Green Grables Farm

25/02/2024

Brought in the big gun for ditch help today. Thank you sweetie!!!!! ❤️

24/02/2024

I've never seen a brighter rainbow

23/02/2024

Trying to take a photo with Rosie. Guess who showed up? Yep, my photo bomber himself, Flirt 😂🧡

23/02/2024

Well I still don't have eggs available, but I have a friend who does have quite a few. So if you are looking for some little bundles of fun, check out A&R homestead
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/6MvichGigHuaYA3b/?mibextid=WC7FNe

TGIF! Good morning my beautiful people! Test hatches are mostly done, projects are near hatching completion and eggs are now listed on my website! It’s a little early in the year but my girls decided that it was time for me to stop hatching for myself and share the b***y nuggets with you all! I already had some previous commitments but eggs should start shipping in a week or two. Link below for reference. Side note: Look at this adorable and incredibly small lavender Kiki chick that just hatched! 😍🥰🥚🐣🐥
Happy Friday!!!

https://www.arhomestead.com/hatchingeggs

23/02/2024

Everyone needs a little Hope in their lives. So here's Hope in the sunshine from yesterday. He's growing quickly now! Today it's rainy outside, and I'm staying horizontal.
💚🧡💚




(Exercise with long COVID can actually cause cells in your muscles to die, and can cause tiny blood clots that are actually in your muscles. I pushed it yesterday, so I'm paying for a few days now. Worth it.)

22/02/2024

Apparently the crew is ready for their treats

22/02/2024

It's hard to be cuter than Lewis ❤️

22/02/2024

Hope is still growing. His sister is the youngest in the outside brooder, so Hope keeps her close. She has three brothers, who protect the little one from the bigger chicks. She seems to have a special relationship with Hope, so I catch her peeking out from underneath him quite often.

21/02/2024

Did you know you can get puppy dog eyes from a rooster? Flirt has definitely learned how to use those eyes to get what he wants, namely a chest rub.

21/02/2024

My two lap ladies, Tw***ie and Noel. Certain chickens form up a special partnership. Tw***ie is a year older than Noel, but as soon as they met they became best pals. Ever since, I have always made sure that they are in the same pen, never separated. They never fight each other (although they don't mind pairing up to fight others, and they definitely believe that if one is attacked, both should immediately go on the offense). Babycakes and Set are another pair of hens that have become permanent companions. I don't have many girls that form this tight bond with another hen. They all have favorite buddies, of course, but only occasionally do they pair up this tightly, especially with two who were not born in the same year like Tw***ie and Noel. I also think it's interesting that both of these very tightly bonded hen pairs are also very determined lap girls 💚💚💚

20/02/2024

Got a little bit of foundation exposed today. Wow. So. Much. Wet. Clay.

19/02/2024

So. Much. Dirt. I've gotten about a foot off half of it. Need to do the top half, then down another foot the whole way..then along the left side. Then gravel, water drain, more gravel. Then the upper two sides on the inside. This is my grow out pen, built early before we realized how much water gets in. So I'm working hard because if I don't get it done, I will only have room to grow up about 15 babies total. Whew. Long COVID sucks mud. I can get two buckets and then my oxygen drops to 85. This may be a multiple year project. 💚

(* no COVID comments or vaccine comments please. I know people mean well, but so far COVID has caused two cases of POTS/associated dysautonomia, two permanent heart conditions, one deep vein thrombosis, one pulmonary embolism, an entire summer of pneumonia, one college withdrawal, and several other smaller issues, just in my family of four. We now have a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, neurologist, and rheumatologist in addition to our regular doctors. If you don't live it, it's impossible for you to really comprehend the horror of this situation, so please just let it be. COVID was also was the reason I quit selling eggs early last year -pneumonia- and why I have no wait-list this year. If I get COVID again, egg sales are over for the year unfortunately, so I cannot have an egg wait-list just in case 💚)

19/02/2024

This may look like an innocent photo of two of my favorite lap visitors. Look more closely. Before you is a rooster who truly believes he can use the Force. Look at him concentrating on my hand, willing it to lift up and rub his chest.
And yes, it worked 😂

19/02/2024

My Babycakes. I love this muddy messy girl so so much.

19/02/2024

Just a little update on hatching and eggs!

*Self blue bantam Ameraucana are definitely beginning to produce. I have a couple girls I'm still waiting on, but if all goes well, I may have self blue bantam Ameraucana eggs ready very very soon. If you are looking for straight run chicks, let me know and I can work you into the hatching schedule as time permits.

*The Belgian d'Uccles breeding pens are still just giving an egg or so a day, with just a couple girls laying. I am hatching out some d'Uccles from the pet pen. (Those are not pet quality birds, just the ones I'm not putting in breeding pens yet.) I don't offer those eggs, since some eggs aren't from d'Uccles, but I am getting d'Uccle chicks from them. The actual breeding pens will probably get going for eggs in late March/April. But if you are looking for chicks, I am getting a handful weekly now. Most are spoken for through mid March, but more will come.

*I'm not offering Watermaal eggs this year, since they are in a project year. But I will have TONS of darling babies from that project available. They come from d'Uccle and Watermaal parents that have been carefully bred for years for health and friendliness, and they are making awesome pets and come in amazing colors.

*So for local pickup of straight run chicks, you can contact me and get on the list. For eggs, expect an announcement soon for bantam Ameraucana. Belgian d'Uccle eggs...maybe late March/April for eggs.

14/02/2024

I've been contacted a lot about golden neck d'Uccle eggs. I will not have many to share this year, but Emily at Norsk Mountain Farm has my line and will be able to share those this year. So if you are looking for these sunny little d'Uccles this year, head on over to Emily's!

13/02/2024

I hatched this little one and showed the photo to one of my daughters. "It's a furry eyeful!" she exclaimed. I think she called that spot on, how about you?

(The book is Kartusch)

13/02/2024

What is this nonsense?? I have now officially seen it all. I've had feather pickers before. And this pen definitely has one (note the pullet in the back who is missing her beard). But this particular feather picker has developed a taste for spangles! I watched her walk up, grab a spangle, twist and jerk to break it off, and gulp, down the hatch! Needless to say, she is now with older girls who will teach her some manners!

12/02/2024

CHICKS THIS WEEK ARE SPOKEN FOR . I WILL HAVE MORE HATCHING EACH WEEK NOW HOPEFULLY. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE ME TO FIND OUT MORE DETAILS ABOUT HATCHES AS THEY OCCUR
I'm going to get questions since I just posted my first big chick hatch! So here are your answers.
1. Yes I will make a handful of chicks available from this hatch. Probably 2 d'Uccle and 1-3 lavender bantam Ameraucana chicks.
2. When will they be ready? I'd like 2-3 more days to watch them. When babies hatch, they have a yolk belly that nourishes them. It can be hard to see issues before then, except obvious birth defects. So I like to make sure everyone is eating well before selling them. If everyone has a full crop in a day, they will be ready tomorrow. If not, I will give them a couple days to get going.
3. Pickup only in Raleigh NC. Straight-run. NPIP. d'Uccles are mille fleur with a chance of frizzle (Atilla over Noel). Lavenders (self blues) have a chance of being lavender cuckoo. 15 each, priority to people who want everything available.
4. Next hatch? Next weekend!

12/02/2024

First biggish hatch of the season! Most of my gals aren't laying yet, but the few who are gave me a spectacular group of babies. It's hard doing projects - you never know what you might get, how the genetics will work, and how later generations will look. This is the fourth generation of my work to get a genetically distinct line of self blue bantam Ameraucana going. We don't have much variation in the self blue bantams, other than what has been added in through black backcrosses. My line has a line of self blue cuckoo d'Anvers crossed with my self blue bantam Ameraucana as the first cross. The original self blue bantam Ameraucana were developed using a line of d'Anvers. So using a breed that was used to develop a breed can be very helpful - not as many characteristics to breed out as I work back towards the standard. I was also able to use a d'Anvers who was not correct according to the d'Anvers standard of perfection. He was too long, his tail was held too low.... He immediately struck me as looking more like an Ameraucana than a d'Anvers. So he was perfect for my project.
I've had to work hard to keep the lovely personality of my Ameraucana intact - that first d'Anvers boy was MEAN. He left as soon as I used him for the first generation. I'd never use a boy like him unless I had no choice. His son was also a terrible flogger. But now I have a self blue son and a self blue cuckoo son who are lovely. And the cuckoo is not only lovely, he is actively friendly. Hurray! I'm using this project to increase the health, productivity, beard size, and egg quality also. So far it's working well. This crop of babies is super healthy and sturdy. Three look a bit icky, as they got stuck in the shell. Not their fault though. I opened the incubator after lockdown to check something, not realizing the hatch had started a day early. Completely my fault! But the rest are superb. Most have full beards and nice dark legs. Only two pink toes among the whole crew. Can't wait to see how they develop. I will continue to work towards my goals as I refine the color and work towards a clear self blue color. Self blue is challenging, but these birds are so so worth the effort.

12/02/2024

WELCOME HOME LEWIS!!!
I've waited so long to say that. Well not that long, but I found out I could have him at the beginning of December, and now, thanks to the effort of good friends and a transport service, he's actually here at Green Grables!
And what a lovely little man Lewis is! He's stout and cobby, and a sweetheart. He's already enjoyed chest rubs and a bit of grooming (he fell sound asleep while I worked on his feet 😂😴). And he's so happy with his quarantine coop that when I checked on him yesterday, he was up in the nest box, busily chuckling to himself and building a nest ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you again to the Vaughns for your amazing breeding program and your generosity, both with your birds, and with your invaluable advice. I wouldn't have my flocks without you.
It's a little too early to be sure, but Lewis felt rather special when I held him for the first time. He snuggled in and reminded me a bit of my first special man from the Vaughns, Thorin. I lost him last year, and Lewis was the first boy to give me that eyebrow raise that Thorin always gave me. A bird with a little something special, that makes you think, now this bird, this bird could do something amazing ❤️.

11/02/2024

A valuable lesson was learned today. Mess with one golden neck, and you mess with ALL the golden necks 😂🧡

11/02/2024

Don't mess with Set. She will school you big time, and Babycakes has her back.

11/02/2024

Almost forgot to mention why I was setting up a small coop - a new member of the flock is arriving tomorrow. I rarely get new birds nowadays. In fact, I only have one bird, Loch, who wasn't hatched here. But tomorrow Lewis will be here, coming from and Rod Vaughn, just like Loch. Lots and lots of thanks to Rich and Rod for my new fella, and to Susan for picking him up in OK and for taking such wonderful care of Lewis while we decided how best to get him to North Carolina. He's a travelling boy - hatched by Rod in South Dakota, then to Nebraska with Rich as a cockerel, over to Oklahoma for a quick show, down to Alabama with Susan, and now he's in a car driving through Atlanta, making his way north with Karen
Lewis will help shorten the backs on my d'Uccles, and he has some snazzy spangles too. Can't wait for him to arrive tomorrow!

10/02/2024

Pre-fab coops - yes or no?
I always say yes, but... This one is 5 or 6 years old. But they need some extra care to last this long, along with extra tweaks to make them serviceable.

1. Paint. Prefab coops are made with inexpensive lightweight wood. They need extra protection, so get some exterior paint and slap it on there.
2. Safety. Most have half inch or quarter inch hardware cloth, but not a very strong gauge. I use zip ties to attach welded wire around the outside for extra protection. I also add stronger locks to the doors.
3. Bottom rot. Either make a rectangle of treated 2x4s to put the coop on top of, or make a floor and legs.
4. Roof - Roofs that come with most prefab coops are flimsy. So I bought coops with a flat roof to make it easier to add a tin roof. You do need to put spacing in between the tin and the original roof, or it will really get quite hot in there.
5. Size - disregard the suggested number of chickens that can fit into a prefab coop. That number is almost always completely incorrect. Read the measurements, look up the size that is appropriate for your birds, and go by that. 2x6 ft. I could literally get inside and lie down. I would not, because I am extremely claustrophobic, but if I didn't mind a lot of screaming and hyperventilating, I could get in there.
6. Runs - there's not a ton of room in here. I would feel comfortable keeping a pair or a trio of bantams, but anything else would definitely need an extra run. I have built runs using hardware wire and PVC or wood and successfully attached them to these things to give them a little more room.
7. Extras - I add tarps to the sides with mini bungee cords, so that I can roll those down if it is cold or rainy, or as a quarantine coop. I add a more sturdy roost. Lastly, it can be hard to reach the end of the coop. So I used my handy dandy cool tool (aka Chris Grable) to shave off a bit of the wood on the end of the coop so that we could transform it into another door. Voila, problem fixed!

So, does a prefab coop work and is it worth it? Sometimes. Especially if you have a ton of extra supplies around!

07/02/2024

Caught these cutie pies right as an airplane flew over 😂❤️

05/02/2024

Lemony always looks like a watercolor painting to me 💚

03/02/2024

Hei Hei says Hey!

03/02/2024

Nothing like a snuggle from the queen snuggler herself, the mighty Babycakes🧡 mud on her feet and fermented food on her beak, just like she likes it.

03/02/2024

Lenore and Trivet took a nap together 💙 Of course, the other chickens really do not appreciate it when Lenore decides to take a comfy nap by wedging herself in the chicken door 😂