It’s a blustery afternoon here in eastern Ontario and at this time it helps to focus on Spring and all the good things to come. For me, Spring is all about new life: hatching chickens and ducks, sprouting seeds and my favourite: baby goats! The baby goats should start arriving at the end of March and soon after we’ll have hens and ducks sitting on eggs too.
We have a lot planned for 2012. Our big project is (knock wood) our production of cold-pressed Sunflower Oil. There are a lot of things to sort out but we have a field ready to go in May with oil to follow in the Fall. We are sourcing an oil press and looking into all the other aspects beginning with planting and ending with ‘tastes like sunshine’ oil in a bottle.
We’re also planning to set up a couple of beehives for honey and wax production. This will be a joint effort with some friends of ours from town. We’re thinking to expand our workshop program too to include goat and chicken keeping 101. And of course we’re always thinking of new varieties of goat milk soap and new flavours of goat milk fudge. So, check back often to see what we’re up to or sign up for our email newsletter to get regular updates from Kricklewood Farm. All the best for 2012 from us to you!
We woke up this morning to more than a light dusting of snow. They had predicted rainfall mixed with snow so I guess it was on the negative side of zero. It’s always fun to watch the reaction of the animals. For the chickens and ducks hatched out earlier this year it’s a whole new experience. Pitou prefers to stay inside and it takes a little while for the goats to step out and realize that they won’t melt. Buddy is not too pleased either. Only 5 months until Spring…
We’ve had an interesting development in the chick rearing department this season. There is a nest box near the house that has been occupied by two hens for the past several weeks. They had been continually jostling for space and there were never any times that they were both off the nest. That meant we never had a chance to check what might be going on: How many eggs were they sitting on? Chicken or duck or both? Any peeping to be heard from inside any eggs? A hatching would be imminent?
Late last week we had the answer when one, then another chick made their debut. The big question was, who would take care of them. Well, it turns out both. We’re not sure if we have little Heathers or Heaths but for now they definitely have two Mommies taking care of them. BTW, hats off to Leslea Newman who wrote the book Heather has two Mommies way back in 1989.
The first snow day of the season is always an interesting one, especially for the animals born this past Spring and Summer. They get to experience snow for the first time, with mixed results. The Muscovy ducks don’t seem to mind…
The chickens on the other hand aren’t happy to have their feet touch snow. They spend the first while up on anything to get off the ground.
The Nubian goats, the breed with origins in Africa increase the volume on their bleating, begging me to make the bad weather go away.
After a while, when I put some grain outside, a few brave chickens venture out.
And then a few more, especially if I put down some hay over the snow.
The hay is incentive enough for the goats too. Silver the young Nubian Buck is slowly getting used to it.
There are always hold outs who prefer to spend the day in the barn hanging out..
…or chowing down.
Hope they get used to this, winter has yet to offficially
arrive and we have a long way to go until Spring!
We thought our Barred Rock Hen was a bad mother when she abandoned her first clutch of 10 when they were pretty small. It turns out she was back to work on her second nest. It’s in the same spot as the previous nest right next to the house and they should be hatching within the next week. The plan will be to scoop her and the eggs up one night before they hatch. Her new home will be a dog crate inside the coop so she’ll have her own private quarters within the coop.
In the meantime, she stays on the nest 24/7 and only gets off of it once every couple of days to get some food and water. When that happens, she lets out some very distinctive clucking: ”I’m off the nest, can’t leave the eggs very long but I need food and water and I need it NOW!”. That’s my cue to run outside and make sure there is some food put out so she doesn’t have to jump over the fence to get back into the chicken yard. I usually make an effort to give her some treats and extra rations too so she goes back to the nest full until the next time.
Luckily, the chicks from her first clutch have grown like weeds and are getting along fine. At this point they are almost as big as some of the smaller hens. I’m glad they made it this far, as they seemed too small to be on the own without Mom to protect them and show them food. We’re looking forward to the new chicks and of course more of those big beautiful brown eggs!
It’s been one of those warm lazy days of summer and everything that mother nature has to offer is being enjoyed. If only these moments could last all year…
With all that has been going on this Spring, I’ve neglected to do the nightly head count in the coop to be sure that all the chickens are accounted for. One was definitely not there for the past few weeks and I guess we’ll never know where she was, the important thing is that she came back…
and with her came 10 new chicks! Some hens like more privacy than others when it comes to sitting on eggs and this definitely applies to her. She may have been in the barn or just in the tall grass in the barnyard and I guess we’ll never know. Now we’ve ‘trained’ her to bring the chicks into the dog crate for the night and we bring the crate into the coop for extra security. Phew…we were definitely lucky that she made it through 21 days of sitting. Another barnyard miracle and several busy weeks ahead for the Momma Hen taking care of these ten!
Summer is in the air and we’re officially open for farm gate sales complete with a fresh coat of paint on our sign! We’re offering free range eggs, goat milk soap, bee’s wax candles and artwork. In the weeks to come we’ll also have produce, herbs and cut flowers. We’re a bit behind in the season as the kitchen garden was accessible to the chickens until a couple of weeks ago so none of the early season greens and other crops were planted on time. Now that we have proper fencing and the seeds are in the ground we should be good to go in a few weeks. For farm gate sales we’re open “by chance or by appointment” so drop in or call 613-275-9901 to see what is available when you are planning to visit.
One of the nest boxes has had eggs in it for about a month and the hens have been taking turns sitting on the nest. We were giving up hope that anything would hatch but boy were we wrong! Yesterday the first duckling was spotted, followed by another later in the day and a chick this morning.
We won’t know how many chicks and ducklings are under there until the hen leaves the nest to take them around. Once she gets off of it, that’s her signal that nothing else will hatch or that she’s had enough of sitting.
There is a black chick in the clip too, barely visible behind her beak. She’s teaching them to eat by showing them some good grain.
That’s Pitou coming into the coop towards the end, the duckling isn’t quite sure what to make of the grunting so she hides under Mom.
We’d been planning for some day old chicks for Spring since January and finally the big day came. Dark Brahmas, Buff Orpingtons, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Barnevelders, Silver Grey Dorkings, Cuckoo Marans and more Ameraucanas made up the order from Performance Poultry near Belleville. They specialize in heritage and unusual breeds so if you want something more than the basic feed store offerings this is the place to go.
Here they are in the box as they arrive home. It was a bumpy
2 1/2 hour ride for them but they all arrrived fine.
The first order of business was to get them into the brooder with water and food and heat. Without the mother hen they need extra heat. They also need to be taught how to drink by dipping their beaks in the water. They all seemed to be eating and drinking within a few minutes but they need to be monitored to make sure that they are all getting what they need. The yolk sac will keep them going for a day or two but beyond that they are on their own.
The variety of colours is amazing and will get more interesting as they grow. We chose the breeds for variety of egg colour too, some will lay dark brown eggs to go with other shades of brown, green and white.
Of course there’s always one trouble maker who has to stand in the food and make a mess of things! More photos to follow as they start growing.
