“The Daily” is a look at our week here at Yellow Birch Hobby Farm. You can keep up with our photos here and more by “Liking” our Facebook page!

I’m really excited because my husband agreed to allow me to take over our 10′ x 12′ shed and turn it into my new chicken coop. This way, we can keep our Black Star layers in the current coop while we raise the new babies. They will be brooded for at least a month in our basement and in the meantime we’ll be getting the shed insulated, outfitted with a feed and straw storage space, nest boxes and roosts in, and adding in a false ceiling (the ceiling is very high). Once everything is all set, we will move the young ones out and have two functioning coops. So for a while, we will have about 70 chickens. I don’t think I have ever owned that many at once! We had planned to butcher the layers once it was time to move the babies outside, but now that we have two available coops I think we will take the butchering slow; just a couple at a time and try to keep the layers for a few more months. Eventually, after the butchering is complete we will move the ducks into the coop and we will have two open duck pens- one for breeding and the other for turkeys, our next poultry endeavor.

Throughout all my years of raising baby chicks, I’ve always used what I had on hand- usually large cardboard boxes pulled apart and pieced together in a makeshift brooder. Ever since the loss of our flock, my husband has been especially supportive and kind and surprised me when he told me he wanted to build me a nice brooder. He works at a lumber mill and was able to get all the wood for free, and in about twenty minutes he had this put together in our basement crawlspace. Because the ceiling is so low, I decided to forgo the heat lamp and invest in a Heat Plate. Feeling a little spoiled this year and am so ready for my babies to arrive next Friday! My only reservation is the cold…I’ve never ordered chicks this early in the year and I’m worried about the three day travel they will be enduring. I’ve received weak batches of chicks in the past and if you’ve ever been through that, you know that it is hours of work and heartache. Hoping for a good experience this time, especially given the circumstances and all that we have gone through already. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

After well over two weeks of temps steadily around -15 every day, we saw 12 above a couple of the days this week. What a great opportunity to let the ducks out to bathe and preen for a few hours. They loved it- and it gave me the opportunity to see how Cedar would react to her flock. She was very curious- but very attentive to my commands and backed off any time I asked. It’s amazing watching her natural herding instinct!

With the rise in temps, we saw a combined total of about 16″ of snow over the past couple of days. Cedar loves the snow like you would not believe! Here she is laying down and rolling around in all the fresh powder.

We are getting on average 16 eggs a day. I can see why people like their sex link chickens- amazing layers. Though this is the first time in my life owning all the same breed of chicken, it is pretty neat to see how their eggs are all different- in size, color, shape. The extra production has allowed us to sell almost enough eggs to cover their feed cost. 

Our Blue Runner hen, trying to decide whether or not she should go out. I was a little worried about her hardiness going into winter. But she has done very well. I’m quite pleased with all of my duck breeds- despite our brutal winter this year, they have fared exceptionally well. I’m excited to start breeding in the spring!

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