Talking Chicken...

Sophie has recently joined the "Cooped Up in Seattle" 4-H club. Their focus is chickens, ducks, and rabbits. While Sophie really wants to be in a 4-H club where the focus is sheep, we're going to start with poultry and see how it goes. 

This past weekend was the Cascade Poultry Show in Monroe, WA, which brought in poultry fanciers from all around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There were so many beautiful chickens, I love the Standard Cochins, Salmon Faverolles, the D'anvers and D'uccle bantams. Jared, Sophie, and I attended in part so Sophie could get an idea of how the 4-H portion of these events work. She didn't participate in the Fit 'N Show portion but she did do some judging and oral reasons.

Sophie works on her "Chicken Chart" nomenclature

Know your chicken anatomy

We also procured 28 hatching eggs for our new Brinsea incubator. The list goes a little something like this: 

6 Buff Orpington, 6 Blue/Black/Splash Orpington, 6 Ameraucana, 4 Wheaton/Blue Wheaton Ameraucana, 2 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, and 4 Black Copper Maran eggs. 

A rainbow of eggs

A very full incubator sitting on our bedroom dresser

Not all the eggs fit into the incubator, we still have 3 Ameraucana eggs that are in need of a broody hen to hatch them. Speaking of broody hens...

Pencil, acting a "little" broody.

There's been a lot of nonsense this season about whether or not to go broody and stay broody. So far, we've had two supposedly broody hens, only to have them flake out and decide they'd rather scratch around with their hen friends than hatch some babies for us. Pencil will sit on eggs most of the day, until late afternoon when she gets the uncontrollable urge to be free and race around the yard with her chicken friends, Joyce and Blackcomb. We've left several non-fertile eggs under her with the hope it will encourage her to sit. Maybe today's the day... We just need one broody hen to hatch three lonely eggs.

Blackcomb, in her nest

Blackcomb has made herself a nest in an evergreen tree. We refer to it as the "Christmas Tree". Now that she's got this nest in place, she refuses to lay her eggs anywhere else. An egg or two has fallen out of the tree so Jared was kind enough to layer the nesting area with some orchard grass to protect them from any future mishaps. 

Just a few days left until our first incubator of nine hopefully viable eggs -down from 20- will begin to hatch. Tomorrow is the last day for turning and then we wait...

In the meantime, I've begun chick preparations. Organic chick starter purchased, brooder- really, a large, plastic container- to be washed, dried, and filled with clean litter, feeder and waterer to be washed, ready for placement, and check for proper brooder light operation. I've also got the Marek's vaccine in the fridge, ready to be mixed up and administered. I had to buy a jar of baby food the other day just for the jar, so I'd have an optimal way to mix up the vaccine and it's dilutant.

Stay tuned for more signs of Spring! 

Lydia 

Thinking Spring

I know that there are five more days until Spring actually begins, but I wanted to share this photo anyhow...

Ornamental Plum Blossoms

In Western Washington, this is a sign of Spring not to be missed, even if it is raining outside and has been since forever. Soon the skies will be the bluest blue, the breeze will be clean and full of energy. Patience...

Lydia

On the chicken front...

... it's been a tough Winter. We've lost several chickens to Chronic Respiratory Disease and Marek's. The chickens who contracted Marek's were hatched in our yard and as such never vaccinated. I've learned my lesson! Any chicks hatched on our farm in the future will be vaccinated for Marek's, no exceptions! 

As we approach the three year mark of chicken keeping, I've realized it's time to make some decisions about removing some of the older, non-productive members of our flock to make room for newer ones. Just as I was pondering this, Jared's beloved chicken, Anne Dumplings, was acting broody. So I drove to Buckley (30 miles one way) a week ago Friday to get some green Ameraucauna hatching eggs, along with a couple of other breeds. I arrived home only to find that Anne was no longer broody and here I was with 13 hatching eggs all ready for incubation. 

I had to swallow my- completely unwarranted- disdain for the incubator and borrow one from the Seattle Farm Co-op. It's a little tricky with the temperature, as we have it out on our unheated porch,  but  after 24 hours we'd mostly figured it out.

 Of course, I've decided we need our own incubator; one that's held together with more than Styrofoam and the power of Jesus.  This past Thursday, I placed an order for the Brinsea Octagon 20 ECO and egg turner accessory,   It's beautiful!.  No more waiting for broody hens to hatch flighty and unmanageable chicks. We can choose the eggs we want when we want them. It's a fine price and has received rave reviews from "chicken hatchers" far and wide, both farmers and researchers.

We candled the currently incubating eggs last night and 50% of them weren't fertile. So, we'll start again with some new hatching eggs this weekend once the new incubator arrives Friday. Sophie is planning her science project around hatching eggs using the incubator and if we'd relied on the current set-up it may have been a disaster.  Here's to a better set up the second time around! 


Lydia

Our first shearing attempt

As Spring inches a little closer each day, our farm is ramping up. Icelandic fleeces are starting to break. So, a week ago today with the girls in tow, we  blade (hand) sheared our ram lamb, Ithaqua. It took almost an hour, even with a broken fleece, but it's all off and he seems so much happier. He was patient and after the shearing was all done, he just sat on the plywood like he didn't know what to do with himself. He now resembles a goat but I know that's only temporary as his new fleece is already growing in. Despite Jared's determination, we will have a shearer come out and shear the rest of the sheep as soon as the sun is making a more regular appearance and every sheep has a chance to dry out. I would prefer a shearer who is able to hand/blade shear but if the fleeces aren't in the right shape for that, machine shearing will have to do. Jared heads off to WSU Shearing School on April 3rd, so he'll be in a fine place to shear this Fall. I've also found someone who can teach Jared to blade shear, which I believe he is happy about. I know he's expressed on numerous occasions how he would prefer to blade shear. I'd prefer that too.

Ithaqua, before

Ithaqua, after

Ithaqua and his former coat

Jared holding Ithaqua's fleece

I've registered for a beginning spinning class on March 23rd and 30th at Weaving Works in the University District. My hope is that after shearing time we'll have enough good fleeces for spinning that I can start making a few scarves and hats for winter. The next big question will be... what wheel to choose? Weaving Works allows students to take wheels "for a spin", with a $100 deposit, until they find the one that works best for them. I cannot wait to get in there and start making yarn!

Lydia

Holding Pattern

Northwest weather is notoriously unpredictable and for the last week it's been continuing to prove it. Is it cold, raining, warmer, sunny...??? It's actually been a good week to be sick, if there is such a thing. Maybe I can get all the sickness over with before the real work begins in mere weeks.

Right now, I'm working on getting our lambing kit together. There are recommended lists all over the place, so I'm trying to put a kit together that is easily portable and contains anything a sheep health situation may require. Suggestions welcome...

We've also been looking for signs that breeding was a success. So far only one of our girls, Thistle, a Black Welsh Mountain ewe lamb, has a little round belly. She visited an Icelandic ram at a farm near the Cascade foothills but was only there for a short time, as the weather was getting bad and we didn't want to be separated from her for too long or have a road wash out and be unable to bring her home. If she lambs in April, we know the breeding worked and if her lamb doesn't come until May, well, then we know who the daddy is. Yes, I have first season lambing excitement/apprehension.

Lydia

Spring?

Today the sun is shining in it's full glory. It almost feels like Spring has arrived- the Magnolia tree is full of buds, robins are all over the yard, our first hen is broody- sort of, and the grass is growing. I spent the morning just sitting with the sheep in their respective pastures, watching them run and play as I soaked up some much needed sunshine. Drivers were honking and waving at me as I sat on my little stool in the middle of the pasture. A mother  slowed down in her car to point the sheep out to her child. I love how excited people are about urban livestock and lambs aren't even here yet.

My second post on the Urban Farm Hub blog is here! There has been a lot of positive feedback, people love reading about sheep in the city. Other blogs are even linking my post. The question I've heard most after yesterday's post was about city ordinances that allow or disallow sheep in the city. The best information I'm able to provide is to go to your city or county's official website and do a search for livestock ordinances. The City of Seattle changed many of their ordinances around urban farming in 2010, so head to their website for more details.

I'm hoping to get one step closer to seed starting this afternoon by compiling a list of seeds we'd like to order from each seed catalogue -to make sure there are no duplicates- then double checking with the family to see about any last minute additions before orders are placed. I need to track down a nice sized seed heating mat that isn't so expensive. I understand they're a must but sometimes the prices feel a little over the top. I just want to be growing food already. I know... patience.

Here's to more sun!

Lydia

Latest from the farm...

I guess it's been almost a month since I last posted. January was a busy month- my mom came from Wisconsin to visit us for two weeks and we had a blast. She got a crash course in sheep and chicken care for sure. Mostly we did a lot of eating, talking, and laughing. Other than her visit, I've been spending a lot of time working on getting some business basics down for our farm. Designing a new business card, defining our core farm values, considering an actual website, and continuing to look for grazing pasture near our home for the sheep. We formally ended our Urban Sheep Project partnership with Alex and Charmaine, so we're off and running on our own- it feels pretty freeing!

We have all the registered Icelandics on a beautiful pasture near Renton and it's working out well. The space is about an acre in size so we are able to implement rotational grazing very easily with portable electric fencing and a solar charger. I recently found another pasture that is a total of three acres and we've moved the sheep that were in our yard onto it. The arrangement feels rather temporary, however, and as such my neverending search for land continues.

We are also in the process of planning our gardens. Seed catalogues have begun to arrive in the mail and we've all been madly highlighting which type of peppers, lettuce, peas etc. we'd like to grow. I'll order seeds in the next week or so and start them on the porch with the help of some nice big trays and heating mats. Jared is going to build three more raised beds, once the seeds are ready for the outdoors, then it's off to Hy-Grass Dairy for some super rich compost in which to fill those beds.

In the meantime, the weather is changing a little. For the time being there's a little more sun and a little less rain. The days are getting slightly longer- the chickens are now waiting to head for the coop until after 5:30. We've even turned off the light in the coop and they are still laying a fair amount of eggs each day.

Lastly, my Urban Farm Hub blog post about our Urban Sheep Project was so popular that I've been asked to contribute ongoing posts about what's up with keeping sheep in the city and all it entails... no pun intended. So look for twice monthly postings about sheep in the city from me!

Lydia