Chickens, Eggs & More Chickens

From our first hen, we kind of hoped one would be broody and want to sit on eggs.  But, to no avail.  They all lay well, but while the kids often claim one is sitting, she really just laid and it resting.

That all changed about 2 weeks ago.  And it seems to be in the water now.

(an aerial shot of my three girls)

We have three, yes THREE hens laying on eggs.  I do not think they care whose eggs they are – they might even be sharing.  It started with one hen, our bantam Japanese something or other.  She started sitting on a few eggs, none of them were hers, I might add.

Then another bantam came along to join the fun, our White Frizzle.  She is a mangy thing these days, not completely sure why she has lost many feathers, but she is cute, and happy on eggs.  And finally another bantam Aracana joined the party.

One of our Favorite Things

Not like Oprah – but like our favorite things in life!  We love all things country these days. 
But, right now, like as I type, in this moment – we love hatching chickens!  We absolutely delight in having eggs in the incubator for 21 days and then, after that long wait, watching them peck their shells, start to pip at us, and then finally break free. 

(MY favorite thing is that we, my kids and me, see God’s hand all over this process!)

		New Chicks VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

LOVE IT!!

Chicks are here

 

Wednesday our latest batch of chicks arrived!  We have 25 that we are raising for one of our boys to show for 4h.  We love to have baby chicks in the house – well here at the house.  I do love to have them in the house, I love to listen to their constant chirps, but this time they are in the workshop.  So I do not get to hear them, but they are still fun to watch; and if you cannot find a child you can assume that child in in there watching them!

 

We were hoping to hatch out some chicks too – we found 20+ eggs in the woods about a month ago, but it seems that none of them are going to hatch.  We have another day or so to wait and then we will ditch the incubator and throw away the eggs.  Oh well.  I am sad, I was hoping to have some hens to replace some of our hens who are getting close to ending their peak laying time.  They will need to be replaced this fall I suspect.  That will be hard because they are our first hens and we are pretty attached to them – well aside from my husband, that is.

And if you were wondering these chickens (pictures above) are meat birds – they grow really big, really fast.  So sometime in April we will be butchering these lovely (at that point disgusting) birds to have in our freezer!  I am pretty excited about that part, most of all!!

Goings on here on the Farm

Oh my.  There is really never a dull moment!!

{mostly our new young hens –

should be laying eggs any day}

 

{Louie and our hens behind him}

This week Robert rearranged the pasture – moved all the coops, pulled up some garden pavers, and well rebuilt a fence.  While moving the coops the kids were all too happy to help!

“Farm” Life & Clarabell

So we moved out here, we bought a few chickens. 

Then, we bought more chickens. 

Chicks (and more on the way)

 

Eggs & Chicks

One of  the beautiful aspects of homeschooling is that it never ends.  When we walk we are schooling, when we sit and read we are schooling.  Well, today we experienced some living science!!

We built an incubator about 3 weeks ago.  We were saving eggs for many days, not sure how  many were fertilized (and I assure you they are not all fertilized since many stink).  Then we put them in the incubator and started the clock.  21 days.  That is how long a momma hen sits on her eggs.  So 21 days in the incubator and we should have a chick or two.  Estimated Date : August 9

I expected failure.  Not sure, exactly why.  I forgot to flip them one day and read that was disastrous, so I expected nothing.  I still felt panic at 5 am when I realized that they were not flipped.  But they seem to have survived despite me (there is hope for my kids yet!).

“Killer” strikes again

Oh my.  When my second son ran into my room this morning announcing I needed to come quick, “Daddy is about to do it,” I had to think for a minute.  I knew Robert woke up early and headed out, I told him don’t do anything until I get there, then I went back to sleep.

And we talked about it.  But, it was about to happen for REAL!!

Once I figured out what I was hurrying to go to, I ran out with my camera in hand to this picture

Country “killing”

I have managed to gut it out more than I ever expected I would, since moving out here.  I raised some chickens, watched them be butchered, cleaned the lungs out of all of them once home (12 sets – ugh!), and then ate them up.  I am hoping for a few calves next year sometime, and we will raise them, and then eat them.  I am okay with some raising and killing of my supper.

But I was not prepared for the “killing” this morning.

We have 3 cats – the first by accident (if you believe in those :) ), the other two by design.  We hired adopted these kitties to earn their keep around here by cutting down on the snakes, rodents, and anything else they can catch.  However….

Sweet Saturday & a Surprise

I never “love” the weekend that Robert works nights.  I understand it is part of the price we pay for having him home 3 or 4 days a week.  But it is still not fun.

I usually do not want to do much of anything – weekends are when the rest of the world is a family, so who wants to be the mom out with 4 kids on the weekends without Dad? 

So this morning I just wanted to stay home, clean up a bit, and maybe sew.  A laid back Saturday. 

Well, it was anything but laid back!

Blooming

I love spring.  I think for the same reason I love Mondays.  A new start!

I love to walk around and see a tree that showed no signs of life yesterday full of new growth!   I think it is even more exciting this year since we are in a new home and it is going to be an adventure to see all that blooms, buds, and grows!

I have always loved Crepe Myrtles.  About 2 years before leaving Mansfield Robert brought one home and I loved it.  But I only had 2 years to see its blooms.  Here in our new home, however, we have at least 10 very mature crepe myrtles and I cannot WAIT to see all the blooms on our driveway! 

Plus we are adding lots of fun stuff as we go along.  Our garden is still doing well – we may have to give up on a few colder weather things we should have gotten into the ground sooner, but the Sugar Snap peas are thriving, lots of onions are doing well, and we finally got our tomatoes in the ground last week.  In the last 2 days I have planted all our pepper plants we started indoors, a few cucumber plants we also started, and then LOTS of seeds!

Being filled up

Amazing how life can take over – YOUR LIFE!!! 

I love to make time to update my blog – kind of my running journal.  One I do not have to find to update.  But every so often, it seems life just takes over so much of my real time I have very little cyber-space time to do much of anything!  I have not been looking at blogs, not been updating mine, and who the heck knows what is going on in Facebook-World?  I sure do not these days!

I am happy if I can reply to those few urgent emails that come in, and otherwise, we are living.  Planting, building, tiling, cleaning, teaching, cooking (lots of this), reading, praying, and lots more living. 

But here I am  - a few moments.  I still need to run and sand my bathroom walls – I am DREADING this – but it needs to be done to move further on my bathroom.  Instead, here I am.

Yesterday was fun – I made another, much more successful, batch of tamales – really 2 batches.  I made almost 3 dozen pork and then almost 4 dozen Green Corn (our favorite).  I am looking forward to sharing them with some homeschool friends on Thursday night!

by the numbers

The weekend here at the “Farm”

1 silly girl

5 boys + 1 tent

 

5 silly boys + 1 tent

 

1 worn out husband (who worked very hard all day getting our garden ready)

 

1 garden : 50 x 60 ft

 

 

1 of 12 mounds (with pine straw paths)

2 new turkey chicks!  (hopefully a boy & girl)

5 of 6 new guinea chicks

 

2 sweet snuggly kittens

6 hungry kids, 1 pizza and a few more to come

 

8 hens growing up fast, enjoying some brief  freedom

 

25 little boys chicken growing very fast, finally in their new home

 

1 curious cat and 1 cautious chick meet

 

Finally,

How many chicks can you squeeze into a corner?

Kids & Money

Our world seems to be going so much better this week!  {Yes, I know it is only Tuesday, shhhh}

We have finished 2 weeks of school since Monday of last week!  And we are adding more into our weekly system as we go!  We started a simple Latin workbook this last week – Critical Thinking.  This book introduces the concepts of Latin root words.  I am not sure my kids really need to learn Latin as a language, I am happy if they can learn what some of the words mean though, so they can ace their SATs, someday!

We are getting back into our nature study too.  Check out  Our Nature Blog to see what we are doing this week!  It has been fun!  I think  it will become more routine too!

My oldest has started a blog too.  This has been fun to see him take ownership (with lots of moderation on my part) and decide what he wants to write about, what pictures he wants to post and so on.  I am looking forward to watching his writing improve dramatically, plus he is having to really plan it all out.

The other new thing we have implemented in the last week and a half is Commission.  This is a Dave Ramsey~ism.  We have heard it a while ago, but honestly the kids were not old enough.  They are now!

So, our new system is this:

J : $5 a week                  breakdown : save-$2, store-$2, and church-$1

P : $4 a week                 breakdown : save-$2, store-$1, and church-$1

E : $3 a week                 breakdown : save-$1, store-$1, and church-$1

A : $2 a week               

                      breakdown : save-$0.50, store-$1, and church-$0.50

They have the Crown Financial Industries Bank so they have 3 sections for each part above. (ours look different, but this is the one they sell now)  Then come Sunday they get their money (they earned) and choose between giving it to church or giving it to our Water Buffalo fund*.

They each have chores they need to accomplish or they lose money come payday.  There are only between 2-5 that they get paid for, the rest are expected (without pay – the cost of living here)

We are excited to see how this works out.  The kids can use their money (store) for whatever they want, but they have to tell us what it is & how much it is, before we go shopping.  Makes them think it out and not impulse buy in the toy department.

So that is what is new here.  Life is moving right along in our home!

More chickens due here in 2 weeks!  Lots of pictures to come!!

*We are hoping to save enough money to buy a Water Buffalo this Christmas for Gospel for Asia!!

Our new girls

 

Here are Polly and Lucy

(Lucy has the blue collar on – she is more black, Polly is plumper)

Lucy

 

  

They are sisters.  Blue Tick Coonhounds  - they are 4 months old and they are super sweet!!