Thursday, February 10, 2011

peep, peep, peep...

I'm kinda excited because I have just ordered some new laying hens! We are getting Black Australorps and I threw in some Partridge Rocks for my Man! He thinks they are a 'handsome looking bird" so I decided to get him some! I wanted the Australorps! We have some New Hampshire Reds already, and will have a nice looking flock of hens running around the yard this spring, doing their pasture sanitizing, and bug eating!! Although I think the New Hampshire Reds will meet their fate this fall... Soon the house will be full the sound peeps! Yeah, we keep 'em in the house for a while, the chicken coop is not warm enough for them, and we don't want to loose them, that way we can also handle them and they will be a little more friendly! I can't wait! I just love chickens and love to watch them, so long as they don't get into my garden!!! They tend to like tomatoes, and everything else out there!! Along with the sheep. Funny thing is we bought a sheep fence for the sheep, now we let the sheep run around like dogs and put the sheep fencing around the garden! Keeps the chickens out for the most part and the sheep! We don't have a problem of deer. I think it's too open where we live, and the gardens are close to the house. Coyotes have not been a problem for us either. We can heart then yipping off in the distance, as long as they stay away. We've had a few brazen coyotes come close a few years ago, it was yipping right outside our bedroom window! It was huge! Matthew went out, but it ran away. I think we need another dog. I know some of the kiddos would love that, but I'm not sure.
This spring when it is warmer we'll be getting some meat birds! They taste so good!! I hope we can fanangle to get some turkeys this year too, but they come a little later in the summer, so we have a while to think about that. We don't have a coop for them, but Matthew is wonderful and can build a place for them I'm sure! That and we would need to figure out where we would put them. Turkeys and chickens need to be separate. We'll see!
I'll throw a picture of some chicks in here for you! I think they are cute when they are little, but when they get older they are kinda ugly, (meat birds that is).Makes it a little easier to eat them! Thankfully laying hens are nice looking when they are little and older!

These are some of the meat birds we had last year! They are the Cornish X Rocks! About a day or two old here! 
Have a great day!

3 comments:

  1. How exciting! I love the chicken stories, and about your wheat down below! Wow! How many laying hens do you usually run?

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  2. Kelly's we are getting 18 hens this time. Sometimes egg customers come in droves, and then other times they hardly come at all. So it's touch and go. As long as I have eggs to eat and cook with I'm happy, the rest I sell!

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  3. I'm planning on meat chickens again however I'm hoping to get something other than white birds. Perhaps Freedom Rangers. I'm also looking for 4-6 Standard Bronze turkey poults.
    I agree on egg customers. Either I'm raiding the nest boxes to fill cartons for customers waiting or I have a number of full ones looking for homes.

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