Tag: raising chicks

New Year Planning

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date December 30, 2022

Beginning a new year in January is an arbitrary thing. Still, coming in the middle of winter makes new year planning easier as fewer distractions are happening.

Resolutions are self-defeating for me. I miss a few days and give up on what may be a very good idea. I prefer setting goals with a looser timetable.

Garden Planning

My new year planning begins with the garden. Usually the garden is mulched and waiting by the end of December. I’m looking forward to next spring.

Garden planning has changed a lot in the last few years. I love growing potatoes, but can’t now. The springs are too cold and summer comes too suddenly leaving my potato plants frozen, then cooked.

Still, seeds will be ordered in January. Seedlings will get started in March. I do need more room for the winter squash and don’t know where to find it yet.

Livestock Planning

February is time to order baby chicks. Last year I raised Columbian Wyandottes. Which breed will I order this year? Chick catalogs are fun to browse through.

Nubian does are getting fat. There are five bred for March kids and all look like they will have twins. Their new year planning now is centered on eating enough food to keep both them and their kids healthy and warm. My planning is in having the barn ready and kid friendly by the beginning of March.

Goat kids will arrive in March. Even though I don’t keep any new kids now, they are still special. In a few years there will be no kids to enjoy, so I will make the most of these before they are sold.

One aspect of my new year planning stays much like last year. I will go hiking and taking plant pictures. This has been a good year. I’ve added over 30 new plants to the Dent County Flora.

As usual, there are many I found, but didn’t get back for those last pictures. And the stash of unidentified plants remains long.

In many ways, the new year will look a lot like the old year. In one respect it will be very different. A health scare has made my new year planning special as I want to make the most of it.

Tags gardening, raising chicks, raising goats

Latest From High Reaches

Farm Babies Grow Up Fast

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date June 10, 2022

April was a month for babies here. Goat kids and chicks found they were in a strange new world. But farm babies grow up fast.

It is now June. Those cute balls of fluff are now lovely white with black necks pullets. They complain their little house is just that: little. Their yard is bare dirt as they ate most of the greenery. And it is too small.

It doesn’t take long for young chicks to eat and scratch up the greenery in their yard. These Columbian Wyandotte pullets have learned I let them out into a temporary yard on grass for a few hours most days. In the meantime they patrol their yard hoping some luckless bug will drop by.

I do have a 50-foot roll of three-foot chicken wire. This is staked up from the little chicken gate with electric wire posts to enclose an area of grass.

Don’t stand in the gateway when it is opened. For that matter, don’t stand in the doorway in the morning. Those pullets come flying and racing out.

There is a roost. According to this Columbian Wyandotte pullet, the feed container is more comfortable for roosting. And there are no grouchy neighbors.

Most of these pullets will move to a new home later this month. The remaining eight will continue to grow up into pullets big enough to move into the hen house.

The pullets will start laying in the fall. Then they will be hens at only six-months old. Farm babies grow up fast.

Goat kids are so cute when they are little. They depend on their mothers for milk. In a few days they are out exploring, playing, jumping on the goat gym.

Nubian doe High Reaches Agate’s spotted doe kid loves attention. She insists on attention. The best attention is scratching over her shoulders.

At almost three months old these kids are ready to move to new homes. The polled buck has already left for one up near Columbia.

The three doe kids will be advertised toward the end of the month. Hopefully someone good will take them to a new home the beginning of July.

Just last April this Nubian doe kid was easy to pick up and hold. High Reaches Spring has lots of milk. This doe kid is now a big armload to pick up. So far her spots are staying brown and look really nice against her black coat.

The buck kids are rarely so lucky. They too have to start leaving in July.

And then the barn will seem empty with only my thirteen adults in it. Augustus will be left alone all day again.

Farm babies grow up fast.

Hazel Whitmore raises Buff Orpington chicks in “Mistaken Promises“.

Tags raising chicks, raising goat kids

Latest From High Reaches

Baby Chick Time

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 6, 2022

Every March I browse the online chicken catalog admiring the various breeds. Every April is baby chick time.

There are so many lovely chicken breeds to choose from. This year I ordered Columbian Wyandotte pullets. The white hens with black heads and necks look good and the Wyandottes are a friendly breed.

Fresh water is essential for chicks. I have several ancient glass bottoms for young chicks. For a week this needs refilling once a day. At two weeks it is refilled twice a day. By next week the chicks will graduate to a regular water fount. I’m glad my garden rain barrels are right behind the chick house.

Why is April baby chick time?

April is a good month for baby chick time or has been. Spring is supposed to be moving in. Not this year. And the pullets will start laying in the fall for a winter egg supply.

These twenty-two chicks have had a hard time. The temperatures bounce up and down. One day I turn off one light to keep them from being cooked. The next I turn it back on and put blankets over the top to keep them warm.

At two weeks old the chicks are putting on feathers. They belie the breed pictures. These pullets will range from nearly all white to mostly black. The one characteristic most of them have is a black line at the tops of their beaks.

Chickens love to eat. My baby chicks start with chick starter, go to grower, followed by egg crumbles which is later mixed with scratch feed and sunflower seeds, my adult hen ration. All of these pullets are Columbian Wyandottes. Most have lots of white feathers. A number of them have lots of black coloring. A couple seem to have black tipped feathers.

Baby Chicks Grow Fast

Up until now the chicks have been confined to half their little house. It’s easier to heat the smaller area and they don’t need the extra space.

This week the barrier will come down so the chicks have more room. Already they are trying out their wings to fly across their space.

Once the chicks are feathered out, I will open their door so they can explore the outdoors. Bugs beware. In the chicken world, if it moves, eat it.

Baby chick time only lasts a couple of months. My hen house won’t hold all these pullets so most will be sold. The others will move into the big hen house.

And I will start planning for next year.

Hazel Whitmore decides to raise pullets as a 4-H project in “Old Promises“.

Tags Columbian Wyandottes, raising chicks