Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chickens. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A To Z - N is for New

 N is for New!  As in...

New blooms...

My grandparent's gorgeous Azalea bush.
It almost glows when the sun hits it!!
I did not edit the colors in this photo.

Dogwood tree is blooming too!

New butterflies migrating in for summer...

 The Azalea is so colorful it made the butterfly pale in comparison!

 He really was a gorgeous yellow though.

New life...

 My friend's Friesian mare delivered this gorgeous purebred Friesian colt four days ago!

 Isn't he handsome??

(More) New life...

 Two of my chickens hatched out new baby chicks!!!

 As best I can tell there are four black ones and three brown ones.
The funny thing is how they will hide under either hen hehe.

(More almost here, but not quite) new life...


Two of my ducks are sitting on about fifteen eggs a piece so we will have ducklings soon too!  I wish they had hatched out before this post, but instead I'll post a picture of momma sitting on her eggs inside of a hollow tree.  :D

That's all the new stuff I have around the farm for today!  I hope you enjoyed seeing all of them.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

A to Z - E is for Eggs

 Have you ever seen a green egg?  Check this out.

Did you know green eggs are almost imporrible to photograph?
I should have put it next to brown and white eggs for contrast lol.
This is the best one I could get.

I have an Easter Egger hen, which is a breed of chicken that lays green eggs (and sometimes blue or pink too)! Easter Eggers are actually mutts, because they are a cross of an Ameraucana or an Araucana crossed with any other brown egg laying breed of chicken like a Rhode Island Red.  The Ameraucana and Araucana lay blue eggs, but when their genetics are mixed with the genes of a brown egg layer you get the other fun colors, green and pink.  :)  For more information on the Ameraucanas check out this website http://www.ameraucana.org/faq.html

Now here are a few more pictures of my green eggs.  I tried a bunch of different settings because I couldn't tell if the color was showing up on my camera.... the color really doesn't show up very well at all!!  You can see more if you Google green egg.  :)  I had fun carrying my eggs around the yard and taking pictures though hehe.

They look white here because they were in full sun.

 Once again washed out because of the sun, but the flowers in my yard are so pretty!  I love spring!

 They look a bit more green here.  I have them piled up in the crook of my plum tree hehe.


I LOVE this one of Jackal with the eggs.  He really should be called Shadow since he's always following me around when I take pictures.  He wanted to eat the eggs, but he listens to his "leave it" cue really well, thank goodness.  Isn't he adorable??  Okay I know I'm biased hehe.

Here are a couple of pictures of my Easter Egger hen below.

 See her beard?

She's so pretty! And she was not happy because my dog was beneath her hehe.

In case pictures of my pretty hen and her pretty green eggs aren't enough I also have a really cool and helpful tip to share with everyone!  If you have a bunch of eggs in your fridge and you're not sure how old they are because you forget to rotate them (like me hehe) or someone gives you eggs and you don't know how old they are, here is a really cool way to know if they are good or not.  Put them in a bowl of cold water!!  If it sinks to the bottom it's still good.  If it float it's bad!

Here is a clearer explanation that I found on Google....

"Egg shells may seem pretty solid, but they are in fact slightly porous.
Old eggs float in fresh cold water because of a large air cell that forms as the egg cools after being laid. As the egg ages, air enters the egg and the air cell becomes larger and this acts as a buoyancy aid.

Generally, fresh eggs will lie on the bottom of the bowl of water. Eggs that tilt so that the large end is up are older, and eggs that float are rotten. The tilting is caused by air pockets in the eggs that increase in size over time as fluid evaporates through the porous shell and oxygen and gases filter in. The older an egg gets the more gas builds up inside it. More gas = more floating!

Carefully lower your eggs into fresh cold water (do not use salted water) using a spoon:
If the egg stay at the bottom - it is fresh.
If the egg is at an angle on the bottom - it is still fresh and good to eat.
If the egg stands on its pointed end at the bottom  - it is still safe to eat but best used for baking and making hard-cooked eggs.
If the egg float - they're stale and best discarded.

The final test:

To make sure the egg is not spoiled, break it into a clean bowl and check to make sure it doesn't have a bad odor or appearance."


  Well that's all for today!  I can't wait to see all of your E posts.  :)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

My Belated Thanksgiving Post


 Hi, everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I've finally stopped feeling sorry for myself (about canceling my vacation with my family and surprise road trip due to stomach flu) so I figured I would write a post about what I'm thankful for.  About time huh?


 I'm thankful for my dad, my mom and my siblings.  I'm thankful for their patience and love.  I'm thankful for my husband.  For his love, loyalty and understanding.  I'm thankful for my extended family and for Facebook since that's one of the main ways we are able to keep in touch since we live so far apart.  I'm thankful for my husband's family for accepting me and always being welcoming when we visit.  I'm thankful for my best friend because she always knows how to cheer me up and how to have fun, even when we're broke.  :D  I'm thankful for all of my animals.  I don't know what I would do without Storm, Jackal, Chrome, Faran, Led Zeppelin, my cat and all of the birds.  They provide we with so much comfort and so many laughs!  I'm thankful that I have a house to live in and a job to provide me with the money to have a house and food.  I'm thankful for my car which gets me to work everyday.  I'm thankful for my camera so that I can go out and take pictures of my awesome critters.  :D  And there are many other things I'm thankful for, but those are the main ones.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

 Led Zeppelin and my mini white turkey hen.

My cat rolling in the dust and getting all dirty lol.  You might want to click to enlarge it hehe.

Friday, January 20, 2012

New Chicks & Ducklings

One of our Muscovy hens is absolutely crazy! She actually sat and hatched a clutch of eggs in the middle of winter. She successfully hatched eleven ducklings. I only have one picture because she's being very protective of them and won't bring them out. It's funny how she hisses at us. :) I'll get more pictures when they are older and venturing out.

Also my brother in law sent us some eggs to hatch. They are green eggs! The Ameraucana chicken (also known as the Easter Egger) lays green eggs. Click here to see a picture I found on Google. They finally hatched out the other day. Here are some picture.

Hatching out!

Still in the incubator.

In the box we used to transport them to the brooder.

And here is a video of them in their new brooder.


Aren't they cute?

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Muscovies

Sorry I've been so quiet. I guess I needed a bit of a break. :) Things are starting to look up again now that I'm able to fall into my old routine. I'll try to update tomorrow about Jackal's tricks. For now enjoy these pictures of my pretty Muscovy ducks now that they are all grown up. I'm proud of my ducks and I really enjoy them.

My favorite piebald Muscovy hen. Isn't she adorable?

I had to sneak one of my Buckeye hen in too.

Click for a close up of her dinner. Ew gross!

I think this one is my favorite picture. :)


Which is your favorite? The lighting didn't turn out well on a couple of them, but I still like them all. :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Storm is in the doghouse . . .

I'm so upset with Storm right now (but I'm getting over it). She climbed the fence out of her yard, went around the house to the backyard, broke into two of my chicken pens and killed ALL of my chickens. There were three or four mixed breed chickens in the pasture that are still alive, but all of the important chickens are dead. We were using these chickens to reestablish a dying breed so they were pretty special (only three people in the United States have any of these birds). I have no idea how she got into the pens. They were secured really well. So well that we hadn't had any opossums or raccoons get into it. :( So she's in trouble, but I can't scold her because she'll have no clue why I'm upset since I didn't catch her in the act. I settled with brushing her (she's blowing her coat heavily due to firework induced anxiety) since she hates that. I think I'll give her a bath tomorrow. Naughty dog!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Pictures

I just thought I would post some pictures I took on the fifth so you don't all forget me lol. I hope you enjoy. I should be back to regular posting soon. :)

Sitting in my window checking out my seedlings. I wish the window wasn't so dirty.

Climbing on momma's back. Silly chicks.

Dogwood tree bloom.

Dogwood tree bloom.

Dogwood tree bloom.

Looking up through the Dogwood tree.

Honeysuckle vine.

Some sort of thorny tree growing on the lease land. It's around ten feet tall.

The thorns are almost as long as my finger!

And they are sharp!

My neighbor's sheep.

That's all for tonight guys.