Much Love and Cluck in the New Year!

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by already at the farm. I think back to where I was at this time last year and where I am now and there really have been some big changes that happened over the past few months. Several rooms in the house received a fresh coat of paint, the flock increased by 17 birds, new wiring was added to the small barn, I added 2 cats and a dog to the pack and I began a tiny little business making doggy treats.



Baby Lavenders and the mutt, Shamrock

I was incredibly thankful that my losses were minimal this year. Two chickens died. This being said, I never want to get over confident with that. My experiences have taught me that the more confident I am that NOTHING will happen to the flock, the more likely something will happen to the flock. I’ve dealt with the occasional bumble foot issue and lately have been working to rid the birds of some sort of respiratory bug that they developed, but otherwise have been exceedingly blessed this year. They’ve been good layers, have behaved (mostly) and haven’t destroyed anything or themselves. Yes, very blessed indeed this year.  



A handful of babies were born (well, hatched) on the farm this year, two lavender orpingtons and the first “mutt” chicken broke forth in March and then little Half Note, the wayward rooster, hatched in mid-summer. I’ve learned quickly that incubating eggs in the early spring is so much better both from a temperature/humidity control issue to the ‘getting the bird ready for the big coop’. When the birds are hatched in the early spring, they’re adults by late summer and a lot of the concerns with keeping the little ones warm are long gone by then.  

This past year, I was taught more humility and the true meaning of the phrase “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” because this was exactly what happened when I tried my hand at hatching this spring. Out of an estimated 25-30 eggs, only 4 chicks hatched and became adults. Granted, it could very well be my incubator but I think a lot of it came from lack of experience and learning that things need to just be left to their devices. I couldn’t help myself in candling the eggs—it was really neat to see that little tiny dot moving around on the inside of the egg shell. Hopefully if I try hatching again this next spring I’ll be a little less ‘hands on’ and more ‘hands off’.  I have learned that it’s not easy making a chicken.

Half Note as a teenager this fall

I've met so many new people this year and made so many new connections both for the farm and my day-to-day life. I would have never dreamed at this time last year that I would have a connection to a brewery that provided supplemental feed to my birds and offered me the chance to create something that would help pay for the farm in the form of making doggy treats. I truly had tunnel vision last year that the only thing that I was going to do was raise chickens and, while the chickens are still the focus of the farm, I was shown a different path entirely.

It may be the end of December, but it will be a matter of weeks before the planting trays are filled again and grow lights turned on, urging seedlings to grow so that they’re ready to go outside right after the last frost. Eggs will most likely fill the incubator again, hoping for more hen than rooster and looking forward to hatching day as the cold winds blow outside and the new little chicks cuddle beneath their heat source.

I have to wonder at the end of this year, what the end of next year will look like.