Riley our Golden Retriever Fish

Riley is our only permanent inside dog.  The others just rotate in and out as we feel like it.  Well Riley loves to swim, as most dogs do, but he is different.  He swims with his face under water using strokes more like a human than the traditional "doggie paddle" most of our other dogs use.  And because of his swimming technique and his long hair, Riley has been spending more time outside recently.  We have a stream on our property with a pooled area just deep enough for Riley to swim in, and he does EVERY TIME he goes outside!!  So he is constantly damp.  Well anyways, yesterday we were invited to our friends Dixie and Rachel's place on the river for a day to hang out, cook out and swimming in the river.  And for Hunter and I to be gone for any period of time, there is a lot of running around to get everyone taking care of...dogs, chickens, cats, and puppies to name a few.  Well we let Riley out and he of course ran to the stream, but what neither of us realized was that he stayed down there, until we were pulling out of our driveway.  And here he comes dripping wet to be let back in the house....not happening by the way...so we let him shake off and loaded him up to come with us.  Now Riley is a very privileged dog already, he sleeps inside, he is allowed on the couch, etc. But he never really gets to go anywhere because he just has to be in your face at all times.  This worried Hunter, but I told him not to because there would be water and Riley would forget there were all these new people to meet.  That silly dog spent All day (12 to 9) in that river except when he got to have a bone from the BBQ Rachel made.  He swam and floated, and chased fishing bobbers, sticks, and even a few rocks.  I took him home with me, early as I had to work so early today, and he promptly passed out next to the couch...and was still there snoring when I left this morning. 

Never Count your Chickens before they Hatch...

I had 2 different sets of eggs set to hatch out of my incubators. In one incubator I had 12 lavender Orpington Eggs, 10 Black Copper Maran Eggs, and 2 Americauna Eggs,  in the other incubator I had 30 Polish Eggs and 6 Polish Orpington Crosses.   I set the temperature to the 99.5 degrees, and I waited, and waited and waited the 21 days it takes for a chicken to develop and hatch.  There was candling (a process done to see development inside the eggs using a device that shines light directly thru the egg) on Day 8 in both incubators. In my incubator with the Lavender Orpingtons (LO), Black Copper Marans (BCM), and Americaunas,  I had 4 LO eggs that were not fertile, the BCM eggs are a dark chocolate brown making it really hard to candle them, and both Americaunas looked good.  Out of my Polish eggs, 6 of them were not fertile.  More time passed and we got to Day 18, the critical day of lockdown, you candle again, remove the eggs from the automatic egg turner, shut the incubator and wait the 3 more days til Hatch Day.  And then it happens...you get your very first wiggle, or in some cases even a Pip (where the chick makes its first crack in the exterior shell) and you wait some more as hatching is a very tiresome job.  Then you get a zip (called this because the chick literally unzips its shell before popping out).  Well my incubator due to hatch first, was late, and only 3 chicks hatched. 2 BCM and 1 Americauna. The next 24 hours are very critical to chicks and unfortunately only 1 BCM survived. I was disappointed by this and have decided to take a break from hatching until I can get a cabinet incubator, that helps maintain temperature and humidity better than my little table top incubator.  My second incubator with the Polish was very successful with 22 chicks hatching out of the 36, and 20 made it past the first 24 hours.  Then it happened. The most devastating thing I think my cats could have done( I think they had help from Riley our golden retriever as the doors were all closed and barricaded)  they got in to "the chicken room" and ATE my chicks.  Only 2 survived.  Now I am definitely taking a break from hatching until we can set up the basement as my hatchery.  Apparently you can't count them after they hatch either...

Feeling very talkative today

So I spent this evening outside hanging out with my chickens.  It was later in the day, close to when they go to bed, so they were feeling much more snuggly.  It probably also helped that I brought pumpkin seeds to share with them.  I got some great pictures which I will probably load tomorrow.  It was really fun to watch as it got darker as the chickens put themselves to bed.  Bedtime is also probably when they are the noisiest as they have to all tell each other where they are going to sleep.  We have an old dog crate in there as shelter during storms and they will literally try and fit as many bodies on top of it as they can.  Except for the Cochins and my 2 little buff Silkies, they like to roost on a T-post we have threaded thru the fence.

Oh and I have also named almost all of them now.  Except the Silkies because they are still too hard to tell apart.  But we now have Americaunas: Amelia (Earhart), Violet, Sunny, Flapjack, and Rusty.  All of my Rhode Island Reds are now named as well, Ruby, Scarlet, Garnet, and Rouge.  The Buff Orpingtons are named: Dorothy, Ophelia, Honey, and Tillie. The Mille Fleur D Uccle pair are Mork and Mindy.  And my Frizzles are Frick and Frack.

Okay off to bed...Long day tomorrow at work.

Sad Day

Well today was my first instance of losing one of my chickens to unnatural causes.  One of my silkies (the little blue one) caught the interest of Twilight one of our retrievers.  So far until today, everyone had been living happily co-existing in their own little worlds.  I had noticed that the little buff Silkie that normally hangs out with the blue one, was all by itself earlier today, and thought it kind of odd, so I stopped to look around for the blue one. I checked all his favorite hiding places, got down on my hands and knees and was looking everywhere.  He was no where to be found.  Until Twilight came up to show us what he had caught.  Twilight will no longer be allowed to play while the chickens are out free ranging.



On a Happier Note:  I have some eggs set to hatch late today or sometime tomorrow!!  Lavender Orpingtons, Black Copper Marans, and Americaunas.  Wish them luck!!

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!!

While I know that rain is essential to a farm, and our garden and other plants are thriving, the rest of us are just miserable!!  My chickens are wet, though they aren't seeming to mind it when it is just drizzling (they are in fact out splashing in mud puddles right now) its the torrential downpours we keep getting with gusty winds they have a problem with.  The dogs are also not too happy with their wet conditions but also seem to love playing in the mud. Our white labs are currently an orangish brown color

The rain is also limiting the amount of things we can get done outdoors, like mowing the grass, building our new chicken coop, lay out and get some sun, etc.  So while I may regret it later on this summer when there is no rain for days at a time and we are all complaining about the heat...Rain Rain Go away Come again Another Day!!!!!

On a positive note, the puppies will be 7 weeks on Monday, and we will hopefully be getting them all to their new homes, and begin preparing for our next round.

I'm off to go make chicken and dumplings for dinner...hoping for sunshine tomorrow.

Hunter's Green Thumb

I am going to apologize in advance for all of the photos I am getting ready to post, but I am just so proud of all that Hunter has managed to grow. (with a little help from myself too).  We use the squarefoot gardening, buckets for our tomatoes, and we just recently acquired some blueberry bushes.  Hunter also is trying his hand at roses, figs and fruit trees.

Yes my chickens have names!

So I have several chickens already named, and they tend to be "themed" names having to do with my favorite things.
Meet Glenda, Ruby, Auntie Em and Dorothy (in that order) Named after Wizard of Oz characters for surviving the tornado.

Here are some of my Roosters, both are Americaunas:

Jack Sparrow likes to crow at 5:30, 7:00, and again around 9:00 am...He's a little feisty and we aren't sure if he will be staying but he is very pretty!

Captain Morgan is one of my favorite chickens!!  He is just over 2 months old and has his own little flock to tend to.  He also loves to snuggle, hopefully he wont grow out of it. lol

I also have some Polish Chickens named after Saved by The Bell Characters...Meet Zach (Black and White), Lisa (1st photo) and Jessie(2nd photo)...

I also have some Americaunas, they don't really have a theme just what we decided to call them bc of personalities or quirks:
Up first is FlapJack...named this because for the first 2 weeks we had her all the other chicks would literally run her flat to the gound and she would be flipped over on her back....

Then there is Sunny,  as she has a very yellow face and is just a happy little chick.

There are several I am still trying to name so any suggestions would be great!!