Friends for Warmth!

Since our incubation was a miserable failure, we decided to get some friends for the two surviving chicks. Chicks seem to do better for us in groups of 4 or more. This is especially important because our brooder is outside, and extra chicks means extra warmth.

We bought 3 chicks from BigR. Matilda is always the first to greet new friends.

Plymouth Rock, Gray Araucana, and another Barred Rock chick.

These are our twin Araucanas.

Plymouth Rock making her way in.

Then the Barred Rock.

Then the new Araucana.

They were all buddies right away.

Two days after we bought or warming friends we found something in our incubator.

One last chick broke out. She is a Silkie mix of some sort. She hatched 4 days after the due date. Must be a strong little guy!

She is now with the the chick gang. Quite a bit smaller than the rest, but they seem to have taken her in.

Thanks for reading!

Day 10 of incubation

Fully loaded with 42eggs. No signs of distress, all is well at the half way point. We will be selling the chicks when they hatch. So let us know if you are interested. 

Thanks!

Bob and The Flock!

Bob's bob is getting crazy! 

Some black coming through now.

Is this a scary picture or what?

Bob is really emerging as the leader here. Maybe the other chicks resect the hair? I love how ungroomed chicks look at this age. Little feathers poking out everywhere.  

Thanks for reading!

Baby Chicks

All the chicks seem to be enjoying the new hangout.

Growing Things: Part 3

While I was on the subject of growing things I realized that the chicks should also fall into that category. The baby chicks are getting big! They are just about 2 weeks old now. They have out grown the storage tote in the office. Time to move outside! We also added two friends to the chicks' flock today.

This is the storage bin.

Now they are in the brooder box outside. Lots more room to grow out here.

I also wanted to show the growth difference in the chicks so far. You can see the first pictures of them for comparison HERE.

Bob,  the White Crested Black Polish

Louisa- Rhode Island Red

Rufus- Black Cochin

Denise- New Hampshire

Myrtle- Golden Sex Link

Myrtle again; isn't she pretty?

Allie- White Silkie

It's amazing how fast the grow. Now for the new arrivals....

This is Gwyneth- She is an Ancona. They are known for there ability to watch the skies for predators and alert the flock. Loudly too!

This is Gravy. Gravy is a Bronze Turkey. We had another turkey named Gravy last summer but he passed away when we were in Jamaica. He was introduced in this post.

Baby chicks are just the best aren't they? 

Thanks for reading!

New Additions to the Flock

Here at the Halpern Homestead we pride ourselves on having a very diverse flock. We try to have just one or two of a certain type of chicken, except the Delawares which just kinda happened. So, we have a great variety of types and colors of chickens here. Although we can and will hatch our own chicks, today we got a few different types of chicken that we don't already have in order to preserve or diversity.

This lil fella is "Bob", Bob is a White Crested Black Polish

This is "Louisa". She is a Rhode Island Red, a replacement for one lost to a coyote or a hawk this past summer posted here.

This is a "Rufus". Rufus is a Black Cochin, we have a blue cochin now named Fancy the $204 Chicken, who is just the best!

This is Denise, she is a replacement for a hen that also passed away this summer to an unknown cause.

This is Myrtle, another replacement to a hen lost this past summer to a dog.

This lil fella is "Allie". A white silkie whom we hope will befriend Mere the Mighty, our black silkie.

Baby chicks are my favorite. Such an exciting little creature that can bring happiness to anyone. 

Thanks for reading! 

We love the comments, so keep them coming!

Spring Hatching.

Just wondering if anyone in the Spokane/CDA area is interesting in buying baby chicks from a local source instead of a hatchery. It's about time to start incubating eggs for spring sales and I want to judge the interest level so I know how many to hatch. Let me know if you are interested. The chicks will be a barn yard mix of layers. We may also have some ducks and geese for sale too. Prices will be very reasonable. Chicks will cost no more than the feed stores.

Tomorrow......

..........is the 21st day of incubation, which means the 24 eggs in the incubator should start hatching in less than 12 hours!

We are also selling the chicks if you live local. Check out our craigslist posting.

The cardboard circle holds some eggs that have a special color or size that we want to keep. Two of them are pink! So we want to keep those eggs. The other one is just big and beautiful.

On a different note..... Tomorrow is chicken processing day. We will be doing over 30 organic hens and expect almost all of them to leave the farm within an hour of packaging. It doesn't get much more fresh than that! Stay tuned for a post conference on the big Saturday events!

Thanks for reading!

Chicks are growing up so fast!

For those of you who already know our dog Juliette, this may not be a surprise to you, but she loves baby chicks, ducks, geese, and anything else new on the farm. We have our hatching operation setup in the office of our house. Julies waits in front of the door at all hours hoping to get in.

This is the bin that holds the fresh babies when they are still fragile.

We gave them some play time out of the bin to see how stable they were with temperature changes.

Looks like they were pretty safe.

They grow up so fast! We decided today, that they were ready to go to the outside brooder box in the coop. 

So we gathered them up!

One by one, we gathered a handful and headed for the barn.

A safe arrival. They were very happy. Running around and exploring.

Jumping too! Top right of the photo!

Last couple in.

White chicken "Ummm.... Hello? Are you leaving us here? Don't you see that big fuzzy thing in the window? Take her please!!!!"

Julies loves the chickens!

We have 24 more eggs in the incubator now. As of 9/9/10 24 of 24 were fertile. They should come out on Sept. 25th. Very excited for this! I am really enjoying having baby chicks in the fall. It used to be that baby chicks were a sign of spring. Not at the Halpern Homestead! Chicks year round!

Thanks for reading!

Mike