Fluffy Honey - the Backyard Flock pipeline to a Homestead

[athomas718]

I’ve been wanting to write one of these for a while. Im terrible at keeping up with a blog but I’d like to try! Keep me honest guys and if I falter and don’t update for a while bash down the thread door until I offer one.

It all started in April 2016. I wanted my own eggs. I can’t really remembered why I wanted my own eggs, I think the anxious prepper in me wanted to be sure we at least had some sort of food available “if it all collapsed”.

So we got some chicks, from Tractor Supply.



These are just a few of my first chicks. I think the one that had the brown stripes was chipmunk. And the yellow chick was Ariel, who then became Eric.

So some of the chicks became cockerels and at first I didn’t mind. But then a few of them became mean, and when one particular Rooster named Dinosaur scratched my baby boy (he was 2) to shreds on his legs- off to the processor Dinosaur went. Soon followed by Eric who also seemed to delight in tormenting the kids.


In this picture - Eric is the white splotched Roo, Dinosaur is the BEAUTIFUL opalescent black Rooster and then the one we keep was the reddish rooster. He was kind and I could hold him.




As you can see, he was not the looker Dinosaur was. My oldest son was so upset we got rid of Dinosaur but his baby brother’s battle wounds were a hard no for me. Dinosaur was a beautiful guy. But you know how it goes, sometimes beautiful males are too big for their britches - and so you have to turn them into tenders.

I’ll make a new post for my second group of chicks.

 

[athomas718]

In 2018 I got our second flock of chickens.
So in 2017 my husband deployed to Bahrain for a year, and with 4 littles I didn’t want the added responsibility of the chickens. In the winter it was a pain to get warmed water to their coop in the snow and freezing temps (we were in Maine). So we sold them to a guy who had hundreds of egg laying chickens and needed more because his had been starting to lay less and he had orders to fill.

In 2018, my husband returned from deployment and I want chickens again. So we got more chickens.



2018 is when I met my favorite chicken. She was a beautiful Silver laced Wyandotte who had hearts on her feathers. I don’t know what she contracted but when she was a pullet she went blind in both eyes and had no other ailments. Never acted off or sick. Just her eyes went cloudy and that was it. I held her a lot and walked around the yard with her. She was truly my one “pet” chicken. Her name was Ceres.



I know most Wyandotte have hearts on their feathers but this was my Wyandotte, her hearts were for me.

One day I heard commotion from the flock outside and went out and counted them all up and I couldn’t find Ceres. They had all run into their coop so I closed them up cause I saw a red tailed hawk lurking. But I was upset because Ceres was gone and I went looking for her everywhere.

Finally, I went outside to the front yard and near our lilac bushes I found her body, decapitated and the hawk was eating her neck. I shewed the hawk but I couldn’t bring myself to pick up her body. I collapsed in my husband’s arms and cried. I know that it was because she was blind that she was easy pickings. She couldn’t get to the coop in time like the others. I felt responsible…. And then I decided I’d never have a pet chicken again, and I didn’t.

Later in 2021 we moved so that flock of chickens also left us. Down to Virginia we went, where once again we’d restart our flock.

I’ll write more about our Virginia chickens next time.

 

[athomas718]

So 2021 we moved to Virginia. My husband was out of the military and he was working primarily from home.

I wanted chickens again- but even more importantly - I want alpacas! I wanted to make my own yarn (well have it processed from my own alpacas)! So the backyard flock became a full fledged farm!!


Our first alpacas!

We had so many chickens, up to 40 at one point but we had just as many predators and we often times couldn’t get a handle on them.
We had wheaten marens, BCM, Brahmas, Lavendar and chocolate Orpingtons. We had cream legbars, “splash” astrolorps, we had Easter eggers and olive eggers. One singular frizzle who became a Roo and his name was the Frizzler! We never found out what happened to him. He up and vanished one day, we just assumed he walked into the woods for a better life.

And our main rooster was the Rizz. The Rizzler. The Rizzarino. He wasn’t the best or worst rooster but he was a good one.



He loved his girls. I enjoyed watching him tidbit them all the time.

We had the Lavendar Orpingtons, Rizzler and a few of his offspring my daughter hatched for the longest. Almost 4 long years with these guys. Most of them were all taken by predators. Finally we got wise and educated ourselves on proper security. We lost a lot of them before that though.

Part of farm living is sometimes learning as you go. Chicken wire is nothing compared to hardware cloth for example.

Then after nearly 4 years, my husband changed jobs again and we decided the south wasn’t our cup of tea. And now we’re here- back in Maine. Our alpacas are waiting for the barn to get renovated for them and then we will transport them back up. Not 5, like we started with, but 23!!

Our chickens, Rizzler included and many Brahmas, chocolate and Lavendar Orpingtons, a few remaining Green Queens, one remaining RIR annd a barred rock, and two of the Rizz’s offspring are all still in Va. The new owners wanted to keep them. Including one Chocolahe Orpington we (my daughter and I) nursed back to health after a dog mauled her. The last picture I took of them is a light Brahma who got an ice cream lid cone stuck on her head.



We lost chickens to predators, and we lost chicks to the USPS failing them. And now we bring everything this journey has taught us up to Maine.

Our new flock will prosper and I’ll even start trying my hand on designer bird breeding!! I have my eyes on some Mottled Cochins that will be the baseline to some Brahma projects I have in mind.

We have some eggs in the incubator ready to hatch in June. And then the flock will begin!

Instead of free feed, I’m going to dive into twice a day ferment feeding. Along with free range (I’ve always free ranged) and better predator deterrents.

We also now have goats! Nigerian dwarf goats. Three does and 2 wethers. The wethers came with our new farm, the does I bought from a lovely breeder. Their names are Marigold, her daughter Lilac and Eclipse! I will post pics when I bring them home, Eclipse is still weaning off.

So there’s the backyard flock pipeline to homesteading.

Alpacas, goats, gardening. We are a farm now. 16 acres of bliss!

 

[ChaosMom]

Great story! I’ll nag you for continuing posts.

 

[athomas718]

Oh I forgot to add!

Our new flock - will be The Cluck’n Shire and my girls promised (maybe they didn’t promise but it’s as good as one to me ) that they would paint the coops in the style of 1300s medieval village. But with a fantasy cottagecore sampling throughout. Think fairies, mushrooms, gnomes throughout the village. We will have free range but we are also going to decorate the coop and run in that style. So follow along!

So far all we have are incubating eggs! I candled some today (day 4) and quite a few of them are all veiny and developing nicely. Some are maybes - I can’t tell with how dark the shell or the yolk is in the candling. The next time will be day 7 where I will remove any non developing eggs.