Starting seeds and poultry decisions

I set up the seedling rack yesterday. Wiped and scrubbed the racks and shop lights. Moved shelves to the appropriate level. Hung lights. Moved into south facing windows. I was planning on digging through the snow for old plastic trays, domes and six pack holders - you'd think by now I'd store them in a more accessible location...I know they're around somewhere and I'll end up recycling most of them yet this spring. D surprised me with some shiny new trays, packs, domes and a large bag of seed starting mix last night. Perfect timing. So, if the day goes smoothly, I'm hoping to sow the first seedlings of the season today. I will be starting celery (Utah red heirloom if I remember correctly), summer and winter thyme, lavender, oregano and maybe some basil. It is early for the basil, but I love to start a few and transplant them into roomy pots and snip basil throughout the spring. I'll succession start it at least two more times before planting out. Next I'll start any other slow growing (ten week) flowers/herbs. Then peppers, tomatoes and eggplant the last week of March/first week of April - about eight weeks before I plan on planting in the ground.

I started tackling our hallway yesterday, making room for a small incubator and a chick brooder. I've been making some poultry decisions with the idea to keep things simple. As much as I love having turkeys around and in the freezer, I'm planning on abstaining from turkey poults this year. The plan is to trade a friend some of our laying ducks for a heritage turkey come fall. We will be eliminating the ducks as we need room. We are going to hatch some goslings for the summer but we are either just going to have our current goose pair, or maybe just two females next winter... Furthermore, we are going to raise less Cornish Cross, 15-20. We are going to get more strict about not keeping older layers around. So we will be butchering or selling the two year old hens to make room for the more productive ladies. 


Living on a steep hillside and having a small amount of flat land, makes it difficult to have large animal pens. Thus we have ended up with a few movable chicken tractors of various sizes. We have two (three in the summer) protected chicken coop/pens. When chicks and turkeys are overcrowded there are more losses. In addition, Cornish cross grow faster than layers. Ducks and turkeys all grow at different paces. So, while I have read about people raising all various species in the same pen with success - I find that the layers do better on their own as do the ducks and turkeys. There is less crowding, less stress, less bullying and fighting. As a result we have ended up raising four turkeys in one moveable coop, pullets or ducklings in another tractor, adult layers in the top coop, and ducks or growing pullets in the other two. This makes for lots of juggling of birds, multiple feed/water stops to make each day =more labor and time. 


This year I am hoping to swing into the feed store and pick up thirty to forty sexed laying chicks at one time. I'll pick up meat birds a few weeks later. The laying pullets should all fit into the bottom chicken coop/pen for the summer. The Cornish will go into our largest moveable tractor. I've yet to figure out what to do with the geese. I think they'll go into another moveable tractor, but be let out to roam if they can behave themselves. So, we still end up having birds in four locations. However the Cornish are short lived. The geese possibly temporary. Leaving us with two pens and lots of productive layers going into winter.

I am interested in dual purpose breeds. Breeds that handle confinement well. Gentle, docile, friendly breeds. They also need to lay fairly well. And I want the hens to be big enough to be worth butchering, five to six pounds. Cold hardy and laying well in winter are other obvious considerations. I do like pretty birds, colorful feathers, kind faces. I am also drawn to heritage breeds. I am in love with the idea of raising hens that were common one or two hundred years ago. 

In the past I've ordered birds through various hatcheries. It tends to be more expensive and risky. This year I decided to go through our feed store exclusively and let them take the risk for me. They have a special order list that peaked my interest but when I looked up the specific breeds at the hatchery, all the birds I was interested in are already sold out. I'll remember to order in December next year! So, working with what our feed store will be bringing in, This is what I plan on getting and what I've read about them;

1. Silver Wyandottes,  four eggs/wk, 200 eggs a year. Handle confinement well. Hardy. Dual purpose, easy going temperament, good winter layers. Pretty.
2. Delawares, four eggs/wk, large brown eggs. Heavy breed, matures quickly, good broiler. Quiet, friendly, adapts well to confinement. 
3. Welsummers, decent layers of lovely dark brown eggs. Gentle, sweet, handles confinement well. Lovely plumage. 6lb. females.  (although shorter laying season).
4. Ameraucanas, lay beautiful blue and green eggs. I find these birds to be a bit flighty, small in carcass size and to have a shorter laying season and to mature slowly. However, their lovely eggs make up for their shortcomings. 
5. Black Sex Links, these are not heritage. However, these have been our best layers over the last four years. They are gentle, mellow, friendly birds who mature quickly and lay large brown eggs through the winter.

If I were to special order some birds, I would be getting some Sussex hens which are a heritage dual purpose breed, decent table fowl and very productive, nice disposition. I would also get at least a few Leghorns. Our feed store is carrying Chanteclers which I am not planning on getting because although they are good hardy winter layers that may not even need supplemental light, I've read they do not handle winter confinement well. These birds have a hawkish aggressive look to them. I would be interested in hearing from people who have experience with Chanteclers. We have raised Brahmas who are a large hardy bird. They are also very gentle and handle confinement well. They just didn't lay real well. I felt like we got a couple eggs from each hen their first year. They were by far the hardiest birds who would be outside in the cold when everyone else was huddled inside. A quick word on foraging. With the exception of the Cornish Cross, I have yet to see a chicken who was not an active forager. So, I think good foragers is a given regardless of the breed you choose.


On side notes, our friends who raised a pig for us two years ago in exchange for buck service for their does, have decided to do so again for us. So, yeah pig and not having to keep one ourselves - yet. I think I've finally figured out a better location for my bees, our unused greenhouse in the trees. We have a greenhouse that was built above our buck stall (once upon a time prospective Sauna). My plan is to take out a south facing window and set the hive up against the opening. That way the bees flight path will be above our heads, but they will be in a prime sunny warm location. We have two very pregnant does due the first week of April. I am getting excited. Thinking of C names, Clary, Calla Lilly, Calypso, Camelot, Cleopatra... I've been reading an awesome book - must have for all goat owners; The Accessible Pet, Equine and Livestock Herbal, by Katherine Drovdahl )Fir Meadow. I'm planning on sharing some of what I've been reading soon. Happy Spring everyone!

Geese and Spring

Last wednesday I was expecting a few Toulouse geese and four ducks from Metzer Hatchery in Northern California. Wednesday came and went, then Thursday, by that night, after two days of worrying and harassing the post office, I was expecting a box of dead chicks. two thirty a.m. Friday morning I get a call that they ar wee in. I asked if they were alive. The postal worker said he didn't know. I asked if the box was peeping, and he was like oh yeah, they're alive. So I drove in to get them. Amazingly the geese and two ducks made it, after being in a box for five nights!

While I was picking up my order, the guy from the feed store was there as well picking up his huge order and somehow fitting them all in his little car. He lost his whole waterfowl order. The folks from the feed store said that this year they've been having lots of problems with shipping chicks through USPS. I guess the last two weeks their chick order of 1,600 got taken off the plane in Anchorage (360 miles away) and trucked up. So they lost half their order both weeks. They are not ordering any more water fowl this year. Sounds like they are still getting in chicks and turkeys.

So far, the kids are handling the geese and lone duckling (one didn't make it) several times a day. Noah named the female goose Rosie. Avery named the female penciled runner duck Flower pot. The boys aren't named for now as we are not sure which will be dinner. But I'm thinking we'll name one Sebastion, and the other Christmas Dinner, and then I can always switch them later depending on which is the nicer of the two.

So far we are feeding the goslings/ duckling and chicks, my layer feed coursely ground with a few additives. So our layer feed is whole oats, whole barley, wheat berries, cracked corn, sunflower seeds, kelp and salmon meal and salt. The chicks have even higher protein needs. So we also added some ground peas, ground lentils and some extra kelp and salmon meal. We've also been feeding them hard boiled eggs, spinach and other fruits and veggies.

In other news, our doe Xoe is due this week. All the other goats are well, but shaggy and shedding. The milkers are starting to look raggedy. We are feeding alfalfa hay to help them out. Dustin just finished tiling my milking area, so I moved in this morning and now I can get down to business. I've been doing math on how much our goats are costing, and that is a post in itself- coming soon.

I brought my new bee hive home this week. I need to paint it and get it set up. I'm picking the bees up on Sunday.

I woke up to rain/snow this morning. The day was cool and windy but sunny. We are trying to clean up outside as we can. D cleaned out the chicken pen and duck shelter yesterday. I started on the doe pen. It is going to take another week before I can start working the soil and direct seeding in the garden. I am so ready for summer, for warm t-shirt weather. I am so ready to retire my winter boots and coveralls. I am so ready for green grass, green leaves, shoots and buds. We are having a late cool spring in the interior. I'm guessing wherever you are you are ready for summer too.

Facing my fears; geese and honey bees

I grew up with my dad raising bees for honey. My brother and I got stung a lot as children. Now, my brother has severe allergic reactions when he gets stung. I just have a slight fear of handling bees. I must have been in kindergarten or first grade when I remember my dad running circles around the house hollering while we tracked him from inside the house, running from window to window to peer out at him. I remember him stopping to pound on the door demanding entry and mom telling him to keep running. As far as the benefits go, I grew up on honey, honey and PB sandwiches, honey and PB on ricecakes, honey and homemade yogurt. I did not realize how much I appreciate good honey until I no longer had any. Now, we eat honey on hot cereal and honey on pancakes. I use honey in our weekly bread and on sandwiches. I have a strong appreciation and desire for local honey which is outrageously expensive here. I've been mentally working myself up to raising bees for a few years now. Last year D got me a beekeeping book for Christmas, which I read. Last spring I signed up for a beekeeping class, but later decided I already had too much on my plate.

This is going to be the year. I'm starting off by taking a beginning bee keeping class which covers all the basics. It is a couple hour class, once a week over five or so weeks. I'm gearing up to order a suit - or maybe just the jacket and head covering. As much as I'd like to imagine myself with barefeet and bare hands among the bees- well I think I'll be a lot less intimidated if I'm suited up and protected from stings. I'm starting off with one hive on the hill above the garden. I'm hoping to meet our honey and beeswax needs, with some leftover for gifts.

I don't have many experiences with geese. Actually I've only met one flock of geese, and we did not get along. There was a flock of large white geese at a farm where I boarded my horse for a couple years. This farm had attack geese and an attack rooster (which finally left me alone after it flew at me while I was holding a shovel, which was the bat. He was the ball). The geese would corner me in the barn, chase me, chase my car, pluck the rubber trim out from my bumper while I was off riding.

I've been doing a lot of geese research. I've learned that my shying away from the geese initially may have instigated our poor relations. I've been deliberating between Pilgrim and African geese, two of the more gentle breeds. I decided on the Pilgrim too late, multiple suppliers are already sold out for the season. I really liked the idea of the Pilgrims as they are the only breed of geese that are sexed. The males are white and the females are blue and gray. I ended up ordering a pair of French Toulouse geese, and an extra un-sexed goose - possibly for Christmas dinner. Looks counted for a lot in deciding which breed to get. The Toulouse are gray and blue, they look like the French aristocrat version of geese. They are stately, blue and gray and handsome.They are also one of the more gentle breeds, good layers, setters, parents, and they make a nice roast goose, good fat, feathers... I would have like to get the ones with the dewlaps, but those are way pricey.

I am getting geese mostly because I like the idea of having a couple pet geese. I also like the idea of large hardy birds wandering around the homestead. We have a lot of birds of prey issues, mostly Ravens attacking young chickens and ducks. As a result the ducks are hesitant to free range. I think they've been traumatized. So I'm hoping to raise the geese with some same age layers and ducks, and maybe the geese will look out for the smaller birds. The ducks are very skittish, not inquisitive or friendly. I'm hoping the geese will fill my desire to have some pet birds.

Now, if you have traumatic geese memories you may be thinking I'm crazy. Well, if they end up attacking my children, they will be dinner. We are just getting a few to try them out. We are going to handle them a lot. I'm going to work with the kids on not running from the geese or establishing any bad behavioral issues - no running, no intimidating etc. We will work on carrying treats daily as we do chores. So hopefully we will have friendly geese. Geese don't lay a lot of eggs. We're talking twenty to fifty/sixty a year depending on the breed. The French Toulouse lay towards the higher end. I like the idea of bonding with the original pair, letting them hatch and rear their young, and then eating the wild things. Obviously I have some details to work out, like they are going to be vicious when setting on their eggs and caring for their goslings. And then, wild goslings may be too wild... It is an experiment.

Other poultry notes: I'm still trying to decide whether to get regular Cornish Cross this summer or a slower growing meat bird. I think we are going to do four Broad Breasted Whites again as opposed to heritage breeds. I'm collecting duck eggs to start incubating in the next few days. I'm collecting Peking eggs and Peking crossed with Saxony eggs. We will keep the females for layers and eat the males. We just need a handful of layers. I'm going to set a few Ameraucana eggs and probably buy a few Ameraucanas and Sexlinks at the feed store. Each summer I end up with five groups of birds to feed and water. I'm trying to think of how to simplify the chores. There are the established layers, established ducks, then the turkeys, the cornish and then the new layers, ducks and geese. I may combine the established birds, and then all the new birds except the turkeys. Does anyone have experience raising turkeys with other poultry? Everything I read says that is a big no no, but then I've heard of folks doing it without problems. Also, if you have experience with raising geese and have any advice I would love to hear it. Thanks again for your words of encouragement and kindness regarding this years kidding losses. Take care.

Oh yeah, and here is to facing our fears, bees, geese or whatever they may be. Cheers!

Our house is filled with the sound of chicks cheeping once again. After a sunny family outing to the ice park, we stopped at our local feed store and looked at chicks. They don't have the selection that will be available in the coming weeks, but the basics were covered; Broad Breasted white and bronze turkeys, Rouen ducks, assorted bantams, Cornish Cross, and a half a dozen or so egg laying breeds. We picked up six Cornish Cross and six Black Sex linked layers. Today we are going to stop in for six Rhode Island Reds that were not available for take home yesterday as they had just arrived.

Setting up the chick area took about twenty minutes. I grabbed a chick waterer and feeder along with a tub, electrolytes and a heat lamp from our chicken storage area. I scooped a bucket of feed out of the storage container and ground it up for the chicks, adding a few pinches of herbal wormer on the top. The only item that would help is a bag of wood chips. They are in our hallway under the seed starting rack. In a few weeks we'll probably move them up into the lower chicken/duck coop. We only have three ducks and two roosters in the lower coop presently. We have plans to kill one male duck and the extra roosters this week, leaving two ducks which can easily move into the greenhouse or hoophouse, leaving the better insulated structure for brooding chicks.

I've been keeping an eye on Honey, our Cochin who you'd think would be going broody anytime now. If she goes broody in the next month or so I'm going to put some duck and Ameraucana eggs under her. In mid April sixty ducklings will be flown up from Holderread Waterfowl Farm, of which about twenty five are for us, the rest for a couple friends. We have thirty Cornish ordered with McMurray for early June. We picked up six yesterday as our frozen chicken stash is down to just a few and I don't want to be out of roasters come grilling time in June and July so the plan is for these six Cornish to hold us over till the end of summer when the rest are ready.

We were hoping to raise an assortment of heritage turkeys but we just found out that the feed store isn't carrying any heritage turkeys this year except by special order, which may be more hassle than we are up for. I had looked at ordering heritage turkey poults directly from the hatcheries, but needed a minimum of fifteen. I am thinking we may just buy four Broad Breasted Whites. We have a small movable hoophouse on our top mini flat spot, I'd say pasture but that would be an exaggeration. We raised four Bourbon Reds in there a couple summers ago and it worked out fine. Four BB Whites would provide three times or more meat that the Heritage counterparts anyways. I am looking forward to grinding up at least one turkey for ground turkey meat and sausage.

For now, I'm happy to be listening to the sound of the first chicks of spring.....