Once Upon a Farm Flock Adventures

[annainnz]

Oh so great to read your thread! love it.. i'm in Prebbleton I see you've got an omlet? love it? I want one!!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Well, I've been absent from BYC for several months. I took an 'all social interactions on the internet except reluctant emails' break. Lots was going on in the personal life, but things are resolved and I am moving forward, and coming back home to BYC now.

We are not moving to a larger property, so Wendell the young cockerel went away to feed a family. He managed to father every chick born here this season, so I was glad to get some new genes into the flock without having to buy-in eggs. I had hatchings starting from September running through to January, for a total of 21 chicks. I tried out my hybrid incubator idea, and it was a devastating failure. I'll update that thread with what happened, but needless to say I will not be trying that again. I've since had 4 total broody hatch failures, which is not super unusual for summer-time, but I'm giving Kowalski (the flock rooster) the side-eye at this point. The eggs are mostly fertile but nothing is making it all the way to hatch day. I have too many variables going on to narrow down the problem, but I have my suspicions. Given how many broody-minded hens I've ended up with, I imagine I'll get one or two more chances to try before winter.

One batch of 6 chicks turned up with a neighbor's hen on Christmas day, which was a lovely surprise, even though I surely didn't need any more chicks! That hen has now been given the name Ninja Mama, and she appears to live here permanently now.

Half of this seasons chicks have already gone to new homes (pullets) or dinner (cockerels) but I had one cockerel go on to a flock home of his own, which is always nice. He was a monster of a bird size-wise (barred rock hen, partridge rock rooster, my very-own sex links!) and the home he has gone to wants to breed meaty dual-purpose birds for eating the cockerels. Hopefully he passes on the fast-growing giant genes.

I've decided the partridge rocks are not for me, so my two hens and the few purebred pullets I bred will go on to new homes. I love how they look, and their dark brown eggs, but I have to keep my numbers sensible if I want to keep breeding each season. They are very different from the barred rocks in build and temperament, and I suspect some brown leghorn was used in their lineage. If I wanted a light-framed bird I'd have got leghorns, at least they don't go broody! I am however very happy with the partridge rock cross between my barred rock hens and my araucana hens, and am keeping some pullets from that cross.

Photo updates of chicks, because chicks are awesome:

Christmas Chicks

Getting Older Craziness:

And the Wonderful Wendell, remembered by his 21 children, may he rest in peace:

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Oh so great to read your thread! love it.. i'm in Prebbleton I see you've got an omlet? love it? I want one!!

Thanks for reading! I've got the omlet go, I'm happy with it for the purpose I have it for. I use it as a broody hen coop and for the littles after the hen decides she is done with them. It would only be big enough for 2 of the size hens I have if it was used as an actual sleeping coop for adults. I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a main coop, but as a secondary/broody/sick bay it's very good.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Another rather belated update, it seems as though real life has been keeping me busy and away from the computer machine. Winter is making itself felt here, but so far it has been very mild, and very wet! I got one last batch of chicks hatched by Droplet. Two hatched, both a cross of Princess Fluffy Butt the white orpington (who was supposed to be splash) and Kowalski, who is of course the handsome barred rock in my profile pic. I love seeing what hatches with the crosses, in this case they were tiny little penguin chicks with head spots, just like barred rock chicks, but diluted to blue. I'm pretty sure I have one girl and one boy, but time will tell!

The flock is having a great time now I have cleared the summer gardens and removed the (sometimes effective) garden fences and given them access. Hopefully they are eating lots of slug and snail eggs. What they are NOT doing is laying many eggs, although I did find an under-bush stash of 21 eggs in a big pile. My spring-hatched pullets obviously didn't hatch early enough, so now I'll be waiting till spring time for them to start paying their rent.

I've been busy collecting fallen leaves to bulk up the mulch in their run, gotta have lots of chicken-yard compost come springtime! Pruning time is here too, once I've made my way through all the trees there will be more mulch once it goes through the chipper.

Winter also means tree planting season, and I've got 4 hazenuts, 1 damson plum and a several blueberry bushes, an orangeberry bush (never tried this before...) some tea bushes, and another rosemary sitting waiting to go in the ground if it ever stops raining! My husband and I have made some new raised beds, and they have been planted with greens for the winter. We also made a broody hen coop out of a collection of junk in the garage.

I've also launched a YouTube Channel! It was a bit scary, very much outside my comfort zone, but if you want to see me, with several shot-bombing cameos of some of my flock members, feel free to check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@onceuponafarmnz
I'm posting a video each week, and it's all garden and chicken related content so hopefully you enjoy it. My husband is the camera and edit talent in this team, I think he's done a very nice job.

And now, on to the photos!
Some free-loading pullets enjoying the sunshine in the grow-bag garden.

A not very good photo of chicks.

The broody coop of junk.

My new garden beds (from a month or so ago, greens are harvest ready now)

The pile of bush-eggs - half of them were still good!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Well the flock had their own little funeral today. Limpy Chicken died, who was a hen from the neighbours who decided to live on this side of the fence instead. At some point when she was still going back and forwards she hurt her leg, I'm guessing a break somewhere higher in her leg, as I did check her out for any foot and lower leg injuries when she started sleeping in our coop. Well, she looked like she still wanted to live, so she has been bobbing around here for months. We made accommodations for her (she got to sleep in the nest boxes and I gave her her own food at mealtimes), I kept an eye on her, and the flock continued to accept her. They were really rather kind to her. She had been looking a little rough with the cold weather, but she was still getting around her daily routine.
Today I walked past and saw her dying in one of the little nest box coops. The flock was around, and they kept poking their heads in and checking on her. While I was contemplating if I needed to step in and end it, she died. The flock all went to have a drink at the waterer, then dispersed back to their usual morning activities. It was all very peaceful, and I'm glad I didn't intervene. She died in place she found safe, surrounded by her flock.
We buried her in the garden where I grow squash in the summer. I'm glad she is at peace.

RIP Limpy

On the right

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Update on my winter gardening, it's been getting really frosty here!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

A fairly uneventful week, much rain, much cold. The flock spends a lot of their time hiding from the rain and glaring at me. I've put out linseed straw in any areas of the run and yard that have got too muddy. The flock loves it when I do that, they spend hours searching for stray flaxseeds to gobble.

I planted my garlic! video at the bottom of the photos. I'd love to hear how you guys plant your own garlic, or see some photos of garlic that your harvesting. It's pretty cool that when I'm planting, people on the other side of the world are harvesting.

Linseed straw happiness on a rare sunny day:

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

The weather has warmed up a bit, which is not really a good thing as the trees are getting confused. Some blossoms popping up on the plum tree. More frosts will undoubtably come, so those blossoms are putting in all that effort for nothing!

We have tipped past the longest day, and one of my hens decided that was good enough to decide to go broody. I said no, that's really not acceptable in the middle of winter. Luckily just one night in the broody hen pen sorted her out, but I've got my eye on her!
In positive egg laying news, my pullets from last season are starting to think about laying. I've got one laying, and I found a broken egg under the perches this morning, which is a pretty good sign the eggs are on their way! I suspect I'll be drowning in eggs in a month from now.

This weeks video is all about my deep mulch composting chicken run.

I shall leave you with this photo of one of my pumpkins, I'm a big fan of this variety, it's called Baby Bear. It produces meal-size pumpkins with thin skins, making me much more likely to actually use them regularly through the winter.

Sunbathing Pullets

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

The eggs are coming! Back up to 4 or 5 a day now, I did some quick calculations and by the time spring rolls around I think I'll be getting a dozen a day. That is, if I can find where half of them decide to lay. Right now they are laying in proper places, but I have 3 pullets who waltz off into the orchard behind my property whenever they feel like it. I suspect one of them might follow in the footsteps of their mother and show up with a brood of chicks out of the blue.

It has been a fairly busy week in the garden, I am trying to get back on track with winter tasks in preparation for spring. Got a garden bed topped up with soil, compost, lime, gypsum, and fertilizer (which is some layer mash they refused to eat), then topped it all off with a thick layer of linseed straw. The chickens were very happy with my work and many worms were eaten. I also wrestled my squash patch back from the ivy and gave it some fertilizer too. I'm going to do a video on winter garden bed prep, so watch this space!

The rain has mercifully been much less this week, which has seen the return of chilly frosty mornings. But I will take that over the relentless wet any time.

Happy chickens eating linseed

Edith wondering why I won't just leave her alone and provide more worms (she is an orchard escape culprit)

My quick video of the week, I filmed it before winter.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Bit late on the weekly update this week, so it's a two weekly update!
I have got stuck into pruning the trees and shrubs. I bit the bullet and got myself a proper aluminum orchard ladder this year, they cost a pretty penny ($420) but will last essentially forever. I am very comfortable using them as I worked in orchards for 5 years. It was great to be able to really get up into my 20+ year old plum trees and give them a really good trim.

Red Hen has decided she is going to be broody again, and this time she is resolute. She's had 2 24 hour stints in the broody coop, the second time I offered her a nest if she wanted to graft onto a new location and actually sit. She declined the offer. I keep peering suspiciously at all the rest of the hens and pullets, wondering who is next going to decide that having babies in the middle of winter is a grand idea.

I ordered and received some very cool garden cold frames. I've tried out quite a few options over the years and nothing was very good. These ones are pretty awesome, stack up on a cost/quality basis. Apparently the frame is stainless steel and it does appear to be true. They will get plenty of use soon as I try to get peppers and cumin started much earlier this year.

The flock is very happy I have spent so much time out in the yard cutting branches down 'for them'. They must be finding some extra special bugs in there!

Cut branches just for the flock of course:

My new garden cold frame, not in its intended location!

Two videos this week since I missed an update: