The little chicks are just over a week old and are developing their feathers. They had outgrown their big cardboard box in the porch, where they initially were kept so I could watch them closely. 

Today they went to the new place, the livestock trough brooder. There are two heat lamps in the trough, in case one bulb burns out. There is real hay on the floor of the trough, a big chunk of moist sod, food and some water, though the tray on the chick waterer cracked so tomorrow a new one or two will be in order. The sod is for dirt. They need the soil bacteria to help culture their digestive system and the grit in it to grind the whole organic grain they are being fed. I have ground the grain for the first week and will do so for a bit longer, but they are starting to pick at the whole grains too. 

I observe the little chicks cared for by the mother hens. The day they are hatched she calls them outside and they jump, walk, hop and manage to get to where she wants them to be, sometimes with a great deal of effort, but they do get there, nonetheless. They scratch the dirt, pick up the odd piece of grain and bits of grass and the chicks are exposed to wind, sun, rain and even snow recently. When they are cold, they peep loudly and mother hen warms them until they are calm. She warms them less and less as they develop their feathers and can begin to regulate their own temperature better. 

I have had great success with the livestock trough brooder.This old trough was free because it has rusted through in two places. I posted an ad looking for one and the gent was pleased to have it gone, as it was no longer useful to him for his cows. It is large. I have a smaller one too, and this year it is set up beside the bigger one, for goslings and ducklings when they hatch in the mom's nests. I cannot allow them to free range with their parents because the ravens eat them. There are three geese on about 30 eggs. 

After the chicks are out of the brooder, they go into a hoop coop with a heat lamp still in case of a chill. The hoop coop is 8 x 10 feet to provide ample growing room and it is movable, but the chicks all have to be caught and caged for moving. The geese and ducklings follow a similar path. 

These chicks are top of the line Ameraucanas, Cream legbars (and both those breeds lay blue eggs) and there are 3 white Chanteclers too. I am going to mix them with my existing chickens of those breeds, plus the Partridge Chanteclers I already have.  My aim is to create a wonderful, hardy, foraging flock that will lay eggs and raise chicks from year to year. I think this will be my last influx of new chicks for some time and from now on, just a new rooster will likely be added. 

And to think, upon moving here, I suffered a true bird phobia and was deathly afraid of chicks and chickens, well, all birds to be exact. It took 3 years to fight that phobia and I can finally say, it is gone. Now...back to check on the chicks. 

Some new additions for the Fat Ewe Farm have arrived. They are true Ameraucanas, Cream legbars and 3 white Chantelcers. Ameraucana chickens are my favourite breed. They are hardy, forage well, eat less than many breeds, lay consistently, but not through the winter and have pretty blue eggs. They are not overly friendly, but also not overly flighty. I can easily walk amongst them without causing a panic situation and they do not mind if I enter the coop. They simply look up as if to say, "Oh, it's only you!" and go back to doing whatever they were doing. 

These Ameraucanas originate from two different lines in Ontario and one from southern Alberta.  I am not interested in showing chickens, but I do prefer true breeds to start with, then I mix them up. The best breed so far are the Chantacaunas, or Chantecler and Ameraucana crosses. The birds are larger than Ameraucanas, better setters and brooder and better foragers than the Chanteclers, plus are very winter hardy. 

The cream legbar is a sort of leghorn chicken and the males and females look different at hatching, so they can be sexed right from the start. Unfortunately, I have 7 roosters and only 5 hens then. The chickens lay blue eggs very similar to the Ameraucana in colour, but they are better layers. So to increase the number of eggs per year and hopefully through winter I thought I would bring this breed into the flock. For my set up, which is an insulated coop without additional heat or light in the winter, the birds need to be hardy. They are fed and watered outside, not matter the weather and they do have a larger hoop shelter, which I call the day spa, to hang out in. It has a south facing low window where the chickens congregate to absorb some vitamin d and the warmth of the sun. 

In the fall I plan to sell, if I can, a bunch of chickens. These new additions should be grown up by then and I can decide which ones to keep and which ones to sell. The problem is that people do not want to bother with winter chickens around here, so fall sales are pretty much non existent. I would hate to butcher them, especially since they already cost a pretty penny for these pure lines, so may have to wait until spring. But the cost of organic grain is currently 40 cents a pound and feeding chickens that I plan to sell may mean they won't even bring enough money to pay for their winter keep. 

Tonight the babies are in the porch in a rather small container with a heat lamp for observation. I ran the regular feed of wheat, peas, flax and barley through the grinder and they are gobbling it up. Tomorrow they will go into the large old livestock trough outside with a second heat lamp. There is an old door covering the trough and they can see the sun. In warm weather I remove the door and put a wire over the trough to prevent cats and other birds (ravens, owls) from taking the babies. Then they can feel the wind on their faces and the sun on their backs, and when they feel cold, run under the heat lamp to warm up, just as they would with their mammas. 

I have observed the mother hens with their newly hatched chicks often. They are not in a building. The chicks run after the mothers, over straw and hay, through mud and on uneven ground. The wind blows their little downy feathers and the sunshine and rain falls on their backs. I do not agree with brooding chicks in buildings where there is no sunshine. Vitamin D is necessary for birds as it is for humans. Coddled birds that do not get fresh air, get respiratory problems. Outdoor chicks raised with their mothers seldom get anything. So my set up mimics natural chick rearing as much as possible. When they are big enough to go into a hoop coop, they will grow up there, protected from the owls and ravens, but still very much outside. They get fresh green grass picked twice daily and their organic feed too. 

So, welcome the newest little ones to the farm please if you will. And stay tuned to watch them grow with posts from time to time. Thanks for being with us. 

There is not much to report on with the chickens. They just hang around all day  in the spa and then move to the coop for the night. They have not really started going out of their winter pen, since there is nothing to forage, and unlike the ducks and geese, they are not drawn to the water puddles from the melting snow. They have started to lay eggs, with between 6 and 10 coming daily now. The young pullets have started to lay as well, but they choose the weirdest places, like the rabbit hutch or manger in the barn. They do not go in the coop for the night. Luckily for them, the winter was mild and they were able to stay in the shelter beside the coop without too much problem. No matter how many times I threw them in the coop and locked the door they returned to the shelter instead. Finally I gave up, except for the three who roosted outside in the pine tree. One perished that very cold night we had because I could not find him, but I did catch the other two and locked them in a little cage so they could not leave in the morning. Then they returned to the coop. 

The day spa is a double size hoop shelter with a window facing south. That window makes all the difference. They bask in the rays of the sun while being sheltered from the snow and wind. When winter was here in full force, the ducks and geese in the spa raised the temperature considerably as well. The ducks and geese slept there in the winter, out of the elements. At one point when we got quite a bit of snow, the roof began to sway and I had to knock all the snow from it and prop it up inside, just in case. 

These hens are 4-5 years old, the purebreds, and the cross breds are 1 to 2 years old. I will have most of them butchered at the end of the summer because I have new stock ordered. New Chanteclers, Ameraucanas and Cream Legbars will be hatched from eggs coming up from Calgary in April. Then they will be brooded in the granary out back of the little farmhouse, until they are old enough to join the chickens in the coop. Some will be sold too. Cream legbars lay sky blue eggs, Ameraucanas lay blue green eggs and white Chanteclers lay light brown eggs. The Partridge Chanteclers will likely be kept on, but I have not found a rooster in that breed yet, so they will marry the Ameraucana and the Chantecler roo.

Chickens provide bug control here and forage through the composting manure piles in the barn yard. The breeds are excellent foragers. In the summer, they are fed at the end of the day and must forage all day long. ON good days they eat very little grain because they are full of bugs and grass, the way it should be. Though the birds are tough when they are butchered, they are incredibly tasty and make the finest soups. I thank the chickens for their work and their eggs. I do appreciate them very much, even though they are not my favourite critters on the farm. They have a job to perform and they do it well. Today they were enjoying the sun at the spa, just like ladies do everywhere, clucking away to the other girls! 

In the old days, a chicken flock was self perpetuating, that is, the hens laid eggs and hatched them to produce new birds every year. This provided eggs for the farmer and meat at the end of the summer when the roosters and old hens were butchered. The chickens lived in coops not well insulated if at all. Some farmers would pile straw over the building, but most did not. The body heat of the birds had to keep the coop warm enough for them to survive and they had to be hardy. 

The Fat Ewe Farm Flock is a flock of various breeds chosen for three things: winter hardiness, foraging ability and egg laying, but broodiness is a factor as well. The Chanteclers, both the Partidge and the Whites, are excellent brooders. I have two Silkie hens and they too are known for being great setters. 

In addition to these birds, there is a Khaki Campbell on a nest, which is considered rare for that breed. They were bred for egg laying and the broodiness trait was left out, but I have a strain of the breed that will hatch their own, thankfully. Every year, one or two of the Khaki Campbells hatch babies. There are also two Muscovies sitting on nests and a half bantam hen that I know of. That does not mean there are not others. Last year there was a hen who hatched 12 babies under the sheep shelter, and I was not aware of that until she came out with them. That is the true meaning of free range chickens. You never know where the heck they are! Every day is an Easter egg hunt too, because they are inventing new nests and laying anywhere but the nest boxes which are now mostly occupied by brooding hens. 

I am thankful for the hens and their ability to raise their babies without me having to incubate and brood the chicks myself. Isn't nature so grand?

I have a pair of Bantam Splash Silkies. The rooster is a cocky little fellow, but he tanlges with the big roosters who are three times his size, and he got hurt. So, I put him with his wife in a large cage to protect them. They did not seem to mind the confinement at all, and the rooster was very protective of his lady. Soon she had 7 lovely little tiny eggs in her nest and she began to brood them. The rooster slept beside her at night to keep her warm. Isn't that every so touching? Unlike ruminants, who get up at night to eat, chickens actually sleep when it is night, and they sleep quite heavily. 

Today, there was some commotion in their box, so I moved in closer to see what the trouble was. One of the eggs had pipped and out popped a very tiny little chick, definitely a Splash Silkie. Unfortunately, he got himself out of the nest and got cold. The mother did not attempt to bring him back so I opened the cage and set him in the nest. She returned to her nest to finish brooding the eggs, which will most likely hatch during the night and tomorrow. The Bantams brood for approximately 21 days, but could be only 20 or as much as 23, depending on the conditions. If it was cold, the eggs may have taken longer. She was a very good setter, true to the Silkie hen reputation. She is a little nervous without her husband, but I am not sure he should be there until the chicks are hatched and able to return to their mother if they get cold. 

I checked before I came in and heard peeping, and am assuming the little chick is just fine. Hopefully by tomorrow, there will be 6 more little ones in the nest. Way to go Mamma Silkie! Thank you for your motherly dedication to the continuance of your species. Isn't the Creator wonderful? 

I cannot say that chickens are my favourite animals on the farm. Maybe they are even amongst the least favourite. But, that is not to say I do not appreciate them. Everyday they give me eggs and those eggs then in turn feed other animals, including me, and sometimes even themselves. When I have an abundance of eggs, I blend them whole with the shells, cook them and then feed them back to the birds. Of course they do love them. I am working on a dog food formula with the blended eggs too. I plan to freeze them whole in the shells, and when I need to make dog food, to make a dough with potatoes, carrots and garlic, plus coarse hemp powder and bake biscuits in a long slow oven to dehydrate and brown them. Oh yeah, I will add meat and bone broth for flavour and liquid. 

I watched the chickens break up goat manure today and eat something in it. I can only assume it was worms or eggs, though the goats have been heavily wormed. And to think I eat those eggs, yuk. They scratch the ground looking for tasty tidbits and at the same time loosen the soil. They can get carried away doing that to the point that they expose the roots of plants and the plants die. I want to grow more gardens this year, but the chickens will have to be fenced out of the gardens or they will eat the seeds and sprouted seedlings. They scratched up the potatoes last year too and I constantly had to hill them. They do more good than harm and it is up to me to keep them out of places I do not want them. They are just being chickens. 

Then when their time has come, they become chicken soup. They are too tough to roast unless they are brined over night and slow roasted for about 5-6 hours, but they make fantastic soup. It is rich and flavourful and full  of yellow fat which is very high in vitamins and good things. 

I used to have a phobia, a terrible true phobia of all birds, but it was a little sick chick that cured it. I had to handle her many times daily to help her live and she did. At first just to pick up a newly hatched chick, I had to have gloves, coveralls and a hat on and I still felt I was going to die, especially when the chicks fluttered, but slowly, I got more and more comfortable and I can go into a chicken coop today with just a morsel of fear left, just a tiny tiny bit. 

My chickens are pretty healthy. They are fed non GMO foods, whole grains and peas and they get the fat from the raw dog meat. Occasionally they snack on the dog meat too, when the dogs are sleeping or done eating. In the winter it is just survival mode for most critters on the farm, chickens included, but when the snow is gone they lavishly bathe in the dirt and scratch and hunt for bugs, snatch flies in mid air and even sit on eggs and raise more chickens just like themselves - a self perpetuating species. Aside from the copious amounts of stinky poop they make, they are pretty decent creatures and I am glad they are on the Fat Ewe Farm.

It is early this year for the birds to lay so profusely. The geese have even started to lay and usually they have not been interested until May at the earliest. Evecn the turkey has laid an egg! I know the tom turkey has certainly been very adept at showing himself off, drumming and fanning for his two hens and the chickens who are at all interested, but most are not. 
I would like to say that the eggs come pristinely clean from the nests, but they seldom do, even when I put fresh straw in the boxes. The turkey and goose nests are barrels with ovals cut for openings and they have a piece of cemet board for a roof and another peice of plywood for a screen to their entrance, just enough to make them believe they are private. That is essential for nesting. They need to think they have chosen a spot that is safe from predators and prying inquiries. 

It is too early really for any to hatch the eggs on this farm since they have no enclosed area in which to rear their young. They do have areas that are protected but not from the elements except in the coop. This year, my plan is to remove the babies as soon as they are hatched, that is from the guineas, the geese and the ducks, because they loose to many to the ravens. The chickens seem best at protecting their babies and keeping them out of harms way, so I will attempt to have the chickens hatch and raise the ducks and goslings this year and see what happens. Some babies, I think I will have to brood, or at least eclose the mothers until the babies are big enough that the ravens and hawks leave them alone. Last year, there were about 80 ducklings hatched all in a couple of days, and in the first day, over half of them were eaten by predators. The dogs do not seem to bother with the ravens, likely because the chickens fly as well. 

The goose eggs that are too early, such as these, go to the Easter egg painters, particularly the Ukrainian egg artists. These two goose eggs are already spoken for. I sell the goose eggs for $5 each at this early stage. They may have gotten too cold to be viable for hatching, but they could certainly be eaten or blown out for decorating. 

The turkeys on the farm are cross bred Standard Bronze heritage turkeys and wild turkeys, with little of the wild and more of the bronze. They look quite amazing in the sunlight when their feathers assume a life of their own, shining with hues of bronze, gold and brass in the sunlight. They lay a large speckled egg. The eggs, like all eggs, are white and the second to last function is to lay down colour on the egg, prior to the bloom, which protects the egg from bacteria and keeps the moisture in so it does not dehydrate, yet is porous enough so the chicks can breathe. It is really very amazing! 

I am grateful for the birds on the Fat Ewe Farm. Given that I was truly phobic and terrified of all birds, even the tiniest sparrow or hummingbird, when I first arrived, I have evolved and conquered my fears with much effort and steel of will. I can pick up a turkey or a goose and am not in the least bit afraid. Only going into a coop where there are roosters and hens flying at me, is the last of my hair raising fears, and I am conquering that too, thanks to the Fat Ewe Farm birds. These initial eggs are being sold as hatching eggs and the excess are going to be used to make dog biscuits. Great stuff, really. Ewe ought to try some. 

Ok, this is a job that everyone hates, me included. The trick was to steel my resolve to get it done because those poor chickens were suffering. The amonia smell was so strong my eyes were burning the entire time I was cleaning the coop and that was outdoors in the fresh air, with the coop door and the window wide open. The smell inside, once the coop floor thawed, was unbearable. There are two more coops to clean, oh joy.

In the first photo you can see the deep bedding as I forked it away, and in the back it was over two feet. Since the Muscovy ducks moved in, the floor was wet and soupy. The chicken droppings were dry in comparison and with enough vegetative matter, that is straw, hay and shavings, there was no smell. Only when the floor thawed and the thick bedding began to compost in earnest did the amonia come through. Had it just been the chickens, it is not nearly so back. Fortunately, the weather is warm this March and spring has arrived early for this neck of the woods, so the cleaning took place a month before usual. 

In the last picture you can see the clean coop. There are rubber mats on the floor sprinkled with diatomaceous earth, which is supposed to keep mites and lice at bay. It is made of ground fossil shell and under a microscope looks like broken glass. For tiny creatures, it acts that way too, and slices their under bellies open, or so the theory goes. The nest boxes were turned and cleaned out completely as well. The girls were curious the moment they could get themselves into one and had to go in and out of several compartments to find their favourite. 

One good thing about cleaning a coop is when it is finished. Now, only two more to go. 

He was a later hatch and is still not quite full grown, the other rooster. There are 4 Silkie roosters, one white Chantecler and one Ameraucana roosters. The Ameraucana was ordered from Ontario to bring some new blood to the flock. The Chantecler is the original one that the flock started with. Last year's Ameraucana was put with the white Chanteclers and the offspring are beautiful, hardy Chantacaunas that lay various shades of blue green eggs. The eggs are medium to large size and are really just starting in production due to the cold weather. Some farms who acquired the chicks from me have reported copious amounts of eggs from the pullets now, but they have nice warm insulated coops with additional light. The chickens on the Fat Ewe Farm are raised the old fashioned way, given a good insulated coop, but no additional heat or light, hence the egg production is non existent until the days start to lengthen. Due to the cold temperatures, I usually find 3 or 4 frozen eggs by the time I collect them the first time. 

Back to this rooster. He is an Ameraucana cross. HIs comb is a pea comb as the Ameraucanas have, but he does not have the blue feet. He knows he should avoid the two main roosters and has devised ways to breed the hens without the scrutiny of the roosters. So, today he flew up to the loft opening of the old barn and surveyed the pen. Most of the chickens have flight capabilities and can at least fly over a fence, but this rooster and some of the other birds can fly much further and higher. He was perched up there looking down and waiting, waiting for his opportunity to feed and maybe fit in a breeding or two of some close hens until the roosters chased him out. Yet, he sleeps in the coop with the Chantecler rooster and is fine. I imagine the two of them do not talk much. I do not mind if he breeds some of the hens. He also waits in the little ram and goat pen, next door, and when the hens fly over to inspect and scratch throught the hay, he is ready for them, does his little rooster dance and pounces. They squawk and have not accepted him. I have read that a hen can dismiss sperm from a mating she did not like. I will have to research that to see if there is truth in it. 

In the meantime, the other rooster is quite enjoying his life, plotting his next conquest from his throne above. Smart dude, he is. 

There were two very late hatches, just before the snow. I was worried that the little ones would not survive, but by the time it got truly cold, they had their feathers and a better chance of survival. 

The hen perched for self preservation. If the chickens do not roost for the night, they run the risk of their toes and feet freezing. But, because she perched, one of the little ones, who did not understand how to get up on the perch, though there is a ladder, froze her feet solid and she had to be put down. Four of the babies have suvived and thrived. The mother is a bantam cross with quite a few breeds in her background, the dominant head tuft derived from a Silkie. The eggs were fertilized by the Ameraucana rooster and the result is that the babies all have various degrees of the mufffy face. The light buff pullet is a result of the Japanese Bantam influence a generation ago. The Ameraucana rooster was a splash, that is black and white feathers as though some one had spashed him with paint. He is, no was, a big rooster who went into the soup pot and was replaced with new blood from a different line far away. 

What I love about the chickens now, is that the way they will turn out is not predicatable. There are enough different colours and featherings in their backgrounds that almost anything is possible. I have kept those that were exceptionaly foragers and the hens that were broody and raised their own clutch of babies, saving me the incubation and brooding troubles. This self perpetuating flock, then serves the farm with meat and eggs and continually renews itself, as in the old days. I should not need to introduce new birds except the roosters, to keep the blood lines fresh. The birds are also excellent flyers and can easily fly up to the top of the elm tree which is at least 20 feet high. That is a desired trait for free range birds who need to escape from predators, however, there are so many livestock guardians that protect the entire farm, that predators have not been seen for several years. 

I am looking forward to the bringing back of the light and the eggs that the birds will produce. Thank you little birdies for your work at The Fat Ewe Farm and for your lives. You are beautiful!