Brooding...and I Don't Mean Young Vampires!

At the beginning of May, I posted a picture on our Facebook page of some of the hens laying their eggs in the goats hay bin.  Now, one of the Ameraucana hens won't leave the hay bin!  The first few days I gently snuck underneath her and collected the eggs, as I do with all The Hens.  By day three, she resisted a little more strongly, giving me the hardest peck I've received from a hen and making a rather angry squawk!  She continued to almost growl at me as I stood beside her, so I backed away.  Yo ho!  Is one of our hens getting that 'mothering' feeling?

Hens lay eggs, it's what they do.  No rooster required, no special feed, it's just what they do - you can't stop them and why would you?  If no rooster is around, the eggs would never produce chicks.  If a rooster is present, and the hen is allowed to sit on the eggs for three weeks, a chick will develop if that egg has been fertilized.  With two roosters and forty seven hens, it's very possible some of our hens are not getting any, ummm, male attention; roosters seem to like a harem of about ten or twelve females.  When a hen wants to sit on the eggs and have babies, it's called 'going broody'.  It's quite an investment of her time: a mother hen will keep those eggs warm almost twenty four hours a day, only leaving for a short period each day to eat, drink and 'freshen up' a bit.

In our five years or so of having chickens, we've never had a hen go broody.  Our reading tells us that the instinct has almost been bred out of many varieties; the Leghorns and Isa Browns we've had the longest have never shown any inclination to have babies.  Our potential Mama is an Ameraucana, we have no idea if she's been mated, or if the Daddy would be Rocky the Barred Rock or Buddy the Ameraucana.  We've also noticed that the hen as adopted other eggs laid in the hay bin, a mix of Black Sex Link and Isa Brown eggs.  She's currently sitting on eight eggs.  She's showing classic signs of going broody: the protective instinct and unusual warning calls, her body is low and flat covering all the eggs, she's there almost all the time, she has a far-away, glazed look in her eyes.

All we can do is wait three weeks and see what happens.  It would be wonderful if we could be self-sufficient in chicks, so to speak.  We have already ordered twenty new chicks, for delivery at the end of May, so we may have quite the flock of babies here!  I'm already worrying about whether they'll fall out of the hay bin and hurt themselves!  As the old saying goes:  Time will Tell!  I'll keep you posted, check our Facebook page for weekly updates!

Look What We Found!

You just never know what you'll find when you take a stroll around a small farm!  Egg production has been down significantly the last week or so.  We thought maybe it was the change in weather, shorter days - something like that.  While I was out this morning, camera in hand, I heard some squawking from the trees beside the chicken coop.  The squawking a hen makes when she lays an egg!  Investigating, I find one of the Browns, nesting in the bole of a large willow tree beside the coop!  There are at least six or eight eggs under her! A second chicken seemed to be waiting her turn!  No wonder egg production is down!  I didn't disturb her; for safety sake all the eggs will have to be garbage.  Why the little hen would decide to start laying outside is a mystery - but at least we know where to look now!

A few nights ago, preparing to bring the goats in from their pasture one night, Farmer Man heard some tiny meows!  Investigating, he found two little kittens out on the barn floor!  Afraid the goats would trample them when they came in, he looked around and found a little nest in some hay with two other little kittens!  The mother is not very friendly, so he placed the kittens in and we've largely left them alone since then, except for some peeking and a photo op.  The kittens definitely have the genetics of our barn cats with their orange or beige coloring.  I haven't been able to check their tails because a bob tail or short tail runs through this colony, too.  They are as cute as the proverbial buttons, for sure!  Anyone looking to bring a new kitty into their homes?

Chick Sitting!

Going on vacation and don't know what to do with your _________ (insert your livestock/pet here).  We can probably help you, here at Aagaard Farms.  A few goats to play with ours?  A donkey or horse would fit in.  We could do a few cows, if you can get them here!  We do babysit friends' dogs, we can handle a cat or two.  We've gone down and looked after our neighbors' chickens so they could get away.  First time, though, anybody asked us to babysit their chickens.  Our former employee Jami gave her first shot at chicks this Spring and wasn't sure what to do with them when a chance at summer vacation came along.  Doesn't sound like anybody close to the family's land was up for going over to let them out in the morning and going back at night to tuck them in.  So she contacted us about bringing them here.  Sure, why not, what's five more? we said.  Just have to be careful about how you do it.  Chickens will fight; we've been careful about keeping our older Hens and Rocky separate from The Chicks.  Yes, they all mingle a bit in the pasture now, but Rocky might have beaten up on a couple of the young roosters had we tried to integrate the flocks earlier.

Jami's five little Browns are just a week or two younger than our Chicks.  What we did is set Jami's Chicks up in the barn, half way between the chicken coop with The Hens and the greenhouse with The Chicks.    We kept them contained in the barn the first two days so that they would understand that that was their space.  We used a large dog kennel to protect them from the barn cats at night, just in case.  We pushed some large sticks through the wire of the kennel for roosts.  Second night, at bedtime for the goats, we ushered them toward the dog kennel and they went right in!  Today, we took away the barrier at the barn door so they could get out and about.  They're timid, and not straying far from the barn door, but they're getting some natural peckin'-and-scratchin' in and a little bit of this lovely sunshine!

Farmer Man Has Chicks, Lots of Chicks!

Yesterday we picked up our baby hens.  Thirty little Black Sex Links girls, a very hardy bird that can be used for their brown eggs and for meat (although we have no intention of eating them).  We also got ten little Ameraucanas, also known as the Easter Egg bird because they lay eggs in pastel shades of green and blue.  The Hens are two years old, and will start to lay less and less eggs, so it was time for some new girls.  The Ameraucanas are not sexed so we may get some roosters.  They are an interesting bunch; most are brown and beige striped, one is quite yellow like the classic Easter chick.  I love picking up chicks: you are handed a peeping, cheeping box that rustles constantly.  Once we got them home, where the brooder was all set up an waiting, we have to dip each little beak in the waterer so they know where and what it is.  The food dispenser they find on their own; as soon as one finds it word seems to spread quickly.  They are so adorable, rushing and tumbling around, mobbing under the heat lamp.  Numerous checks yesterday right into the evening left us confident that they are settling in nicely!

Kids and Kittens

Things are picking up around Aagaard Farms, as the snow melts and things get warmer.  Our garden plot renters are starting to drop by, to register and to see how the gardens are doing.  Michelle was by to drop off her registration a few days ago; she had her four children in tow.  When asked if they would like to see the kittens in the barn, well, the kids were enthusiastic, to say the least!  Michelle's youngest is only around two, so we had to keep an eye on her.  Michelle's oldest is about six, her second is maybe five; they helped their two younger siblings by holding the kittens.  Much 'ooohing' and 'ahhhing' ensued.  Nothing like kids and kittens!  Of course Rocky started crowing over in his pasture, and our next stop was to see the rooster and The Hens!  Love giving kids a tour of the Farm!

Coop Cleaning...and A Bath!

It has been a beautiful day; it's gotten warm enough that it's dripping off the roof of the house, garage and barn! Rather like Spring! Farmer Man had been watching the weather forecast and had picked today for a little spring cleaning in the chicken coop. He went out yesterday to stock up on not only food, but fresh wood chips as well. It's not an easy task to clean a coop: chickens poop, drop food, splash water and then walk all over it to pack it all down! Farmer Man was able to direct all The Hens and Rocky outside, shovelled the whole thing out, swept and then laid down fresh wood chips. Smells and looks fresh!

In the meantime, I had refreshed the dust bath. We've got a big bale of Sunshine Mix #3 here for seeding and I mixed about another third of diatomaceous earth in with it and put it outside where The Hens were congregating. Instant hit - we had a line up! Bath and a clean bed - it's been a good day for The Hens!

Enjoying A Nice Day!

We've been quite a pair of hermits; with temperatures hovering around -40 C (with the windchill) we've been snuggling up to the wood stove with the seed catalogues. Well, today, we finally got out and about for a while. Temperatures rose steadily to a balmy -2 C, with a windchill of just -12 C (about 8 F). The dogs were well over due for a good walk, and fun was had by all! A nice stroll down our gravel road, a little snow swimming for those little dogs that thought they could run over the fields and snow drifts. Even The Hens and Rocky ventured out for a while!

Extreme Makeover: Coop Edition

Ok, it's not all that extreme, but I got your attention, didn't I? A wee reference to one of my fav TV shows. The Christmas tree lot is finished and Farmer Man has a bit more time, so a rather over-due cleaning and tidying of the chicken coop has been accomplished. He's trying something new: we've been using all wood shavings and we've gone to wood shavings under the roosts and straw in the rest. Straw in the laying boxes, too. The clean-up, and the addition of straw made it smell so clean and sweet! The chickens love scratching through the straw, although the first problem presenting itself seems to be that they are scratching straw right into the waterers and clogging things up! We'll have to raise them up a bit more. Next on Farmer Man's list: he's taking out the roosts made of willow branches from our shelterbelt and replacing them with some wooden ladders such as he has seen in Backyard Poultry Magazine (our fav chicken magazine). I got out shopping (I think that's my official job here) and found a great high-sided kitty litter box! Got a bag of potting soil without fertilizer or water retaining gel and voila - chicken bath! Peat moss, as recommended by Cynthia in a previous post, was harder to find than I might have imagined. I've been hanging around with the video camera a bit, but the girls are too shy to bath in front of me, it seems. Farmer Man also spread a little straw around the coop door, and some of The Hens ventured out for a while today; it was a balmy minus 12 Celsius, so a rather nice day!

Chicken Chores in Frigid Weather

Yes, that is a chicken waterer in my bathtub. Keeping chickens gets interesting once the temperature falls (and stays) well below freezing. We have no outdoor running water once freeze-up comes. I think for Christmas Farmer Man has asked for one of those water hoses that never freeze - we'll see...... In the meantime, cleaning and refilling goes on in the bathroom. I worry some about contamination, so we don't run the risk of bringing items from the coop, except eggs, into the kitchen. We're careful about clean-up, try not to set down the grungy waterers any where except in the foyer and we wash up well afterwards. We even try not to set down the egg basket in the coop! We think our chickens are pretty healthy, but lets get real: they poop on the floor, then walk through it, then clamber at the edge of a waterer or even get up on top of the waterer and then poop. It's not big or smelly or anything but it can still carry contaminants, so we can't be too careful.

Another winter chore that I have to get organized is bathing facilities for The Hens. I noticed yesterday that one of the girls was trying to have a bath in the wood shavings on the floor of the coop and it wasn't going that well. Chickens like to have dust baths, they 'throw' dust up through their feathers with their wings and feet. Last year I put a large kitty litter box of potting soil into the coop, and I've got to get that organized again. Thing is, that kitty litter box is in use with the little wild kitties so I've got to find or buy another container. With Christmas coming, I'm sure The Hens just want to look beautiful!

It's Time For: Chicken Pinata!

Winter has set in early this year. With daytime highs currently around -10 C (12F) The Girls and Rocky will not be going outside much. We don't want them getting bored and pecking at each other, so we look for ways to keep them amused! We'll use various means, but because we had some stale bread, we started by installing the Chicken Pinata! It's a square holder for suet blocks, which we hang from the ceiling, filled with bread. I think they knew what was going on - can chickens remember things? They crowded around as I got it organized and some of them were jumping up to peck at it while it was still in my hand. Made attaching the string rather difficult! They immediately crowded around, pecking at it! A good time was had by all - hardly a crumb was left when I returned a couple of hours later. We'll fill it with various things throughout the winter, not just leftovers and stale food. During the summer, the chickens get lots of fresh garden vegetables, and the yolks of their eggs are a gorgeous, deep yellow. We always see the colour fade as the amount of fresh veggies decreases. So, we'll put carrot peelings, hunks of squash and such into the Pinata, and I'll start a flat of lettuce soon to use. As Cindy Lauper says: Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

Jammin'!

'Tis the season to be jammin' and cannin'. Now, it's too bad for us market gardeners that jamming season is in the midst of our busy season. But, of course jamming season is in the middle of our busy season 'cause that's when the berries are ready! Our raspberries are just coming on strong; we got a little pick but they will be on full force next week and we'll have u-pick people here. We always find a few surprises in the berry patch - so far this year it's been an awesome little nest of babies, mmmmm, wrens maybe, by the size of the beaks. I haven't seen the mom so I'm not sure.

The jamming started on Sunday with strawberries. I scored some beautiful berries from Sugar 'n Spice at the Farmers' Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre. Rocky and The Hens seemed to enjoy the leftovers and scraps! Today has been our own raspberries, and I'll do more of those - large quantities of jam and jelly, hopefully, for sale at the Farmers Markets!

We're onto something new this year: Pomona's Pectin. We're always looking for something different for the Farmers' Markets. Pomona's Universal Pectin allows for low sugar jams and jellies, and you can even can with honey, stevia or other sugar replacements. I'm loving this product! It is a 100% citrus based pectin that gels with calcium and contains no dextrin, like common pectins. The procedures are simply and you can double or triple a recipe no problem; the product itself has a shelf life, if stored properly, of up to three years! It's a Danish product, which Farmer Man approves of, of course! It's available in Brandon in small packages at Two Farm Kids; I went right to the website to order a larger quantity from the Canadian distributor: check out Pomoma's Universal Pectin!

Such A Gentleman!

Rocky the Rooster is such a gentleman. He always leaves the coop first in the morning, checking things out for The Hens. He exits, and immediately begins to scout around, peeking high and low. Some of The Hens, usually Isa Browns, come spilling out shortly after, quite confident that it is safe to do so. The rest of the flock come out at their leisure; usually everyone will be out within the hour. Rocky has been waking up Farmer Man earlier and earlier: this morning he started to crow at 4:30 AM. Since it's nice weather, and our bedroom window is open, we can hear him loud and clear, even though he's locked in the coop. Well, Farmer Man can hear him for sure.....I seem to be able to sleep through it!

The Aftermath....

Just had a Sunday morning walk-about. Quite a day at Aagaard Farms! First, on checking The Hens, heard some noises behind the trees; thought somebody was trying to steal our friends' Joe and Calla's boat. Took a peak: it's some of our neighbours cattle, perhaps scared across the road to the shelter of our tree belt during yesterdays' storm. Walking toward them seemed to head them home and they took off trotting for their own pasture. Some very large trees are down at the east end of the property. It's willow shelter belt - not too surprising. A major river coursed through the field yesterday, washing out some of Farmer Man's planting. We may have corn four feet south of where he intended! More bad news: big branches down in the asparagus patch, with some loses of lovely new asparagus! Farmer Man spoke last night to our neighbour Mike Waddell, half a mile south of us. Mike had a funnel or mini tornado go through and has a number of big trees down and quite a mess around his yard. I guess things could have been worse!

The good news: some of the potatoes are up, even in this cool weather! And the dugout level is much higher than it was ten days ago! More good news: spotted an oriole and some swallows! Swallows have nested around our garage every year - their arrival means summer is close by! We have to make sure the garage is closed up or they might nest in there. They tried that a few years ago, it got too hot and some of the babies died. We love to sit and watch the swallows on a summers' eve - they are so beautiful in motion, and eat lots of bugs as they are soaring around!

A Wild Day - And Then There Were 33

Awoke early Saturday morning to find an 'Active Weather' warning on the Weather Network. High winds, thunder and lightening and heavy rain forecast. Within half an hour of reading this, it got dark - very, very dark. Suddenly, about 6:30 AM the wind came up ferociously, thunder started to roll, and lightening flashed across the sky. For about fifteen minutes it rained so hard, we couldn't see to the end of our driveway! The power started to flicker, and continued to flicker on and off for about fifteen minutes. It was very weird; some of the electronics would buzz or beep as the power came and went. Just before 7:00 AM the power went out. The thunder, lightening and rain continued for quite a while - shaking the house at points.

Farmer Man went out to check the chickens when the storm abated somewhat, and found one poor Leghorn dead on the floor of the coop. We have to assume the thunder scared her to death, poor thing. Everyone else seemed fine, the coop seemed in good shape. We had to go into town; Saturday is currently the only day our dump is open and we were over-due for a visit. We were hearing stories everywhere about power outages in town, huge trees down and the Golden Arches of McDonalds, on the highway just a couple of miles from us, hit by lightening.

We returned to the farm a little after 10:00 AM, still no power. The storm had abated but it was still raining. What do you do in a power outage? We went for a nap! On waking, still no power. We watched some old John Wayne movies on the laptop until the power started to go, moved a table into the sun room and played some cards in the best light we had. Being without power for such a length of time became an issue: we couldn't cook or make coffee. We were worried about all our lovely Berkshire pork in the freezer, we were trying not to open the fridge to increase the temperature. The situation made us realize just how tied to the grid we are: couldn't get online, our phone didn't work, couldn't recharge the computer or the camera, couldn't cook. Because we're on a well, run with an electric pump, we even had to be careful of water use - using a bucket of rain water to refill the toilet as the day went on. We finally went out for coffee and some fast food about 4:00 PM. Thunder, lightening and rain had started up again. Just as the light started to fade, the power finally came back on! One of the first orders of business: looking into purchasing a generator!!

Dirty Girl!

It's been windy, rainy and cold for almost a week now. Hard times for a chicken, who likes to take a dust bath. Not much dust right now! So, The Hens have been trying, anyway, and getting something a bit more like a spa experience. I wonder if we could package and sell Aagaard Farms mud bath.....The results show the most on the white Leghorns, but I know the Isa Browns are a little caked right now, too.

Follow The Leader

Looks like a nice, organized stroll through the pasture. In the very right of the picture you can see Farmer Man's foot. I love the way The Hens and Rocky come running when he approaches the coop. They know him, and they know they'll get some good scratch! Farmer Man's having a little inspection tour, with the scratch bucket in hand - so The Hens aren't letting him far from their sight! It's so amusing to watch them run after him; chickens can't really be called graceful, it's more of a forward-neck out-bob to either side kind of shimmy that they do.

Something Fresh and Local for The Hens

Just because we want to keep The Hens happy, and because we like to recycle, we put something new and different in their pasture today! Grass clippings, with mountains of dandelions heads! Farmer Man did the first mowing of the season on the front lawn, which was awash with bright yellow dandelions. We frequently leave the clippings on the lawn, for 'on-the-spot' composting - the clippings break down quite quickly (it only looks messy for 24 to 36 hours, I promise!), returning their nutrition to the soil. But, the lawn was quite long and it would have been quite messy, so Farmer Man decided to take some of it off. Now, we could have composted it but we do tend to have a lot of green, juicy stuff in our compost so it seemed like over-doing it! So, something different for The Hens to scratch in - and they seem to be loving those dandelion heads!

And Then There Were 34...

We lost a chicken last night; one of the little white Leghorns was sluggish for a couple of days. Then, yesterday, she wouldn't move from the nesting box and by evening was very unresponsive. I moved her into a box in the greenhouse, which I thought would be warmer. Tried to give her water and make her comfortable and cozy. Although we are not experts by any means, we've done our reading and examined her for any signs of disease or parasites or injury. Nothing obvious. It was sad to find she had passed away through the night. We buried her this morning and said a few words. It's always hard to lose an animal, we just hope she had a good life here at Aagaard Farms and is now happily scratching away in a better place. Rocky now has one less Girl to guard; the whole flock seems a little quiet this morning, like they know someone is missing. Or maybe I just imagine that......

New Pasture for The Hens!

Farmer Man has been fencing this past week. The pasture the poultry used last year is, well, used up! The Hens and Rocky have scratched it up, pecked it apart and straw has gotten spread all over. So, we felt they needed 'greener' pastures! Something where the grass is growing, alfalfa is coming up, and bugs will be more plentiful, the first photo. So, Farmer Man has spent the last few days fencing in the area north of last year's pasture. The new pasture will incorporate the same spruce trees, for their protection from hawks and for some shade. It's part of an old alfalfa field now mixed with grass and weeds that hasn't been cut in a couple of years: lots of good greens for them to eat! We'll probably seed grass and/or a cover crop into last year's pasture; with all that chicken manure what ever Farmer Man chooses should grow like crazy and we'll flip The Hens back into it next year. Have to do a little reading first, to make sure one year is long enough to eliminate the possibilities of transmitting pests or parasites. Add that to the reading list!

For Earth Day - A Bath!

Happy Earth Day to everyone! It's hard to believe that the event has been happening for 40 years! And people are still littering..........The Hens decided to get ready early with a little bath. Chickens have dust baths; they find or dig out a little hollow, jump in and use their feet and wings to throw dust up on their backs. Then they shimmy-and-shake it through their feathers. Throw some more up and do it all again! (This would go great to music!). It's certainly dry enough here for them to have easy access to dust, so they are happy and clean Girls!