My Blueberry Life

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My Blueberry Life A page for sharing the joyously real adventures of raising backyard chickens on a neighborhood acre while gardening organically. Come join the fun!

I am a small backyard hobbyist located in Georgia who spends most of my days snuggling chickens, raising peeps, training roosters, gardening, blogging, reading, and researching, while my dear husband of 31 yrs helps build our homesteading dream. I keep a wide variety of heavy breed layers that are named, live in a designer coop, free range in my backyard, and are all around spoiled to death. Every

thing I know about chickens I have learned from the vast assortment of internet resources, poultry scientists, local breeders, and my own personal chicken keeping experiences. Chickens are my favorite kind of therapy for relieving stress, staying active, and bringing healthier eating to my family through delicious fresh eggs. Feel free to comment, share, or message me about your own experiences with keeping chickens or tending your veggies. I just love sharing the fun I have with my backyard babies, one glorious cluck at a time!

Rouxsday Tuesday and feeling fine! 🐓It was another scorcher today, and I spent most of it indoors doing chores, but afte...
16/07/2025

Rouxsday Tuesday and feeling fine! 🐓
It was another scorcher today, and I spent most of it indoors doing chores, but after 4 pm Mr Blue and I headed outside to fill feeders, offer cantaloupe to the birds, and pick figs and tomatoes. We finished and tested the new trailer lights, so all that's left is to buy and install the new decking, then it will be ready for moving Pip at the end of the month. July is moving way too fast, and I'm not ready for the year to be half over yet. I'm planning several big, expensive, and time consuming projects before the end of the year, and neither I nor Mr Blue wants to get started on any of it, despite the necessity of each one. The only thing slowing me down is my own indecisiveness, and I'm not sure I'll ever get over that hurdle. 🤷🏼‍♀️

On another note... aren't these baby rooders just the cutest little puff balls? So far, only 4 of the 6 boys are crowing, while Britta and Pisces remain blessedly silent. They aren't noisy yet, and I don't even hear them until after 10 am, but that will change with maturity. I met our new neighbor last week, and it was the only person to view the house that had spoken to me about the chickens. She lives alone, works from home, and loves the sounds they make. How lucky are we to have had several great neighbors in a row who don't mind crowing roos!

Pictured here are Dante, Britta, and in the group photo Bristol and Pyxis. Dante, while head honcho, is not the largest of the little roosters, just the most eager to lead. Pyxis, by comparison is the smallest physically, but his confidence and personality have blossomed, along with his voice. He's the 2nd loudest crower among the littles. Britta and Bristol are the most confusing overall. They are huge physically and polar opposites in personality, but both are divine in their own unique way. Bristol is a chatty crower who loves to follow me around warbling about the day's events, while Brit is soft spoken, introverted, and spends an inordinate amount of time lying down playing passive. Tonight he stayed out past curfew watching Pearl, who has been sleeping with the peeps as of late, and wandered in after the hens were put up. I can't wait to see how he matures. 😍

I hope you have a pleasant evening my peeps. I'm off to watch our favorite show and look at coop ideas. Enjoy your night. ✨

These Wyandottes are such weirdos about new foods. They excitedly investigate whatever I'm offering, but then stare at i...
15/07/2025

These Wyandottes are such weirdos about new foods. They excitedly investigate whatever I'm offering, but then stare at it until someone takes the first bite. Even then, most of them wait to see the taster's reaction, or for me to pull off a tiny piece and offer it to them individually before taking any. Today was the first day since April that there were ripe figs on the bush, which are the most coveted treat of the entire flock, but it took quite a bit of coaxing to get the littles to try one. Once they did however, everyone took turns gently sampling fruits until they were gone. Being the picky snobs they are though, they would only eat the sweet pink centers and leave the skin, while senior hens eat them stem and all. I just love these little sillies so much, even when they're being picky. 🥰

One of the zillion pages I follow made a cute little post this morning reporting that 97% of homesteading women probably...
14/07/2025

One of the zillion pages I follow made a cute little post this morning reporting that 97% of homesteading women probably have their hair in a bun right now. Laughing to spite myself, I took a picture to share my full understanding of the assignment, but then my feed refreshed and I couldn't find the post again. So here I am in my messy bun being a lazy homesteader after a full day of travel for yesterday's wedding, and I'm not sorry at all that it's frizzy and well, messy! After a cup of coffee and a leftover cinnabun, I'm now out in the sweltering sun shuttling cold cantaloupe to my birds, checking Pisces' injured leg on repeat, and spraying babies for mites. Lordy how I HATE mites! I probably need to pick tomatoes, check for more peas, and run to TSC for feed, but the AC feels so nice that I'm procrastinating on a professional level. Ugh, I hate Georgia summers! Anyone else hiding inside and avoiding their farm chores? 🥵

I see you there Britta Blue, watching me watching you! 👀Mr Blueberry and I are headed to the great state of Tennessee to...
13/07/2025

I see you there Britta Blue, watching me watching you! 👀
Mr Blueberry and I are headed to the great state of Tennessee to attend a wedding, so no chicken or baking posts today. It's hot hOt HOT out there, and I'm glad we'll be indoors, but my poor chickies will be melting back home. I meant to put out a melon before leaving, but I jumped in the car and forgot. Hopefully everyone will be ok. My Brahma Clover was a bit pale last night, so she parked in front of a fan and was fine. I fed the broodies plenty of cool zucchini and topped off water, so everyone should be alright. I hope y'all have a lovely Sunday. Stay cool! 😎

These little polar bears just keep getting more impressive by the day. They have all started crowing, are wildly curious...
13/07/2025

These little polar bears just keep getting more impressive by the day. They have all started crowing, are wildly curious about life and love, and are learning to be very receptive to handling. Today as I was milling about the yard, the largest roo Polaris (pictured 2nd), started tidbitting over a bed of moss, and birds of all ages came to inspect his "findings". He's the first of the littles to both tidbit and crow, and seems completely docile at present, so who knows how this will play out with little dancing Dante at the helm. 🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️

Pyxis (pictured 3rd), is my smallest roo, but he's growing into quite the loveliest little gentleman. Once, he was the spazziest chick in the brooder, and now he's a quiet, inquisitive teenager with a super gentle disposition, which may explain his loner status. I noticed today that one of his earlobes was bruised, which is often how young roos fight when they're not sure how to hold on to each other, so my little pixie stick probably won't be the leader of this rabble of raptors, but he'd make a great sidekick. 🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️

The third polar bear (pictured 1st) is Pisces, the most physically mature of the bears, and GQ Roo is his current status. Pi has the most wonderful temperament, and was the first to develop all his big boy feathers, although he'll keep filling out for another year at least. He's extremely gentle, enjoys handfed treats, and doesn't challenge the authority already in play, meaning he may work quite well with Deacon. Pi is currently nursing a tender leg, but seems fine otherwise, and may be my favorite choice as a breeder for Pearl. 🐻‍❄️

These guys all started out as my least friendly chicks, but as they grow they are rapidly becoming the easiest to handle and most docile all around, just adding even more check marks to my affinity for this particular Wyandotte variety. Now if I could just get some pretty Pearl babies out of these guys, I'd have the beginnings of a marshmallow farm. 🥰

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!These sourdough cinnamon rolls are amazing, and I can't believe how soft and flavorful...
12/07/2025

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!
These sourdough cinnamon rolls are amazing, and I can't believe how soft and flavorful they are. The entire house smells like a bakery today, and hubby is already conspiring on how to sell them at work. Yeah right! At 15+ hours from start to finish, I won't be making these again for a while. Christmas morning may never be the same after this. So much work, but oh so yummy! 😋

Don't ... move! 🦖His visual acuity is based on movement.~ Jurassic Park ~
12/07/2025

Don't ... move! 🦖
His visual acuity is based on movement.
~ Jurassic Park ~

Here we grow again! She's such a happy girl, my Jupiter. 🪐🌾🍞
11/07/2025

Here we grow again! She's such a happy girl, my Jupiter. 🪐🌾🍞

11/07/2025

Ahhh...the gentle sounds of a baby rooder singing me the song of his people. This is Dante, and his crow is currently the most enthusiastic of the young bucks. 🙄🐓🎶

Double trouble!! 🐓🐓Bristol and Britannia, my not-a-roo blues, are definitely looking a little rooish these days. Of cour...
11/07/2025

Double trouble!! 🐓🐓
Bristol and Britannia, my not-a-roo blues, are definitely looking a little rooish these days. Of course, I've always known their persuasion from the time those giant combs appeared, but my heart remained hopeful that they were just unusually large hennies. Nope! Their personalities are total opposites with Bristol being the more alpha of the two, and Britta lays around like a potato with no particular interest in anything, least of all butting heads with the others. Both are sweet and receptive to handling, but neither are especially cuddly, as with all my Wyandottes.
I've also noticed that despite the increase in vocalizations among the baby rooders, the blues are not even attempting to crow, a small blessing indeed. As of today, 3 of the 6 roos are crowing, although most haven't ramped up to full throttle yet. Dante is the loudest, not surprisingly considering his alpha status, and the polars are short and sweet. Please stay short and sweet! For now I'm still praying these guys keep growing slowly and stay as tempered as possible because I love each and every warbly one of them. 🥰

Have a fabulous Friday y'all!

He looks so sweet when he's eating calmly out of my hand. 🙄Dante has turned into quite the little tartlet overnight... f...
11/07/2025

He looks so sweet when he's eating calmly out of my hand. 🙄
Dante has turned into quite the little tartlet overnight... following me around, biting my hands, circling me like a shark, all the typical behaviors of a budding alpha rooster. I always knew this chick would be a leader by his behavior in the first weeks of life, but sometimes those roomones kick in extra hard as they grow, and one day they simply trade in the sweet for the sass. Dante is still quite the character, dancing and fluttering as if I'm supposed to be impressed, but his increase in domination games means more holding time and extra cuddles to keep our relationship going in a positive direction. Bristol is my other dominant biter, but not as much as Dante, Britta is totally calm and placid, and the polar bears are nothing but light and love through and through. The maturation game is my least favorite part of raising new roos, but eventually they calm down and get back to the business of guarding hens. I guess we'll soon see which way Dante leans and how his 5 brothers respond in turn. 🐓🐓🐓

I know I've asked this before, but do any of you collect your chicken's feathers? I must have thousands of them by now, ...
10/07/2025

I know I've asked this before, but do any of you collect your chicken's feathers? I must have thousands of them by now, but I simply can't walk past a patterned plume and not pick it up. This velvety assortment came from my Wyandotte chicks who are going through their 2nd juvenile molt right now. Chicks grow so rapidly that their bodies need to shed and replace feathers every month or so in order to keep up with their constantly changing size. Wing feathers will be sticking out as they run by, and lower body plumes will fall out all over the yard. It can cause a panic to see feathers everywhere, as if a predator were afoot.

I originally started collecting feathers to make ornaments representing each bird in our flock, but poor storage and lack of early labeling has made it impossible for me to figure out which plumes belonged to which bird. These days each bird gets a ziplock with their name on it so I can identify them later. Commonly I collect feathers from deceased birds, and label them accordingly, and that enables me to choose particular plumes with special markings to help me remember them better, but the vast majority come from natural molts that happen every year, and many of those are used around our home.

Considering my extreme penchant for procrastination, I may never get around to stuffing feathers in glass balls to adorn my Christmas trees, and in such case, my poor kids will one day find boxes of bagged feathers to toss along with all the other trappings of a life well lived. In the meantime, I'll still stop when I see a pretty plume lying in the yard, stuff it in my shirt or egg basket, and add it to the pile of things that make me happy. After all, isn't that what life is all about? 🪶

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Our Story

I am a small backyard hobbyist located in eastern Georgia who spends most days snuggling chickens, training roosters, vegetable gardening, reading, blogging, and raising a teenage daughter, while my dear husband of 25 yrs helps to build our homesteading dream in our modest suburban neighborhood. I keep a wide variety of heavy breed layers that are named, live in a designer coop, free range in my backyard, and are all around spoiled to death. Everything I know about keeping chickens I have learned from personal experience, scientific poultry journals, the internet's vast assortment of chicken bloggers, local chicken club friends, and memories of my own family's chicken keeping days. Chickens are my favorite kind of therapy for relieving stress, staying active, and bringing healthier eating to my family through wonderful fresh eggs. We practice compassionate realism on our homestead and support many different methods of keeping poultry. Feel free to comment, share, or message me about your own experiences with keeping chickens or tending your veggies. I just love sharing the fun I have with my backyard babies, one glorious cluck at a time!