More Nuggets
Exactly eight weeks to the day, broody hen hatched out another batch of nuggets. This time there were four that she hatched and two pipped eggs remained in the nest. I put them under a damp towel and a heat lamp inside and one little one hatched out. I snuck it under broody hen that night and the next morning it was running around with the rest of them.
If we’re lucky she’ll hatch out one more batch before the cold weather starts to hit. We’ll keep the hens for our laying flock and one rooster, the remaining roosters will become meat birds. This is a good reason to have dual purpose breeds, then the extra roosters make find roasting birds. At the moment we’re thinking in her previous brood there are three roosters and two hens and they’re Wyandottes so they should make a meaty roasting bird.
There’s also another broody hen sitting on a nest of eggs we got from a friend. We’re hoping she hatches out a good number to add some new varieties of chickens and fresh genes to our flock. I checked yesterday and she had three pipped eggs. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she’s as good a mama as the original broody hen is.
Any new life in your garden?
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Friday Favorite: Guineas
I have a small flock of guinea fowl roaming about the garden. The chickens went behind an electric fence a few weeks ago when they started getting into the main edible garden. The guineas are allowed to roam free because they aren’t as destructive as chickens. I especially love them because they eat insects and not the plants themselves. They don’t scratch much at all, unlike chickens which will make giant holes and dig up plants quite easily.
A few weeks ago I noticed potato beetles in the potato patch and asparagus beetles in the asparagus. Then I noticed the guineas making daily rounds through them eating up all the bugs they could find. They’ll even peck through the mulch around the asparagus looking for the beetles that try to hide there. They are also making quick work of any cabbage worms they see. I saw defoliation of my cabbage and broccoli, and then I noticed the guineas lurking nearby. When I checked for worms they were gone – perfect!
It’s not all peaches and cream with guineas, they can be loud and obnoxious, especially when you have a large group of them. If you want a few for your garden I’d stick to three. If you want a large group you should make sure you have a large area for them to roam. My guineas roam over about 5-7 acres around the house. My guineas will also eat the occasional strawberry in the back garden, I could easily throw cheesecloth over it to keep them away, but they only eat a few so I don’t mind. It’s a small price to pay for fantastic insect control in the garden!
Overall, they are great birds to have around if you have a garden. They are also invaluable watch dogs alerting all the other birds and Tara when there are foxes and hawks nearby.
What’s your favorite pest control method?
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Welcome
I’ve been thinking about getting a companion cat for the Sweets, our little feral garage cat. She loves hanging out with Big D and Samson when they’re out so I know she loves having companions.
A friend of mind had a cat with kittens and I asked if they had a home, they did, but one of his friends had a cat that she was looking to rehome. Zippy was living with an 80 year old woman and was always trying to get outside. In fact, she knocked the lady over several times darting out the door in front of her. As a result, she needed a new home where she could live outside like she wanted to. Her owner’s daughter contacted me to see if I’d be interested.
We have loads of space and could use another outdoor cat so I told her to bring her up. Zippy, as she was called by her previous owner, made the journey up from Connecticut yesterday and is now in a kennel in our kitchen. It will take a few weeks to get all the cats acquainted with each other, but I have no doubt they’ll all become fast friends within a few month. I can’t wait for Sweets to have a buddy to pal around the garden with, she really is a social cat. We’ll probably come up with a new name for Zippy, not quite sure what yet.
Any great suggestions for a new name for this sweetie?
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OH NO
Yesterday morning I went out to gather eggs in the coop and found a teeny tiny egg in the nesting box beside a few full sized eggs. I knew exactly what it was – a cock egg, or so it’s called by many people. Others call it a wind egg. The history & lore surrounding these little eggs is really funny, there’s a great article over on Granny Miller if you want to read all about them.
From the Granny Miller blog post: “Cock eggs according to different folklore traditions bring bad luck or illness if they are brought into the house. That’s because a cock egg is believed to have malefic and magical powers. They are reputed to be of value to sorcerers and magicians for mixing magical potions and casting spells. The way the story goes is that if a toad, serpent or witch at the behest of Satan incubates a cock egg, the resulting hatchling will be a cockatrice or a basilisk. A cockatrice or basilisk is an ancient winged monster with a serpent’s body and a rooster’s head that can kill and destroy by its breath and glance.”
Since this little egg was laid on Friday the 13th with a full moon I think we’re in for some very bad luck here at Chiot’s Run. Or perhaps this is the rooster we sent to the chopping block two weeks ago sending us a message. Maybe I should stick it under my broody hen to see if she’ll hatch out a cockatrice.
Do you know of any great livestock or garden lore that you think about from time to time?
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Oh Turkey
Well we have three turkey poults – not as many as we’d hoped for – but it’s better than none! The Narragansette tom must have not been up to the task, not one of the six narragansette eggs even got out of the gate. Two of the Wishard Bronze and one of the barnyard mix turkeys hatched. That leave us with three tiny poults.
Turkey poults are completely different than ducklings, chicks and guinea keets. They are super laid back, not really active and barely make a sound. I also noticed that they LOVE to eat green things. If I cut up herbs from the yard and put them in their brooder they gobble them up long before they eat any of their other food.
These turkeys were supposed to be for Thanksgiving dinner for us and the neighbor. I was also hoping to have an extra hen and tom to keep for breeding, but that might not happen. If all three survive and I have a hen and a tom I’ll keep them and forgo eating one of them for our Thanksgiving celebration. We shall see how things shake out later this fall.
As I was watching these little guys yesterday I was thinking about how the circle of life is so vivid when you raise your own food. Even when I purchase turkeys from local farms I didn’t really think about the fact that the poults were hatched from eggs by someone somewhere. There are so many steps involved in getting something like a turkey to our Thanksgiving table. It’s one of those things we often don’t even think about as we eat what is on our plate. I will definitely be looking at our feast a little differently this year!
Do you eat turkey for Thanksgiving? Have you considered that they are being hatched now or in the next couple months in order to be fattened for your feast?
