How does a lost baby turkey sound?

How does a lost baby turkey sound?  

A baby turkey (called a poult) makes a very loud sound when lost and calling for it's mom. 

 Just like this:

Of course, I returned the lost baby to it's family.

How can you tell what color egg a chicken will lay?

Recently someone asked me how I can tell what color egg a chicken will lay.  Did you know chickens lay many different colors of eggs?  We are used to the brown and white eggs we can buy at the grocery store, but eggs come in the colors of very dark brown, blue, and olive green.  Sorry, but I only have hens that lay white and brown eggs and you can see a sample of each days collection below:

So how can you tell what color egg a chicken will lay?  I wanted to introduce you to two of my hens to explain.  But first, did you know chickens have ears?  Yes, they have ears.  Their ears are covered with little, tiny feathers.  Below the ear is an ear lobe.  You can see both in this picture. Do you see the ear and the ear lobe?

A chicken with a white ear lobe will only lay white eggs.  Here is my little hen whose name is Fluffy. I named her Fluffy not only because she is cute and fluffy but also because she likes to eat dog food.  She's one of my favorite hens because each time I come out to the chicken field she comes running.  I think she wants to check if I have any dog food with me.

Can you see her ear?  Can you guess what color eggs she might lay?

If you guessed white, you are correct!  Here is one of Fluffy's eggs. She lays a very large, white egg almost everyday.

How about this hen?  Do you see her ear area?  What color eggs do you think she might lay?

A chicken with a red ear lobe will often lay a brown egg.


How about this one?

If you guessed brown or white, you are incorrect.  Because this is a rooster!  A male chicken.  He doesn't lay eggs.  Only hens lay eggs.  We'll talk about the difference between roosters and hens at another time.

The only certain way to tell what color eggs a chicken may lay is to know what breed of chicken you have.  Fluffy is a Leghorn.  Leghorns lay white eggs.  The black and white hen is a Barred Rock.  Barred Rocks lay a light brown egg.  Easter Eggers, Araucanas and Americaunas are the chickens that lay the blue, pink tinted or green eggs.

Want to know a secret?  We're getting some of these in the Spring.  Yay!

Thanks for visiting and we'll see you soon!  Next up:  How can you tell the difference between a hen and a rooster?

Have you ever seen a turkey strut?

Cherokee aka Pop Tart is such a strutter! Ask me sometime where these names came from!

A snowy, snowy day on the farm!

It is a snowy day here in Northern Virginia.  We don't get much snow so people get excited when we get an inch.  Everything shuts down.  Today, we have about three inches on the farm and it seems only the new batch of ducks is noticing.  They hatched this summer and this is their first snow experience.  They weren't real excited to step outside!

*** I know you'll ask about Gandolf, the Great Pyrenees.  We love this guy and he isn't always locked up.  However, he is an escape artist and a wandering Nelly so until we have fencing that he can't breech, he is locked up unless supervised.  Even then we have to be inside a fenced area of the farm- which is most anywhere- because he doesn't listen to commands.  In addition, he still thinks the chickens are play things.  Not a mean bone in his body but I don't think the birds like being tossed in the air like balls.  Love the guy, but he's an independent spirit.  Sometimes I feel bad for him but I would feel worse if we lost him or if he were run over by a car.  So know he is loved and that he has plenty of freedom.

A week in farm pictures!

We had an icy start to the week but overall a great week with beautiful sunsets!!

The Farm in pictures!

We had so much rain this week!  We're actually looking forward to some cold weather to freeze the ground.  Love all these animals!  Cherokee, our Naragansett Tom turkey found himself in a fight with his father.  They live separately and were separated before this fight could conclude.

Two of our Naragansett hen turkeys flew out of the coop and while exploring came across a ground hog who quickly disappeared.

The mulefoot piglets were moved from their enclosure where I have been fortunate to raise them from three week old piglets to 14 weeks and they met their family for the first time.  They are loving it- running, playing and exploring.  They love to sniff the other hogs through the fence.

And lastly, we took Traveler and Sassy, our Quarter Horses, riding in Blandy State Arboretum.

Duke and Daisy, our draft horses

Have I introduced you to Duke and Daisy, our Haflingers that we use as draft horses?

Duke and Daisy are a team and they are trained to pull a wagon or things like plows to help us do farm work.  Here is Duke pulling Frank in a cart.

Daisy is the mother of baby Buttercup.  We didn't know Daisy was pregnant when we bought her and brought her home about seven months before Buttercup gave a surprise appearance.  This is a picture of Buttercup on her birthday, May 5th, 2013.  Could she be any cuter?  What a wonderful surprise!

Just a week later, Buttercup finally got her name.  As we weren't expecting her, we didn't have any names picked out for our new little lady.  On May 10th, I walked out into the field to see how she was doing and there she was with her mom in a field filled with Buttercups.  Our little Buttercup!  What a nice addition she's been to our world!  (I had to give momma Daisy a dish of grain to get her to stand still.)

Sundays are for Gratitude: What do you love love love about Autumn?

Good Morning! It is brisk out there this morning...had to find my hat! Continuing the Sundays are for gratitude trend, what do you love love love about this time of year?

What do you love about Autumn?

I love this time of year when the days are still a bit on the warm side but the nights are cool and crisp.  I love to see the dark sky filled with stars at night.
Welcome Autumn.  Some reasons why I love you:

Warm sweaters
Warm comforters
Fall colors
Falling leaves
Cool days
Cold nights
Squash
Apples
Pumpkin Pie
Winter coats on the horses, and on Gandolf (our Great Pyrenees)
Apple spice scent
Hot drinks
Mittens
Football
The World Series (Go Kansas City Royals!)
Fires in the fireplace
Crockpots
The Sunday smell of a roast throughout the house
The Roosters crowing later in the morning!

What do you love about Autumn?
Have a Happy Sunday everyone!  Enjoy this beautiful day!

Is this bird sick?

This poor turkey hen looks so uncomfortable to me.   She is avoiding her bird family, looking a bit lethargic and her feathers are all falling out.  Is she sick?

No, this little lady is molting.  Molting means that she is losing her old feathers to replace them with new, healthy feathers to keep her warm and dry over the winter.  Male and female birds molt.  Sometimes they only lose a couple feathers and sometimes it can be so many the poor bird looks almost naked. When you look at the picture above, you can see the new quills growing that will be part of her feathers.  Right now they look like white points.

I don't know for certain if birds feel bad while molting but I notice many of the birds hide and keep to themselves.  Maybe they know they look silly.  

Many things related to birds are influenced by the seasons and the amount of light.  Birds usually molt when the days begin to shorten and there is less daylight.  Nature is planning for winter!

Sundays are for Gratitude

What a lovely Sunday morning and how lucky we are to be alive.

Go make today what you want it to be. 

Love your family, yourself, your dog, cat, horses, chickens, turkeys, woodchucks,  and your god.  

Appreciate this big beautiful world and all the creatures that wander through it. 

Sundays are for Gratitude.

One of the many inhabitants of our farm- Ground Hog!

We have many nut trees on our farm including Chinese Chestnuts, Oaks and Walnuts.  Just outside of our house, the Chinese Chestnut is dropping it's nuts right now.  They have spiny shells and hurt the dogs feet if they step on them.  But this little guy loves them!  Every day I see him out there chomping away enjoying himself.

Love Is...

A momma hen with her chick,

New friends,

Sisters,

A Momma and her baby,

Families!

Sing a song while you lay an Egg!

I don't think it looks very comfortable to lay an egg.  What do you think?  This lady looks like she is in a miserable position.  Hens often sing a little hen clucking song while the lay.  Maybe the tune takes their mind off of the task at hand.

Peek a boo!

Peek a boo!  We see you!

Momma hen doesn't like me to look in on her.

I LOVE AUTUMN!!

37 degrees this morning. I love autumn! Cold nights, starry skies, quiet cold mornings and perfect sunny weather with trees changing colors during the day. Hot Tubs! Warm comforters! Hot drinks! Fires! Pumpkins! Turkeys! Football! Sloppy Joes!  Roasted beets!  Hats and mittens! Hikes, horseback rides! Have a happy, cool sunny Sunday!

PS:  It took a long time and many shots to get this guy (Narragansett Tom Turkey named Cherokee) to pose next to the pumpkins!

It's someone's Birthday!

Welcome to the world little chick!

Thursday morning on the farm...resting Gandolf, fighting turkeys, nosy geese

I love mornings on the farm.  It's usually quiet with just the birds chirping- nature and farm animals just waking up.

It's hard to sneak up on Gandolf, but he was enjoying a relaxing morning in his house after protecting everyone last night.  This guy is so handsome- I just love him.  Wish you could see the size of his paws in this picture!

First thing in the morning, I open the chicken houses and the goose house.  They geese come charging out, turn the corner, flap their wings while the run for about twenty yards.  Toulouse geese are really too heavy to fly although they sometimes make it off the ground about four feet in the air before they come down.  I'll try to get a video of this sometime for you!  In the meantime, here are a couple of my geese checking me out.

This morning there was a turkey fight!  No idea why but in the end, nobody was hurt.
You can see this on YouTube at Turkey Fight!  I love how Cherokee, my Narragansett Tom (that's what you call a male turkey) watches over the fight like a referee!

And lastly, we have a little groundhog living near our house.  He's a happy guy these days because the Chinese Chestnut Tree has dropped it's chestnuts and he's always standing up in this area munching away.  I'll try and get a better picture but it's difficult to sneak up on him and get close enough.

Happy Thursday everyone!