What In The World?!?!?!?!

I haven't given up on blogging just got out of the habit.

This is Noodle, my Brahama who lays the retarded eggs. Sometimes they won't even have a shell on them and when there is one it's so thin that it breaks when you pick it up.

I was tired of the mess they always make in the nesting boxes and made a quick decision to have her culled from the flock the other day.

Chuck and Tom were butchering Tom's two meat chickens, Costco & Sams Club and on the spur of the moment I asked Chuck to take care of Noodle for me.

He did so there are no more retarded eggs and no more Noodle.

Here is what Tom found in Noodle when he cleaned her minus the egg he pulled out first. The pink spongy thing is the Ovary that produces the yolks/eggs. Eggs are produced constantly and they grow bigger as they continue down the chickens Ovum to the end. There was some white around the larger yolks and of course won't stay on with out the shell.

Insanity

A few weeks ago as Chuck and I were lying in bed on a Sunday morning we heard a crashing noise coming from downstairs. We ran down to check it out and found nothing out of place or that had fallen. A few minutes later a Robin flew into our kitchen window. It kept hitting the window and would only stop when I would open the front door and scare it away. Then a few minutes later it would start up again, flying into our kitchen window again.
This went on about the same time each day for almost a week. In fact it was happening so much that the Robin lefts its droppings behind on the brick ledge under our window.
I thought to myself, "This Robin is insane. It keeps doing the same thing over an over and I'm sure it's expecting different results." I have been going through some personal coaching and this experience struck a chord in my life on some habits and behaviors I'm working on changing. I realized that I also was expecting different results in several situations while not changing my behavior/habits; a good lesson and wake up call for me.
During that week I left my camera in the kitchen because I wanted to get a picture of the "Insane Robin" but was never able to get a picture of him. But this morning when I was getting a drink of water I heard something hit the back door and turned to see The Insane or another Insane Robin doing the same thing! My camera was still there and I was quick enough to get this picture.
I've done some research on why a Robin would repeat this behavior and found out that it is a male Robin protecting his territory from other male Robins. Did you know the were so aggressive as to fight off another male? They are; and the ones that keep hitting my windows are seeing their own reflection thinking it is another male Robin. Maybe that is why men won't wash windows...they don't want that other guy in the window to see them doing household chores.

Eggs, They're All They're Cracked Up To Be

We have been enjoying eggs in all shapes and sizes, some days we get 5 eggs other we get 3 or 4. They all add up and we have lots of eggs! It's fun! The smallest skinniest chickens are my White Leghorns and they lay the largest eggs; they are a great laying chicken. While the Rhode Island Red, Wynadotte & the Barred Rock started out laying little eggs the Leghorns started with a medium sized egg; and they've only gotten bigger.

We have had several double yolkers from the Leghorns and we got our first double yolker from the Lucy, the Rhode Island Red the other day. Ethyl, one of the Leghorns had to show up Lucy and she laid a humongous jumbo egg. Then two days later we got another jumbo egg. We cracked them this morning to make omelets for breakfast and there were two large yolks in each egg, we didn't know if we would get triple yolks or what. It sure has been fun to have fresh eggs and what a surprise each day, we never know what we are going to get. I'm holding one of the jumbo eggs next to a small egg. Then you will see them waiting to be scrambled in a bowl.

A Plucky Group of Friends

Many are wondering about the fate of our rooster, Fried. We took care of it Saturday evening about 8 am. the Ellis's came over with two of their roosters and we butchered all three of them. Here is Jeremy holding Fried as he was bleeding out and John is holding Blackie & Whitey, their two roosters.
John & Jessie are plucking the birds




Chuck and I are butchering the birds, note that they look just like chicken.

Here is Jeremy holding some feet. Note the claws are missing; Jeremy has a collection of chicken claws now.


And here is Fried, Blackie & some of Whitey. They loved watermelon so as a memoriam I took their final photo with something they loved. On Sunday, the 29th of June, Tom and Patricia came over with the Ellis Family and we had a wonderful fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and yummy chicken milk gravy. The great company and great food made a wonderful evening.
I'm counting down to the end of August when the egg laying begins.

Execution Day

Today, June 28, 2008; Fried, (AKA Jilly then Jack) will fill the measure of his creation; to end up in a frying pan. Fried is starting to crow and it's pretty funny. Imagine a crowing rooster crossed with a teenager whose voice is cracking while changing. Chuck took his chanter out the other day and was playing and Fried started to crow along, funny. It's time however and we don't want a tough chicken that we can't eat. Fried's attorney is out of town at a picnic (eating burgers of course!) so there will be no stay of execution, it will happen this evening.

This picture was taken at 6:45 am while Fried is currently on death row with only water & a bale of straw. His last meal was watermelon and chicken scratch. This evening John & his family are coming over with two of their roosters and we will butcher all three together. Then tomorrow we with the Ellis's will have a fried chicken dinner. Nate and Michelle are coming out to join us and if Tom get's over his sickness the Byrnes will join us as well.

Here is all the girls except the Plymouth Bardrocks. They are smaller and a little hen-pecked so they were hiding under the ramp when I took this. Note Lucyhorn Leghorn is pink around her face. All the girls combs and wattles are starting to turn red.

Here is a shot of the chicken run being guarded by my fierce shovel birds. My dad makes the shovel birds and I thought they looked cute with the chickens. Unfortunately, they don't scare off the stray cats that prowl the Coop Deville every evening. The green stuff is shade cloth as it gets really hot in the day & the girls love it. Currently it's just hanging over and held down with boards. Probably today Chuck and I will attach some so it won't blow off. Framed by the door you can see a little Baared Rock, (black spot) they are the same age as the Brahma's and twice as small. (you can see half a Brahma's sticking out behind the door)

I like this picture you can see the feathers on the Light Brahama's feet and their coloring too. They are my favorite bird for looks, they are also incredibly tame. The Rhode Island Reds are stretching up and the morning sun caught their feathers, they are the biggest birds right now. I believe the Light Brahma's will take over that title soon as they are a month younger than the reds and almost their size. Note the watermelon skins on the ground; these days we cut our melons with a little more red and the girls pound it down except for the tough outer skin.

I'm Baaack!

Wow, I feel like a stranger to my own blog, I think it's been several weeks since I've written, maybe a month. Callie told me she was sick of looking at the bunnies so Callie, this one is for you. Chuck and I have been living life at a break neck pace ever since it's stopped raining and we have all this yard work to do. I've gotten so busy with my business I come home at night and crash. Everyone asks me how real estate is going so you get to hear about the SW Idaho real estate market first.
The good news is that all sign show we have hit the bottom however; there is no telling how long it will be before we see some appreciation. From the reports and statistics I read I believe we will see property values began to climb by this time next year for sure. The good news is; if you're a buyer or want to invest in a long term investment give me a call, there are some great deals out there. I am working with several buyers right now and always have time to work with your friends and family who are looking to buy or sell real estate. I will treat them well and would love the referral from any of you.
Has anyone seen the month of May? I seem to have lost it and I see by the calendar June is about to end. On June 10th I had the opportunity to host the judges again for the Junior Miss Cherry Festival Pageant. I love volunteering for that each year as I get to work with my good friend Lyleen plus the little girls in the pageant are just adorable. I would adopt them as my granddaughters if I could. My job is to stay with the judges keeping the moms away from them. So I get to sit in the interviews and it so fun to hear what they have to say, Art Linkletter said it best, "Kids say the darnedest things." After the interviews I take the judges to my friend Ellens house where we eat lunch and relax before going back to the Jr High for the pageant. It's really a lot of fun and I enjoy working with Lyleen and Collen the producer. I hear next year Jessica and Nichole Brinkerhoff along with Shanda Rowley are going to enter the pageant. It will be fun seeing them compete since they are all three very pretty and accomplished girls.
While I was busy volunteering Chuck was in Orlando at an annual seminar for Rockwell. I went with him last year but this year I had spent all my extra money on Coop Deville so I didn't have the extra for a plane ticket. He had a great time and said it would have been better had I been with him. (Awwww, how sweet is he? I say the best!) So next year the first of June I'll blog from Orlando, FL. You know that I think about I haven't even seen any movies with Chuck, he did go see Iron Man with out me and loved it.
Our yard is a lot of work of course which always takes time. I have planted three of my flower beds with perennials so they will be easier to maintain. Three years ago I put red day lilies and this beautiful purple spike sage in the beds next to the patio with my clematis, I love it. They came up, look great and I hardly have to weed. The lilies have bunches of heads ready to bloom and my Clematis is about to bloom, it's beautiful and with out work! Bring it on, I'm ready. I'll blog about my yard one day as it's very enjoyable and pretty when everything is blooming & happy.
Speaking of my yard...I have been noticing a humming bird flying into my Poplar Tree in the front yard. The other day I walked out to see if there was a nest or something. I took these pictures so I could share the little humming bird I found. It's nest is interesting and appears to be made out of some kind of foam, if you click on the pictures for a closer look you can check it out your self. The first picture is of the birds head then I got the second shot from the other side which shows the tail and the long beak.

I find it humorous that one of my first blogs was about birds and now here I am writing about a bird again, there seem to be a lot of birds in my life. Oh, there are lot of stray cats in my life too. They stealthily stalk Coop Deville each evening and probably through the night. My plan is to borrow a friends raccoon trap clean up my neighborhood. The neighbors two doors down let a stray cat have babies under their shed and they don't feed them, they are pretty wild and the only way to rid my hood will be to trap them. probably more than everyone wanted to know but hey, that's life in the country.

A Rooster in the Hen House

On the 6th of May I picked up the last four of my little chicks and this little duck for my friend Lyleen. She already has two Mallard Ducks and wanted a white one. Addison, her grand daughter, named her Peeps. Peeps is adorable but growing fast just like my hens, Lyleen tells me she has outgrown her first home already and she has to make a bigger box for her or him. The hatchery doesn't sex ducks so it's a guess as to what you get. Peeps is a Pekin Duck, they are usually grown for their meat but not Peeps, she/he will be a family pet.


These are the last of the little ladies for my hen house. There are two black ones and they are Plymouth Bardrocks. They will be the black with white dots. The others are my Light Brahmas, they are the tame variety and are the ones I bought for pets. Both varieties will lay brown eggs. I will keep them separate from the others until they are big because I don't want them to be hen pecked. The Light Brahmas will have feathers on their feet. If you look close you can see down on their feet in the picture.




Notice anything different about the dark chicken on the right in the back? Look close and you will see a red waddle starting to develop on her jowls and her comb is really big, fat & red. That's Little Jilly, the runt. It appears that Jilly is actually Jack! Yes, I think I have a rooster in my hen house! I called the hatchery and they said it appears that I do have a rooster and they are sorry that does happen once in a while. So I guess I will have 9 hens and chicken Pot Pie! As I don't want any roosters this will be my first test, can I eat little Jilly, I mean Jack? Should I fry her/him up? Right now it seems a little surreal to me. I know what I've said but that was before the rubber met the road. For the time being I'm just going to watch her/him to make sure I'm right and that I just don' t have an early developer.
All the chickens are still in the garage under heat lamps. The hen house is close to being done. Chuck has to finish the door and we have to install the chicken run and install some chicken wire. I believe it will be finally done this weekend. Does anyone know where I can get a bale of straw?

Do You Name Your Chicken?

I took this picture tonight. I'm going to Utah for a week in the morning and Chuck will have to watch them, he won't take any pictures. I wanted to remember what they looked like because I'm sure they will have most of their down gone when I get home on the 3rd. I pick up the new chicks on May 6th and they will take over the box. We will need a place for these six ladies to go, looks like there will be some serious hen house finishing happening. I've noticed as the feathers come in the down gets pushed out and they look like a rock star with morning hair.
Just below that's Tammy Wyndotte standing on the rock. Her sister, Jilly, is the runt and just barely has a little puff where her tail feathers are coming out. I kind of hope Tammy & Jilly keep the markings on their faces and Jilly stays a little smaller so I can tell them apart. Holly gave me a new name for Ethyl, she is now Fernleg Leghorn. I'll call her Fern for short and I have no idea how to tell her from her sister Lucy Leghorn. Tonight I learned from my home teacher, John Swander, that to keep egg production up I should keep young chickens. He said about every two years. I asked what to do with the two year old chickens and you can guess what he said. It will be kind of weird serving up Jilly, Tammy, Lucy & Fern. Maybe I'd better stop naming the ladies. Or I should just change their names to Fried, Picatta, Pot Pie, & Noodle Soup?

Growing But Still Cute

when I stick my camera in to take a picture they squish down and look cute again but most of the time all but the runt stand pretty tall. The Leghorns are pretty aggressive and get in everyones business (yellow/white) the Wynadottes (black) seem pretty docile compared to them and the Rhode Island Reds are somewhere in the middle.
This shot is of all six my little ladies. It won't be much longer before they aren't cute but gawky and funny looking.



Their wings are feathering out fast. And they have cute little tail feathers but most of their body is still covered in down. I have to keep them under the heat lamp until they are all covered with feathers. I think I am going to name the Leghorns Lucy & Ethyl after my friend Lyleen's ducks.







This shows my little Wyandotte runt. Note that she doesn't have any tail feathers and her wings are still half down.
I think I am going to name her Jilly after my runt granddaughter. Her sister has a tail and more feathers on her wings, I've named her Tammy Wynadotte.

On May 6th I will be getting 4 more little girls; two Plymouth Bardrocks and two Light Brahmas. Hopefully the hen house will be ready for these six. I'm sure we will have to hang a heat lamp out there for the first little while.

A Roof on Coop DeVille

Check out that beautiful roof. Friday night Chuck and I finished nailing all of the rafters onto the ridge beam. We felt an urgency to get it all done as this crazy storm was fore casted to arrive sometime Saturday and we wanted it weather tight. We don't have the shingles on yet there is just tar paper on it. There is a lot of frost too, I took this picture this morning and it's in the 20's.
We were pretty tired and slept in a bit on Saturday then I had some real estate work to do so we didn't get started until about 11:00 on Saturday morning.
So We cut the first sheet of OSB and I'm helping Chuck lift it up on the roof, we're both on ladders, and I just wasn't making the grade. I don't have the upper body strength of a man, we needed some help. After a call John Ellis came over shortly and he and Chuck made quite the team I became the official gopher. I ran to the Co-Op to buy six penny galvanized nails, then to the lumber store to get two more sheets of OSB for the roof, then to Tim Walkers scrap pile to get the pieces John and I had seen there earlier for our hen houses.
I found some paneling that matches ours for our gable ends, picked up a bunch of 2x4's for John's. Then the coolest find, I took all the old drawers back from our old bath vanity to use as nesting boxes for the Ellis's and our hen house's. (A note: Tim Walker did our remodel and our old bath vanity was still in his scrap pile.)
I can't thank Chuck enough for all the work (and putting his life at risk as he almost slipped off the roof twice on Saturday) he is putting into my new hobby. We will both benefit from the chickens, however he has put more work into the project so far than I have. Also we couldn't have done it with out John Ellis's help. I will make them the first flan from the first eggs.

Coop DeVille

What a crazy past few days Chuck & I've had. Last Saturday we bought the material for the hen house and we started building on Monday. John Ellis came over yesterday & today to help Chuck. What a blessing friends are! Because of his help so much progress was made. Tonight when I got home from work I helped Chuck set the ridge beam and measured, cut and put up some of the roof supports (I don't know what they are called) We took a few pictures they are of Chuck and I working on the roof thingys. The little ladies are getting bigger and looking more and more like chickens rather than cute little balls of down. I believe we will have them in their new home in about a week.

 
 

Three Baby Birds

This evening when I saw mama fly from the nest I peeked to see the progress. There were three little hungry birds and still one egg not hatched. Though the pictures show two birds one kept behind the others. My Clematis is starting to grow so I[m anxious for the little guys to leave the nest so I can cut it back.

 

 

 

Signs of Growth

I knew they would grow fast but never having experienced it I wasn't sure just how fast. Last night I saw the tips of their feather coming out but was too tired to shoot them. This morning when I went out the tips of their feathers were twice the size they were last night! This is little Leghorn is drinking, she looks like a chicken not a chick.
 

Here is a close up of one of the Rhode Island Reds wings. It's interesting to see the personalities in the different breeds. The Wynadotts seem to be more docile while the Leghorns are definitely the instigators, more aggressive, etc.
 

It's hard to get a picture of the Wynadotts (dark) they are always in the back or corner. If you look close you can see their wing feathers coming out in this picture
 

The baby birds in the nest are growing too. I'm not going to post a photo because the one I took this morning is just a blob of gray down. When I checked this morning the mama was out of the nest already and they were asleep. I don't know if the third egg has ever hatched or not.

We've Got Girls!

They've arrived! Six of our ten little laying hens are at home in the garage. I quickly ran to Dunlap Hatchery in Caldwell to pick them up yesterday. It was a cold day and I was anxious to get them under the heat lamp so I talked Patricia into coming down and helping me get their box set up. She built a fine first home for the litte ladies while I strung the heat lamp over the place the box would be.
They are so adorable and I understand they will grow fast and get ugly. Oh well, its all part of the game.
Chuck and I sat down to plan our coop last Saturday. With his engineering mind he has to build a proper and correct hen house with new supplies. I would like to use some used wood & shivered boards we have, well that won't due to build a proper hen house. My friend Ellen told me she was lucky to get a coop at all so I should just enjoy my "Cadillac" of a hen house and I will. Chuck and John Ellis are going to start Saturday and then they will build John one for his 6 Araucana's. I've decided that since I'm getting a "Cadillac" of a hen house it should have a name over the door. Soooo....I'll take some photos of "Coop Devillle's" progress the next few days. If any of you know Chuck at all you kno he will do a first rate job on the coop.
Oh and here are six of my little girls: One of the dark ones is "Tammy" Wynadotte, one of the red ones is "Rhoda" The Island Red and one yellow is "Lucy" Leghorn. I need names for the other three.
I'm open to suggestions.
 

Baby Bird Update

Check out this last photo I took of the Junco nest in my Clematis vine. I took this picture this morning after I saw the mama fly out of the nest. There is still an egg to be hatched, you can see it just above the birds beak through the down. I'm guessing that it probably won't hatch. There are definitely two little baby birds I'll describe the photo because it is difficult to see. The open beak is prominent of course and the two sides of the beak are two big black spots those are the eyes. The bird is laying on it's back and if you look closely you can see its little feet pulled up close to it's tummy. I don't know how long it will take before feathers start to grow and its eyes open but I'll keep you posted. I probably won't take a photo every day as I don't want to disturb them too much.

 

2 Oregon Junco's?

I took these after General conference. In both pictures you can see their little beaks. There is still one egg you can see a portion of it in the background of the second picture. Cathy just called she used her bird books to identify the birds we think they are Oregon Junco's.


 
 

Sunday Morning & A New Chick

I thought I would document the eggs hatching and it looks like a second egg hatched sometime this morning. If you look at the darkest pink blob on the right I believe that is a tiny open beak, however I'm not sure. It was easier to see in the Picasa format. My friend Cathy asked what kind of bird this is. The mama flies away pretty fast so it's hard to see; I think I'm seeing a dark almost black head with a grey body. I believe I saw her foraging for food this morning. Enjoy! Chuck and I are.

Baby Bird

Spring here and it brought massive weeds to our yard. I was in the back yard spraying today and as I finished up and walked to the patio to clean up my equipment I spooked a bird who was in my dead Clematis vines. When I looked where she came from I saw this. I have never seen such a new little baby bird and I wanted to share it so I ran into the house, grabbed my camera and took this picture. It looks like my baby chicks that are coming on Tuesday will have some company!