Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

As I was looking back over my blog post archives, I thought this one worth highlighting again,  after making a few updates and edits. My oldest hen is "Daisy", who is a white Easter Egger who I bought from a hatchery in April 2011.  She holds a special place in my heart, even though her egg laying days are over.  Why? She was my first hen to go broody in 2012, and hatched 3 chicks, one of which became "Michael Jessie",  who is also still living with the flock and sired chicks during the summer of 2016. Both Daisy and Michael Jessie are very inspirational in starting my interest in hatching chicks, and mark the starting point of what became the Catskill Homesteader Chickens. Olive & Daisy's chicks - Hatched between Oct 9 - 12th, 2014 The last hatch of 2014 was definitely "survival of the fittest", even though I don't believe in evolution. But, it is true that without human intervention, in the wild, usually it's only the stronges...

You've heard that chickens are dumb, right?  Well, over the past 8 years of raising chickens, I can attest that they are actually quite smart. Granted, they have their "moments" that they do things that make you think they're dumb. But, overall, when you take time to observe their behaviors, they display more intelligence or, at least, smarter instincts than what we've been told for so long. I have many stories that hopefully I'll be able to share with you, but today, this one features the Appenzeller Spitzhauben breed. This past May I bought 2 Spitzhauben hens at the BYC "members-only" Chickenstock. One was broody & came with "dummy" eggs. (a whole other story) Even though I didn't NEED any more hens, this is how chicken math works. Plus, I did find homes for some of my chickens at Chickenstock, so in the end, I still had less chickens!   Above - the one hen in pasture pen;  below - broody hen sitting o...