Jan 17, 2019. New Layers

I’m loving the new colors this year. 

An olive egg with brown speckles. 



A Black Copper Marans. Probably the darkest pullet egg so far. 

First egg from my 4th of July girls. 

Today’s haul. Top right silkie. Top row from the left olive eggers, Ameraucana, Leghorn. 2nd row olive eggers, Black Copper Marans. The rest are mixed layers. 

Gate greetings. This is the mixed old layers pen. Some older Ameraucana, various hatchery girls and one of my true breeding olive egger boys. Daddy of most of this years OE pullets. 

technical difficulties

Salad bowl lettuce from January 2010

Please stand by while I work out some technical difficulties. The blogging app on my phone is having a hard time uploading my last post!

Jan 7, 2019

I saw this at the grocery store a week or two ago. Capons are castrated chickens.  Removing the testes cause them to put some fat into the muscle meat instead of layering it under their skin or packing it in around their internal organs. It also means that the males can be raised together without fighting for months. A friend that grows their own says they have processed them at 18 months and they were very tender and juicy. (Intact males at that age are tough and stringy and will kill each other).  Caponizing does require going into the body cavity to remove the testes. It’s on my list of things to learn to do!

I had to work early today and will for couple of weeks. But after work worked on cleaning out moms office. Look what I excavated in there..... Do they even still make drives that can read these?

And This is Why I get Nothing Accomplished

This is a 10x10 foot dog kennel, 6 feet high with a roof kit so about 8 feet at the peak. It has weld wire over it at the 6 foot mark. The bottom of that tarp is now at my eye level and I’m not quite 5’2”. The rain and snow collapsed a couple of the roof supports. 

It took all morning to bail the water off and straighten out the tarps. Next to that kennel are several more, also covered with the big tarps. 

I was lucky it didn’t actually rain. 

Some of the pens had standing water in them that ran in when I was bailing. This one just smelled of ammonia because it was wet under the bedding. So after finally scarfing up some food I cleaned it out and turned and fluffed the bedding in some of the other pens. Then I hauled 3 bales of straw to help soak up the water and give everybody dry footing. 

Everybody loves to dig through the straw so I just dump it in there and the birds spread it around. 

Pinal Mountains, south of me. More snow and rain coming. 

A new Ameraucana joins the layers club. By the time I did afternoon chores I was stiff and sore and hungry again. 

I did discover this pretty purple cauliflower. It didn’t stay purple when I cooked it but tasted good. 

Little Bits has claimed a spot by the wood stove. He is putting more weight on his hurt foot today. 

So chores are done and dinner eaten. A toasty fire is made. . I think a splash of brandy in my tea is just the thing to ease up all my sore muscles. None of this stuff was on my agenda for today. Ah well. There’s always tomorrow. 

And On The 5th Day of January

And today I went to sell at SunFlour Market in Superior.  

I had to fix a water pipe that broke from the cold. 

It’s supposed to rain tonight and a couple more days later in the week so had to cut up some wood. I have no dry wood at the moment aside from what I can keep in the house. 

To top my day off my old Tom Bitsy came home with a hurt leg. Since he can’t get around too good at the moment I let him in the house   He promptly scarfed up some raw liver and turned his nose up at dry food.  Yes my kitchen floor looks gross. I’m still cleaning up the mess from the squirrels and 3 yrs of neglect. But I have gotten one side of the stove washed and a couple of counters so I can at least cook simple stuff.  

The 4th day of January

Good morning Sun. Almost 9:00 and just coming over the hill. 

Still lots of snow. Was about 25°F when I got up. I think the high today was *maybe* 50. So no greens or herbs for market tomorrow.  It’s supposed to warm up this week so maybe next Saturday. 

A new girl has joined the layers club. Very nice blue Ameraucana egg.  

I’ll get a pic tomorrow- today I moved over a small coop and moved in a group of Silkies that I want to hatch from this spring. Later I went back and got another coop taken apart so I can move it tomorrow afternoon. It’s supposed to rain on Sunday so part of tomorrow will also be cutting and stockpiling dry wood. 

Jan 3, 2019

That is as far out of the chicken house Giotto will come. He just doesn’t know what to think about all this snow.

The Pinal mountains south of me are covered. 

This was New Years Day. A lot has melted off but there is a lot left!

Egg production is picking up with new layers on the box and some old layers eggs down in the bucket.

I just wish it would warm up a little bit. Hauling 5 or more gallons of water out to the coops every morning is starting to get real old. Tomorrow is Friday and I have no idea if there will be any usable greens to pick for Saturday market or not. Everything has been frozen solid for days now. You can't touch a plant when it's frozen or it will just turn to mush when it thaws out. Well, at least I'll have some eggs!

Happy New Year

I woke up to a white 2019.

It started snowing the night before and Giotto was anxious and whining so I put him up in the big chicken coop. His instincts were right, the hoop house I made wasn't stable enough in the wind and snow and collapsed. 

He’s been in the big chicken house ever since. This morning it was still very cold and trying to snow again. He stuck his head out the door and promptly backed up. I don't think he likes this weather at all.

Egg production is picking up with several new pallets getting started. Hopefully the weather doesn't put them off.

I think there is another raccoon hanging around. These tracks went in and out of the new tent shed where the cats food is. 

They don’t look like the cat prints which are small circles. I will have to set the traps up as soon as the weather breaks a bit. It's snowing again this morning. I'm hoping it doesn't get too bad, I have to work until 4:30 today.