Spring is here, and our bathroom is FULL of Babies!

[bvar22]

We just got some new chicks.
2-Barred Rocks
2-RhodeIsland Reds
2-Buff Orpingtons
2-Australorpes
2-Silver Laced Wyandottes
They will be joining our flock of 11 other mixed hens in a couple of months.

Baby chicks in our bathroom makes us very happy.
We won't get much reading done in the Throne Room for the next couple of months.
The chicks are MUCH more entertaining.

Also, more babies under the grow lights.

Tomatoes, EggPlant, Peppers, and some ornamental flowers.
There will be joined by a multitude of other veggies in the next few days.

I also brought home two healthy Early Girl Tomato Plants that will be our "Bucket Toms"
so we can bring them inside if it gets too cold.
The rest of the Tomatoes will Go Outside sometime in April.
We are trimming down to just 5 varieties this year:
Creole,
Rutgers,
Yellow Pear,
Brandywine,
and Sam Marzanos


So far,
the Strawberries survived the Winter, and are looking strong.
We even have a few early blossoms on the June Bearing plants.

The Garlic and Chives also did well over the rather mild Winter (warmest since 1951),
and we are eagerly looking for the first Asparagus Spears (YUM!) to make an appearance.

The potatoes (Yukon Gold & Pontiac Reds) are planted
along with the Vidalias and Red Onions

We are hoping for a decent Spring and Summer,
though we are a little worried by this very early Spring,
and a Winter that was very warm.
If this translates into another Heat Wave/Drought Summer like the last two years,
that won't be fun.
We are already selecting Veggies that are Heat/Drought resistant,
and will be planting some tomatoes/Peppers in afternoon shade.


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Happy Spring,
and Fertility and Good harvests to ALL!

Starkraven & bvar22
Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas

[Arkansas Granny]

1. And what lovely babies they are.

I was raised out in the country and we had a Buff Orpington hen. She only laid every other day, but most of her eggs were double yolked. She had quite a personality, to boot.

I'm a little north of you, but we have also had a mild winter. I have petunias in containers that overwintered outside, which has never happened before. My daffodils are in full bloom and the forsythia has bloomed a full 3 weeks earlier than last year. I'll join you in wishing we don't have a summer like last year.

[bvar22]

2. Hi, Neighbor!

The only thing cuter than a baby chick is a baby duck, but only by a little.
We have way too much fun with our chicks.
One of our hens hatched out her own chicks last year,
but she was very protective, and wouldn't let us play with her babies.

We stopped by the local Feed Store yesterday,
and they had 100 gallon stock tanks FULL of these 2 day old chicks.
We wanted to buy them ALL.




Channel 11 (Little Rock) said This has been the warmest Winter (Dec-Feb) since 1951.
It is crazy here too.

Daffys, Crocus, and Forsythia are full bloom.
Beautiful, but it ain't right!
The Peach and Plum Trees are in full bloom.
I'm worried that a hard freeze in early April will ruin any young fruit that sets now.

But, Oh, Well.
Might as well enjoy the beauty
and let Mother take care of the rest.

[applegrove]

3. What fun it will be to watch them grow.

[handmade34]

4. ...

so wonderful for you!! Thank you so much for the photo



my life is not the same without the chicks and poults and nucs and spring lambs and seedlings and new piglets that used to bless my every spring...



my goal is to find land and be finished with my present job within the next year or two so I can once again regain my sanity and find the peace that comes from feeling dirt in my hands and hearing the morning sounds of a homestead...

[jannyk]

5. They are adorable

What do you feed them when they are so little?

[bvar22]

6. WE start them on "Chick Starter Food",

...which is slightly higher in protein than regular chicken feed, and slightly softer, but not by much.
It is available at any rural Co-Op or Farm & Feed Supply.

They are surprisingly capable on day one. They can find the food & water, and know how to "peck" and "scratch" (for finding food).
They know to move closer to the heat lamp if they are cold, or move away from it if they are too warm.

We keep our bathroom very warm in the Early Spring (80+ degrees) to germinate the seeds for our Veggies and help the young seedlings, but the chicks like it even hotter, like 90 - 95 degrees for the first week, so we add a heat lamp to their box to keep them warm. We have a small plastic wading pool that we transfer them to when they need more room.

Last year, one of our hens hatched out some chicks for us,
so we didn't have any baby chicks our bathroom.
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We started keeping chickens in the Spring of 2007 after we moved here from Minneapolis.
At that time, we saw them as a good source of natural, non toxic food.
We were quickly surprised by how smart, clean, and social these beautiful birds are.
The have individual personalities, and have become a daily source of entertainment and wonder.


We let our Free Range in the afternoons, and I am still amazed every evening watching them "Come Home to Roost". They file into the coop and jump up on their roosting bars in a definite social order and arrangement understood only by them, but if one of them tries to make any changes, the whole flock will voice their displeasure.
The younger chickens have to earn their spot on The Roost,
which makes for some interesting times ("squabbling&quot in the coop in Mid-Summer when the new birds are old enough to fly up to the roosting bars and make their spot.

[EFerrari]

7. I just spent two days looking at pictures of chickens

Last edited Sun Mar 11, 2012, 02:24 AM - Edit history (1)

and reading about breeds. When I was up here in the 90s, RI Reds and Barred Rocks were what the feed store in the village stocked. That store is gone now so there will probably be an order to a hatchery later this month that I can split with someone once the babies arrive.

This weekend, beginning the garden area fencing and cleaning up the space so the soil can be prepped. It's very hard -- although that doesn't stop the moles and squirrels! Have to figure out what to do about the ants or they will eat everything. And have to find an easy-to-build coop design for about 10 birds that I can make myself.

/typo

[bvar22]

8. We love our birds.

Barred Rocks and RI Reds have been some of our favorites.

The Barred Rocks are the most gentle, quiet, easy going, matronly of any variety we have had.
They always finish last in the Chicken Races, but don't seem to care.

AFIC, the Reds are proof that chickens are the direct descendants of the Velociraptor.
They are the fastest, most aggressive foragers we have had.
If it moves, they are On It,
and always WIN the Chicken Races.

The Chicken Races happen when we go to the kitchen door in the afternoon, throw out scraps.
and "Chick..,Chick,..Chick" the chickens.
They come racing in from wherever they happen to be foraging.
It is always amusing.

Mother Earth News (we LOVE our Mother) has plans for a variety of Chicken Coops,
from small chicken tractors to multi-level Town Houses.

Good luck with the birds and the coop.

[EFerrari]

11. I used to love watching them take their afternoon constitutional

like ten church ladies following their preacher. My dog is a good girl and doesn't bark or chase chickens. The coop will be close enough to my studio that I can hear any disturbance at dawn or dusk.

[mopinko]

9. good for you. so glad you will be farming.

wish you were closer so we could split those chicks. i did find a feed store (yes, a feed store in chicago. chickens are big here.) that will order me however many i want.
might just start with a dozen instead of the 2 doz i was figuring i would have to order.

[EFerrari]

10. I can't figure out how to lose the ants without poisoning the garden.

They can be really bad here. Remember that short story "Leiningen versus the Ants"? Bad like that, lol. The first stand of corn I planted here ca. 1998, they stripped every ripe kernel the day before I was set to harvest. I'm not worried about squirrels or moles or birds, just ants. The deer can't get inside the fence and the coyotes elicit a warning bark from Kid. But those damn ants have me stumped for now.

[handmade34]

12. Tansy!!

and it doesn't hurt to plant mints (peppermint, catnip, spearmint) and lavender... some say that ants will not cross chalk but I have no personal experience

[bvar22]

13. Try Boiling Water.

It works OK for us.

Scoop out a hole in the middle of the mound 2 - 3 " deep
and fill the hole with boiling water from a large pot.
We use a 6 quart pan.
Wait a few days and then examine the mound.
Worker ants left alive may try to rebuild even after the queens and brood are dead,
but the attempt will be feeble, and then decline.
If the mound is building Up again vigorously,
repeat the process.

Fire Ant Colonies can have more than one queen,
and they can make another queen if there are eggs left alive,
so the key here is repeated applications plus digging out the heart of the mound.

What you do with the ants & eggs you dig out of the heart is up to you.
We currently spread it all out on a flat board in the sun,
but I'm not sure that kills them, and they may be sneaking off and building another colony somewhere.
I'm considering dumping the whole small shovelful in a strong bleach/water solution,
but then we can't reuse the soil.
We burn bottled gas to boil the water, and I am reluctant to boil another large pot to dump the shovel of ants into
Any good suggestions are appreciated


There may be some very local collateral damage to the roots of anything planted close to the mound,
but we've had some success with this method.
We are currently "chasing" one particularly persistent colony down the edge board of a raised bed.
Every time I think I've killed it, it (or another) reappears a little downstream from the spot I treated.

Good Luck!

[EFerrari]

14. I've never seen a mound and there have always been ants here.

I think this hill IS their mound. They seem to have a vast underground kingdom.

[mopinko]

15. diatomesceous earth.

or as someone here told me, find the nest, get a plumbers torch, stir the nest and toast the little bastards. repeat until one of you gives up.

[EFerrari]

16. Ripley!

lol

[/IMG]

[bvar22]

17. 2-week update.

The chicks are 15 days old now,
healthy, and very active.


They have grown so fast,
that we had to graduate them to the larger brooder.

These plastic Kiddie pools are very inexpensive, and work great for this purpose.
We use the plastic coated chicken wire for safety.
One of the Barred Rock chicks was able to hop/fly up, and perch on the top wire,
so we added the safety netting across the top to keep them inside.

They are delightful bathroom entertainment.


Our other "baby" is now 8 -1/2 months old,
also healthy, and very active.

Sweetee is best buds with the male Mouser on the left,
and they frequently hang out together.


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Sweetee runs free during the day,
and, so far, has always returned at sunset.
She gets sliced apple treats and fruit Gummies at sunset.



She occasionally shows up during the day when we are working outside.
She is so quiet that her sudden appearance is sometimes startling.

[jannyk]

18. Fabulous! Thanks.

[supernova]

19. Aww,

If they could just stay little til their Carters' wear out!