New Wallace

I hate this post.

I hate having to write it.

This is the most painful loss so far, hands down.

This beautiful big boy

We had a nice breakfast this morning, bacon, eggs and waffles with the french doors open. A nice enjoyable family breakfast...then my son said, "Has anyone seen Wallace today?"

These are the words that we had talked about just a week before. We loved Wallace more and more. He is such a sweetheart.

One droopy droop feather was all that he had.

So long, little friend

King Cann wasn't acting right the last few days. He was just standing alone outside. We brought him inside and put him in a box by the woodstove. He didn't try to get out of the box which was a sign things weren't right. We bought some medicine from the feedstore and tried to doctor him best we could. I held him often, he just sat in my arm like this...my sweet little hamster. I figured he was going to die but I wanted him to be warm and comfortable if he did, not weak and picked on by Edward, the BIG rooster. He did die. Mrs. Cann is lonely now. We find her up on the door step. Our daughter feeds her from her hand. She told me, "We have to take care of her now that she has no husband." So we do.

The seabrights: All grown up

Well, we named the seabrights Mr. and Mrs. Cann (not Tweedledee and Tweedledum) after the canary called "King Cann" in a child's story book Elmer and the Dragon. Our Mr. Cann is so small and he just seems like the King Cann from the book, so small and so proud.

We enjoy watching them out in the grass. They always stay together, they stroll around side by side. They watch out for each other. If we hold one, it's best to hold them together otherwise they are nervous. Mrs. Cann is definitely more uptight than Mr. Cann.

As you can see in the photo above, he can relax. If you hold him for a bit and sit still he will close his eyes and just enjoy the rest. This photo was taken in our dining room. Sometimes as a treat, after my son lets the chickens out in the morning he'll bring someone to the door for a visit. Usually, either my daughter or I will gladly scoop them up and have a little moment holding them. Then when it's over, I open the french doors and toss them out and they fly like birds for awhile.

Here you can see the adorable egg my son found laid by Mrs. Cann.

So cute!

Thinking it was the first of many to come I carelessly fried it. But since then we've only been able to find one more. I don't know where she lays them. They are so small and probably have their own special hiding place.

We love them so much. They are adorable and so much fun to hold.

They stick together like all good couples.

I hope they will survive another year at least. Sounds harsh I know but I've learned...between the owls and the coyotes you just have to appreciate them today and be prepared for what tragedy might befall them.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum

The seabrights are growing. 

They stay together. If we try to hold just one of them, the other sits in the box and cries. So cute.

Their feathers are coming in.

We are keeping them in this box, but they have started flying up and roosting on the sides.  This has never happened with our chicks. The seabrights are so small and more bird-like than chicken-like. They are so fun to have around.

They're the new hamster.

Chicks

It seems we can't go a spring anymore without little fluffy characters in our life. Jack is fixated. These two are Bantam Golden Seabrights.

One of the flock: Sarah

Surprise! Another chicken post.

Bet you didn't see that comin' huh.

I debated on whether to post about Sarah or not. She is after all, our newest favorite. It reminds me of my Grandma. She used to say that the newest baby was always the cutest baby...until the next came along, of course.

Aren't her feet pretty?

Okay, now I know I sound like some kind of chicken freak but really...

...they are!

When you consider most chicken's feet, her black ones are pretty.

In fact, just this morning, my husband commented on her feet without any prompting from me. He said, "I like her feet."

But you know, it seems that the chickens don't do well after they are featured on my blog. Some terrible fate befalls them. Like when we found Mrs. Brown dead in the grapes...or when Goldie was apparently smushed! Wha...?

But Henny Penny is still alive and well. So I will throw caution to the wind and share our newest (and dare I say nicest) gal.

Sarah is a chick that my son incubated. We bought a dozen eggs from a local chicken lady in town who has Black Australorps. We were going to incubate a batch so we figured we should try some of her eggs. We brought Sarah home in an egg carton, or we could have had an omelet I suppose, but we didn't, thank goodness!
Here are the eggs ready for incubation, trust me, she's in there somewhere.
By the way aren't her feathers beautiful? She is black, but has a green sheen to her.

Only 4 of those black australorp eggs hatched and 3 of them were roosters. They were sold on Craigs List. Sarah alone remained.

At first there was talk of her being named Sylvia because we were reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and there is a Sylvia in there. But in the end the name "Sarah" won out.

By the way, "Sarah" is also the name of my daughter's doll and my niece's sheep (both named by my daughter). Sarah is a good utility name around here.

It's not hard to say why we like her so much. She has the sweetest disposition. She is calm and gentle, she doesn't shy away from you like the other chickens. She walks in a very graceful manner, has a longer neck than the other chickens and has very big eyes.

When you hold her she just looks at you and lets you pet her. She is sweet!

Here is a testimonial about black australorps off McMurray Hatchery page:

I have raised many types of chickens and BLACK AUSTRALORPS is probably one of my all time favorites. They are beautiful to watch, easy to raise, and also make great pets. My children always tame one or two of this breed each raising. The hens will actually sit in wagons and wheelbarrows and be wheeled around. What makes the chicken great is that it withstands the interaction with children very well.

I'd say so too.

Livin' the dream

Today was D-Day for this batch of chickens. They went to 'market' so to speak.



My husband takes them to a local gentleman who processes the chickens professionally. He sees A LOT of chickens. The boys told me with pride that as soon as he saw our chickens he raved about how good they looked.

They were healthy and clean. Many times these chickens are raised in confinement and just look bad.


Somehow I don't think this is the life these factory chickens were hoping for.

It was sad for me. I really liked these chickens. They were friendly and cute. But we have to think rationally. We eat chicken, whether we raise them and butcher them or not.

They lived a GREAT chicken life, much better than the factory chickens that I have eaten more times that I'd care to think about.

Awww...poor babies.

Actually, I think these are the chickens that commercial eggs come from.

This is what our egg layers do all day. Here are the meat chickens free ranging out with them.

One last thing I wanted to share...The laying chickens LOVE the meatbird feed for some reason. One day our youngest son was playing with an old feed bag on a shovel. Walking around like it was a flag. He found that this completely terrified MoonRooster, who is the little nemesis of this son.

This son figured out how to keep the laying chickens away from the meatbird feeder by placing his 'scarecrow' next to it. The meatbirds were oblivious to it and it kept the layers away.

Pretty ingenious I'd say.

Chickens in the garden

We keep the cornish cross meat chickens in chicken tractors. This allows them to be outside and in a new 'pasture' everyday. We just move the tractor daily to give them a new patch of grass.

The other day we noticed that one had escaped the chicken tractor. We went out to put it back in but it was so cute and friendly and seemed to love being out that we decided to let a few more out. We figured, we can catch them...right? What's the worst that can happen.



Okay, as you can see by now, we decided to let them ALL out and put them in the garden with us. It has a temporary fence up to keep the chickens out but it was freshly tilled and not planted.

In the past, the meat chickens seem to be uninterested in scratching or searching for bugs , they just sit in front of the feeders and eat. We thought that the instinct to scratch had been bred out of them. They are designed to grow fast and be eaten.

But we loved seeing these chickens revel in the fresh dirt, the worms, the seeds, they went to town! They even were taking dust baths!

My daughter decided to contribute to their cause. She grabbed a stick and went digging for worms like they were.

Doesn't she look like one of them? Head down, tail feathers up.

Okay, she's got something.

Gold...pure gold!

Sadly, this chicken never took the worm. It just didn't look right on that blue thing.

These chickens are WAY more friendly than the laying chickens. I actually love them. They come out to meet us and follow us around now.

We learned something. These chickens are not dumb, as we have heard they are. And they are REAL chickens, who when given actual bugs or dirt will do what God has made them to do.

This has changed the way we are doing things. Now we are letting our older meat chickens free range, and they are doing it.

More pictures to come.

Safely gathered in

I don't really know what happened...a year ago we had never had chickens before, and now a year later, we are nuts about our chickens. We love them. Everyday we open our french doors out to the yard (no porch yet) and call "Chick chick chick" or something close to that and watch them all come running and flapping their wings (it helps them go faster you know) to feed them whatever leftover crumbs we have on our plates. They are very appreciative.

It's weird.

I wonder if this happens to everyone?

You know how there are dog people? Well, I guess we've become chicken people.



The other day we went to the feed store for chicks and guess what? There was a run at the feed store. More weird chicken people. People are crazy about chickens...not just us. There was a big, long line and they ran out of chicks! People were cutting in line!

We were pretty far back in the line and we stood by the metal water trough full of baby ducks and goslings. They did a very mean thing, they posted a sign that said, "Please do not touch"! I mean...COME ON!!

My daughter and I wanted to "touch" very badly. The goslings were the cutest. They were big and cute.

RRR!

I still want to hold them.

I actually want ducks and geese, but we have no water...in a pond-like form. Plus, the geese are mean and the ducks are gross, they poop everywhere, turn all the grass to mud, etc. But I would like to at least experience it, then sell them on Craigs List if it all turns bad.

You only live once.

After we got home, I found my daughter sitting quietly on the couch with all 4 chicks in her lap. They were so cute and peacefully sitting there.

The black chicks are Cuckoo Marans, they lay chocolate colored eggs. The yellow ones are very small White Cochin Bantams that T2 wanted. They are funny, they have feathers on their feet.

They reminded me of Michael J. Fox in the movie Teen Wolf or the old Disney movie, The Shaggy D.A.

Chick and cheeks

They burrow in and it tickles!

New arrivals

We have new chicks that have hatched from our incubator. When I lift the lid to look, many eyes looked back at me.

54 to be exact.

This time I requested that the brooder box be in our dining room. We usually put them out in the shed, but I wanted them close by so we could hold them a lot while they are here.

We will be selling them. They have gone quickly in the past.

We held them this morning as we read in the living room.

Oops.

Goodbye Goldie Girl

Maybe I should stop doing posts about the chickens. I did one on Mrs. Brown and then another of her funeral.

Then there was this post on Goldie and now I am writing of her demise.

We came home to find the chickens in a group in this corner. (The door from the red coop had swung open and possibly pinned them here.) At the bottom of the pile was Goldie.
I sent the camera out with my son to have him take the picture. I just didn't feel up to it.
It is so strange and sad. Just an hour earlier, we were at the feed store talking about Goldie. How cute she is and what she does. And then we come home to find her gone.
The boys buried her today.

Goldie

My son found Goldie in the chicken feeder.

Comfy Goldie?

On the wild side

This is Goldie.

Goldie likes to go on rides.

If you look closely you can spot Goldie 'blending' in with the firewood.

Look

close...

The boys put her in the wagon, but apparently she just sits there and doesn't try to get away. She sat in the wagon while they loaded the wood and then calmly rode to the woodbox.

I think once she sits down, she'd rather not get up. She's a Buff Orpington hen and they are BIG like a meat bird. She is a little tank.

But so sweet and a beautiful tank.

Ahem.

Somehow this happened. I think they were trying to catch Wallace, the big golden rooster. He's a Buff Orpington like Goldie.

We discourage chasing the chickens, but it is really funny to watch them run so we let it slide now and then, especially when we can watch.

Here is Goldie going for a ride last week. There she sat.

Can't you just hear her...

"Boy! Go faster boy!" (notice the little pretend whip in her hand)

Like I said, Goldie likes rides.

Maybe we'll take her to the fair this year.

Henny Penny's stash

See this little door? It is an ingenious little box for kindling. There is a board that rests on the top (that is currently removed in the picture).

On many occasions we have seen Henny Penny suspiciously hanging around this said kindling-box as if it were a perfectly natural thing to do.

But why? Don't ALL chickens hang out around here?

No.

When questioned she always stared at us blankly and pretended not to know what we were talking about whatever.

As if she were simply a mere chicken and didn't understand english.

Hah!

The other day the mystery ended when my son came to the door and hollared in "MAAAAAAMA!" as often happens. (the hollaring)

I got my sloggers on (reluctantly of course, because unfortunately I don't cheerfully run to see all the things my inquistive children want me to.) and went out with my son. He lifted the lid and we all burst out laughing.

We knew right away whose handiwork we had found.

Every single egg was blue. So cute. Diligently stolen away and laid by a hopeful hen. No doubt feeling the very same frustrations of one Jemima Puddle Duck when faced with a pesky farmer boy toting his egg basket!

But Henny Penny...follow-through is the key, Honey!

Sit...sit...sit.

Which way?

We found little arrows in the snow yesterday. Where do they point?

The funny thing is that they point in the opposite direction that the chicken is walking.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

Ode to Mrs. Brown

So...it happened.


Our first chicken loss.




You remember Mrs. Brown?

She was the curious one. The friendly one. One of my favorites.

(How many favorites can you have before the words starts to lose it's meaning?)

The one who dreamed of setting on her own clutch of eggs. Although she did mistake a bag of golf balls for eggs, that's okay. She was just practicing for the big game.

Sometimes a swinger.

Well, the other day we found her in the grapes.

She had been sick. She just didn't seem well. We had put her in the shed alone with a heat lamp and some antibiotics in the water to see if that would take care of things. She seemed better, but not quite herself.

When I called the chickens to the door to throw them scraps, she wasn't spry enough to get things anymore. Her sister, the other Mrs. Brown would always spring in front of her and grab the cherry tomato. (grrr!)

But I had hoped...apparently in vain.

One thing I have wondered is whether she may have gotten into some anti-freeze that our vehicle was leaking.

Regardless...there she lay.

But no one cried.

T1 got right to work digging. He dug a beautiful square hole. I was really proud of him. I thought it was sort of a good thing, experiencing death.

Back in the old days, people had to deal with their dead. Now days, we are more removed. I liked letting the boys take care of it all. I purposely did nothing but hold MoonRooster and pet him. (and take pictures with one hand).

It's just not a pretty sight.

But it's real.

It's life.

The cross is something T2 made sometime last year or earlier this year on his own. It was cute, he ran to the shop and got it. I loved that they did it all by themselves and it was perfect. He invited his cousin to the funeral and gathered the flowers too.

Okay, I did say a prayer.

Mrs. Brown was a Bovan Brown chicken, also know as a Golden Sex Link. I highly recommend getting a few if you ever have the opportunity. They are just the nicest, friendliest chickens. We got them because a gal at the feedstore recommended them. She loves her Bovan browns too.

So, farewell Mrs. Brown.

Thank you Lord for giving us this nice little chicken. If there are chickens in heaven, I bet Mrs. Brown is there scratching in the garden.