Tuesday, August 28, 2012

A sure sign

 Its a sure sign that spring is just around the corner when the young pullets begin to lay their first eggs.  This tinsy-winsey egg could be from a starling sized bird but NO its from one of our chooks. We try to time our laying seasons so that we can keep up our supply for our "farm gate" customers and this time we seem to have got it right. No shortage of eggs this summer.
Just for comparison I took a shot of the small egg along side of a small to medium sized egg, one that has been sorted out for our personal use, we keep all of the large eggs for our regular buyers (they love the huge eggs) The small one weighs 6 grams and the larger one 42 grams'

Friday, August 10, 2012

Besties

Best friends forever......so cute when they are young.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Spring is just around the corner

 Say hello to this little cutie, one of the three calves born here this last week. It is a cross breed, mother is a Hereford type (?) Father is a Murray grey crossed with a Simmental. Strange to see that the Murray grey is always the strongest, it doesn't matter where the MG comes into the breeding, it is always the most dominant.
Its lovely to see these three playing catch me if you can, running around in the paddocks berfore they settle down for their night time sleep.
Its been so cold at night, I feel rather sorry that they are outside in the  freezing weather.





These little fluffy little bundles are some of our new Marans chicks. The first time we have incubated any of these, they are quieter than any of the other chicks we have bred, content to eat and sleep, hardly hear a peep out of them. They will stay in their warm enclosure for about 6 weeks then we will transfer them to a shed with  a heating pad where they will have more room to move around in until they are fully feathered. They will then be allowed to wander outside. The only draw back to these chooks is.....they fly!!

We will probably have to net in the yard or cut one of their wings feathers to over come this problem, the first option is the most favoured (by me)  I love little chicks, they are so pretty at this age with their feathery legs. Its the 3rd. to 4th. week that they begin to look ugly as they develop the fully feathered stage.