Mystery Chicks

I love this game. It's the best part of breeding critters of any kind. What will the new babies look like? Did my critters make something new? 

So here is just such a game. The parents are our mottled mystery mix bantams. Hearafter known as our M&M&Ms. ;-)

We just hatched our first babies and what a variety! First, this little one was what I expected:

A little black and butter cream puff. 

We also got a whole bunch of these little jewels with coal spots on their heads! Looks like my guess of mottled Japanese for the parents linage was spot on!  *giggle*!  ;-)

No, that's not a marker dot. That's the color they were born with! 

We also got a little chocolate drop. This one is a rich dark brown on top and buttery underneath, named Toffee!  ;)

Chocolate? :-/ Where did he come from?!

And then.... (Drumroll)....

We got a solid black chick! Black legs, black eyes, black beak,... Is he black on the inside?  I gentle looked in his mouth. Nope. Rats. :-(

But still a cute little guy! 

I wonder what this one will look like when he grows up? There must be Silkie in the mix! 

Cotton Patch Geese!

Exciting and busy weekend! The best part was trading a group of Bielefelder chicks for two beautiful cotton patch geese! Thank you Regina! I have been researching these beautiful geese for quite some time. They are the only American land race of domestic goose. They were used in the cotton fields back in the day to eat the grassy weeds while leaving the crop untouched. Today, they can be used the same way to weed our vegetable gardens! Im not entirely sure what they will and won't eat, but I'll find out soon enough.
On the way home, our new girl didn't waste any time. She laid a      beautiful white egg, right in her crate!
After sleeping overnight in their transport pen, our pair ventured out and have taken over our fallow garden, already putting quite a dent in the grass!We have some tomatoes, strawberries, onions, and yellow squash planted, but they have not so much as touched any of those, preferring instead to nibble the grass down to the dirt! These guys are better than Roundup! Cheaper too! Just give them water and grass!



For their nighttime quarters, our geese decided the center compost bin was a perfect fit. We agreed that would be a safe and secure spot for sleeping and nesting, so I dug it out and filled the bottom with fresh hay and straw. Chuck sturdied it up and added a roof and door.

They love it! They spent most of today inside and this afternoon laid a SECOND egg!! YIPPEEEE!!!

Mystery Mottled Japanese Cochin Bantam Cross

Meet the newbies! They are cute, sweet, and the girls have been laying non stop since they got here! As near as I can tell, these must be a mix of Japanese and Cochin banties. What do you think? Does anyone else see other breeds mixed in? They lay eggs like crazy, so we are eager to see what hatches out. Mutts they are, but they will be a perfect start to a pet project of mine. ;)
Their egg laying ability is definitely impressive.  They are still in quarantine, but they don't seem to care. They still lay cute little cream colored eggs every day. Two of them have laid every day since they got here, one was broody, but after three days, she is laying now too. The little roo is very personable. He crows at us every time we come out the door. He is protective and very gentlemanly with this girls, clucking and cooing to them all the time and showing them the best food bits. I love his body shape and confirmation. His head was a bit picked because of competition with a few other (bigger) roosters, but the feathers are growing back already. I'll have to get some new pictures when he gets all feathered out again. Have a look at my great impromptu nest boxes! They Love them! I have bricks lining the bottom of these standard wash bins from Wally World, so they don't knock them over. Also a couple chunks of concrete in the bottom of the bigger bin. We already have these salt and pepper chicks all named. The roo is Chip. The darkest hen is Inca, the lightest is Crystal, and the medium speckled is Sprinkles. :)

Incubator is FULL!

This is what we have been working so hard for! Hooray! :D
Finally! We now have a professional incubator, thanks to a generous donation by a very supportive benefactor (THANK YOU!) and all three trays are in operation as of today! YAY! The trays are already almost filled to capacity, but we will be adding more chicken breeds soon; so before long, we are going to have to buy incubator number two! Right now we have mostly Bielefelders, but we are also hatching out some of our Easterfelders (Our Bielefelder roos over the Easter eggers we originally got for eating eggs!) 
We also have a couple of newcomers who have a few eggs in the 'bator too! More on them in the next post! :)

Mississippi Magic

"You can't cut it out, It'll grow right back." I laugh as I explain jungle control against our thickets and thorns here in the Deep South. It's like the garden of Eden.... on Steroids! You just can't kill plants here. Take this fence post, for example. That's right, this is a fence post. We cut it out in the woods in an area we needed to reclaim... again. We stuck it in the ground while still green. Over the rest of the summer, fall, and through winter, this post re-rooted itself and re-grew branches!

Life on the Farm

SO much has happened over the past year and a half that we just could not say it all in words, so we decided to say it in pictures!

Bielefelder, The Perfect Dual Purpose Chicken Breed!

What if there was a breed of chicken that produced little boys that grew into huge, robust meat birds, and also produced little girls that grew into prolific hens,  laying nice large eggs on a daily basis? What if they were all also quiet, gentle, and mellow? What if, as an added bonus, you could tell the boys from the girls from day one?

From May, 2014....
My search for the perfect chicken breed may finally be over! Meet our new flock of Bielefelders! We got them locally from The Angels Share Homestead, a sustainable farm a couple hours south of us. (You can find them on Facebook) They bought theirs directly from Greenfire Farms. http://greenfirefarms.com/
As you will see on Greenfire's site, the Bielefelder was developed in Germany in the 70s and has only been in the USA since 2011. We are proud to be some of the first breeders of this amazing bird! Already, they have won my heart. This afternoon I put out a feeder and sat with them, petting them all as they ate.  They are more like curious pets than chickens. They will sometimes run right up to you, just to see what you are doing. They really are super quiet and mellow. Much quieter than my other chicks and not as easily frightened.
Here's a picture of their father, a splendid, HUGE handsome roo! In person he was such a proud, stately bird. As tall as my knees!
Laid back, yes. But the owners told me that when threatened, this guy will stand up and fight to protect his hens. The whole time we were there, he was a quiet as a mouse. Even though there were dozens of other roosters crowing all around us. Even when they picked him up, he didn't make much fuss!
Here's a picture of his hens. Aren't they pretty? Again, all super quiet, the whole time we were visiting. All bright and active, but remarkably quiet. Their eggs are a lovely smooth slightly pinkish tan, noticeably heavy and dense.
As I mentioned, you can tell the boys from the girls, right from day one. The boys have a light spot on their head, and the girls have a chipmunk stripe over their eyes. As they get older, the cockerels remain light, and the pullets darken and develop more striping and a dark triangle on their head. It's kinda nice to be able to tell so easily who's who! Can you pick out the two cockerels in the baby picture?
I bought 8 pullets and 4 cockerels. Being such mellow birds, I'm told the high percentage of little roos won't be a problem. If I can keep them all to breeding age, it will be nice to have that much more diversity in the bloodlines. In about 3-4 months I'll be getting my first eggs. I'm so excited! If this bird continues to impress me as much as it has already, we will be switching exclusively to the uber chicken! The Bielefelders!

Fast Forward a few months to today:

Our Bielefelder chicks have all grown up and I must say they have lived up to all the claims! I have been extremely pleased with this breed! Curious and gentle, beautiful and huge, great foragers, hardy, not much more could you ask for in a chicken breed! We now have these chickens exclusively! Be bought a few more hens and now have a total of 15 hens and 4 roos. Our flock does seem rather quiet compared to other chickens we have had. Two of our roos hardly crow at all! But they still dance and strut for the hens and hop on their backs all day. They are not as quiet as my flock of mille fleurs was, but I would say that they are certainly quieter than average.


I have heard people complain that Bielefelders eat a lot. I personally did not notice.
I think you would have to measure and keep careful records to determine any difference at all between these and any other breed. And, well, they are huge birds! So of course they would eat a lot! But they are excellent foragers, so if you let them feed themselves, your pockets stay full. As an added bonus, they will eat most of your ants, slugs, moths, flies, grasshoppers, snails, and even mice! If you confine them to the garden plot for a few weeks before planting, you won't have any weeds! And you almost won't have to till as these big birds have big feet and can really turn a lot of dirt. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

The eggs! They really are denser than normal. You can feel it when you pick one up. They are just heavier than a regular egg. Quite a lovely color too, don't you think? As any free range egg, they really are super tasty too. And yes, they lay eggs nearly every day.
I can't say enough good things about the Bielefelder! They really are the Uber Chicken!
Want to order some? Click here! ->
http://www.qwatra.com/bielefelders.html