Chick with a Whistle Farms

Garden here we come.

We have continued to have some nice weather which is giving us the garden bug. Dustin is determined to have quite a garden this year. We spent the weekend to start prepping the ground.

As you can see the chickens have also enjoyed the new garden, hunting down worms and bugs. The chickens have been wandering more and more away from the barn. Now the task is the keep the chickens from digging up my lawn. Sadie is no help, I caught her digging up the lawn to find worms and hand feed the chickens.

Not only have the chickens been enjoying the weather but the kids enjoyed having the cousins over for some family time.

3/9/16 update

The baby chicks are getting bigger and are starting to get their feathers on their wings and tails. They are 1 week old today. This is the Ameraucana.

The younger silkies are almost 5 weeks and really enjoyed the recent nice weather.

Bob and Lahaina are not quite adopting the young ones but are nice to them and the little ones will occasionally follow Bob.

The other dilemma is the sudden amount of rooster that have suddenly appeared in the flock. . . .well, they probably haven’t suddenly appeared, but being a rookie in this chicken raising journey I am not seeing the warning signs till now. The chickens are 21 weeks and suddenly I am now counting the following roosters. Ringo, Bob, Margaret ( no longer with us), Nancy, Eliza and Gracie. WHAT!!!!!

This morning as I was letting the chickens out, we suddenly heard another crow and when I turned around, there was Gracie all stretched out finishing up a crow. And then tonight I was feeding the girls and started noticing Nancy and her saddle feathers.

On a side note, I am happy to announce we are the proud parents of 3 baby nigerian goats. They were born yesterday and I am eager to meet them. They will stay with their mom for 6-8 weeks up in Zimmerman.

Supper Club- Nye’s Polonaise Room- Minneapolis

Nye’s Polonaise Room

112 E Hennepin Ave

Minneapolis, MN 55414

http://www.nyespolonaise.com/

For our monthly supper club visit for March, we headed to Nye’s before they closed in April. The ambience transports it’s guest to a previous time where you enjoy the art of socializing and dining. I had wonderful socializing for the evening but the food and building are beginning to show it’s final destination. Furniture was torn, food was ok, and the famous piano player was missing from her spot-“Sweet Lou” Snider.

In my opinion the most memorable part of the trip, however, was the waitress. She appeared to have been there for awhile and appeared to be a part of the ambience. She was personable and enjoyed talking with her customers. However, when we got to the time to pay the bills, we had several versions of our bills presented to us before everything had all been taken care of. She also admitted as we were finishing up that she has been working hard to get fired but so far it hasn’t been successful. . . yet.

So, if I were to summarize my experience- I think I missed my opportunity to fully experience Nye’s. I will have to enjoy hearing old stories from when Nye’s was in it’s prime.

Late Night with Margaret

It was a late night with Margaret in the emergency vet hospital. We came home from work and Margaret was struggling with breathing and straining her neck and mouth. She had separated herself from the rest of the flock and was crouched in the corner of the barn. We did some quick checking on the Internet and communicating with some friends before deciding to head down to st. Paul for one of the only 24 hour animal hospital in the metro area for chickens.

When I arrived there were several other animals- all cats ahead of me. My turn finally came 2 hours later. The lady next to me talked worridly about her cat for 2 hours staight. By the time the vet met with me, Margaret’s color was getting paler. They immediately gave her oxygen while I was given the options.

Amidst waiting for the doctor and seeing Margaret in full lights I had a realization that Margaret was not a she but a he. After some google searching, I was pretty sure, which the doctor confirmed.

After talking with the doctor, I said goodbye to Margaret and they put her down. Now I know I am a chicken fanatic- I am crying over another chicken.

By 1 am. I drove Margaret’s remains to the University for an autopsy. We want to make sure there isn’t anything harmful to the rest of the flock. We will get an update soon.

My head knows the cycle of life and has moved on but, boy, I am sure attached to this first round of chickens.

New additions

We eagerly started out the day heading to the feed store for some new day old chicks.

We are proud to introduce 7 new members to the flock. 2 black marans, 2 cuckoo marans, 2 barred rocks and 1 little amauracana.

Investigating our backyard

Since the weather has been warming up we have been enjoying the extra outdoor space in our own backyard. During our walks we have discovered some interesting findings.

Our first discovery is hundreds of field mice. During the daytime you see them running about between little holes. During the evenings you see hundreds of holes.

The neighbor cat must have quite a buffet. Another discovery we found is an animal den.

We put some brush in front of the opening and the hole was re-dug tonight. We also found some footprints outside the whole. If we were to guess we are predicting a weasel.

We were also suprised the amount of scat we are finding throughout the field and close to the barn. We are assuming it is deer.

The last little discovery are some remains and feathers. We are guessing pheasant but not positive. Not a good sign for my free range chickens.

Amidst all these animal signs are the kids footprints on the backyard- the beginnings of a backyard fort.

One day of spring

We had an amazing Saturday with temperatures in the 50s. I let the 4 new silkies outside for some fresh air.

They have been getting a little stinky inside so out to the barn they go. We built a mini brooder in the barn to keep them warm and away from the rest of the flock.

We also did some updating on all the feeders and waterers. We purchased a pig feeder which holds full bags of chicken feed. We also raised the waterers to keep the water clean.

The old set up. I kept the old one so there are multiple feeding stations.

All this tinkering is getting us ready for the new chicks which should be coming end of this week. While I was in the feed store to finalize the chick delivery details a mother with 3 kids walked in. She asked me what food to buy for chickens. I chuckled to myself considering I was that person just last fall. I asked what kind and how old. She said she didn’t know. I discovered that the woman recently purchased a house with acres and she picked up 4 chickens from a no kill store in st. Paul. She had the chickens in the car so the store manager told her to bring them in.

She walks in with a box no bigger than 20 x 20. I figured the chickens must be pretty small to fit into the box. Oh, was I wrong. They had shoved grown chickens in that box. One rooster that was not counting his age by months rather years. This woman really didn’t know what she was doing but she was excited to start the journey. It was pretty entertaining.

Winter, spring, winter

With the weather swinging from warm to cold the chickens and kids have enjoyed seeing some grass outside.

The kids enjoying the wet backyard.

Ringo and Martha have become quite a couple and I have experienced true life on the farm- chickens mating.

Martha is a welsummer and is probably the smartest chicken we have. She enjoys exploring and can remember where the doors are to get back into the barn- unlike some of the others who pace back and forth and never find the door.

Bob and Lahaina are also quite a pair. I don’t think Bob is quite ready to be in a relationship yet. Lahaina will play around and act coy with him but so far Bob does not respond.

The new chicks are 2 weeks old now and are growing into their feathers. Sadie and I were discussing waiting to name them until we know they are hens or roosters. We thought though to just recycle the old names and add jr. or the second. So, the new tan one can be Rushmore jr. and the new black one can be Kenai, the second.

One new discovery is how early the chicks are comfortable roosting.

Our highs and lows

We have had a turbulant couple of days on the farm. I noticed a couple of days ago, Warhammer was having difficulty walking. She was not able to curl her toes. I brought her in out of the cold but her health dramatically declined over the next 24 hours. By Thursday evening she was not walking, feet swollen, and her face was very pale. We got some advice from the neighbors and decided to see how she would be in the morning.

We were sad to learn she had passed in the night. It is the always reminder of life on the farm with life and death. This one was a little harder due to the long journey we had with Warhammer. She has always been the runt of the flock and we had prepared the kids early that she may not make it. Somehow she did and week after week we watched as she grew up.

The other event that is impacted us so much is the realization of the amount of mourning we are still feeling after the passing of Dustin’s father in July.

On a personal note, I have had a season of death. Not only did we loose Dustin’s father but there has been a series of death including my uncle, 2 students from work, and too many to count parents of my middle school students. So, through all this loss we say goodbye to our first chick.

Our warhammer. ( she the little one at the bottom)

The comical piece in all of this is what do we do with Warhammer now. It is single digits temperature outside. We talked to the local hardware store and was recommended to build a fire with barbecue coals. Burn them for a couple hours and spread over the ground. Once the ground has warmed up, make a hole.

Well, it worked and we buried Warhammer in the back yard.

In this same day, I decided to address our issue with too many roosters and gave them back to the breeder. I think I am doing replacement therapy and picked up 4 more. Let’s hope for some hens.