done molting?

Our chickens are starting to lay again! Oh, thank goodness! We collected three eggs yesterday and Chris called me with the news of there already being four eggs in the nesting boxes this morning! He also said one of the cuckoo marans was in a nest, too. Could our young chickens be getting ready to start laying? I really hope so! They are nearly seven months old and should be starting to lay any day now. We'd get dark brown eggs from the cuckoo marans, the two wellsummers and, in a couple more months, the blue marans. We'll really be able to share the bounty with our church members in the next couple of months. We'll have plenty of eggs to share! Between the younger (under seven months) and the older chickens, we have about twenty hens. It will really be something to get more than a dozen eggs per day from these birds. Then, in a couple months when the blue marans are of age, there will be an additional five hens. We'll keep one of the two roosters (Bert) as well. Mike, just so you know, is back to crowing again with his broken crower. Bert or the other blue maran rooster also crows like Mike. Could it be a maran thing?

Turkeys and Chickens and things

I had to clip the wings of my peacocks the other day. There's nothing worse than being in a hurry to leave your house and having one of your peachicks fly out of the barn into the hayloft area of another part of the barn, then out onto the back deck. Claude and Henri are still very little yet, about eight inches in length overall. It wouldn't take a very large hawk or another critter to take one down and eat it. I don't want that to happen yet. So instead of just catching Claude and putting him in the barn, I clipped him. Then I caught Henri and did the same and carried the scissors out to my Sub and took off. Claude is a pretty good flyer considering his age and body size. He's the braver of the two peachicks. He's always leading Henri around.

Donatello, the self-blue Blue Slate Turkey is developing a beard!!! It's almost an inch long already. I noticed it this morning when he let me pet him for awhile. I love how feathers are both soft and hard at the same time. You pet them, and it's like petting a soft, inpenetrable wall.

Mike is back to crowing (the only rooster we kept out of the twenty hatchlings and baby chicks we've raised). His crower is so broken, but it's neat to hear. One of the 7 month old Blue Maran roosters (there are two - I'll keep one) also has a broken crower and he sounds a lot like Mike. We're keeping one, and my friend Michelle has named him Bert. Maybe it's a Maran thing. The hens make much deeper sounds than their Ameraucauna friends.

Oh, Lily and pregnant friends are still fat. I think they are all just fat, now. Not pregnant ... :)

Still Fat!

The goats are still fat - Lily and Ginger. Ginger is almost starting look more pregnant than Lily. Her youngun must be really growing inside her. I'm certain we'll have kids before Thanksgiving.

The peacocks - Henri and Claude - are starting to add some fantastic colors to their feathers. I'm noticing more green on them, and their head feathers are really popping up! I'm going to try to get some good pictures of them this weekend.

Don and Glenn Q. really have started gobbling. They'll talk to you all morning until you put some clover in their pen. Our roosters don't crow anymore. I don't know why. It's kind of nice, with the quiet, but it's kind of weird, too. Mike used to crow often with his broken crower (he doesn't cockadoodledoo like a regular rooster - he has his own crow), but I haven't heard it since we got rid of most of our roosters. I'm going to keep one of the two blue maran roosters as well. He's slate grey, spotted coppery brown. He hasn't crowed yet either. Neither has his "brother" who is slate grey with a white head.

I broke the toe next to my pinky toe the other morning, stubbing it on the doorstop by our back door while getting dog food. It hurts! But it's a little better. It does constantly ache, but walking is a little easier.

Lily and other things

We're all on Lily watch right now as she approaches the end of her pregnancy. It's always exciting when new baby goats arrive on scene. We weren't sure how good of a mother Lily would be, but she has turned out to be a pretty good mom. She encourages her kids to eat hay sooner than I'd like, but it didn't hurt them any. The saying around our farm lately is that she is still fat. I'd love to be able to call my husband and tell him that she did indeed kid today, and they are adorable, but it's not quite time yet. Ginger appears to be preggers as well. She seems to be about 2 weeks less pregnant than Lily. Both goats got Freddie going, and they'd stand by the fence separating the two pens making him crazy for a couple of days. It was almost as if they were in heat. If Lily wasn't so obviouly pregnant, I'd believe it, but I've even seen her kids kick. They just acted like they were in heat. Weird. Betsy is just pregnant. She'll probably kid in January. It's not the best month, but better too cold than too warm. Jade on the other hand has Joey (a wether) keeping her from joining with Freddie. It's making him nuts. He's been chasing William (our nubian wether) because he can't get to Jade. She's looking a little fluffy, but not pregnant yet.

We named out peacocks. They seem to both be males, though one could surprise us and end up a female after all. They are Claude (Monet) and Henri (Matisse). I suppose if one ends up being a female, we'll just change her name to Georgia (O'Keefe). The turkeys are doing well. I'm gearing up to get the chickens out of there, but I'd like the other chickens to get over their molt already and start laying eggs. We've finally been getting a couple - 8 to be exact - over this past week. That's 8 total. From nearly 30 chickens. The young ones just haven't started laying yet. The older ones are just starting to lay again. The older ameracaunas (well one of the two anyway) has started laying again. They are 4 and 6 years old. I'm impressed. We won't get rid of them. We'll just let them stay and live out the rest of their lives with us. There is no point in selling them off. They've been rather good to us.

Heaven is for Real

BookSneeze sent me another book to review, and this one is about the little boy that nearly died and spent some time in heaven. He returned to tell the tale of his adventure. This is an amazing story that inspires hope in Christ and the assurance that there is indeed something to look forward to after death. This child's story is amazing to say the least. At a very low point in this family's life, this story springs forth. With illness and injury on more than one front, Colton Burpo comes forward, little by little, with an amazing story of going to heaven while he is in surgery. He sees Todd Burpo's father, someone he hadn't before met, and meets a sister that he never knew he had (Sonja Burpo had had a miscarraige). There is so much more to this story, and I highly recommend reading this book. It will inspire you and give you hope of a future too glorious for us to imagine.

The weather is changing, getting colder and wetter and just plain drearier. The past few days have been windy and sunny, but today is ick. Saturday I purchased a pair of peacocks. They are supposed to be the blue variety, but right now, they are brown and white. They have these little shoots on the tops of their heads that are about an inch long already. They are shy, afraid of the chickens and turkeys that currently occupy the garage with them. The chickens will eventually move out into the chicken coop and the turkeys will have their own coop soon. The peacocks will remain in the garage to grow until next spring when we build them a new home. I've wanted peacocks for awhile now, and I just love how adorable they are with the feathers on the tops of their heads.

I'm now, however, very happy with my chickens. We have gotten NO eggs this entire week! It is absolutely crazy! I cleaned their coop a couple of weeks ago, when we were getting 1 or 2 eggs per day (I have over 10 chickens - barred rocks and isa browns) that are laying age, and about 20 that are a getting very close to laying age. I have no idea why they aren't laying. It is starting to get on my nerves. They show now signs of poor health. They have plenty of room. They lead a rather calm life (only the occassional letting out of the dogs startles them, but they are even getting somewhat used to that). They are well fed. The whole thing is just crazy!!! Any ideas? I've even started to sing to them. To the tune of the Piano Man, I've made up this song: Lay us some eggs, you're the chicken hens ... Lay us some eggs today! Cuz we're all in the mood for an omelet, and you've got the capabilities! oh, la da da, di de da ...

Basketball Playing Goat!

The other evening, I had let the goats out to graze in the yard, free-range. I had to get the stinky chicken coop cleaned up and new straw put in, so I was able to keep an eye on the goats. They behaved themselves as well until one of them, Jade, I believe, remembered where the strawberry and raspberry patches are. I first chased her and Joey out. Then William joined them. I was having a hard time keeping them away and cleaning out the chicken coop. So, Kellie finishes her homework and comes outside to practice dribbling. She had a game earlier in the day and just like everyone else on the team, when she got the ball she immediately passed it off instead of dribbling and moving the ball herself. There's nothing wrong with passing, but she could have dribbled down the court a little. Anyway, I told her to go practice behind the house to help keep the goats out of the berry patches. Like the great kid that she is, she did as she was told. I was hauling a cart-load of chicken pooh and straw out to the new garden area, and I watch William, our nubian goat, come running up to Kellie as she is dribbling the ball around. He stopped her from moving forward, he would put his head down if she tried to go forward, he would walk forward forcing her to dribble backing up, and if she got around him, he would follow her and get in front of her again. It was the funniest thing ever! Kellie and I were even able to play a brief game of monkey in the middle, but I think you'd have to call it nubian in the middle this time around. Hopefully we'll be able to re-create the scene and have video. Right now I only have a couple of pictures.