Free range peachicks

Today I let the peachicks out of the calf hut to roam the yard.  They seemed to enjoy it, but unlike chickens when let out of a familiar place into an unfamiliar place, the peachicks just started roaming everywhere!  Not sure if I like that...I'd almost rather than they were a little hesitant to leave safety of their home.  Tonight, I found them on the planter-for-parts just to the west of the house.  Apparently, also unlike a chicken, peachicks must not come home to roost in the same safe place they know of...  Well, I'll leave them there tonight and see what tomorrow brings... :-)

New deal!

New deal on eggs!  For every egg carton you can bring to me, I'll give you 10 cents.  Or if you're a frequent buyer, for every 15 cartons, I'll give you a free dozen eggs!  No limit!  Bring me all you can and take home a little pocket cash! :-)

Researching...

So now that the winter months of no green grass are approaching, I'm researching ways to keep the fantastic high Omega-3 eggs still coming.  Flax is a great source of Omega-3 so I started looking specifically at places to buy flax seed to mix in with their current rations of chicken feed and corn.  I found a place (http://www.purityseedsusa.com/) that sells discounted flax screenings at a pretty great price, however, because these are screenings, weed seeds are also mixed in.  My farmer husband isn't so keen on the idea of adding more weeds to the yard so I was about to go to plan B.  However, thanks to the wonderfulness of Google search I found through a couple links from researchers saying that chickens destroy 98% of all weed seeds!  http://www.mnproject.org/pdf/Weed%20Seed%20long%20-%20web%20cx.pdf  How cool is that?!  Chickens are the most effective at this being that all their food goes through the grinding process of the gizzard which ruins all those weed seeds.  So, not sure yet, but it appears as though there's a good change their eggs will remain high in Omega-3s all winter long!  I'll keep you posted... :-) 

Back home again...

For the last couple weeks, the chickens have been aimless wanderers around the yard.  It has rained at least every other day for the last few weeks and with all the rain, they like to dig in the nice vineyard grass, making it that much harder to grow again next year...  They should technically live in the truck coop for most of the day now, but being that that doesn't have walls on it yet, well...it would be a bit chilly in there.  I decided to move it up next to the house and leave it there permanently for the winter.  I'll put plastic walls up on the sides to keep them warmer and dryer until harvest is done and the big truck coop is finished.  I like them up closer to the house anyway to hopefully keep the local vermin from getting too friendly with them.  How terrible would it be to come out there and find half the chickens gone with some wiley fox?? 

Silly ducks...

I don't understand these silly ducks.  It's freezing cold outside and they're having the time of their life in mud puddles.  I haven't done any research, but apparently, ducks must be immune to cold frostbiting their webbed feet...  They also hunt through each puddle like they would hunt for fish, snails and other pondlife in an actual pond.  Makes me want to put a goldfish in the puddle here to see what they'd do with it... :-)

Friendly Gold Star

In late March, I bought 4 Gold Star chicks from Runnings (with some others).  Apparently Gold Stars are not very tolerant to cold at that age and three of the four died.  The one that lived, however, is very lovable and tame.  I wanted some more pictures taken of my with my chickens and this little hen obliged. :-)  I'll load the pictures on here when I get them off my mother's camera. :-)

Blue/green sheen on peachicks!

A noticeable sheen of green or blue on a few of the peachicks today!  Considering their major color so far has been brown with a little tan or white, this blue or green is great!  It seems the little guys are growing up so fast lately - it's hard to believe they won't be full-grown adults for another 3 years!  This sheen is on their neck and I'm going to try and take a few pictures in the next couple days.  So pretty! :-)

Winterize the peachicks

It's getting colder outside and I'm thinking the peachicks will live in the calf hut that the little chicks used to live in in the spring.  There's straw and stuff in there, but I think they need a good little straw house to curl up in.  One of these next warmer fall days, I will raid the loft of a couple straw bales and make a cozy little place for them.  It's amazing how fast these little guys are growing up so I'll have to remember to make it big enough to last them all winter so they don't outgrow it! :-)

No more run

I have decided since the grass in the vineyard has started to go into hibernation for the winter and any major scratching on the part of the chickens would probably stunt its growth next spring, the chickens are now allowed to run all over for most of the day.  They seem to enjoy it although my egg count is slowing so I'm guessing some are finding a new hole somewhere... :-)

Snow!

It snowed last night and it's always funny to see what the spring pullets do with it since they've never seen it before.  This year's flock wasn't overly scared of it - they ran out with the others.  But it's still cold on their little feet since you can see them occasionally standing with one foot up being warmed under their feathers. 

Too cold and wet!

I moved the peachicks into the calf hut today because it was just too wet and cold for them.  They appreciated it! :-)  It was dry and there's straw in there too.  Now I just have to winterize it for them!

Bye-Bye big blue-reds!

Today we said goodbye to two of the blue-red Wyandotte roosters as they made a 3 hour trip home with my parents to live with their hens.  They are such beautiful birds and so pleasant and it was going to be sad to butcher them, but now they will be going to a place where they will be two of three roosters instead of two of six as they are here.  My mom will use them for breeding so it will be interesting to see the offspring these guys make.  Should be some massive beautiful birds! :-)

It's raining, it's pouring...

It's been raining here a lot the last few days and that means sopping wet chickens. :-)  They look rather silly when they get wet.  I have let them out of the run the last few days since if they stay in it, they almost completely ruin the wet muddy grass in there.  Just what we need...one spot of no grass in the middle of the vineyard... :-)  But they certainly enjoy running free all over the yard... :-)

Collecting eggs!