Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

This May has been incredibly busy, crazy spring season for us. Here's some highlights from the past week or so. May 23rd, I bought 3 Pekin ducklings to grow out for meat. When I got rid of my Muscovy flock last year, I knew at some point I'd try Pekin, since they have much faster growth rate. Even though the meat is totally different than Muscovy, I thought it'd be worth a try. Plus, who can resist cute little ducklings? I had bought two sets of 3 stacked cages recently, for the purpose of growing out chicks or when customers came to buy chickens, it'd be easy to separate them. And since ducklings are notorious for being messy, I thought raising them in one of the cages would be a much cleaner alternative. And once they're a little older, they'll go out of grass. So, don't worry, they're not going to spend their whole life in a rabbit cage! Even though I have a trio of turkeys, for some unknown reason, I'm having a very hard time...

After my previous post that was on the "heavy" side, I thought I'd share a few photos from the end of April 2017. The first group is of the PA/DC group during their free-range time on the side lawn, while waiting for the grass paddocks to grow. turkey hen sunbathing Truck Cap Coop main rooster & hens Leaves just budding out Rooster pen - the big boy in the middle is just that. The rooster to his left is a Bielefelder cross, so also  a big rooster. The one to the right is like 1/4  bantam cochin, 1/4 Swedish Flower Hen, 1/2 Catskill Homesteader - so he's small, but good-sized for being a "little rooster".    Leaf Vacuum / Wood Chipper Trailer at DCHA clean-up day The pile of leaves we got - one very full load!

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...