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 ;)



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

Pics

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

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)

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.

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.

Comic

Not much happening chicken-wise, so here's a funny for you:
http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/henopause.jpg

Getting a little worried about what we're going to use as a brooder. The Mr. called Sears and they've got a dishwasher box but I'm fearing it won't be big enough. I was really hoping for a refrigerator box, but maybe they'll get one in by the time the chicks outgrow the other.

Nothing going on with the eggs- still hand turning them by manually maneuvering the auto-turner. They'll be sleeping to the right tonight.

Egg Update

Not much going on in the incubator LoL. The auto-egg turner is indeed broken- yes, it's hooked up correctly this time. So I am now in charge of turning the eggs 3-5 times during the day. Tomorrow the Mr. and I will work on getting alarms set so that it's more consistent. They're going to go to bed leaning to the left tonight.

Here's something fun to look at, since it's pretty boring around here. For those wondering, I plan on candling again on Day 7, possibly Day 10 if I can hold out that long.

A Chick Is Born

Chicks are ordered........again

So after our fantastically awful experience with Welp Hatchery, we called Decorah Hatchery since they had the best prices and nothing said "sold out" on their website like everywhere else.

On order are:
2 Americana Pullets
2 Barred Rock Pullets
21 Cornish Rock Broilers St. Run

The guy said they should ship the 11th or the 18th.....the Mr. asked him to pretty please try for the 11th (I think he's sick of seeing me mope around the house due to chicken lust). Please Decorah.......don't disappoint me;)

2 Thumbs Down for Welp Hatchery

Two big hairy man hand thumbs down, two short stubby fingernails bitten woman hand thumbs down, and two toddler thumbs down to Welp Hatchery. If you've been reading, you remember my post that Welp made me change my order.

Well, today my husband gets a call (after leaving them a message wondering when to expect the chicks) stating that they're not shipping until April 1st, as they all sold out while they were busy screwing with our order. On top of that, I got an email stating that they had charged my credit card ABOVE what I had authorized. I didn't realize that the slow broilers were more expensive, gave them the go-ahead to change the order and they neglected to okay the new charges with me.....mmmkay, not cool.

On a good note, I'm getting 6 Silkie fertile eggs shipped from a farm a couple of hours away, so they should be here in a couple days. I'm a little worried since they'll have different hatch dates from the first batch, but the lady assured me that it wouldn't be a problem. They're coming from Destiny Farms, I'll update with my review of them when I get the eggs.

Grrr...

I ordered 25 birds from Welp Hatchery (25 is the smallest order available).

- 8 Cornish Rocks
- 7 Slow Broilers
- 5 Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers)
- 5 Barred Rocks

I wanted more of a diversity of egg layers, but Welp charges an additional $1.50 per sex or breed if you order less than 5.

I get an email today saying that the Cornish Rocks are hatched on a different schedule than the rest of the birds, so I either need to switch my order to 15 Slow Broilers or take shipment of 25 birds in each order. I told them that there's no way I can take shipment of 50 chickens, so to just switch my order.

I'm not real happy with them so far- I mean, why not just state that [the fact that they are hatched on a different schedule] on the website? Then, I asked if they'd be able to mark the breeds- a whole 4 breeds. They wanted an additional $0.25 PER BIRD to separate them and stick a sticker in each section marking the breed. Umm....seriously.

Not.Happy.

I'm hoping I'll be pleased once the chicks arrive.

The eagle has landed!

AKA the eggs are in the incubator. I pulled a "stupid" today- I've had the incubator plugged in for about 24 hours now, and the egg turner hasn't turned a bit. I know it goes slowly, so I made sure to check it every few hours. Well, I had finally come to terms with the fact that the turner wasn't working and had gotten into the mindset that I would just be hand turning. I had made the decision that I'd still put the eggs in the auto turner, but unplug it. This way, they would still be more secure than just letting them roam free.

I went in to put the eggs in the incubator, and after double checking the egg turner- durrr.......it wasn't hooked up! It was plugged in, but the turner wasn't hooked up to the knob on the turner. LoL, it is now working and the eggs are in:) Just working on getting them up to a steady temp.

The older-than-myself Hova-Bator, notice the older-than-myself matching carpet. Don't be jealous, mmkay?


Closeup of the top. Notice the fancy duck stickers that myself or my sisters probably put on top when we were younger.


All the eggs sitting pretty....the auto egg turner motor is in the upper righthand part of the picture. The black piece sticking off of the motor is what was disconnected (when I thought the auto turner wasn't working)


Eggs 1-6


Eggs 7-12

Setting up the incubator

The incubator is all set up and holding steady at 99.5* F. The directions say to leave it on for a half day before putting in the eggs, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning so I don't wake up to accidentally cooked eggs.

I'm using my mom's hundred year old HovaBator. She used to hatch the Mallard duck eggs that our neighbors would find in their boats come springtime. Her very first hatch was done under a lightbulb, misted with a spray bottle. I've heard that hatching isn't the easiest thing to do; she's my hero!

Here's a picture of the eggs (click on pictures to see the whole image):


Rearranged and numbered:


1-4


5-8


9-12


Weights:
1- 72.1g
2- 62.3g
3- 68.9g
4- 62.2g
5- 66.5g
6- 76.2g
7- 63.0g
8- 70.6g
9- 62.0g
10- 60.9g
11- 67.4g
12- 65.0g

The search is on

I've been doing a ton of research on different chickens, which would be best for our climate, which are the best layers, the best meat chickens, etc. I visited what seemed like a thousand different websites to price compare.

Great site:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKHatcheries.html

Then I get this brainy idea to hop in the van and go driving to our local fresh egg supplier. I asked her if she sold chicks, chickens or fertile hatching eggs; she said she had *just* collected the day's eggs and they were still on the counter. WOOT! She had already washed them, which isn't a good thing- but hopefully it won't be a problem.

She said that she couldn't sell them as fertile hatching eggs, since she can't guarantee fertility but that she does have a rooster and has been getting some blood spots when she cooks with the eggs (which indicates a fertile egg).

I walked away with a dozen potentially fertile eggs for $3.00.

And our adventure begins...

Me: I want a chicken
Hubby: No
Me: No really, I want a chicken
Hubby: No

continue on like this for a year or so...

Me: Do you want to do meat chickens, or just for eggs?
Hubby: I guess both

*Chuckle* After a year of talking about it, he obviously got used to the idea. When I rephrased the question to ask him which he wanted (without giving him the option of "no chickens", he thought it was his idea). Bwahahaha, my evil chicken plan worked ;)