Peep Update

It's hard to believe the peeps are almost 6 weeks old already. We finished building the extra run and mini coop and moved the meat chickens, Australorps and the hatchlings outside. Everyone is fully feathered except for our little guys, but they're nearly there. Everyone is enjoying the much larger space and this also introduces them to rest of the brood.

We have 3 more peeps that hatched on 4/10 and another dozen due any day now. Once those two hatches are feathered out, they'll be added with the rest of this years' peeps. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer everyone will be big enough to combine them with our brood. Not to mention that the run they are in now will hopefully be the home to some turkeys.

Peeps

 The babies are getting quite big and the kids love watching them grow. We grabbed some chicks from Tractor Supply (after we said we weren't buying any this year) and we now have 6 Cornish Rocks that we are raising to butcher and 6 Australorps. Our 6 hatchlings are doing great and are little fluff balls. I have a feeling all of them might be Cochin mixes (most of them have the feathered feet too)

The Cornish Rocks are younger than the Australorps and have already passed them in size. It's our first time with meat chickens and I can't believe how solid they are! We'll be having a butchering party here in a few weeks!

Happy Hatch Day!

Our peeps were due yesterday, March 5th, and we had a 50% hatch rate. This is only my second time trying to incubate eggs, since none of our hens want to do their job and go broody, so I'm very pleased with the results (especially considering we had a few eggs go bad). We did have 2 peeps hatch that we lost, so fingers crossed that everyone else continues to do well.

ignore the mess - they're still drying off in the incubator before we move them to the brooder :)

Snow, Snow, & More Snow

I'm pretty sure our chickens are just as fed up with all this snow as I am. They are also incredibly spoiled and won't come outside to free range unless I shovel paths for them. But then, I do shovel paths for them so what's that say about me? Ha!

I also introduced sunflower seeds as a treat for our chickens and it took them awhile to decide they liked them. Cacciatore was quite upset when I ran out (the new bag was left in the truck - and the hubby drove it to work.

Sunflower seeds have now been replaced and we got another 4" of snow...It's -4 here today and by Sunday it's supposed to hit 40. I usually don't mind the cold or the snow, but this year I am definitely ready for Spring!

Sprouts

After a very chaotic Holiday season and the birth of our son fast approaching, I'm finding my time stretched completely thin! I have, however, been working on getting sprouts ready for the chickens so they have some greens to snack on over the winter.

Sprouts are a super easy treat to give your chickens. I ordered a few packets from Seeds Now, I highly recommend them! Their prices are very reasonable and the shipping was wicked quick!

First I soaked the seeds (it was a 1/2 cup packet) in water with about 1 tsp of lemon juice for 24 hours. (Lemon juice helps prevent molding)

Then I rinsed the seeds thoroughly with a strainer until the water ran clear.

 

Place the seeds into the container, I used one of the foil baking pans. Press the seeds flat so there aren't any large clumps or mounds.

 Mist with water 2x a day and I used the lid it came with to cover it.

After less than 24 hours there are already sprouts popping through!

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7 - Excuse their muddy mess of a run, we've had a horrible run of weather lately with a ton of rain and snow and it's turned everything into a mud pit! But, I think it's safe to say the chickens are very happy to see some lovely fresh greens!

Chickens

I gave the hubby quite the scare the other day when I told him I was going to shoot some chickens...perhaps I should've mentioned that it would be with the camera. Anyway, here's a few photos of our brood...I'm slowly turning into that crazy chicken lady!

 Twizzlers (Twizzie) - Araucauna

 General Tso - Buff Orpington Roo

 Almond Joy (AJ) - Cochin Roo

 Cacciatore - Barred Rock

 Buffalo, Barbeque, Popcorn & General - Red Sexlinks & Buff Orpington Roo

 Toffee - Cochin Roo

Twix - Cochin

Fermented Chicken Feed

As many of you know, we have a brood of about 15 chickens. I have heard that fermenting chicken food results in lots of eggs, which was my primary reason for trying it out on our chickens.  We keep dual purpose chickens but our main reason for having them is for the eggs. Unfortunately, if they aren't giving us eggs or we have too many roosters hatch we butcher them. I really shouldn't say we, I don't do any butchering, I can't quite stomach it...yet! I will help butcher eventually!

Fermenting chicken food will improve the chicken's enzyme content and increase vitamin levels. Fermenting will also make it more digestible AND boost usable protein level. With all the good lacto-fermentation bugs in the food, the chicken's immune systems are given a boost and they have an easier time keeping disease at bay.  Healthy and robust chickens are happy and happy hens lay eggs.

Anyway, to ferment chicken feed, all you need is a container, chicken feed, water, and time. Right now, I use a quart sized mason jar and fill it half-way. Then I fill the jar with water until it covers the feed by about an inch or two. Seal it and let it sit for 3 days. That's it!

A three-day fermentation seems to work the best for us. Two days doesn't seem like quite enough time and anything longer than 3 days seems to create a more sour feed. You will know when the feed is ready when it is nice and bubbly.  The feed will have a sour smell, but shouldn’t smell rotten or putrid.  

If you want a steady rotation of fermented feed, start the same process in a new jar on day 2 and again on day 3. Also, on day 3 you will empty the first jar, feed it and refill it to start the fermenting process again. This way once you get going, you will have a container of fermented feed ready every day.

Please, keep in mind this is not my primary feed, the chickens still have access to regular chicken feed as well. If you will be using fermented feed only, you may need to go through some trial and error to figure out exactly how much is enough for your chickens.