New Additions....

My brother brought us four Buff Orpington pullets this morning. We are currently down to five layers and plan to add more ladies to our flock this spring. We will also be adding six more Silver Laced Wyandottes and four more Ameracaunas in a couple weeks.  The Wyandottes that we have raise so far are such sweet, calm hens. The Ameracaunas are a little mischevious, but I love the blue eggs. The one Buff we have is much like the Wyandottes. She tends to stay close by the rooster most of the time.

 

Future chicken whisperer....she is letting us know that she is holding four chicks up.

 

 PEACE

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 4:7

 

Life is simply crazy around the Henson place lately. We are always on the go. We had two trips to Houston this week (2 hour drive) for Dr. visits for my hubby. Today, the girls had check-ups, so that took up several hours. Busy, busy, busy. That is why I am so thankful for my outside time. I went out this evening as the sun was going down and watered the garden, fruit trees, and berry vines. I love this time to myself. I get to focus on the beauty of nature and how God has blessed me. I am in my own little world....well, me and the chickens...lol. They tend to follow me around when I am out working. I feel so at peace and close to God when I am outside doing the things I love.

 

This is a small fig tree that the girls and I planted a couple

months ago. It is growing well. It has a couple figs on it already.

 

This is a honeybee on one of our onion blooms.

 

One of our ladies taking a dust bath. She was truly enjoying herself.

 

Thank you, God, for the moments of peace. You know just what I need when I need it.

"Don't count your chicks before they hatch."

 

How many times have we heard this and not really thought about the meaning? LOL I think we recently learned the real meaning. Easter Sunday, we put the ten eggs that we gathered that day under a broody hen in hopes of hatching some baby chicks (hopefully hens) to add to our layers as some of our ladies are getting a little older. Things went well for the first few days, with the exception of the hens who would get on top of the broody hen and run her out of her nest. They would lay their eggs in her nest, sit for a while, and then move on. We would have to pick the new eggs out of the nest. We didn't have a problem at first since we marked the eggs we originally put under the hen. With the continuous on and off the nest by several hens, three eggs ended up broken over a period of a week or so. A couple of times we had a hard time figuring out which eggs should be in the nest and which should not. A day or two before the eggs should hatch, the girls went out to check for eggs or baby chicks and found four eggs missing. Two days later, I found two more eggs missing. So, that leaves us with one egg (which hasn't hatched, by the way). I guess we have a hungry snake eating our eggs. Also, I think that it has been eating eggs for a while and we just left extra eggs in the nest that we thought should be there....lol.  So, who knows when the eggs was layed that she is STILL sitting on??? We have no clue. We are just leaving it under her for now with an egg with a fishing hook in it in hopes of hooking the snake so I can kill it. Makes me sad for the poor hen that is just patiently waiting on her babies.  Maybe the one will hatch. Just hoping, we get the snake. Ahhhhhh........gotta love this crazy life.

Meat Chickens

My brother helped me butcher our Freedom Rangers Sunday.....24 to be exact. Lots of hard work,  but it was worth every minute of it. Thankful to put healthy meat in the freezer for my family.