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

 

 

 

Crows Manning The Wall!

Much like the Game of Thrones, I have Crows manning my Wall!

The chickens and ducks are still on lock down in the run and I am going to try my best to keep them safely tucked away until we can manage to finish fencing in the property completely. The fox's free lunches are officially over, I hope.
This morning as I was sitting on the goat lift I noticed the crows over head. It looks like we have some juveniles up there being directed by an adult on the do's and don'ts here. We do eat the chicken food, we do not eat chicken food until the area is deemed safe.

I honestly have such high regard for the crows. I learned very early on in homesteading that crows can either be friend or foe.

My father in law, rest his soul, was an interesting man. He was a farmer through and through. I don't think he ever knew much what to do with me, because I am a yuppy farmer, not of necessity but of an altruistic desire. I can say, his love for me afforded me a lot of leeway. My dog was allowed in the house as much as it must have tortured his good sense. Dogs in my father in laws mind did not belong in a house. My little beagle Barney would travel in behind me and I could see my father in law stiffen and yet at the very same time act like he was wearing an itchy sweater. To his credit he wouldn't say a word in protest.

Dogs were not pets or companions in his eyes, they protected his animals. That was their purpose. A female dog did not have a purpose at all, as it would only reproduce
more dogs and further mouths to feed. It was not my way, but I understood his way. 

My father in laws goats and cows were not loved pets either, surely never doted upon. They were a commodity and he at one point in time had hundreds of them.
They supplied him with milk and offspring to sell.

When I entered my in laws lives they were later on in years and had come upon harder times. The town had taken up his land and grazing rights and sold them to the wealthy. The town, I was told was still in the midst of a bitter battle trying to reclaim the land the government had scooped up from under them.
My father in law had only a few acres left that surrounded his house; the cows, goats and his livelihood a thing of the past. My mother in law had a few chickens for personal use and she promptly taught me to never name your food. Of course all my animals have names. What I could see with my Father in law was that there was a definite sadness about this turn in his life. My mother in law, the very same circumstances brought her happiness and relief as my father in law was now home instead of away on the land where the animals grazed.
My husband and I brought my father in law a rototiller. I remember that day so clearly, three generation my Father In Law, Don Melchor, my husband and our children out in a field disturbing the soil of lost aspirations, in an attempt to plant new seeds of hope. We joked about the three Melchor's tilling the fields, as my youngest son, at the time, was the third.

 

I could see a change in my father in laws stature. He stood just that much taller. His shoulders held just a bit squarer, hand firm on his hip and a sense of purpose in his eyes.

A rototiller was out of place at my father in laws and even in the town itself. My father in law was not the only one who had his land swindled out from under him, but a whole town full of people. The whole town had come upon hard times. So this caused a stir. It grabbed a lot of attention. People would come around wanting to see what Don Melchor was doing out in his fields. The answer, why Don Melchor is planting calabaza (squash) ! 

Such a simple thing, planting squash, but it was not simple. It was not small. This was huge!

We would return week after week to visit my in laws where we would stay a week or two at a time. The squash grew huge, I mean I truly had never seen such impressive squash. It spread across the field far and wide just covering the land. My Father In Laws fields were full and lush. This was a garden! This was pride, this called out to the rains! 

I remember many a nights walking barefoot through Don Melchor's garden in the moonlight, to everyone's dismay, because there were snakes and even  scorpions in the garden. I was oblivious to such things and luckily I was never bitten. They say ignorance is bliss and blissful I was in those lush rows of squash.

One week we arrived at my in laws and as we pulled in I looked up and there hung lifeless from a tree a huge sleek dead black crow just staring down at me.

I just couldn't believe my eyes. I wasn't necessarily surprised, not much surprised me about my father in law, but it still was a startling sight. I exited the car and asked my Father In Law "Pa, que es eso"? What is this? He explained to us matter of factly that the crows were coming after his squash. So he quite simply picked one off and hung it as a warning to the others. 

It made perfect sense to him. Normally my father in law would hide such feats from me, but with our unannounced visit coupled with the need to protect his precious squash, the crow remained. 

Day in and day out I would sit in the back. I could hear the chatter of the crows, from what I could guess plotting and planning the demise of Don Melchor.  Honestly I am telling you, they had it in for him. I would hear the thwack of the back screen door and then the incessant alarmed chatter of the crows and I knew without even looking that my father in law stood behind me.

I would tell him often "Pa, Quieren Matarte!" The want to kill you. He would just laugh. I would tell my children to stay away from their grandfather's disgrace. You don't want the crows to associate it with you. 

One day he finally cut down the crow and disposed of it. I am not sure if he did it because of my chatter or that of the crows, he never would tell. I suspect it was more because it was finally time to harvest.

As the squash grew so big you could barely carry them, Don Melchor began to harvest his pride. As his stockpile of calabaza grew my mother in law became clearly distraught. My mother in law Carmen ran a little store out of her home where she sold old fashioned glass Coca colas, fritos and candies to the locals. She saw the squash as a hot commodity to fill her cash drawer with and my father in law had taken to giving them away to anyone who walked by the house. 

He once was this big farmer, so I don't think he ever got accustomed to worrying about what was on the table for dinner at night. My husband and I cared for the little bills they had, but my mother in law wanted to have her own and I can understand that. Don Melchor had his squash, but for Carmen, her little store, that was her pride. 

My father in law the generous guy, my mother in law the sour puss. Isn't that always the way in a couple? Good guy, bad guy. The one who everyone loves, who if given their way would have them out on the streets without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out, if it wasn't for the bad guy running around behind them holding it together.

I recall one day my father in law asking me to hold out my hand and when I did he slid a beautiful ruby ring on it. Here they were with very little means and I came to know that my father in law had spent ten years making payments on a ring he had made just for me. I cherish that ring, it reminds me on days I forget that someone thought that much of me,  at the same time I appreciate my mother in laws frustration because her son is just like his father. 

The ring has two eagles on each side of the centered ruby, which looks more to me like a crow, which reminds me every time of the thwack of my in laws screen door and a chatter of the murder and I laugh at the memories and sometimes I cry for their loss and the longing for another time.

On our little homestead when my back door goes thwack there is a very different chatter from the crows. It is more excitement of what is to come. The crows, to me are friend, no foe. They raise their young here on my land, they probably view it more as their land than mine. 

I am just the lady who feeds them and their charges.  They eat with my chickens in front of the run every day. In exchange they watch over my flock, chasing off crows and sounding an alarm when that fox slinks around. Unfortunately with the fox all they can do is call alarm. 

I think they view the chickens, which could very well serve as food, as theirs to protect and frankly they are well fed and full bellies don't eat fuzzy little babies. 

This is their territory and they are very territorial so no one hunts their ground without it causing a racket. 

Today as I was sitting watching the crows, after a much excited chatter from tree to tree, one swooped down and landed on the goat corral door and I  realized it was reminding me that with the chickens in the run, there was no food out for them. I got up right away and sifted some feed out in front of the run for them and promptly returned to my seat on the goat lift. In no time down came the adult crow and soon after it called out to two juveniles to follow. One adult remained in the trees over watching, even with me they remain quite cautious.

When it comes to crows, if you have chickens I suggest you make friends. 

Feed them well and encourage them to man your wall. You can start by putting out sunflower seeds and peanuts where you want them to congregate. 

It may take a bit of time to bring them to your land and other birds might first feast on your snacks, but eventually the crows will catch on to the other birds gatherings for food. 

Thwack,..chatter chatter chatter!

What Does the Fox Say?

What does the fox say? 

I frankly don't give a hoot what the fox says. I just want it to go away. We have been hit by the fox once again. This is our third time with this little nuisance raiding my hen house.  

Our chickens are free range. We built the mighty covered run all those years ago when we were new to chickens and ambitious in our efforts. Then of course one day my husband opened the run door and it was all over.
Our birds are free range and when you have free range chickens and ducks there are predators that you are going to have to contend with. There are, along with foxes, many other things to be concerned about such as hawks, cats, dogs, raccoons and coyotes just to name a few. In all our years we have just been cursed with the fox as an issue. Not that there have not been hawks around, but I have very territorial crows manning the wall and they have always chased the hawks off. Now crows they are a blessing, but I digress.
Currently the fox is the bane of my existence.

The very first time we had a fox issue I was completely stunned, as for years our chickens and ducks did as the pleased around the way. They would be let out in the morning and spent the day moseying around. It started with a short head count. One of my ducks was missing. We found her remains and it was just startling.
We thought perhaps a hawk. The next day my husband was up on a ladder, the chickens and ducks were all around the bottom just nosing about. My husband didn't make much of it because they normally follow him around. Yet this day it was my neighbor who came running over to let my husband know it wasn't just chickens and ducks watching him clean the gutters, but a fox. 

I have to admit if they were not such a murderous little bunch I would be in awe of their cunning, boldness and beauty. Alas when it comes down to your chickens or a fox, the fox gets cast in a bad light.

Now I got all sorts of advice on what to do from other chicken lovers, most suggested shooting the fox. Others said trap the fox and relocate. I locked my lot up in the run and hid under the covers. I can tell you one thing prayer did not work and secondly the fox was persistent.

So we tried trapping it. Apparently the fox received notice and bypassed all attempts of being trapped. We started to feel like Wile coyote trying to catch the roadrunner. It was laughable. After some time my husband insisted we stop keeping the chickens and ducks locked away. I had to admit that he was right, we had taken chickens and ducks that were accustomed to traveling around all day picking at roots, bugs, seedlings and saplings and there they were standing crushed against the run door just waiting to be let out. So we started letting them back out.
For a time it was wine and roses until I came out of the kitchen door one day and saw my ducks waddling in a very fast pace up to the koi pond and I had to rub my eyes because right there behind them was the fox. Broad daylight, just casually hunting my little ducks. I ran, it ran and the ducks swam. I told my husband it was the fox or the run.  

My husband started spending his nights outside stalking the fox. Which I never really understood because frankly the fox seemed to prefer bankers hours in his hunting. My husband started to look, talk and act more like Elmer Fud being nightly outsmarted by the rascally fox. 

My husband never was able to dispatch the fox. I kept my lot locked in the run and this went on for months where again the fox seemed to have bored of our play. So with a good stretch of time without a sighting I decided it was a sad life for the chickens and ducks and I let them start free ranging.
We had two years of quiet enjoyment, not one fox attack nor sighting to be had. Life was good again. I can't Honestly say whether the fox got tired of no free lunch here, another neighbor dispatched/relocated it or it decided to sign up for unemployment and an Obama phone. All I knew is we had two fox free years.

A few months ago I heard a racket out back. I got to the back porch to see my oldest hens crowded against the kitchen door. I knew right then we had the fox back again to my dismay.
My flock was scattered the yard was bare. I found some in the neighbors yard, some under the deck and some dead. My son went in chase of the fox. No one knows what one would do if they caught the fox, but you feel that you must do something. I collected the ones I could and herded them into the run with a heavy heart. I stayed out until dark waiting on the pecking order line up of entering the coop. I asked my husband to leave the dead where they fell. Now I know you won't understand this, but frankly they were already dead and a hungry fox is going to come back looking for his kill, if it isn't there it is going to try and kill more. 

I was honestly just devastated, he took out the more vulnerable, my silkies and the newer younger naive girls. None of my original flock fell prey. My rooster Gladys, my nemesis was in the missing. It was one of those moments where you just regret all the threats made toward making dinner with him next time he kicks you, or telling him there was a pot with his name on it boiling on the stove. Gladys although the bane of my existence, was a tough rooster who took good care of his hens and he had been here for just so many years, since we brought him home as a day old pullet (female chickens) at the feed store.

So we went into lock down again. My husband put on his Elmer Fud Hat and set to stalking the fox pointlessly. This was starting to feel like groundhog day, obviously I hadn't found the key to february 3rd and my ticket out of town. 

 

The upside of this was it was in the midst of the worst winter ever a few days later during the worst snow storm to be had, I looked outside and there stood Gladys outside the run waiting to get in. I learned then that Gladys was far more formidable than I ever thought. The way I see it either Gladys chased the fox, or the fox brought Gladys home to its den and even the fox itself couldn't tolerate Gladys and threw him out! Either way, it was bittersweet as there was my Gladys covered in snow, but in one piece. 

So months they stayed in the run and against my protests my husband started letting them free range again. I held my breathe. Every day I counted my hens, constantly was checking outside to see who was where. Soon I got comfortable. I figured the fox was again a thing of the past.
It is spring and I have a couple of broody hens setting on eggs so when I noticed less chickens in the morning and feed left on the ground at the end of the day I wasn't concerned. When my duck Ginger went missing, again I wasn't concerned as I had watched her for weeks rolling her eggs to an undisclosed location. A few days of Pollyanna world and then it hit me, wait a minute...Head Count! The next morning I did not open the run as that would be the only time possible to get a head count and after counting all the chickens and ducks in the run, spying on all brooding hens I could see I was four chickens short, 2 roosters, no not Gladys and 2 hens. Also Ginger is gone. So we are back to lockdown again.

I honestly am not sure how this will end. Three fox massacres is three too many. 

My husband has his Elmer Fud had on, I got the lock on the run, but frankly it is a torturous situation. Here's to a new den for the fox located in Timbuktu,...having a stealthy shot neighbor...or a fox proof yard. Of course fox proof yard is the direction I am heading in. So what does the fox say? Sic!