Chicken math

July 13, 2015 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

A year ago, I decided to buy 6 little chicks from Tractor Supply. Then a few days later, I went by and fell in love and bought 6 more. Out of 12, I had 10 survive and thrive. 3 roosters and 7 hens, little did I know that would send me on a journey that I never would have imagine. A wonderful journey of homesteading and learning about all natural/organic ways to raise animals and gardening. My hubby and extended family thinks I am crazy. My kids love it because of all the animals. But the most important thing is how happy I am doing this and learning. My friends on facebook now call me crazy chicken lady. I am constantly getting friends posting things like the chicken diaper or chicken leash (most ridiculous thing ever, I don’t need a leash they follow me willingly). But this is my life now and I couldn’t be more ~~insane~~ happy with the decision to buy 12 lil chicks.

At the beginning of the year, I had 9 chickens, 7 hens and 2 roosters. One rooster was getting a little crazy so he was rehomed to a farm with a lot of girls for him. Then is March, I lost 2 of my hens to poison. So by spring, I only had 6 chickens. 5 hens and a frizzle bantam rooster that can’t even mate because he is so small.

At this point, my obsession for hatching eggs began. First there was 4 that hatched, then 3, 18, 8, and last 15. I hatched out 5 different batches of chicken eggs. Along with 2 batches of duck eggs.

Then I got a call from my aunt about the school hatching eggs but no place to take the chicks. And I also made the mistake of going by the feed store the same day and seeing some little ducklings.

Then I saw someone selling pullets (girls) and I had to have them. Then I ordered 15 polish chicks! So how many chickens do we have!?! 57! 51 chickens and 6 ducks.

36 are undetermined meaning they haven’t shown their rooster or hen side yet. Or in the ducks case duck or drake.

2 bantam roosters I am trying to rehome for their sake since they are so little, my bigger ones will probably beat them up.

So far I do know that I have 13 girls chickens and 1 girl duck. And 5 roosters.

In the end, I am planning on keeping only 4 roosters (maybe less depending on attitude) and most of the girls. All of my ducks will stay unless I end up with a lot of drakes which I don’t think I will. And any roosters over what I want to keep will become dinner. Most of the polish chicks are going to be sold. I only wanted a few for Dakota, but of course there is a 15 minimum purchase and I couldn’t find any locally. And I pray I have done enough research to be able to tell a boy from a girl.

2 of my goals this year was to expand my flock and add ducks! Mission accomplished.

Am I completely done with raising chicks? UM hell no! Have you seen how adorable these little babies are! But I am more interested in the hatching and selling aspect now. I also will be adding meat chickens and turkeys next year.

Let me tell ya a story about Lucky the Duck

June 1, 2015June 4, 2015 / Jeanette / 3 Comments

Gather round boys and girls, I’m gonna tell ya about a duck named Lucky and why she is named Lucky.

This year I really just wanted to add ducks to my homestead. I have always had a love for ducks and Koda really wanted some too. So I decided (after much research) that I wanted to hatch them. My neighbor has ducks and she gave me some eggs. But they turned out to be infertile. So I order 6 eggs off of ebay.

The eggs came in and they were beautiful looking. I let them sit and settle from all the bumps of being shipped. And then I put them in the incubator. 28 days later it was hatching day. Except it wasn’t. Nothing happened. 2 eggs pipped and I could see a beak. But that was it for about 24 hours. One duck ended up getting shrink wrapped in it’s shell. I could see the other one was still moving so Hubby and I decided to perform a c-section.

We got the lil’ gal out, but her yolk wasn’t absorbed and she was having a hard time. We told the kids not to get too excited because we didn’t know if she would survive or not. This was Easter Sunday and my family that came over was convinced she wasn’t going to survive.

I left her in the incubator for 2 days while her yolk absorbed and her umbilical cord dried enough that I could cut it. I moved her into a separate brooder in the office away from high traffic and noise. That is when I realized she couldn’t walk. She would flop on her back if you stood her up. She would just stay where ever you put her.

Hubby immediately started doing research on his computer while I was on the other. We both came to the conclusion that it was probably spraddle leg. Using the Fresh Eggs Daily website, we followed the directions for wrapping her legs. I knew it was going to take a lot of work to get this duck to survive. This was when my Hubby said “if this duck survives, we should name her Lucky.”

Every hour my cell alarm would go off and I would go in to help her eat and drink. I would stand her up and brace her up with my hand on her back. I would let her take some steps on her own, guiding her to the food and water. If she fell, I would get her right back up again.

About 24 hours of this and I realized her neck wasn’t quite right. So more research confirmed wry neck. I immediately started adding Nutri-drench to her water. That quickly fixed her neck problem.

Back to the leg problem, I probably did this every hour thing for 2 days. At night, I made sure she got food before I went to bed and immediately when I woke up at 4:30 am. Every day, I did the little therapy with her. Getting her upright and forcing her to walk. I also gave her a stuffed puppy to cuddle with. I then realized I could prop her up between the legs of the dog and that would help also. Then one day I found her on the other side of the brooder from where I left her. So I started standing her up and watching, within a week she was moving about all on her own. She was a little wobbly, but she was walking normally and that was all that mattered.

She was about 2 weeks old at this point and I knew we needed some real duck friends. I saw an ad on Craigslist and went to go look at ducklings who were the same age as our little one. Except I quickly realized that she much, much smaller and that would never work. I didn’t want them bulldozing her. So I held off.

I had some chicks I was selling, but there was one that my kids just really loved. So before the lady came to buy them all. I swiped that lil one up and stuck in the brooder with Lucky. At first, they weren’t happy. They stared at each other like what are you. But they quickly become best friends.

Then I had some more eggs hatch and I put the chicks in there with them also. She became the little mother duck to 9 chicks.

This all started on Easter weekend, April 4th. As I am writing this it is June 1st and I can report that Lucky is doing fantastic! She is outside with my big girls, teenagers and her little kids.

She hates water, but loves mealworms! I tried to separate her from her babies and it didn’t go over very well. So I moved the little kids outside with her in a playpen. She calls for her babies and they call for her. They are very much attached to each other. It is really sweet! I honestly don’t think she knows she is a duck. I think she thinks she is a chicken. I bought and hatched 5 more ducks and she doesn’t care about them, just her little babies.

It was a lot of work, but completely worth it in the end.

Check out my facebook page to see the video of when I tried to separate Lucky from her babies.

This post has been linked up at The Chicken Chick and Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop.

The importance of knowing your plants

March 3, 2015 / Jeanette / 1 Comment

When you have little kids, farm animals or just everyday pets, it is important to know what is in your yard. Especially the plants. I have been silent this last week because I made a huge mistake and have been trying to fix it ever since. Last Tuesday, Brianna and I were browsing at Walmart while waiting for Cailin to get done at bookclub. We found this really beautiful flower plant that I thought would be perfect in her butterfly garden. We bought it not really thinking of the consequences. A couple days later, 2 of my chickens came down sick. They were lethargic and not eating or drinking anything. I thought it was impact crop or sour crop. I tried to find answers online. Until I finally did an inspection of their free range area.

Foxglove~ extremely poisonous

They had eaten some of the leaves off of my daughters plant. We didn’t even know what kind of plant it was when we bought it. That was our first mistake. I started doing image searches online and after many hours finally found what it was and cross searched with being poisonous to chickens. It is, extremely poisonous. Even to humans if eaten!

I brought my 2 babies in the house and had a little hospital room going on. I force-fed them water and electrolytes and basically just tried to keep them warm. But honestly they ate so much there was nothing I could really do other than make them feel comfortable and loved.

RIP Nutmeg and Big Bertha

Just hours after I took this picture, my little nutmeg said her good-bye.

Nutmeg as a baby

I know a momma shouldn’t have favorites, but she was mine.

And as I was beginning this post, Big Bertha had a seizure and died right next to me.

Big Bertha as a baby

Big Bertha was my best layer. I will definitely miss those big beautiful brown eggs.

I honestly feel responsible. My chickens depended on me to keep them safe. And they also trusted me wholeheartedly. I truly believed they thought everything in the garden area is good for them because I would never do anything to hurt them. My carelessness has cost me 2 of my beloved chickens.

But going forward, I will be very careful and do my research first. I will not buy any plant just because it is pretty.

We’re Incubating!!!

February 20, 2015February 18, 2015 / Jeanette / 1 Comment

That’s right people! I am expecting!!!! Expecting feathered babies in the next few weeks! We started incubating some eggs from our neighbor on Saturday. And can I just say I am so excited!

But at the same time, I feel as though I am expecting! The first 48 hours felt like the whole first trimester! I was nauseous, anxious, nervous and overwhelmed. Plus I couldn’t sleep at all. Now that I got the temperature just right and I see everything is working the way it is suppose too, it feels like the 2nd trimester has kicked in. I am so calm and relaxed. Just peeking in every so often to see how things are cooking. I don’t even want to know how I am going to be during the hatching! I may need a lamaze training to gear up for this. It’s been 5 years for me you know. And this time I can’t even get an epidural! GOOD GRIEF!

But anyways back to my eggs. I have 6 chicken eggs and 3 duck eggs in there right now. And did mention the kids are learning about birds right now. So guess what counts as science too! WOOT WOOT!

I wanted to start off small and see how hard it is to hatch eggs. But I can guarantee you that if this is a success, I will be getting some more eggs to go in there. What kind I have no idea! But I would love to turn my hobby into a little business eventually.

At least, that is my dream for the future.

Roosters~love them or eat them

January 28, 2015 / Jeanette / 4 Comments

Let me start by saying I am by no means an expert. This is my first year raising chickens. But in that years time, I have learned a lot.

I got 12 chicks total. Not knowing what they were; male or female. Two didn’t survive and I was left with 10 that thrived.

Out of those 10, I ended up with 3 males and 7 females.

Our first confirmed male, Speckles, got rehomed really quick because he was beating up my girls pretty bad. That is something you don’t want. You want your girls relaxed and comfortable and safe in their home so they can lay eggs comfortably. Under the constant stress, the chances of eggs go down. They will not lay to their full potential, which I know for most folks is the whole purpose of owning chickens. Plus beating up my baby girls to point of drawing blood was not cool with me.

Here are my 2 roosters that I have left.

Lil Baby~ light brahma rooster

Ninja~Frizzle Cochin

Pros of having a rooster:

Protects your flock when free ranging.
Gives you fertilized eggs, which then gives you babies (YAY!)

Cons of having a rooster:

Can be rough with your girls or the other roosters. We had an incident which may or may not have been a fight between the two roosters. One was pretty badly beat up and I thought I was going to lose him but he pulled through.
Can become aggressive with you or your kids. I have one rooster who likes to chase my one daughter. She is special needs so I don’t know if he has picked up on that, but it’s only her, never me or anyone else. And when they kick at you it hurts. Especially with those nails.
Can be very skittish and not real lovable. Even as chicks, they ran and hated being picked up. And now they steer away from us and are not very friendly at all.
Do not follow directions at all (typical MAN!). If I shake the worm bag or call the chickens, all of the girls come right away. The boys not so much and we end up having to trap them into running into the enclosed area. Too much work!

Now the next reason can be a pro or con depending on the type of person you are. I personally love to hear them crowing. But others might not. I will say mine start between 4-5 am. BUT I can’t hear them in my room and neither can my kids. So it doesn’t bother us. Others might not be so happy with that.

While most people would say eat them. I am not that brave or experienced yet in butchering one of our own chickens. And I highly doubt that I can find someone to come out and butcher just one. I am not at all against it. I am hoping to add some meat birds later on down the road. But one step at a time. If you are experienced or knows someone who is, then butchering could be an option for you.

I am on the fenced about getting rid of Lil Baby. He is the trouble maker and he is the one that dislikes my daughter. She loves being with them. So most likely I am going to try to trade or sell him.

So my conclusion is a rooster is not necessary, but some people like them while others don’t. I don’t see Ninja going anywhere. He is the sweetest little thing I have ever seen. So much smaller than a normal rooster; probably a bantam. And just keeps to himself and treats the girls very nicely. I most likely won’t have fertilized eggs anymore, but that is a price I will pay. I can always order more chicks or go to local feed store!

So tired

So very very tired

I’m awake!

Darn wind!

Hello 2015!!

January 8, 2015 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

I know I am a little late, but honestly I don’t start my new year resolutions until after my birthday on the 5th. Why deprive myself of cake and celebration!?! I made it another year and, dang it, I earned that slice of cake!

So my new year starts when winter break is over and normal life resumes. Well as close to normal as this bunch can get.

I have thought about my new year’s resolution for sometime now. Months actually! I feel like 2014 was my year to find myself. I found out that I have a passion for homesteading that I never knew was there. And not only homesteading, but natural living, without all the chemicals and medications. I like being able to keep my family healthy without the use of antibiotics or over the counter drugs. I like cooking from scratch and knowing what is going into my food and that the items are of the best quality that I can find.

But there were many areas that I floundered at. I don’t want to say fail because that is so negative. I feel like I never failed. I may not have put my best effort in to them, but I never failed, so floundered is the perfect description.

So here they are my resolutions:

Learn more and love life~ Enjoy it, every minute! I noticed my anxiety has flared up a little bit and I want to get a handle on it better so I can accomplish this task. Just get healthier in general. I see too many family members fighting different diseases and I don’t want that. I wanna be around for a long, long time.
Expand our homesteading. I would love to get where we can raise our own meat and add some more egg layers to our little flock. Ducks are coming only because they are so cute!
Separate myself from the negativity. Too many times I let other people’s life choices stress me out and worry me. Yes, they are my family and I love them, but they are not my immediate (in my household) family and those are the ones that need my guidance and attention. So I am going to learn to Let it go! (cue Frozen song here)
Blog more and interact with more bloggers. Expand this and possibly make a business that will thrive and I can be extremely proud of.
Spend more time with my kids. This year my oldest is turning 18!!! How did that happen I have no idea?!? But I feel like I blinked and her childhood was gone. So I am using that as an eye opener and cherishing every moment I have left with them all.

To help me with these, I will probably set little mini goals each month. I seem to do well with a to do list type thing. Sometimes I get so busy with just the everyday stuff that I look up and a whole month has gone by. I would like to try to slow down a bit and that is my overall theme of the year.

Slow down and enjoy being me!

3 year Blogiversary

October 13, 2014 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

Growing a large family 3 year blogiversary

It was 3 years ago today that I decided to start a blog. A place where I can vent and connect with the world. I also did many searches for large family blogs and couldn’t find any. So I decided that that was the direction I wanted to go. Over the years it has morphed into an eclectic collection of moments in our lives from homeschooling to homesteading. I try to keep it real, but classy and positive at the same time. I hope I have provided some humor along with some ideas and tips to help with your lives. All I ask is that you spread the word.

Now let’s take a look back at my top post over the last 3 years.

First Day of School 2013

Homemade Pizza Dough

Building our Coop de Ville

My Favorite Post:

I’m Southern and I can’t bake biscuits

This is my favorite post because I always ask myself why can’t I make biscuits. I grew up watching Grandma make them. I have tackled some pretty difficult recipes and have honestly impressed the heck out of myself sometimes. But biscuits are my Achilles heel! UPDATE: I still haven’t found and made a good biscuit yet!

Selfie! OH wait am I too close!

Theses are the post that sum me up as a person. These post show who I am perfectly.

Our Frugal Disney Vacation

City Girl living a Country life

Check in with my flock

Family Dinners

Let me know your favorite post and what you would like to see more of.

Fun weekend!

August 25, 2014 / Jeanette / Leave a comment

It’s the little things in life that make me smile. This weekend was one of those times that just made me giddy.

Saturday was the big day! The day I have been waiting for since April, when I bought all those fuzzy chicks home. That’s right folks! I got an egg!

Here is proud egg layer!

Thing 1

The first egg arrived on Saturday morning. I happen to hear one of the other hens singing the egg song so I went rushing out there thinking she laid an egg. But really she just likes announcing when others have made a nest and our laying their eggs. That is when I found Thing 1, not in the nesting boxes, but in her own little homemade nest. So for about an hour, I kept peeking at her and finally it was there. And I squealed like a girl. But hey, farmer’s can be girly!

Then Sunday, she took almost all day to lay again. And I sent little man out to gather the egg. But she wasn’t done yet. So we found these beauties in the garden instead.

Thirty minutes later, little man and I went out again and found our 2nd egg.

Needless to say, my kids are so excited about having to check for eggs everyday.

Check in with my flock

August 23, 2014 / Jeanette / 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I have done a chicken post. Mostly because I have been waiting for an egg, but they are almost 19 weeks and nothing so far. So that will have to be another post later; whenever it happens. Let me start by saying that everyone is right. Having chickens is addicting! I am already planning a bigger run for them because they are spoiled rotten. But anyone that knows me knew that was gonna happen.

Photo Bomb! I’m the center of attention!

This journey hasn’t been without bumps in the road though. In the beginning, we lost two of our baby chicks to Coccidiosis. It is fatal to chickens, but thankfully because of the internet and some wonderful bloggers, I was able to treat the rest and have had no problems with that.

Then there was the too many rooster problems. I ended up with 3 and one became aggressive towards the others. We had a lot of injuries. So it was time to relocate him to our next door neighbors, where he found a hen that is his twin and fell deeply in love.

Be nice to your new girlfriend, Speckles.

Next, was the summer cold of 2014. It hit a few of our girls pretty hard. I didn’t want too, but had to give out antibiotics. Within a day, they were all good. I am trying to do the natural thing, but with this the oregano, which acts as a natural antibiotic, wasn’t cutting it.

Lastly, I had to escapees. Two different times, two different hens! They got so excited that Mommy was coming in with treats that they ran out the door. As soon as they realized they were out and the others were in, they paced the fence trying to get back. So I was able to easily catch them.

Okay~ on to the chickens now.

Little baby at the beginning of summer.

Little baby now

Big Bertha then

Nutmeg then

Big Bertha (right) and Nutmeg (left)

Midnight then

Midnight now

Precious then

Precious now

Thing 1 and Thing 2 then

Thing 1 now

Thing 2 now

Luna then

Luna now

And last, but not least

Ninja then

Ninja now

And I just want to add he is the perfect Rooster. Let’s the girls eat first, watches out for predators and is the first out in the morning and the last one in at night.

UPDATE: I started writing this 2 days ago and as of 15 minutes ago, Thing 1 is in the coop making a nest. We are hoping for an egg by the end of the day. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram for updates.

Here comes the chicks…..

June 13, 2014 / Jeanette / 5 Comments

Now that our babies are getting bigger and have their feathers coming in, I am able to give them proper names to fit them and their personality.

Introducing our flock……

This is Big Bertha. She is the oldest by a few days and the biggest of our chickens.

This is Luna. It took me forever to come up with a name for her. She is starting to get more comfortable with me and will jump on me every once and a while.

This is Precious. This one belongs to Brianna. Which is appropriate because she is the same age as Luna but so much smaller, just like her owner.

Twinsies! They were easy to name because they are always into something. Thing 1 is at the top, she has a smaller and lighter colored beak. Thing 2 at the bottom, much larger beak and even has some black lines running through it.

This is Speckles. This one belongs to Alissa. UMMM I am not sure what it is; girl or boy! But it’s pretty.

This is Nutmeg. She has adopted herself as mine. When she sees me, she finds a way to jump on my back. She likes to look me eye to eye and talk to me. She is a gossiper.

This is Midnight. She too has become a Momma’s girl. Her and Nutmeg like to fight over who sits where on Momma’s back.

This is Ninja and in case you can’t tell; yup he’s a rooster. No eggs from this little fellow. He belongs to Cailin. And she changed his name from Fizzy to Ninja when he started running around and karate kicking the other chickens. Now before you say what happened to his feathers. It’s okay; He is a Frizzle chicken. Let me just say if anyone was going to pick the odd ball of the bunch it was going to be Cailin. And she is very proud of herself.

Last but not least, Lil Baby. This one was named by Dakota. He took a liking to the youngest of the group. I am 95% sure Lil baby is a rooster. But he is so darn cute!

Look at that he could be a chicken model! Adorable!

So here they are! We have had no health problems and they are the highlight of our day. Someone is always checking on them, feeding them snacks or thinking of something new to make for them. It really has been a fun family project.

Growing a Large Family

The ups and downs of raising a large family

pets

Chicken math

Let me tell ya a story about Lucky the Duck

The importance of knowing your plants

We’re Incubating!!!

Roosters~love them or eat them

Hello 2015!!

3 year Blogiversary

Fun weekend!

Check in with my flock

Here comes the chicks…..