Goodbye Goats - Hello Sun!

So, just a few days ago, Saturday January 15th, we sold two of our goats.

Our beloved and beautifully patterned Coral Belle, who gave me some amazing, rich, sweet milk and out of this world cheese as well as plenty of great personality and conversation. . .



And another beloved doeling, Marguerite, who was quite shy but very beautiful. We never had a chance to try any of her milk though.



Marguerite is on the far left, Coral Belle on the far right.




We sold them last weekend so that we have more room for the pasture to grow and not get over grazed. If it were really up to me, I would have kept Coral Belle, she was an absolute sweetheart and had amazing coloration, but at least we still have our colorful Nubian buck, George. He'll now be the sire to the remaining two doe's kids. Hopefully he'll throw a LOT of color and sweet temperament!





George, despite being a buck, is a very sweet, odorless, mellow, and quiet goat.


Well, beyond the sad news of loss, we must move on. . . And today was a perfect day to show for that. We had some rare sun show up!

First up is a Black Copper Marans hen who is really, really busty! This girl has a lot of size to her, bigger than my other lines of Black Coppers, and this photo perfectly shows how meaty she can be. I'm certainly going to use her next for our Shamo x Marans meat-bird projects.



After that, there's another kind of size. . . This here is a splash colored Jersey Giant basking right behind a rather small looking but normally sized Wheaten Ameraucana. The splash Jersey Giant still has a lot more growing to do, too!



And, her sister, another behemoth still with some time left to continue growing. Behind her is an Araucana hen.



And, on the smaller side, the Araucana. . .



Also wandering around is a rarely seen Silver Duckwing colored Araucana.



And, in relative subject, here's a gorgeous Blue Ameraucana.



Wandering more in the shady times of the day is another beauty, a Buff Ameraucana.




Well, that's it for now. This sun only lasts so long, and then it's just a bunch of long, large shadows cast by the trees. Winter is a dark time of the year, but when the sun does come out, it is a very nice advantage. Also, you might notice, but some of the birds are just finishing up on molting, so their feathers aren't looking in top condition.

The Araucanas - Grown up!

So, it has been quite a while since I've shown you how my Araucanas have turned out. First you saw the chicks, then you saw the scruffy'uns, then a sampler of last month. . . Here's my Araucanas now.

First, a little round of the boys. I have culled down dramatically from 31 Araucanas to 16, with the population drop being in boys. I'm only keeping one of each color, and of each color I prefer to work with. For example - I had a lot of blue and black boys, but I'm not working with blue or black, because they all had too much duckwing/yellow leaking in their feathers. If I were to work with those colors, they'd be pure. So, I have these guys left:

Here's Marango. He's a Lemon Blue, which is basically a cross of duckwing and blue to the point of changing the patterning around to get this. It is gorgeous, and the female version of it looks simply like a blue hen, but with a silvery white necklace.





Here's my Blue Cuckoo cockerel who only goes by the temporary nickname of "Cookies and Cream." He's a barred blue Araucana who needs some cleaning up. As you can see, he's not exactly barred, due to having ducking alleles still in him, which dilutes the barring. So, I'll be working on cleaning that up so his offspring are completely barred.





This is Canis. He's a Splash cockerel, and has the absolute best pair of tufts out of all the 31 Araucanas we received. He really is a looker, too!






Now, we go onto the girls. The pullets. These girls vary also in color, but there's at least one of each that matches a color to my pick of the boys.

This is Josephine, actually, the only one who doesn't have a cockerel with a matching color. She's a Black Copper Araucana, a project color, wich if she were actually a Marans, would have what is called "mossiness." Otherwise, she's got gorgeous tufts and markings as well as a wonderful body!





This is Freyja. She's the female version of Canis. She's a splash, but without tufts (which is a good thing) and also the absolute smallest of our Araucanas!



Size comparison next to a Wyandotte.



Next up is an example of a Lemon Blue female - As stated, they're a typical blue but with a duckwing-type "necklace."



Another example, although this girl won't be bred as a Lemon Blue. I'm going for a goal with this color, and she's got too much brown and duckwing/BBR showing through.



Here's the female version of my Blue Cuckoo / Barred Araucana. This girl actually seems to be properly colored, but also has a leaking unwanted gene. I will still breed her though to get a normal Barred bird, not blue barred, so I can really see what I'm working with here.




And, last but certainly not least! The eggs! This, pictured below, is a collection of the first 3 eggs laid of each color of Araucana. They're organized in up-down columns.



From left to right: Lemon Blue 1, Black, Blue Cuckoo, Black Copper, Lemon Blue 2, Silver Duckwing.

As you can see, the eggs on the far left are quite green, almost an odd golden brown color. The hen that laid those will not be bred, except for crossbreeding. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th column will be bred.

Oops, a little late

So I've been busy. Again.

Well, this time it is because of goats! We've got some new babies! We went back up to the same amazing, lovely place where we got Coralbelle and Angelica, the Kinder goats, to fetch us 2 more doelings and one VERY handsome buckling! (pics soon, still working out camera issues)

Aside from that, I now have 31 girls laying and over 20 still expected to lay within the next few months from now. And then what next? Olive Eggers!! The only color of egg I now do not have in my basket are olive green and grass green eggs. Aaah just imagine. This winter I'll be setting up a breeding pen to temporarily pair off all my F1 Olive Egger parents, so the chicks will lay eggs come spring-early summer. We're talking Olive Eggers with tufts, feathered shanks, crazy colors, and no tails!

Anyway, here's some photos of our Yak and Araucanas just a month ago.

The Tolbunt eggs and the Araucanas

Both of them have gone through some hardships this past week. .

First the Tolbunt Polish eggs. These eggs are VERY expensive and much worth the money, plus I've had an excellent fertility rate of 50%. . . But I suddenly lost an egg. After perhaps a very dangerous routine of candling and photographing an egg each day. it died. . . The fetus lost its veining, movement, and became an odd dark blob. It has not developed since then. So, now I have 5 developing and fertile eggs. . . And only 10 days left until they all hatch.







Next there's the Araucanas. On Monday I decided to move my younger Araucanas, Ameraucanas, and Marans in with the main flock. Well, things of course did not go well, but that always happens when you introduce chickens with each other - especially young and older. But the real problem as that the Araucanas were just worryingly tiny, not really growing much, and getting more and more scared each day. So, finally, I decided to move them and only them back to their original play-place, so they can have peace. When I moved them, I tallied everyone down to make sure I had them all, then watched them chirp, run, scratch, and settle happily again. It took so much stress off of us both.





(more pics added in a couple hours)

Spring has certainly sprung!!

First, there's the KIDS!! Yes, our LaMancha goat, Jugs, finally birthed a pair of twin kids!! One is a girl - A beautiful black, red, and white; Another is a boy - a very neat ashy dun brown with white splashing. I'm so proud of Jugs though - She birthed them so fast and with such perfection, all on her first timer!










Next, there's the Tolbunt Polish eggs! A while ago, I paid nearly $200 for a dozen Tolbunt variety Crested Polish hatching eggs. I set them just 6 days ago, and now have exactly 50% fertility, which for Tolbunts is great! Here's some candling photos:





And last, there's the farm in general. Here's some beautiful peach blossoms:



Here's Paintball, our second LaMancha doe, due to possibly have a kid in June.



And finally a BLUE egg to show off. This one is what one of my Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas hatched from.



Then, there's the Araucanas and Marans with a couple Ameraucanas, enjoying the latter day's sun. Today was beautiful, with constant showers and lovely, warm sun in between each one.

(pics coming soon)

The "baby babies"

I have a lot of chickens. And to categorize the different age groups, we sometimes call them by the "Girls," "The babies," "The baby babies," and "The chicks," or "Baby baby babies."

So, let's give an update first on "The baby baby babies!" These little tykes just hatched this last Friday through Saturday, and are doing fine now. We experienced the loss of two Jersey Giants out of a great hatch of 10/11 but haven't experienced any troubles since then.

In fact, we had one who hatched out with its yolk still hanging from its behind, and another chick eventually pecked and popped it. . . There went all its nutrients for the next two days all over the bottom of the incubator. . . And there was nothing we could do about it until the hatch was completely done. Well, once we finally pulled everyone out of the incubator, the chick was really small and skinny, quite lifeless, and couldn't even open its eyes. After hours of forcing it to drink, trying somehow to make it eat, and keeping watch of it, I had to go to bed. . . The next morning it was still alive. In fact, a day later after much care put into it, the chick began to open its eyes. Now, it's still small and skinny, but isn't quite so weak anymore.

This is all the chicks in the brooder just yesterday:



The black ones are Black Copper Marans and Black Jersey Giants. The blue/grey ones are Blue Jersey Giants. The huge, fluffy yellow-white ones are Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Marans. The one truly white one on the left is a Polish x Easter Egger. The cutie will be our one and only white chicken, and should grow up to have a tiny crest on its head and lay mint green eggs.

Here's a closeup of a Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. This one, like a couple, is marked. The blue signifies that this one hatched from the bluest egg.





Next, we have updates on the "Baby Babies" - And of course first to show off are our Araucanas - They've got true tufts coming in now! Not just little nubbins of feathers, but real tufts. They're becoming very beautiful birds, but still quite small.

Here's a white one with great tufts, though on the white background you may or may not see them very well. . .



Here's a blue pullet with magnificent tufts, also a very friendly one compared to others.



Here's a beautiful but clean-faced Silver Duckwing pullet.



And here's a unique "Blue Cuckoo" type clean faced Araucana:



Next, here's a Blue Wheaten Marans pullet:





A Blue Wheaten Marans cockerel:



And a Black Copper Marans cockerel:



And then there's our oldest mini-flock of Marans and Ameraucanas. . . Here's how our cockerel, Maple, is at 2 months old. He's finally starting to actually look like a Black Copper Marans.



Well, . . My camera's batteries need to be recharged. and tomorrow is a promised good and sunny day, so I'll show you around to our pregnant goat who's due in just a couple days, and the rest of the chookies!