That Blozzz

This has been my first year raising chickens from chicks. As you may know from my previous posts, I had several chicks hatch out this year and now they close to maturity and the roosters are driving me crazy. I had to rescue Rooty my wimpy Aracauna Rooster last weak but now they have found a few other targets to abuse. The roosters will get one of the wimpier roosters and pin them down and just attack till they draw blood.

I decided yesterday to let them all run in the larger pen to see that will alleviate the problems. This has not helped and they are still attacking the weaker ones. Yesterday, I had to rescue Rooty again because they had him pinned under the block I use for the water container. Tonight I separated another wimp into his own cage.

I have decided it was time and Saturday I will be slaughtering at least four roosters for a chicken barbecue on Sunday. I am culling off the wimpier ones except my pet Rooty and I am culling at least one of the more aggressive ones. I am hoping that once the wimpier ones are gone, the other ones will at least fight back so they will settle down some. I will let you all know how it goes.

Anyone else every have the same problems with a group of roosters? Please share your experience.

I posted a few days ago about the storm we had last week and how it did damage to the house. Now I am in the process of dealing with contractors and the insurance company. As if the storm was not bad enough, now I am having a hard time getting the insurance company to handle things.

They sent an adjuster last week and he wrote an estimate for the damage and now I am waiting for any payment so I can get the work done. I already spent $2100 out of pocket to pay for what needed to be done right away. I have to have the roof repaired and got two estimates and both are over $1000 higher than the adjuster estimated. I emailed both the insurance company and the adjuster. The insurance company wrote back that I need to contact the adjuster directly. The problem is that he does not reply to email and he does not return voice messages.

Anybody have any advice in this matter?

There is always food scares in the news. The latest was tomatoes. The problem is that our Government is trying to regulate small farmers while allowing the big companies to pass on tainted food to the consumer.

This is why many people are returning to the old ways and raising their own food. The advantages are that you know what is going the ground or what you are feeding your animals. Growing a garden is no longer just about saving money. It is now a matter of health.

I started raising chickens last year but I am thing of expanding into raising a pig and a cow. Of course, our wonderful Government is trying to regulate us small hobby farmers to protect the national food system. We are not the problem, it is the large feed lots and large food suppliers who are causing the unsafe food supply. I know my chickens are safe and the eggs I get are very healthy and safe.

If you are in a situation where you can not raise your own food, buy local from farmers who care about their farms and are not just trying to make the quick buck.

This past week was a bad one here on the farm. We had a bad wind storm the beginning of the week. It caused two maple trees to fall and hit our house. It also broke the electric pole in half leaving us without power or telephone for most of the week.

There was not as much damage as it could have been. However, it did some major roof damage and also caused us to have to replace the electric service cable going into the house. We had house insurance but I am not sure how much we will have to pay out of pocket. We were lucky to get a local logger to clean up the trees quite quickly. It cost a lot of money but at least we were able to restore power and phone to our house with in the week.

We are lucky that no one got hurt. My 80 year old mother and I were in the house at the time and I seen the trees fall. All in all the area was hit quite hard but it seems to be getting back to normal now for most. Our cousins are still without power and I am sure there a few more. I am waiting for an estimate on my roof. I am also waiting to see when and how much the insurance company will pay. Wish me luck!

Yesterday I was out in the barn with my neighbor and we were trying to determine what was roosters in my batch of chicks this year. All of a sudden one of the chicks let me know that he was a rooster. He let out the cutest little crowing.

The surprise part of the whole thing was that it was one that I would have pegged for a hen. It was one that looked like a barred rock and everything I read, the hens have shorter combs as a pullet and black streaks on their legs. Well this little rooster had a little comb and black streaks on his leg. No I am more confused than every on how to sex them. I thought I had all the roosters picked out but I was wrong.

I am heading to the feed store today to try and get some leg bands to mark out the roosters when I find them. I will be getting rid of all the roosters in the fall. We plan to fill our freezer.

Another bit of news from  the old homestead is that thanks to my neighbor, we discovered we already have a nice patch of Rhubarb growing on our property. We got some roots from Karen’s cousins this year and planted them for next year. The neighbor came over yesterday and thought the old owners planted some Rhubarb several years back. She showed me where she thought it was and sure enough, we have three big bunches. YUM YUM.

That’s all the news for now. If you have news to share, feel free to drop me a comment or two.

I spent last weekend getting my garden ready. I got 24 tomato plants in just in time for a heavy frost. I covered them but I think I may have lost 6 of them. I planted three kinds this year because we are just getting into canning and we want to try to make some sauces.

My garden is set up with twenty foot rows and I planted two rows of potatoes, one row of carrots, three rows of corn, one row of onions, and five rows of three different kinds of cucumbers. I also planted six hot pepper plants, six broccoli plants, and few green pepper plants. I am hoping I have luck like last year where things grew like weeds.

I am also putting in a smaller garden with pumpkins and squash. We created a small are and planted some rhubarb roots for next year that we got from our cousins. My wife wants some dill planted so my flower garden will be cut down to have space for the dill.

I did a larger garden this year because whatever we have extras of, the chickens will have a feast. It will cut down on feed and give them something nutritious. I do not use any chemicals and only use compost, manure, and organic fertilizers. I prefer to keep both my family and livestock safe and free of added chemicals.

Anyone else planting a garden this year? Please share with us by leaving a comment or two.

We decided that it was time to move our four banties from the house to the barn. They just turned three weeks old and they are quite feathered so we decided to put them in a bigger cage in the barn. The kitchen was starting to smell of chickens so we needed to make the move. I placed a 40 watt bulb in a heat lamp because it got down to freezing here last night. They seemed perky today so I guess they will be ok.

My two Araucana hens are still not laying and I am not sure why. It has been a while since they laid an egg and I can see no signs of health issues. I may have to cull them or get rid of them if they keep not laying. The rest of the chickens are doing good and the chicks from this year are still growing quickly.

That is all from the coop. Any stories from your chicken coop?

I mentioned in one of my earlier post that one of the chicks this year has a crossed beak. We have thought of culling it but it seems to eat fine and is growing as good as the rest of the other chicks. It has become super friendly and I have nicknamed it Twisty.

Yesterday, I went out to let out the chicks and Twisty flew at me and landed right on my shoulder. I have never seen a chicken do that and thought it was crazy. Last night when I went out to shut them in for the night, I was bent down to try and get them to all come in and Twisty flew up and landed on my back and ran up and down my back.

Now the little thing is so crazy that it jumps right into the feed can when I walk in the coop. I guess it must have learned that to survive with a disability it must be braver than all the rest of the chickens. My wife and I was laughing last night because we said it is so crazy that none of the others will pick on it because they are scared of it.

Unless the beak becomes a major problem as Twisty grows or it turns out to be a rooster, I believe that Twisty will have a life long home in the family chicken coop.

Other news from the chicken coop:

The four bantam chicks we brought home last week are growing good. They are still in a brooder in our kitchen and they are super active. Every time we do anything in the kitchen, they are right at the little window watching us. They are cute little buggers.

The second batch of Plymouth Rocks we brought home last week (including twisty) have finally fit in with the first batch of chicks and all 36 are growing like weeds. Of course the first batch is growing much faster than the second. Kenny said the first batch was hatched by the moon cycle and old timers say they will grow faster and hardier. I am not sure if that is true but the first batch at the same age was twice the size of the second batch. Kenny hatched a batch for himself at the same time as my second batch and they too are growing slower than the first batch. There may be some truth to the moon thing.

I have two of my older hens who have quit laying. They are my one year old Araucana hens. I can not figure out why they are not laying. It is odd because they both quit about three weeks ago and have not laid an egg since. My five barred Plymouth Rocks are two years old and they are still laying regular. They all seem healthy and the Araucana hens still go into the nesting box but they leave me no egg.

Anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

Well that is all the news right now. Feel free to leave a comment or two to let me know I have live people reading my blog.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about going to a chicken swap. Yesterday, I went to the same place because they were having a small animal auction. I had thought of selling some of the chicks but my wife did not want to get up too early to get to the auction early enough to register the chicks before the auction.

That was a huge mistake! People are crazy and was paying big prices for chicks. There were about 40 Rhode Island Reds straight run chicks that went through about the same age as my chicks (7 weeks). They sold for between $11 and $16 each. I about fell on the floor. I could have sold all 36 Plymouth Rock chicks I had and made over $400. There were some day old Rhode Island Red chicks that you had to bid on one and buy all of them. They went for $8.00 each for a dozen of them. It was crazy since they were straight run and you can buy the same thing at the feed store for $2.29 each.

They had bunnies go through that went for $16-20 each. They were cute little black and white bunnies but I did not see nothing special that made them worth that. I think they sold about 25 of them at those prices. Everything else went quite high including ducks, pheasants, and turkeys. They had sheep and goats but they did not bring the big prices.

I ended up buying some nesting boxes, a cage, and some chicken wire. I got pretty good deals on them. I was not looking for any new animals at this time but now have an idea to raise a lot more chicks for next years auction. I am also considering going into raising rabbits because of the prices they got.

All in all we got a good idea what people are willing to pay and we had a great day. It gave us some ideas for future farm ventures.

Has any of my readers been to these types of auctions? What kind of prices did you see?

Wednesday we brought home the last of the chicks for this year. We added 10 to our 27 already at home. These were three weeks behind the last batch so they are a bit smaller. The night before we brought them home, our cousin found one of the chicks out of the pen and it looked like a Raven or other type bird might had picked it up. It has a small cut on top of its head and our cousin Darlene treated it. It was doing OK when I brought it home.

I went out yesterday and one of the first batch of chicks was pecking at its head and had caused a bigger cut. I watched out big rooster be killed but I have never done it. I could not allow the chick to suffer so I took a sharp sickle and did it in. I have thought of trying to heal it but the cut was deep and I was afraid it would never recover or never be accepted by the group.

Even though I did not like killing it, I know now that I can do it if I have to. I may have to cull another one but I am trying to decide if I should or not. I have one that has a crossed beak but it seems to eat and drink fine and has grown the same as the rest. I am not sure if it will get worse as it grows. If anyone has ever had this problem, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Will it get worse as it grows? Should I cull it or let it live?