On Strike!

Today we had rain and high gusty winds. Skies stayed dark and it was stormy for most of it. We got a grand total of 6 eggs! What a disapointment. Obviously I need to get busy and install some lights in the coops! Let me tell you...6 eggs hurts after what I have been getting.  But on a happy note, we are up to 7 Serama chickys! I am so proud of my broody girls. Three tiny hens..Peanut, Juliet and Ivory. Sharing the duties and hatching some sweet babies!  My silver lining. Weather supposed to breakup and be sunny and warm again by Thursday...and not a moment to soon! Egg orders await.

The Golden Girls (and Guys)

So our Golden Girls are happily installed. Tomorrow will mark one week here and we will give them an hour of free range before dark. We will extend the 'ranging' time daily until we are sure they all know where home is. I delivered six dozen today and have my first standing order for a weekly dozen! Starting to feel a little like a farmer. Found a duck egg and thought I'd snap a pic so you could compare. I have four duck eggs in the incubator and hopefully next week we will get Ducky's!

Forward Motion

As we move forward in our adventure towards self sufficiency/self sustainable life, we have made another stride! I have opened a farm page on Facebook. Hoping it will generate some business interests. Currently I am offering fresh eggs, chicks (Serama and Golden sex link) and ducklings soon I hope. Hoping to expand into herbs in the spring. I am currently working two part time jobs and would love to cut that down to one!

Eggactly!

We got up bright and early and headed over two little towns away to do some chicken 'wrangling'! All went well and I followed hubby home and we installed our Golden Girls with their 4 Manly Men Roosters. They must like it here at Seven Pines....
We had over a dozen by 10 am. Can't wait to see what we have later in the afternoon. Tonight will be working on our labels for egg cartons. More pics later!

New Arrivals!

It is getting egg- citing around here! This week we have had 4 Serama Chickie's hatch out. Seramas are the smallest chicken breed in the world and come from Malaysia. They are difficult to hatch in an incubator. This time I let 3 broody hens do the work and Mother Nature knows best! We are also preparing for a huge blessing. We are being gifted 47 Golden Sex link hens for our egg business. Today is all about coop prep and cleaning. Will post pictures of the Golden Girls when they arrive..but here is some Serama adorableness!!

Burn Baby Burn..

We had a break from rain and used the opportunity to burn our brush pile. When we lived in suburbia-landia a nice truck came by and took away the brush and junk yearly. Not happening in the country.
Husband and I were vigilantly standing with water hoses on either side of our pile of brush and rotted boards that seem to accumulate quite rapidly around here. I managed to catch a few pics of the inferno. Then it all was over fairly quickly and now I have some wood ash to spread at the base of my trees.
We cleaned out our tiny shed and will redistribute the contents to the greenhouse and barn.
I love sunny days!

Speaking of eggs...

We are entering the cold and rainy part of winter here and so far egg production has been still satisfactory. I am feeding our chickens wet/fermented feed. No mess and they absolutely love it! I put 1/3 cup of dry food per bird in a bucket and add water until its wet mush. They are so excited to see me coming with the bucket! Much less waste. Anybody else ever tried this?