New Life...

New life is always refreshing.  Our little farm is booming with new life, and for me, it's so refreshing for August!  This Spring and Summer, Casey and I have experimented with letting our hens hatch their own eggs.  It's not as easy as you might think... Broody is a term used to describe a chicken that wants to sit on her nest all of the time and almost appear to be staring off into space.  Nothing can be done to influence or encourage it as it is strictly a hormonal thing.  There are a variety of chicken breeds that have been bred as a sole purpose for egg laying so the broodiness has been bred out of them.  We have a couple of hens that have wanted to sit on eggs, so we decided to experiment and put a couple of eggs under each of them.  In order for them to stay relaxed we moved them to the tack room and kept them in a small dog crate.  It was easy to leave the door to the crate open so they could go get a drink and eat whenever they wanted, and then they could go back into their nest without being disturbed by the other chickens.  Approximately three weeks later, we had a baby chick!

Sofie has acclimated well to her new surroundings.  Her personality continues to come out more and more each day.  This morning she managed to get my makeup brush and run off with it with the same enthusiasm as if she had caught a mouse.  I ran from our living room through our kitchen and met her at the mudroom door.  She didn't give it up easily, either.  

We also bought some baby Barred Rock chicks who are growing quickly.  Then Ethyl, one of our other chickens, became broody again so we decided to stick a few eggs under her.  She hatched one baby chick.  It will be interesting to see what it ends up looking like! 

Sam is busy helping us look after Sofie, the chickens, and all of the baby chicks, but he is still managing to have a little free time and go for a ride in the truck...

Guinness is acclimating to being a big brother to Sofie, showing her all of the ins and outs of the house and the way to manage the people who live in his home...