The Ugly Duckling & Other Things

Junior, our younger Rhode Island Red rooster, was hatched out early last summer by one of our Muscovy ducks, the chicken egg being laid in one of our duck nests.  The duck mother raised him like one of her own.  We thought that was cute.  When he grew up we would often see him hanging around with the other ducks, but at night he always goes into the chicken coop to roost.  Now that he is sexually mature he seems to only be attracted to the ducks!  If we end up with some strange looking ducklings this summer we'll know why.

Junior, the Ugly Duckling all grown up

Last year was a wet one for us.  Our usual rainfall for the year is around 18 inches.  2010 brought a total of 25 inches at our farm.  Seattle, about 50 miles to the south, usually has about 36 inches, 2010 was 47.  January of this year is a little more than half gone but we are almost to the level of 2010, our wettest month last year with more rain in the forecast.  It has also been colder than normal, with snow several times this winter.  The cold mornings are hard on me as I have to break up the ice in the water troughs for the animals - but it is nice walking on frozen mud rather than sinking in it.

Winter is our garden seed ordering time.  We spent an afternoon going through our leftover seeds, discarding all of the seeds over two years old, and made an inventory of what we had.  We get several seed catalogs in the mail each year but made the decision to go totally organic again this year.  Most of the seed companies have a few varieties that are certified organically grown, but High Mowing Organic Seeds are 100% certified organic.  We have used them for the past two years and have been happy with our results.  If you pay before January 1st, you receive a 10% discount.  So we figure out what we need, make a payment, and then order later.  We received our seeds a couple of days ago.  Order early so we get everything we want before they sell out.  We save our runner bean seeds from the year before (I have been doing that for 12 years), same with our garlic and potatoes.  I'm sure there are other seeds I could collect but time is limited.   www.highmowingseeds.com if you are interested.  I'm told that there is little difference (if any) between organically grown seed and non-organic, but I'm not interested in supporting the non-substantial growing methods used by many of the large seed companies.  With certified organic seeds I know the farmer is working the soil correctly.  I also know I'm not getting GMO seeds.

Today I will order our chickens for the year.  For meat birds we will go once again with the Red Cornish Cross.  We like this bird as a broiler as they have high livability, strong legs and take only three months to grow to maturity.  The White Cornish Cross grows so much faster (seven weeks to maturity) but are very dumb.  They have leg problems and won't eat bugs or grass and have been know to die rather than walk three feet to the water.  They are best grown in a cage with their water and food in front of them.  We want our chickens to have the freedom to range.  I have also read that pasture raised meat is so much better for you than just grain fed.  They say even pork is healthy if they have open range.  Being we only raise one crop per year the extra time growing is not an issue - and I'm told that from birth to the freezer both varieties consume about the same amount of grain.  I can't get the Red Cornish chicks locally so will order them from Dunlap Hatchery and will pick them up from the post office in mid-April.

We also need to replace our laying chickens this year.  I ordered the materials to build a larger chicken coop for the layers and need to get it built by mid-April.  Egg production has fallen from 14 eggs per day to about 5, yet they consume the same amount of feed.  We will butcher all of the hens this fall when our new girls start laying.  This year we going to buy the Black Sex Link, also known as the Bovan Nera.  They are very good layers of brown eggs.  The hens are mostly black with a red coloring primarily around the neck.  The males are black and white barred.  They are a cross between the Barred Rock and the Rhode Island Red.  With the new coop I'll have room to add new chickens each year.  By changing varieties each year we'll know who is ready to become stewing hens, keeping the hens for only three years.