Happy Easter

From everyone here at the hatchery and blog....we hope you had a wonderful Easter!

~Lisa

Cheap seeds for growing feed plants

At Walmart this week I found a bunch of seed packets on sale. They were $.10 each so I bought some for my chicken feed garden. The downside is that they are last years seeds. However, many seeds are viable for at least 2 years. After that they don't all just die...but your germination rate will drop. The upside is that whatever seeds do germinate and grow, produces plants just as healthy as their non-expired counterparts which the chickens then eat. 

I picked up several packets when I was there. The flowers are just mainly to replace some that the flock have dug up. The pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, lettuce and cucumbers are for feed plants. The herbs and marigolds are to use for the chickens. 

Related reading: How to hack a chicken egg, learn how to use marigolds to make your chickens lay eggs with orange yolks!

Can dogs and Chickens get along?

Many chicken keepers also have dogs. Those dogs can have various roles from family pet to chicken protector and raccoon chaser. Not all dogs are great companions for chickens though! Training and the dogs natural prey drive need to be taken into consideration when deciding to raise chickens and dogs together.

Having pets and poultry together can be a delicate balance. Many times our pets want much more to do with the livestock then we care to let them. Take Ashley for example. She's interested in the chicks from their very first peep. She's their biggest hatching fan, eagerly watching as they make their way into the world. 

(poor Ashley can't watch now that we have cabinet incubators, though she tries!)

Then it goes downhill quickly...

Should dogs be trusted around poultry?

After hatch she's a naughty little pup trying to catch them. We're not real sure what she would do when she catches one though, since she's never been allowed! The funny thing about her is that while she has a fascination with the peeping eggs, and really wants to play with the chicks.....she could care less about them once they get to be about a month old.

I guess they get too big for her. She has been pecked by a rooster when she got too close to his girls though, so maybe that has something to do with it. Or maybe being a rat terrier they have been bred to chase small things?

French Black Copper Marans eggs

I absolutely love my FBCMs! Not only are they stunning birds with beautiful shiny plumage, but they lay the darkest eggs on the farm. Every year I take a picture of the eggs to show the progression of color. I always try to include a familiar object in the picture. The photographer in me says this helps the viewer correctly gauge the color even though various computer screens may be calibrated differently. The rest of me just hears 'blah blah blah' when that photographer chick starts talking. ;-)

Every year I choose a breeder for new stock to add to the flock. I always consider egg color in this choice. My goal is to have a flock with the darkest possible egg color while still maintaining breed standards. We've been getting better every year. (you can see 2011's eggs on this post)  I always think there is room for improvement, but I just love the picture this year! What do you think?

~L

The Guinea Wattle Myth

When raising Guinea fowl it can be really hard to tell the males and females apart. The male guinea cock and the female guinea hen look almost exactly alike. If they are the same age, the males can be distinguished by their 'horns'. (it's actually bone, part of the skull which grows as they mature) The males 'horn'  is typically larger than the female, however it can be hard to tell the difference between guinea fowl of different ages. 

I've heard several theories on how to tell them apart. The females tail makes a 'hump', the males have a smooth tail area. The girls have fluffier skirts so they can brood keets. The boys have pointed feathers, the girls have rounded feathers. Etc etc. 

Do wattles tell which sex a guinea fowl is?

The only theory that I've heard that even comes close to being accurate is the one about their wattles. Both male and female guineas have rather prominent wattles. This theory says that the females have small wattles that point backwards, like the white female guinea in the top picture.

The males are said to have larger wattles that fold over and point down, like the male pied guinea in the center. Obviously, this sometimes holds true. There seems to be a good amount of guinea fowl that look like the lavender guinea in the third picture though. As you can see, one wattle is small and points backwards, the other is larger and folds over and points down.