Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[rjohns39]

Morning Kris So glad you had a peaceful day

 

[Kris5902]

Good morning Bob!

It’s a chilly but beautiful morning here. I awoke to the sounds of my boys of course (a little late though) accompanied by the fog horns from the ships moored nearby. I don’t mind them as much as others, but sometimes at night I do pause confused for a moment before I realize it’s the humm of their generators I’m hearing. I don’t take my phone out on my first round of Chicken chores, it’s mostly a half awake stumble to let everyone out and drop the feeders down for them. But after a half cup of coffee I ventured back out to take these. It’s nowhere near as heavy as when I first awoke, and I expect another hot sunny afternoon. I tried to get some video of the fog swirling as it blew away for everyone, but it didn’t turn out

In the second picture here, where you see what looks like overcast sky, it would normally be brown ridge, dotted with Goats and Trees and scorched dry brown grass. The fog was that heavy. I couldn’t see into the nearest field at all when I first went out. If you zoom in a little on the first pic you can sort of see the layers of mist. Sometimes I wish I had a better camera! But honestly, chances are I’d still be taking pictures with my phone. It really has become my weapon of choice!

So yes, the girls all slept in with Sammy last night, but they weren’t interested in laying in the hospital tractor at all. With 4 fairly active hens and a Rooster all stuffed into a tractor I built for 3 very sick and mostly inactive hens, they were let out straight away when I got outside. And I moved on to letting everyone else out. Sure enough when I was done there everyone was at the barn door wanting into their old “coop” where they had been laying on a haybale I realized that unless I wanted to be crawling under the trailers or the barn looking for their eggs that it is probably easier to just let them in to lay, but I’m getting quite fed up with the poop everywhere, and I do need to clean out the brooder pretty soon for my eggs. I’ve got like 10 days left on the incubation and that’s it!

And just when I thought they couldn’t get any smaller, yesterday’s egg from the meat girl proved me wrong, todays was smeared with yolk on the outside, but no evidence of egg eating or cracks. I’m hoping it’s just a new layer glitch and not a sign of a reproductive issue, or a general sign of “we weren’t bred to live this long”! Top is why I think my girl had the prolapse (pretty sure it’s hers, but her bottom is still ok ) bottom egg is yesterday’s (smallest yet!), right today’s. I’m hoping this size variation means that different girls are laying...

Normal egg (from the red layers which is pretty darn big to begin with!) for comparison

 

[Ribh]

Good Grief!!! Those big eggs are something else! Little eggs are just sweet.

I adore mist. The pictures are lovely. I must say I love looking @ your scenery. I could just sit & stare for days.

 

[WhoDatChick]

Good morning Bob!

It’s a chilly but beautiful morning here. I awoke to the sounds of my boys of course (a little late though) accompanied by the fog horns from the ships moored nearby. I don’t mind them as much as others, but sometimes at night I do pause confused for a moment before I realize it’s the humm of their generators I’m hearing. I don’t take my phone out on my first round of Chicken chores, it’s mostly a half awake stumble to let everyone out and drop the feeders down for them. But after a half cup of coffee I ventured back out to take these. It’s nowhere near as heavy as when I first awoke, and I expect another hot sunny afternoon. I tried to get some video of the fog swirling as it blew away for everyone, but it didn’t turn out

View attachment 1870884 View attachment 1870886
In the second picture here, where you see what looks like overcast sky, it would normally be brown ridge, dotted with Goats and Trees and scorched dry brown grass. The fog was that heavy. I couldn’t see into the nearest field at all when I first went out. If you zoom in a little on the first pic you can sort of see the layers of mist. Sometimes I wish I had a better camera! But honestly, chances are I’d still be taking pictures with my phone. It really has become my weapon of choice!

So yes, the girls all slept in with Sammy last night, but they weren’t interested in laying in the hospital tractor at all. With 4 fairly active hens and a Rooster all stuffed into a tractor I built for 3 very sick and mostly inactive hens, they were let out straight away when I got outside. And I moved on to letting everyone else out. Sure enough when I was done there everyone was at the barn door wanting into their old “coop” where they had been laying on a haybale I realized that unless I wanted to be crawling under the trailers or the barn looking for their eggs that it is probably easier to just let them in to lay, but I’m getting quite fed up with the poop everywhere, and I do need to clean out the brooder pretty soon for my eggs. I’ve got like 10 days left on the incubation and that’s it!

And just when I thought they couldn’t get any smaller, yesterday’s egg from the meat girl proved me wrong, todays was smeared with yolk on the outside, but no evidence of egg eating or cracks. I’m hoping it’s just a new layer glitch and not a sign of a reproductive issue, or a general sign of “we weren’t bred to live this long”! Top is why I think my girl had the prolapse (pretty sure it’s hers, but her bottom is still ok ) bottom egg is yesterday’s (smallest yet!), right today’s. I’m hoping this size variation means that different girls are laying...
View attachment 1870927
View attachment 1870929
Normal egg (from the red layers which is pretty darn big to begin with!) for comparison

Whoa.. that egg ... I want to fry it so I can dip my bread in all that yolk ... and that second pic is so cool.. it looks just like sky! That’s amazing!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Good morning Bob!

It’s a chilly but beautiful morning here. I awoke to the sounds of my boys of course (a little late though) accompanied by the fog horns from the ships moored nearby. I don’t mind them as much as others, but sometimes at night I do pause confused for a moment before I realize it’s the humm of their generators I’m hearing. I don’t take my phone out on my first round of Chicken chores, it’s mostly a half awake stumble to let everyone out and drop the feeders down for them. But after a half cup of coffee I ventured back out to take these. It’s nowhere near as heavy as when I first awoke, and I expect another hot sunny afternoon. I tried to get some video of the fog swirling as it blew away for everyone, but it didn’t turn out

View attachment 1870884 View attachment 1870886
In the second picture here, where you see what looks like overcast sky, it would normally be brown ridge, dotted with Goats and Trees and scorched dry brown grass. The fog was that heavy. I couldn’t see into the nearest field at all when I first went out. If you zoom in a little on the first pic you can sort of see the layers of mist. Sometimes I wish I had a better camera! But honestly, chances are I’d still be taking pictures with my phone. It really has become my weapon of choice!

So yes, the girls all slept in with Sammy last night, but they weren’t interested in laying in the hospital tractor at all. With 4 fairly active hens and a Rooster all stuffed into a tractor I built for 3 very sick and mostly inactive hens, they were let out straight away when I got outside. And I moved on to letting everyone else out. Sure enough when I was done there everyone was at the barn door wanting into their old “coop” where they had been laying on a haybale I realized that unless I wanted to be crawling under the trailers or the barn looking for their eggs that it is probably easier to just let them in to lay, but I’m getting quite fed up with the poop everywhere, and I do need to clean out the brooder pretty soon for my eggs. I’ve got like 10 days left on the incubation and that’s it!

And just when I thought they couldn’t get any smaller, yesterday’s egg from the meat girl proved me wrong, todays was smeared with yolk on the outside, but no evidence of egg eating or cracks. I’m hoping it’s just a new layer glitch and not a sign of a reproductive issue, or a general sign of “we weren’t bred to live this long”! Top is why I think my girl had the prolapse (pretty sure it’s hers, but her bottom is still ok ) bottom egg is yesterday’s (smallest yet!), right today’s. I’m hoping this size variation means that different girls are laying...
View attachment 1870927
View attachment 1870929
Normal egg (from the red layers which is pretty darn big to begin with!) for comparison

I'm gobsmacked by that enormous egg. And here I was thinking Deana was having a hard time! Your poor prolapse girl

Those landscape pics from this morning look so peaceful Kris

 

[rjohns39]

Morning Kris

 

[Kris5902]

Hi everyone! Today has been a busy day so far of chickens, chickens, and random errands. I finally got a decent pullet sized egg from the meat girls today, but cracked it on the way into the trailer. It was kind of a double yolker, and my first (almost) egg within an egg. I guess the motivational speaking and showing them normal sized eggs worked after all, someone just saved up two days for me

It had a slightly calcified membrane/protoshell thing going on with its own white and yolk inside it! I thought it was pretty neat.

Here’s what the ridge normally looks like without the mist/fog we had going on the other morning for comparison.

And I’m going to do a sort of time lapse photo record of what 25 chicks can do to a wild rose bush over the course of a few days. It was a bit taller than the tractor, so I’m not sure if they will be able to denude the tops of the bush as well as they usually destroy the shorter ones, but I figured the bush is in the way... so why not?

Doing up the sausage this afternoon for Saturday, including some chicken kale. Then heading back to continue frantically cleaning the trailer because Andrew’s uncle might be visiting tomorrow. Also I have no info on if the kidlet will be by to harvest veggies for Saturday or not, as she is with her dad for the next week and a bit. Too bad kids can’t have cell phones... I have another pre order for some eggs on Saturday (at this rate I might be sold out before we even leave the farm for market).

Because we had a long weekend and Andrew worked on SaltSpring on Tuesday, he forgot to order the buns, so he will likely be doing a “quick turn around” (when you frantically try to get everything you need before the next ferry departure) in town tomorrow for the buns. He will have almost* an hour between the ferries to find and buy 4 or 5 dozen buns for the bratwursts.

Andrew will also be driving the tractor up tonight so we can begin filling in between the footings with gravel so his father can begin work on the forms for the actual foundation walls. I really hope this all gets done before winter, so at the very least we can move our stuff from storage to the farm, if we are staying. And that’s what’s new in Canada for today...

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Hi everyone! Today has been a busy day so far of chickens, chickens, and random errands. I finally got a decent pullet sized egg from the meat girls today, but cracked it on the way into the trailer. It was kind of a double yolker, and my first (almost) egg within an egg. I guess the motivational speaking and showing them normal sized eggs worked after all, someone just saved up two days for me View attachment 1871957View attachment 1871958 View attachment 1871959

It had a slightly calcified membrane/protoshell thing going on with its own white and yolk inside it! I thought it was pretty neat.

Here’s what the ridge normally looks like without the mist/fog we had going on the other morning for comparison.View attachment 1871960
View attachment 1871981
And I’m going to do a sort of time lapse photo record of what 25 chicks can do to a wild rose bush over the course of a few days. It was a bit taller than the tractor, so I’m not sure if they will be able to denude the tops of the bush as well as they usually destroy the shorter ones, but I figured the bush is in the way... so why not?

Doing up the sausage this afternoon for Saturday, including some chicken kale. Then heading back to continue frantically cleaning the trailer because Andrew’s uncle might be visiting tomorrow. Also I have no info on if the kidlet will be by to harvest veggies for Saturday or not, as she is with her dad for the next week and a bit. Too bad kids can’t have cell phones... I have another pre order for some eggs on Saturday (at this rate I might be sold out before we even leave the farm for market).

Because we had a long weekend and Andrew worked on SaltSpring on Tuesday, he forgot to order the buns, so he will likely be doing a “quick turn around” (when you frantically try to get everything you need before the next ferry departure) in town tomorrow for the buns. He will have almost* an hour between the ferries to find and buy 4 or 5 dozen buns for the bratwursts.

Andrew will also be driving the tractor up tonight so we can begin filling in between the footings with gravel so his father can begin work on the forms for the actual foundation walls. I really hope this all gets done before winter, so at the very least we can move our stuff from storage to the farm, if we are staying. And that’s what’s new in Canada for today...

That's such a cool egg Kris.

I hope your Father-in-law is in a good mood and everything goes smoothly this weekend.
The last thing you need is another tantrum

 

[drumstick diva]

Love the scenery. I don't travel anywhere so pictures mean a lot to me.

 

[Kris5902]

Love the scenery. I don't travel anywhere so pictures mean a lot to me.

Me too! Our last vacation was 2012, celebration 6 (Star Wars) in Florida then we drove up to Atlanta for Dragon Con, with an overnight at a motel and a pit stop at “Gator Land” ( at my insistance, but everyone enjoyed it).

I have a friend from my last job, in his late 60’s (I made him show me his drivers license to prove it, you really are only as old as you feel!) who loves to travel. It is why he still works so much... every year he takes two or more big trips. He is also an amateur photographer and takes the most amazing photos. It’s one of the few things I keep FB around for. His recent Europe trip was amazing! He also has a passion for art, architecture, and nature photography. I like to say I vacation vicariously through him! He also loves to cook and we would often share lunches together. One of the things I miss about my last job... the people. (Also, in some instances, what I am most grateful to be free from, ironically)