Mille Fleur D'Uccle

First, if you don't know how to pronounce that last word, it's like "Dew CLAY". It's a city in France where these delightful little rascals are from. Mille Fleur is the name of the color pattern and is French for "Thousand Flower," which is a fitting name for a chicken with a thousand spots! These are some of the world's most colorful chickens, though they are pint size. This is a true bantam breed, with no large size version. Roos tip the scale at a whopping 26 ounces, with the hens not far behind at 22 ounces.

But what they lack in size, they make up for in spirit, not to mention egg laying ability! Our little half pints pop out a white to barely faint cream egg nearly every day! Their eggs are a bit small, but they are actually kinda huge compared to the size of the little bird! They readily go broody if given the chance, and make good mamas. They are great foragers, and it is such fun to watch them chase a grasshopper or moth across the yard. Their fluffy beards and feathered legs and feet really add endearing comedy to their antics.
Our birds were purchased as show quality stock. Our ladies, Prima, Bella, and Dona, are from a breeder north of Spokane who raised multiple show winners from her line, and our roo, Marcel, is from Oregon where he won best in show at the state fair! I'm looking forward to trying my hand (wing?) at the fair. Sadly, Prima is my favorite, but she isn't up to show standards; she has clean legs and feet. I prefer the clean legs and I think they do too. Foot feathers are messy and in the way. They trip on them and are always having to clean them. When not in show dress, I will sometimes cut their feathers off their feet for them. They really appreciate it.  Especially in winter when their feet tend to get packed with snow. :)

Prima

Marcel

Back in the Pacific Northwest! YIPEEE!!!

Hello Spokane! It's great to be home! Actually, we have been here for a couple months, but we have been doing a lot of other things to get established and settled here, so Qwatra has been in limbo since June! Wow! Has that much time gone by?! We are staying on a friend's farm for the time being while we search for our dream farm. This is exciting, but frustrating! There are so many beautiful farms out there! My dreams keep getting bigger and bigger- but more on that in a later post! ;)
We have lots of new things developing and will be back in business shortly! WOOT!
See ya soon!

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!