Some More Pictures of our Chicken Adventure

      The Incubator bought from Tractor Supply.

                                                         Got to keep them warm!

    Candled them at 8 days and could see life in 11 of the 12.

Here comes Alpha, named of course because he was the 1st.

                      Isn't he cute?

One of the others making a break for it. ;-)

   5 chicks waiting for the others to dry enough to join them.

  Rachel's little set up. Going to get a larger box in a day or two.

          These are what you call a Barnyard Mix. Which is chicken for mutt. :-)
They came from good healthy layers and should be strong chickens. I am glad we are doing this. It has already been a great life lesson for the kids and will continue to be one, plus a good Homeschooling and
4-H project!
Next post, I will show more pictures of their future home as its coming along.

Our Chicks!

In the light of rising gas and food prices we have been looking for ways to become a little more self reliant. I have had a garden for several years now and am getting so most everything I plant grows.

Last year my husband found out about Amaranth, a grain that is gluten free and very healthy. He planted a bunch of it and it did pretty well. He will be planting more of it this year.

(I will have my husband do some posts about this grain soon.)

We have a done rain barrels, mulch piles, gardening classes and getting books to learn how to be as self reliant as we can on our small piece of land in a sub-division.

For a long time now I have wanted to have just a few hens in the back yard for fresh eggs and manure. Not to mention the fun and pleasure. It is also a great project for my children. (This will be a 4-H project for my 10 yr old.)

Everything started to come together for us to be able to do so. My friend John had been looking at port-a-coops/chicken tractors and really didn't like what he found and started studying different types and the pros and cons and designed his own. We are building the prototype and making changes as we go. My 10 year old told us she wanted an incubator for her birthday and a friend gave her a dozen fertile eggs and after carefully turning them every day and watching the temp. The eggs started hatching Saturday morning and we have 8 chicks hatched and 3 eggs to go! We will keep only 4 or 5 hens and sell or give away the rest.

I will post more later but I need to rub some coconut oil on my shoulders. I got a little sun burnt adding compost and rock dust to my soil this afternoon.

I will do some gardening posts soon.