By Leaps and Bounds Part 8: Broody Hens, and Incubator Chicks

 We have chicks E.V.E.R.Y  W.H.E.R.E!!!  Let's quickly take a tour of all the babies to get you updated and clarify it for us :)  So, first we had the laying chicks we ordered from McMurray.  Then the Lavender Orpingtons, we just had to have.

Next... Sissy, our first broody hen, hatched out 5 darling silver giant chicks...

and 2 misfit black chicks, whose mother must have snuck in her eggs when we weren't looking.

Sissy, is a very good momma, and loves to take her babies outside to dust bathe. :)

The next groups are just a little confusing, so let me explain.  Josiah had won a picture contest with a photo of an arrangement of eggs, and his prize had been a dozen hatching eggs of some special Blue/Blue Barred Rocks.  We had added them into the incubator along with some eggs from our hens which we were hatching out mainly for friends.

Well, at the same time Little Girl (Josiah's chicken, who just adores him) went broody, so we gave her some of our eggs to sit on for the time being.

Then when 8 out of 12 (a wonderful ratio for shipped eggs) of Josiah's prize eggs hatched, we gave them to Little Girl, and like the sweet heart she is, she accepted everyone of them, and went from sitting on 3 eggs, to the happy mother of 8 chicks.  She had never had a hatch go so fast!!! :)

  Back in the house, our other chicks had hatched, and were being loved on.

 Most of the eggs we set were Easter Egg chickens, and they came out so sweet with puffy cheeks, and little beards. 

 Baby Clairette all sleepy after hatching.

 These are Mousy's (our most adorable Lavender Easter Egger Hen) babies.

1 girl 1 boy!!  They are absolutely, downright, no question about it, adorable, dolls!!!

So, I think that is all the chicks for now! :)  We do have a couple of broody hens in the chicken coop..... 

~Chs

By Leaps and Bounds Part 7: Multipication - Rabbit Style

 

As briefly mentioned in the post below, Sunday  morning (April 28th) was just a bit hectic.  Brunhilda, the first rabbit we bred, was due to have babies that weekend, but she hadn't been acting like a rabbit about to kindle should,  OR at least the way we thought a rabbit about to kindle should act. :)  Well long story short, Brunhilda had one baby on the bars of the cage, before she figured out she was having babies and then settled in her nesting box, like a proper rabbit!  Thankfully, we found the first baby bunny quickly and brought it in and warmed it up before returning it to its mother, and.... siblings!

 Brunhilda ended up with 7 healthy kits! (not counting some stillborn etc.)  After all 7 is the number of perfection!

 At first the babies weren't all that adorable, being pink and black little hairless mousy looking things.

 Even after they started getting their fur, I thought they resembled a Hippo more than a Rabbit! :)

{Hippo with bunny ears??}

 But....  after 1 short week, the darling little things started looking like baby bunnies and everyone that saw them fell in love!

The little rabbit above nearly went home with his new friend.

By the following Wednesday the little Rabbits were just opening their eyes, and we decided it was time for their first outing.  We piled them all in a basket and headed down to our neighbors to visit Miss Sarah on her Birthday!

The visit was a success on all sides!   The little Rabbits are in the sweet cuddly beanie-baby stage, before they begin to be bouncy, trouncy, and unmanageable.

The trip went so well, that the Rabbits went out visiting the next day as well.  As you can see in the picture, they have the cute posing thing down pat! :P

{Lap-full of bunnies}

With their eyes now open, they will be sure to start exploring.  Before long they will be big enough to go outside and then sold to their new homes.   But for now we are enjoying the novelty of the little furry bundles, and love showing them off to anyone that is interested!

~Chs

Last Week in Review

Alright, here is the second installment of catching up with our busy life.  Here you will find a very brief overview of events which I hope to post about in more details in the near future.  We will see....

It all started Sunday morning, when right before church we discovered that our Rabbit Brunhilda  whom we had bred, had decided that Sunday was the perfect day to kindle.  And of course she couldn't just have them calmly in the nice nesting box we provide for her... but more on that later.

Monday:  Since we really don't have enough laying chicks already, :) we picked up 4 adorable Lavender Orpingtons, that we had been longing to own.

The coming Saturday being Derby Day, Faith and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at Banbury preparing for their large fundraiser event.  (I hope to get a full post on that soon to)

On Thursday directly after volunteering at the Pregnancy Resource Center, Faith and I ran off to Port Huron to help Aunt Carmen move all her furniture back into place, after having some beautiful Amish crafted wood flooring put in.

Right before and while we were gone, Sissy our big broody buff's eggs began to hatch!  So sweet!!

We were able to get home from Aunt Carmen's early Friday afternoon, and Faith did some gardening.  It WAS getting warmer, and feeling like planting season, but now.....

Finally, Saturday, the last day of the week:  I was at Banbury all day helping out with the Derby Day benefit  and was joined by Faith later on.  The rest of the family were working hard at home, because there is ALWAYS some project going on around here.

~Chs

Catching Up (By Leaps and Bounds Part: 6)

"Silence is golden"

And if this be true, then this blog has certainly been golden recently!

I do apologize for the lack of posts, and will try to quickly catch you up on what has kept us so busy and silent.   We just can't seem to stop collecting animals! :) ( first ducklings, then rabbits, then chicks, and more...) 2 weeks ago Wednesday morning  found us once again at the post office, picking up a box of live baby animals.

 13 darling ducklings came to live with us.  With the sweetest beaks, and little feet, they immediately were loved, and received many visitors to witness their cuteness.   I had to sell 2 of them, and now have 11 not-so-little-any-more ducklings, who I have affectionately dubbed, the elevensies!

Along with the ducklings came 9 Turkey poults we ordered, who surprised us with their curiosity,  friendliness, and...... stupidity. :)  You seriously had to teach them how to eat... goofy little birds.  They are quite the fliers, and we have had to put higher walls to keep them contained.  

So, that was one week at Lily Spring Farms.  Last week was even more exciting, but that will be another post all together.  (or several) Stay tuned!!

~Chs

Birthday Bash

The evening of April 18th found us all gathered in our basement with Josh and Theresa, celebrating Josh's 23rd Birthday.  Following are some photos from the event.

{The Cake}

Joshua asked for a cake in the shape of a shoulder mount white tail buck.  Usually the cake is either Mom or my project, but this year it was a joint effort, and all of the decorating (including detailed shading and effects) was done by Josiah!!

{Handsome man with his buck.}

{The Smolder}

{A Happy Guest}

{Mozart Chocolate: for musical chocolate lovers}

{A brand new, big and powerful Drill}

Sadie Rose helped out by doing away with the wrapping paper.

We are very thankful for how God has blessed Josh in the past few years, and pray that Josh would continue to grow as a man of God, husband, and leader.

Happy Birthday Josh!!!

~Chs

By Leaps and Bounds Part 5: Everywhere a Chick, Chick!

 So the April rush is upon us, and we are beginning to be well known at the post office.  Last week, of course, we picked up our Laying Chicks and while there the lady mentioned that she thought she recognized our name (from previous years of picking up chicks). Faith and I just smiled at each other and thought: just wait, you will be seeing a lot more of us!  So this week we returned, this time to pick up 108 little peepers!! 

 That's right, our garage is currently full with Josiah's first batch of meat chicks.   Right now they are so tiny, fluffy and cute, it is hard to imagine them growing up to be big, fat, tasty chickens.

 Sleeping, eating, drinking and some more sleeping pretty much fills up their schedule, interspersed with plenty of peeping.

Next week we will be back at what's becoming one of our favorite early morning destinations... the post office, picking up yet another batch of poultry, but they aren't chicks............

~Chs

Life: Rainy Days

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, 

and perform them,

then I will give you rain in its season, 

the land shall yield its produce, 

and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ~ Leviticus 26:3,4

“But as for me, I would seek God,
And to God I would commit my cause—
 Who does great things, and unsearchable,
Marvelous things without number.
 He gives rain on the earth,
And sends waters on the fields. ~ Job 5:8-10

Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.  ~ Hosea 6:3

By Leaps and Bounds Part 4: Here a Chick...

 It was a peaceful Monday morning.  Outside darkness reigned and only a few optimistic Robins broke the stillness.   The house was silent and all the human occupants were snuggled cozily under flannel sheets and blankets.  Suddenly their well deserved slumbers were interrupted with the abrupt and insistent sound of the telephone.  Faith jumped out of bed making a beeline for the clamorous phone, intent on silencing it as soon as possible.  Sitting up in bed I rubbed my bleary eyes and peered down at the wavering red numbers on our digital clock.   5:20.  With a heavy sigh I strained to listen to Faith's polite but weary voice, even though I already knew of what the unconventional call was token.  Chicks.  That's right, on the other end of the line, so early Monday morning, was someone from our local post office letting us know that a box full of peeping fluff balls was waiting for us to claim them.  10 or so minutes later Faith and I trudged out to the car, half fell in and headed out into the inky black world to fetch our tiny charges.  This was the first time I had gone on such a venture, (Faith had done so on many occasions) and I looked around with interest as we pulled into the gated back parking lot of the post office.  We made our way out of the warm car, into the seemingly hostile and cold air and up to the intimidating back doors and carefully pushed the door bell.  We were ushered inside, and even before the doors fully swung closed behind us, we heard the hopeful yet helpless peeping of the weary travelers.  In no time at all we were settled back in the warm car speeding the chickies  homeward on the last leg of their journey.

 We were welcomed home by a soft red glow emanating from the front porch - the chicks new abode.  We whisked them quickly inside and with the help of Charity divided them up (some of the poor little babies had yet one more trip to make to a friend's home) and settled ours into their cozy brooder box, with fresh water, food, and most importantly a warm light.

You could almost hear the little chicks sigh and then cheep in excitement as some dashed around their new digs, checking everything out, others pecked curiously at the food dish, and some weary little souls just stood directly underneath the light swaying gently back and forth, their eyes closed in bliss, basking in the warm glow.

These tiny little cheepers, though completely reliant on us at the moment, are destined for great things.  They are to help replenish our laying flock and supply us with big beautiful spheres of decadent health, more commonly known as eggs.

After much thought and study, we had decided to begin a mainly Orpington flock.  We discovered that there are many colors of Orpintons, not just the well know Buff.  There are also Black, Blue, Lavender, White, and a few others.  The company we ordered our chicks from only had two different colors available, so the chicks we picked up Monday morning were compromised of 4 Buff Orpington cockerels, so that we can choose a new head Rooster for our girls, as well as 5 adorable Buff girls.

 The only other shade was White Orpington, so three of those variety were added to our bill.  Surprisingly the little babies were beautiful shades of gray, despite the fact that they are going to turn out pure white.

We weren't completely exclusive in our selection of chicks, and two of them were not Orpingtons but rather Silver Laced Wyandottes.  They grow up to be gorgeous birds with beautiful laced feathering, but right now they are just cute little striped and speckled fluffy pullets.

One of our favorite things about ordering from this particular hatchery is that they give you the option of having them send you a free "exotic" chick.  We are always in high anticipation to find out what breed we were given.  This year the sweetest little gray Cochin was our surprise!  We were thrilled, and are desperately hoping that Cochie is a girl, preferable a blue girl; even a white Cochin girl would be simply lovely.  

Our porch is now filled with the sweet sound of soft peeping, and even though they arrived so early, we are very happy that they are here and are looking forward to raising them through chickenhood.

~Chs