Broody hens are still sitting!

My broody hens (one duck and one chicken) are still sitting on their eggs!  Yeah!  I'm excited to see what becomes of the eggs under them.  I have 1 rooster to 37 hens...which is a tad on the uneven side to get fertilization to all hens (about 1 rooster to 10 hens is great) but we'll see what happens.  Hopefully I get a few chicks out of them!  After they hatch and if the "moms" still want to be moms and don't run off, I hope to put them all in the peachick run so they can take care of their own babies and I don't have to use the brooder, which is basically a box with a light in it to keep them warm enough.  Lord willing, the hens will keep them warm and show them the food and water and I get to sit by and watch. :-)  As of now, the peachick run isn't finished...but I have roughly 15 days yet to get it done........ :-)  Hopefully too the peas leave the moms and babies alone....we'll see I guess!  Each day is an adventure! :-)

Crazy duck! :-)

So, if you've been eagerly following chicken incubation exploits, you'll know that I'm on the hunt for a broody chicken or duck to sit on some eggs for me. Spring must finally be here since I now have a Buff Orpington chicken and a Runner duck sitting on nests. Yeah!! Apparently Buff Orpingtons are good setters, but Runners apparently are not, so I guess I got lucky with this one! The duck sitting within viewing distance of the kitchen window, so I'm thrilled I get to watch her. Although, a sitting duck isn't terribly exciting. Anyway, I knew the sitting Runner had a ton of eggs under her - I guessed about 35 - which would be more than what her little behind could keep warm. The eggs would probably also be a Runner/Muscovy cross, which I wasn't sure I wanted around anyway. So, tonight when she got up for her usual 7:00 quick bite to eat and short bath (told you I liked to watch her...), I pulled out everything that was under her and replaced them with 12 chicken eggs and 3 other duck eggs. As it turns out, I was slightly off in my guesstamate of how many eggs were under her...it was 57!! She evidently hadn't given much thought to how she was going to raise 57 little ducklings... I checked her after she returned to her "new" nest and she appears to have taken to the new eggs. Evidently she can't count either... :-)

Busy spring!

Boy, it's been awhile since I've written anything on here!  I'm having a busy spring here with my chickens and hardly spend any time in front of the computer! :-)  My new project for this spring is using hens to incubate chicks since I don't have an incubator.  I could buy one I suppose, but I was reading about how nice it is when the hen does all the work of keeping them warm and how nice a job she also does keeping them alive and teaching them all to be chickens after they are hatched.  I figured I'd give it a try and let some chicken moms do all the work instead of me!  I have one sitting Buff Orpington and hopefully when hers hatch in about 18-19 days (it takes 21 days total) I will put her in the peachick run to keep her and them safe from predators.  That's my plan anyway...we'll see how it works... :-)

Lots 'o eggs!

I have a multitude of eggs filling my fridge at the moment and an looking to get rid of a bunch!  Hungry for a fresh homemade omelet or egg bake?  I will deliver eggs to anyone nearby who wants them - for free!  I will also deliver a little further away for $2.50/doz.  "Nearby" includes New Ulm, Hutchinson, Sleepy Eye, and Redwood Falls.  "Further away" includes the Minn/St Paul area.  Shoot me an email and let me know where to meet you!  I'm also considering a route, so if you'd like eggs on a regular basis, let me know and we'll work something out!

World traveling rooster

Last fall, I gave my mom (who also has chickens) two of my three blue/red Wyandotte roosters.  She was in need of some good roosters and they are so pretty I hated to butcher them... :-)  It turned out one of her Jersey Giants she bought ended up being a rooster.  He is an enormous bird and he was making life miserable for one of the blue reds.  So, today, my sister, on her way back to school, stopped by and brought him back home again.  He, and his one brother who I kept, had occasional sparring today, but neither look worse for the wear, so as soon as they establish hierarchy, everything will be peachy keen, I'm sure.  There are 40 hens and now 2 roosters, so there should be enough females to keep them each busy... :-)  I was wondering whether he'd remember living here (do chickens have a memory of any length??) and I think maybe he did since he's now perched in the summer run and not in the truck with most of the others, since the truck didn't exist as a coop when he was last here.  Well, hopefully he likes living here!  Those blue reds are such a pleasant, even-tempered bird and so nice to have around!

Easter eggs

Have you ever tried dying brown eggs before?  I have to say that my first thought was wondering if it would be like trying to color on a black piece of construction paper and have it come out like anything.  But eggs apparently aren't that way!  They have such neat "earth tone" type colors on them, versus the white eggs that end up bright and pastel colored.  Take a look!