Drama Queen

Cinna showed the shepherdess who was boss this past weekend. The shepherdess decided to take her to a show because she looked like she might have some potential.

Cinna decided she had other plans and pretty much did this behavior for the whole day; she threw her head around and jumped really high in the air and even threw herself to the ground a few times. She is such a drama queen.

She said, "I can give myself the weakest looking chine and steepest rump you ever did see!" Well, apparently she was very successful at buffaloing the shepherdess and the judges because the best place she did all day was 5th out of 23! "Hee Hee," said Cinna "Maybe that mean old shepherdess won't consider taking me to any more shows now!" I hate to tell Cinna this, but now the shepherdess thinks that if they start practicing walking and setting up every day then Cinna will do better at the next show. I can't wait to see who wins this battle!

Chicken Math

     So first of all let me say I've never been great at math, adequate, but not great. OK so now that we have that out in the open, I will begin to tell you my understanding of “chicken math”. It goes something like this: You tell your husband you want to have 10 chickens but then you can't decide on what breeds you want and you order 14 different breeds, just because what four could you say no to? Then because it is a long wait for the 14 to arrive you buy two from the local feed store just to keep the anticipation at bay.
     A couple weeks later a friend of your husband's is moving and needs to find a home for his two old "pet" chickens. Well, of course they can live with you. On your next trip to the feed store you see they have Guinea Hens and another breed of chicken you aren't currently waiting for so you purchase three Guinea Hens and one little chicken. Let me just say, "Thank you Lord, there were only three Guinea Hens at the feed store that day!"
     Jump ahead one year. Two of your hens die, one in surgery and the other one of old age. Yes, one of the "pet" chickens. But now you have a loyal following of egg purchasers and you know that in the next six months you will need to have more hens laying eggs. Due to this you need to add to your flock now because the little ladies don't actually lay eggs until they are about 6 months old. Down to the local feed store you go to purchase 6 more pullets but then you start thinking about the color of eggs and you decide that having 5 more green egg layers would be good but that will offset the browns so you need to add at least 3 more brown egg layers. While purchasing the chicks you notice the feed store has a breed you don't currently own so you think 2 of those would be a good idea. Six becomes ten and you happily head for home.
     Meanwhile your beautiful little Silver Duckwing Bantam hen decides to be broody but her own eggs are not fertile and it is impossible not to give her two other eggs. It doesn't matter that they are from full sized chickens. She loves them the moment she nestles them under her. A week later The Crazy Chicken Lady who you love and adore gets her long awaited incubator for her birthday and of course why have an incubator if you are not planning on incubating any eggs? So she puts 23 eggs in the incubator, to increase the odds of course, as not all of them will be viable and of those, that are viable, some will be cockerels and they will have to go live somewhere else. So of the 23 eggs now cooking away The Crazy Chicken Lady finds 12 that are viable and progressing wonderfully. Also, The Crazy Chicken Lady has longed (and I do mean looooooonged) for a trio of Seramas. So she orders them from back east and they arrive, safe and sound. So now 10 becomes more than you want to count (ok ~ 33) and you have to build a new chicken house. Chicken math, see it is easier than it looks.

I learned everything I know about "Chicken Math" from The Crazy Chicken Lady and Crosswinds Farm http://crosswindsfarm.blogspot.com/

What A Surprise

      One of my bantam (miniature chicken) hens had gone broody a few weeks ago so I felt bad and gave her two eggs. Both from my full sized chickens. She got an Easter Egger egg and a Red Star egg. I was letting the bantam hens out into their run this morning. They had knocked over the water container so I filled it up and put it back in the coop. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black thing moving around. The first thing that I thought was, Mouse! I looked closer. In the nest with my bantam hen and her eggs stood a tiny black chick. How could this be? I thought. The eggs were a week away right? Then I remembered that I had forgotten to write the date on the calendar and instead I just guessed the date the eggs had gone in. I found the egg's shell. Easter Egger. The chick looks nothing like an Easter Egger. Could this be what happens when you cross a Blue Hamburg and an Easter Egger? I hope the other egg hatches...
Mommy and her baby are fine.

      On a side note, the eggs in the incubator are at 7 days and I candled them. At least 12 are fertile.

Until next time,

 The Crazy Chicken Lady

Trying Something New

As my first post on this blog I thought that I should write something completely random.

      On May 1st, I got my very first incubator. A 1588 Hova Bator with an automatic egg turner. So now that I have this little beauty, what will I do? Fill it of course! So on May 9th I started my little adventure. I fired up my Incubator and waited an agonizing 6 hours for the temperature to stabilize. I collected 9 eggs and set them in the egg turner. The next day 11 more were added. Finally on the 11th I added the final 3 eggs.


      All eggs are from my own flock. I have lots of different colors and breeds in my coop. Though all would be in vain without the rooster. I would talk more about him, but after his rude behavior towards me today, I decided he didn't deserve the attention.


      So the final count added up to 23 eggs. The first 9 have been in for 3 days. I was thinking about candling at 7 days in, so I will candle on three different days.


Until next time,
 The Crazy Chicken Lady

A Wonderful Week

We have had a wonderful week. Kyrstyn, our resident pastry chef, made a decadent 'Velvet Cheesecake' for Kynnedy's birthday and it was amazing.

       Note the 'taste tester' ~ waiting patiently.

The cake passed the test by the way. In fact, it passed so well that the pastry chef will be employed here for a long long time to come.




To burn off the calories we played several rousing games of chess, with Kynnedy's new chess set.

        "I'm going to give you a lickin' Bodhi!" "You keep using that word. I do not think that means what you think it means, K.C."

Then we looked through the most amazing bead catalog ever and Kynnedy pondered where to spend her birthday money. I thought the cake was the most decadent part of the day but Kynnedy will tell you it was opening her new incubator. You thought we had a lot of chickens before. You ain't seen nothing yet ~ ha ha. I'm only kidding about that part.