Raising Broiler Chicks

Matt (bro) and I decided to raise broiler chicks this year up in his barn.  Our spouses announced from the beginning that "The Jo(e)'s are not involved!"  However, right away JoAnne was worried about their welfare in the pen, and both she and Joe have been helping out quite a bit.  Here's your first glimpse at our little meatlings.

They're cute, aren't they?  It's been a good lesson for our girls so far.  They understand we are going to eat these birds when they are "big and ugly," but for now we can visit and take care of them to keep them healthy.

Spring Things and other Stuff

It feels like forever since I've written.  I used to feel this way about writing letters, but thankfully we have e-mail now, and I can sort of keep up with that.  Anyway, since the pickled eggs (NOT an April Fools joke), a lot has happened.  The Biddeford Market has gotten busier, the kids are wilder, and spring is popping up all over the place.  Here's a glimpse at what we've seen of spring so far.  Oh, and yes, next up- I'll change my banner up there from winter to spring.  I promise.

Can you guess what this is?  Auntie, you are exempt from guessing, you cheater.

How about this?  Hopefully I can keep this one alive.

Introducing... Rock, Movie Star, Lipstick, Holly-Egg-Mama, Tia, and Dave.  I prefer Dave to Tia, which is why one chick has two names.  Obviously, the Easter Bunny arrived early in the form of us driving to Andy's Agway and picking out our new little ones.

And back to "Can you guess what this is?"  I won't make you guess.  It's parsnips we found at the Biddeford Farmer's Market, brought home, and cooked up in some olive oil, cinnamon, salt, and sugar.  The girls loved these little apples of the earth.  I know, I know.  That's what the french (or is it French) call potatoes, but these actually taste a bit like apples, so I'm going with it.

And lastly, I can not get enough looks at these incredible bracelets Anne made from bicycle parts.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with the purple one before the market sees its winter end.  Actually, did you know we're going to give a shot at pulling off a spring market in the same parking lot where the market currently exists?  Thursday afternoons, 3-6.  Check it out!

Bird dogs, Bird Eggs, and Bird Guts (you've been warned)

Bubba truly believes he can climb this tree to follow the nut hatch.  With his whole being  he believes it. 

Joe worked so hard making sure there was enough room for all the chickens to lay eggs.  Still, each day we find all the eggs in one box.  Maybe we need more chickens...

And turkey season begins.  I love the unintentional Deliverance thing going on here.  I have to admit, and sorry to all you veggies out there, our family ate this bird the very day Joe took its life. 

Keeping up with Putting Up

It seems like forever since I last blogged, but I've been pretty darn busy in the meantime.  Here are a few highlights of our last couple weeks:

When the Easter Bunny brought us 5 Easter-eggers and 1 Hubbard Isa Brown, we knew we'd have some good layers on our hands.  Then we learned a little more about the Isa.  Apparently this is a genetically engineered egg-laying chicken manufactured by the company whose name it bears.  The girl lays AT LEAST one brown egg per day, if not two.  This doesn't seem natural, does it?  She seems happy, but she does eat a lot!  Meanwhile, our Easter-eggers just started laying their cute little blue eggs right up in their cozy boxes.  

Addie asked me if we could go blueberry picking, so we wandered up to Blueberry Hill.  The picking was good, but what was better was running around, playing with the farm dog (an energetic and friendly pit bull), and eating lunch under this apple tree.  Also, after I gave the farmer a jar of blueberry jam, admitting the blueberries I used to make it were from Libby's, he drove the girls and I across the farm to his enormous and beautiful crab-apple tree and told us to have at it.  We picked a five gallon bucket full of the little gems, then ran home and made crab-apple jelly.

Now, I won't be selling any crabapple jelly to the general public, but you can pick up lots of other kinds of good stuff at Anderson Farm's newest farm stand in Waterboro.  They've named the place The Farmer's Daughter, and so far it has been a great success.  The town has received the stand so well, and everyone who stops by is happy to be there.  It is a wonderful place to visit, or to pick up some yummy produce or jam!  And speaking of canning, I've been doing a lot of it, not only to sell at the stands, but for our family.  After making the 150th jar of pickles for the season, I decided to put up some tomato sauce, as well as pickle some hot peppers.  Do you think it will bother anyone that they look like brains inside jars?  Oh, and did I mention that we got another dog?  I didn't feel like we had much going on, so why not add to the family!  Welcome Jackie Jethro Junior.  We call him any of these names individually, but I'm thinking we'll pick just one of them in the next few days and stick with it.  And yes, he looks just like Bubba, but this guy has a tail. 
 

And let's see... how does a mother sum up a day at Story Land?  How's this:

Ok ok, I can't lie.  This photo was actually taken after a terrific morning at Ferry Beach a few days before the Story Land adventure, but you get the idea.  They all loved it, and we were all exhausted at the end of the day.

So there you have it.  A whirlwind tour of life at my place over the last couple of weeks.  I promise next time I'll be less confusing and random.  More details on the farm stand coming up, as well as my obsession with our sunflowers. 

Coupe de Poulet, Ou sont Vous?

The weekend began with a little freedom outside for the chickens while Joe continued to build their extra-extravagant coop-- he calls it a coupe. And by "freedom," I mean pecking around in a small enclosed space while a drooling bird dog points at you for hours and hours.








Poor Bubba. He was exhausted by the end of the day from guarding, pointing, and generally fretting over his inability to get at the birds.







In the meantime, I planned what was to be a relatively successful birthday party for two 3-year old girls. The kids had a great time running around, blowing bubbles, getting their faces painted, and waiting patiently (ok, not super-patiently) for cotton candy and cake. By the way, the flower cake came out pretty darn good. I decided to remove (and eat) the flower pot all together, then create a new big flower out of all the little flowers, and finally add mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips to the empty spots to make the flower look like a brown-eyed Susan. The kids tore into it, leaving the butterfly for the adults.




We're huge fans of keeping things simple, so when the kids needed a break from the yard and house, we took a walk to Uncle Brian's hammock for a quick swing with the girls.







And the day ended with good friends and a little toe-nail painting for Daddy. He is such a good sport!

The Secret Life of Chickens

Well, it's not that secret. You either hatch baby chicks yourself, or you purchase day-old chicks at a chicken store (Agway or other supplier). Then you bring them home, keep them in a warm and sheltered place for a few weeks, and transfer them to an appropriate coop outside once they have enough feathers to keep themselves warm. Seems pretty basic huh?

Well, in this house, chicken-raising is a new and incredible adventure. Who knew the Easter Bunny would actually deliver 2-week-old chicks to our house in their own brooder (the little warm sheltered place I was talking about). She (yep, the bunny's a chick-- well, she's female) even brought enough food for a couple weeks. That bunny is a serious giver.

When the birds arrived we had 10. On Easter Sunday we gave 4 of them to Auntie Sarah, who already has several chickens, but who thought she could use a few more to "resupply". She has a large dog, a fox who frequents their property, and who knows what else to support the diminishing of her chicken population. When I was looking into getting chickens, for their eggs by the way, Sarah suggested Americaunas. This kind, also known as "Easter Eggers," lays blue and green eggs. Some even lay eggs that are a cute little shade of pink. They are chicken mutts that come in lots of shapes, colors, and sizes, and they happen to be super-friendly. So that's what we ended up with, plus an additional Hubbard Isa Brown. Would you believe the Hubbard is named after the company that created this genetically altered chicken to be a super-layer. I'm serious-- this is what they call Hubbard Isa's. Super-layers. Sometimes they lay 2 eggs a day, which seems completely unnatural and painful to me, but apparently it works for them. So it works for us. And the one we have, Alice in Wonderland, is actually pretty cute and friendly, not at all the chicken robot you'd think an engineered chicken would be.




Alice is the golden-looking chick to the far left. Note how she's posing for the camera. These are the same chicks as those in the photo above, only 2 weeks later. They grow incredibly fast.








And by the way, from left to right, their names are Alice (you've met already), Ally (the white one), Candace (eating), Buddy (Camden's chicken), Dirty Dirty Chicken (we call her "Dirty"), and Princess of the Castle (also known as "Princess" or "Castle") Note how Alice is the only one with yellow feet. Weird.


Our intent is to transfer the chicks to their outside coop whenever Joe finishes building it. This should be any day, but the weather hasn't cooperated over the last few days, so he's just getting out there now to put up the side walls. We figure we'll probably have to use a couple light bulbs to keep the birds warm at night for a few weeks since it is still pretty nippy out. Plus, we've all grown pretty attached to them, so I know I'd be up at night obsessing about whether or not they're too cold out there. The light bulbs should prevent that.

The space under the side wall is where an access door will go so we can get in there to clean out the coop. It's identical on the other side so we can just push or pull everything out easily. The attachment on the back of the coop are where the nest boxes will go, and a side door there will allow us to easily reach in to get the eggs. We'll keep the coop on its stilts and make the underneath an actual shady shelter for the birds when they're out and about. Because of all the dogs in the neighborhood (especially our own bird-chaser), the chickens will have an enclosed outside area. This should also help with any other predators who may be interested in having chicken for dinner.

Cold April Naps

I told Addie I'd be in to see what she was up to in 10 minutes. I wanted to download some photos onto our computer while her sisters were sleeping, then I'd be in to snuggle with her, my non-napping 4-year-old. 10 minutes later I found her sprawled on my bed sound asleep, snoring at a perfectly restful pace. Joe is currently working on the chicken coop outside in what seems to me to be an unusually cold April day, although it probably only feels unusual to me since we've had such a warm spring so far. Joe has moved on from a lot of leaning on and staring at the frame of the coop to cutting 2 x 4's and nailing pieces together. I called him in around 12:30 to eat what was originally going to be dinner, but which ended up being a great lunch for this weather. When we were visiting Joe's family in Virginia over the winter, the girls and I found a terrific Menonite market, in which we found Grandma's Pantry. It really looked like a strip mall until we walked inside, where I bought a bag of bulk "Harvest Soup" to bring home to Maine. It turns out the soup mix can be made with pretty much any kind of meat, is quick and easy to cook, and we love it. Well, Joe and I love it, but we have to bribe the girls with dessert, or threaten them with never feeding them again, until they eat a few bites. So Joe is back at it again, creating what we hope to be an appropriate dwelling for 5 Easter-Eggers and a Hubbard ISA Brown.