We have all heard about the fox in a hen house, but seriously that is all I am hearing about this year. Many of us have never had to worry about a fox and suddenly that is our biggest concern.
This tells me something is afoot on the Cape.
Last year we had a bear here, the theory is it swam the Cape Cod Canal. It was the first sighting on the cape of a bear in over a 100 years. That seems pretty significant to me.
Our coyote population is on the rise, along with the hybrid coywolves, which is self explanatory and even bob cat sightings have begun. Lions, tigers and bears oh my!
I think Nature has a rhyme and reason if you will. This years cold was certainly unending. So much snow and just never ending, it was just near depressing. November and December where all joy and tis the season, by February I was looking at the bridge alot differently!
The trees at our homestead, that are hundreds of years old, just gave way to the wicked winds like Monica Lewinsky at a lunch with Linda Tripp. It is certainly a head scratcher for me. I never thought spring would arrive and it has, but with a whole new set of issues to be contended with.
It seems to me that the Cape's wildlife population is changing, adding and exploding. That animals once thought to be out in Western Massachusetts in the virtual boonies are now being drawn east to the Cape much like the dreaded tourists and they don't patronize the local businesses, they eat our backyard livestock!
Anyhow I digress. We are a few months now into lock down mode. The fox took my numbers down this year from 32 chickens to a mere 15, that is the bad news. I lost some really wonderful sweet birds. The good news is that it is spring and an easy time to replenish your flock. Because it's what? Oh yeah ,..
Chick Days!!!
Now chick days are just the best. They typically start up in March. All the local feed and grain
stores start to get weekly deliveries of chicks, ducklings, goslings and turkeys. Jump in fast because there is far too much homesteader chatter for the good ones to not be purchased up early on in the day.
The chick days usually roll up by the end of July and into a pinch of August if your lucky.
It truly is so much better to be able to just pick up your chicks, hands on eye to eye, nose to beak, as you get to see if they are in good shape from the long trip through the postal, save yourself some shipping money and hey you get to check out all the breeds you didn't even know about. If your planning on picking up a chick or two, I assure you it will be just a bit more than what you intended. There is usually 3 chick minimum and I frankly think that is a good idea. too many people stumble upon "chick days" and think it novel to by their little ones a chick for Easter, they are adorable after all, but they grow quickly and soon need to have friends and all the proper amenities a chickens will need like a coop and a run, proper waterers and feeders. A three chick minimum will hopefully ensure an educated buyer.
Usually the chicks are pullets, which are female chickens that will grow into egg pumping, no baby daddy needing, cluck cluck clucking hens. That is right just in case you didn't know, you do not need a rooster to have eggs. Hens lay eggs just fine the only difference being if they decide to go broody and sit on those eggs without a roosters courting, they will not become chicks as they are not fertile. Alot of people find having a rooster a troublesome plight as they do tend to be loud, which I have no issue with, I love hearing my roosters nudging the sun awake, I am just not partial to them impaling me with their spurs, luckily I only have one of those my other little boys are sweeties. Often town ordinances do not allow you to have a rooster as well. So ask your feed and grain if their chicks are all pullets to be sure and call your local town hall and ask if roosters are allowed.
I have just been in heaven since some of the feed stores have been getting in a much better selection of chicks than years passed. Barnstable Farm & Pet and Cape Cod feed & Supply, which are virtually around the corner from one another have had some really rocking selections with the various fancy shmancy Polish, golden, white crested and the elusive buff that I keep missing out on.
Cochins, which are a compact little version for those with limited space. Egg color is moving into the forefront with Cuckoo Marans chocolate madness eggs, Americauna and rainbow layers for beautiful blue and green eggs worthy of any Easter basket.
New Farm in Harwich has now entered the scene and I made a special trip there to pick up welsummers in hopes of a speckled chocolate egg. I grabbed two cuckoo marans for good measure and added another two buff orpingtons just because they have such sweet personalities. The ownwrs there are very nice and well worth the trip. They just recently got in silkies which I would have run there to pick up if I hadn't already brought home some lovely silkies from a local breeder.
My favorite coo this year was finding a hatching crazy local with five straight run (guess the sex) french black copper marans known for their outstanding dark egg color.
Ducklings!
Some ducklings, Columbian Wyandotte,...I think your getting the point. I just planned to add a few more however chicken math always ends up this way as in chick world 2=5
Golden Polish and Columbian Wyandotte
Pekin, Rouen and Khaki Campbell ducklings
Ducklings
Getting big now!
Chicks Man!
So as you can see things are just exploding over here. Our Grand finale, or so we thought, this spring is our new addition Giorgio, formerly known as Disco, he is one handsome little boy. He is a sizzle.
A sizzle is a cross breed of chicken, a mix of silkies and a Cochin frizzle.
Twins Right?!
And just as we thought we were all done our hen Millie decided to hatch out one single chick this morning. More than likely it will be a rooster, because that is just how it goes here.
Millie & Chicka Boom
Giorgio on Guard Duty
Millie Teaching Chicka Boom how to be a big girl
Gangs All Here
Lacey coming in sneaky to check the new chick
So needless to say it has been pretty busy around here!
Barnstable Farm and Pet Chick Calendar
| June 2 |
| COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTE RHODE ISLAND RED BUFF LACED POLISH CUCKOO MARAN DOMINIQUES BUFFED LACED POLISH BARRED ROCK RAINBOW LAYERS BUFF COCHINS June 9
Light Brahmas
Columbian Wyandotte
Red Stars
Buff Cochins
Barred Rock
Araucana/Amerauca |
June 16th
LIGHT BRAHMAS
WHITE ORPINGTON
June 23rd
W. C. BLACK POLISH
Araucana/Amerauca
| GOLDEN POLISH BUFF ORPINGTONS RED STAR
BUFF ORPINGTONS RED STAR
ARAUCANA/AMERAUCANA BLACK AUSTRALORP BARRED ROCK |
Cape Cod Feed and Supply Chick Calendar
Week of March 10th- Buff Orpington & Barred Rock
Week of March 17th- Black Star & Red Star
Week of March 24th- Araucana & White Giant
Week of March 31st- ducks: Pekin, Cayuga & Blue Swedish
Week of April 7th- Black Giant, Partridge Cochin & Silver Spangled Hamburg
Week of April 14th- New Hampshire Red, Blue Andalusian & Golden Campine
Week of April April 21st - Rhode Iskand Red, Araucana & White Orpington
Week of April 28th- ducks: Pekin, Khaki Campbell & Roen
Week of May 5th- Golden Wyandotte & Black Australorp
Week of May 12th- Standard Bronze Turkeys
Week of May 19th- Light Brahma, Buff Polish & White Crested Polish
Week of May 26th- Silver Laced Wyandotte & Araucana
Week of June 2nd- Giant White Turkeys
Week of June 9th- Pearl White Leghorn & Speckled Sussex
Week of June 16th- Buff Orpington & Cuckoo Maran
Chicken $5.99
Ducks $8.99
Turkeys $13.99
*No birds allowed to leave before 10 a.m. on day of arrival*
Ducks $8.99
Turkeys $13.99
*No birds allowed to leave before 10 a.m. on day of arrival*
New Farm
call and check
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