Chickens and Sea glass

Here is useless rooster #3. He is a wuss and runs all over the yard screaming. He is chased by the other two roosters. But he is pretty and easy to find in the pasture. And he is a good back up if anything gets the other two.

Here is the game rooster of our flock. He is sweet, just looks fierce. He has his own flock and he follows the big boy around.

So talking to my husband we decided to increase hatching eggs this year because of possible meat and egg shortages. All the places to buy chicks and hens are closed or not shipping. Hatching eggs via broody hen and maybe the incubator is our next option. I have used the incubator in the past years but it has problems. Electricity, humidity and constant temperature regulating. All that is solved by a feisty broody hen. A broody hens do not lay, she sits on any pile of eggs she can find for 21 days. This means keeping egg count and locations log. And after a hatch I need to put mom and chicks in a cage for a week so the chicks learn the coop is home. Not too soon or she will not hatch out all the eggs. But again a broody hen wins. She raises and feeds the tribe of mini dinosaurs so I do not have to - in my house.

Here is the great grandson rooster who is the boss of my herd. He is a Leghorn, Buttercup with a bit of Seabright in him. He is a very large roo with a sweet disposition. His father was killed by coyotes last fall. His brood mother is the hen below.

This is a game hen I sold six months ago at auction. She flew back to our farm and brought some friends. So we kept her and her buds and added them into our small flock. She has only one good eye as she lost the other to a fight with another hen. Faverolle hens are meaner than game hens. This pirate game hen is now one of the best broody hens.They will fight anything that endangers their chicks. I put 10 eggs under her and she hatched 8. The other 2 eggs I set under a Banty hen to raise. We do not name our birds as we do not want to get too attached. But sometimes they do have a personally that separates them from the rest. If you have time to deal with hen drama Game hens are great. But there will be blood as it is their nature to fight and the hens have spurs.

And when I need to relax from farm life, I watch the Northern Mudlarks on YouTube. They have such fun talking about sea finds. I love the beauty of the sea sounds and the glass they find. Just fun to listen to them chatter away as they hunt down a treasure. I miss the sea and the shore. But am very happy to be here on the farm.