My goodness, where does the time go??

It’s been weeks since I last blogged, and I figured it is time for an update! I do hope to get back on schedule with things here, but as any of us homesteaders know, there’s much to be done around the home and with the animals, leaving not so much time for things like this, right?

Last you heard from me, my baby chicks were just a week old and I was raving about the heat plate. Today they are 6 weeks old and have successfully been moved from the basement and out to their new home. If you recall, my husband allowed me to take over our 10′ x 12′ shed and turn it into a new chicken coop. We decided to put a little bit of money into it and insulated and paneled it (after insulating our other coop earlier this year and seeing how much easier it made our lives, we knew for sure that we wanted to do the same with this coop!), and built an entryway feed and straw storage area. We haven’t yet put up the insulation in the ceiling, but we have everything we need- other than time. Hopefully we can make it happen in the next couple of weeks.

 Entryway storage area. Eventually the nest boxes will be hung on the fenced wall and holes in the back of the nest boxes will allow us to collect eggs through the fenced wall without having to enter the coop.

Door to enter the living area.

Lots of natural light and plenty of room to roam! Hoping to get the roosts up within the next week.

I used an old box fan to serve as an elevated base for my waterer. Works beautifully!

Though the days have been warmer (around 30 degrees or so, some days more and some less), their first night out in the new coop I awoke to just 6 degrees. Very nervous about the babies, I rushed out to check on them. My Blue Red Cubalaya pullet simply looked at me and said in response to my nervousness:

It’s been too much fun being able to sit amongst them and really get to know them better. I’ve found that the Silver Gray Dorking pullet is a bit aggressive, but not mean. She’s just not afraid and every time you go in there she approaches with neck feathers flared. My Silver Laced Cochin pullet is very friendly and unafraid, as is the Buff Orpington.

A rather diverse group!

 Silver Spangled Spitzhauben.

I ordered {5} different Old English bantam breeds: Red Pyle, Fawn Gold, Blue Brassy Back, Crele, and Cream Buttercup. It was my hope that I would get at least one rooster out of the group since the late great Rusty was such a cute little guy with such great leadership skills. Well, I have at least 3 roosters out of that group, and two of them have already started crowing:

Yes, this tiny little guy was already crowing at 5 weeks. Seriously adorable.

 The little Red Pyle has begun crowing as well…

One of the Old English Game females- the Crele? I believe? Either way, she’s lovely 🙂

Still working on names. Those take me a while. I really like to get to know then first before I name them, and slowly but surely they will all have something special to be called 🙂

As far as the “missing” chicks in my order…well, I definitely found the White {Cochin} Frizzle and White Sultan. No White Cochin though. My Self Blue Silkie died randomly after a week, but I still have the White Silkie. So I think I still have 43 baby chicks…more than enough.

In other news, the Black Star hens are laying well. We lost a couple over the past few weeks, so we’re down to 20 hens. However, most days I get 18 eggs out of those 20 layers, which is astounding! Definitely good producers and we’ll be hanging on to them at least until the babies start laying.

The ducks have had enough of this winter. They’ve been able to go out venturing almost every day since it’s been warmer, but unfortunately the two groups of ducks fight with one another, so I can only let one group free range at a time while the other group is confined to their pen. The two groups can interact between the fencing and they definitely don’t like eachother. Would love some advice on how to integrate the two flocks without them killing one another…

I think we’re all ready for spring, right?

I hope all is well in your part of the world. Thanks for catching up with us 🙂