Slug Patrol!

Our Pekin ducks get a little muddy while on slug patrol

The very cool and rainy weather is just perfect for slugs and they are thriving on my lilies,hostas, and even in the trees.Good thing we have a slug patrol. The ducks, too, are thriving in the rain, mud, and abundance of slugs.

The ducks waddle on down to the pond for a swim and hopefully will be able to rid their bills of some of the slug slime. Even thinking about eating slugs grosses me out, but I am sure glad the slug patrol finds slugs very tasty, they should feast royally this spring !

My Chicks Come In The Mail !

My new chicks came in the mail. I am still amazed such tiny, fragile creatures can be sent safely through the mail.

 

Here you can see the box they arrived in sitting in front of the temporary brooding  pen set up in my sun room.

This is a receipt showing what chicks I ordered.I paid a little extra to receive all pullets ( females) so I would not be raising any more roosters for awhile. I still have a few roosters around I am quite fond of, and need no more. I want a lovely and varied chicken flock this coming year, and I think I picked some interesting chickens. I am especially excited about the white Orpingtons and the Delawares.

Look at all the cuteness packed into the tiny box ! I am already anticipating the delicious eggs they will lay for me and my family, but the breeds I have chosen will not begin to lay eggs until they are between 5 and 6 months of age.

I dip each chick's beak into water right after removing them from the packing box. There are glass beads in the waterer taking up space  so the little chicks do not drown in the water, which is very easy for new chicks to do.Also, the beads attract the chicks and they peck there allowing them to learn quickly the water they need is here.

I put the chicks into a big metal tub with a piece of fencing over it to keep my cat out. I have a heat lamp over the brooder. I mixed chick grit ( you can purchase this from the feed store) with chick starter feed for the first few feedings and put it in a shallow dish in the brooder.The chicks spend a lot of time happily scratching and pecking at their feed After 3 days I moved the chicks into a big metal water livestock tub in an outside shed I use just for the purpose of raising up poultry.The weather has just begun warming up and I do not think a heat lamp will be needed for long. I will probably replace the heat lamp bulbs with 6o watt light bulbs. I have two lamps over the chick brooder.

I love raising these little cuties, I love gathering newly laid eggs in the morning, I love hearing my chickens clucking and crowing, and I especially love to just watch them. They are very entertaining,and if you watch them often enough you can see they each have a unique personality, and you just might get attached to them, you just might!

Langshan hen

This is my 7 year old Langshan which was one of my first chickens, 6 years ago she won grand champion at the Washington State Fair and still looks just as nice .

New Chicks !

My chicks arrived in the mail yesterday, I invited them to tea.*

Martha Stewart & Jan Brett Keep Chickens

Martha Stewart and Jan Brett ( children's book author & illustrator) keep and show chickens. They also show a cute Easter craft and of course, there is egg cookery! Keeping chickens offers all the best things ~ pretty and entertaining birds, plenty of eggs for cooking & baking, and just plain fun.

Chicks come home

Three weeks ago I brought my Belgian d'uccle chicks home from my grandma's house and so far they are all doing fine . This is Oreo my Black Mottled d'uccle cockerel.

This is my group of d'uccles in their pen.

This is Magnum my Golden Neck d'uccle and Sea Mist my sister's Self Blue d'uccle.

This is my group of chicks sitting under the heat light.

Chehalis Agricultural Market ~ Chicken Auction

A few weeks ago my oldest grandson and I took a few chickens and ourselves to the poultry auction in Chehalis, Washington. It is a good 45 minute drive if the driving conditions are good. I poured myself a large travel mug of strong hot coffee and was out the door before 7:30 a.m. You have no idea how hard it is for me to be ready to travel at that hour of the morning. I picked up grandson Bugs at his home where he and his little brother greeted me in the front yard. They were ready to help load up a cage of chickens to be sold at the auction. (The white frizzled birds in the cages shown above are the ones I brought to sell)
The car had a fairly fowl odor, the chickens had gotten a bit of rain on them as they were loaded...even the strong hot coffee could not mask that smell, WHEW, stinky! (that is Bugs with the hoody on, checking tags)
The weather was miserable as we drove, but since there weren't many people on the road (they must have been sensibly tucked into bed or drinking coffee and reading the paper in front of the fireplace) the driving was fine.The auction was just beginning to gear up around 8:30, we were the first to arrive with our chickens.The chickens we had to sell were quickly caged and then we browsed. There were plenty of eggs for sale, many of them sold as fertile eggs for hatching, and the breed of chickens was marked so you knew just what kinds of chickens you'd find peeping in the incubator should you decide to buy them. There were also large greenish / black emu eggs.
These cages contain the white call ducks I coveted. They were very nice looking and I want a flock of white calls. Bugs & I left before I could be tempted to bid on these beauties. Our duck pen here at home is in a shambles since the ice storm squashed it and we don't need any more quackers until things are repaired. But I was so tempted !

The auction will sell any birds, eggs, agricultural equipment, farm produce, etc. and they take a small fee for this service, then send you a check for the remainder of the money earned by selling your birds, etc, there.Bugs and I both made some money, but Bugs made the most and he is pretty happy about that. He is saving up to buy cows.Chickens for cows, Bugs is moving up in the agricultural world, but he will keep his chickens I know, because Bugs is just crazy about chickens and I am glad to have a partner in poultry around here. Thanks Bugs, this is fun!