Chick Days!!!

Well my little Darlings are all still in lock down, thanks to the pesky fox. It seems this year here on old Cape Cod we are really feeling the pain of the fox explosion. You won't read about it in the news, but if you have chickens, you have probably had at least one attack this year, if not multiple like myself.
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!

http://barnstablefarmandpetsupplies.com 

http://www.capecodfeedandsupplyinc.com

http://newfarmstore.com

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 RHODE ISLAND RED July 7 BUFF ORPINGTONS RED STAR RHODE ISLAND RED COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTE 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*   

 

New Farm

call and check

 

 

 

Brown Eggs Are Local Eggs,...Liar

Eggs, eggs, eggs...

I still get the little commercial jingle in my head "brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh!". I believed it, I mean why would "they" whoever they are,  say it, if it wasn't the God's honest truth. 

Well it isn't the truth, in fact it is an outright lie. Brown, white, green, terra cotta, blue eggs and all the other hues have nothing to do with the current geography. Brown eggs are brown because of the breed of chicken that produces them. White eggs are white for the very same reason.

Before I raised chickens I wasn't even aware of the fact that chickens laid anything but brown and white eggs. When I shopped at the grocer I would always look for brown eggs, why?... well because they
were local, silly.

Well now all my eggs are local. They are laid right in my own back yard, doesn't get any more local than that. Better still from my own wonderful little flock of backyard chickens. My girls eggs are white, brown, blue, green, pink and chocolaty terra cotta.

When I brought home my very first 9 chicks, I had absolutely no clue whatsoever that chickens laid a wide array of colored eggs. All I knew for certain when I began was that I wanted free range, all natural, organic eggs and by George I was for going to have them.

I called around to local feed stores and located one stocked with day old chicks, which are actually a few days old by the time they make their way to you. I called my poor husband who just so happened to be driving by the feed store and asked him to pick up a box for me. That's right a box of chickens. We quickly built a brooder and started our journey of becoming little farmers.

While I waited for my new hens to be old enough to lay,  impatiently, I obtained 4 adult Rhode Island reds and immediately was satisfied with their lovely brown eggs, farm fresh, daily.

It wasn't until 4-5 months later I realized that my 8 hens, yes that is 8 because one of my " I garontee it" hens was a roo, sadly named Gladys. 

One day I went down to collect eggs and found some white eggs mixed in with the Rhode Island reds brown eggs, ...nice! I mean there are white eggs, so no surprise there, then those brown ones, those ones are local, ha!
Within days I came down to the coop and I was just in Gobsmacked, because in my nesting boxes were those white eggs, and yup, those brown eggs, the local ones and OMG, pinch me blue ones!  I looked at the blue ones in all sorts of differing light, because I just simply could not believe they were really blue. I came to learn of course, that when I chose my chickens I had by one of those rare lucky accidents chosen 3 araucana hens, which were responsible for my lovely blue eggs. My 3 barred rock hens produced the pinkish brown eggs in the nesting boxes that soon after followed, and our 3 leghorns were the ones producing the beautiful bright white eggs. 

So I researched why do the eggs produce different colors and what I discovered was that all eggs start out white. Egg shells are made up almost completely of a white mineral called calcium carbonate. At various stages of the egg development, in hens that produce different colors eggs, natural pigments are introduced into the shell at certain points in the formation of the shell. 

For instance, in the blue egg layers, the Araucana , a blue gene called oocyan produces a bile pigment called biliverdin which is introduced early on in the stage of egg formation, so the inside and the outside of the egg is blue. 

Brown eggs, contrarily, have the pigment protoporphyrin, a byproduct of hemoglobin deposited during the final stages of shell formation. So when you crack open brown eggs, the inside remains white because the pigment was introduced later on in the development of the egg. 

I have since become quite a little egg color collector. I have added a black French copper Marans which produces a nice chocolate egg. An olive egger which was produced right here from the pairing of my Araucana rooster, which has the blue egg gene and my black copper Marans who produces the chocolate eggs. The combination of the blue pigment and the addition of the chocolate pigments proved to produce an olive tinted egg. I have three new additions on order now for welsummers which produce a nice dark brown egg and I am currently hunting for black langshams which produce violet tinted eggs. My little silkie mix hens produce pink eggs. I certainly don't have any need to color eggs at our house at Easter, my girls do all the coloring long before they hit the nesting box. Thanks Ladies!

So the next time someone tells you that brown eggs are local eggs, you can educate them that there is nothing further from the truth!