Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

Harriet is such a good mama.
She is!! I wonder when she will let them goooo haha they're nice chicks though. There are a couple cockerels and not sure we will keep those, maybe one -- to have a fully 'raised in the flock' Cockerel -- that sounds kinda neat.

So today we had another new layer OR Ayu laid two -- I highly doubt that, though Ayu did spend a LONG time in the nest today, longer than usual.

Duck egg in there amongst the chicken as well, I should have taken a pic of the nest. They LOVE the back corner.

I was trying to get pics of the Welsummer chicks... I cannot count all the chicks we have. I cannot recall how many successfully hatched from the Hatching Eggs I bought, I blended those chicks in with the 6 I got from McMurray Hatchery -- and I THINK there was 20 chicks in there --- so 14 hatched from the incubator. Only 1 correct Ameraucana. 3 Ermine Ameraucanas (they are still trying to get recognized) and 3 other RANDOM chipmunk AmerIcanas... without even chubby cheeks.... but they all hatched from the same speckly green eggs. WEIRD

Then, I had 12 Welsummer eggs and 4 were unfertile and 1 quit so 7 hatched.

I potentially put out 9 chicks earlier this week from the tall brooder bc it was filthy but I cannot.. count...because there are already 17 chicks running around... That'd be 20-something chicks.


THEY ARE TOO FAST lol anway, its doing my brain in. I cannot wait til Thursday.

Scarlett, a Lollipop, 8 weeks old and a beauty. Thank you Chuck, for your Splash heritage, you throw beautiful babies.
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Hunter and Ruby - lollipops, 8 weeks old. Hunter has grey in her cheeks and more demarcated coloring than Scarlett.

Ruby is the friendliest girl, always has been and still will accept cuddles and love :love
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This is Misserschmidt - named after the German WW2 plane - this is what happens when you let your husband name chickens. The hilarious thing is; she's a flier! She flies out every morning with Custard. She's an EE we got from TSC and she has a seriously bad cross beak -- she is VERY small for her age.

But her plumage.... I think she's the prettiest chicken I've ever seen. Look at that gradient of color on her back. She's gorgeous. She is quiet and friendly and follows me around when I go to the hen house to do chores. She never forages out with anyone -- she's of the oldest hen group -- she's 17 weeks old, but she's the size of a 9 week old. She CAN forage, she just sticks near the hen house and does it in the evenings.

I make a pound of mash for her in the mornings, but of course everyone gets some. She always does, too :love

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One day while tractoring in the fields we found this lady. My husband built her an enclosure - it's predator proof! She's been with us almost two years.

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looking over to the sheep fields over our leech field meadow

The brown eyed susans are looking a bit rough for wear but when I moved here I wanted the leech field to be a flower meadow and it took 3 years but it finally is.

I think it's awesome and hilarious that only the native seeds really took. Like knows like.

I should weed out the dog fennel but omg, my poor back. Ain't happening... even with the footie-weed-thing I have. Still too hard!
 
So many chickens! 😍

I have to ask - how much feed do you go through in a month? (even with free ranging)
You are not joking, right now I have ~89 birds... most are very young but still omg

I feed 20% all flock -- and it is about 80lbs every 10 days to 2.5 weeks, it depends honestly, it's been getting less because the teens have left the hen house all day but it's gonna ramp up as the youngest generation gets bigger and starts having their growth spurts. The lollipops need to go out and forage more, they're coming on 8 weeks old but are still very shy and stay around the hen house.
 
You are not joking, right now I have ~89 birds... most are very young but still omg

I feed 20% all flock -- and it is about 80lbs every 10 days to 2.5 weeks, it depends honestly, it's been getting less because the teens have left the hen house all day but it's gonna ramp up as the youngest generation gets bigger and starts having their growth spurts. The lollipops need to go out and forage more, they're coming on 8 weeks old but are still very shy and stay around the hen house.
The Chewy/FedEx driver must’ve permanently programmed your address into their GPS!
 
I basically have a huge photo dump today -- I am so tired I will try and be as brief as possible lol

I put the last of the chicks from the brooder out -- when I opened the top, three flew out and escaped and I just was like, you know what? fine. So I put them all out.

Then, I was like EW I hate having all the ones I am not keeping mixed up with the ones I am. So I went and caught 19 chicks and lopped them back up in the brooder. They will be sold Thursday.

Catching the 19 chicks is why I am tired. I was a dripping, sweating mess after that. I will never do that again - we are building a brooder for selling/breeding separately in the barn.

New egg today! From Francoise - she was hanging around the nests today and Phillipa was not, so I can only assume it was her.

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Sophia's top, Francoise middle and Tilly, bottom. @wrathsfarm would you say these bottom two are 4s or 5s? Sophia's are usually as dark but her sprayer is busted -- I don't mind haha

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Just yesterday I was moaning and wondering when Harriet would let these 6 week olds go. Well, today was the day. They were doing their own thing (with the bigs!) all day. Harriet was doing her own thing.

It surprised me that the Lollipops were blending with them easily.

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Cream
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Cracker
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Miss Pecky
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Tilly's brood - cockerel out of Chocolate/Chuck
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Chipmunk patterning is totally spectacular camoflauge
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Chuck and his Mini-Me! :D :D :D
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Whoopie, trying to nap standing up. She looked tired and like her foot was bugging her. Well - this girl just lets me pick her right up so I did, and she had a dried poop stuck between her toes, I bet it was bugging her! So I took her over to the water (I cleaned it after) and cleaned her really nice and while I was doing it, she fell asleep snoozy against my chest :love :love she just melted into my arms. HOW DO PEOPLE NOT REALIZE HOW SWEET THESE LOVELIES ARE?!?

Ruby and Whoopie are special girls, I swear.

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Ruby, being an absolute LEGEND lol

She was telling me how freaking hot it was!

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Every day I am rewarded with views like this.

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sheeps :)
 
New egg today! From Francoise - she was hanging around the nests today and Phillipa was not, so I can only assume it was her.

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Sophia's top, Francoise middle and Tilly, bottom. @wrathsfarm would you say these bottom two are 4s or 5s? Sophia's are usually as dark but her sprayer is busted -- I don't mind haha
I would call the 1st top egg a #4 and the bottom 2 #5s.
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How many eggs have each one layed? If your interested, you want to track the 1st 30 eggs from each hen. This will give you the average of what color they will lay.
With my Marans, I usually see after the first week they start getting the kinks worked out and get consistent.

For example...older pic from last year but these are Angels 1st 18 eggs. Eggs start back row left to right, left to right, left to right. The first 6 back row were pretty inconsistent with the 4th a double yolker, the second and 3rd row closest being pretty close to even in color to what she would go on to lay everyday.
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I would call the 1st top egg a #4 and the bottom 2 #5s.

How many eggs have each one layed?
oooh, good to know - Sophia usually lays that dark but her sprayer is coming back online from a small break.

Honestly Francoise is EARLY. My two first Marans didn't start laying until 26-28 weeks old and they laid big eggs right away. Francoise is 19 weeks old and her eggs are TEENY! It's cute. I have her second one today, I will keep track!!
 
oooh, good to know - Sophia usually lays that dark but her sprayer is coming back online from a small break.

Honestly Francoise is EARLY. My two first Marans didn't start laying until 26-28 weeks old and they laid big eggs right away. Francoise is 19 weeks old and her eggs are TEENY! It's cute. I have her second one today, I will keep track!!
When I first started tracking eggs, I thought it was really going to be a chore and I know it's hard for those that have jobs and such, but now it's so routine for me and I actually enjoy it especially with first time layers. And it lets you get to know each girls egg in the process by color, shape and size. 🙂
 
Custard is egg bound -- straining this morning and straining so hard she is closing her eyes while trying to strain -- this reflection of what we ourselves do when straining is just... oh man my empathy is just <3 <3 <3

I tried to catch her to see if I could massage it -- around Chuck.

Big mistake. He fronted me, and kicked at me (he didn't make contact) and all I did was stand my ground and yell at him. I yelled at him in a surprised and disgusted voice, like HOW DARE HE come at me, I was just trying to help her!! And he stopped. lol But I did realize he was just protecting his VERY FAVORITE hen. Custard and him snuggle every night. It was COMPLETELY my fault for trying to catch her within his presence.

So, I waited around to see if he'd leave. (He never even floofed at me after I stopped trying to get Custard. He made his point and it went back to calm). He'd roam but he didn't leave. My husband came out to investigate why I was gone so long -- chicken chores usually don't take so long -- and I told him what was going on, directed him NOT to go for Custard (he was walking up to her) and Chuck got between him and her... but he listened to me and just stood there. And... Chuck left.

My husband definitely carries a presence and Chuck felt it haha

Anyway we were able to get Custard and put her in a cage in the barn, away from everyone and cooler and dark. We are going to try the Epsom salt bath if she doesn't pass it herself.

This is not her first stuck egg. She often has this issue. When I tried to massage it, it felt GIGANTIC, way bigger than the others and I am concerned. It feels sideways, or like two eggs. She didn't lay yesterday and she hardly ever misses a day.

But she's never been quite right with her egg-maker or laying. She often just leaves them on the ground, my guess is bc she is straining. I've never taken her eggs for incubating, her genes aren't great. Her eggs are also just kind of wrong - extra calcium bunched up at the tip, on every single egg.

We will see how it goes today, but it might be over for Custard. She's one of our favorites, but that is always how it goes. Always it seems. :/

I'm getting more used to it, but I've already spent some tears this morning just watching her strain.
 

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