(Not So) Wordless Wednesday #4

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     Out of 9 hens of laying age, we are getting about 4-6 eggs a day. Not so bad considering that is a couple of dozen a week. We eat a lot of eggs, but not that many! I was thinking about selling some to local friends to help off set the cost of feed and maybe make a little profit. 
     Today, Zoey and I are taking our old planting pots and emptying the dirt into one large bucket. Then, we are adding in some new dirt, fertilizer, sand and compost in to aerate it and freshen up the old dirt from last season. I decided we needed some more pots to plant in. Zoey and I walked out to the back garage to get the pots from out of the loft. As I am standing on top of the back of my husband's old Chevy Truck bed, looking around for what is easiest to grab, I see this.... 

Seriously Chickens? 

     
     Seriously? Guess how many there are? 22. Nearly two dozen eggs hiding in an old pet carrier. They all appear to be from the same chicken. 22 days worth of perfectly good eggs that now might be wasted. Time to do the float test. Please... 

Click the Pic to read how to test your eggs
and see how fresh they are! 

     Out of 22 eggs, only 10 were salvageable. None of them actually floated, but several where standing on end in the water. We have plenty of eggs in the fridge already, so I will feed the eggs we are not sure about to the new pig we have. We will still get use out of them so it is not too bad of a find. :) 
     We have set up the pet carrier where it will be a little bit easier to see into. If she lays there again.. we will find them! 

Do you raise chickens? 

What is the craziest place you have found eggs?

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Moody, Broody Hens

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     A while back, my cousin gave us a beautiful pair of Jersey Giant hens. They were 18 months old and were laying eggs. He said that Jersey Giants were slower to mature but made great layers. Zoey and I Ooohed and Aaaahed over them for days. They are solid black with bright red combs and piercing black eyes. They would not let us get near them though. My cousin said they were very friendly with his family and I hoped they just needed a little time to get used to us. 
     In the mean time, I thought this would be a good time to have Zoey do a little research project. Zoey got on our Chromebook and looked up 'Jersey Giant Chickens.' We talked about what 'Pros and Cons' were. She wrote her information in her new spiral notebook. This is what she found. 

Pros

Docile, beautiful, very large, stunning beauty, very hardy, size tends to deter predators

Cons

Slower growth, slightly poorer egg production, they eat a lot

12 Facts About Jersey Giants

1. They were created in the late 1800s by John and Thomas Black by cross breeding 3 differrent kinds of chickens.
2. Their name came from the state they were created in, New Jersey, and their size, Giant.
3. They are slow growers.
4. Jersey Giants eat A LOT.
5. They are a good breed for the cold.
6. They like to sit on their eggs and hatch them.
7. Jersey Giants are good mommies.
8. They are a dual purpose bird. They lay eggs and they are big enough to make a good meal.
9. They are very soft. 
10. Their eggs are a light to medium brown color.
11. They lay extra large eggs.
12. Jersey Giants tend to get along well with your other pets.

    

     How are our Jersey Giant Hens? Well... They are moody. The hens HATE our kitten and attack him every time he follows us to the coop. They still do not even like us after months of trying to be their friends. We can barely get near them. It has to be dusk or night time for us to be able to pet them, but, they are oh so soft! 

     Their eggs are a darker color than what our other hens lay. Can you tell which eggs are from our Jersey Giants? Hint: they are the larger and darker ones. ;)

     A couple of months ago, one of our hens went broody. What does that mean? Well like a woman hearing her biological clock ticking, a broody hen is determined to sit on her eggs and hatch her some babies. You can learn more about broody hens HERE. Honestly, since we just brought home 3 chicks from our schools hatching experiment, I was really hoping they would get over it. We had enough chickens already. 

Let's see...

3 Chicks from daycare. Unsure of breed or sex yet.

1 Road Island Red Hen

2 Jersey Giant Hens

1 Silver Spangled Hamburg Rooster

1 Bantam Hen

9 Plymouth Rock Cross hens and roosters waiting to go to freezer camp. 

     So basically, we had 17 chickens at this time and were not wanting anymore chicks! Besides, we no longer had a mature rooster to fertilize the eggs. After three months, this hen was just not getting over her 'baby fever' and we felt so bad for her, we had to do something. 

     While at work one day, I was telling some of the girls about my broody chicken and not wanting more chicks. My friend has raised chickens in the past and said she would take any babies if I decided to get some fertile eggs. Okay then, why not? Let's do this! First thing I did, was call a local Ag Extension agent to see where I could get some fertile eggs. Their lady was not local, and wanted $8 a dozen. What? By the time I paid for gas, I would have spent $20 for 12 fertile eggs that may or may not hatch. (You remember our luck with hatching chicks right? If not, read the article HERE.) I got on Facebook and asked around some local farm animal groups, but all eggs were to expensive. Kinda wish I knew this when we had a rooster! Finally, a friend of mine messaged me and said she had A TON of fertile Bantam eggs. She met me half way between her house and mine. Instead of a dozen, she gave me 36 eggs and would not let me pay her for them. Now that is an amazing friend! 

    Now at this point, a blogger would have thought to take pictures of 36 small eggs that fit into a quart size baggy. Nope, I forgot! And you would have thought that I would have remembered to get a photo of the eggs in the nest, but no. However, there is a good reason for that. The hen decided she would not sit in the hen box that is on a top shelf like she had been sitting in for 3 months. She suddenly wanted to lay them in the bottom stall. Great.. I transferred the eggs from the top box to the bottom one, and slowly, carefully, placed them next to the scary broody hen. (Yes, scary. She tried to bite my hand off till she figured out I was giving her eggs!) 

Easy Momma! I'm trying to help you out here!

    We marked the calendar for 3 weeks. Time to wait to see what happens... Strangely enough, the other Jersey Giant hen decided she wanted to sit on the eggs as well. We checked on the girls daily. Rarely did we see them come off of their nest. When they did, it was only one at a time, and only for food and drink. When we got near them, the made warning noises to tell us not to come too close. Trust me, we didn't! These ladies are moody and broody! 

    About 4 days till the due date, we recounted the days to make sure our chicks would be hatching the coming weekend. Saturday came, I was in the garden, Alex was helping me with making more bamboo stakes for the tomatoes, Zoey had just gone inside to journal about our Potato Bucket Reveal, and Mike was checking the coop for eggs. I just happened to look over and see him emerge from the coop, cutest smirk on his face, and his hands cupped together, holding something very tiny. A chick! The three of us pet the tiny baby chick for a moment and then decided to surprise Zoey inside the house, rather than call her out. 

This silly girl is extremely excited! 

  Our broody, moody hens hatched out 17 eggs in total. We will be keeping a few. Yes, I know I said we didn't want anymore, but it's called 'Chicken Math' and you really can't deny Chicken Math. (Seriously, it is a real thing!) The rest will be going to my friend at work. 

    Today, Zoey and I went out to try to get some pictures of the chicks. It is hard to do, because, the mommies won't let us get near them. Not even one! They start freaking out and then the babies freak out. Suddenly, there are chicks running crazy like all over the place and it is just a crazy silly mess. We try to just watch them at a distance as not to upset them. Lately, hawks have decided to make our little farm their hunting site. We lost Little Red and Mike's Silver Spangled Hamburg rooter. (The one that refused to leave his side in the garage when we got out of the hospital. Insert sad face here for both.) AND, I swear there were 19 chicks at one point.... 

We did brave getting close enough to get a few pictures for you! Look! :D

So there you go! SUCCESS with a chicken hatch! Will we be doing it again? Yes, I think so. My friend said she would be happy to donate eggs at any time. We will just have to wait and see when our Jersey Giants get moody and broody again! 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates. I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. Please note, I am not affiliated with, nor do I receive compensation from Wikipedia, McMurray Hatchery, or The Chicken Chick. I just like their pages and refer to them often in my own daily use. I doubt they even know I link to them on my blog from time to time. :)

Life Gets In The Way

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     So now you know about my husband's accident, however, you would not believe how much it has altered our lives. Not only has life taken a turn for us, but, it is also getting in the way. (Mostly, it is my blogging that is suffering.) This is why. 
    The first week we were home from the hospital, my husband needed constant supervision. He was barely walking with a cane. I had to help him to the restroom, taking a shower, and putting on his clothes. The kids and I were his hands and feet for everything. If he was hungry, we got him food. If he was thirsty, we got him a drink. We set up the garage with a bed borrowed from my mother's spare bedroom. I was the only one sleeping in it, because, laying flat was not an option for him. He slept in his comfy recliner. He would fall asleep at 8 p.m. but of course I would be up till nearly midnight. Bathroom breaks were sporadic through out the night; he was awake by 4 a.m. and I would be up to make coffee. 
     Chores needed to be done every day. My own plus his was getting to be a job within itself. Every day, I would make a list of what he needed done around the house plus what I did. And every day, the kids and I would tackle the list together. I have always known how much my husband does around our house and mini farm, but until then, I never realized how much. I'm not sure that makes much sense to you, but it sure makes sense to me. Adding in his chores, even with the help of the kids, was exhausting. Small naps and tons of coffee kept me going. 
    Before the accident, we signed Zoey up for softball. My mom took her to the first few practices for me. Alex had gone with my brother to help him remodel a house his family bought recently. I couldn't leave Mike alone. He is a strong willed and stubborn man that does not like the fact he can not do much on his own. One early morning, I was awoke by a crashing sound. He had woke up and decided to get his own coffee and let me sleep. He was getting around just fine, until he decided to move the recliner closer to the T.V. and became off balance. He fell into the wood burning stove. My sleepy brain did not register that he had fallen. Sitting straight up in bed, the garage dimly lit, and still asleep, I thought he was just stoking the fire. It was not until my son come running in asking what happened, that I realized he had fallen. Luckily, nothing was hurt but his pride. We moved the reclining love seat into the garage instead of the recliner so we could sleep side by side. No need to move any furniture around anymore. ;)  
     The next week, Mike was getting around a little better, but the kids and I were still doing everything around the house. Alex was back home. Zoey and I did not make it to co-op because she came down with the stomach flu. I only got a few work hours in the first few weeks. 
     We started getting our garden ready for planting. Growing our own food has never been more important or as needed. Alex tilled the garden for me. His first time was pretty dang good! Zoey and I started our seedlings. My new potato bucket is growing beautifully. I am excited it is working this time. The sun has made all the difference. (Okay, so maybe winter gardening in the garage didn't work so well. But, do you blame a girl for trying?) My tomato plant I have babied all winter is HUGE and has little tomatoes already forming. We also ended up with a few new chicks. Two of them were not claimed from the daycare's annual chick hatch. The other was bought at our local feed store. I keep saying no more chickens.. but they keep finding their way into our hearts and home. The chick we got before the accident turned out to be a rooster. 

     

The day before Easter, my cousin called me with 3 free rabbits. We hosted Easter dinner at my house since getting out of the house takes a lot out of Mike. It was a great day. Both sides of our families attended. At one point my sister laughed and said, "Only my sister would have LIVE bunnies hopping around her garage for Easter!" 
     We went back to the hospital in Dallas for Mike's follow up appointments. Even though he is recovering far better than what the doctor's thought he would, he still has a long way to go. The doctors predict he will be out of work still for another 3-6 months. 
     Although we have had support from some family and friends, we are still struggling with the loss of his paycheck every week. I only work a few days a week at my job normally. Luckily, my boss has allowed me to take up as many hours as I can. This helps to pay the bills, but it seemed like every time I tried to work, something happened that kept me from working long. Thank goodness I prepare for emergency situations. My preps, plus donations from friends and family, and a visit to a local food bank, help to keep food on the table. Every little bit helps. 
     So now it has a little over a month since the accident. My husband is no longer using a cane. We are sleeping upstairs in our own bed. (Thank goodness! I'm not sure how much longer my hips could take sleeping on the love seat.) He still can not lift much, bend well, stoop over, or do much like he did before his accident. What he can do, takes much longer and wears him out. Alex has started a new job, but until we can get the old truck on the road and insurance on him, I will be taking him back and forth to work. When our homeschool co-op classes end, I will be returning to work full time myself. I will have to balance work, the garden, sewing, farm and house chores, homeschool, and softball. I just hope I can balance blogging in somewhere. 

     Life is still getting in the way and will continue to do so. But, honestly, I truly feel blessed to be just 'getting by.' 


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Don't Count Your Chickens...

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Don't Count Your Chickens Until They Hatch

     I never really understood what that meant until this week. Due to a series of unfortunate events, we will have no chicks from our eggs in this experimental hatching. While extremely sad, we realize this is a part of a learning experiment and we are hoping our remaining 5 eggs will have a better outcome. 

Let's Recap The Last 3 Weeks-

• Week 1- We used the flashlight 'Candling' method to see into the eggs. Since most of the eggs had dark thick shells, it was hard to tell if what we were seeing. At this stage, you mainly see the veins of the fertile eggs and possibly a dark speck that is the chick embryo. However, we did get a lovely little video of a chick moving around inside of one of the eggs. You can see the video HERE. 
• Week 2- While we started out with 3 of our own eggs and 5 from our neighbor, we realized after Water Candling at Week 2 that 3 of the eggs were not going to hatch. Two were ours and they had blood rings of an early death. One from Bree turned out to be infertile. We were very sad to loose Prissy's egg. If you remember, she is our FFA hen that was not supposed to live past a few months, lay eggs, or mate. We also lost one of our Jersey Giant eggs as well. 
• Week 3- On the eve of day 18, we water candled again. All of the chicks wobbled in the cup and everything seemed to be right on track for LOCKDOWN. However, we had an over achiever decide he wanted to cheep on day 19 and start to pip on day 20. Unfortunately, Zoey and I had to be at work that day. Some friends came over while we were gone. Thinking the chick was in distress, someone (not naming any names) opened the incubator a couple of times to help. By the time I rushed home from work, Bree's blu egg had hatched and there was no cheeping from any of the other eggs. We waited anxiously on day 21 for any signs of hatching. On day 22, we were still hopeful but at the same time, we knew it was very doubtful they would hatch. On day 23, we water candled again just to make sure they were gone. No sounds, no movement, no hatching, no baby chicks for us. Zoey took it like a trooper. 

  

  The 3 eggs that did not hatch. 

    

So How Is The Lone Ranger?

     He is doing very well! After nearly falling in love with this little thing, we sent him over to be with our neighbor. It was her egg after all. She would have let us keep it, but Zoey decided it needed to go live with Bree. My daughter is waiting patiently for February 21st for our next batch of eggs to hatch. I have taken off of work on Friday, the 20th so that we will be here for the hatching. We hope to catch it on video. 

     ALSO, our local farm and ranch stores, (3 of them) will have live chicks on Valentine's weekend. Will we be buying chickens even though we are hatching them? Well, heck ya! :D We hope to get some different colored eggs in our flock. Some of THESE would be lovely. Zoey would like a Polish hen; she likes the feathers on top of their heads. 

Here are some pics of the Lone Ranger's hatching and first days. 

   There is still one egg from the first batch that is due today. It is one of Bree's Bantam chicks. There has been no cheeping or pipping coming from it this morning. I have not given up hope, but after loosing so many, I will not be counting this chicken before it hatches. 

So as always, stay tuned and wish us luck!

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

OPERATION: Chicken Hatch- Water Candling Week 2

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     It is almost that time! The magic of watching eggs hatch before your eyes! Our Amazingly, Awesome Neighbor Bree had shown me a video on 'Water Candling Eggs' and we decided it was something we were going to do when our eggs were close to hatching time. This is not something you want to try earlier in the egg development. 1. They might not be big enough to move the egg. 2. You do not want to remove the 'bloom' before it is time.
      'Bloom' is a natural coating on the outside of a fresh laid egg. Egg shells are porous. The bloom keeps bacteria from getting into the egg and helps lock the egg's moisture in. Eggs you eat that have not been washed until time to eat are fresher and the bloom also allows for your eggs to be stored for longer. 
     In an incubator, the bloom is naturally removed with the humidity. This allows air to enter into the egg and provides some of the air the chicks breathe before hatching. Our eggs are due to hatch in 3 days. They no longer need the bloom coating and they are large enough to wobble their egg. 

     Here are the photos from our first water candling. To water candle, you get a short glass of warm water and gently place the egg inside. It will float based on the size of the air sack inside of the egg. After the water settles, you should be able to see the egg move in the water as the baby chick moves in the egg. My phone did not take a good video so we waited a few days and re-candled the eggs using Zoey's tablet. 

     These eggs did not wobble. We candled them using an LED flashlight. Thanks to The Chicken Chick, we recognized the eggs had blood rings in them. It is a clear indicator that the embryo died. We were very sad to see that we would not be having a baby chick from our beloved Prissy in this batch. We also lost one of our Jersey Giant chicks and one from our Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree. With this batch, we only have one egg left to hatch. Bree has four. 


     Here is our new eggs into incubator on 1/30. Unfortunately, our Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree, could not bring her eggs over until the next day. She only brought 5, because, she decided she was not sure she wanted too many of half standard/half Bantam chickens. The only rooster she has is a Bantie. 

Homeschooling The Well Prepared Child Presents:

Water Candling Eggs!

     Now that it is day 18, our incubator will be on lock down. Tonight we will remove them from the turner, add a little more water and wait for the magic to happen! We hope to catch the chicks hatching on video. Wish us luck! 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Operation: Candling Week 1

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OPERATION: Chicken Hatch is well under way! 

     We candled at day 4. We saw some spider web looking things in a few of them. It was still hard to determine if our eggs were developing. A couple of the egg's shells are so dark, we can only see the yolk part expanding. Since we do not know exactly what we are looking for, we have been checking back with The Chicken Chicks page to see what a developing embryo looks like at each stage. It has been so hard NOT to check them on a daily basis. I think this is one of the most exciting adventures we have embarked upon thus far in our journey. 
     We had our Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree, come by to help us candle on day 7. We made our garage as dark as we could and I held the flash light tightly on the top, with the egg cupped in my hand. Bree took pictures of our eggs and then a video of one that moved around quite a bit. I can't wait for you to see it! At this stage, the chicks wings, comb, beak, and legs have began to form. We swear this little chick looked like it was swimming. Want to see? I was going to wait till the end, but I can't help but to show you now! 

     It is not as good as watching it live and in person, but still an amazing video! Thank you to my Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree, for all your help and support, (and great camera!) Bree has 5 eggs in the incubator so far. Zoey and I have 2. Our experiment to see if the eggs could be incubated was a success! We are gathering more eggs to be incubated. We will put the newly gathered eggs into the incubator on the 30th. Those will all hatch together. I am not sure how many we will actually have of our own vs Bree's. Our chicks are not laying as well as hers right now. 
     Here are all of our candled eggs. You can see most of the dark embryo areas within the eggs. Some of the shells were too dark to see into them. Others, were as clear as day. 

Stay tuned for next weeks post on Water Candling Eggs!

(It is safer for the light sensitive chicks!)

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Operation: Chicken Hatch

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     We have hatched chicks at the childcare center I work at for years, but we have never actually hatched chicks ourselves. Definitely not from our own eggs! Are we a bit ambitious? Perhaps, but learning is what we do best around here. Even fails are not looked upon as regrets, just opportunities to learn. 

     The other night, Zoey and I were talking about chickens. We had gone by a local feed store to pick up feed for our chickens and the pig. We were really excited for spring and new spring chicks. No one in town has chicks yet. So I thought, why wait? I have a rooster, my Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree, has a rooster... So why not? I also have some awesome connections at our local Ag Extension office. I gave my friend a call and asked if we could borrow an incubator. 

The very next day... Tadaa! 

Operation: Chick Hatch is underway! 

Funny side story, she told me to fill the bottom reservoir, and we did. BUT, I thought the whole bottom was the reservoir, and filled the whole bottom. Yup, I pretty much flooded the garage floor. 

     One of my nephews, Collin, came to stay the night and he helped us set up the incubator. I explained we were going to hatch our own chicks. I'm not sure he knows what to think of us. I have heard the words 'strange' and 'cool' come out of his mouth on several occasions. He is 10 and pretty much a city type kid. 

     Now to figure out if our eggs were actually fertile. We headed on over to The Chicken Chick to see how to tell if our eggs were going to produce some babies. Lots of great info there. We learned about blastoderms and the difference between an incubated fertile egg and an un-incubated fertile egg. This morning I cracked open one of our eggs laid by Little Red, and guess what we found? A BULLS EYE! 

     We have long suspected our Jersey Giants were laying eggs, but our rotten little stinker pup, Bo, was finding them and eating the eggs as they laid them. Today, we found an egg from one of our Jersey Giants. We marked it with a JG, for Jersey Giant, and the date we put it in the incubator. 

     Bree came over later and put in 4 more eggs, marked with her initials and the date. These are just our tester eggs. According to these instructions sent to me by a friend that swears by the Farmer's Almanac, we need to wait a few days to start incubation. Like I said, we are just testing to see if our eggs are truly fertilized, and what they look like when they have been incubated for a while. We watched a cool video from a Wiki How tutorial about candling eggs. We plan on trying it in about 4 days. If we see signs of fertilization and growth, we will place the eggs we gather between Jan. 22nd and the 29th into the incubator with the others as well. 

Yes, we fixed the upside down eggs very carefully...

Wish us luck and stay tuned for updates! :D 

Have you hatched your own chicks? 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.