Pioneer Chicken - April Happenings

Howdy! I've been on this forum for a little while and finally decided to start a farm journal. For years, my family just had pets which consisted of a dog and a few cats. When we moved a while back, we noticed our new friends had chickens, rabbits, and goats which got us to enjoying their critters and thinking 'bout getting a few for ourselves. One bright and sunny day when the birds were- oh, nevermind- one day we just up and decided we'd get us some chickens. And so we did. ( : A few months after we'd acquired six white rock pullets, our neighbors gave us a rabbit they'd found wandering the neighborhood- likely an abandoned Easter 'pet'. A few more chickens, a move, a dozen rabbits more, three Nigerian Dwarf goats and we were set to be your poster surburban homestead. Since then, we've added guinea fowl, a garden, LaMancha goats, fish, and, more recently, quail to our little farm. I think that's enough jabbering for now and time for some proof. ( ;

This is Peace, the Independence chicken. She was one of the original White Rocks that dominated the nice little place we called a backyard. Within months, it was nothing short of a large glorious dust bath. I'll get revenge someday. Bwahahaha. Ahem, sorry 'bout that.


Don't let that cute lil face get to you. This bunny meant business. Top sheeprabbit you ever met. Yup, you heard right; this little guy- Oreo's his name- herded 'his' whole flock of chickens in a circle- perfect to the 'T'-whenever he wanted to. When we moved, we found out the sneaky (and blessed, may I add] little critter had chewed the electrical cords behind our couch.


That's Little Girl; top goat of all goats that ever touched hoof on this farm, with the exception of one, and only one goat- Little Joe, the herdsire. She's four years young and every bit as in charge and bossy as you can imagine. She adores her people too.


And these two were her best goat buddies, sisters by the name of Gentle (pure white] and Bambi. Both were part of a set of quads and were as different as could be. Gentle was sweet, quiet, calm, and patient- well, to a point. Bambi was my vocal, clumsy, and most impatient little powerhorse of a goat. I bet she could'a pulled me on a cart all by her lonesome.


Step aside folks. Meet Major Bonacelli, one of the handsomest of fishes with flowing tail and spunk to boot.


I think that's 'bout good for an introduction, don't you think? Y'all come back now, ya here?

You're off to a great start! Can't wait for more installments on your journey!

frustratedearthmother said:

You're off to a great start! Can't wait for more installments on your journey!

Click to expand...

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Fourscore and ten da- oh, sorry; on the fourth, one of the broody henshatched an egg and badly injured her chick. You do not want to know what I said to that hen. Because I'd had something similar happen a few years back, I decided with the advice and support of my family, to try and save the little guy. Unfortunately, he died overnight. This called for new protocol; all new mama hens must be checked bi-hourly [new word folks if it isn't one already (; ].


A few days later, I was quite surprised to find another broody with two very adorable guinea keets, dry and fluffy as could be. Well, how do you like that? I'm glad she was a good mama by nature...or was it 'cause she heard me threatening the hen next door? If she hadn't been, I'd'a had me a good stew already. Nevertheless, good mama hatched two more making a grand total of four very fluffy peeping chicks.


The garden is faring well...except for one evil thing; the squash vine borer. It attacked the pumpkins and the yellow squash which had been faithfully giving us delightful -um- yellow squashes. I only have one left to harvest; perhaps the last I'll get for the summer. Evil bine borers, I WILL get revenge- once I find out how to eliminate you from my garden. Bwahahaha


Out of all the sunflower seeds my pa and I planted, only one has shown me its lovely face.


Graham is growing like a weed. Already starting to stink and act like a buck; I don't think he's even four weeks old. He's a cutie, though.


The quail have names now. Tommy is patiently awaiting his new flock.


Billy [because he was a bit of a bully, I named after a bully I knew when I was younger] and his girls Aunt Bee, Thelma Lou, and Lou-Ann. The girls are giving me three lovely, little speckled eggs everyday.


Annnd, I finally taught Sally how to speak! Or did she teach me how to teach her? What a smart pup!


TTFN,
PC

Hello

Hi! Wow, it's been a year since I've posted! suppose I shall work on that now.

PART 1:

Well, it sure has been a while, hasn't it? There have been quite a few changes here, so let's get started with today's ...oops, sorry. Just a little Roy Rogers stuck in my head.

In May 2014, I had purchased two lovely Lamancha does only to find out later that both does tested positive for CAE. I had to catch and bottle raise all the kids this year which was quite the adventure. I found a good pet home for those two. Of course, all nine kids are already living and hopefully loving life in their new homes.
{Trip & Trouble}


A few of the little darlings. They grew up so fast. This here's Wildkat. Yes, my dear grammar friends; I did say that quite intentionally.

{Calico Kat}

{sapphire}

{Ivanhoe}

I still wasn't happy with my Nigerian Dwarf goats' milk production and I wanted to get a fully-registered herd so I sold Little Girl, her year old dry doe Little Byte, and AlleyKat.
{Little Girl}

{LittleByte}

{AlleyKat}

Oh, how could I forget? I bought myself a nice buck in the early/late winter...um...February. Haha...I love, love, LOVE how his offspring look! All of them had great length, were wide in the hocks, and had nice, round escutcheons. Was so very tempted to buy one of them, but I had great self-control...
{Gus}


which lasted till May when I found and hencetoforth almost immediately-after some hearty, hopeful research and several intense interviews[okay, okay, it wasn't THAT dramatic] - got me some good-looking does- four to be exact. Hey, ya sell a bunch, ya buy a bunch; that's how it works, right? Of course right.
{Quintana & Cocoa Puff}


{Darling Diamond}


{JustDucky}


All that searching set me to looking for a Lamancha buck and another Lamancha doe...yes, I needed some serious help. Thankfully, the sane side of me said no more and put an end to hunting for any Lamanchas. That's not to say I don't still lurk Craigslist or Facebook though. Oh, the temptation! Don't worry, I'm behaving myself... for the time being.

PART 2:

My quail set-up didn't work out too well. One of my males flew out and I wasn't able to catch him. I was so upset, I got rid of them as soon as I could. Bummer since I really enjoyed them, just gotta get a better system and then I'll give it another go.

seabiscuit, my male guinea, kicked the bucket for some unknown reason this spring, so I picked up Mr. Handsome. He was a good boy till I let him free-range with his hens Polka Dot and Polo. shortly thereafter, he turned into a mean ol' brat. He bullied the Bantam Coop residents so much so, that they wouldn't go in at night anymore. Then he started attacking the humans so we locked him up in the chick pen;the chicks are put in a cage at night. Well, I failed to check for any holes because I hadn't had escapees till that night. That blasted guinea killed one and injured two of four escaped chicks. I was so stinkin' upset. I almost butchered him right then and there before remembering I didn't want to deal with two mourning hens for however long it took me to get them a new mate. He still awaits his date with the stew pot. That will be the day of sweet revenge...


speaking of chicks, this was the year to get new layers. WOOT! WOOT! Oh yeah! Chicken Math won and we got a total of twenty chicks . Or maybe it was thirty...hmmm... Hey, every two years is special, ya know? We get to go chicken crazy. We being my mom and I. My precious little darlings that I claim as mine are Iris & Izzie, the Barred Rocks; Nani & Lokelani, the Buff somethings; sunny & shadow, the Light Brahmas; suri, a mottled Japanese bantam; and Eema, the White Jersey Giant. We also have Marishka & Cherry, the Production Reds; Lily, & a young roo, White Rocks; Daisy, Daffodil, &Tulip the White Rock pullets; sushi, a sweet lil dumpling of a silkie, & Yoko, also a silkie; 4 Black Jersey Giants {all of which I sold}; Jitterbug & Cha-Cha, Black Australorps; and Polar, the new male guinea...more on that little stinker shortly.
{suri & sushi}

{Iris}

One of the White Rock pullets; probably Daisy or Daffodil


Dearest, I forgot the Leghorns. Yes, yes, of course, before the chick extravaganza, we picked up four just-about-ready-to-lay White Leghorns from a lovely lady and her mother. Their names are Pensacola {Penny}; Italy {Italee or Tally}; Asia; Croatia {sha-sha or Asa}.






With their flock leader,luver guy, and chicken roo, sir Liverwort.


Even though she's not new, she is such a darling that I must make you aware of her existence... meet Ebony Jewel.


PART 3 will come in due time my dears. In the mean time, hope y'all are enjoying the thrilling and most adventurous life of Pioneer Chicken. Come back now, ya hear? Pretty please?

PART 3:

Greetings and salutations, my fellow forum folks! Ah, that was a lovely intro, wasn't it? Let's see, what should I start with? After my first start, that is.

Polar. How 'bout we start with Polar-the little stinker...but I already stated what he was, didn't I? Oh well. Nothing like repetition to get one's point across. My little replacement has turned into a junior Mr. Handsome. He's developed an apparently fascinating habit of picking on my Iris and sushi and anyone else his age who irks him. Guess I should've turned Mr. Handsome into stew sooner, huh? I think my choices consist of having two delicious suppers; one pot of soup and some time for Junior to mature; or a pot of soup, sell Junior, and find myself another guinea.


Had some folks finally purchase the vacant, overgrown, mini-forest corner lot next to us. Most all of it's cleared now with a lovely southern house rising up. Losing a lot of privacy and a good strip of land which meant my dad and bros had to move the buck barn and the doe barn. The good thing 'bout that is the bucks got a new pen with a little more room than they had before. The does lost half their pen, so will likely be joining it to the pen beside it. They're also building a fence on our property line.


Thinking about breeding Belle the Lamancha with Joe the Nigerian Dwarf for Feb kids and more milk production. The younger does won't be ready till the end of this year/ early next year to be bred so I'm thinking it might be wiser to go ahead and get her fresh instead of waiting another four months to get her bred. Not the best photo of her set up, but I like it better than the others; she really is a nice doe. Belle isn't registered, though, I'm going to try to see if I can get her made a recorded grade with ADGA, but I don't care if she's not able to be. she's a great doe,both personality and milk production-wise.



What would you do if you had to deal with a bully male guinea?
What's your favorite Pioneer Chicken critter so far?
Have you changed your goals for your goats/ chickens/little/big homestead?

Lovely photo essay! You have been very busy this past year, and it sounds like you've been having a good time with the work. Shame your male guineas have been such bad boys... they had such great potential. I don't have guineas but I can tell you that if one of our Buff Orp roosters started acting aggressive, no matter how good looking he was, he'd be in the stew pot by sundown. Somewhere out there is your perfect gentleman guinea who will charm your little ladies and give you nice little keets.

You have so many very nice looking animals that I find it hard to claim a favorite, however, I love Gus' face, and that Joe is one hunk of a buck. Hope you keep all of your devoted readers posted, with lots of pictures, on your current and future plans. Looking forward to seeing Belle's and Joe's kids. Bet they will be super cuties!