Moody, Broody Hens

This Post contains Affiliate Links.

     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. :)

We Saved A Baby Bird

This post contains Affiliate Links.

     Thought I would share this interesting story with you. A few weeks ago, my husband came in and said, "A bird laid eggs in the fence post again." Zoey was excited, but I thought, "Oh, great. More dead baby birds!" (Yes, that is sarcasm..) 
     Every year, a momma bird lays eggs in the fence post of our yard. And every year, we end up with dead baby birds in our fence post. I can't understand why they do this every year! Does the momma bird not get that the babies never make it out of there? Sheesh! 
     Zoey runs out to look, and sure enough, there are cute baby birds looking up at her through the hole. Every day, she goes out to check on the baby birds. They are living and thriving. Cutest little fluffy baby birds ever. The whole time I'm thinking, "She will be heart broken AGAIN!" Yesterday, we are out walking the yard with her dad and she ran around the house to check on the baby birds. Suddenly, she is running back telling me "We HAVE to save it!" One of the baby birds died, and the other was sitting on top of it, crying out. The dead baby bird is already starting to smell very foul. Poor little guy! We must save him. 
     Now how on earth am I supposed to rescue a baby bird that is over a foot down this narrow pipe? Light bulb! I send Zoey into the house for a cup of wood chip bedding and a pair of tongs. (I know the tongs sound scary, but bear with me.) The tongs do not reach the baby bird at all. Slowly, I start to drop a small amount of wood chips into the side of the opening. The bird flutters about and is raised ever so slightly. (Pretty ingenious, right?) Drop a little more. Flutter a little more. Bird gets a little bit higher. Now, mind you, this is a very slow process. I don't want to bury the little thing in wood chips! Slowly but surely, it is working. I know it is strange to think the little birdie understood what was going on, but it sure seemed to. 
     When the bird was about 8 inches from the top, I lowered the tongs down into the pole. Guess what happened? The little bird perched on the end of the tongs and allowed me to raise him out of his little hole. Zoey cupped him lightly and put him into the cup we had the wood chips in! SAVED! 
     Poor thing was a bit funky from sitting a top of his dead room mate. Zoey decided he needed a little bath. She put a small amount of water into the bottom of the bathroom sink and let him splash around in it. Then, she lightly wrapped him in a towel. 
     As he dried, we wondered what kind of bird it was. We got on Google and searched for 'Black baby birds with a white ring around it's head.' Nothing really looked like the baby bird we had. Most of the babies that came up had grey under bellies and more white around them. Zoey remembered she had a bird book in her room. We looked at all the birds, the only one that looked remotely like it was a Chickadee. Alex had come out of his room to see what all the fuss was about. He read to us what the book said about a Chickadee bird. Zoey and I searched more info on the computer. Here is the book Zoey had. It is actually a pretty cool series. Not sure where she got it from but it was published in 1960 and it is called the Standard Treasury Of Learning. 

     While it did have a similar shape, our chick just did not have the same coloring. Or, it didn't until he fully dried. Look at the whitish feathers coming up on its chest and under belly. Our little rescued birdie WAS a Chickadee! 
     

And this Chickadee was not happy unless he was being held.   

     For about an hour, we wondered what the heck we were going to do with a baby bird. Zoey found a worm in the garden for it. He was not interested in it until she chopped the worm up. Gross. He ate a few bites though and we were grateful he was trying to eat! Still, what on Earth are we going to do now that we saved and cleaned him up? Mike suggested we put it out in the chicks cage. I was afraid they would attack the little guy though. 
     While I was sitting there, little birdie in my lap, talking to my husband about what we were going to do, IT FLEW! Not like a soaring eagle kind of flew, but an, "Oh, no! I don't know what I am doing but I am just going to go with it." kind of flew. That is when we realized, little birdie didn't need us anymore. We had rescued it from the fence post, bathed and fed him. He was already ready to go about the world and do his thing. 
     Zoey, her dad and I walked out to the corner bushes to let it go. The little bird chirped and cheepped frantically.  When we got to the corner bushes, I noticed the sound of another bird chirping and cheeping. Sure enough, what could possibly be the little birds mommy was darting with in the bushes. What luck! :D
     We placed him in the bushes and backed away. The mature bird came and flitted around the trees and bushes where our baby bird was at. It was time for us to say goodbye. Zoey was a little sad. She had hoped we could keep it a little longer. We walked away arm in arm. I told her how proud I am of her. She encouraged us to save a baby bird. She loves all animals and has a huge heart. I am so proud of the little woman she is becoming. 

Bye little birdie! Good luck, and try not to lay your babies in the fence post.. PLEASE! Ah heck, maybe we just need to get a cap for the post... 

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.

Attitude Is Everything!

  
   People ask me all the time how homeschool is going.

"FABULOUS!" I always say. 

     Honestly, there are ups and downs to every day. Some days, my children wake up bright eyed and busy tailed, ready to learn. Some days, it is a battlefield with teeth gnashing and hair pulling. Let's get real, this is real life, and real life has it's ups and downs. Just because we are a happy, homesteading, homeschooling, gardening, prepping, working, playing, and all in all fabulous family does not mean my family is full of rainbows and glitter all of the time! 

     Life is still pretty good even with it's ups and downs. I believe your attitude is everything. It can change everything. If you are running around with an attitude about things you don't want to do, don't like or things just are not going your way, having a bad attitude makes things even worse! Having a bad day? Yell out to the world, "THAT'S IT! I'M DONE! FROM NOW ON, TODAY WILL BE THE BEST DAY EVER!" Try it, it really works.. At least for me it does. 

     When you have a child in full swing 'I'm going to be a woman soon' mode, ya... not so much. When you are homeschooling said child, things can escalate quickly when she feels she 'Can't do it' or 'It's too hard' or the phrase I get a lot, 'Really, Mom? Do I really have to do this?' Well, yes you do! ATTITUDE! 

     ~Sigh~ Sadly, I have to report this is the attitude I got today on our first day back officially homeschooling. This summer, we did a bit of a review on things we learned and/or mastered last year to help with her retention. We also did new research and activities for our homesteading side. But, today was our first official day back into the homeschool swing of things. At first, she was happy and kind of excited about what I chose for her first assignment. We got new chickens that are very cool and different from our other chickens. Since we do not know anything about them, I asked her to research them online, find out a bunch of interesting facts on them, take photos of our new chickens, write up a report on them, and then I would edit that report and she would be a 'reporter' for me on my blog. 

     This morning, she was excited about this, even told a few of my co-workers. By the time we got home, her attitude about the assignment had changed. Maybe someone said something, maybe she got tired, maybe pre-pms caught up to her.. I don't know. All I know is, suddenly my child had major attitude about the whole thing and I was not having it. The stern looks and me saying, 'Watch the attitude!" were not helping. Her slam/bouncing a crayon onto the counter top because she did not want to go get a pencil to write with, was almost enough to change my attitude. So, I decided it was time for a change in hers. 

Recently, there was a photo posted of a 

chart that looked like this... 

I have no idea who to give credit to for this photo, but this is amazing! 

     So she was sent huffing and puffing back into her room for a pencil AND a spiral notebook. I started her out by writing a few letters out and leaving space between the first line and second line, she finished the rest. Then under it we added the numbers. She was intrigued at this point. I told her we were going to find a secret message that would make everything better. And it did make everything better. Saying it was a secret code made her relax and become interested in finding out how much 'hard work' added up to. She was not happy with the extra math for the day, but her attitude had greatly improved by the time she had found out the sum of 'knowledge.' By the time she was on 'attitude' I had my rainbows and glitter girl back. 

"What is the secret code, Mom?"

"Let me ask you this first, baby. Do you know what 100% means?"

     She told me if you get 100% on your paper that means you got them all right. I smiled and explained 100% means all, everything, the total of something. 

Sometimes things are hard for us, you can work hard

and still you might fail. 

You might have all the knowledge in the world 

and still not succeed. 

 But your ATTITUDE determines EVERYTHING!

     She looked at me with a 'Okay, you got me!' half smile and turned the page in her notebook. Then, she got out her computer and typed in 'All about Jersey Giants' on the Google home page.