Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sprocket

One of our birds that we hatched- the one that was supposed to be a Silkie but is actually a Cochin- is most definitely a male. He's not crowing (yet, thank goodness!) but here he is in all his handsomeness. We've named him Sprocket. Make note of his fancy hairdo ;)

Photobucket

And a closeup of his man part (no, not that you sicko!)

Photobucket

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Pics

Here's our flock, in an X-Pen while their run is being built.



Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Clipping wings

We finally got around to clipping the egg layers' wings. We have a 6 foot tall privacy fence, but I just don't trust the birds to stay in and the neighbor's dog to not kill them if they somehow get out.

This doesn't hurt, and it is super duper easy to do- easier with a helper (especially if you're taking pictures during the process LoL) but totally doable if you're on your own.

Grab the bird's wing and spread it out



See how there's shorter feathers and longer feathers?
Cut to the length of the shorter feathers, like so...






Repeat for the other side...




That's all there is to it! You don't actually have to do both sides- I've heard that one side will do it, but I'm not taking any chances.

That was an Easter Egger. Here is the process with a Barred Rock (same process, just different looking feathers)









Monday, June 15, 2009

It's been two months

What can I say....mmmm, I stink at updating the blog? Yeah, I could say that. I got pregnant, got tired, then avoided the blog like the plague- you know how you put something off and put something off and the longer you wait the worse it gets? So yeah....

The meaties are gone. Thank goodness, because dang did they ever stink. Dirty, nasty, slovenly creatures those meat birds are. But dang tasty! (or so my husband and son tell me). For some odd reason, this pregnancy has me turning up my nose to all things meat and so I haven't actually tried it myself.

The Mr. had the dirty job of actually "taking care of" the birds. I had all intentions of helping clean them, but then I got pregnant and pukey and the thought of helping went right out the window.

But here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure....


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

One of our Barred Rocks, obviously complaining about something lol.






No Jib, that's not a meat chicken. Besides, it's not time to eat them yet you silly boy!



Tuesday, April 14, 2009

One of the Easter Eggers with her beautiful feathers coming in.


Why yes, Jib is in fact wearing an "I'm the Big Sister!" shirt. Yes, Jib is a boy; but this shirt was mine when I was little. He wore this when he went to see my mom, our way of announcing our big news ;)




Nope, the chicken is not dead. This is what chickens do when you lay them on their backs. Weird, huh?!




Updated Pictures

Note: Please remember to click on the photos to see the whole thing. If anyone knows how to fix the issue of Blogger cutting off my photos, please leave a comment or email me, thanks!


Here is one of the babies that we hatched. We bought the eggs from Destiny Farms thinking they were Silkie eggs but it seems we got a surprise! I emailed Joni, and she said it sounds like we got a Cochin mix.








And the ones we believe are Silkies (though I've never seen a Silkie in real life so what do I know? lol)






Saturday, April 11, 2009

Culling day

It came a bit earlier than we expected- one of our meat birds was acting funny- not moving, shivering and generally not acting right. Rather than letting it suffer (and most likely die anyway), the Mr. culled it and it's in the fridge now waiting for the grill. It's way smaller than we would have liked, but that's to be expected since they're not destined for the table for a few more weeks.

He said that he learned a few things- namely, that a chicken neck doesn't have much resistance when pitted against a grown man (we decided that breaking it's neck is more humane than slitting it's throat and less messy than chopping the head off).

So it's done- the first kill. It still felt awful, but I keep reminding myself that a chicken still dies when we buy it at the store. Being oblivious to the fact that it dies doesn't do anyone a lick of good. At least this way, we know that the chicken was cared for well during it's short life and that it died respectfully.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

My kid is all sorts of confused LoL

I went to make Jib eggs for breakfast, and one was broken in the carton, so I tossed it. Jib looks at it and says "poor thing". I said "What?" and again he repeats in his almost 3 year old very concerned tone "Poor thing" *sigh* So I asked "Why is it a poor thing?" and he says, "Chickie in there" *dramatic pause* "Gina take pictures?"

(for those of you not following, we just hatched some chickens, one of them didn't hatch and I took pictures and posted them on my blog. And yes, my child sometimes calls me by my first time and I am totally okay with that ;))

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I have my laundry room back!

And thank goodness, because the laundry was really starting to pile up! We finally moved the meaties into the family room, along with the egg layers. Now the only ones in the main part of the house are the baby Silkies, which are right in the livingroom.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Unhatched

If you've been following for a while, you might remember that one of our eggs had a crack in it from shipping, so I coated it with wax to seal it in hopes that it would hatch anyway. Things were going perfectly until around day 16 or 17 when we candled and couldn't see any movement. We decided to keep it in the incubator just in case the embryo was sleeping or something. After the hatching of the other 3 eggs, I recandled, and again saw no movement. I also noticed that the egg just didn't feel right and so decided to pronounce it "unhatched".

Out of curiosity, I used a pin to chip away at the eggshell. I was careful not to puncture the membrane, just in case I was by some chance wrong with the candling. If the baby had been viable for some reason and just not moving, I would have known by looking at the membrane. Alas, this was not the case, so I took a bunch of pictures of her so that she did not die in vain. I figure someone may find these useful scientifically. If not, she is still beautiful in her own sad way.

Please- if you have children, watch the slideshow first and use your own judgement as to whether they can handle the photos or not. We showed Jib, who will be 3 next month. We told him that she just wasn't strong enough to hatch because she stopped growing, and sometimes things like this happen. He was sad about it for a minute, wanted to touch her (which I let him and then made him wash his hands, he just wanted to pet her head). He then wanted to see the other chicks that were still hanging out in the incubator, I think to make sure that they were still in there. All in all, I think it was a good learning experience for him even at this young age; but I know every child is different.

I had to resize the slideshow to get it to show up in it's entirety on here. If you'd like to view the full size version, please leave a comment and I'll email it to you. Thanks!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A baby chick hatches

This is video of our Silkie chicken hatching yesterday 3/27. Sorry about the audio, I know the music doesn't fit with the video but it's better than the original commentary by the Mr. and JibJib.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Stay tuned...

for more pics. The babies are still drying, and I can't take them out for pictures until they're nice and fluffy.

We have a blue baby!

Here's baby number one, a blue Silkie. S/he is adorable, and feather footed. I could just snort it right up. Be prepared for many many pictures, some of which are pretty much the same. I just can't stop myself, it's so dern cute!







Pip pic



It's hard to see, but remember that I'm photographing through the incubator window ;)

Meaties

Check out the comb already!



This is what happens if they run out of water for even 30 seconds, it's a chick race to the waterer!