and yesterday I had to buy eggs to make a fruitcake. The turquoise egg is from my flock. ...
Martha Stewart, the chicken.
On October 4, 2008 we traveled with our granddaughters to CETA Foundation Ranch in Vacaville, CA to pick out our first chickens. Emily picked a Naked Neck and named her Judge Judy. Michael and I picked chickens, named them Nancy Grace and Paula Deen. ...
Cute Chicks and Curled Toes (Update)
We just finished the first round of a staggered hatch a couple of days ago. Three black copper Marans chicks hatched along with four Icelandics. As usual, the Icelandics are running around, eating and drinking, while the Marans (from now on ...
Update on the Icelandic Juveniles
The Icelandic chicks are about three months old now. Because Icelandic's are a landrace fowl, there is no standard color, pattern, or comb. You just never know what you'll get. I have nine beautiful chicks, unfortunately five are boys. I will have to ...
Shipped Egg Mayhem (Graphic Pics)
I was excited this morning to be receiving a box of shipped hatching eggs. My postal carrier delivered the box and I anxiously opened it, only to be horrified by what I saw. These were the eggs I received. I'll start with the obvious problem. Some ...
Broodies and Babies
We went outside tonight to find the source of a lot of loud peeping. It was the Icelandic juveniles running amok. My old Welsummer girl, Chatty Cathy was trying to herd them into the coop for the night. I sent her back to the coop and I took ...
The adoption process…as it applies to chicks.
Some hens make horrible broodies but great Moms, meaning they can't hatch an egg to save their life, but the can sure love one from the incubator. This girl is a perfect example. She has been broody about three times this summer and has yet to hatch ...
Time Lapse Chick Hatching Video!
Last night we had eggs hatching. I am addicted to the time lapse camera I bought recently, so I put it in the incubator with the chicken eggs. A complete hatch from pip to out of the shell was captured. If you are unfamiliar with the process of ...
Icelandic Chicks
We now have Icelandic chickens from three lines of imports from Iceland. Isi and Lukka are still going strong, but I felt the need to add some new blood. We now have nine chicks, two that are 10 weeks old and seven that are 8 weeks old. Those are ...
One gave all.
My 20 week old Black Copper Marans, the oldest of two that I have, laid her first egg today. Unfortunately, she died immediately afterward, right in front of the nest box containing her first, and last egg. It wasn't dark yet, but you can see she was ...
Egg without a shell!
Today I found this egg on the floor of the Cream Legbar coop. I have three pullets in that coop who just turned 22 weeks old. This egg has no shell, just the white (albumen), yolk and membrane. Eggs laid without shells are not ...
Egg Candling
I have Icelandic and Isbar eggs incubating. They are on Day 10 of a 21 Day incubation period. This point is a good time to candle the eggs to pull out any non developing eggs or early quitters before they begin spooling. These eggs can later explode ...
What’s up with Isi?
I have done a bit of shuffling around of the chickens in recent days. The result is a very bare Icelandic/Layer coop. I decided to move the older girls to a private coop with a nice grassy, shady run to live out their days in peace, without being ...
Broody Freak Out
I wanted to get photos of Lukka with her babies today. They were hunkered down in a hole created when a sprinkler was removed. Apparently I got a little too close for comfort, and she freaked out. They all headed for the hills, re-grouped and ...
New mama, for the umpteenth time.
My sweet Icelandic hen Lukka went broody again a few days ago. I knew it was going to happen as soon as she saw a hen in the next run with a new baby. The old girl isn't as sharp as she once was and kept changing nests, allowing her eggs to get cold. ...
Tucker’s Chicks
Having a dog around chickens has always been a worry for me, and reasonable I believe. When I adopted Tucker I knew I would have to be vigilant in keeping him away from the chickens. So far we have had no problems. The most recent hatch of olive ...
The bad, bad, baby!
My project broody hatched three chicks three weeks ago. Two disappeared without a trace. The third has been AWOL much of the time, but as of today, he is under my control! Thanks to my trusty net, he was captured, after being on the run ...
Getting Ready
The project and olive egger chicks are growing fast. I am ready to get them out of the brooders and into a coop. Last week I re-homed several young cockerels and emptied one of the small coops. It was a mess of course. Chickens are messy. Period. ...
New Mama and Babies
My first time broody hatched three chicks a couple of days ago. My seriously, one disappeared and we could not find it despite searching. Today the broody brought her two remaining babies out into the run for the first time. They spent the day ...
Olive Egger Chicks
Over the last two days we have hatched eight olive egger chicks. I am thrilled with that because they were shipped eggs, coming all the way across the country via the US Postal system. One was broken in transit so I set 11 eggs. Of those 11 eggs, 8 ...