Sassy & Sweet Notes

Give This Photo a Caption

oh happy day!

White Crested Black Polish baby...

Cheep!

Babies!

A few weeks ago, our neighbor and I decided to split an order of baby chickens. Guess what arrived this morning! *swoon*

I ordered 8 Polish in various colors, and 2 Cochins.

More to come!

More Winter, More Rain. Please!

I'm finding it difficult to move into Valentine and spring themed projects for some reason, wanting to hold onto snowmen and snowflakes and cocoa and woolies. I don't want spring to come just yet, even though I think it is the best season in Texas. We haven't had enough winter, and we desperately need more rain before the onset of summer 2012. Lately the weather has been very spring-like, minus all the lovely wildflowers that bloom in Texas. Hopefully the weather gets a bit colder, and we get some of the rain that the weather-people say is coming our way tomorrow.

If I MUST think about spring, let it be of baby chickens. That I can handle.

Several years ago at a local auction house, I bought several photo albums (5 to be exact), each one of them FULL of vintage postcards - someone's collection. One of the folders is all Easter cards, and soooo many of them feature chickens or chicks. The above image is from one of the postcards I bought that day. Maybe flipping through those old cute postcards will put me into the mood to work on spring projects...?

I'll sip hot cocoa while I do. *grin*

On the Farm 2012 Calendar

First of all, thank you for all your support to those who purchased the On the Farm 2011 calendar last year. We had a great response to last year's calendar, and have decided to offer On the farm 2012.

A small portion of all purchases comes back to the farm, and all proceeds recieved go towards the care and feeding of the animals here on the farm. The calendars make fantastic gifts, and are ideal for personal use. The calendar is available in 3 sizes. All of the photos in the calendar were taken by me; I hope you choose to spend 2012 enjoying photos from our farm.

Order your own copy of On the farm 2012 today! Some of your favorite farm critters are featured in the pages of our calendar! Even Baaaaad Boxcar Betty makes an appearance!

HOT SALE! Today through November 20th, cards are 50% off, and calendars are 20% off when you use coupon code CARDSCAL2011 at order checkout. In addition to the 2012 calendar, you will also find all kind of lovely cards in my Zazzle shop as well!

 

Zazzle Coupon Details:
Enter code: CARDSCAL2011 at checkout in the "Zazzle Coupons/Gift Certificates" box 50% of the greeting card, invitation, photo card and postcard net sale price will be deducted when one or more qualifying products are purchased. 20% of the calendar net sale price will be deducted when one or more qualifying calendars are purchased. The coupon code CARDSCAL2011 must be applied at checkout to apply these discount offers. Offer is valid until November 20, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. This offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

Cricket (Video)

Not everyone can have a house chicken, so how about I share mine?

If you have trouble viewing the video here on the blog, check it out here on my YouTube channel.

Cricket

Remember our little chicklet, whom I rescued from her overly aggressive mother? She's living in the house until she's big and strong enough to go out to the hen house. Well, here she is in all her cuteness! She hangs out with me all day in my office while I work. We've decided to call her Cricket, because she cheeps, sings, and coos to herself all day long -- she really is quite the chatterbox. I rigged up a perch for her out of a small tree branch, and she just thinks it's the coolest thing! To give you a size comparison, the branch she's sitting on is about the same diameter as my thumb. She's a bitty little thing, and is such a pleasant little house guest.

Don't you wish you had a house chicken, too? *grin*

Give this Photo a Caption

a chicklet...

Seems we have a new house chick for a little while. Peanut, my little Mille Fleur hen, has been sitting on three of her own little eggs. This is chick #2.

Yesterday morning chick #1 hatched. Unfortunately it was injured to the point of me not being able to nurse it back to health. Poor baby.

Last night while I was locking up the chickens I made a point of checking to see if her other two eggs were close to hatching. I picked Peanut up off of her nest and found a freshly hatched chick (chick #2)! Surprise! Within seconds, Peanut saw the chick and attacked it. Not good.....

Poor little thing... so, in the house with me it went. I checked the remaining egg (#3) with a flashlight and found that it had stopped developing early on, so it got tossed into the pasture for the ants before it turned into a stinky mess.

Until this little one is big and strong enough to be moved to a brooder outside in the hen house, she's in the house with us.

Cheep cheep!

Close-up!

The Nightly Lockdown! (Video)

I decided I would take some video clips last night while I was locking up the chickens. Join me in the fun!

If you're having trouble viewing the video here on the blog, you can check it out here on YouTube.

Happy FRIDAY!!

A Celebration! (Video)

Sweet little Ginger has been sitting on some eggs, and what do ya know, but we've got some babies!

If you have trouble viewing this video here on the blog, you can check it out here on YouTube! Enjoy!

This and That Around the Farm (Video)

We finally got some much needed rain last night. Oooooh it smells so GOOD! So, since I didn't have to water the garden this morning, I took the camera around to see what some of the critters were up to.

If you have trouble viewing the video here on the blog, you can check it out here on YouTube!

Enjoy!

Oh, and I've added a link to my YouTube channel on the right in the Sassy & Sweet Stuff list. All of the farm videos are there for your enjoyment. *grin*

Welcome to June... welcome to Summer?

Today's forecast is promising a high of 99*. Tomorrow's forecast is promising a high of 99*, too. Jeepers... Time to get the frozen water bottles in the chicken waterers. I'd best gather eggs early in the day, too! Don't want those chickens brewing up any deviled eggs when I'm not lookin'!

The purple pole beans are putting on blooms, but no beans just yet. I think they're so pretty as they grow up the wire trellis.

We've got a wild mama cat who has 5 kittens under our shed. They stay out of the heat, and lay in the shade. Oddly enough, the girl kittens are the friendliest of the bunch. Usually the boys are. When they're old enough they'll go to the vet for a little snippity snip! Alan thinks he might be able to catch the wild mama next week now that the kittens are old enough to eat kitty food and spend the night away from their mama while she's at the vet's office for snipping! This little gal is a cutie, isn't she! I think I'll tell Alan her name is Tangerine. Unless you want to ADOPT her, and then you can name her anything you'd like! *grin*

There's a sweet little torty-grey female, too. She has the cutest nose and broken stripes.

But don't let these sweet faces fool you ...

ROAR!!

ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!

The rattlesnake pole beans have almost all sprouted around the tee-pee trellis, and I can't wait to see them start vining up the poles! I took this photo two days ago, and already the plants look noticably different, now that they're starting to get more leaves. It's amazing how quickly things change.

Here was the garden on May 1...

And here is the garden as of June 1!  BIG difference! (Click image for a larger view...)

Remember our little house chick, Dolly? Well, seems that Dolly thinks SHE is a HE, and is practicing crowing. Yes, yes it's true. Just little squeaks, but that's CROW enough for me! Dolly lives outside now, in a fancy new brooder with two chick-sized friends. Happy as can BE, wild frizzled feathers, and all!

Dolly, looking down into the brooder at his friends, who are cheeping wildly, apparently lost without him.

So, speaking of summer ... did you see this image predicting how summer weather is going to progress? UNCLE!!!

I think that calls for daily dips in the pool. Bottom's Up!
Whipper Snapper Designs: Poolside Chicken - #CT954

Bits and Pieces of Today

I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day celebrations today! We had Alan's parents and nephew over for lunch, and then spent the rest of the day tinkering around the farm. It was an enjoyable day, though a bit too warm and windy! June is almost upon us, but summertime weather has been with us already for some time. Alan and I were discussing today just how much it feels (and LOOKS) like August outside. Dreadful to say the least. Is it too much to ask for a rainy summer!? I'm asking, I'm ASKING!

Ol' Lucy still hasn't delivered her baby; maybe she just needs a little encouragement from her fans!

She spent a lot of time today just milling around the barnyard, not eating much of her hay. She also spent some time looking longingly at the rest of the herd in the pasture, who were enjoying themselves in the sunshine. We pulled Lucy out of the pasture a couple days early because she kept having horn wars with Pixie Dust. Their scuffling about would get the rest of the herd all excited, and they would start chasing after Lucy. She's never been very high up on the herd chain of command, and we didn't need them running her when she's so close to delivery! So into the barnyard she went. So come on, Lucy! Let's meet that baby of yours, already!

Baaaaad Boxcar Betty was bored by the daily activities, and chose to spend her day in the shade, munching on grass, and occasionally petting herself with the fence. "Ooooooooh, that feels so goooooood!"

The donkeys came up for a visit, no doubt looking for a hand out. They got one.

I checked in on Olive Oyle and her chicks, and look what I found! One of her little one's enjoying a bit of mamma time! So cute!! I was only able to get this one photo taken before the chick hopped off of her back. Olive Oyle is a Turken (naked neck), and she is supposed to have the naked neck. Three of her chicks are naked neck's too, even tho their papa (Admiral) isn't a Turken. I think they are just about the cutest chicks, with their little fuzzy heads, and little fuzzy "bow tie" (what I call the clump of feathers on the front of their lower neck).

Here is another one of Olive Oyle's chicks -- you can kind of see the "bow tie" feathers on the front her her neck.

And this is the third Turken chick, with coloring similar to Olive Oyle's. Sooooo cute!! Olive Oyle has three other chicks as well (an Easter Egger, and two mille fleurs) but they weren't interested in posing for the camera. Maybe another time.

And speaking of chickens, while I was out with the camera Shorty ran over to say hello. He's always willing to pose for the camera! Say cheese! Say hairy pickles! Say cockadoodledoooooo!

Here's Dolly!

Workin' 9 to 5...

...what a way to make a livin'!

Happy Mother's Day! (Video)

To all the mothers out there, and especially to mine, have a beautiful Mother's Day!

In the morning I plan to do a few odds and ends around the farm, and then we're headed to the city to have lunch with Alan's parents. Then, back to the farm to finish up a few more odds and ends. Supposed to be HOT, near 95. *ugh!* I'd better get some water on the garden in the morning!

I've got a cute little video to share with you. Brown Manetta (one of the Turken hens) hatched some chicks earlier this week. One of them got injured and didn't make it. Then, a couple days later, another chick hatched! But since it was days younger than the others and quite a bit smaller, it had a hard time keeping up with the activities. It ended up getting injured by another hen ... so I brought it in the house for a little extra TLC. Until it gets big and strong, we have a house chick. And just in time for Mother's Day! *grin*

Enjoy!

If you have trouble viewing the video here on the blog, you can check it out here on YouTube.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Taa-Daa! A Garden Update

I've received several requests for an update on the garden, so I took some time this evening to snap some photos.

I said in a post on Friday that I was going to spend some time working in the garden over the weekend, and guess what! I did!

So, here ya go! A garden update for you!

 

Here's the big picture. You can see all of the new beds we built, and the 2x2 stakes that Alan added to the corner of every raised bed. LOVE THEM! They make it possible to wrap the beds with deer netting to deter the chickens, cats, dogs, armadillo, and whatever else wanders through the yard OUT of the beds. The beds are wrapped with the netting now, and you can hardly see it in the photos! Like the blue and silver tarp on the chicken yard? Yeah, we do too. But it kept the rain from blowing in under the roof all winter and not once did it get muddy in the covered yard, so we put up with it's beauty. Soon, I'll remove the tarp and replace it with a sun shade. That way the breeze can get through, but the harsh afternoon sunlight gets blocked.

The aluminum tub I grew lavender in last year will be the herb garden this year. (Which reminds me, I need to update the 2011 garden map!) The lavender didn't make it through the winter, so I pulled out the dead twigs and planted basil, dill, chives, and some spearmint. Then the roosters promptly jumped in and kicked about the top 2" of dirt out -- and I'm guessing most of the seeds, too. So I put what dirt I could back into the tub and added a wire cucumber trellis from last year to the top of the dirt to keep the roosters out. Little buggers! The wooden produce basket has what's left of my mint plant from last year. It was growing on the other side of the garden in a similar basket, and it was growing GREAT! ...until the roosters decided they needed to scratch around in the basket for bugs, kick all the dirt off of the mint plant, and destroy the basket. I saved what I could of the plant and replanted it in this basket, and surrounded it with a little wire fence. And it got a healthy drink of duck pond tea! How's that for a summertime beverage!?

Things are moving along at the front of the coop. Both of the large raised beds will be tomato plant beds. I was going to plant sweet peppers in the front bed, but decided to plant the peppers on the other side of the garden, to make room for more tomato plants! I think what I might do, before I plant anything in the front bed, is add another row of 2x6 boards (and more SOIL) to increase the depth of the bed. Right now it's the shallowest of all the new beds at only 6" deep, and I'd like a few more inches of dirt if I'm going to put tomatoes there. You can see what tomatoes I do have planted in the second bed. You can also see the flower bed along the front of the chicken house -- I've got lots of flowers coming up in that bed! There's a hummingbird feeder hanging there that has at least 1 hummer feeding from it. There's a narrow bed along the chicken yard where I've got gourds and sunflowers and a few cucumbers seeded. They will grow up nicely on the fence and provide OODLES of shade during the hot summer afternoons. At the corner of the chicken yard is where I've got a few more sunflowers and more chives, and where another humming bird feeder hangs (when it's not being washed).

This is a portion of the LONG bed that runs the full length of the 30' chicken yard. I dug it deep this year and added lots of compost from the farm. I edged the entire bed with a 2' wire fence to keep the roosters out of this bed. There are a few cucumber plants stuck in this bed, along with more gourds (several variety), sunflowers, strawflowers, zinnia, and California poppies. There might be other things too, but that's what I can remember. Oh! And at the VERY end of the chicken yard, I planted three raspberry canes, where they have room to make lots of new canes!

I'm amazed at how big the tomato plants are already! The larger plants were planted last week, and the smaller two (which you can't really see at the bottom of the photo) I planted this evening right before dinner. Soon we'll be adding some trellising to support the plants as they grow.

I've never grown onions before, and this year we thought we'd give them a bed of their own. They're GROWING!

I planted the sweet pepper plants over the weekend. I picked these plants up at the store, not trusting the seeds I saved from last year's garden. They weren't heirloom, and I just didn't want to be left with no peppers this year if the plants I grow from them don't produce any peppers! So I bought 2 Big Berthas, 2 Orange Bell, 2 Sweet Red Bell, and 1 Yellow Bell. Next to the Yellow Bell, I planted the ONLY Chocolate Pepper plant that sprouted from the seeds I bought last fall.

FINALLY, the seeds I planted in the other raised beds sprouted! I think these are the black zucchini. Or maybe the 8-Ball zucchini... I can't remember off hand which bed this photo is of! Ha! At least I know what's planted in each bed, and when they start producing fruit, it will really be obvious! I can't wait for these to get a little bigger so I can add some good farm mulch around them! And it looks like I might even need to thin them out a little! In other beds, the beans are coming up, cucumbers, more squash, patty pan, and even more zucchini! The strawberry bed isn't showing ANY activity at all... but I've got another 15 or so plants to add to finish out the bed. Hopefully we get at least a few of them to grow!

Finally, not really a GARDEN update, but an update just the same. Remember the gorgeous little chick Alan brought me last month -- the one that had really heavy "eye liner"? She's growing up so big! Still no idea what breed she really is -- I haven't taken time to research it. Maybe an easter egger... dunno. She doesn't really have the right comb for an easter egger... Anyway, as always, I'm hoping she's a SHE! She doesn't display any rooster behaviors, and really just wants to either be held, or sit on my shoulder. My money's on her being a SHE ... but then again, I'm not really a betting girl.

What's Up...

...Chicken Butt!

A Gift from Alan...

Alan had to run some errands in town yesterday afternoon. When he came home I was out in the chicken yard saying hello hello HELLO to the ladies. He said I had a package... that I should go to the house and check it out. Oh REALLY!? I like packages!

Especially when they contain BABY CHICKENS!!

He brought home 5 baby cochin bantams, and this little white dutch bantam.

Let me hear it ... awwwwww, CUTE! And what a good eater you were today!

Photo sessions are exhausting!

Truly exhausting!

Welcome to the farm, little ones! CHEEP CHEEP!

New Stamps and Mystery Chick Update

After each Whipper Snapper release, I order a few wood mounted stamps of some of my favorite images from the release. My order arrived yesterday, and I thought I'd share a photo! I absolutely LOVE getting the stamps in the mail. Sure, I draw the image and color the images for the labels, but actually having the product in my hands is most excellent. Whipper Snapper does such a wonderful job making the stamps; it is an honor to be able to work with them.

If you're not familiar, I am an artist for Whipper Snapper Designs, a rubber stamp company. They turn my illustrations into rubber stamps, like those above, for crafters. They are sold worldwide, and the complete collection can be found on their website. The stamps are available from Whipper Snapper as wood mount, cling mount, and as bare rubber, depending on the preference of the stamper. When I order my own stamps, I always order wood mounted; I love having the colored label and having the wood mounted stamps on display is something I truly enjoy.

On another topic, I've been asked about our "mystery chick". Here is a photo I took just a few minutes ago. This photo really shows the progress of feather growth. I still don't know what breed this little one is... and I'm REALLY hoping it's not a little roo!!

Happy FRIDAY!

I'm sooooo glad it's Friday...  how about a baby mosh pit!? I took this photo earlier this week. Not much has changed, except their wing feathers are a bit longer, and their tail feathers are a wee bit longer. Other than that, they're still cute fluff balls. Cheep cheep!!

This and That...

Meet Lola! She's one of my recently released Whipper Snapper stamps.

I noticed the other day that people in town have daffodils blooming in their yards. And I noticed that we don't have ANY early spring blooming flowers here on the farm. I must remedy this, don't you agree? I have a stack of plant and seed catalogs on the end table in the living room, and they are getting corners folded down, notes penciled in, and ideas are brewing for the summer garden.

Today is Alan's mother's birthday -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUE! We're having her and John (Alan's Dad), and Alan's nephew over for dinner Sunday night. Should be a nice evening. I even made cupcakes! YUM!

The chicks are doing super, eatting well, and getting stronger each day. CHEEP!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend... I sure am!

Cheep cheep CHEEP!

Alan had to make a trip to town yesterday to pick up some feed, and some other odds and ends. When he got home, he walked into the house and surprised me with six BABY CHICKENS! Six little babies for me to call my very own! *grin* It's been a long while since we've had babies on the farm, and their little peep peep peeps are music to my ears! He brought home four Golden Comet chicks, two of which are shown in the above photo series. We love Golden Comets for their incredible egg laying abilities, and for their sweet dispositions. And we love that Golden Comets are easily gender identifiable as chicks. The light golden chicks w/ subtle stripes on their backs are girls. Easy pickin's!

He brought home THIS little cutie, who is as tiny as can be, and I am guessing is a white Dutch bantam. (Though I reserve the right to change that opinion later! Haa!)  This is the chick that prompted the purchase. Alan said that this TINY little thing was in the same area as the store's order of meat birds! There is NO WAY this little pip is a meat bird. Poor little thing was being trompled by the bigger babies; Alan to the rescue! This is also the chick that prompted the Stickles bottle photos. I was trying to show just how tiny this chick is.

In comparison, this is one of the Golden Comet chicks with the same bottle of Stickles. Golden Comets are considered a "standard" sized bird.

And he brought home THIS darling little one, who has the prettiest coloring! This chick isn't as large as the Golden Comets, but isn't nearly as little as the little white chick. I haven't had time to research a breed... expect an update later!

And would you look at HER (optimism at its finest) EYES! Beaut-eee-ful!

Welcome HOME, babies! Cheep, cheep, CHEEP!

And THANK YOU, Alan... I have a feeling these little delights were just what I needed! *Smooches*

Give this Photo a Title!

(Click on image for larger view.)

5 Baby Chicks

Before I left for my trip to Washington and Montana to see Mom and Dad, Nugget was insisting on sitting on eggs. So, I popped 6 eggs under her and let her sit. On Sunday, she hatched out two babies, and yesterday, three others. The 6th egg never started to develop, so it ended up getting tossed out. Meet Nuggets little crumb snatchers!

This was one of the first two chicks to hatch, and is by far the largest of all the chicks.

This was also one of the first two chicks to hatch. Adorable little thing!

Chick number three is tiny! I'm guessing this chick came from an egg laid by Penny, a little bitty dutch bantam.

Chick #4 is part silkie, so I'm going to guess that Poof laid the egg this chick hatched from. It has the cutest charcoal grey stripes on it's back, too. Like a chipmonk!

This was the last chick to hatch. The others are racing circles around it, as it still has it's newly hatched wobble. But by the end of today, it will have figured out how to race circles as well as the others.

Isn't it cute how they all look different! A surprise in every shell!

Saturday Update

 

How about a look at how things are today? Remember those little chicks that Edwina hatched out? Here they are... well, most of them. Some of these are from another little hen that hatched out chicks at about the same time. I ended up selling Edwina and four of her chicks, as well as another one of my young laying hens, to a gal that works at our vet's office. She had an "incident" at her place, and was looking to replace her flock. She was quite happy with her new ladies and babies. The biggest brown chick in the middle of the bunch is actually one of the chicks that was hatched down at the barn by John's Chicken -- she's the one as a newly hatched chick that spent the night in the house for a little TLC before she rejoined John's Chicken and her siblings. Something slowly picked off John's Chicken and BBC's chicks while they ran around the farm with their parents (sad), and now there are only 5 left. Four little roosters, and this little brown pullet. I didn't want the pullet to disappear, so I nabbed her one night from their roost and introduced her to the little flock of chicks in the chicken coop. She fit right in. Her four little rooster brothers still free range 100% of the time with Buddy Boy, Admiral, John's Chicken, and BBC.

 
You can see that some of the chicks are frizzles -- I LOVE LOVE LOVE their crazy feathers!!! I have 10 chicks in the coop that are much younger than these birds, and they're ALL frizzled! Every single one!! Very exciting! *grin*

 
This is Rowdy, another one of the chicks. I think his mother is Cottonelle, though she didn't hatch him (another hen incubated a nest of eggs from several hens), and his father seems to have been Uncle Sam. He has wild markings on his feathers like Uncle Sam has.

 
He's a feisty little thing, but every day he tells me he needs to be held and have his chin rubbed. He loves to sit on my knee while I sit and watch the other chicks enjoy their snacks.

 
Normally I take photos around the farm in the evening, but today I took photos just after 8:00am. This bed of beans, cucumbers, gourds, butternut squash and a couple of mammoth sunflowers is really filling in! Some of the bean plants have started to put on little purple blooms, the butternut squash plant has several squash already about 3" long, and I even have a couple of gourds on a vine! All very exciting! The tomato plants there on the right have just about had it ... not too much longer and I will be pulling them from their containers and finding something else to plant in their place.

 
The squash pit has completely overgrown the raised bed they're planted in. That stake you see above is one of the corners on the bed... you can see just how much they've taken to leaning out of the bed.

 
There is a container that one of the cantaloupe plants is planted in where I am watering at the corner of the raised bed. The shade provided by the other squash plants really seems to suite the cantaloupe just fine. It's looking healthier than ever, and there are several melons forming on each vine.

 
This morning while I was watering, I found THIS! This is an exciting little find -- this is one of the plants that Alan wanted me to grow. The squash of this plant look a bit like a UFO, and he thought that would be a fun addition to the garden, and our dinner plate. I agree! You can see a second one a bit farther back in the photo, too! These are going to be dee-lish!

 
I have a pickling cucumber plant NEAR the chicken yard. It sent out a long branch, grabbed onto a sunflower, then reached even farther and reached through the chicken yard fence (too high for the chickens to reach it). It is flowering, and even producing pickles -- all inside the chicken yard! Crazy plant ... I have redirected the end of the branch back through the fence so it continues to grow on the "right" side of the chicken yard. I can just see those silly hens, stacking themselves up one on top of the other, just to get high enough to reach the delicious pickle. Too late, ladies ... I picked it this morning, and it will be a jar of pickles before day's end.

 
The crookneck and yellow zucchini plants are LOADED with blooms and squash. We had a squash from this plant for dinner earlier this week, and it was deeee-lish!

 
This plant is producing flowers in over-drive, I think! It's keeping the bumble bees busy, that's for sure.

 
The corn (behind the squash pit) has grown so much in the past week. It's well above the corner posts on the raised beds, and many of the stalks are putting tassels up. We'll see if we actually get any ears of corn, or if I'm just growing perfect Autumn/Halloween decor for the front of the house! Hopefully, both!

 
The grasshoppers are out of control this year... I've never seen so many! They're doing a fair amount of damage to the plants, so I hand pick them off of the plants when I can. It's kind of creepy grabbing them bare handed, so I wear a glove and then it doesn't bother me at all. This guy got away from me though.... better luck next time. He'll make a fine snack for one lucky hen!

 
The potted zinnia is looking a little better. I thought it was just going to up and die on me. Seemed no matter where I put it, or how much care I gave it, in the evenings it was just a wilted up mess. Now it's putting on new blooms, and looks like it might actually keep blooming for a while. The lavender plant is filling in nicely, too.

 
On the other side of the farm, Callio-Pea begged for treats. I think Bad Boxcar Betty knew I didn't have any, because she didn't even bother to come say hi.

 
"Do you have treats in your pockets? Can I have one? Can I have some?"

 
"Please please please, I won't tell Betty!"

 
"PLEEEAAASSSEEEEE, can I have a snack?"

 
"You really don't have any snacks in your pockets... I'm a sad goat..."

 
"Fine... I'll just eat your flowers."

too good to be true?

 
It is July, right? I'm looking at the 10-day forecast, and am so EXCITED!! Not a 100 degree day to be SEEN! And look at the chance of precipitation numbers! This Pacific Northwest girl thinks it's time to do the dance of joy! But I won't get too excited... I don't want to jinx things. That's just my luck. *grin*

We didn't get rain the entire day, just sprinkles now and then, but the cooler temps were nice. At about 6:30pm I was out doing chores. A bit of sun peeked through the clouds just before the big storm for the night moved into the area. I took some time to snap some random photos just to document the day.

The ducks LOVE the rain. It's QUACK QUACK QUACK all day long, while they splash around in the puddles, and chomp at the rain drops. The chickens don't really like getting wet, but I think they're enjoying the much cooler temperatures we're having. They don't tolerate heat well, and neither do I!

 
I sure get a lot of attention when I bring the camera into the chicken yard. I'm pretty sure they all think it's a container full of treats for them to snack on. Keeping the duck bills away from my lens is sometimes a challenge. Keeping the duck bills away from my pants and pockets ... impossible.

 
The little feeder dish hanging in the garden collected rain water. I'll leave it for the dragonflies.

 
The echinacea blooms are pretty, and the butterflies sure like them! Today I watched the FATTEST bumblebee enjoying the flowers on one of the cucumber plants. Yay for bees!

 
The squash pit is growing like mad! I never got around to thinning the plants -- maybe I'll have time this weekend to snip out some of the stragglers. If I can find any stragglers.

 
I really do love zinnias...

 
This one just opened in the past day or so.

 
It's a good thing I strung some twine for the pole beans. They're climbing like crazy!

 
They move up the twine several inches each day. Maybe even more!

 
The cucumber plants (I found extra seeds in my pocket) I tucked into the corn patch have really taken off. ...and it's evident that I haven't thinned the corn yet, either.

 
The frizzle chicks are growing... we've got three boys, and this CUTE little pullet (female). I love her crazy little topknot and her big, dark eyes.

 
Dandy (our only male duck, thankfully!) doesn't have time for baby chickens. He is growing into such a handsome fella. And I noticed he's finally getting his little drake tail curl (no photos yet). He's off to find a puddle.

Teaspoon

 
Teaspoon and I have an almost-nightly routine. While Nugget scratches around for bugs just before sundown, Teaspoon takes a rest on my lap. Last night, I snapped some photos. (Like my pants? hahaha!! Good thing no one comes to visit us!)

 
Of course, he likes a belly rub. What fella doesn't?

 
And he likes to have his toes rubbed.

 
All 8 of them.

 
He really is a cute little bugger... he might be a tad bigger than Nugget now!

 
And he's got personality to spare.

Frizzles are the CUTEST!

It is my opinion that frizzled chicks are the CUTEST chicks in the coop! Sure, all chicks are cute, but frizzles just have a little something EXTRA to their level of cuteness. A frizzled chicken's feathers curl forward instead of laying flat against the chicken's body. I snapped these photos this afternoon, and am so glad I did!

 
 
This guy has great coloring! His father is Uncle Sam (this chick got his red, white, and blue coloring), and his mother is Curly Que (she's a frizzled polish). 

 
 
This little guy (guessing it's a roo, but maybe not!) has more muted colors, but still the blue and gold show through. I think he'll be very pretty as an adult with slightly darker neck coloring, and more penciling pattern on his feathers.

Both of these boys are from the 13 chicks that Edwina hatched out in May. There's a third frizzle chick too, but he wasn't too hip on having a photo session today. Maybe he'll cooperate next time. He's very similar in appearance to the first chick, above.

By the way, I'm interested in selling these little fellas, so if you're in the area and want to add some ultra cuteness to your coop, drop me a note and I can let you know the prices. I'd wager that we will always have frizzles on the farm. I just think they are the CUTEST things!

Babies at the Barn - An Update!

I've been asked for an update on John's Chicken and BBC, so here you go!

 
BBC (Brown Barn Chicken) and her six chicks are doing well. Their feathers are coming in and those cute little fluffy babies are starting to look like chickens!

 
They search for bugs and seeds all day, and are as happy as can be. John's Chicken won't let BBC into the goat pen, so BBC is keeping her chicks in the barn at night. We'd rather her stay in the goat pen at night, but John's chicken seems to be the boss of that area for the time being. Even the goats are cautious around her!

 
Her and the chicks spend most of their time in the barnyard with Buddy Boy (the red rooster), making it difficult to take photos of them, as you can see.

 
He keeps an eye out for predators -- we've been known to have issues with hawks.

 
John's Chicken has managed to keep track of all 11 of her chicks -- no easy task for one hen and a barnyard full of tall grass!

 
They're a bit more difficult to photograph now, as they move 100 miles/minute, in every direction. I was able to catch a few of them on the old brick pile near the barn. 

 
The little chick we took into the house for a couple days for some TLC is doing wonderful! Here she is in the evening sun. She's easy to spot in the crowd of babies. She's the only one with green legs, and is still the smallest.

There ya go - one chicken update... *grin*

Belly up to the Bar

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend. Yesterday, I managed to sleep in. After getting up with the dogs at 6am, I decided to crawl back into bed and snoooooooze away. Delightful! Alan and I spent the rest of the day doing farm chores, and trying to keep cool - at one point yesterday, the temp hit 96. That was not delightful. In fact, it was downright rude. I took a look at the 10 day forecast.

They're "suggesting" it will be 942 degrees for the next 10 days.

 
And take a look at this.... As if 96 isn't hot enough, I do believe Saturday, June 5th will be our hottest day of 2010 so far (it will get worse, I guarantee). And so it begins. *groan*

Today promises more of the same, followed by a nice BBQ dinner with Alan's parents. I'll be cooking up some BBQ'd ribs, homemade potato salad, baked beans, spinach salad, and roasted corn on the cob. I also made some fresh limeade last night that has been chilling all night long. I can't wait for that refreshing first sip!

 
The chicks are growing like crazy.

 
These photos are a week or two old, and the babies have already changed so much! I need to get out and take more photos, because I tell ya, they grow like weeds!

Oh! And for those of you who were concerned about the little grey colored chick in Edwina's Baker's Dozen, worry no more! That chick is doing just fine! Still a bit smaller than the others, but her papa is a little tiny pip squeak, so she won't get too big herself.

Be safe this holiday weekend!

Cheers to you!

Chainsaw.

 
Chainsaw was the first chick I hatched in the incubator last spring. She's part Silkie, and part bantam Cochin, and is one of *the* favorite critters here on the farm. (It's OK that I choose favorites ... really, it is!) She is particularly fond of Dancing with the Stars, and last season rooted for cowboy Ty Murray.

 
Most every evening while I'm doing the evening chores around the hen house, Chainsaw keeps busy by scratching around in the wood chips in front of the coop. She is a VERY busy chicken and does an excellent job of rearranging the chips.

 
But last night was different. She wanted grass seeds! Alan and I haven't been mowing all of the grass around the chicken coop to allow the grass to seed itself. This makes for very happy chickens, too! (See Wiley in the background, happily scratching around in the wood chips...)

 
Soft blades of grass get gobbled up just like warm spaghetti noodles!

 
But grass seeds take a little more finesse. Some grass seeds are easy to harvest.

 
Others take a bit more effort.

 
Nugget and Teaspoon look on in pure amazement at Chainsaw's persistence and agility.

 
More times than not, a bit of grunting is required to get the best seeds off the stalk.

 
But it's all worth it in the end. Fresh grass seeds are delish!

 
And Chainsaw is not one to share.

 
Wiley on the other hand, is more than willing to share is bounty. Wood chip, anyone?

1+11+13+6

= how many baby chicks we have on the farm as of today! That's right... six more joined the menagerie of critters entertaining us, and now you. I've never been good at math, but I can tell you that 1+11+13+6 = babies galore!

BBC (Brown Barn Chicken) disappeared not quite a month ago, leaving John's Chicken as the only hen at the barn, along with Admiral and Buddy Boy who is the last remaining rooster from last summer's batch of chicks. (All the other hens/roosters are in coops at different places on the farm.) But it would seem that BBC wasn't "gone" from the farm, just "missing".

 
Apparently she was sitting in a location completely out of sight on her own little (20+) nest of eggs! She managed to hatch 6 babies, and brought them out to hunt for bugs this morning. Alan came into the house to wake me after he obtained a count of the chicks. Barely conscious I slipped on my clogs, grabbed the camera, and went out to meet the new little flock.

 
It may not surprise you to hear me say that I *love* baby chickens. It's true... I do. And look at the stripes on these little guys! 

 
BBC is an Easter Egger hen, and lays pretty green eggs. The pullets (pullets=girls) in this batch of chicks should lay green eggs too, since both Admiral and Buddy Boy are Easter Egger fellas and *should* carry the green egg laying gene, and pass it along to their offspring.

 
Their wing feathers are just barely starting to show, which leads me to believe that these babies hatched late yesterday. Their wing feathers will grow quickly and soon they will lose their unbearably cute fluffy fuzz and be a mix of new incoming feathers and thin fuzz as they outgrow their fluff.

 
Baby chickens and mother hens make life on the farm extra peaceful. Like things are the way they are meant to be.

 
Fuzzy butts. *giggle*

 
What is not to love about baby chickens...

 
I have another cute little farm update to share with you tomorrow... it features Chainsaw! Stay tuned!

How About a Baker's Dozen? (Video)

Happy Saturday morning! I've got a baker's dozen to share with you this morning... enjoy!

Edwina hatched out 13 little itty bitty bantams, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't be any cuter!

Camouflage and Bug Hunts

As I was downloading these photos, all I could think of was how nicely camouflaged the babies are in their environment.

 
And you can't tell me this fluffy little baby chicken's bum isn't cute!

 
The stripes really help break up the outline of the chick's body, making her blend into her surroundings even better!

 
Even the coloring on her little wing feathers helps her blend in. The barring of color on the feathers really looks like the color variations of the ground.

 
I imagine being camouflaged with your surroundings helps when hunting bugs, too!

 
Even John's Chicken has some nice camouflage attire with the variation of color in her feathers.

 
More bug hunting demonstrations took place...

 
...as it would seem that some paid better attention than others.

 
And, some even less.

 
Thankfully, it's OK to ask questions and offer advice.

 
And working with a buddy is strongly encouraged.

 
But it's always nice to have someone do the "cooking" for you.

ELEVEN!

 

John's Chicken hatched 11 of the 12 eggs she was nesting on! Go, John's Chicken, Go!! Here they are getting a lesson on bug hunting.

There are only 9 chicks in this photo. The two other chicks got taken in the house prior to the photo opp for a day or so while the last-to-hatch gets some strength. I don't think she was quite ready to take on the world when John's Chicken decided it was time to leave the nest and search for grub. Still a little damp, the smallest of them all, and super wobbly, she needs a bit of TLC before she joins her flock mates. The other chick we brought in the house is just fine, and was only brought in because it's good for babies to have a friend. They are very social creatures, and do so much better when they have a friend.

So there you have it... ELEVEN!

Surprise!

 
Alan found John's Chicken sitting on a nest of eggs in the goat house, back in the corner where we can't reach her. Apparently, she decided that was the best place to take up residency. How many chicks do you count?

Yesterday morning we knew she'd hatched at least one chick... Alan saw it, but I only heard it.

 
As of this morning, she had hatched more babies... How many chicks do you count now?

 
How many chicks do you count now?

 
Now how many chicks do you count? I'll give you a hint... ____ is enough. But is it really? I don't think so...   I think there are at least 9 chicks, since there's a little pale yellow one with a little black spot on the top of it's head that is visible in the third photo, but doesn't seem to be visible in this last photo.

Alan knows she was sitting on 12 eggs. We should be able to get a final count on the chicks tomorrow or Tuesday. She'll have the chicks out and about when either all of the eggs hatch and the babies get their newly hatched wobbles under control, OR she's sure that the other eggs aren't going to hatch. What a good mama John's Chicken turned out to be!

 
Bad Boxcar Betty says "WHAT?! BABIES IN MY GOAT HOUSE!?"
And from the looks of things, Bad Boxcar Betty has been snorting around in the tall grass, where there is lots of pollen!

 
Admiral says "Happy Father's Day to me! Cockadooodledoooooo"

And before you even ask, YES, yes it's true... we have Christmas lights on the goat pen next to the barn. They need holiday decor, too!

Joy on the Farm (Video)

Here's a little treat for you today... enjoy!

Happy Spring!

Alan and I zipped up to the city today to pick up a few electronic items. I've been having issues with internet connectivity in my office (oh, the horrors!), and Alan thought a new switch would solve the troubles. Turns out he was right!

While we were in the city, we swung by Home Depot where I picked up some Dahlia bulbs. I'll have to wait for the winter storm warnings to pass before putting them in the ground. When I was out locking up the chickens earlier tonight, it was snowing. Crazy weather.

Also while we were in town, we swung by the farm supply store. Since it was the farm supply store in a larger city than we usually shop at, Alan didn't think they would have babies...and that it might be SAFE to take me to. WRONG!

 
Not only did they have baby chickens (boring white "meat" chickens), but they also had BABY DUCKS! Ohhhh, they were cute. At first it was easy to say "awww, they're so cute" and keep on walking. And then we noticed that not all of them were white Pekin ducks!

 
Ducks and chickens get along well, and since I haven't had ducks since I was a wee little girl, we brought two home. I am 99% certain that they are Buff Orpington ducklings, though I am not sure if they are male or female. Now I need to come up with names for these little cuties. When I was a kid, I had two ducks named Soup and Quackers...

 
Ok, ok..... I need to fess up... Earlier this week Alan and I had to make a run to town (south of us) so I could get a bag of chicken feed, and a few odds and ends at the grocery store. They had baby chicks at the farm supply store... mostly just Production Reds and Golden Comets.

 
They also had three "unknown" breed chicks. And they were CUTE... They came home with us, and are now shacking up with the two cutest ducks on the farm.

By the way, not only is today the first day of spring, but March 20 is also my Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. Happy 39th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! May you have many, many more happy years together!

Poultry Paradise

My parents are getting ready for a short camp trip, and oh how I envy them! Sure, life on the farm is all glitz and glam, but imagine... me, Alan, and the chickens, dipping our toes in a cool mountain lake. We could be enjoying the sweet song of crickets and frogs, instead of the deafening whistle and whine of the Texas cicadas (though, I actually like the cicadas...) How sweet it would be! So, rather than wishing they (my parents) were here, I wish we were there!

I made this card using images from my recently released Whipper Snapper sets. The chicken and sentiment are from Beach Bum, the island is from Hooked on Fishing, and the trailer is from Great Outdoors. And of course, what's not to love about the Mr. Campy Cosmo Cricket paper... *swoon*

I was recently asked if I would show photos of project details now and then. You bet, Pam! Here you go! On this card, I chose to double-layer the chicken's body, for added detail. I lightly colored the chicken in the background, and then colored the top-layer chicken darker with more detail. I also sketched in some grass sprigs and made little dots to quickly and easily add ground.

Here is a close-up of the twill, button, twine. Normally I use a couple of small glue dots to hold things in place. I'm almost out of glue dots. *gasp!*

Note to self: ORDER GLUE DOTS!

And speaking of chickens (aren't we always?)...

I have a four chicks hanging out with me tonight. The black one is 3 or 4 days old, one of the yellow ones is a couple days old, the other yellow one hatched yesterday.

The younger chicks need to get their legs under them before I'll put them in with Ginger (the mama) and her slightly older chicks. I brought in a couple of the chicks that are a few day old to keep the new chicks company, and to encourage the new chicks to eat. They'll learn faster if they can mimic the older chicks.

After a day or two when they've got the hang of their legs and of eating, I'll put them all out with their mama and the other babies. Ginger will never notice... 11, 12, ...14... who's counting. Not Ginger! The newly hatched chicks are still in the "need sleep" stage, and Ginger is too busy showing the older chicks food to worry about snuggling down with day old chicks. They'll do better with her and the older babies in a day or two.

This is the little gal that hatched today...a bit too early, thanks to the egg she was in getting broken about a day before she was ready to hatch. I'm lucky I found her in the nest when I did. It could have been disastrous for her... She spent most of the day in the incubator, until she thought it was time to kick the last of her egg shell off and join her friends.

This modeling stuff is hard work when you're newly hatched!

Lefty's Babies

Earlier this week I mentioned that we had some of Lefty's babies here on the farm. Here are three of them I found resting on one of the old straw bales we have near the garage. The little black and white cockerel in front should grow up to look a lot like Lefty. These are the same three chicks that are in the cute photos of Crazy Dark Brown Hen with her chicks, posted this day. They change so much as they grow! And so quickly, too!

The light brown and gray speckled chick on the left is a little pullet. She's very sweet! The red/brown chick in the back/middle I *think* is a cockerel...but I'm not sure (also, I think Edward might be the father of that one, not Lefty). It's comb is MUCH smaller than the guy in the front, but it also has a different kind of comb, which is always smaller than the single comb on the guy in the front. So, time will tell.

There are more of Crazy Dark Brown Hen and Lefty's chicks in the chicken coop, too. An entire rainbow of colors! There's a charcoal gray pullet, a black pullet, a black & gold pullet, a red/brown pullet (like the one in the back of this photo), a little white speckled pullet, and a beautiful red and blue (which is actually gray) cockerel. They are the chicks we hatched from Crazy Dark Brown Hen's eggs after she abandoned the nest. They're growing up to be sweet little chicks. The little red and blue rooster loves to be held. I think more than anything it's because it makes him "taller" than all the other chickens in the coop. He's spoiled... but he's not the only spoiled one. *grin*

Sweet, sweet babies...

Subtle Differences

Here are the two chicks that were "surprise" hatches earlier this week. They are both part Red Frizzle Bantam (Little Buddy) and part Buff Silkie (don't know which of the three hens though). They do look a LOT alike, but there are slight differences.

The chick on the left was the first one to hatch. She (I'm optimistic!) has feathered legs and only four toes (normal) like her father, Little Buddy, but she has more of a head crown (poofy head feathers) like her mother, who is a Silkie.

The chick on the right was the second one to hatch. She (I'm optimistic!) also has feathered legs like her father, Little Buddy, but she also has the extra toe that is a characteristic of the Silkie breed (she got that from her mother). This chick doesn't have as much of a head crown though. Neither of them have the black skin that is a characteristic of the Silkie breed.

I think mixed breed chicks are so interesting ... especially when you KNOW what the two breeds are that created the mix!

We had an egg in the incubator pip (start to hatch) yesterday, but it didn't make it. I'm really disappointed, too... I really wanted that specific breed cross (Pippy a buff polish + Little Buddy a red frizzle bantam). Another chick pipped this morning, and is still working on hatching. It will be exciting to see what kind of cross it is! I'm waiting for four other chicks to pip today, too. Cross your fingers they do well!

Update: Another egg has pipped!! Come on BABIES!

A Surprise Chick!

Last week I mentioned that I was testing out the incubator with some of the eggs from the farm girls (due to some crummy hatch results with some shipped eggs) to make sure things were working smoothly.

There are 22 eggs in the incubator.

6 have a hatch date of May 30.

12 have a hatch date of June 3.

The remaining 4 I'm unsure of their development. Either they have really dark shells that make it difficult to candle, or I'm questioning their development progress, thinking they may not be growing any longer.

It takes 21 days of incubation for a chick to come to full growth, and hatch. Granted, this can fluctuate by a couple of days depending on heat, but the incubator has been at a steady 100 (give or take a percentage of a degree) since I set the eggs.

It was crazy! Last night I thought I heard some peeping coming from the incubator. I thought, NAH!! Can't be! They're no where NEAR their hatch date! And all the eggs were still intact -- not a crack to be seen!

Well, I wasn't crazy after all! This morning, a cute little reddish-blonde colored chick hatched! And, it hatched from one of the eggs I set late, with a hatch date of June 3! I can only imagine that I picked up an egg that one of the hens had been sitting on, giving it a head start on growing, but really ... it was the STRANGEST thing going in to turn the eggs and finding a chick! And, what's even crazier...there's another egg that looks like it's about to hatch as well! I'm really not sure how all of this happened. I just know it did. Today was day 13 for the chick and it's egg to be in the incubator ... soooo crazy!

I candled the rest of the eggs, and they all look like they're right on target for their projected hatch day. Saturday should bring 6 chicks, and next Wednesday, a dozen more -- if things go well, that is! And as for the four eggs I'm not sure about ... well, we'll see how things turn out for them too!

Here a chick, There a chick...

Early April I ordered some specialty breed chicken eggs, shipped as fertile eggs meant for hatching. I ordered eggs from two different breeders, and ordered three different breeds of birds. I prepared the incubator and got things ready for when the eggs arrived. One of the shipments arrived timely, and in great condition. The other shipment took a couple of days longer than planned, and the box looked like it was pretty roughly handled during shipping. I let the eggs sit for a day to "rest" after being shipped, and then set them in the incubator. 21 days passed. Out of the 21 eggs I incubated, only two hatched. I let the eggs stay in the incubator three extra days in case we had any stragglers, but no other chicks hatched.

I got one Salmon Faverolle (the yellow one in the food dish, and I suspect it's a cockerel) and one Golden Cuckoo Marans (the one on the right -- hopefully a pullet, but I'm not so sure). The little striped chick in the front center is from one of the eggs we hatched from Crazy Brown Hen's nest after she left the nest with her three little chicks.

This is the Golden Cuckoo Marans chick. What a face!

I'm happy with the two chicks, even though I really would have preferred two pullets, but let me tell you...these turned out to be a couple of expensive chicks. None of the eggs from the roughly handled box hatched, and several didn't even start to develop.

So, since I had such a low hatch rate with the specialty breed eggs, I decided that I needed to test out the incubator before attempting to hatch any more specialty breed chicks. To do this, I set a few eggs from the farm girls in the incubator.

The eggs have been in the incubator for two weeks, and they have 1 more week before they hatch. Tonight we candled (with a strong flashlight, not really a candle) some of the eggs to see how things were progressing... what do you know! We've got BABIES!

Candling eggs is something best done in a warm, dark room, and it needs to be done quickly so the eggs aren't out of the warm incubator too long. There was lots of movement, and we could even clearly make out legs and feet in several of the eggs. What fun! And just for you, I took photos!

We did all of this very quickly. We used a small bright flashlight, a shotgun shell shot glass (it's top is narrow!), and a macro lens on my camera which was mounted on my tripod. In normal light, these eggs look like any other egg. It's only by shining the bright light into the shell that you can see what's happening inside!

The flashlight is at the top of the egg. The large white area at the top of each egg is the air cell that stores oxygen for the chick. You can see the blood vessels around the membrane. The large swooping vein really moved around as the chick moved inside the shell.

You can see a leg and foot in this photo. This was a very active chick!

Another very active baby in this egg. The lighter colored spots you see are actually part of the egg's shell. They seem to be where the shell is just a bit thinner than other areas.

This was the first egg we candled. This chick put it's two feet on the side of the membrane several times. I was able to get this photo taken just as it started to pull it's feet back towards the middle of the egg.

Candling eggs is great fun! I only wish we could do it longer! You've got to be very careful not to jostle the egg, and too much time out of the incubator could be deadly to the baby. But what an amazing thing to be able to see the chicks move inside the shell!

How Many?

I actually have a card to share with you today, but first I must write this post. It's just too fun!

A little background: Crazy Dark Brown Hen went missing about a month or more ago. We were sad. Then one day, Alan saw her milling around with the other chickens. All was good. Then she went missing again...

We figured she'd made herself a little nest somewhere hidden from view and was sitting on who KNOWS how many eggs! Did you know it only takes 21 days for an egg to develop into a full-sized, ready to hatch chick?

One day, Alan saw her go into the TALL weeded area near our drain field, so at least we knew where she was. We just couldn't find her nest. It rained and rained and RAINED for several days and nights. I was sure that she would get rained out of her little hidden nest, or if she managed to stay on her nest, that the eggs would take in too much water and wouldn't hatch.

Then one day, Alan saw her out on the sidewalk all fluffed out like she was guarding baby chicks under her wings! Sure enough! She not only managed to survive her time sitting, but she also managed to hatch some babies even though we received several inches of rain during that time!

To keep her and her babies safe, we've been keeping them in a brooder until they were a bit bigger and could better tolerate being around the larger chickens. I started letting them out during the day so they can run around and be busy little chickens, but still keeping them in the brooder at night for safety.

Yesterday evening while I was out and about taking photos on the farm, I found Crazy Dark Brown Hen next to the garage getting her and her babies ready for bed. How they managed to get on top of a double stack of hay bales is beyond me. They're just so little, they must have really given it their all.

These photos aren't the greatest ... the sun was almost set, I was in the shadow of the garage, I had the camera set to allow as much light as possible for the shot, but that meant I had to have a really shallow depth of focus. So as much as it pains me, the photos are not as good as they could be. But they capture a moment in time here on the farm that was just too cute NOT to photograph. So please excuse the soft focus of the photos. It was the best I could do with the light and camera gear I had with me.

Can you guess how many chicks she has in this photo?

Crazy Dark Brown Hen, with HOW MANY babies?

Are you sure there's just one?

Do you think there are only two babies?

If you guessed THREE, you're RIGHT! Three little cuties! I'm pretty sure the one on the right and the black one are boys... *troublemakers* But jeez, they're cute!

The day that we saw her with her chicks for the first time, we also found her nest. She had been sitting on 14 eggs. She hatched three. Just in case there were others about ready to hatch, we gathered the eggs and put them under another hen who'd just started sitting in the chicken yard but didn't have any eggs to sit on. We don't like to let the hens in the chicken yard sit because the other hens are a danger to the babies if and when they hatch. But she was a good, immediately "warm" spot for the eggs.

A couple of days passed and I decided that since there weren't any other hatches, that I would toss out the eggs. I didn't want them to be a mess for the sitting hen. I lifted the sitting hen off the eggs and saw that three of them were in the process of hatching! Not wanting the babies to hatch with all the other hens around (it would be disasterous), I gathered up the eggs and took them in the house and put them in the incubator. Three chicks hatched that day, and three more hatched in the two days to follow. They're being raised by me in a brooder with a couple other specialty breed chicks I hatched in the incubator the week prior. *grin*

Meet Chainsaw!

Yes, Chainsaw is this little chick's name... odd, I know, but they can't all be NORMAL!

This little chick was the first one of our farm hatches this spring. It is part red frizzle cochin bantam (but it's feathers didn't frizzle) and part buff silkie, and it's feathers are so soft and smooth!

For the longest time we thought this might be a little rooster... then we thought maybe it's a hen... now, I'm not so sure about either one! It needs to get a little older, out of it's "adolescent" stage for me to be sure. So, for now, IT is just Chainsaw.

Chainsaw is one of my favorite chicks. It loves to cuddle. That might have something to do with me, though. When it was still in the house, before they moved out to the coop, Chainsaw was the one I would hold while Alan and I watched TV in the evening. Dancing with the Stars is a favorite around here... Chainsaw is rooting for Ty Murray. *grin*

Here are a couple photos of Chainsaw as a young chick, looking cute as EVER!

It's feathers have always been kind of "poofy" and stood out a bit from it's body.

It's wing feathers were (and still are) so much longer than it's body! Perfect for flitting around the chicken yard in search of bugs!

...Chainsaw might just have to come in and watch the Dancing with the Stars finale with us!...

If you thought Tipsy was cute...

I thought I'd introduce you to a couple more pullets...  Get a look at these cuties!

This is Curly Que, the little frizzled Golden Laced Polish pullet who hatched here on the farm April 1st. Her coloring is so much FUN! Polish chickens all have fancy feather plumes on their heads. Hers won't be as big and showy as a pure Polish hen's, but it'll still be sassy and fun! The next time I take photos of her, I need to make sure it's not in front of the coop! The wood siding of the coop is the same color as her feathers, and I think you miss out on some of their flair! I also need to make sure I have some assistance during her photo sessions. She refused to sit still long enough for me to get too many photos. She is a very busy, busy bird.

She's one WILD and CRAZY chick! (Pardon her little naked neck showing -- still working on growing in all those feathers!)

This little beauty is a Birchen Old English Bantam. She's TINY! That is a 2x2 perch she's sitting on, to give you an idea to scale. Isn't the lacing on her breast feathers pretty! What I love about these little Bantams is that they're such sweet little birds. The males can be little pistols, but the pullets are just as sweet as can be! She likes to sit on my shoulder when I'm in the coop. ...which is really great until she POOPS! *grin* I haven't decided on a name for her yet. It's gotta be something dainty... something beautiful...

And speaking of something dainty, this little thing hatched on Saturday! She's a Golden Cuckoo Marans and will grow up to have feathers that are a beautiful mix of gold, black and white. She will lay eggs that are a warm, dark brown.

And here she is about 12 hours after hatching... what a cutie, eh? A bit sleepy, but you would be too! She's standing with her stuffed chicken friend -- our tried and true surrogate momma/friend while we wait for other chicks to hatch. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she had a REAL chicken friend to share the brooder with. A little Salmon Faverolles hatched on Sunday -- pics of "her" later!

Welcome to the farm, girly girls!

Our little pullet has a NAME!

My GOODNESS! There has been so MUCH participation in the naming of our little pullet! 267 (and counting) comments, many with SEVERAL name suggestions! And that doesn't include the numerous emails I received as well! You're all so fun for playing along! And you came up with fantastic names!!

Thank you, thank you for all the FUN suggestions! I can't tell you how many belly laughs we have had reading every SINGLE one of them, and taking them all into consideration. We even got plenty of good names for some of the other girls in the coop too! And for that, I'm EXTRA grateful!

I've decided on a name for our little gal. The name was suggested by Mary Ann Kelemen... I'm delighted to introduce Tipsy Frizzlewinkle!

There MANY other names that were so close... here are a few that *almost* got chosen...

Pwaula Pinecone (as said with a Boston accent) was a close second, suggested by Renee's kids. Renee made sure to mention the Boston accent for pronunciation, and went on to say that she and her kids live in Kansas...  Hahaa! What a crack up!!

Pinecone, for obvious reasons... Prickles, Phillis, June Bug, and one that topped the charts from my Dad was Edith Ann, like, one ringy dingy, two ringy dingy, Lilly Tomlin's strange operator from Laugh In. So MANY fun suggestions...it was a difficult decision!

I really can't tell you how much FUN this was for us! Thank you for playing along! And Tipsy thanks you too! Cheep cheep!

Mary Ann, drop me a note -- I've got a little something to send you for your winning suggestion!

Name This Chicken!

Come on! You know you want to play!
Let's play Name This Chicken!

Let's meet our little pullet!

Our little beauty is a cross between a Buff Silkie hen and a Red Frizzled Cochin Bantam rooster (how she got such dark feathers is beyond me...). She is five weeks old.

Unlike most of her young chicken friends, she's not from a hatchery! She was hatched out right here on the farm!

She enjoys high perches, june bug snacks, and scratching in the grass.

And, she doesn't really care for photo shoots...

So, let's hear what you've got! Name This Chicken!

PS: You never know... there might just be a prize awarded for the winning name!
PSS: A "pullet" is a young female chicken who is less than one year old.

Residents!

Hmm... I guess the white trim with black polka dots isn't a hit after all! Good thing I didn't actually PAINT it like that before I found out it was such a bust of an idea! *grin*

I was asked to post a photo of what the perch ladder looked like when it was suspended from the ceiling -- there you go, Chris! There's a short chain above both of the outside legs of the ladder so the ladder is held up on both sides. Works like a charm! Sorry for the low quality pics -- it was early, I was using my point and shoot camera, and had to use the flash. Argh! But you get the idea anyway...

We knew it was going to be HOT today (in fact, we're at the beginning of a HOT spell), so bright and early this morning Alan and I added a layer of wood chips to the floor of the coop and moved the majority of the chicks into the new coop. We've still got the youngest ones in a brooder in the house. They need to get a bit older (and grow more feathers) before they can move out into the coop.

This is their first time on wood chips, and some were a little more comfortable than others. But after a short time, the babies thought it was a PARTY! The white and black chick on the left is Sweet Pea, the cute little white chick we had hatch from one of Olive Oye's green eggs. Dang it, I think it's a rooster. Poo! In fact, I think all of the chicks in this photo are roosters. Bigger POO!

 
The brown and black chick in the middle is Edwina, who is one of our farm hatched chicks (as opposed to store bought). Edwina is half Ameraucana and half Mille Fleur. The little dark brown frizzle chick on the right is another one of our farm chicks (yet to be named). She's half frizzle and half golden laced Polish, so she will have crazy curled feathers, and hopefully a plume of feathers on her head -- though I think if she does it will be small.

If you're wondering why they have bright green marks on their legs, that's how we marked them as we vaccinated them, so we could tell who'd been vaccinated and who hadn't been. Every now and then, Alan got a little carried away with the green grease crayon and they ended up with an entire green leg instead of just a green middle toe!

Here's another farm hatched chick, yet to be named. Every time I look at her I just LAUGH! She's half frizzle and half silkie. She's just the FUNNIEST thing on two legs!! Like the Polish chickens, Silkies also have tall standing feathers on their heads, but usually they're a bit shorter and not as "showy" as the Polish head feathers. Hers are a RIOT!! I think there are 5 feathers coming in. Hopefully she'll get a few more!

This is one of the bantam chicks we picked up at the farm supply store. She's the smallest of all the chicks, but she's mighty! She has big beautiful eyes!

"Whoa, is that my TOE?"

Peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck...

This is a Golden Comet pullet (girl). I love this in-between stage they're in. Losing their baby fuzz and growing in their first feathers. They're so awkward looking!

Here's the cute little frizzled Polish again, looking for snacks...

Yup, still too scary...