Duckies First Outing

We are trying ducks again this year! Last year they did not make it to adulthood due to a predator in the area! This year they are going to live at the farm and hopefully will live long happy lives!

Yesterday we took them out for the first time. I really wanted to take a video of them to post but could not find the camera with video!

They totally think the kids are ducks too! They follow them around the yard where ever they go and are not afraid of them! It is the cutest thing to watch! The loved diving in and out of the little bowl of water we set out for them too. As soon as the camera shows up we will post videos!!!

 Love this one!

Our Newest Babies

 Our babies arrived via the US Postal Service this week. 50 chicks headed for the farm and 6 ducklings also headed there at some point. Right now they are all in the greenhouse in the backyard staying warm under the brooder lights until it warms up enough to bring them up there.

Here are a few pics of the kids:

Emmy with the ducklings:

 James and Ava with a chick:

Emmy with a chick:

Ethan with a chick:

Not sure where Mollie was during this photo shoot but you can see more photo's on our farm blog here.

Our New Babies: Update

We took our new spring babies out in the spring grass today! They had such a good time exploring and pecking!!!

Our duckies got a new home in the corner of Pat's shed. They seemed to be enjoying the freedom to move around a little more.

They also got to take a dip in the pool/garbage can top. This gives you a perspective of how small they really are! So cute!!

Easter Babies!

It was such a treat to have our new baby chicks and ducklings arrive two days before Easter! It is so fun to have babies in the house!! We bought 8 chicks and 4 ducklings from a NH woman who sells them on Craig's list. We are so excited to see how the Speckled Sussex chicks are going to look as adults. They are the reddish ones in the pic below. We also bought 1 Barred Rock which is the black and white one and 1 Buff Orpington which is the yellow one with it's head turned back. The Buff Orpington was a must to replace Mollies chicken Fluffy who didn't survive a dog attack:(

Here are our beautiful little Cayuga Ducklings! They are so sweet and cute and soft!! They have a much different personality than the chicks, far more easy going and docile. I chose this breed after researching a little and finding out that they are much quieter and tend to be more docile than other breeds. Plus the male becomes a beautiful greenish back color when full grown. They are also very hardy in colder climates.


Our other babies are veggies!!! This is the grow table that Pat built so that we could start lots of seedlings inside without having to put them all on the kitchen table. We also added artificial lighting to help the plants to not become leggy. Under the shelves on the floor is our brooder. We can keep the chicks and duck warm and heat the soil for the seedlings at the same time!! Nothing like multipurpose!

Here is the side view and James checking on the chicks.

Our real Easter babies on Sunday morning at church were the cutest though!!! The girls are sporting the little cardi sweaters that I started as Christmas presents but ended up not being finished until last week! They were perfect for Easter though! The pattern for the sweaters and the little purses can be found on the Lionbrand Yarn website.

Chickens in the Snow and more!

Yes, our chickens get special treatment... they don't have to walk in the snow because Ethan uses the Tonka dump truck AKA "Jack" to drive them around! Look closely and you will see Golden Feather or "Goldie" for short calmly taking a ride.

Then not so calmly trying to fly away!

Next it was Rosies turn! You can see it was starting to get dark at this point but we had a roaring bon fire going, the first of many to try and rid our yard of too many trees. We are hoping to expand the garden this coming spring among other projects!

Since it has been snowing like crazy this past week I have been shoveling like crazy too! This is the first winter with chickens and so our path to the coop must be kept open. Also kept open is a path to the shed doors and to the greenhouse. We are using the greenhouse as storage for the winter and are trying to keep it free of snow so that it does not end up with holes come spring.

Quiz: Who do these little footprints belong too???

Our furry foe the red squirrel who seems to have found a nice little nesting spot in the eaves upstairs in Mollies room!! James and Pat have both been aiming to take this one out but so far have not succeeded!! He is super cute when not tearing thing up in our house though!

Our chickens seem to be happy in their coop. Pat built a roof frame and covered it with plastic for the winter to keep the snow out of the run. So far so good! I throw in bunches of hay here and there for them to peck in and it keeps the busy.

Since we have gone from NO snow on Christmas to LOTS of snow now (and it is snowing again today!!) we have been playing a lot in the snow! We have had a couple of nice adventures with our new snowshoes given to us for Christmas. No pics of course because I forgot the camera again!!
The boys and Emmy had there first day of skiing (no camera again) at King Pine. It went well and Emmy even got to ride up on the chairlift! We borrowed a great harness for little ones that is a huge help in teaching them to ski. I am going to try and reproduce one with webbing from Mom and Dad's shop.

We also had fun making this recipe for Snow Muffins! Thanks Elizabeth for sharing the link.

A winter fun game called Fox and Geese was found in our book "A Pioneer Sampler"(thanks to Selena). It seems this used to be a popular winter game for children long ago. Since we are studying the pioneers we thought it would be a fun one to try. I found the directions online if you don't have access to the book, check it out:
Fox and Geese Winter Game

Other Snowy Games (from Family Fun) that we are excited to try:

JUMP SNOW HURDLES

Lightly pack a bunch of basketball-size snowballs and then use them to build a course of hurdles to jump over in a round of follow the leader.

FLAG IN A SNOW STACK

Tie a white cloth to the end of a short stick or around the bowl of a wooden spoon. Then, give each child a chance to hide it by staking it anywhere within a predetermined set of boundaries. Keep track of how long it takes for the rest of the group to find it. Whoever hid the flag that takes the longest time to spot wins the game.

STRIKE OUT

For this pitching contest, first mound up snow to create three bases and a pitcher's mound. They should each be about 2 feet high and 20 feet apart. Next, build a tin can pyramid on each base. The challenge is to knock down the stacks in order from first to third base by throwing snowballs from the pitcher's mound. The child who succeeds with the fewest pitches wins.

HAT TRICK

Once you've built a plump, frosty snowman to stand sentry in your front yard, make a game of topping him off in style. Take turns trying to land a hat on his head by throwing it Frisbee style from 10 or so feet away.

GET ON A ROLL

Pair up for a contest in which the object is to finish with the biggest snowball. The contest ends when the teams can no longer roll their entries or when you run out of snow.

Have fun!

The Chicks are Out!

It was such a nice day on Tuesday that we decided to give the chicks a little fresh air. We opened the little door and this is what happened:

At first they weren't sure about the walkway...

...slowly but surely they made their way out!

As you can see they have grown a ton! They are now 6 1/2 weeks old and are looking more and more like little chickens not fluffy baby chicks! I am so glad the kids don't grow that fast!!!

Once they were out they enjoyed pecking around their coop and exploring! These are the two Golden Laced Wyandotte's. You can see how pretty they are going to be with all their golden feathers coming in! In fact the one in the back is the chick that Ethan has chosen for his own, he named her "Golden Feather", go figure!

After a time of exploring, it was time to round them up and put them back inside the coop (the outside run is not finished yet). The kids enjoyed trying to catch them and then wanted a pic with the chick they caught! Here is James and a RI Red:

Ethan and his precious "Golden Feather":)

Emmy wanted a pic too...even though she couldn't catch one!

It is going to be such a nice weekend hopefully we can get their outside run completed! Stay tuned!!

A Chick Field Trip and Coop Update

We took a few of the chicks on a short field trip the other day to the yard!

The kids had a blast chasing them around and finding bugs for them to eat!

The boys thought the chicks would like the sandbox so that they could take little dust baths! It turned out they liked pecking in the grass better!!

Mollie thought it was great to grab one and take off every time I turned my head!!!

The coop is coming along nicely! Pat built the frame one day and then put the siding and roof on another day.

The chicks future door to their outside run.

Daddy working on the siding.

The roof went on next and then later that week came the door.

The finished (well, almost) coop! Finished enough to move the chicks in with their heat lamp for warmth. They were running a muck in the unfinished room and needed a new area anyway. The kids would continually wake up thinking there were squirrels chasing the chicks through the upstairs room with all the racket they heard coming from above! They were really just running around (pooping everywhere) and pecking everything in sight!!!

It still needs paint, a couple of windows, the chicken door walkway, and an outside area to safely run around in. The kids are now enjoying checking on them and watching them as usual only without stepping on chick poo!

There is a two foot walk way on one side so we can go in and take care of them without letting them escape out the door! It also provides a place to keep supplies.

The view of the chicks new area.

Emmy peaking in the chicken door.

We will post more pics as the coop is being finished.

A chick update: what we've learned in 1 week...

...little chicks grow A LOT in a week!!!

Just kidding! This turkey has been visiting our yard every few days and was in the perfect spot the day we had a SNOW STORM (still trying to get over that) to take a few pics from the window.

They really have grown a lot in a week! This pic is from last week:

...and this week!!!

Look at all the feathers that have come in!!! No more fuzzy little chicks!

Little chicks learn how to fly earlier than I expected! They like to perch on the edge of their little pen (and poop over the side! Yuck!!).

This one likes to perch on the feeder!
The chicks LOVE the pulp from the juicer, and all the kitchen scraps I have given them so far except the broccoli? Do chickens not eat broccoli???

The chicks enjoy their new perch that Pat built for them especially the RI Reds! They seem to like it the most and walk all over it checking the others out like they are the bosses!

The chicks also like to give themselves little dust baths in the sawdust! It is so funny to watch them dig a little hole and fluff the sawdust all over themselves!

The boys seem to have lost a little interest in the chicks but the girls are still obsessed!

They love to hold and play and watch!

This is the site of our future chicken coop! We have gotten a lot of great ideas from this site: Backyard Chickens.com It has tons and tons of pics of coops that others have built!

If you live in an area with lot's of potential predators you should bury your fencing 6-18" into the ground (depending on how difficult it is to dig... Pat said this was as far as he was going to go!).

By nightfall this is what we had!

Stay tuned for more chick updates coming soon!