Boys Will Be Boys
Remember this photo from a few weeks back?
Well, not only did Tony (on the far right) turn out to be a rooster, but Brittany became Brett, and Daisy Mae became Davy Crockett. Don’t ask me where I come up with these crazy names, they just pop into my head randomly!
These young roosters are becoming quite obnoxious, harassing all the poor ladies, young and old. Mostly Cleo, who is not even ready to start laying yet, but they are trying to “practice” on the two oldest ladies as well! Often, other ladies or rooster Charlie will get involved and chase them off, or we have to do it.
I do now remember that Charles was annoying when he was young too, and eventually he settled down. However, at this point we probably do not have enough ladies to support this many roosters, though we are trying to give them some time before we decide that the two younger ones may have to move out. While Tony is obnoxious too, he is quite friendly with us, and since he is the oldest of the young ones, he would get to stay. Neither Tony nor Davy are heard crowing very often, but Brett is constant, which tells us that he may want to be dominant. For now, we will keep a close eye on things before rushing into any decisions.
The young ladies are incredibly quiet and still mostly keep to their own group, and for some reason the boys do not seem to bother them as much (I’m sure that will change when they get older).
More Newbies Arrive
In other disappointing but not disappointing news, we only hatched 5 birds from our recent round in the incubator: two chicks and three guinea keets (out of 12 guinea and 10 chicken eggs). Obviously, we hoped for more, but we are happy about the newbies we got. It looks like the guineas will be different colors than the ones we have now, so we’re excited about that!
I mean, who could not be happy about these little cuties?
We don’t know why we got such a low hatch rate once again. It could be our incubator, although it seems to do everything it’s supposed to. Since we bought the guinea eggs elsewhere, they were promised to be fertile. The humidity level was a bit high inside at the end, because it was SO humid outside, but that should only have slowed things down a bit.
We’re done with trying to hatch for this year, even though we didn’t grow our flocks as much as we had hoped to. We’ll probably take a break from it next year as well and buy chicks/keets instead. Now that we have roosters and hens that are the offspring of our rooster Charlie, inbreeding comes into play. The chickens don’t care who they are related to, but it could cause health issues in future birds. We could buy hatching eggs again, but frankly, I’m tired of the disappointment – we spend a lot of time watching those eggs with little reward! Maybe we’ll buy a new incubator at some point, but for now we’ll just get the newbies settled in and hope we at least have some new hens laying when the older girls go into their molt in the fall.
By the way, speaking of the older girls, our Rhode Island Red hen, who is now 4 years old was laying eggs like a champ! She was laying daily sometimes, which is unusual for a bird of her age. Her eggs are also extra jumbo size, we can’t even fit them in the cartons to sell them! She does seem to have slowed down lately though, so maybe that was her last hurrah. 😊
It’s time to relax a bit anyway. The gardens are all planted, so now for the summer we just have to battle the weeds and keep up on watering when needed. We’ve been getting some nice steady rains lately, so we haven’t had to do that so much, which is a relief. Hopefully, we are out of our drought conditions and will stay out for a while.
The newbies will move out to the coop into a bigger cage in a week or two, and that keeps us busier, since it’s more food and water to keep full, plus we’ll start letting them out to run around once they’re bigger. They won’t interact with the bigger birds directly until they are a few weeks old.
I’m headed to Maine for three days soon, it will be my first time taking whole days off from the shop! It’s a little belated birthday celebration with “the girls”! One of my booth vendors will be covering for me. It’s not easy for me to leave (I am kind of a control freak), but I plan to enjoy every minute and not worry about it. Business has been picking up lately, so things are looking up there too.
Farm dog Luke is doing well, he keeps busy keeping an eye on the chipmunk population and letting us know when the birds are upset about something (the drama keeps him busy)! Poor Luke, walks have been a little scarce lately, between rain, oppressive humidity, and scrambling to finish the gardens. I got him a new toy for entertainment, and he’s always a good, patient boy! The weather is getting back to more seasonal lately so we are starting to get back to our regular walking routines now.
Life on the farm goes on, and it’s been lovely that it’s warm enough lately to spend time sitting out on our deck watching the birds do their thing!
It’s a lot of work sometimes, but it truly is the good life!
Happy Independence Day to you and hubby. Enjoy the long weekend and lots of smooches to Luke. ♥
Thank you!! ♥
I keep trying to come up with a joke about having too many roosters – but my mind isn’t working right. The babies are so adorable!
I would have thought you’d come up with something, you must be tired! 🙂
I’m sad that Daisy Mae turned out to be Davy Crockett. I really liked that name!! I imagine watching them hatch is fun. Are you getting them to grow your egg supply?
Me too! Her mother is “Daisy Duke”! Maybe we’ll get to use that name again.
The hatching is really fun, but it can be a long process and agonizing too! 🙂
Yes, we are trying to grow our egg supply. We do quite well selling them, and when the older girls molt in the fall, production goes way down. So the hope is that the new ones will pick up that slack so we don’t lose our regular customers. (which happened last winter, though now some have found their way back).
Sending good vibes the young ones rise to the occasion!
We have high hopes!! 🙂
You sure are busy! The guinea fowl are gorgeous. But I’m sorry that you’ve had so much drama. Enjoy your time in Maine! It is well earned.
Thank you! It’s hard for me to leave the farm, but time away from the drama will be nice too! 🙂
We’re really excited about the three new guineas we hatched, since their colors will be different. We can’t wait to see what they grow up to look like!
You have SOOO much to keep you busy, don’t know where you find the time! I envy everyone getting away, haven’t had a trip in YEARS (of any sort lol)…..even before COVID! Love your beautiful lady hen, she is gorgeous!
Thank you, she is a beauty!!
I am too busy sometimes, so I really need this getaway. But overall, I mostly prefer to just be home!
We love seeing all of the flock, they’re all looking amazing, especially the wee ones. Howdy Luke! Enjoy your time in Maine.
Thank you!! Luke says howdy back! ♥
We always enjoy hearing your latest Farm drama!
Have a blast in Maine!
It seems like there is always something going on at the farm, so we’re glad you enjoy hearing about it!
Thank you – the weather is looking promising, and I can’t wait to get to that beautiful ocean! It’s my second favorite place after the farm. 🙂
Who needs TV when you can watch the birds (and Luke!!). Mama Red is beautiful.
Have a great time with the “girls”!!
Watching the birds really is much more enjoyable than the TV, especially these days! 🙂
Thank you, I will enjoy the “girl time”, and the weather is even looking good right now (knock wood)!
Whole lotta peckin going on
LOL….way too much for sure!!
Love all the good news and things going on at the farm! Great job getting planting done! That is too bad you didn’t get more guineas and chicks from the hatching, but yes, at least you got a few-and they are SO adorable indeed! Enjoy them, and they will keep you busy I am sure. Hugs to the wonderful adorable Luke as well! Enjoy your well deserved time off!!
Thank you, Lynn, you know I will!!! 🙂
It sounds like the boys are out of control up there! That’s a cute new toy, Luke!
Have a great time in Maine!
The boys have got to go, say the ladies. They may calm down in time, but I’m not sure we can wait for that. We have a couple possible places for them, so that’s good anyway. The ladies will be happier when they’re gone. We’ll miss them, but not their antics!
Thank you, I plan to enjoy the beautiful ocean and weather! And I will bring Luke home a new toy too, I have a favorite pet supplies shop that we plan to visit. 🙂
How sad that one of the roosters will have to move to another farm. I am sure it will be a tough choice. I hope you have a nice time in Maine.
We’ve pretty much got it figured out who needs to go (there’s an instigator) and we’ve already got a couple possible places for them. We will miss them, but have to do what’s best for the entire flock, especially our sweet older ladies.
Thank you, Maine is going to be beautiful!
Guess there’s something really true about that ole expression about the ‘pecking order.’ 😇
That’s for sure, but I wish I didn’t have to see it in action! They usually work things out on their own, but one of these boys is especially bratty!
love the name davy crockett, it fits great to flag day today ;O) and we love the first hatched little chick… we wish you a wonderful maine time enjoy it and eat a giant lobster ;O)
If only I could! I’m allergic to shellfish. 🙁 I will have some nice fresh haddock though. 🙂
We would just buy chicks next time. So much work and then they don’t hatch wouldn’t be worth it. I’m sure the store and the farm are a lot of work, but if you are doing what you love, it isn’t really work, right? Have a fun little vacation!
Thank you, I definitely will!
Yes, buying chicks is the plan for next time! We’ve had good luck doing that with a trustworthy place to get them. It will be nice to get some different breeds too.
Yes, both things are a lot of work, but they are labors of love! Even with difficulties there’s never a day where I dread going to work! I imagine it is the same for your Mom.
What a nice update to read about 🙂
Thank you, Jim!
Wow, you are a busy farm! All those chicks, young and older! Too bad the eggs did not produce hatchlings as you were expecting.
Take care and enjoy your mini vacation!
Thank you, I certainly will! Maybe things will be calmer when I get back. 🙂