The new girls and a finally a picture of Paquito

Paquito

The ad said black and white Cochins

I thought they meant  Black Cochins and White Cochins..

They were Two of these little pretty girls.....   

Silver Laced Cochins!! 

I am soo excited!    

I also got 3 little chicks that I think are silver laced... We shall see.... 

The Boy wanted a red one.... so we picked this little girl.... There was one I liked

better but she had extra toes like a silkie 

There is a little pale blue girl too but shes roughed up fro the roo and the pic didnt come out. 

Here is the other little girl. 

Craigslist...

Ad on craigslist for cochins... Hens & chicks....
Red, Black, Blues & Whites....
Im gonna call here in a few...
gonna get me some more babies!!!!

Paquito and the Cochin Saga...

Re-Introducing:  

Paquito!

 (Pictures to come later!)

See last year I went into chicken overload....  the chickens were destroying my garden,   I only had one pen,  

The first Turkey tom was regularly stomping my chickens to death...and the ducks to death.... 

I decided to weed down what I had and called one of my dearest friends that is also infected with Chickenbuyitis...  "Want a whole bunch of chickens?" said I?   

"Hell yes"  says she.....  and she takes flight to my house....

In a frenzy the like of only spur of the moment decision can be...

I stuffed half the 30 ish...something young chickens I had in her boxes... 

Buff Orphingtons,  Mixes, sultans, Duccle mixes,  and a couple of cochin roos....

half the ducks.... 

 I kept a blue cochin roo and a frizzle roo....

uh yeah...

guess what...

about the time my young cochin hens stared laying 

Both croaked

So my cochin hens have been penned mostly with a silkie roo.

whew...talk about some freaky little babies.

Especially the frizzled ones.

 Now I have 3 pens(4 counting the duck pen) and the "barn"

 I have a young little roo but hes not breeding age yet and all I wanted this year was

cochin babies....

Wait wait wait wait... and was getting impatient...

and I got by my dear sweet friends house and what do I see.

This studly little shiney black hottie named Paquito!

WHERE did you get THAT GUY I ask..

YUP.... 

I gave her that little hottie...

after much begging and pleading 

he is at my house 

"visiting some hot mammas!"

and hopefully here in a few weeks!

Cochin babies!

Plan is once Squeaky the baby roo is old enough... or I have a good set of babies..

Paquito will go home.. 

:-(

Now I really have to decide my focus.

Cochins for sure

Silkies 2nd

Amerucaunas (gotta have blue eggs!)

Butt the Buff Orphintons?

Currently all my big hens are running with my Americauna roo

The buff roos are in the "roo pen" with a little mutt roo

I have a batch of white leghorns due next week... to go with my 2 hens

What to do!

5 breeds... 3 pens...

The man wont let me sell off the ducks....

the turkeys will eventually need a pen when the babies are bigger...

Plus a friend brought me a dozen Rio Grande Turkey eggs...and 3 dozen guinea eggs.

Im pulling my hair out!  

I keep telling myself..  3 breeds  3 breed only!

BUT I WANT THEM ALL!

oh yea... I have a Production Red and a Black sexlink hen out there too....

*sigh*

I have to decide for sure by the end of the summer....

I am NOT keeping all 

Oh yeah.. there are the gold laced Wyandottes too.....  crap...

Sunday....

I am just now getting up....10:00am  cold medicine induced much needed sleep.
The boy is at church with his grandparents.
The man is mowing.

I brought the turkey babies back inside last night.
The heat yesterday was unbearable and even without a heatlamp they were suffering.
The suicide 5 had faded and just werent thriving.
The brooder in the barn is a wire bottom and they just couldnt handle it.
So they are happily scratching in shavings again and peeping away.
I threw a piece of bread in there last night and caused a riot.
Not a sign of it this morning.

I hope the clouds stick around today.  It was too bright and too sunny yesterday.
I have so much to get done and no energy.
Im still congested and coughing some and it erodes my energy fast.
But I think the man is mending.
He napped and layed around favoring his knee yesterday and maybe it helped

But I need to get moving.  I am adventuring into the boys cave today in an attempt to irradiate the chaos.
I got a little done yesterday and he launched a counter assault and pulled all the "lost" toys out again....
 That room is scary!

Living for the Weekend...

Finally this week is over!   

My cold finally bested me on Thursday and I stayed home from work

and slept most of the day.

Worked Friday but man was I feeling yucky.

Today I can tell I am improving 

I think.

Still coughing and congested.

But there is a LOT to get done around here.

Spring cleaning here never ever ends....

After being down and out for a week with the boys in charge.

I scrubbed my kitchen clean... whew men are the messiest cooks.

Now it is sparkling, I almost dont want to cook and mess it up.

Husband is gimping... his knee is hurting him really bad and we dont know why.

He didnt DO anything to it...

I moved the baby turkeys to the brooder cages in the barn...  

Its nice not having the brooder tubs in the house.  I am thinking we may not do that again.  

I hope the youngest ones adjust ok. 

Mamasita (turkey)is still sitting on her 4 eggs I think they are due to hatch June 1st.

Our current due dates are:

Chicks  5/25

Ducks 6/1

Turkeys 6/1(Mama & Incubator)

Chicks 6/ 2

Bunnies 6/5

Bunnies 6/6 ( 2 litters) 

Ducks/Turkeys  6/9

I need to get off my hiney and plant more in the garden this weekend.

Ive been putting it off.

I think we are going to the library today.

and the park.

Tuesday..silence... a rare thing.

 The view from my front door this afternoon

We are having ac issues today in our little farm "shack"(what I call this place when something goes wrong)

I think its cooling off now.  Not sure what its malfunction was but it does this about 3 times a year... Either when I am sick(like today of course) or it is a bazillion degrees outside.   So the man and his trusty sidekick went to town to get something for said malfunctioning unit of comfort.   

The only sound I hear is turkey poults peeping.  All 5 of the suicide clan are still kicking... saw one eat this morning...  hope hope...

I drug my hacking sneezing self outside and divvied up chickens for the billionth time... Im trying to find the right combo of hens and roos and pens and chaos to keep the extra banty mutt roos from muddying my breeding plans.   Hubby wont let me GET RID OF THE MUTTS... so I am stuck juggling roos.   I decided my production red and black sexlink hens are going in with the Buff Orphingtons.  The white leghorn hens went in with the Americaunas.  

Now I have an empty pen... 

with plans to hopefully convince my friend to let me borrow her pretty Paquito... 

 a littly fluffy manly black cochin roo... since  I am cochin rooless and want cochin chicklets... 

and my little bitty baby cochin roo is just getting his crow...  and earned himself the name Squeaky(eee..Eeeee.EEEE says Squeaky!.)  

Got that done.. moved the chicklets that were in the house in a rubbermaid brooder out to the barn to the "brooder/rabbit cage"...  yay! no more stink for now...  the turkey brooder box is still inside... but for some reason they dont stink...    So I accomplished a little bit today.   I am patting my icky sick self on the back for that..... 

It is a gloriously beautiful evening so far and sucks to not feel good enough to be working outside.  

Parsley, Oregano and Mints.

Our little fish pond is full of lilypads and goldfish.

Walking (topsetting) Onions 

saved from an old homestead a few miles from us 

that was about to be plowed under.

The place was a field of these growing wild 

 The first tomato of the season.  

A "Black" heirloom variety. 

I need to remember to save the seeds! 

Tragedy almost....

Sure enough....

I got excited about my new baby turkeys.

Yes #5 hatched... 

BUT!!!!

When I got home today I walked in the door to the most horrible peeping.

from the turkey brooder with my newest babies.

I dont know if they wallowed in the water dish or if it leaked some how.

But my new babies were soaked, chilled and writhing like they were dieing.

I stuffed them back in the incubator and waiting and hoped......

.........

......

4 hours in the incubator and they are back to normal somewhat.  

I changed waterers just in case. 

new dry bedding in the brooder and

the older turkey babies transfered for warmth and teaching.

They are now back in their brooder and I am holding my breath.

Hopeing they will be ok.

Turkey babies sure are determined to DIE....

:-(

Mondays incubator scoop....

This weekends chick count:

1 duckling

4 turkeys!

now swoon from the cuteness i'll wait for you.....

I sold off ALL yes ALL of the chicks and ducklings that were in the brooder cages in the barn yesterday.

14 ducklings

23 Chicks.

I was excited and sad at the same time. Room was needed for the hatches do in the next few weeks and my evening chores were becoming life consuming and I needed a break.

Now I only have the silkies, cochins, frizzles, frankenchickens and the Wyandottes underfoot

I did keep the youngest crew that included more silkieXfrizzles, some Americaunas and some Leghorn X Americaunas, 2 ducklings and 4 turkey poults(cant sell them of course)

We welcomed the cuties above this weekend and this morning. Two more eggs left. 1 duck 1 turkey. When I checked last the turkey was pipping and maybe starting to zip open and the duck hadnt pipped yet.
I was working on easing back on my incubating... but have had tons of inquiries about chicks after selling off all of those this weekend so may keep setting some.

Now to other things...

The garden is coming along. Demon grass seems to have started dieing off... Chickens are knocking the rest of it out I think. Got one more bed reclaimed, onion sets planted(late..) the tomatoes and peppers have been planted for a while. Need to plant squash, cantalope, luffa, and a few other things I am trying this year. Mike wants to plant corn and Watermelon again... I need to tell him to get moving on that haha.

Im working on blogging more.... some days I get it all typed up and the computer spazzes and looses what I've typed... slow internet and slow wore out laptop are not a good combo. I am planning on trying to replace it next spring.

But... thats all for now. I will work on being a better blogger!

Peeps peeping.... by the dozens

That incubator I talked about last time...
AWESOME.
Full...
Noisy....
Aproximate hatch count this morning was 40ish... yeah I cant quite keep track...
I love it.
I have a gallon bucket with a soft little liner that I pull them out and plunk them into to transport to the brooder. Each time the bottom is solid chickfluff... 10-15 at a time.
Its a blast.
I put an add up today for chicks for sale. Hoping for takers.
I have 10 reserved for my bestes girlfriend.
Shes crazy like me
The ducklings were hatching this morning.
Im hoping for a decent turkey hatch this time too.

It sure is crazy busy around here!
Yes pics will be posted when time allows!