If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ur will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 15:7
We had a crazy busy week! It's pretty common for us once the weather turns warm and the days get longer. There's always something that needs to be done and, with 4 sons, there's no shortage of little boys that are ready for a pick up soccer, basketball, or football game, so we spend most of our time outside.
I'll start with the bad news. My boys' favorite chickie baby, Fluffy, one of the Buff Orpington chicks, died this afternoon. She had been sickly for the past few days and she just wasn't able to shake it. She passed away in my hands as I petted and loved on her. We were able to give her a sweet burial and the boys even helped. I was grateful that they didn't cry. They were sad, but I was able to reassure them that, thanks to them, Fluffy had a great life and she died knowing how much they loved her. Blake had spent a lot of time in the chickie pen over the past week, holding the chicks and giving them treats and, since Fluffy started feeling sluggish, he spent a lot of time holding and petting her.
We planted 2 new blueberry bushes this week. We planted one two or three years ago and it has produced some delicious blueberries that the boys and I pick for snacks and for fresh blueberry pancakes. We freeze any extra blueberries so that we can enjoy them when the bushes aren't producing. We don't often have extras though and usually end up buying more from the farmers market, so we needed some more bushes. And we'll be getting even more bushes soon, I'm sure.
Malcolm's vegetable garden is doing really well. There's lots of things popping up in it. The tomatoes are starting to get blooms and the lettuce will be big enough to pick some leaves to put on a sandwich soon. He's even got carrots growing and they look to be doing well. The only thing that's not doing great, I think, is the watermelons. That's the plant he has struggled with the most and the one that he most desires to perfect. He'll figure it out though. He's really good at that stuff. But one watermelon plant is doing well, so hopefully we'll at least get one plant to produce some really good watermelons this year.
The boys helped Malcolm and me pull weeds in the vegetable garden. They did a really great job. I was pleasantly surprised. They don't usually want anything to do with the garden. Malcolm isn't a fan of pulling weeds, but I actually enjoy it, so that's usually my job.
Malcolm and I finished the second breeding pen today, but we had to redesign the interior with a new purpose in mind.
Since the two Buff Orpingtons went broody this past weekend, the other girls aren't laying. After spending some time sitting inside the layer coop for a while one day this week, I found out why they aren't laying. They are being run away from the nesting boxes by one of the hens.
After seeing this, I took two 5-gallon buckets and put them on their sides on the floor away from the nesting boxes, put pine shavings in them and a couple of golf balls hoping that they would lay there. They poked around at them for a couple of days and that was the end of that.
I've only collected, I think, a dozen eggs all week which is not even enough to feed our family. I had to BUY eggs today. I have 10 hens. Subtract the two broody hens that aren't currently laying and that still leaves 8 hens that should be laying about 6 eggs per day. But they refuse.
Here's the issue I've had with our situation. We had the new chicks in the small coop, 9 of the layers in the big coop with no rooster, Oreo, the Cuckoo Marans rooster and the Cuckoo Marans hen have been in the breeding pen that we finished first, and the second breeding pen and the mini pen were both empty.
Saturday, I picked up some 10 week old pullets for my mom. She had nowhere to put them until they are closer to the same size as her current flock, so I told her I'd put them in the breeding pen that Oreo and his lady were in because I was moving them back into the layers coop Saturday night.
Well, Saturday night is when I realized I had 2 broody hens. That's when the problem began. I knew then that I couldn't move Oreo and his lady back into the layers coop. The reason is, Oreo and his lady were removed because they wouldn't behave. They were bullying the other girls and one of the Leghorns ended up with a beak-shaped gash on her head. So I removed them and planned to put them back after a week to let them reestablish their pecking order and see if they would then behave. With broodys in the picture, you can't do that because the broody hens will be bullied and possibly injured or killed in the process of the other chickens establishing the pecking order.
Without being able to move Oreo and his lady, I had nowhere to semi-permanently put my mom's new pullets. I had to, instead, move them twice a day. They spent their nights in the coop of the breeding pen with wire over the chicken door since the enclosed run wasn't finished and then spent their days in the mini pen. This has worked fine for them for now, but it hasn't fixed the problem that my other girls still aren't laying eggs.
Today, we pushed to get the second breeding pen finished. Malcolm removed the roosting perch and built and installed 2 nesting boxes in its place, one for each broody hen.
Tonight, I moved the broody hens into this new maternity ward coop. After I moved them in, I took Oreo and his lady and put them back in the layers coop, and then moved the pullets into the breeding pen where Oreo and his lady had been.
New problem: the not-so-grumpy hen won't get back on her new nest. She got up immediately when I moved her and walked around, went outside, got food and water, and then roosted on top of the drinker. The grumpy broody also go up and checked things out, but she went right back to her nest.
I feel like I most likely "broke" the not-so-grumpy hen's broodiness. I knew it was a possibility that it would happen when I moved them, but it was a risk I was willing to take to get these other girls to start laying again. The broody hens have only been sitting on their eggs for 4 days, so the eggs aren't very developed at this point, and, personally, if the hens are going to quit, I'd rather them quit now instead of quitting closer to hatch day.
I probably won't move the eggs to the incubator if she doesn't go back to her nest. I don't want to brood anymore chicks myself this year. The only reason I decided to let the girls set is because they were willing to do the work for me, so I figured why not?
I do hope she'll go back to her nest, but I've put her back on the nest three times tonight and she keeps jumping off and going to sleep elsewhere so I'm pretty sure she's done and over it. I'm more hopeful that the grumpy broody doesn't break. I really want to experience a mama hen with her babies and, right now, the grumpy broody seems to be my best shot at getting that. If the broken broody isn't interested in setting tomorrow, I'll go ahead and move her back to the layers coop with the others. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.
Tomorrow we'll also see how things go in the layers coop with Oreo and his lady being back in the coop. I'm hopeful that it will all go smoothly, but I'm also realistic that things will likely be pretty crazy in there for the next week or so until the new pecking order has been established and Oreo has asserted his dominance over the ladies.
For the most part, things are going really well. We are slowly, but surely, making progress and growing in all areas of our farm. It's a lot of work and slow progress, but it's so worth it! I love what we are doing and I love how God is using it to bless our family in so many ways. I pray we are able to continue to grow and be blessed, and to, one day, share the blessing with others in our community.
John 15:7
We had a crazy busy week! It's pretty common for us once the weather turns warm and the days get longer. There's always something that needs to be done and, with 4 sons, there's no shortage of little boys that are ready for a pick up soccer, basketball, or football game, so we spend most of our time outside.
I'll start with the bad news. My boys' favorite chickie baby, Fluffy, one of the Buff Orpington chicks, died this afternoon. She had been sickly for the past few days and she just wasn't able to shake it. She passed away in my hands as I petted and loved on her. We were able to give her a sweet burial and the boys even helped. I was grateful that they didn't cry. They were sad, but I was able to reassure them that, thanks to them, Fluffy had a great life and she died knowing how much they loved her. Blake had spent a lot of time in the chickie pen over the past week, holding the chicks and giving them treats and, since Fluffy started feeling sluggish, he spent a lot of time holding and petting her.
We planted 2 new blueberry bushes this week. We planted one two or three years ago and it has produced some delicious blueberries that the boys and I pick for snacks and for fresh blueberry pancakes. We freeze any extra blueberries so that we can enjoy them when the bushes aren't producing. We don't often have extras though and usually end up buying more from the farmers market, so we needed some more bushes. And we'll be getting even more bushes soon, I'm sure.
Malcolm's vegetable garden is doing really well. There's lots of things popping up in it. The tomatoes are starting to get blooms and the lettuce will be big enough to pick some leaves to put on a sandwich soon. He's even got carrots growing and they look to be doing well. The only thing that's not doing great, I think, is the watermelons. That's the plant he has struggled with the most and the one that he most desires to perfect. He'll figure it out though. He's really good at that stuff. But one watermelon plant is doing well, so hopefully we'll at least get one plant to produce some really good watermelons this year.
The boys helped Malcolm and me pull weeds in the vegetable garden. They did a really great job. I was pleasantly surprised. They don't usually want anything to do with the garden. Malcolm isn't a fan of pulling weeds, but I actually enjoy it, so that's usually my job.
Malcolm and I finished the second breeding pen today, but we had to redesign the interior with a new purpose in mind.
Since the two Buff Orpingtons went broody this past weekend, the other girls aren't laying. After spending some time sitting inside the layer coop for a while one day this week, I found out why they aren't laying. They are being run away from the nesting boxes by one of the hens.
After seeing this, I took two 5-gallon buckets and put them on their sides on the floor away from the nesting boxes, put pine shavings in them and a couple of golf balls hoping that they would lay there. They poked around at them for a couple of days and that was the end of that.
I've only collected, I think, a dozen eggs all week which is not even enough to feed our family. I had to BUY eggs today. I have 10 hens. Subtract the two broody hens that aren't currently laying and that still leaves 8 hens that should be laying about 6 eggs per day. But they refuse.
Here's the issue I've had with our situation. We had the new chicks in the small coop, 9 of the layers in the big coop with no rooster, Oreo, the Cuckoo Marans rooster and the Cuckoo Marans hen have been in the breeding pen that we finished first, and the second breeding pen and the mini pen were both empty.
Saturday, I picked up some 10 week old pullets for my mom. She had nowhere to put them until they are closer to the same size as her current flock, so I told her I'd put them in the breeding pen that Oreo and his lady were in because I was moving them back into the layers coop Saturday night.
Well, Saturday night is when I realized I had 2 broody hens. That's when the problem began. I knew then that I couldn't move Oreo and his lady back into the layers coop. The reason is, Oreo and his lady were removed because they wouldn't behave. They were bullying the other girls and one of the Leghorns ended up with a beak-shaped gash on her head. So I removed them and planned to put them back after a week to let them reestablish their pecking order and see if they would then behave. With broodys in the picture, you can't do that because the broody hens will be bullied and possibly injured or killed in the process of the other chickens establishing the pecking order.
Without being able to move Oreo and his lady, I had nowhere to semi-permanently put my mom's new pullets. I had to, instead, move them twice a day. They spent their nights in the coop of the breeding pen with wire over the chicken door since the enclosed run wasn't finished and then spent their days in the mini pen. This has worked fine for them for now, but it hasn't fixed the problem that my other girls still aren't laying eggs.
Today, we pushed to get the second breeding pen finished. Malcolm removed the roosting perch and built and installed 2 nesting boxes in its place, one for each broody hen.
Tonight, I moved the broody hens into this new maternity ward coop. After I moved them in, I took Oreo and his lady and put them back in the layers coop, and then moved the pullets into the breeding pen where Oreo and his lady had been.
New problem: the not-so-grumpy hen won't get back on her new nest. She got up immediately when I moved her and walked around, went outside, got food and water, and then roosted on top of the drinker. The grumpy broody also go up and checked things out, but she went right back to her nest.
I feel like I most likely "broke" the not-so-grumpy hen's broodiness. I knew it was a possibility that it would happen when I moved them, but it was a risk I was willing to take to get these other girls to start laying again. The broody hens have only been sitting on their eggs for 4 days, so the eggs aren't very developed at this point, and, personally, if the hens are going to quit, I'd rather them quit now instead of quitting closer to hatch day.
I probably won't move the eggs to the incubator if she doesn't go back to her nest. I don't want to brood anymore chicks myself this year. The only reason I decided to let the girls set is because they were willing to do the work for me, so I figured why not?
I do hope she'll go back to her nest, but I've put her back on the nest three times tonight and she keeps jumping off and going to sleep elsewhere so I'm pretty sure she's done and over it. I'm more hopeful that the grumpy broody doesn't break. I really want to experience a mama hen with her babies and, right now, the grumpy broody seems to be my best shot at getting that. If the broken broody isn't interested in setting tomorrow, I'll go ahead and move her back to the layers coop with the others. We'll see tomorrow, I guess.
Tomorrow we'll also see how things go in the layers coop with Oreo and his lady being back in the coop. I'm hopeful that it will all go smoothly, but I'm also realistic that things will likely be pretty crazy in there for the next week or so until the new pecking order has been established and Oreo has asserted his dominance over the ladies.
For the most part, things are going really well. We are slowly, but surely, making progress and growing in all areas of our farm. It's a lot of work and slow progress, but it's so worth it! I love what we are doing and I love how God is using it to bless our family in so many ways. I pray we are able to continue to grow and be blessed, and to, one day, share the blessing with others in our community.
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