Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Chicks Chicks and more Chicks!


Sunday night I came home from work and could hear peeping inside of the eggs under my hen.  I'm new to hatching eggs, this was the first time I've ever tried.  I never realized they peeped inside of the eggs!  I woke up the next morning to see that one of the little brown eggs had a hole poked in it and I got a beautiful fat yellow chick out of it.  It was kinda neat to actually be able to see the process and how everything worked. I was happy to see that all the eggs I had were fertile and all hatched beautifully, the last one hatching this morning.  I was surprised that they all hatched without any issues.

I went to the feed store to pick up some more Amerucanas yesterday also.  I'd like to start raising the chicks to sell without having to worry about accidently inbreeding.  Plus I love their egg color and awesome personalities.  I came home with a box full of them.

Matt woke up to a basement full of chicks in a brooder and a kennel with Little Girl.  He was like *sigh* I guess you'll be selling lots of eggs this summer and I'll be building a couple coops.  Yep!

Everyone has been asking for chick pictures, and these aren't the best because they move around a lot.  I'll take more once they are all stable and not running for Little Girls feathers.

Amerucanas I got yesterday:






I love this little brown one cause it looks like a bear.

Concerned eyebrows on this one
New babies!


Little Girl is concerned about what's going on

Look at the pips!

What's peeping!

Chick starting to zip its way out of the egg

First baby!

Add caption

Went back down a little later to check and more hatched!

Almost dry

Peeking out from under her mom

Love the little black stripes on the yellow one



All the chicks hatched!!! (Now I have to get her in a box so I can clean the dirty straw)


The yellow one is a sultan chick

Yellow sultan chick and little black banty in the back





Monday, March 4, 2013

Chick Time is Starting!


So Matt and I decided to stop at Light's Mill in town today because we saw a sign for chicks and were curious about what they had.  He's been wanting Rhode Island Reds for a while so we decided to get three pullets.  Ended up getting three Barred Rock pullets as well.  I love having chicks!  I guess we will be selling lots of eggs soon!
Chicks on their way home from the store

Chicks getting settled in their new home

Baby Rhode Island Reds

Baby Barred Rock

This is what they'll look like when they grow up!
Barred Rock Hen

Rhode Island Red Hen

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Using eggshells to plant seedlings

Yesterday I started planting my seeds for my garden this year by using eggshells for the seed pots.  It's good to use them because it helps to cut down on waste and the eggshells are biodegradable and completely natural.  Using eggshells adds vitamins to the soil that help your plants to grow strong, especially tomatoes. The additional calcium added to the soil helps to stop end rot in tomato plants.

This is how to use the eggshells to grow seedlings.

Using eggshells to plant seeds:

1) Take used eggshells, they need to be at least half intact.  If you don't have any shells around but you have eggs, you can always crack the eggs into a ziplock bag, add salt and lightly mix them like you would to scramble them.  It makes a sort of homemade egg beater that you can freeze.

2) Wash out the eggshells and let them dry.

3) Put the eggshells in a used egg carton


washed and dried eggshells
4) Fill eggshells up with dirt.  You can spoon it in or if you have thicker shells you can scoop it up if it isn't too wet and heavy

5) Plant your seedlings in the eggshells.  Works best with tomatoes and small plants such as herbs, but you can plant anything you want in them.


I scooped dirt in so it looks a little messy
 6) Once you see true leaves on your seedlings, roll the shells gently in your hand to start breaking it up and break a hole in the bottom of the shells.  Plant the whole shell in the soil so it can add calcium to your plants. 

Planting with this method makes it easy to add nutrients, easy to move around since they are in the cartons and an organic way to plant without having to worry about what is in your starter pots.

Try this and let me know how it works for you!  Post pictures of your seedlings on our Facebook page!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Attempting to hatch some eggs!


So I decided to see if I could get some of my Bantys to hatch some eggs for me.  I have Little Girl sitting on a few Amerucana and Buff/Amerucana eggs.  Lets See what happens!  It's hard to take pictures of her, Rufio likes the camera a lot and thinks he has to be in all of the pictures.