We can almost depend on a couple of breeds to take to the nest and luckily these are large ladies who will cover large eggs.

Bluelaced Wyandotte

The Bluelaced Wyandotte hatched the goslings and adopted the Double-laced Barnevelder chicks when their mother decided she wanted to go walk-about just as the chicks were about to emerge from the shells.

Silver Sussex

The Silver Sussex is covering a clutch of Muscovy eggs.  She is a committed mother having to sit on these eggs for over one month.

Natural Insecticide

The nest boxes are bedded with straw which has been liberally dusted with ‘Diatomaceous earth’ a natural insecticide. Mites and fleas quickly establish in the warmth of nest boxes where they find an constant supply of food from the brooding hen.   During warm weather it’s sometimes advisable to change the bedding during a long hatch such as goose or duck eggs as the buildup can be substantial and the hen can become anaemic through blood loss to these parasites.

Hygiene

The walls are whitewashed in the area where the young chicks live for the first couple of weeks for extra hygiene.

Baby Goat

Alara, the two week old three quarter Anglo Nubian x Toggenburg cross has found a new food supply.  How quickly they learn and develop!

One couple, for instance, return for fertile eggs a couple of times each year. We hear how their stock is getting on from visit to visit, the ratio of hens to cockerels from the hatch and how they are growing or laying.  Another family tell us how their children have taken our practice of placing eggs at the gate and like ourselves, no matter how many eggs are placed in the honesty box, they are always taken.

There are so many of these types of incidents and the feel-good stories the accompany them.

The level of knowledge and the life skills some of these young children have acquired though the care and management of their poultry sometimes amazes me.  This of course, wouldn’t be possible without the encouragement and support of their parents.

The networking aspect of poultry keeping and the kind of people we meet though this hobby is as enjoyable as the poultry keeping itself.

I love it!

While using terms usually associated with birds, there are life lessons within its lines for all of us.

Thanks Deirdre for sharing it with us.



All I Need To Know In Life, I Learned From My Hens

Wake up early, stay busy, rest when you need to, but always stay alert.
Visit your favorite places each day.
…Scratch out a living.
Routine is good.
Plump is good.
Don’t ponder your purpose in life – your brain is too small.
Accept the pecking order and know your enemies.
Weed your garden.
Protect your children fiercely – sit on them if you need to.
Take them for walks, show them the little things and talk constantly.
Make a nice nest. Share it with friends.
Brag on your accomplishments.
Don’t count your chicks before they hatch.
Protect your nest egg.
Test your wings once in awhile.
Squawk when necessary.
As you age, demand respect.
Leave a little something for those who care about you.
Chase butterflies.

-By Michaele Oleson
Thanks for permission to share such an insightful poem!

Here, we have Mahonia in full bloom being visited by our honey bees to gather pollen.

The birds are singing all around us and all the animals have become more spirited.

There are tasks waiting to be done in everyplace we look.  Fencing to be repaired after the winter and planting to be done.  There’s just not enough hours in the day or days in the week at this time of year.

Seed potatoes are laid out and are beginning to sprout, giving them a head start when they go into the ground.  There are trees & roses lined up, waiting to be planted.

Today I finished topping a beach hedge and gave the goats their spring pedicure.  Here is Nefertiti displaying her ‘Joy of Spring’

It will be yet another step closer to breeding as nature intended.  It will reduce our output of day old chicks and young birds dramatically and I expect we will have a surplus of fertile eggs for a good portion of the year.

We will sell our large incubator, I’ll be sorry to see in go, as it’s fully automatic and it did almost everything except count the days for a hatch.

Details can be found on the For Sale page