Thursday, July 07, 2011

Peekaboo

I noticed in a couple of the last posts that I may have confused a few of you with those large hens I had pictured. About 6 weeks ago or so I bought 3 full grown hens so that we would have eggs now, rather than wait on these pullets to get up and those were the hens you saw pictured. We do still have the 21 young chickens also, which are getting pretty big, but they were not the large black and white barred ones in the post about pest control.
Anyway, we got those 3 hens from a young lady in a county north of us who raises a lot of chickens. . Since we have been very pleased with the Barred Rocks laying ability, I figured "sure", wouldn't mind having a couple more of those myself. And, since Allen just happened to have just bought an incubator, we figured, why not? So, I gathered 2 eggs from each of the 3 hens and we put them in the incubator. We waited 21 days and sure enough, I heard peeping one day coming from the incubator! Four of the six eggs hatched. We could easily tell which eggs came from which chicken and noticed, oddly enough, that Bertha's eggs were the 2 that didn't hatch. She is the largest and oldest of the hens. I don't know what the deal was there, she is certainly young enough to still be producing. Maybe she told the roos to go fly a kite! Anyway, after a stressful couple of days (for us, not the chicks) we got 4 little babies. We had to help 3 of them out of their shells as they had not been able to completely free themselves even after 24 hours of trying. I wasn't sure how they would do but, as you can see, they are now a handful of very rambunctious chicks. I built a little playpen for them to stay in during the day and at night they go back in the tub in the coop. With my luck we got all roosters in this four but I can't really tell at this point. I do know they are very spoiled though and a lot more friendly than the others due to being handled so much since hatching. If you put your hand down in their pen they will run and jump up in your palm so you can get them out. They are a hoot!

About a week ago I started a list of subjects to write about here and it has helped organize my thoughts quite a bit. I still get in rambling moods though and have been in one lately. I often feel like I'm not posting about much that is interesting and feel that is reflected in the lack of comments at times. I certainly don't have the...uhhh.... adventures... I once did! But I still feel compelled to write because the house isn't finished and that is what I started writing for. I guess that seems odd. Well, that is not entirely true. I have written this blog because I enjoyed the conversation and meeting of other people, albeit not in person. I wish I could come up with some more topics that invited discussion however, because I often feel out of sorts publishing these 'here I'm the great authority on this subject' posts. I would hate to think that my writings suggests that I don't want to hear other people's opinions or thoughts because that is definitely not the case. At any rate, I'm trying to come up with a more organized and informative approach to my posting so that it may be of some help to somebody out there.

10 comments:

Rita said...

I think you write great posts. It seems the country is in turmoil everywhere. So many without jobs and discouraged or some major act of God has left them homeless. Many can't pay their mortgage and so on. Just lots of changes. And even if all is going ok well.....many talk of how hot it is. We enjoy hearing about your life, your garden and animals. The work on your home it is amazing you can do it yourself. I sometimes can't pound a straight nail. LOL Have a good day and be encouraged that post comments will perk up with cooler weather.

MyamuhNativeWantsChickens said...

What Rita said!

It's always great to read about your adventures even if they are in your yard

HermitJim said...

Just a thought, but maybe one day a week you could do a recipe! You know how I like food!

No matter what you post about, I do like coming here and enjoy what you write about!

All the news is fun, ya know?

Sal in Maine said...

Not happening upon you until the last 6 months allows me to say that I very much enjoy your post-construction posts VERY MUCH. Ramble away- please!

Ron said...

It's nifty watching chicks hatch. It sure is hard to watch them struggle to get out of their shells, though!

ErinFromIowa said...

Annie you write awesome posts. Some bloggers are able to write about daily happenings and make them interesting and/or exciting. You are one of them. Maybe you, like all of us have moments of indecision and self-doubt? Which is exacerbated by how in general readers/commenters (myself included)are a somewhatlazy lot. These are just my opinions on the matter. You better not stop blogging when the house is finished!
Something I am thinking about right now is how much I love the rosemary-mint essential oil I have a tealight burning under. Do you have the actual herbs? Have you ever trying simmering them together for aromatherapy?

Anonymous said...

For me it's just nice to drop in to see how you're doing and it's nice to hear that you're happy and doing well. I've enjoyed watching you settle into homesteading mode.
Anything you write about construction-wise is just icing on the cake.
I've never felt that you were anything but receptive to your readers. You've always been very gracious and open to comments.
Write what strikes your fancy and I'd bet we'll be happy to read it.
v.

MamaHen said...

Hey Reet! thank you and you know, you are probably right about that..lots of people right now are very distracted by difficulties in life and having a hard go of it. I hadn't thought of that.
Thanks again for the kind words!

Hey Mya! Nice name change! lol!!
thanks!

Hey Jim! that's a great idea on the food! I'll do that just for you!

Hey Sal! thanks so much! I shall ramble.

Hey Ron! yeah, we were so freaking stressed out by the time it was over. lol!! It's very hard not to try and help them.

Hey Erin! thanks! oh, honey, I have LOTS of moments of indecision and self-doubt!
I do have many of the actual herbs, especially rosemary and mints and I have tried simmering them at times. Some work better than others for that. You would just have to experiment a little. I know that any citrus, cinnamon, ginger, lavender and such do well simmering in water. One thing I also do sometimes is burn an unscented pillar candle and after it makes a small pool of hot wax near the flame, you can drop small bits of herbs in the hot wax to release the scent.

Hey V.! thanks for your opinion! I appreciate that.

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

I always enjoy your postings so don't fret overn them.

When I first got chickens I order 100 day old chicks, 104 showed up as they always put some extras in the box.

It takes about 20 weeks before they lay. I raised them in a bedroom of the house until they had feathers (6 weeks) . Interesting waking up to the souchd to chicks (the feathered kind) in the next room. With layers of newspaper on the floor and a low barrier at the door it worked out quite well.

I had no idea how many eggs 100 chickens lay when they are in full productions When they started I was soon overwelmed. My 12 year old son was soom in the egg business. I was so grateful for those who took 15 dozen at a time.
I ate eggs three times a day as many as a dozen a day and still my fridge was always full of eggs.

It was fun while it lasted. Four hens would be enough to keep a couple of people in eggs.

I know how much fun Jack is having. He will soon want to get some exotic looking hens.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Speaking for myself (maybe Grenville too) we enjoy your posts, even if we don't comment all the time. In fact, since you stopped working construction and are raising chickens and gardening, we think they are MORE interesting. Writing about every-day living is much more interesting and informative. We blog for our own enjoyment and hopefuly others enjoy some of our posts as well. We don't expect everyone to like everything we blog about. Comments are nice, but we don't base our blog posts on whether or not we have an audience. We're just having fun and seems you and Jack are too, so keep on doing what you're doing and we'll be here. By the way, please stop in and visit anytime, the back door is usually open at the Frog & PenguINN. And, thais post about the young chicks hatching was great fun reading.