CHICKENS!

I was looking back at some of my posts about hatching chicks and I thought I'd give a little update on my flock. The majority of my current feathered family hatched in early September 2016 - that makes them about 5 1/2 months old. Many of them are beginning to lay now and I am thrilled with the rainbow of eggs I am getting!

Here is a pic of my messy counter over flowing with eggs. (I spy some home made kombucha too!)

I have a total of 23 chickens, a little less than half of them are bantam and the rest are standard size egg laying breeds.  Although I hatched (and purchased) a lot more chicks, I ended up selling many of them.  Most people have backyard chickens for the sole purpose of getting fresh eggs.  I love the eggs, of course, but I also love having a variety of breeds for different colors of eggs as well as for enjoying the simple beauty of my pet chickens.  This crew really brings me happiness.

My smallest hen, Tiny, is on the very right of this picture.  She is a full grown Serama (and standing next to her rooster counterpart).  They are unbelievably adorable - and walk around as if they own the place!

Because mother nature is what it is, I ended up with a total of 6 roosters.  3 are bantam and 3 are standard.  It's more than I would like - but they are getting along fine (so far) and are all so very different and handsome, that I honestly don't think I could bear to part with any of them.

Here is Cosmo Kramer, the gorgeous Brabanter rooster.

This big guy is (I believe) a Welbar.  I think I'll call him William.  He is so handsome.

French Blue Copper Maran Rooster, Jacques.

Here is my tiny Serama rooster, Pee Wee.

One of the Cochin Bantam roos, Red.

This other handsome Bantam Cochin rooster (in the middle) still needs a name.

I think I lucked out with such a beautiful flock.  I am still looking for a few dark brown egg laying hens.  I had several in the past - but sadly lost them all to predators.  Jacques is a Maran - the breed that lays the darkest chocolate colored eggs - and he needs some more company.  Besides that, my ratio of hens to roosters is a bit off....and I really need to round out the colors of eggs in my basket, right?   (THIS line of reasoning leads to a little thing called CHICKEN MATH.)

Here is one of my three cream crested legbar hens getting up close and personal.  She lays beautiful blue shelled eggs.

Milk Paint Makeover

The weather was unseasonably warm this weekend - so I took advantage of it and made over an old dresser that had definitely seen better days.  I am a big fan of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk paint - so this is what I used on my dresser.

For those of you who have never used milk paint, you never really know what the outcome will be until you use it.  Sometimes the milk paint dries smooth and other times it gets chippy and crackly.  To me, this is the beauty of it.  If you prefer a smooth finish with no chipping, you can use a bonding agent.  From my experience, if you paint over an already finished item and the old finish is intact, you will likely get a chippy finish.  If the item is dried out or has never had a previous finish (bare wood), your paint will likely dry smooth without any chips.  If you want only minimal chipping, it may help to sand your item first before applying milk paint.

As I mentioned, it was unseasonably warm for February in Pennsylvania (around 68 degrees F) and a beautiful sunny day.  I worked outside and I believe that the bright sunshine dried my paint more quickly causing the chipping to be pretty significant (in addition to the fact that my dresser had a thick coat of crackly varnish). It chipped so much that I actually began to get nervous.  I was worried that none of the milk paint would stick and that I had just wasted my time and milk paint!  However, I kept telling myself what I know to be true about milk paint - it always looks worse before it gets better - so hang in there!

Before.  This dresser has great bones and is very sturdy - but has definitely seen better days!

For this piece, I used a custom mixture of two shades of MMSMP - I didn't measure, but I would guess it was about 2 to 3 parts Kitchen Scale to 1 part Boxwood.  I always take a deep breath before slapping on the first brush of paint.  I do not take painting a vintage piece of furniture lightly.  I love and respect antiques.  When I purchased this piece had already had one drawer partially stripped and the top was damaged with lots of scratches and various stains of paint and what I believe was a glittery nail polish.  I did sand the top a good bit to remove some of the odd paint colors as well as the scratches.  The varnish was very thick and crackly - especially on the top and front of the drawers.  Perhaps it sat in direct sunlight for many years.

After.  It is VERY chippy. A look that is not for everyone.  But I happen to LOVE it.

After the milk paint dried and did it's chippy thing, I lightly sanded with a foam sanding block, dusted off all the excess paint chips with a dust brush, and finally sealed with two coats of Minwax Wipe On Poly in Clear Satin.  This sealed in all the chippy goodness and texture that makes this dresser a one of a kind beauty.  The sides chipped only a little in comparison to the top and front.  This unique piece would not only be great in a bedroom, but also in a dining room to store linens, or even in an entryway.  It's simply too cool to hide away.

Call (Me) the Chicken Midwife.

Here are the chicks the day after they all were hatched - nice and warm and dry in the brooder.

I'm happy to announce the arrival of 16 healthy happy chicks!  The one bantam cochin egg hatched a day early (which is not unusual for bantams) so s/he was all alone for a while.  Of course the first born needed a name - and "Primo" (or "Prima") was the first thing that occurred to me (you'll understand this if you speak Italian or have ever seen the movie Big Night - which, if you haven't, you simply must).  However, this little one soon earned another name:  Sarge - because for the next day and a half after hatching, s/he was busy running from egg to egg cheeping loudly and even pecking on the egg shells of the others telling them to hurry up and get out here!

It was a wonderful experience for both my 5 year old son and me.  All day long, I kept walking back and forth to the incubator and looking in the window and snapping photos and videos.  Here is a video of Sarge just after s/he was born.  Please excuse my nerdy commentary.

 

14 chicks hatched on the predicted day (day 21 of the incubation period).

Day 21 was when most of the action happened.  Here one of the cream crested legbars is hatching out of the pretty blue egg shell.  Sarge is surveying the recruits right in the center.

When I woke up on the 26th day of incubation, 15 eggs had hatched and my only viable Maran egg had pipped.  It took this little guy (or girl) a while - but s/he did it!  It was exhausting to watch - and I can only imagine how the chick felt after fighting that shell!

Here is the last chick to hatch.  S/he is a Maran - and after s/he dried off and fluffed up, was a pretty light charcoal color with a lighter underbelly.  This breed of chicken produces dark shelled eggs like the one s/he just hatched from.  So gorgeous!

So, my final count is 1 bantam Cochin, 1 Maran, 2 Brabanters, 9-10 (?) crested cream Legbars, and 2-3 (?) Welbars.  (the question marks are there because somehow, despite trying to keep accurate records, things just didn't add up - and apparently the Legbars and Welbars are somewhat similar looking as chicks - so I'll have to wait and see who grows into which breed!

Surprisingly, the crested cream Legbars had best hatch rate - I started 14 of those eggs because they came from my flock - and some were almost 2 weeks old!

The Brabanters had the lowest hatch rate.  5 of these eggs didn't develop at all - so I suspect that they weren't fertile.  Of the 7 that showed signs of development, only 2 hatched.  It was certainly a disappointment, but if the odds are with me, I will have one pullet and one cockerel - so someday I can hatch more from my own flock.  These were also the most expensive of the hatching eggs I purchased at $20/dozen.

I purchased the 6 Welbar and 2 Maran hatching eggs from another breeder and he told me that he typically only achieves a 50% hatch rate - so I wasn't too surprised by my outcome of 2 (or 3?) Welbars and 1 Maran hatching.

Overall, this was a fun and rewarding experience.  I would definitely do it again - but would probably invest in an automatic egg turner.

Here are my little ones in there big brooder (which will have a netting top as soon as they are able to jump/fly out).

You may have noticed that there are more than 16 chicks in the brooder picture above... lets just refer to this as chicken math - and the fact that a mail order breeder of bantam Cochins had a big sale on one of my favorite breeds...

Tomorrow is Lock Down Day!

When I started this incubation process 17 days ago, I was feeling pretty uneasy and nervous about the very real possibility of making novice mistakes and losing chicks. The first week was pretty intense - constantly watching the temperature and being sure to turn the eggs on schedule.  After I made it past that point, something changed and I started to feel more confident.  I don't know if it was just getting into the groove or actually seeing the baby chicks develop each time I candled - but something clicked.  The last 10 days have flown by - and tomorrow is lock down day already. 

Before the actual lock down, I will go through the following steps:

1.  Carefully remove all of the eggs to a safe spot lined with a soft fluffy towel.
2.  Add water to the chambers to bring the humidity level up (ideally to 65-70%)
3.  Line the wire floor with non-slip shelf liner.
4.  Candle the eggs one more time to remove any that are clearly not developing.
5.  Put all the good eggs back in and close the incubator. 

Because my incubator is in a very bright room, I will candle the eggs tonight after dark - so I can more easily see what is going on inside.  After this, I can just keep an eye on my temperature and humidity levels AND watch for signs of pipping through the incubator windows. (I am so excited for these little babies to arrive!)  I will also be busy getting my brooder ready for them to move to 24-48 hours after hatch.

I carefully removed the eggs to a safe area. On the right side of this picture, you can just barely see my pitcher of very warm water, it should be at least 100 degrees so that the temperature in the incubator doesn't drop too much.

Under the wire floor, is the plastic humidity chambers.  I filled these with very warm water.

The non-slip shelf liner waiting to be installed.

Now my chicks will have a safe, non-slip floor to walk on.  Without this, the wire floor would be quite difficult for the newborn chicks to walk around on - making them more susceptible to splay leg.

All my eggs are back in ready for lock down.  The four eggs below the wooden chopstick are my the ones I am most unsure of in terms of development/viability.  I will candle tonight, and if still unsure, will try another process called water candling.

It should be noted, that my incubator does not have an automatic egg turner - and I have been hand turning the eggs at least 3 and up to 5 times daily.  If my incubator had an automatic egg turner, I would remove it for lock down.

I'll do my best to keep you posted on the progress of my peeps.  Thus far this has been a great experience and I hope to add some more members to my feathered family very soon.  Wish me luck!

Incubation Status from day 7

I'm now up to day 8 of the (approximately) 21 days incubating my chicken eggs.  So far it's been a little bit of a worrisome experience for me.  Because these are (potentially) living beings, I take it very seriously.  I don't want to make any dumb mistakes.

I started with 37 eggs and expectations of about a 50% hatch rate (if I'm lucky).  Last evening (after dark) I candled all of the eggs at the last turning of the day before going to bed.  I tried to take some photos to show what I saw and I think they came out fairly good considering they were taken with my smart phone.

I turn the eggs 3-5 times per day to keep the developing embryos from becoming attached to the outer membranes and the eggshell.  This process needs to be done quickly and delicately so as to not allow the temperature to drop too low for too long and to not accidentally crack or break any eggs.  The developing eggs need to be turned regularly for the first 18 days

Because I am trying to spend as little money as possible on this whole process, I did not invest the extra $45-50 on an automatic egg turner.  This means that there is a lot more hands on time involved for me (every few hours).  If I am successful with this little venture and decide to breed more chickens in the future, I will most likely make the investment.  And speaking of hands on, I am always sure to wash and dry my hands before handling the eggs to remove any oil and bacteria that could contaminate the eggs and cause hatching problems.  It's also nice to have warm hands when handling the warm eggs.

Here is one of the colored eggs being candled.  It's a good one!  I could see the the blood vessels and the dark spot which is the eye of the chick!  As I am a novice, I can not discern the tiny beginnings of a beak, limb buds and tiny digits on the wings and feet that will make toes and wing sections - but according to all my research, by the end of day 7, they are there!

This white egg (a Brabanter) is much easier to see inside of via candling.  Another good one - developing on schedule.  This is truly amazing to see so up close and personal.  My mother in law was here with me and as a retired RN, she was almost as excited as me.  A new life (of any species) is a miracle.

Since I candled the eggs to check on development, I expected to find some eggs that were not fertile (and thus were not developing) and/or some that died after beginning to develop - and I did.

Here is a Brabanter egg that is not fertile.  All I could see was the yolk and no developing blood vessels.

Here is a bantam Cochin egg that, sadly, died early on in development.  The blood ring makes it very clear.

All in all, I had 9 out of 37 eggs that were either infertile or died quite early during development.  Candling is recommended to pick out these eggs so they don't go bad and explode in the incubator.  So, now I am down to 28 eggs.  If by some miracle, all of these eggs survive to become chicks, my hatch rate will be 75%.  That's pretty good.  Since I am new to this, I don't know if, like in humans, once you make it through the first trimester, healthy birth (or in this case, hatching) is more likely.  Obviously I have more to learn.

According to the gentleman from whom I purchased the Welbar and Maran eggs, he averages a 50% hatch rate.  I am doing better than that so far.  (Although seeing through those dark egg shells was quite challenging - so when in doubt, I kept it in the incubator).  I did lose 5 of the 12 Brabanters - and that breeder warned me that those eggs are extremely difficult to hatch in an incubator - so I am not terribly surprised - but I am a little disappointed.

The big surprise to me is that all of the 14 cream crested Leg bar eggs appear to be developing right on schedule.  Those were the eggs from my hens - that were anywhere from a few days to up to 2 weeks old.  These eggs are also the descendants of the rooster that I lost to a fox more than 2 weeks ago.  It's good to know that I can (hopefully) continue to keep this beautiful breed.  I may even be able to get a Kareem Abdul Leg bar, Jr.  ;)

Well here are the final stats as of the end of day 7:

• 28 developing eggs (started with 37)
• 7 cream and/or gold Brabanters (started with 12)
• 4 silver and/or gold Welbars (started with 6)
• 2 copper Marans (started with 2)
• 1 bantam Cochin (started with 2)
• 14 cream crested leg bars (started with 14)

I plan to candle again on day 12 or 14.  I'll report back after I do. 

Until then, keep looking for the everyday miracles all around you.

I NEED more Chickens.

All the eggs just before going into the incubator

It's been a rough spring and summer so far for my chickens.  I believe that it is important for the girls (and boys) to have free ranging time - but unfortunately that sometimes comes at a cost.

We've been at our current location for a little over 2 1/2 years and have had chickens from the very beginning.  We moved into our little farm in the beginning of winter.  Our property is surrounded by farmland and woods and very close to a state park that has over 7,000 acres of wooded land.  With all this beautiful country around us, comes lots of different predators - and chickens are just about on the bottom of the food chain.  Right from the start, we had a coyote take all 6 of my chickens after an ice storm destroyed their run.

After this heartbreaking event, my husband and I were determined to provide a safer and more permanent home for our flock.  We sold our cute little chicken coop that housed up to 6 hens and was on wheels.  Since we moved from 1/2 acre to 12 acres - we could now have more!  We invested in building a BIG coop (at least to me) 8 x 10 ft. with a run of twice that size.  It's super secure with fencing that goes a good foot under the ground.

Despite having this fantastic coop and run, I still feel that my chickens have a better quality of life with some free ranging time each day.  With this free ranging, comes danger.  Well, this year has been the worst - to the point that I actually started to think that the fauna in our area told each other about an all you can eat chicken buffet at Pear of Hearts Farm.  We still have a flock, but it's quite young and are now only getting 1 or 2 eggs a day if we're lucky.  I actually had to buy eggs last week for the first time in probably 4 years... gasp!

So, I decided that I need more chickens and I need them now... or at least pretty soon.  I really didn't want to pay $10-15 (and up) each for young hens that are just about to begin laying - and I also didn't want to mail order chicks (as it's not the correct season in the local feed stores to buy them).  I went to an animal auction with the intent of getting a good deal on some interesting varieties of chickens - but was disappointed with a poor selection of hens and a whole lot of roosters!  (On a side note, there were more adorable bunnies and pigs than I could have imagined... and don't get me started on those goats!  OMG!)

If you know me, you know that when I get an idea in my head, I don't give up easily.  I wanted more chickens, I wanted a nice variety of breeds to get different colored eggs, and I wanted them now.  So what's a girl to do?  Go to the internet, of course!  I searched Google, Facebook, eBay, Craigslist, and Let Go.  On these sites, I was able to find leads to a few different varieties of hatching eggs, a never used incubator at a great price (box was open and it was dusty), and lots of information on how to hatch eggs.  (Of course I also looked to my stack of books on chickens that I have hoarded over the past several years too.)  So here I go!

Because I lost my only standard rooster (a Cream Crested Legbar) just last week to a fox, I knew that the eggs I had and would get for the next week (at least) would be fertile.  So I stock piled my blue Crested Cream Legbar eggs.  I am not terribly hopeful about the hatch rate for them, as the hen laying them is quite young - so I put all I had in the incubator.  I also have one Black Sex Link x Ameraucana hen who is laying, and I'm hoping that she may have hooked up with said rooster before his demise. Thus, into the incubator went a whopping 1 egg from her.  Next, I asked my super nice neighbor if she could spare any bantam Cochin eggs - and she was kind enough to share 2 with me (it's been super hot and those ladies aren't laying much at all).  At the same time, I sent out a request to a chicken group I am a member of on Facebook, and a local member sold me 6 Welbar eggs and 2 Copper Marans.  Finally, I scored a dozen cream and/or gold Brabanter eggs from a breeder about 35 miles away.  So, into the incubator 37 eggs went this morning!

That's A LOT of eggs.  If the impossible happens and all 37 hatch, I will be selling some chicks... ha ha!  But, in reality, I am expecting about 50-85% hatch rate.  Some of the eggs (although kept at a proper temperature) were more than a week old.  At least 1/2 were less than a week old, and the one dozen Brabanters were just laid yesterday.  So, in my typical optimistic (yet realistic) way,  I am prepared for the lower end of that scale.

I know that I haven't been great posting on this blog for the past few months.  When the kiddo is home all summer, things get moved down the priority list - and other things that can't be ignored (yard work, lawn, garden, etc.) get moved up.  Irregardless, I am hoping that this new endeavor of hatching eggs gets me back on track.  I'm planning to update my progress (and setbacks) here.  So stay tuned!

This is a picture of a gold Brabanter chick, it was shared with me by the breeder from whom I purchased the eggs.  She's the Mr. T of chickens!  ("I pity the fool!)  Can you even stand the cuteness?

Here's an adult cream Brabanter hen. Now you see why I waited a week to start incubating all those eggs!

Here's a shot of my crested cream legbars (and the rooster, Kareem Abdul-Legbar, may he RIP)

here's what's buzzing

Since my bees arrived and I hived them, time has flown by.  I meant to post sooner - but it just didn't happen.  They were supposed to come the third week of March - but were delayed.  The good thing is, the hives were all ready for them - and I didn't have to rush to set them up.  My husband helped me get the bee yard ready.  We created a weed free level base with just a touch of tilt forward to keep any water from flooding the bees.  I still plan on adding wood chips or crushed stone on the ground around the hives and (in my ideal plan) a cute little fence around the perimeter. 

My two hives: The Birds and The Bees.

On March 29th the arrived - and I drove up to my supplier's farm and picked them up.  I purchased two 3 pound packages of Italian honeybees with queens.  I know that many people prefer nucs - and I tried one in the past - from the New England area.  They were supposed to have been over-wintered - making them more hardy for my location of south eastern Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, not only did they cost a good bit more than the southern packages, but they also came much later in the season.  For me, that was, what I believe to be their downfall - as they missed the majority of the pollen and nectar flow.  Despite feeding them, they never really built up enough supplies of honey to make it through their first winter here.  Bummer.

 After hiving the queens and the majority of the bees, I left the packages with the stragglers in front of each hive.

They find their way into their new homes via pheromones.  Amazing stuff.

Well, back to my two new packages.  Because the weather was cooperating with me (at least on that day), I was able to hive them the same day.  However, the temperatures dropped for about a week or so after this and I began to see lots and lots of dead bees all around the hives on the ground.  I became really worried that within only a few days, that I had lost both colonies.  The temperatures were so cool that I really didn't want to risk doing an inspection  - so all I could do was peek in the top cover when replenishing their sugar water.  I saw bees in both hives - but not many.

All I could do for the next few weeks was to keep feeding and hope for the best.  When the weather warmed up enough for a proper inspection, I was relieved to see the workers in both hives drawing comb and both queens laying eggs.  Hurrah!  After all the cold temperatures finally seemed to pass, the rains came.  The rain was my next road block.  It rained and rained and then rained some more.  It wasn't until Mother's Day, that I could get back into the hives to do another inspection.  All that rain wasn't helping the bees get out to forage either.  So, despite mother nature's challenges, I am happy to report that things are looking good... now just keeping my thoughts positive that it stays that way!

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to take better close up pictures when inspecting my hives.  I need another set of hands!  Maybe in a few years this guy can do it!

My beekeeping apprentice.  Love him!