From late November to early March emus begging dating and making babies. If you find it odd that they mate in winter remember they are indigenous to Australia so it is summer for them. Flips flops, Mai Tai's, and long walks on the beach are the ...
Farm Focus Friday 6-27-2014
I tried to get out to take some photographs this morning before risking my camera melting in the heat. We have been blessed with a few mild days, but today Mother Nature promises to turn on the blast furnace and let it go for a few days. I did a ...
The Old Egg Swap Trick
We have a Black Copper Marans hen who has been broody for several weeks. If you are here for the recipes and don't know chickens, being broody means sitting on eggs for the purpose of hatching baby chicks. This hen lives in a coop without a rooster ...
What to do, what to do?
In the last week, our emu Loca has laid two more eggs, bringing our total to four. Here they are with a chicken eggs for size comparison. She has chosen the area between the goat dogloos as her nest and that puts the eggs in ...
A basket divided
Collecting eggs can be complicated, especially with five coops. Some eggs are for eating and others are for hatching. Complicating things even more, is that we have green egg layers in three of the five coops. When I want to hatch Isbars I need to ...
I have 61 chickens in my backyard . . .
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Night Falls
A tech report on my favorite morning news show piqued my interest in a small time-lapse camera made by Brinno. The more I researched, the more I wanted one. So I bought one. It arrived a couple of days ago and we have played with it a bit. The first ...
Mean Girls
If you have seen the movie or are watching the current season of Big Brother, you know all about mean girls. Emu sisters Chica and Loca are having a bit of a mean girl issue at the moment. Chica has been displaying adult female behavior for many ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
Little green apples and other stuff
We had a glorious morning here at the Buck 'n Run. Michael mowed the grass yesterday, the sun was shining, it was 65 degrees. It was a perfect morning. I took my camera with me hoping to get some pictures of the baby chicks that hatched under my ...