Art of Proprietation

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Circle of life

I was out there, doing the rounds. Feed the goats. Get them water. Grain the chickens. Look for eggs. Check under the broody hen. Hey, where are those peeps coming from?

For a while now, the broody hen, a buff Orpington, has been sitting a nest in the laying box I set up in the vacant goat house we were using as a chicken roost. We have four goat sheds. Each month (or 4 weeks, really) we move the goats to a new paddock. That gives us three months of separation to knock down the parasites. The chickens follow the goats, roughly. While a goat house aren't being goat or chicken house, they double as a tool shed for garden tools, or some times a play house for our son.

And now, apparently, a place to hatch eggs. A few weeks ago, I found a clutch of eggs under the bushes by the corner of the fence. The eggs had been in the nest too long to eat them, so I removed the wooden eggs that were fooling the Orpington and swapped them with the clutch of eggs. And Viola, 23 days later (or so, I didn't count), peep peep. It does sort of ring with the recent demise of the guineas.

We had been planning to try hatching some chicks over the winter. I was figuring in December so they would be laying by June. We have been keeping a rooster for the express purpose. The rooster is the rare breed male that Murray McMurray hatchery throws in with orders of hens. I think part of it is the excess males inevitable in a breeding program and part of it is it supplies a little extra warmth in the box of chicks in the mail. As a chick, our little male looked like a Orpington with side stockings. But recently, someone told me he looks like he is a Brahma. They are an alternative meat bird, I guess. The rooster has grown up to be a heavy bird, all right. We'll see how he mixes with Orpington, Rock Bards, NH Reds and Americana.

I was out there trying to take pictures, but it turned out the card wasn't in the camera. Enough reason to run screaming back to old chemical cameras and film I guess.

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2 Comments:

  • Thanks for the comment and suggestions on the coop. Unfortunately we live out in the middle of BFE and there is no coop. Even if there were one, with two littles and one on the way and my own homestead going...I really couldn't make the time to volunteer. I'm home alone with the littles 5 days a week from 7am till about 7pm and there is no one who could watch them while I helped out.
    But, we are doing all raised bed gardens next year so I'm hopeful the crop will turn out better. I was sick with this pregnancy this summer that our garden went to the voracious grasses and I couldn't find it after that. :o(
    We are eating grocery store turkey as well.

    By Blogger Danielle, at 5:29 AM  

  • Congrats! That is so cool. It's so great that the animals take care of these things themselves. On their own schedule, of course. : )

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:36 PM  

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