Three Years Old!

 

Three years ago yesterday (Oct 21, 2007), our first batch of chicks arrived from Privett’s hatchery in Southern, New Mexico.

This month also marks the third year we’ve lived here on Laughing Orca Ranch in the mountains of Central New Mexico.

As for the chickens, these were our very first chickens and the first animals to grace our little ranch. My parents had chickens when I was kid, so I wasn’t completely a stranger to poultry keeping, but I was still excited to own our own flock and wanted to do make sure we did everything right.

I started off with 13 chickens, going in together with a friend so we could split a larger order and get an interesting and varied selection of chickens:

• 2 Rhode Island Reds (Rita and Rhoda)
• 2 Barred Rocks (Betty and Bertha)
• 3 Ameracauanas (Annie, Fertile Myrtle, Angelina Ballerina)
• 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes (Suzie, Sandy)
• 2 Speckled Sussex (Spotty Dotty, Kipper) 
• 2 Brown Leghorns (Brownie, Beanie)

A year later I decided I wanted to add a few more chickens to our flock and chose some unusual breeds, just to amuse and entertain…..a little ‘Coop Candy, if you will:

• 2 Polish (Phyllis Diller and Sid Vicious)
• 2 Japanese Silkies (Mr. and Mrs. Cotton)

(This lovely lady is Phyllis Diller, our Golden-Laced Polish Hen)

One of the Silkies turned out to be a Rooster, and one of the Polish ended up being a rooster, too, which we decided to name Sid Vicious, after the punk rocker.

(This is our Silky Rooster, Mr. Cotton. He’s a sweet roo)

Before the handsome Sid Vicious decided to live up to his name, he fathered 4 chicks: two roosters and two hens. We gave away the roosters, even though they were very handsome boys. And we kept the two hens. One of the hens grew into a lovely black hen with gold highlights, and we named her Ebony. While the other became a carbon copy of Sid Vicious, and we named her Pat Benatar. I’ve been very pleased about how beautiful Pat’s become because I sometimes miss that gorgeous Sid Vicious and wish he hadn’t of attacked me and became so vicious.

(This is Pat Benatar, Sid’s daughter. Her photo is also in my blog header, too. )

When Pat was a chick, the rest of the eggs in the clutch didn’t hatch, so she was born alone. So, I went out to the feed store and adopted two more chicks to keep her company:

• 1 Black Sex-Link (Liza Minelli)
• 1 Buff Orpington (Matilda)

(Here’s our pretty Buffie Hen, Matilda)

And then last Spring, I attended a Poultry Sale and bought some new pullets to add some more color to our egg harvests:

• 2 Welsumers (Cocoa and Hershey)
• 1 Cuckoo Marans (Snickers)

 

(One of our Welsumer Hens……..What’s up, Chicken Butt?!)

Over the past three years, we’ve lost 8 chickens to sickness, predator attack and re-homing. And we now have 18 chickens in our flock: 17 hens and 1 rooster.

The older hens have slowed down on their egg-laying duties and are just dear pets now. But we still get between 5-8 eggs per day from our flock, which keeps us from having to buy any store-bought eggs for our baking, while also allowing us to enjoy delicious green chile breakfast burritos at least a couple times a week.

I’m so glad we have chickens, not only to give us tasty, fresh eggs, but also to enjoy their entertaining antics and behavior. I can’t tell you how many times my chickens have relaxed me and brought me joy just by watching them peck and scratch, waddle around and take dust baths, and cluck and mutter to each other. Just stroking their feathers while they sit on my lap can be very peaceful. I can’t imagine not owning my own chickens.

Yay! For Chickens!

Peaches All Day Long

 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I walked outside and picked peaches from our peach tree.

For breakfast we sipped delicious, creamy peach smoothies.

For lunch, I sat on the porch, enjoying the cool breezes and a glass of lemonade (the perfect palate refresher) while peeling peaches for Peach Freezer Jam. I’ve got 68oz of fresh, delicious peach jam in my freezer now. Wintertime will be much more bearable when we are enjoying the sweet taste of summer with snow is on the ground. Mmmmm!

For dinner we enjoyed a new recipe, similar to Hawaiian Chicken, but instead of pineapple, I made a fresh peach sauce. My kidlets were skeptical, but they ended up devouring everything on their plates and then asking for seconds. Very yummy!

And for dessert, I baked a Peach Cobbler, which we gobbled up while watching a movie. (Have you all seen IronMan? Awesome movie! And now one of my favorites.)

I think I even dreamed of peaches last night, too.

Sunday Stills ~ Controls

 

This week’s Sunday Stills Challenge was to photograph anything used to turn on or control a non-living device such as knobs, switches, keypads, buttons, etc.

Here are my entries.

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Boys

 

My poor hens have been dealing with way too much attention from our two young roosters that were hatched out by Mrs. Cotton, our Japanese Silkie, 6 months ago. She also hatched out one little black hen, too. I felt bad for my girls, seeing how those two young bucks would ravage a hen, what seemed like every 15-20 minutes. The poor girls couldn’t even sleep or eat without looking over their shoulder. And sometimes the two of them would tag-team on a hen too.

In comparison, Sid Vicious and Mr. Cotton are almost 2 years old now and have matured enough to not have the same strong urges they had when they were younger. If they get a little hen-love a couple times a day, they are more than content.

In addition, these two young roosters were adding to the noise levels exponentially through their beginning efforts at cock-a-doodle- doo’ing.  

So, these two amorous young studs had to go. And I had to find them new homes.

 

I posted ads for free roosters on Freecycle and Craigs List and the next day a lady and her daughter came to pick up one rooster to watch over their flock because their previous rooster had died.

One gone, one to go.

But just 2 days later, a lady and her husband stopped by to pick up the last rooster. Their flock was without a rooster and they enjoy different breeds of chickens, so they were looking forward to having a flashy rooster to add to their flock.

So, now we are back to having just two roosters again and coop life is much calmer and things are back to normal…………….

    

and my girls can relax now. 

Sunday Stills ~ Fruit

 

Ok Ed, what we’re you thinking coming up with fruit as this week’s Sunday Stills challenge? I was thinking of making snow into fruit and setting them up into poses, but I’d probably suffer frostbite. There was also the option of creating mud fruit, but I didn’t want to get dirty. bleh. I’m so over winter already.

So these photos are from my archives. From wonderful memories of warm sunny days filled with baskets of sweet, delicious fruit, gifts from our apple and peach orchard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       Mmmm! Peach Smoothies! Cheers!

 

Check out Sunday Stills to enjoy more fruit photos from around the world!

Work with Me Annie

 

Just like the song playing on my playlist, I am hoping that Annie will work with me for a while longer until her feathers grow back and she is strong enough to join the flock again.

We’ve had Annie, our 2 year old Ameracauna, or Easter Egger hen, in our house since Christmas Day. She was on death’s door and I found her shivering in a corner of the chicken house, bedraggled and weak, not even able to walk.

I brought her inside and created a warm layer for her using an old baby onsie t-shirt and then tucked her into a wire cage with fluffy wood shavings and a bowl of warm oatmeal. For the first 24 hours she refused to eat much at all unless I hand-fed her. She mostly just slept, and shivered, even though she was in the nice warm laundry room.

After my parents left to go back home to North Carolina, we brought her into the main house and placed her cage in front of the south facing sliding glass door, looking out at the chicken coop.

 

She seemed to perk up much faster and her appetite finally returned after about 4 days. We started letting her out to stretch her legs a couple times a day. She doesn’t want to walk far, but she loves to stretch out in the sunlight.

Between a late molting and the attention of the roosters, she was missing a lot of feathers off her back, some of her neck and her belly, too. She just couldn’t get warm outside. So she’ll be staying inside the house for a couple more weeks until her new feathers grow out.

She’s been very tolerant and almost seems to know this is what she needs, though I’ve caught her staring out the window to the chicken coop on more than one occasion. She also sighs and talks (or squawks) on occasion just to let us know she needs something. The first few times it surprised us because it sounded like a dinosaur was in the house. But now I’m just happy to hear her talking because I know she is alright.

So, hang in there and work with me Annie. Enjoy the extra food and warmth. Before long you’ll be outside in the coop with your chicken family again.

And we’ll be expecting some of your fresh eggs in return for your comfy convalescent stay.

    

 

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And my Project 365 photo for today:

Nine Inches

 

Interesting title, eh? Well, when the weather report came out on the night before New Year’s Eve, it said we could possibly receive between 2-3” of snow. (Our 8th snowfall of the season if anyone else is keeping track.) But when we woke up in the morning, this is what we ended up with instead.

I’d say this was a wee bit more than 3” wouldn't you?

My little Dobbie girl’s stubby legs are barely 6” long. She had to work hard to move through that snow.

My daughter loved that the snow was deep enough that she could wear her new snow pants and snow boots.

 

And so did I.

My twinling sons had fun trying to make a twin snow angel.

While I was easily amused with watching the big slab of snow slide slowly to the edge of the barn roof. I was secretly hoping it might fall on top of my mare, but no such luck. haha! Doesn't it look sort of like white fondant?

But when a big section finally fell, she did run out of the barn.

“Avalanche! Run for your life!”

 

The llamas, goats and sheep were more fascinated with watching our neighbor’s kids sledding down the hill beside our paddocks.

 

But they did come over for treats and attention later.

The chickens refused to come outside of their house unless I cleared an area for them and laid out some straw for their feet, and set up some wood panels to block the wind.

 

They still spent much of their day inside their house, but the less time they’re inside, the cleaner it will be in there. In the winter I have to clean out their coop more frequently than in the summer.

 

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And here is my Project 365 photo for today.

The temperatures were down into the teens that night, and though Baby Doll has access to her barn stall at all times, she prefers to stand out in the snow with a small tree grove as shelter instead. And when I tucked my fingers underneath all of her frost and ice coated fur, I was amazed to find that the fur next to my mare’s skin was dry and her skin was toasty warm. A little bit later, she enjoyed a good roll in the snow and most of that ice and frost broke free leaving her back dry and fluffed up.