Nikita, "They exploded!"

The end of the chicken story was bittersweet. I brought home the rabbits, incurred a small amount of wrath from Lover (who was completely taken off guard), and mourned for LB and the missing Wrex.

The next morning, I couldn't help myself but to begin a search in the neighborhood for my pretty little girl. When I didn't find her, I went back inside and told Lover. I cried. He hugged me.

Later, he and I were heading out to the yard to check for eggs. As he walked through the gate, he exclaimed, "Hey! Why are the chickens out?!"

"I closed their door!" Then I thought maybe in my haze of grief I hadn't latched it properly.

"Oh my god!" His whole tone changed. "Oh my god!"

"What is it?"

"What do you think?" He was grinning.

I ran into the yard after him, and there, standing in the morning sunlight, was my precious Wrex, golden feathers and all.

It was like a movie. We ran to her, she dodged Lover's first grab (probably completely freaked out by our descent upon her), but not his second.

"Give her to me! Give her to me!" I yelled.

There were tears and chicken hugs all around.

Yeah, the neighbors probably think we are truly freaky people.

We placed Wrex back with her flock in the coop. We buried Little Beansidhe beneath the forsythia bush.

We've since made them a run covered by bird netting to keep them all safe.

(Wrex is the golden chicken in this photo.)




The rabbits made it through their first shearing, though they were not super happy about the whole process. Once it was over, Blackula and Wicket were kicking up their heels and running in circles around the living room. I imagine they were enjoying their newfound freedom after all the fur we trimmed off. 

The suburban homestead is coming along nicely!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Chicken Gang

Sometimes I love nothing more than sitting outside on the beautiful bench my fiance made and watching our flock of chickens. I sat with a notepad and pen to make a handy little to-do list for tomorrow (making and canning BBQ sauce, freezing herbs and lemongrass, potting some herbs to bring indoors for the colder weather, making kimchi with the cabbage and radishes from the CSA...). Our handsome little phoenix roo hopped up on the bench beside me. And I knew I had to get a camera.

Of course, when I came back out, he wasn't the only one interested in what was going on. 

Belina is a Rhode Island Red mix, and a gift from friends.

Wrex is our Easter Egger hen and part of our original shipment of chicks.

Minerva is a White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red mix - from Schreiber's.

Bubo is a Golden Sebright bantam. Behind her is Bandit. Both are from the original shipment.

Brave Little Toaster (BLT) is a Phoenix hen. From my aunt's farm.

Bubo and BLT.

BLT is curious.

Malai basks in attention. Not a chicken.

Bandit is an Easter Egger hen.

Camilla and Bandit.

Camilla is a Salmon Faverolle from the original shipment.

Bandit.

Camilla!

Bubo dashes by.

Bubo and Camilla are the same age. Bubo is a type of bantam, or "dwarf chicken."

Hangin' out!

Eventually Lover joined us, and he and Malai did some communing.

 Overall, the backyard flock is a hit with the whole family. Quadrapus didn't eat them when they were chicks, Malai is followed by the flock when we go out, and Lover sits out and "zens" with the chickens after he gets home from work.

Me, I just love 'em. How can you not?