I wanted to show you some of the inside of the bee hives. It has been about 6 weeks now and I wanted you to see inside the hives as the bees work.

They are a medium weight chicken so not over 5 - 6 lbs at the very best in a big bird. They are nothing like my blue orpingtons. My rooster will top the scales at around 12 lbs or so at full maturity.

Kismet said: Doesn't it make you sad when the others don't hatch? There's a reason I buy my eggs from the store :)

No, it doesn't make me sad. Chicks that don't hatch usually have some deformity or internal injury that would prevent a normal healthy life. I am not interested in trying to save deformed or handicapped chicks. They have no quaility of life and will suffer and die if they don't have to be culled first. I would rather an chick not hatch than to have to cull one.

In the best of cases, it is nice when all egg develop and hatch. Not all eggs will develop in every hatch. While I would love for every egg to develop into a chick and hatch that is not the reality of the chicken world.

Even a grocery store egg has the potential to hatch. Lots of people buy eggs from the grocery and set them to hatch. They are usually leghorn or some cross bred brown layer. Health food stores will often have fertile eggs for sale. There is no difference in taste in a fertile or a nonfertile eggs. If you did not know an egg was fertile there is no way you would know it when you are preparing it for food.

Hens can lay eggs without needing a rooster. Roosters are only for when you want those hens to lay fertile eggs that have a potential to hatch. There is no worry about getting an egg from the farm or the grocery store and finding a partially developed chick in there. It doesn't work that way.

Fertile eggs require a specific incubating environment and must be cultivated in that environment for 24 - 36 hours for the cells tobegin deviding. Once the enviroment is altered the embryo dies.

Home grown, farm fresh, backyard eggs are healthier, are higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, have a much darker yolk and generally have lower cholesterol.

Once you have farm fresh eggs you'll not want the shallow image of the egg from the grocery store. As much as we would want to think differently grocery store eggs and chickens for meat are sub-quality. The chickens you buy for your family dinner is no more than 4 - 5 weeks old. Even those big ones are under 6 weeks old.

kristy said: When will you be able to tell if they're roosters or hens?

They will start showing their gender in a couple weeks. Not only are there characteristics to look for int heir body such as comb and wattle growth but males will have thicker thighs and legs and feet. Also some of those little boys stretch their necks up and try to crow at a few weeks of age. As they progressively grow and get more mature feathers the feather development is a dead give away for their gender.

Some breeds of chickens can be sexed by color at hatch. A well trained eye at raising good rhode island reds chicks can pick out females vs males at very early ages.

beahunter said: Are hens very protective of the young they hatch?

Initially they are. Over the next 4 - 6 weeks she will teach those chicks everything they need to know about eating, sleeping, roosting, scratching, and just being a chicken. At that point her maternal instincts turn off. She will start laying eggs again and those chicks will just be some other chickens. Not her babies.

This hen is very good with us. Even though she will give us a warning growl and let us know we are tredding on thin ice she still lets us look under her and handle the babies.

The other eggs she was sitting on where obviously scrambled during shipping.

Mom and babies are doing well. She has them out of the crate and enjoying the barn, chick feed and cool clean water.

So I got a nice lady in Alabama to send me some of her beautiful rhode island red eggs. I put my broody hen - a big fat white wyandotte (one of the Wanda's) in a quiet place and put the eggs under her.

21 days later - look what is hiding under her wing -

Life on the farm is super busy right now. I have so much to tell you!

She doesn't know it is a red headed stepchild. All she knows is that it is her baby. :)

Look what the mail brought yesterday to the farm.

I have always wanted to have honeybees.

I want to learn how to bake using honey instead of refined sugar.

I want to be more self sufficient and self sustaining.

I think this spring I am making real headway to get there!

This is real life.

renn said: What are the differences (overall) between different breeds of geese? I understand appearance, but are there qualities that shine in the various breeds? Do you eat goose eggs? Or geese in general? I am fascinated by this.

Let's talk about the incredible edible egg. Not just chickens eggs. Most every fowl egg that I know of is edible. They are. You can eat all sorts of delicious eggs and probably have and may not have known it.

Goose and duck eggs are great for baking. They have a much bigger yolk and make a much richer baked product. Cakes are to die for when baked with duck eggs in place of chicken eggs. Quail eggs are often used for gourmet hors' dourves. You just never know where a different fowl egg will pop up in your diet. People also eat ostrich, rhea and emu eggs too.

In this photo is a sampling of eggs I have on hand. From largest to smallest are goose, duck, chicken, jumbo guinea and smallish guinea. The very small guinea egg is about the size of a bantam chicken egg. It would take 3 of those to make a large standard egg in your cooking recipes.

A farm fresh egg has a different taste when compaired to a commercially produced egg. It does take a while to get used to a fresh egg because they are so much richer and have a better flavor. Eggs don't take on flavors when the hen eats wild onions or garlic. But that is not to say what they eat doesn't cause a difference in the eggs when compared.

Farm fresh eggs from a small backyard coop are generally much deeper orangey in the yolks. The whites look cloudy. All of this is a good thing. Hens that are able to freely choose what they eat and are given a much wider diet have a more healthy egg. It has been proven under laboratory testing. Backyard, free range eggs have much higher Omega-3 fatty acids.

The orangey yolk is from the wide diet the chickens eat. Chickens are naturally omnivours. They do eat meat and they do eat pleants. Factory hens are fed a commercial mix of feed that is manufactured to have the least waste material and the most utilization in the chicken body.

Backyard chickens get more than feed. They eat bugs and green grass. Many are catered to and get treats just because they are pets more than egg producers.

My own chickens get all of the meat scraps from my kitchen and alot of my vegetable scraps - I have to give some to my goats too. Also my chickens eat grass. They eat bugs. I often cook rice and mix it with yogurt for good probiotics. Chickens will also catch and eat mice, lizard, small snakes and other little critters. This makes deep rich yolks. When I make my 12 eggs pound cake the cake turns yellow/orange from the yolks not a pale yellow or white. Also a cloudy tight white  means an egg is super fresh as the carbon dioxide hasn't had time to dissopate through the shell. You want the yolk to sit up high on top of a tight white. This is getting the best of egg goodness.

This is true for most eggs. Turkeys, ducks, chickens, guinea, pheasant, quail, etc all eat the same things. The eggs are enrichened in the same manner. Geese, however, are different.

A goose is a herbivor. It only eats plants. It might swim like a duck but it doesn't eat fish or bugs or other creepy crawlies. Geese are best when they pasture graze. Their diet consists of good green grass in a nice wide field and a clean water source to keep their nares clean and clear.

It was once customary and still is with the English to raise geese. Christmas goose has been popular since Victorian days. Having spent the past 3 years looking for a goose for Christmas dinner and not finding one I decided I was tired of searching for the mountain. I started moving dirt and am building my own moutain -so to speak. I went in search of eggs for breeds of geese that were noted to make the best table birds. There are breeds of geese raised for their liver - mmmm, pate.

There are many kinds of geese. African, American, Buff, Emden, Toulouse, Brecon Buff, Buff Back, Grey Back, Pomeranian, Chinese, Pilgrim, Roman and more including canadian and wild geese. Even some real eye candy geese like Sebastopol. I should be getting some eggs for some Sebastopol next week. I am thrilled!

The heavier breeds are good for eating. I did a lot of research and found the most recommenations for embdens as table birds. Those are what I am raising for meat. There are others that are better at laying more eggs. I have some mutt geese growing out and who knows if they will fatten out for meat or be good layers. I have to wait and see. My embdens should be ready late this month. It takes 28 - 35 days for them to hatch. An entire month! The waiting is long and the hatching is longer. Geese are the hardest to hatch.

I don't have a pond. I bet you wonder how I will be able to raise waterfowl on dry land? They live just find with a kids wading pool to dip in to. It would be perfect to have a pond, even a wet weather pond. I am asking Steve repeatedly to build me one. We'll see. Maybe by next spring I'll have one. Fingers crossed.

My oldest geese are four weeks old. They don't need as intensive care as chicks. In fact my geese are turned out now. No heat lamps, tending to themselves. I make sure they have clean water and they graze and nap in the sun. I also give them a dish of game bird feed to supplement them as they are still growing and have not feathered in yet.

I am raising Chickens, geese and guineas.  Turkeys will come this month and hopefully in 2 weeks my ducks will hatch. This is mostly breeding stock for next years big meat harvest for the winter freezer.

Steve hunted this past fall and the wild goose he brought home was delicious. I hope our home grown Christmas Goose is equally as good.

He started filling out real nice by 19 weeks.

Just 2 weeks ago I thought he was awesome.

But look at him now at 25 weeks.

Isn't he a knockout?

Can you figure out how big you think he is? He is HUGE!

Just another little tidbit - He won't be fully grown to his adult size until he is 18 months to 2 years old.

:)

Three goslings hatched on 3/28. They were supposed to be pure embdens but turned out to be unidentifiable mutts right now.

Two goslings hatched on 4/8 and they too were susposed to be embdens but due to an egg collecting error they are a brown chinese cross. I like them anyway.

They have grown very fast and are no longer in need of a brooder or their tiny pen.

They have graduated to a chain link kennel until they get some size on them and can defend themselves to wander the pasture.

I move this kennel one kennel width daily so they have fresh grass to graze. The water in their pool (Goose Tea) is poured around the plants in my garden. Excellent fertilizer.

I love the way Steven interacts with them. Don't they look like they are talking to him? He is developing such a good relationship with all of the animals we have here. He will grow up knowing where his food comes from, respecting the life given for the food on the table and having good animal husbandry skills. He also wants to climb in the pool with them.

They are so entertaining to watch. If you have pasture to raise geese you will love having them around. Just remember they get aggressive during egg season and are best for your Christmas dinner table.

Goose Facts: Geese graze apasture like cattle. They don't feed on insects or fish. They eat vegetation only. If you have a corn or cotton feild they will keep it weeded for you. They won't eat the corn or cotton plants. Just the grass and weeds.

It took a few times calling their names but we finally got their attn.

It was feeding time for the new bucklings we brought home Monday. Lilah, my lead doe, leaned down as if to say to the baby it was okay to go.

Immediately they both came running.

I have a good crew to help feed these growing babies.

Hey, Mary, send your brother over here to look at my baby I got from him with Lilah. She is all grown up and gorgeous! Lilah is on the left and her baby we renamed Violet is on the right.

Until today.

Here are Beau and Luke - my two new bucklings. I hope they sire me some really beautiful kids!

Steven keeps calling them a 'buppy!' Everything is a puppy to him except for the chickdies and the "ooses!" (my goslings).

They are both 1 week old and bottle fed. I find them to be absolutely adorable!

*Kidding - get it?

What are you planting?

How cute are they?

Tamworth's are a heritage breed of pig. I am told they are some of the better tasting of porcine breeds.

To be properly fed out these little pigs should gain about 1lb a day every day until butcher. That is a lot of eating! Depending on how we do with these we may consider a gilt next year and raise her for breeding our own piglets.

Have I ever told you all that we live on a little farm? We do!

* barrow - castrated male pig for growing out for eating purposes.

*gilt - young female pigs.