Chickens Archive

d’Uccle Update

Posted January 9, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

We’ll the “Girls” are doing Great!

They are  3 days into their hatching (they went broody in the same egg box at different times over a week time span)

Strange I know— but it looks like these Gals are in it for the long haul.

Now that is what I call “Farm Girl Sister Hood”

and I think they should be our mascots.

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Here are some updated photographs.  I added a nursery to see if they

would take to it and they did.  They moved the chicks over and put one mom

in charge.  She actually has 5 or 6 more under her wings taking a nap.

The other moms come out in turn to take breaks for food, water and bathroom,

but then straight back.

The chicks are sooooo cute!   Thankfully the weather is warming back up

and they will be able to go back out real soon.

photoweavers.com

It Takes A Village–Even If Your A Chicken

Posted January 8, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

Well the freeze down here in the south has taken all of us to task.  We are really cold.

This is the coldest it has been in over 100 years.  My husband left the outside faucets dripping which is the

common thing to do during cold weather snaps here.  Imagine my husbands surprise when he

found an upside down icicle come morning. What a hoot.

Well the cold weather did not stop my little mommas. They huddled together through the night

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and yesterday morning I heard the first sweet “tweet, tweet, tweet”

I don’t know if you have ever had the privilege to see a newly hatched mille fleur d’Uccle chick, but

they are so cute.  They remind me of fuzzy pop corn. Much smaller than standard size chicks (the eggs are about 1/4 – 1/3

the size). They are very active and bouncy.  They come with feathers already on their feet.

So my husband left out right behind the kids getting on the bus and he was not privy to all the excitement.

All the mommas are in one egg box believe it or not and

that egg box is a  nice big portable egg box that I had for one of my standards.

So I moved the girls and the babies inside.

…….and when I say inside, I mean into my nice big 1940′s style bathroom where they can be cozy

and messes are easy to clean up.

(My husband was not thrilled about this arrangement–Oh well–Moms do what they have to do)

I am just so amazed at how well these six hens work together all crammed into this egg box.

They actually have a system going.  One hen is  watching for pips and as the egg progresses she rolls it over to the next.

All the chicks hatched so far have been helped out by the same hen and cleaned up by the another hen.  All of the chicks are

now under the supervision of the two hens on the far left of the box.

The hens are very sweet and gentle.  They will let you pick the chicks up and they themselves like being petted.

If you put a chick down on the wrong side of the box. within minutes they have maneuvered him to where

he should be. back on the left side.

It takes a village  even if you are a chicken!

Vintage Egg Baskets

Posted January 4, 2014 By Suzanne Holland
Egg basket my son found and gave me for Christmas. Love, Love, Love

Egg basket my son found and gave me for Christmas. Love, Love, Love

Vintage Egg Baskets ….

have been a favorite of mine forever .  I only had one until my oldest son, Andrew surprised me this Christmas with one he found in an old barn situated on the property near our tree farm.  The land is owned by a friend and Andrew did have permission to take the basket.

He did a fantastic job cleaning it up and I have enjoyed using it to gather eggs.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned what breed of chickens we raise here at what we affectionately  call “Little Holland Farm”.

My oldest daughter Alice is working on a re-populating project of a rare breed —The Barred Holland…….funny huh

I Love Crossstitch

We have two really great lines of Buff Orpingtons  and we have Mille Fleur d’Uccles.  Our d’Uccles  hens have all gone broody at the same time and hatch day is this weekend.   We will be hopping with excitement to see how many make it in the cold.

We also have a few hatchery egg layers that are really sweet pampered pets.

My husband of course would argue that All of the chickens are

spoiled pampered pets.

Arthur’s Place

Posted December 10, 2012 By Suzanne Holland
Our Chicken Coop has been a work in progress.
We have had it a little bit on the back burner because we were building our 
house. BUT…..our house is finished and winter is coming.  Our chickens have been enjoying
a lovely covered outside roosting area, which for Louisiana summertime is fine.  Not so
 for the winter time when damp chilly and sometimes icy days can make
 being outside at night a big problem.
We were given an old play house that was just the right size to convert to a chicken house 
for the number of chickens we have.  So little by little my sweet husband has added egg
boxes off the side and re-enforced things that needed re-enforcing. He trimmed out the windows and 
added Plantation Shutters, a roost inside, flower boxes and last but least we painted it the perfect
shade of Barn Red.
Arthur’s Place
Arthur
We call it Arthur’s Place because our Roo’s name is Arthur.
He is a beautiful New Hampshire Red and we just love him.

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