Farm Nerd

I have finally realized that I am a chicken lover.  When we first got chickens, I thought that it was going to be primarily to put some wholesome food in my children's belly's.  I wanted make them eggs that I knew were hormone free and that had nice orange yolks bursting with creamy flavor.  I wanted to bake them roast chicken from birds raised in a loving, cruelty free environment.  Our chickens are basically spoiled rotten and well loved.  They get some sort of treat every day.  Fruits, veggies, nuts, oats and wheat, corn, feed, worms and bugs and best of all... grass.

This morning's treat for the chicken's and ducks.

It is hard work being spoiled rotten.

Every time I head out to their area, the chickens come a'running!  It makes me feel as if they are secure and confident and that we are succeeding in our goal.  The ducks I will admit are quite a bit more anti-social.  We received them when they were about a week old, and although we handled them constantly, they have pretty much just stuck to themselves.  The chickens enjoy visiting, but they do not care for being handled.  Every once in a while, Gage has to give it a shot, but ends up being defeated by the chicken's strong wills.

Chicken's enjoying their morning treat.

The ducks can be caught, but you have to catch them the hard way.... by literally chasing them down.  I have found what slows them down is when they get separated.  They do NOT like getting separated from each other, so they end up stopping.  They have reached a size and age now where chasing them down for handling is not appropriate, so now we enjoy just sitting back and watching their antics.  They are stand-offish and anti-social and super super dramatic.  Our plans for the ducks are eggs, meat and entertainment.  Also, if you want to get in good with the ducks, swing out to our farm with your leftover bread crusts.

Snobby Snobberson's

Our alpha rooster Ernie is now finally crowing.  You can tell him apart from our other rooster Bert by the fact that Ernie's comb is much larger.  He struts around like he owns the joint, and I am confidant he will be able to protect the chickens from here on out.  He has reached a size where I am starting to think it would be a good idea for kids (including Gage) to start wearing safety glasses when entering the bird area.

Ernie the alpha rooster.

He is sort of a stinker.

Right now we have three breeds of chickens.  The fat tan ones are called Buff Orpingtons and they are a dual purpose bird.  They have high quality meat and they are moderate layers of brown eggs.  The black and white ones are called Barred Rock's and they are also a dual purpose bird.  They lay a bit more brown eggs than the Buff Orpingtons but they are not as meaty.  Lastly we have only one of the brown and white ones left.  They are called Red Sex-Link.  They are an egg laying breed that is supposed to lay a high volume of brown eggs.  They are very skittish and not what I would consider social.  Our previous adult cats ate all of the rest of these.  Our plans at this point are to get another batch of chicks this month.  Our flock will not be laying until Spring and we are super excited for that first egg discovery in the coop!

These are Barred Rock.  Very curious and friendly.  If you were ever to want to get a backyard chicken for a pet, I would suggest this breed.

The breed of ducks we decided to start out with are basic Pekin Ducks.  The are obsessed with trying to lay in the waterer and are the underdogs of the bird area.   Next year we will not be having them integrated with the chickens.  Also, we probably will not increase our duck flock until Spring.

So I hope you have enjoyed my little bit of Farm Nerdiness, you will be seeing quite a bit of it from here on out!  *insert evil laugh*