Not so cute anymore...

This is not a great picture but it's the best I was able to get (I don't have the patience to take 10's of pictures). All the chicks are starting to look really raggedy as they lose their baby down. In just a few more weeks they aren't going to be recognizable from their baby pictures.



My favorite so far. She's a bit of a spaz but also very curious. She's an EE and looks like she'll develop the ear muffs. For now, she is called 'Fuzzy Face' - I'm sure this will change but the right name just hasn't struck me yet.

So, after a little research

It appears that my little mystery chick may be a Dominique. The chicks at that address look nearly identical to the one in question, with white spots on the back of the head, white belly, wings beginning to bar, and a comb that is not the single that most breeds have. He/she even had a little black running down the front of the legs when they first arrived. As for the size, there are bantam Dominiques, but none listed at McMurray - the place that I bought them from. The Dominique seems like a very interesting breed - one of the first (if not the first) developed in America. They are also said to be very personable and calm. Here's hoping that it's a pullet so she can stick around.

Curiouser and curiouser

When our chicks arrived last week, one of the first things I did was check the packing list included. According to this list, they'd sent 5 Buffs, 6 Australorps, 5 Speckled Sussex, and 5 Easter Eggers - 21 chicks. Within a few days, I lost 2 SS, which should put me down to 19...however, when counting the chicks (while they're running around trying not to be counted), I always came up with 20. Today while cleaning their brooder, I decided to do a real count...20 birds. It would appear that they either gave me an extra EE, or they did in fact include the rare chick. In fact, there is one baby who doesn't really resemble any of the others. I wrote about this chick last weekend - she/he's so much smaller but still lively. I'm wondering now if it's some kind of bantam chick. I looked through the hatchery's catalog and couldn't find a banty chick that looked similiar. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how it develops. Here is the chicky in question.

Today's projects

Besides the usual household chores, today I also need to get all the fruit/nut trees pruned and some of the bushes removed. I hope to have enough time and energy to clean up the area where we plan to start the compost pile. Btw, the little apple tree we planted a few weeks ago is sprouting new leaves. The peach tree met with an unfortunate accident involving one large unsupervised almost-grown dog. Apparently Sadie thought that a stick buried in the ground was a great toy...One final thing will be to plant the spinach and lettuce seedlings in a pot outside.

Sewing Room

Another project in the planning stage is going to be a sewing room just for me! We have an extra bedroom which is now the office. We need to procure a table of the right size, then I will be setting my sewing machine up permanently. It's such a pain to have to drag it out and put it back when I want to work on something. Because of this (and the fact that we have so much going on all the time), I haven't actually brought it out in quite a while now.

Chicks!

Chicks arrived one week ago today! I've gotten completely addicted to the show Lost (watching via Netflix) and have been really slacking in a lot of areas recently. The picture above was taken at three days of age. When the chicks arrived it was apparent from the packing list that we didn't get any of the Cuckoo Marans I wanted so badly. We also didn't get the 'free rare chick' but they did include an extra Australorps chick which took the sting away a bit. The Speckled Sussex chicks were much smaller than the others - I don't know if they are a smaller breed or if they aren't as hardy a breed. I ended up losing two of them. All but one of the other chicks are doing great. The chick in question is one of the Easter Eggers. She is still really small though she is eating great and acting normal. We'll see if she ends up being strong enough to make it. The Buffs, Australorps, and most of the EEs have been active and voracious from the start. Next weekend we should be getting the hen house ready for occupancy and the following weekend building the run. I will post more pics later.

First seedlings have sprouted!

This weekend I planted some spinach, lettuce, and radish seeds. I wasn't expecting to see any sprouts for 2 weeks or so (according to package directions) but as of this morning, many of the spinach and lettuce seeds have sprouted! When starting seeds indoors, I lose nearly all of them due to damping off. This year I believe I'm better prepared, so here's hoping for salad in a few weeks. The radishes were planted in a pot outside and don't look to have sprouted yet.

Slowly building

We made some progress yesterday.

While out buying chick starter and a heat lamp, we noticed the store had good prices on fruit trees so we bought two, an apple (with Red Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji) and a peach (Florida Prince). I've never planted trees but tried to be as gentle as possible with the roots and amended the soil as we filled back in the hole. I'm a little worried about the fact that neither of these trees had much of a root system. We'll keep 'em watered and see how it goes.

Hubby started mending the pasture fence while I did the laundry and other house chores. Our neighbor approached him and actually offered him a free gate! He got the hot-wire spacers set up and we should be able to bring my horse out next week.

One thing I noticed yesterday is that I'll have to rethink where to put the bee hives. I thought I had the perfect spot, on the east side of the house where no one really wanders - until I noticed some sort of meter there, possibly gas. I doubt the meter man would enjoy climbing over a hive when trying to read the meter - might be entertaining to watch though.

We removed one of the oleanders - we now have two small ones to go. I would have pruned the pomegranate and walnut trees but I can't find any of my pruning shears - not looking forward to buying new ones; they're so expensive.

I can barely keep my eyes open, so that's all for now.