2016 Chick Hatch

Justin and started keeping two hens at our old house in town. When we moved, we sent Ouiser and Clairee out to my sister- and brother-in-law’s house because we didn’t have a chicken coop. The coop was our big outdoor project from last year. The chicks we hatched out as well as the ones we got from the feed store have really hit their stride laying eggs. We have somewhere around 22 hens and 5 roosters. I love seeing the spectrum of eggs we get every day.

 

Unfortunately, life gets in the way and we forgot to gather eggs for a while. Nearly a week I would say. Justin decided to fix up the giant incubator we bought at an estate sale and try to hatch out some chicks. We set out around 100 eggs and waited the requisite 21 days for them to hatch.

  

Now we really didn’t have high hopes for a high hatch rate. We hardly know what we were doing. Folks keep asking what we’re going to do if they all hatch out and I replied I was going to be like Oprah passing out party favors.

Realistically, we planned to let them hatch, grow them out in the brooder until we could fairly accurately guess their gender, keep what hens we felt we could manage, give the rest away, and sell the roosters.

Three days before we were supposed to have chicks, Justin told me he thought he heard cheeping from the incubator. Amazingly, we had THREE chicks hatch out early.

  

It was fun every morning and evening seeing how many chicks had made their way out of the eggs. At one time, Justin opened the incubator and 16 had hatched out overnight.

   

As the numbers grew, we upgraded from a galvanized tub to a kiddie pool. With three post-hatch mortalities, we ended up with 54 chicks. We were proud of our 50+% hatch rate for only our second incubator trial and the first time in the big old incubator.

Our former neighbors in town had a brooder they gave us that is perfect for the chicks. Justin got it loaded up and brought out to the house. We filled it with pine shavings, the heat lamp, feeders, and waterers.

We have been collecting the eggs again for Michael to hatch out some of his own in his incubator.

Chicken Update #5

The Cook Coop is overflowing with happy chickens, guineas, and Doc Bunny these days. We tried to let the guineas out in the yard but May’s cattle dog instincts proved too much for us to have free-roaming animals. She managed to nip out a few tail feathers before the guineas made their way back to the coop. Aren’t they pretty?!
  

The roost is wildly successful. The chickens enjoy it so much that they sleep out there at night still.

 

Doc Bunny likes hanging out with the chickens. I snapped her pic here nuzzling up under one of our blue Maran hens.

We got the frizzle and sizzle chicks transferred to the big coop. They are small but mighty! They can take on a grown rooster any time!

 

I have been amazed at the variety of eggs we’re getting. I love seeing the colors, shapes, and size ranges we get. These make me smile every single day!

  

Chicken Update #4

Our flock recently grew by 4—we got four frizzle/sizzle chicks. The frizzle chicks are ones where their feathers flip outward instead of laying flat. The sizzles are silkie frizzles meaning they have the frizzled feathers and feathered legs. They are the most docile chicks we have ever had. I can’t wait to see them when they are full grown. Right now it looks like they are losing a good fight with South Georgia humidity!

The chickens are enjoying the bounty of our garden. Veggies that have bad spots on them and won’t be good for us to can go right into the coop. They love tomatoes and corn!

This is my favorite rooster—my top gun, my big boy, our blue maran. He definitely rules the roost. I hatched him and 12 others out from eggs in the incubator. Yes, I took a selfie with him. I hope that by picking them up they will be more sociable and less likely to peck us.

Excitingly, when I was in Savannah for work, Justin texted me and let me know that we got our very first egg from our chickens we hatched out in January. We have gotten one or two eggs a day. They should all start laying soon enough and then we will eventually make little love shacks to separate the roosters and hens of specific breeds to fertilize the eggs and hatch them out in our incubator.

Stuff That Doesn’t Go Anywhere Else!

This was Wyatt’s suitcase to go to his Grandma and Pa’s house—90% stuffed animals, 10% clothes. This kid never ceases to make me laugh.

Wyatt was a great helper when I had to work for Georgia Grown at a local farmers market.

My Ashburn Women’s Club secret pal is amazing! She bought/made? me this adorable chicken door hanger with its big chalkboard belly. I think it fits my personality and taste perfectly!

I made a happy little discovery that my new favorite candles fit perfectly on the mason jar wall sconces Amanda made me for Christmas. It’s not a good idea to leave them unattended like this but it’s great when we are home.

Wyatt got t-ball pictures back. I love looking back at these pictures to see how much the babies have changed over time.

I posted this onto my social media a few weeks ago:

THIS is why I love living in a small town and shopping local, specifically with the Piggly Wiggly! While I run in to Walmart occasionally, the folks at the Pig all make a special effort to speak, shake hands, load my groceries in the car, and make Wy feel special. Mr. Bill let Wyatt take the price gun and help out today, making him feel like a rock star. They've been rocking sales lately and even beat Walmart's price on the Dr. Pepper 6-packs I love. Thanks, PW!

Wyatt helped take care of Aunt Sami’s flowers at the studio while she was on vacation. He might be my little green thumb yet!

Also, perks of keeping the Perry Family’s chickens fed and watered? FREE eggs! Our chickens are freeloaders, too young to lay eggs yet but I did snatch these up from the nest boxes the other day.

I grabbed up these awesome finds at a yard sale for less than $5. Justin and I were just talking about how we wanted a divided dish to heat up veggies in. He and I eat completely different vegetables and Wyatt eats them all, so we always end up with tons of pots on the stove. It was amazing to find this vintage Pyrex divided dish in this dreamy turquoise with its matching lid. The man even threw in this cute Georgia peach cardboard basket. I think it’s a cute piece of vintage Georgiana.

Aminals Everywhere!

For the week of Memorial Day while my in-laws were on vacation, there were 90+ souls on our little scrap of land. Aminals—Wyatt’s word—took over everywhere! We had Amanda and Michael’s chicks in the brooder, our cats and kittens, our chicks, our chickens, May, the fish, and the guineas, PLUS Lucy and her 11 puppies! It was literally a zoo at our house!

 

We have been letting the chicks hang out a little outside of their brooder and it is too cute to see them with the kittens.

The big cats made a tasty meal out of a black snake in our yard. Good kitties! Later that same night I found each of them with huge field rats’ tails hanging out of their mouths. Maybe they will turn out to be good hunters after all.

 

Wyatt and May shared some fresh watermelon one night after supper. I have never seen a dog enjoy a piece of watermelon like that!

  

While we had 11 puppies and Lucy hanging around, Wyatt and Pax definitely showed them some love. They were so cute but they all got tangled up under our feet, so we had little yelps every now and then when we inadvertently stepped on paws or tails. It’s a true wonder I didn’t fall and bust my butt trying to feed them every day!

Our visitors are back at their own homes now, leaving us with a more manageable 50-ish mouths to feed. PHEW!

Chicken Update #3

My brother-in-law, Michael, told Justin that our local feed store had a deal that they would give you ten chicks for each bag of feed you bought for a few days last week. Of course, Justin said challenge accepted. We were due to restock the chicken feed at the house so he went to the Red Barn, our feed supplier, and grabbed up two bags of feed and came home with 19 chicks. He wiped them out of all the chicks they had.

These little fuzzies are so cute. They chirp all the time. We did have one die, but we still have 18 cheeping away all day long.

We hope to sort out the rest of the chickens we have and end up with around 24 layers and four or five roosters for breeding and hatching out eggs.

On another note, our guineas started laying. Justin discovered 2 eggs in the nest box on Wednesday night. We have five eggs now! We thought we had a male and a female guinea and we were going to let the female hatch babies out, but the timing is such that we might actually have 2 females!

With the addition of the new chicks, we now have a total of around 50 mouths to feed at the Cook home place. That includes the chickens, roosters, chicks, two guineas of indeterminate sex, Doc Bunny, May Dog, Mama Kitty, the tom cat, and the three kittens. To add to the craziness, we bought Wyatt a beta fish for his birthday. The poor fish still doesn’t have a proper name. It has been “Umbrella”, “Silly Jilly,” and “Silly Billy” so far. Poor fish!

 

 

We thought the original fox was gone, but it seems we have another fox, this one a darker color, creeping around and Justin and I heard a bobcat in the woods yesterday. Life in the country is so fun!