Baby Poultry update

Fast forward a few weeks. The chicks are getting big and need to be moved into a bigger brooder. After I set up the new brooder, I grabbed the camera, a friend (Mandy) and together we photographed each chick before moving it  into the new brooder.
I still didn't know all the breeds I had and wanted to compare the photos with the hatchery website and a really cool site I found that has a plethora of poultry pictures (say that ten times fast!).

This one is a white crested black polish. I have two of these little guys.Their head fluff hasn't changed much sense the last time you saw them\ but they are feathering out nicely.

This photogenic guy is a golden laced polish, I have 3 of these cuties and all of them pose for the camera.

I have 4 chicks that are smaller than all the others, now I know the hatchery didn't give me any bantams (miniature chickens, like silkies) but they do have some smaller chickens in their Rare Breed category (which I got 10 of). 2 of the 4 look like the little one pictured above. After looking through the possible breeds, I narrowed it down to 2, the Silver Spangled Hamburg or the Lakenvelder, leaning towards the former.  Only time will tell as they grow up and feather out more.

This is one of the other 2 smaller chicks, these 2 are the smallest of them all and reminded me of the silkie chicks next to the Maran chicks. Both of these guys are identical  with the dramatic markings.

These guys are a little harder to narrow down and I have 4 possible breeds. The Black Breasted Red Aseel, the Silver Duckwing Standard Phoenix, the Red Jungle Fowl, or the Silver Ducking Yokohama, all of which are beautiful but not very big.

There are 4 little ones that look similar to the chick above. 

I doubt all of them are the same breed, and I should be able to figure out the differences once they are older and their feathers are more developed . I have 3 breeds that they could be, the Cuckoo Maran, the Dominique, and the Barred Plymouth Rock. All of which have different barred (stripe) patterns once full grown.

Mystery chick, there are a few of these... There are so many breeds that this little gal could be, I have to wait until she's more feathered out to decide what she is, though it does look like shes getting red/brown feathers, it still doesn't help narrow down what she or the others are.

I have 5 of these girls, they are my Welsummers. When they first arrived I noticed that they had a golden cast to all their baby fuzz (the dark gold on her chest) and it was easy to identify them in the crowed of chicks.

I have two of these babies and  I know exactly what they are at this age, they are Golden Laced Cochin! The cute feathers on their legs give them away :)

Above is one of my beautiful Easter Eggers girls. I got 10 of these lovely ladies and I couldn't be more happy with them. In the past I've only had Easter Egger hens that were shades of dark brown (similar to a full grown Welsummer), none of these girls are turning out that color. Some have black with gold, some have a blue with gold, and a few are like the chick above with a gray/gold/cream look.  These girls might end up being prettier than my Copper Maran hens!

I don't want to bog down the post with pictures of all 37 chicks so we'll move on to up-dates on the other babies.

Here are the turkeys! We are down to two now. One became sickly and died after a few days, I don't know what was wrong, but it doesn't seem to be effecting the other two.

I did tell you they were friendly :)

Someone decided to nap on mom.

Ducklings and goslings! The ducklings are growing so fast, the yellow guys are almost as big as the goslings.

Along with their crumble feed I also clip the tops off of my fodder system (which the big birds get) and give it to the babies, so far the ducks LOVE it and the chicks kinda eat it.

Posing! 

ok one more photo before I go. The cuteness that is ducklings.

First babies of the year!

This year I was taking a big step and ordering birds from a hatchery. I wanted more variety  than my usual feed stores had, and I wanted a lot more birds. I spent the winter researching and deciding on the birds  I wanted and the best hatchery  for my order. Never having ordered from a hatchery before I order a little later in the spring and had to wait a month and a half for my babies to arrive (stupid Easter messed up my order)... I couldn't wait till the end of May, I had chick fever now!

 As always our local Wilco store had baby chicks. I planned on getting a few silkie chicks, not only to tide me over until my big order of chicks arrived but I also hadn't ordered any from the hatchery and wanted some for their broody qualities (they make great mamas). I didn't order them through the hatchery because they had a 5 chick minimum per breed/color,  and I didn't want 5 slikies, let alone all the same color.

What I planned  to do and what happened  weren't the same thing... I think my brain goes crazy when presented with something cute and fluffy.

I ended up with 3 silkies, and 6 Copper Marans.

Copper Marans are a French breed of chicken that lay some of the darkest brown eggs. The hatchery I ordered chicks from bred Black Copper Marans, but had sold out before I made my order (another side effect of ordering late). I was super excited that Wilco had some, not only did they have the more common Black Copper Marans but they also had Blue, Splash, and Wheaton Marans. The difference is their plumage color, they all should lay dark eggs. Both the Marans and the Silkies were sold as a straight run, so some of them could be boys, it was to be a waiting game, I had never gotten a straight run of chicks before, though I have gotten and rooster or two when ordered  just pullets!

The little fluff balls soon after bringing them home.

The tiny golden one (is a silkie, you see his/her butt in the photo) soon earned the name nugget, and became a favorite. These guys stayed in a small cardboard brooder in my office for a week before moving into a bigger brooder in the upstairs of the little house. I loved hearing them chirp and each of them took turns napping on my lap while I worked.

Starting to feather out! That's little ruby upfront. All but the small white one in the back are the Marans. Their colors were fun to watch grow out.

Some of the babies enjoying some freshly cut barley fodder, it was their favorite, and they would often hop onto my hand in anticipation to get the first bite.

Just before my hatchery chicks came, I moved these guys to another brooding area by my chicken coop, so I could clean up and make room for the new babies coming and get these guys used to being outside.

Before getting put in the moving box, each chick had a photo shoot. They are almost 4 weeks in these next photos.

Little Nugget is a gold silkie, still the tiniest but getting bigger by his/her own standards. Silkies are very hard to sex, even after all of my research it's pretty much if it lays an eggs its a girl, so my silkies are still a mystery, but I'm hoping that at least one is a hen!

This silkie is named badger, he/she is just a little bigger than nugget and is a blue silkie. Badger is also the shyest of the Silkies, preferring to watch me from a distance.

This white silkie is Valkyrie, Mr. beam named him/her and has deemed that Valkyrie is his, even taking him/her downstairs and watching TV. Valkyrie also likes to untie peoples shoe laces when they walk into the coop

Here's  Ruby all feathered out, she looks to be a Blue Maran. The lady at Wilco put her in my box because she was an unusual color for the chicks, she was a red brown color, and she wanted to know how she would turn out (and I liked giving her updates when I went shopping).

This one is Rita, she's also blue, but isn't as dark as ruby and had less brown on her head.

I named this one Trudy, she's a really pretty blue and gold color, I don't know if she's just a blue maran with a lot of brown/gold or if the wheaton color can look like this. I'm going to put her photos on a chicken forum and ask because I can't find any other hens like her on-line!

 This is Elsa, she's a very light grey color and she's a splash maran, she's one of the prettiest colors. For a while I called her Hans because I though she might be a boy, but she's a girl.

This was originally Betty, but at this age you can see that Betty is really a Burt. He is a Black Copper Maran and becoming the sweetest little rooster, he's also the boss of this little flock.

Last but not least, is Billy, a Splash Maran, and another Rooster! I loved watching his color change as a chick, I really like these Splash Marans.

So 2 out of 6 Marans ended up roosters. I'm happy with that, I'm actually planning on breeding these boys to some of my Easter Eggers to try getting some Olive eggers in the future.

The gang in the new night box, sorry about the flash, but this was the only picture that turned out. 

The animals of Boots n' Roots Farm

Alright, here's a quick introduction to the animals of Boots n' Roots farm. You'll be seeing a lot of these guys in the future posts. This is what we had the beginning of spring 2014.

This is Egon my Easter Egger /Americana Rooster. I don't know if he qualifies as a true Americana so I just call him an Easter Egger. He's just a year old now and loves his ladies. I'm planning on incubating some of his offspring next year and can't wait to see what he produces.

Egon's in the back, watching over the photo shoot of some of his ladies. These girls are all a year old. I have Easter Eggers, Black Australorps, Silver laced Wyandottes, and Rhode island reds currently (not including my new babies, I'm saving them for a separate post)

My horses Left- Dubba (5years old). Right- Cally (16 years old)

Cally is the only mare out of the 4 horses on the property, she was my 4-h horse when I was younger and now my sister uses her for 4-H and WASET. I hope to breed her in the next year or two before she officially retires to be my trail buddy again.

Dubba is my current riding project and I am gearing him up for the local open shows next year, he's the official fence tester and general trouble maker of the farm, he's also a huge cuddle bug which might explain the reason he gets away with so much.

This is Hemi (5 years old)

Hemi is a retired racehorse that my sister got for her 16th birthday, he is her project horse and will eventually take over Cally's job of her 4-H and WASET partner. Until then he's putting on weight and being lightly trained. He also is a snuggler and prefers to rest his head on your chest.

Blue (32 years old)

Blue doesn't really have a person here at the farm. My parents took him in because he had been abandoned by his former owners and was on his way to the auction house, where he probably would of ended up in the kill pen- bound for the slaughter house. He's a spunky old guy that still trail rides soundly. He's usually the one giving pony rides around here and my cousins little boy loves him to pieces.

This is Layla (1.5 years old) our  Shiloh shepherd/Malamute/Wolf mix. We got her a few days after moving into the little house, so shes still a puppy. She plays tag with Dubba in the horse field and gives him kisses on the nose. She also protects our chickens and herds them if they get out of their pen. Shes the most gentle dog I have ever known.

Juno is the newest addition to the house, she's just 6 months old, she is a pug mix, and the biggest mamma's girl you'll ever meet. I call her my little pigette, because she eats everything, I mean it, I haven't found anything she wont eat - this girl loves her vegetables.

This is Abby (1 year old) she's tiny, feisty, and a big cuddler. She just started going outside during the day and is an excellent mouser, she puts our barn cats to shame with her skills.

Elly (14 years old)
This is my boyfriend, Mr. Beam's cat. She is either whining or sleeping. She's a house cat unless outside to bask in the sun or on top of my car. If Mr. Beam is home, she is right next to him.





There are other cats and dogs on the farm, belonging to my parents and brother.

 Dexter, a 3 year old mini Aussie belongs to my brothers. He's a shy little guy that loves to be scratched once he warms up to you, unless you have a hat on, then your evil and he wont trust you until the hat disappears.

Chewy, a 9 year old Pug/Chihuahua mix is my mothers. He's the sweetest one of the bunch and often guest threaten to smuggle him with them when they leave.


They also have 5 cats; Romeo (orange), Licorice (black), Bagheera (black), Toby (gery tabby), and Tinkerbell (blue eyed seal point). The last 3 being outdoor only cats. They are pretty elusive when a camera is out so I don't have any picture of them, but I'm sure I get some in the future.

Other than the egg laying chickens, our animals are companions. In the next year I plan on expanding our animals and raising our own meat on the farm, starting with chicken and ducks, and moving onto pigs in the future.