Spring Chicks and Chicken Math

Lucy and her three littles peeking through her wing.

     Spring time is my absolute favorite time of the year. The grass is green, the sun is warm and inviting and bluebonnets and other wildflowers line the roads and fill the pastures around us. Plus, not many can think of Spring without thinking of baby animals coming into the world. Chicks, foals, calves, lambs, ducklings and so many other precious creatures. What can I say... I am a sucker for a fuzzy newborn animal of any kind!
     Around our little backyard farm, we usually know that Spring is near when the hens start going broody (getting an urge to sit on eggs). This year was no exception! In early March our Bantam Old English Game hen, Lucy went broody.  Well.... I couldn't resist setting her up with a few eggs to hatch! :) So, 21 days later... we have 3 baby chicks!

The first chick to hatch from Lucy's clutch.

     Now, before I go on, I need to explain something to you. CHICKEN MATH.... this is when a chicken keeper can't resist to add "just a couple more" to their flock. I mean, really, what can just a few more hurt....Right?! Well believe it or not chicken math is a REAL things and those who keep chickens will know exactly what I mean! If you still don't believe me... Google it! You will find several explanations on this topic.
      Back to my flock.... Before Lucy's eggs hatched our chicken count was at 27.....+3 chicks = 30 chickens for the The Bar Rafter C! Then Ethel, Lucy's sister, went broody...... and you guessed it, we gave her some eggs, two to be exact! :) Of the two eggs we gave her, only one turned out to be viable and it hatched on Good Friday, which prompted me to name it Friday! This particular chick we suspect to be from our favorite girl Maggie, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and our blue wheaten Ameraucana rooster, Chili.  Our count is now at 31! Hopefully we will have a break from the broody hens for a little while.

Friday and Ethel

       Now that Spring is here it's so very hard for me to go to the feed stores! They are filled with the little peeps of chicks saying, "Take me home, take me home!" It's so hard to resist temptation and I usually have to pick one up to cuddle a little. Hmmmm.... Maybe that's why my husband hasn't let me go unaccompanied to the feed store recently!
      Well my itch to have my own chicks to cuddle will soon be scratched! April 20th we are expecting a shipment of 16 chicks to arrive from Murray McMurray Hatcheries. I know what you're thinking! But, I am to the point in my chicken raising that if I am going to get more, I want to get the breeds that I want, and McMurray has a order minimum of 15. Plus they throw in an optional Free Exotic chick! I mean, it's free! So I might as well right?! This is chicken math at it's finest! After the 20th we will have a flock of 47!! Yikes, that seems like a lot now that I type it. However, you can always expect a few chicks to not make it, a few are sure to be roosters and my older hens will slowly start dwindling away at some point as well. Plus, we have the room for them and they make us happy!

       On the 20th we will be getting some pretty neat and fancy new additions to our flock that I am pretty excited about. Our assortment will include; White Faced Black Spanish, White Jersey Giants, Golden Polish, Partridge Rocks, Blue Andalusians, Gold Laced Wyandottes, and Columbian Wyandottes. All of these are white or brown egg layers. I am most excited to have more white egg layers in my flock. As of right now my only white egg layer is my Appenzeller Spitzhauben hen, Sushi. Stayed tuned for an update and pictures after the 20th!

Here are some pictures of the breeds we are expecting!

Gold Laced Wyandotte

White Jersey Giant

Blue Andalusian 

Golden Polish

Columbian Wyandotte

White Faced Black Spanish

Partridge Rock

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Makin' Bacon

            One thing that you should know about me is that I grew up hunting with my dad and watching as my family butchered hogs, deer and even chickens. I always knew, even as a small child, where my food came from. Not from a grocery store or restaurant, but from farmers and ranchers across the world. As a teenager, I helped my best friend and her family butcher hogs, deer and cattle. All of the red meat that they consumed in their house wasn't bought at a super market, it was raised on their ranch, hunted in their fields or purchased from a friend who had done the same. I can't say that there wasn't a point in my childhood where the thought of killing and eating an animal that I watched grow up didn't make me queasy. However, deep down I always understood the necessity and I believe that it only made me appreciate "the circle of life" even more.
          A dream that I have always had, even as a little girl, was to have my own farm. I loved the thought of a barnyard full of animals and having a garden that was boiling over with fruits and vegetables. It just tickles me everyday to think that my dream is starting to come true.
         First, I married a wonderful man who not only is willing to live this way of life, but also craves it as much as I do. We started out hunting together and we always had venison and wild hog meat in our freezer. Eventually we started grinding our deer meat and using it in our meals in place of ground beef. Years later I actually prefer venison over beef 98% of the time.

         The next milestone in our lives was becoming homeowners. The only requirements that I had as we searched for our home was that I needed to be able to have chickens, a garden and a kitchen with a window over the sink so that I could look out and see our place. When we bought our house nearly 3 years ago we couldn't wait until Spring to plant our first garden. As soon as Spring did roll around, we planted as big of a garden as we could and we got our initial flock of chickens. We LOVED it! Fast forward to now we are leaps and bounds beyond the smallish garden and 8 chickens we started with. We currently have 2 horses, 2 butcher pigs, 28 chickens and plant a large garden every year. I don't think you could say that we are too farm from my dream!

Orville and Wilbur

          The past couple of years we have purchased pigs to butcher. Many people ask us how we can handle naming them, raising them and caring for them only to have them killed and then to eat them. I have to say that I appreciate knowing where our meat comes from and also knowing that it was cared for and treated fairly and humanely. I shudder to think about the poor lives of the animals whose meat is available to be purchased at grocery stores. I know that they are not always mistreated, but one thing I know for a fact is that our butcher pigs will  have and live the happiest lives that we can give them until their kill date.
         Last year and this year we have gotten our pigs from the county shows. After the fairs and shows are over there are always families left with projects that weren't sold. Usually these left overs just go to a commercial kill buyer. Since selling their projects to a commercial buyer isn't a requirement, we will go in and purchase one to feed out and butcher ourselves. This year we bought two pigs with the intentions of splitting the meat with my sister-in-law and her family.
     These two have been T-R-O-U-B-L-E!! They root up everything in their path! This was clearly obvious when they escaped their pen this past weekend. Since they seemed to be skilled at tilling up the land, we turned them into the area we plan to put our garden and are letting them do all the hard work. Best idea ever! Unfortunately, they are off to the butcher next Wednesday and I have to say that we will miss their presence on our farm, but I am so excited for that farm fresh bacon! You truly can't buy anything like it in the store.

Damage from their great escape

Grandma's Chicken Coop Build

     My Grandma has always been someone that I greatly admire and cherish. I grew up spending my summers on her's and my Paw-paw's farm and helping them with every aspect of it that I was allowed to. I loved to go feed cows, pick the garden and mostly help my Grandma pick up eggs and feed the chickens scraps. Admittedly though, I was terrified of chickens as a child! Ha! Despite being afraid of the birds, I grew to love the evenings that my Mom would pick me up late (after all the other kids that she baby sat had gone home) because I got to go out to help Grandma in the chicken house. As an adult, I know without a doubt where I got my love and passion for chickens from...my Grandma!
     As many of you know my Grandma has had chickens for the large majority of her life. Even now, her chickens are something that she takes great pleasure in. I feel honored to have been able to aid her in improving her ability to keep chickens.
    One of the coops she was keeping her chickens in, she admitted to me, was brought to Snook from Houston back in the day (around the 50's or 60's). Her present coops were in a dilapidated state and even worse she was having to duck down and walk into the back of one to get eggs everyday. The other coop was newer and still in great condition but on the small side and lacked a run. Within these two coops she kept 9 hens, 4 Production Reds and 5 White Leghorns.

This was her previous set up

     Building her new coop involved converting an old pole barn that used to house a tractor. My husband, Clayton, decided that pre-making panels to place on the barn was the best plan of action and I added a little touch of paint to spruce it up. First, we put down some play sand to keep the ground from getting muddy. Then, we put wire and tin on the panels and in places we deemed necessary and it all came together quite nicely. This part was to make the run part of the set up.

    After getting all the panels and wire put up we attached the newest of her old coops to act as the coop part of the set-up. This part houses the roosting bars and nesting boxes (these could be accessed from the outside of the coop).

     And viola! The chickens were added and the coop was done! We hung some feeders and then set up the waterers and made sure all the final touches had been completed. Now it was time to clean up.....Well anyone who knows my Grandma, knows that she will help whenever and wherever she can. We all look away for 5 seconds and she had managed to get in the back of our truck to sweep out sand!!!

    My final task was to pick up her new rooster that a friend of mine needed to get rid of. Grandma had been saying that she wanted another rooster for her hens and was elated to get him. Her comment was that, "Keeping chickens just isn't the same without a rooster!" and I'd have to say that I agree!

Grandma's new rooster 

The girls checking out their new crib!

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Introduction

     Welcome to my blog called Countin' Chickens: The Life of a Backyard Farmer. My husband Clayton and I live in a small town called Hallsburg just outside of Waco, TX, on 1.25 acres. We call our farm the Bar Rafter C, which when drawn out looks like a lazy K over a C (our initials). We only have a few neighbors and the rest of the land around us is cattle pasture (unfortunately that part isn't ours). I have to say that we are truly making the most of our little plot of land. We keep 28 chickens, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 3 barn cats, 2 inside cats and the occasional butcher pig or two. And if we're up to only me would probably have a couple goats as well! Every single one of our animals is spoiled rotten, but then, why shouldn't they be?! 

    Along with our many animals, we also love to grow a vegetable garden. We almost always plant so much more than we can eat and enjoy sharing the wealth with our friends, family and neighbors.  With the surplus, we can it and/or freeze it to enjoy throughout the year. Cooking is something that I am passionate about and gardening definitely feeds that passion.

     Many of you know that I put out a status on Facebook requesting help naming my blog. Now that I'm started, I thought I would explain why I chose the name I did. I had many great and creative suggestions to consider and in the end, I decided on Countin' Chickens... So much of what we do here on our backyard farm revolves around counting our chickens in one way or another, and when we end our days we do it by counting all of our chickens to make sure everyone is safe and sound. But, I also wanted the name to reflect that we don't just raise chickens and chickens won't be all that I blog about. So, the name Countin' Chickens: The Life of a Backyard Farmer was born.

    I will be posting weekly, chronicaling my life on our backyard farm. Things I've learned in the process of raising our many animals, recipes, how-to's, product reviews and stories of our animals and other goings-on on the Bar Rafter C will be what you find here. Please follow my blog and share it with your friends and family who you think might enjoy it as well.

I hope that y'all enjoy!! ❤️🐓