Ollie's Broody

Ollie finally decided to get seriously broody yesterday. So she sat all day in the nest box on...nothing. I felt sorry for her today and put two golf balls under her. She seems happy to have something to fidget and fuss with. I gave them to her at the edge of the nest box and she clucked happily as she tucked them underneath her warm bottom.

So in about 21 days I should have a lovely pair of Titleists running around the coop. Unless one of you folks out there would like to send me a couple of fertile eggs to put under this determined gal!

These peeps better watch out or Ollie will teach them a hard lesson. Maude seems intent on staring at her.

The peeps are 7 weeks old on Friday and they are learning to be big girls. They've begun roosting on this pine branch a few days ago. Aren't they cute up there? Don't they look smug and smart?

Another Broody Duck!

I finally found out where Macaroni has been laying her eggs. I found her beneath the raised sidewalk on the south side of the house, about 6 feet from the edge of the pond. I noticed that I hadn't seen her all day and I thought I'd peek between the cracks of the sidewalk to see if I could find her. Sure enough, I could see her sitting quietly. About an hour later she was off her nest and I went over to quickly count how many eggs she was sitting on. I counted 16!

If she hatches even half of those eggs she'll have 8 babies and Macaroni's sitting on at least 14 eggs that we can see, so half of those would be 7. I've read that you should expect 10% of duck eggs to not hatch. So at the most I could expect 27 ducklings!

I never saw any of this coming and I'm really excited about the possibility of adding more hens to my flock and having some nice young duck in the freezer. Keep your fingers crossed!

Derek Drives A Big Tonka Truck

Look what Derek got to do today! Here is Derek operating his grandpa's front loader to clean up the shallow end of the pond. Years of silt have washed into the pond and we are trying to clean it out and make the pond a bit deeper at the end.

Derek was in heaven. It reminded me of when he was a toddler and played with his big Tonka dump truck and front loader. It's really cool that he got to operate a big one today. Jim taught him the levers and then took the back seat. Derek got the hang of it pretty quick.


In other news, we are currently on day two of duck egg incubation. Daisy began to set the eggs in ernest yesterday. She's doing a fine job of covering all 14 of them (at least we think we can count 14!). She took a short break yesterday evening then got back to work.

Also we have a pair of wood ducks using the fiberglass duck box on the other side of the pond. The hen has been seen in the early morning with her head sticking out. We think she's laying a clutch of eggs right now. The wood ducks visit each evening and the hen goes into the nest to supposedly lay an egg. Now, wouldn't it really be something to have a brood of my own domestic ducks on the pond as well as a brood of wood ducks with their mama?

Peeps Growing Up

Some shots of the month-old peeps acting like big girls. Everyone is getting along well. The little girls have learned to be quick around the big hens. I've put the broilers in general population too. Little Sophia is in the middle, sleeping. She's much smaller than the other chicks but her spunk keeps her on equal terms with them. She's such a cutie and we adore her.

The gold Campine is named Gingersnap. Derek wanted to try the breed to see what they're like. She's a Belgian breed and will lay medium sized white eggs. To her right is Maude the Welsummer who was named by my mom after the TV show from the 70s. She's a big, gangly girl just like the late Bea Arthur, so the name really fits her.

Last is Dorothy the Speckled Sussex, named after another Bea Arthur character from the show "The Golden Girls". She's very sweet and unimposing. On her right is the bold and funny Prissy who was named after the slave girl in the movie "Gone With The Wind". Her counterpart, Scarlet, is the other Barred Rock chick.

Duck egg update: I can see at least 13 eggs in Daisy's nest. She's still sitting half the day. Macaroni isn't disappearing anymore so I assume she's back to normal. Oy, these ducks!

What Do I Do?

***UPDATE***
There are now 13 eggs (up from 10 on Monday) that I can see. There may be more covered up with debris.

After Daisy got off her secret stash of eggs yesterday I peeked through the boards above to see if I could count them. I could count 10 that were visible. She's got the rest of them covered with debris.

Now that I've found Daisy's clutch of eggs, I'm wondering what I should do next. She's not incubating the eggs long enough in my opinion. She'll sit on the eggs half the day and spend the other half with the drakes in the pond.

If she were setting those eggs in ernest, I'd leave them be. As it is, I fear I'm going to have a pile of rotten duck eggs in a few weeks. Near as I can tell she's been laying these eggs for about 2 weeks straight.

The eggs are in the farthest corner beneath the front porch. I'm not little enough to crawl in there and retrieve them and neither is anyone I live with. I've thought about using a hoe to pull them out.

What would you do in this situation?

The Smartest Hen in the Flock

Jim made one final pass with the tiller in the garden before I put up the chicken wire today. Betty, the official mascot of Twelve Acres, quickly learned weeks ago that the worm digger roto-tiller provides plenty of fresh, juicy worms to eat. While the other hens run from the big scary machine, Betty doesn't.

I love Betty for her pluckiness, sass and gumption. Did I mention that Barred Rocks are my favorite breed?

Integrated Flock

Anyone who has chickens will tell you that mature hens will not always accept babies and that you should never put fuzzy peeps in with them because the chances that they'll kill them are pretty high. Introducing new chickens of any age into an established flock is a touchy matter. Such is the nature of chickens.

The peeps are a month old now and have been exposed to the hens for over 2 weeks. The hens have been able to get very close to the peeps and check them out. I've kept them penned safely during the day in an enclosure made of a circle of chicken wire - very cheap and portable! At night they slept in a cage in the chicken coop where both peeps and hens could see and hear each other. I've been watching the two generations interact, waiting for the time when both parties tell me they're ready to be put together. Yesterday was that day. I put the peeps on the floor of the coop in the evening with their heat lamp. The hens came in and got a good look at the peeps in "their" coop but no one attacked. The peeps ventured out into the run (Miss Prissy was first-that's her eyeballing the camera in the first photo) and had a blast running around, flapping their wings and scratching in the dirt. The hens were a bit put off by all their silly shenanigans but no one attacked. Lily did have to establish some boundaries but it only took a few seconds for the peeps to understand what she was not willing to tolerate.

The day has gone very well for the chickens. I kept the gate shut on the run so that they were forced to spend the day together. It's a bit cool today so the peeps stayed inside the coop. Each time I went out to check for eggs they were busy doing something: napping, dust bathing, eating or staring out the hen door.

Dorothy, a Speckled Sussex, watching the hens scratch in the fresh grass clippings.















Peeps dust bathing in the corner. (Two Barred Plymouth Rocks, one Speckled Sussex, one Delaware, one golden Campine and one Welsummer.)



Go ahead, stick your hand in there and check for eggs. I dare ya! What you're missing is the horrible dinosaur-like screech she's making.

Don't let Ollie fool ya. She's just very hormonal right now. She even puffs up and screeches if you walk too closely to her in the yard. I'm expecting her to go broody any day now. Currently she sits on the nest half the day just to lay an egg, which is definitely not normal for her.
When I check under her for eggs I always stroke her back first, then put my hand under her. She never pecks. I don't think Ollie has ever pecked me, as a matter of fact.

Duck Mystery Partly Solved

While feeding my flock this morning I noticed that the two duck hens were once again MIA. As I walked past the front porch with a can of corn for the ducks I thought to myself, "What if it's as simple as a nest under the front porch?" I stopped and knelt down (hard to do when your back feels like mine) and looked into the farthest, deepest recesses of the front porch. I saw a dark blob in the corner. I went around to the other side and did the same. Then I saw her. Daisy, in the corner in an indentation in the ground. She had her head tucked under her wing and ignored me.

Yesterday, Derek and I walked the perimeter of Twelve Acres (which is 12 acres, by the way) and thought we might stumble upon a duck nest made in the grass. No luck. We got back to the house and saw that the ducks had returned while we were out looking for them. I'm so stupid. And ducks are the smartest creatures on earth.

I still can't find Macaroni's secret spot though. I'm running out of ideas too. I don't know if Daisy's got eggs under her or not, but I'll check today when she leaves her dark corner for a break. If I'm figuring correctly, there should be 3 eggs under her.

The drakes wander aimlessly while their wimmin are gone. Kinda like men, right ladies? I think the hens should leave a list of chores for them to do while they're unattended. Or a deck of cards and some beer.

My own males are gone for the day. Derek's at school, step-son's at camp for the week and Jim is helping his dad all day today. So I've got this entire farm to myself and I'm in heaven. I treated myself to a breakfast fit for a Queen: an omelet with fresh chives, fried ham and provolone cheese with a slice of ham on the side. Was it ever good!

I've integrated the peeps with the hens and it's going really well. The hens aren't real happy about the peeps' energetic shenanigans, but they're coping. Lily had to lay out some ground rules but once they got established all was well. I'll be taking pictures later on today. It's cute to see the tiny baby chickens with the gigantic hens! I've got them in their pens for now just to make sure they don't wander off and get lost.

Mysterious Duck Disappearances

For the past two days our two hen ducks, Daisy and Macaroni, have been gone half the day. They disappear in the early hours of the day then come back in the early afternoon. First Macaroni comes back and then Daisy comes back about an hour later. We have tried to find where they are going but have yet to stumble upon their secret location. We went searching for them this afternoon and they came back while we were out looking for them!

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Month-Old Broilers

It's hard to believe that a month has gone by since I got these broiler chicks. To see what they looked like on day one, click here. I can't put them out in the yard with the layer peeps anymore because they're so much larger and tend to bully the little girls. I had to come up with a separate pen for the layer peeps today just to keep them safe.

The broilers should be ready to butcher in 2-3 more weeks. I plan to let them get as large as possible before we do because I've only got 9 of them. I am impressed with the health and vigor of these broilers and plan to order more of them from Ideal Hatchery next spring. The red ones are noticeably larger than the black ones. I'd estimate their weight at around a pound right now.

It was a beautiful day here in northwest Ohio and I was able to get my 10 new trees from Arbor Day Foundation planted in the yard. I love to plant trees! I found a few worms as I dug the holes and saved them for the chickens. Gertie got most of them! Violet was posing for the camera so of course i had to take her picture. She's a pretty little Australorp. When she was a teenager her nickname was "Violent" because she would run up to me and peck me hard on the leg for no reason. She outgrew it eventually. Chicks go through weird phases as they mature!