It's warming up!

Oh it feels so much better out there and the hens are more active today. I could take the electric heater out of their coop. The two heat lamps can keep up with this weather. It's about 11 degrees here now! WOO HOO It's a heat wave! LOL
I have the weekend off work and this next week I work 7-5 day shift so I will be home at night. The day shift person is on vacation so I got her house next week. I work four days all 10 hours each. I would rather do that then work five days. We will be dragging that coop outside real soon so watch for movies of that. I still did not get my pictures on here but I'm going to try to have DH do it this evening. Well, right now he wants to watch a movie so I better head upstairs for now. Talk at ya all later! Missie...just know that -25 is COLD! LOL you walk outside and when you breath in your nostrils will stick together. My hand was wet and it actually stuck to the door knob.

More cancellations

Schools were cancelled again for tomorrow. It's going to hit -25 or maybe lower tonight again with crazy wind chills to boot! I'm sure all the kids are loving the cold because they don't have to go to school.
The neighbours looked at me a little strange when I ran out to the hen house to put the heater out there to warm them up a bit. The reason they looked at me a little crazy is because I had shorts on and a big jacket. LOL I just got out of the shower and I just throw shorts and a t-shirt on until Its time to get ready for work. I don't want to get my clothes all dirty before work. It was cold, yes it was! I'm pretty sure I won't do that again.
I'm feeling a little better today so training wasn't so bad tonight. The girl I am training is opening up a bit to me now. She seemed so shy! My boss said that's why I am training her because I am so outgoing that he's sure I will rub off on her! I asked him "why, because I can never keep my mouth shut for 5 min!" LOL Now, this is NOT how I was when I was young. I was SO shy when I was younger. Then I met Cory! It's his fault I'm a big mouth now. I blame him totally!
Well, the hens made it through the night last night...I did change the heat bulb today because they seem to get cooler and cooler the older they get. Now it's a nice hot bulb. This morning when I went out there, their water was froze even though the heat lamp was right over the top of it. Now, THAT Is cold! I hope it's not froze again tomorrow...the thing weighs a TON the way it is and add ice to it makes it even worse. It holds three gallons of water. I should have prob put the electric heater in there tonight but I'm not going out there again tonight. I hear the wind and it's not so inviting. I'm heading off to bed. Hope you all are well :D AND STAY WARM!

All schools cancelled in our area.

It is COLD! It's -25 with -55 degree wind chills here. Schools were cancelled for tomorrow already by this afternoon. Boy I can't wait until the warmer weather blows in. 28 is going to feel like a heat wave next week! I just got in from the shed and getting the wood stove nice and hot for the babies and on my way back to the house my nostrils stuck together. Reminded me of the good ol days when we would walk a mile or so to school LOL Poor Max couldn't walk...his poor feet were sticking to the ground LOL He sure didn't go far to potty. Cubby has so much fur he doesn't even bat an eye when he goes out side in this stuff. I just hope my hens in the big coop are ok tonight. They have two heat lamps out there and the coop is well insulated so I think they will be fine. I have one hen who is pulling out her own feathers because she is broody and is lining the nest. Right now she is laying on nothing. We took the egg she was laying on but she is still in the nest growling her fool head off LOL Her neck is bare because she pulled out all her feathers where she could reach. Silly fool bird. I take her out and she jumps right back in. If she is still in there tomorrow I may have to put her in a cage and put her in with the bantams until her broodiness is broken. I hear that works well. I wouldn't mind her being broody if it was spring...heck I would let her lay on all sorts of eggs ;) Ok well, time for bed. I have a cold and 1/2 and I'm feeling just miserable. Training the new girl tomorrow should be a joy! Oh we DID get a movie in and it was really good. Can't remember the name off hand...it was Angelina Jolie (the new one she is in) OH "WANTED" is the name. Very good movie...filled with action and even some comedy in the beginning. Two thumbs up! Night everyone :D

A day off work!

Today is a good day. I finally get a day off work. I have to work tomorrow and Friday again but today I have off! I finished painting the first coat of the Bantam coop I got a sign made out of 100 yr old barn wood with a picture of a D'uccle painted on it from a member on BYC :D and it says Autumn Breeze on top and D'uccle on the bottom. I took a picture but DH will have to upload them here for me. The guys were busy this last weekend so no pics yet :( As soon as they come out with the new apple computer we will be ordering that for his business but until then, I am stuck with this one. I hate it, but it gets me on the net. I would so love to put siding on this coop instead of paining it. But we just don't have the extra money right now. It looks good either way :D I didn't do a fantastic job painting inside but it will work. Chickens don't care and as long as I can control bugs from living in the wood I'm ok. The floor gets another coat of paint and then we have to wait three days for it to air out and finally the chickens go in. They will be MUCH happier in their new home seeing it's much bigger. AND I have less waterers and feeders to fill each day. Right now I have 14 of them to check each day...all but two need to be filled every day. The bigger ones every other day. It's easier in the summer...I can fill them and clean them right outside. Now we have to take each on into the laundry room and clean them and fill them in the house. PLUS not to mention they all have to stay thawed in this -20 degree temps we have been having. So we have heat lamps out in the hen house and the wood stove going 24/7 in the shed where we have the others in individual cages.
BUT I don't even mind...I love the chickens and they ARE so very sweet :D And hubby has been helping me alot with them them too. Last night I didn't have to load the wood stove or feed/water anyone. Hubby had it all done for me :D I would take that over house cleaning any day. It saves me from freezing outside at 11:30 at night to make sure everyone is ok.

Well, tonight I THINK were going to try to get in a movie. We tried Saturday night but I fell asleep at 7:30 which is NOT like me. I was just exhausted. All the other night I worked until 11:00 pm and when I get home DH is already in bed. So I will get those pics on here asap...until then I hope everyone is having a great week :D See ya soon with pics!

Oh and BTW us humans are all good here as well ;) I'm full of oil based paint and filled with smelly Kerosene fumes and I have a cold...but alright :D Just glad to get that big job out of the way. Now it's just waiting and the guys take over trying to pull that huge thing outdoors! Time to go make dinner (potato burgers) and take a quick shower before our movie.

Almost done! Info on eggs

Our Bantam coop is awesome! The only thing left to do is paint and it's done! My FIL is thinning the paint so we can spray it on rather than roll it. MUCH faster. We have the heater going in there now so it's nice and toasty warm. The garage is also heated up nicely :D Tonight when I get home from work I will be working on the brooder box. YES, working on it at 11:30 pm! I AM crazy! But I have to get it done. I have to at least get the wood cut for it tonight. The birds have spilled their water WAY to many times and I need to get them out of that box.

Janis asked about the difference in the eggs. There is no difference on the taste UNLESS you go from store eggs to farm fresh. THEN we notice a HUGE difference. The nutritional value is WAY higher in farm fresh eggs VS store eggs. Mostly because the store eggs come from hens that are ONLY feed chicken feed. Where farm fresh eggs are fed "REAL" food. During the summer they get most of their nutrition by grazing on the plants and grasses a chicken SHOULD be eating. The get some "people" food too. Minus all the flavourings of course. When I fry eggs for my birds I NEVER add any salt or flavourings...just the eggs. Same with pancakes. Yesterday they got pancakes for breakfast and LOVED them! It was something new I tried. So once every couple days I will switch from eggs to pancakes. Hens can eat almost anything people can eat without the salts in them. NO onion or uncooked potato peels though. They LOVE meat, yogurt, pumpkin and their all time favourite thing to eat is watermelon. My hens get black oil sunflower seeds every other day as well. Very little cracked corn as that is "candy" for them and not all that good for them either. They DO love it though! They know when I come with my white bucket and call "here chick chick" they come running! I can't even try to sneak it in so I can actually WALK through their house to set it down lol they are around my feet and I practically have to step on them to get from one side to the other.
OH one other thing we tried this fall was whole pumpkin. We cracked it open and let them at it. At first they looked and looked thinking OK what the heck is THIS! Than once one took a taste they were all in there going at it. It was gone in 10 min! And pumpkin is a natural medicine to treat for worms without using antibiotics (which is another thing our store eggs are filled with). Something you don't want to be feeding your kids. Farm fresh eggs are free from all antibiotics (at least MINE are) Some people may give their birds antibiotics if needed but we don't plan to unless we have NO other choice. In which case they will be taken out of the egg business and we will not sell their eggs again to anyone. We will only sell eggs from hens who have never had a dose of antibiotics.
So there you have it...if you google farm fresh eggs vs Store eggs I'm sure there will be TONS of stuff on both. But that is my 2 cents on it. I will NEVER go back to store eggs again after seeing what I've seen and reading what I have read. Same exact reason were buying a whole cow rather than store meats any more. I don't want my kids eating the meats coming from cafo's. Just too dangerous!

Well still did not get the pics downloaded, hubby has been working later and he didn't have time. SOON though! I'm making him do it for sure this weekend for me ;)

Bantam coop almost done

I have named this coop "Autumn Breeze" and I LOVE it' It is almost done and I will be taking more pics of it tonight and post them later if hubby can upload them for me. I am LOST without my Apple computer! I can't wait to get our new one! So anyway...it's beautiful and the chickens will LOVE it. Now I just have to figure out who I'm putting where. For now it's going to be the D'uccles in one 1/2 with the silkies...and in the other half will be Phoenix my Golden Phoenix rooster and his girlfriend Shelby ( my polish hen ) They make such a cute couple! I'm eventually going to get him his own girls and sell the eggs. I'm also getting some Black Copper Marans! I can't wait! They lay those really super dark chocolate eggs. Here is a pic of what the eggs can look like:



I would LOVE to have those types of eggs. I am also looking at getting the "true" ameraucana's also who lay the sky blue eggs not the green eggs (those are easter egger chickens) Still cute and lay nice eggs but I want blue! LOL NOW i just have to get hubby to build me another coop! HEHE Prob won't happen for a really long long time but I can hope ;) I'm building me a brooder either tonight or this weekend sometime when I have off work. The baby orps are getting HUGE and keep tipping their water over so that cardboard is getting SO wet. I made them a larger table so now they don't spill it but their box is already wet so I have to replace it because...well, it sticks! Wet cardboard mixed with chicken poo is not pretty! PLUS it can't be good for them either.

Well, I have to go make some egg pancakes for dinner :D LOVE those things! They are VERY thin and you roll them up and put butter, sugar, and syrup over the top! YUM! I will take a picture of those too so you all can drool!

PICTURESS Lots of um!

First, Kelly...here are new pictures of Phoenix (Golden Phoenix rooster). Isn't he just crazy beautiful!! I am IN LOVE with him.








Next, we have pictures of our new coop being built....We are having a blast with this. HUH not really! LOL We wish it was done. We are building it in the garage and my FIL is helping us out again so that really makes it go faster and he's such a good builder too so it always looks perfect. They will have heat and lights in the coop.







This is our vent system in the coop which will be able to close with insulation inside for colder/windy nights.



We will have doors like this on both sides of the coop since there will a separation in the middle of the coop. Light switches on both sides also so I can turn on/off the lights from either door :D



Electrical going in. (below)



Drip edge up...



Front (south side) with two windows and two pop doors for each coop.



My FIL measuring something. AND Max :D After his homecoming.



Roof going on...



Ok now some other pictures...Check out the different sizes and colors of eggs we have been getting! It's so cool! We get almost a dozen every day now :D





Here is Nic amazed with our double yolker



Here is our "Big Toy Day" with Max keeping an eye out on the presents.





Here is my Daddy



Remember the chick i hatched out...well here he (I think it's a he anyhow) is today at 8 weeks old. He is growing nicely :D





My silkie hens. YUP they are BOTH hens :D





Here is our trail to the hen house now that we got FEETS of snow! LOL Our temps have been 0 or below for DAYS AND DAYS AND DAYS. All except for one odd day when it got to 39 and made a big skate pond in our driveway when it went back down to below zero that very same night. Oh and by the way...my hens will NOT step foot out their pop door LOL They prefer to stay their butts right inside the coop under the heat lamps. They are just too funny! When the weather was up to 39 that one day they came out for a few hours but once the sun went down they were right back inside. Sure glad we have lights in there for them! We would never get any eggs!



Here is one of my girls in her nest. Her name is Tinker Bell




Well I think I got most of the pics I had posted now :D Hope you enjoyed the post. I will take pics of the coop when it's done and of course a video of the guys "pulling" it out of the garage to put it in it's place for the winter. LOL THAT should be interesting. I think they are hooking it to the tractor.


Oh and a fast Movie review. "Over Her Dead Body" It was AWESOME and very funny! Even hubby liked it.

A MUCH better day

MAX IS BACK HOME! We got a call from a neighbor about a mile away (cutting through the woods) going around the properties we had to drive about 5 miles. Their property butts up against ours (we have 20 acres they have about 80). He called and said that he found our dog and that he is very scared. We rushed right over there! When we got their he said you better call him he was just right here. I called him and about 30 seconds later he came running and was very happy to see us. We told him thank you and he said to us "Be sure to keep your dog chained or it's a guarantee that next time he will be dead." That to me was a threat really...I don't blame him really as Max WAS chasing deer and people don't like that AT ALL! Not a good thing for a dog to do and anyone has the right to shoot a dog if it's on their property chasing other animals OR their livestock. He said that Max had been there before chasing deer (can't figure out when, as he is always accounted for) The guy was not happy at all. What we think happened is that the guy held him there just to teach us and Max a lesson. Especially when we got him home he was not interested in water or food. He was VERY sore and could hardly walk. I had to help him up the stairs when he had to go out potty. He was just not normal excited Max. NOW...he is right back to normal and back to being Max. We are SO happy and could not imagine life without Max. He is for sure part of our family. Thank you all for the nice comments and for worrying about Max :D That is so sweet!

Today we were out in the garage working on our bantam coop. I got lots of pictures and Cory is going to work on getting them on the computer since we don't have our apple right now.

Kelly, you should see Phoenix! OH is he beautiful, what I am going to do is order phoenix girls for him so I can sell their eggs. We are putting hardware cloth in-between to separate the coop and the yards. Kelly is still separate from the girls until spring because they pulled out all his beautiful neck feathers but they are coming in nice now. Red actually. Not white like before. He's looking really cute! Well I'm giving the computer over to hubby so he can get my pictures on here and later I will add them so come back later to check. I will just put them in a new entry.

Family is good :D Stefan goes back to school Sunday...he was home for two weeks. Did I tell you all that he was "All American" OL in football? I don't think I did...I was off here for so long. Well, I'm off. Hope you all are well.