To Crow or Not to Crow, That is the Question...

Mama Hazel's babies are getting all grown up.  She let them know after about 6 weeks that her first stint with motherhood had come to a close with some pecks to the hiney when they got too close to her scratch.   I know it's been a while since you've had an update about our little balls of fuzz, but it truly has been a busy summer.  Against my better judgement, since I know we will eventually have to get rid of some, if not all of them, we have given them all names (and those of you in the know have already figured out what happens to an animal at the Homestead once it gets named).  So, without further ado, I graciously announce the debuts of this seasons debutantes into Society...

Duke - The Golden Beauty

Countess Cora - Our Snow White

Persephone - A Ball of Energy

GiGi's Bubby - Clean Shaven

Uncle Poodle - Sportin' the Beard

They are about 14 weeks old now, and the burning question is how many are young ladies and how many are cockerels?  Duke is the gentlest.  "He" is a Buff Orpington, and the hands-down favorite.  A beautiful golden orange color and a very docile personality, he allows himself to be picked up and handled with only the minimum of feigned protests.  The Countess is second runner up.  We're not exactly sure what kind of chicken she is, but we think it is some kind of Brahma or Faverolle.  A lovely alabaster white with snowy feathered stockings, she will eat out of our hands and doesn't run when we reach for her.  Next comes Persephone, who we believe to be a Silver Laced Wyandotte.  Persephone is not only camera shy, she is also a firm believer of the benefits of avoiding "stranger danger."  However, the problem is that she considers EVERYTHING and EVERYONE that isn't covered in feathers a strangers, be it rabbit, dog, or person, including yours truly.  She is a terror to try and catch for any reason, and should one be so "lucky" enough to succeed in cornering her, she raises heck screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs, even if your are just trying to put her in the coop for the night.  The twins (Uncle Poodle and GiGi's Bubby) are small, but what they lack in size, they make up for in fluff and attitude.  The only way to tell these five-toed fireballs apart is that Uncle Poodle sports a voluminous beard while GG prefers to keep it clean (shaven).  We think (with a fair degree of certainty) that these two are some variety of Silkie.  Though they are the smallest chickens in the coop, they will fight with the big girls for any bit of scratch or food they set their beady black eyes on, much to the dismay of Ramona and Ursula who are used to going unopposed when if comes to the tastiest and juiciest bugs.

The only question that remains before we have to go about the business of "down-sizing" is how many of these darlings will be hens, and how many will have to crow... I mean go. How many will have to go?

I have my suspicions that one, if not both of the Silkies, may be boys because they are always challenging not only each other, but anything else that moves (including sparrows and their own shadows).  Just the other day I walked out to find poor Countess Cora stuck in a Silkie tug-o-war, with her leg in Uncle Poodle's beak and her opposite wing in the clutches of GG.  I know, I know.  A picture was very tempting, but I was afraid they would pull the poor thing apart so I came to her rescue before running for the camera.  Here is a video of the twins' sibling rivalry in the form of a jousting match.  Did I not mention that they were both avid fencers???

So, the game is now afoot.  How many of Hazel's babies will stick around and join the ranks of the laying and how many will have to go is the question on everyone's mind here at the Hartford Homestead.  

(PS-If you are interested in buying one of these dears, feel free to let Don or myself know through the usual channels!) 

Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose

So having recently re-built our deck, we found ourselves in possession of a lot (LOT) of old boards.  We carried them 2 at a time (20+ trips) out back by the dumpster to be claimed by the neighborhood pickers or to await their fate on large item pick-up day, along with a rogue TV and a neighbor's chest of drawers sans drawers.  The next morning, however, when I went out to feed the chickens, I noticed that our "work table" in the garage (an amalgamation of two plastic sawhorses and a sheet of plywood) was beginning to sway and buckle under the weight of a few bales of hay, a 50 lb. bag of chicken feed, a random assortment of tools, stacks of newspapers (for rabbit litter boxes), and loads of other miscellany (picture the show "Hoarders," but confined to 3 feet by 6 feet of table space).  I got to wondering what it would take to buy a new table that would be able to bear the brunt of the weight of our little homestead on its shoulders.  The answer... more than we were willing to spend.  Then I remembered all of the wood that we had at our disposal.  Sure, it was old, weather-beaten, stained by years of walnuts hurled by guerrilla squirrels, moss growth, and foot traffic; but to build a table that would inevitably get beaten up in the garage, did we really need shiny new lumber???  You guessed it.  Time to put our "less waste" talk into practice.  Enter the old deck lumber.

We hauled some of the old 8 foot 2x6's BACK into the backyard and laid them out in the grass.  We cut them to sizes that we needed for the table we had in mind and with a little Palmolive and elbow grease, washed away years of abuse.  Although they weren't what I would call "good-as-new," they definitely got a little bit of a face lift.  Then, using some of the leftover screws we had from our deck project, we began assembly.  For good measure, we also re-purposed an old pallet we had leftover from a different project, and VOILA!!!

Not too shabby {chic} for a couple of weekend carpenters looking to save a few bucks here at the Hartford Homestead.