Recent chicken photos

Took some chicken glamour shots recently.

Ancona

Black Australorp

Black Australorp

Blue Wyandotte

Buff Orpington

Gold Spangled Hamburg

Light Brahma

Plymouth Rock

Rhode Island Red

Silver Spangled Hamburg

Silver Spangled Hamburg

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Property purchase, rabbit update

Big news! Near the end of 2019, my dream of being a property owner finally came true! I purchased a 2.2 acre property in Vacaville. It is currently raw land, and we're in the early stages of permits, plan approvals, etc. I'll have a manufactured house put on the property, and the tentative completion date is next fall. I have big plans but right now it's all tentative. Once we're further along the process, I plan to look for a permaculture-minded consultant to help me plan everything out. I will definitely have a nice ultra-secure area for the chickens, lots of space for the dogs to run around, a small orchard and produce garden, and lots of decorative plantings.

I dispatched all my rabbits a few months back. In the end, the pros (healthy meat, good compost, fairly easy dispatch and very easy butchering) did not outweight the cons (not particularly tasty meat, pain to clean up after, not enjoyable to watch/hang out with like the chickens). I have a lot of intact rabbits in the freezer right now, so when the weather is nicer, I'll have to defrost them and do a butchering party.

One last adorable baby bunny photo.

New chicks

My flock is down to eight adult hens, and some of them are a few years old, so it was time to get new chicks. The Buff Orpington had already been broody for a while when some fun breeds arrived at the local feed store, so it was perfect timing. It was my first time having a broody hen raise chicks instead of doing it with a heat lamp. Definitely way easier, though the downside is that they are less comfortable with me. I got a Rhode Island Red, Ancona, Gold Speckled Hamburg, Silver Speckled Hamburg, and Blue Hamburg. They're four months old now, so they should start laying in another month or two.

Ancona, less than 1 week old

Blue Hamburg, less than 1 week old

Gold Speckled Hamburg, less than 1 week old

Silver Speckled Hamburg, less than 1 week old

Rhode Island Red, less than 1 week old

Less than 1 week old

Less than 1 week old

About 1 week old

2 weeks old

5 weeks old

6 weeks old

6 weeks old

Blue Hamburg, 4 months old

4 months old

Ancona, 4 months old

Fruit jams

A few months back I stopped by Berkeley Bowl West while I was in the area, and bought a ton of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries in their discount produce section. Time for my first attempts at water bath canning! I used recipes from the book Naturally Sweet Food in Jars and they all came out delicious.

Washed blueberries

Blueberries in syrup

Smushed up raspberries

Raspberry jam

Strawberry jam

Raspberry jam and homemade yogurt

I plan to use some of the jams in baking, but so far I've been eating them with yogurt. It makes a great sweet treat when it's hot out, filling the same niche as ice cream.

Crafting updates

I made the Radiata shawl as a surprise gift for my grandmother, who used to constantly knit sweaters and scarves for the family. She had to stop due to arthritis.

As a silly project for myself, I made an amigurumi globe:

I finished spinning up and chain plying a merino/silk braid from Greenwood Fiberworks. This was my first chain plying project. It's not totally even but it's worth it to preserve the color changes of the original braid. The yarn came out about fingering weight and 290 yards.

I have a couple of big projects on the needles that will take a long time to finish (a fingering weight sweater and a double knit scarf). So I haven't done nearly as much crafting so far in 2019 as usual. (I've also been spending more of my free time reading.)

Chicken adventures

The girls took about six weeks off from laying eggs, but are quickly ramping up production now.

I let them out of their pen to forage in the yard recently. Maybe they'll help with the weeds if I do it more often.

A hawk managed to kill two of them (one of the Black Japanese and the Speckled Sussex) while inside their pen. Fortunately the chickens then learned to take cover when they saw/heard birds overhead. One time I heard a flock of crows making a ruckus nearby and looked over to see the chickens had run against the fence line to take cover.

I bought two Hen Saver aprons to protect the Black Sex Link and the Easter Egger, whose backs and wings had gotten shredded from the roosters. They look great for the first few minutes, but they don't actually stay in place very well.

The old rooster got sick enough that I was finally given permission from the landlord to put him out of his misery. The Black Australorp rooster has taken his place, and is keeping the Blue Cochin from mating with the girls whenever he sees him starting up. However from what I've seen, the Australorp is pretty hard on them all on his own. The girls used to sometimes crouch for the old man. This guy does a sneak attack, grabbing the feathers on their necks/heads and crushing them down to the ground. He's twice as large as the hens, even the female Australorp.

So far it seems okay - between having one less rooster, the sort of helpful aprons, and now molting season, the girls are looking much better. We'll see if they continue to look okay later in spring. If needed I'll dispatch one of the two remaining roosters, too.

New red rex buck

Last week I dispatched my first buck and brought home a new one, since I needed new genetics for the next generation of does. I found a local breeder selling rex kits of all different colors. It was so difficult to choose one! I had planned on bringing home a red one, as I have been exceptionally fond of the red kit in the current litter. I had also considered a lilac, to bring brown and dilute color genes into my rabbitry. The breeder also had a few torts and an opal (dilute). In the end I went with a red after all, choosing the larger and darker one of the two reds.

Picture from Craig's List ad

Meeting him in person

Getting used to his new home

The buck was calm the entire time we hung out together, even when I held him. He was curious of his new surroundings when I put him in his pen, but scared of me the next time I came by. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before he's mellow again.

I told the breeder that I would likely be back for some more rex rabbits in the future. For now I plan to breed him to my keeper female kits from the current litter, and their babies will all have one rex gene.