Chickens and more chickens!!!

 The biggest of these littles is the only Easter Egger left  that we got back in April. She is Lil'Momma, she adopted the 3 biddies that we got after that, the black links. They did not want me taking their picture yesterday apparently...

This is Ms. Priss... and yep, she is our doll girl! She loves to be petted and acts all prissy all day. Not that she would be still, but her feathers make her look like she's wearing a dress.  

These two are Sunrise and Sunset. Lili named them and I honestly have no idea which is which. She keeps telling me, but I think it changes every time. The are the 'hen bosses' of our little group. 

Planning for fall and Tomatoes

So, the other day a friend on Facebook mentioned fall planting. I had not even thought about the idea of planting anything for fall. I'm still waiting on our tomatoes to turn red...there's about 20 of them out there right now :-D

                                   

                                   

While I'm impatiently waiting on the tomatoes, planning for fall does sound like a good idea. Since we don't really freeze here and the frost doesn't come until October or so, we have plenty of time to grow more. So, googling I went for 'winter garden in Georgia'. Got several really good sites, the best graphic though was this, showing zone 9 planting times from the folks over at VeggieHarvest

This gave me more ideas but I needed more info. So, back to the search I went. Found this site, Lovetoknow Garden and their list was exactly what I needed. So, after combining the two we have this list.

• 90 Days to Maturity
  • Beet
  • Carrot
  • Parsnip
  • Rutabaga
  • Globe onion
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Cauliflower
• 60 Days to Maturity
  • Early carrot
  • Leek
  • Turnip
  • Kohlrabi
  • Early cabbage
  • Swiss chard
• 30 Days to Maturity
• Chive
• Radish
• Leaf lettuce

Of course, there were a few I removed like the collards since I am the only one who eats them. Now, some of these I have no idea what they are or what they will taste like. But, if they will help cut our grocery bill and help teach us and the children how to be more self-sufficient then I'm up for trying them. Except for the beets, Sean and the kids get all those! 

Any ideas or tips on what kohlrabi, swiss chard, leeks, parsnips taste like or how to cook them would be much appreciated!!! 

Off now to work on laundry and making some more laundry detergent. 

Hiding Rooster

We, well I, was freaking out the other night because when it was time to go in I couldn't find Kristoff. Never did find him that evening with the rain and darkness, we put the girls up and hoped for the best. He is not one to skip roosting, always in there before the ladies and well before dark. So you can see why this had me concerned, but there was nothing else I could do.

Next morning I heard him and looked in the coop and there he was just crowing his happy head off. I thought Sean had put him up during the night, nope. Repeat that same evening....no Kristoff to be seen. So, Sean was checking in the coop and almost got pooped on... all the way in the top rafters was Kristoff.

Sneaky boy!!!

Candling pictures from Day 9.

Here is our attempt:  pictures and video of candling.





And here are pictures and the video from Day 9

Learning lessons

Ok, so I wrote about incubating redneck style. Well, I don't know where we went wrong or what the learning curve should be but there is only 1 egg or fluffy as Lili calls it that seems viable. There isn't even any development seen beyond air sacs in some of them.
Here is incubation photo day 11

Now, we have no training candling or hatching eggs. This is our very first go round. So, we are completely going by what we have been able to read and rig up for the eggies. We are trying very hard to keep the re-use factor above the expense factor. So far, we have. But now I'm questioning should we buy an incubator? I'm still hoping that we will have a broody hen at some point, but just in case I've been looking at different incubators and pricing them and that's a scary process!

Check this out:
Incubators   as you can see the prices start around $50 and go up from there depending on how much you want to spend really. From internet reading, different people have different results with all the systems, so there is no stand out favorite.

It seems to me, the main parts of the incubator are
1. box of some type that will hold heat, but have some vents
2. Light for heat most common temps seem to say keep it 99-104 until the 18th day.
3. Thermometer for measuring the heat, you don't want them too warm or too cool. They won't develop properly or will cook.
4. A chart to mark the 3 times a day turning that is necessary until day 18, when you stop turning.

Some people use humidity along with theirs as well which requires a different gauge and monitoring. We are going with the 'dry air' method, especially given where we live. There is always humidity here.

So, in approximately 7 more days, we will find out if we were at least one successful hatchers :-) Then we will see about making adjustments to our system, maybe make it a little less redneck and a little more scientific, unless of course one of our girls decide to go broody!

Speaking of the girls,

This may be why nothing is growing really well in the garden yet! 

Day 1 - Incubation

So, since none of the hens seemed to be going broody, we took all 14 eggs out of the nest boxes. We rigged up a diy incubator- redneck style and got a temp steady and have them all in there to try that way. We have turned them twice today since they have been in and recorded temps to check. We are going the dry incubation way since it's so humid down here in Georgia.

Tomorrow we start with three times a day turning until day 18 which is marked on the calendar already along with day 21. These eggs are from the last week up to yesterday, so I'm sure the hatch rate and dates will vary, but I'm hoping that we will be able to hatch some out at least.

Lili was peeking at the box earlier, I told her she couldn't touch and that she had to leave them alone and to read up on incubation, so guess what she read while finishing supper :-) That girl is gonna know her some chickens by the time she's 10.

Tomorrow is picture day for our little EE girl and the her three adopted baby black links :-D They are growing so quickly. Will be time soon for them to go out into the small pen to start to see/smell/hear the big girls even though its a while until they'll get to mingle.

Garden update tomorrow, pictures if its not raining like it is right now... 

Picture Time!!!

Everyone in for the night 

Our roo, Kristoff (he's a handsome fellow)

Everyone hanging out

They all want to come on the back porch

Losing her balance on the handrail.

Ladies trying to sneak in the door when I go in. They didn't make it.

Miss Priss. Thought she was going to go broody on us, but no such luck. 

One nest, they seem to prefer this one to the other. Old re-purposed litter box

Our new family members, The EE and 3 black links that have adopted her as Mama. 

The EE is almost 5 weeks old now and the blacks are almost 2 weeks.