Wednesday, August 21, 2013

She Hatched Babies!

I had a Buff Orpington hen that went broody about a month ago.  We tried to get her off the nest and she just wouldn't stay off.  So, we decided to place some fertile eggs under her to see if she'd hatch them. Well, hatch date was August 20th and they began hatching on the morning of the 19th!  She hatched 5 babies!  She is very happy and doing much better than she was.  Here is a short video I took this morning of them.  I will get a better video here soon.  


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Harvesting, Canning and a Hatch Date!

Hello everyone, I realize it has been awhile since the last update.  I was on vacation and have been working two jobs now for about a month. Busy!  Things are moving along here though. I've got some photos for you!

Here are about half of the tomatoes we have picked so far.  We have been canning already!



So far we used one of these baskets for salsa.  We ended up with 11 pints out of that basket.


We also made my Grandma's Ginger Pickles!  The only sweet pickles I like.



Here is another basket of Yellow Squash, Zucchini, and some misshapen cucumbers!


Here is the most exciting part of this update.  One of my Buff Orpington hens has gone "broody"....meaning she wants to hatch her own babies.  Since I do not have a rooster, we got some fertilized eggs from a friend of ours who has roosters.  He gave us one dozen fertilized eggs and she has been sitting on them for 2 weeks now.  The hatch date is August 20!  There could be hatchlings on the 19th or the 21st too.  We will have to wait and see.  I am hoping for her sake she gets at least a few hatchlings.  Here she is, sitting on the eggs.  I will of course update on or around the 20th to let you know if any of them hatch.  They will be mixed breeds...the fertilized eggs were a mix of cream color, speckled, and blue eggs!  I can't wait!


Stay tuned!!!  Thanks for reading!