I had an awesome morning, but I may not stand up for a few days. But first! I want to introduce you to the breeds are currently have growing up here. I know I know, I'm obsessed with these chickens. I need to remember my goat and my other animals and oh yeah the kids! and my poor sick husband....
Anyhow, back to the chickens!
I currently own: 6 guinea keets, 4 weeks old. It's hard to tell for sure what colors they will finally be, but I believe I have three pearls, one porcelain, one brown, and one royal purple. What are those colors actually? Here. Of course, it could change. Take a look at those pics of the keets. They all look just the same, pretty much.
I have 8 Ameraucana, and yes, they are real actual light blue egg laying Ameraucanas, not Easter Eggers, for those who know enough to be suspicious. I bought these straight run, and at the moment I am thinking 4 pullets (females) and 4 roos (short for rooster, so yah, I shouldn't have to tell you they're males). But I'm really new at this so they could surprise me yet. They were about 4 weeks old when I bought them from the lady who sells us our farm fresh eggs, for a few more months at least. They are almost 8 weeks old now.
Last Sunday? I think it was Sunday, I got 6 two week old mixed breed chicks from my homeschooling friend, 5 pullets and one roo. Those pullets are guaranteed, which means if one turns out to have boy parts she give me another girl hen. She's pretty confident in her sexing abilities. That is, telling the gender of chicks apart. Don't think I meant anything else. They could be some sort of Australorp/Ameraucana/Brahma/Rhode mix or something, but they all come from good layers.
And then, finally, I picked 15 pullets from the post office that I ordered from Ideal Poultry. I already said this, I got 10 assorted and 5 Ideal 236s. But thanks to the sharp eyes of my friend, I now know what my assorted are! (She saw where is was written on the paper that came with them.) I have two of each: New Hampshire Red, Black Sex Link, Silver Spangled Hamburg, Ancona, and Barred Rock.
Tuesday my poor mistreated eggs hatched. Let me tell you people, there are good reasons for those very specific temperature requirements. I'm not using this incubator again, at least not without upgrading it to have an automatic egg turner and putting it up high in my bedroom where no one can mess with it. It's not the incubators fault, exactly, but it doesn't make the job easy on you. Especially when you have kids who mess with it. It only takes once. Out of 48 eggs 6 hatched, and that was 6 more than I expected. I was happy at first but what I didn't realize but know now is...if chicks survive mishandling of their eggs, there will often be something wrong with them. Three chicks hatched with their yolk sacks outside of their bodies, and two of those had curled toes. The three hatched healthy are fine, I have one Barred Rock like above and two Rhode Island Reds. One other Rhode Island Red is still alive. Her yolk sac was drawn into her body but it doesn't like her tummy completely closed up. There is a large scab there now. We are applying triple antibiotic ointment and keeping her separate for the moment. She is doing well, but is lonely and chirps loudly when no one is holding her. If she lives, she will be the tamest chicken in history, as she pretty much lives on my children.
Out of my 33 chicks, 20 are guaranteed pullets, and I think I have at least 4 more. That leaves me with 9 roos, of which I want to keep two. So, 7 will either be given away or eaten. I'm good either way. I only want 20 hens at this point, so if all my chicks survive to 8 weeks I will have four to sell or give away. They are worth a lot more at that age because they are so hard to get there.
Bored yet? Sorry.
Today was a good day, though, because I met my friend Megan and her two friends (they share an awesome homesteading blog, check it out! Homesteading Housewives) downtown at the Greenville Farmers' Market. I bought 4 dozen eggs. I'm pathetic, I've lived in the Greenville area 10 years and this is the first time I've been there. I've been to other farmers markets around here though! Megan is a friend from church who is really into homesteading, and she introduced me to her two friends also into homesteading. I really liked them and I think they liked me okay too. We are going to do turkeys and meat chickens together! I am very excited.
I wore the wrong shoes though. I developed a blister on the back of one heal, so I took off my shoes to walk from the cupcake shop (shhh, my kids think I just went to the market) all the way down Main St to my car. It didn't hurt till I got in the car. I'm barefoot all the time around the house and farm, from carpet floors with legos all over to a gravel drive way to my nettle-filled yard, and yet it did not prepare me for half a mile of rough hot concrete. I have blisters all over the bottoms of my feet. Pity me. So much for finishing my coop door. I swear that thing is becoming the bane of my existence.
Tomorrow is Father's Day. Don't forget. I am doing my typical "extending the holiday" since my dad won't be getting his gift for another week or two, but I will call him. My husband already received his gifts, trying to make him feel better since he came down with a 101 degree fever yesterday. Pity him more than me, it wasn't his fault.
May not go to church, since he is sick and it's Father's Day and my feet hurt so much, but it's my teams turn for coffee hour, so I'd at least have to go clean up. Plus I missed last week and I hate missing church. I have the best church.
Now I'm just rambling so I'll go. I wanted to put pictures in this post but I don't have any at the moment, unless you want to see my blistered feet. No? Okay, I'll spare you.
Happy Fathers' Day fathers everywhere!
7:52 pm
Oh yeah, new word to consider working into a possible name for this place: Ramshackle. I like it. Yep, still trying to come up with a name. :p
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