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...

Just a quick little post ... (Ha Ha - that was my intention :) I have lots to write about, but also trying to use these unseasonably warm days to finish preparing for winter. Saturday, I cleaned coops in 40 degree weather, even a little sunshine. Yes, the last one I cleaned after dark. But I just turned on their light & used my trusty headlamp to go back & forth when dumping the bin-fulls of litter in the chicken's yard. Only have the roosters' coop left, but so glad to get that done on a beautiful warm day for December! While I was at it, did a little rearranging of some of the young stock. The "big group", aka, the PA/DC coops are still on grower feed, even though there are more pullets laying, plus the adults which are molting. One hen "Pansy" looks like a porcupine right now. But, that's a good thing, I suppose because I that means she'll return to laying faster. I "read somewhere" that good layers molt faster, and they had a d...

Happy November 1st! In the last post, I mentioned that some of the young pullets had begun to lay. One of them that I'd like to highlight in this post is Lydia's daughter, who I've been trying to think of a good name for until this morning. I settled on "Matilda" . Matilda the beginning of Septemeber I was going to sell this pullet, but when I was sorting through them several months ago, I realized that it was Lydia's daughter. In case you've never heard of Lydia before, she's a Partridge Chantecler from Ideal Poultry that I got as a chick in 2012. Lydia is not known for her egg production, but her unbreakable "mothering" fixation, known as being a broody hen. Maybe she just doesn't want to be chased by the roosters. Currently, she is raising 22 hatchery chicks who were hatched Sept 23rd. In 2013 Lydia had a daughter via Michael Jessie, Olive, and she proved to another good broody hen, as long as she didn't share her c...

On September 11th, I received an e-mail regarding my Craigslist ad about Swedish Flower Hen pullets. I responded to the questions, and within 24 hours, Tobias was ready to come pick them up. I had already let everyone outside, not knowing anyone was coming on Saturday. So, I went outside & caught the pullets from which he could choose. Usually, the chickens know if I'm trying to catch them & run away, so I generally like to catch them at night, so both of us are less stressed. But, the Lord must have been there guiding my hands, as they were calmly caught without much fuss and separated in a dog crate inside one of the grass paddocks closest to the garden.    When Tobias arrived, my brother Joel was home working on his Cub Cadet tractor, which looks like it went through WWII and "lived to tell about it". (Joel was in his tractor/vechicle repair clothes, so was not the most "presentable" either ...

For 4 days in a row, I couldn't find any eggs from the SFH Coop, and wondered first, where they might be hiding them and second, if they just all went on "strike". Then, last Thursday 9/24, when I was looking for something else, I went on the outside of the SFH fence & looked between the two round bales of mulch hay. Lo and behold, there was the hidden nest. Once I got a separate egg carton, I had to reach my hand & arm through the 2"x4" welded wire (yes, that was slightly painful), and grab those eggs. When all was said & done - there was 13 dirty eggs in that hidden nest. Needless to say, we ate those eggs, I wouldn't sell them, even if they were only a few days old. There was a little "tunnel" through the hay, where they'd obviously come through every day to lay their eggs. Crazy girls! Once inside, I looked at them carefully to determine who were the "culprits". Three of the eggs were bantam, so obviously that...

A few weeks ago, I saw this post: http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/12/swinging-chickens-make-easy-diy-log.html and ended up making two for my flock, where there's lots of "young'ins". One evening, we pulled in the driveway just in time to witness of the young cockerels swinging back and forth on the swing! A few seconds later, he hopped off, but it was a moment I wish I could have captured with my camera. But alas, we were too far away, and the cockerel jumped off once he saw we were spying on him. Oh, well, but at least I have the memory.