Buckeye Chick Update - 1 Month

So, the Buckeye chicks are a month old! In a previous post I described getting the day-old chicks. Now here they are, about five times the size they arrived (at least!) --



The red ones are Buckeys, the black ones are Australorps, both will grow up to be brown egg layers. I picked th Australorps, I confess, because I love a glossy black chicken from a photography/aesthetic point of view. Plus I have an old black hen of unknown origin who is my favorite... The Australorps, I read, are a friendly docile chicken. Someone forgot to tell my batch this as they are a shy, flighty bunch with one striking exception of a little gal who will follow you like a pup. But maybe they are only flighty when compared to my beloved little Buckeyes, who are basically fearless.

The Buckeye is the only U.S. chicken breed developed by a woman. Hattie Metcalf of Ohio developed the breed in the 1800s to be dual purpose (meat/eggs), vigorous free rangers, friendly personality and very cold hardy. While the last part isn't so critical in Arkansas as in Ohio, the personality (friendly, fearless, hate mice and make unusual sounds!) and free-range foraging traits perked up my interest.

I first read about them on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy "critical" list of varieties of chickens of which there are 500 or fewer birds, or less than five breeding flocks (50 birds) in the U.S. The Buckeye was on their priority list to preserve and the traits were enough for me to say THAT's the chicken to take on as a Larrapin farm project! (ALBC's Buckeye page)

Maintaining the genetic heritage of these livestock breeds as we go into the future is a part of sustainable living in my opinion. Our ancestors couldn't depend factory-grown chickens (can we? should we? I won't buy the stuff after living here in their chicken raising part of the world and seeing how industrial birds are raised...) so farmers of the past developed breeds that could live in the real world, in specific locales. That is a genetic heritage we don't want to lose, given the uncertainty of the future...ok, stepping down off the soap box...

So my first group of 12 chicks arrived from Ideal Hatchery out of Texas, all pullets, with their Australorp friends. Of the twelve I'll pick the best hens to keep and then gradually add to my flock while selecting for egg productions. Washington County Fair, poultry division, here I come! (With the size and quantity of our hawks, I shouldn't speak too soon!)

But first, we had to make a bigger home for these gals because at a month old, they outgrew their 4 x 8' playpen. We took one bay of the chicken shed and closed it in and set it up as their new playROOM. (Our place came with three open sheds in the three little pastures because the former owner raised emus)

We were taking a break from building the door and front of the shed when I snapped this pic. We'd locked the other chickens out so they wouldn't get in the way or get too curious about the babies (which might not be safe for 1 month old chicks who are strangers to my old flock...). I love how the old girls are waiting outside the gate like, hey, why are we out here!?



It didn't take too long to build a sturdy door and front with hardware cloth. Can't use chicken wire because raccoons are notorious for reaching through and pulling out chickens piece by piece! Yikes. So we have 1/2 inch mesh heavy duty hardware cloth on the front. We also wrapped the back of the shed in it. The old boards are falling apart and until I can replace them, we did a wire overwrap... Here's our new door with babies happily in their spacious playroom:



They love it! Finally, if you'd like to see these cute one-month olds romp in their new digs on a one minute video snippet, press the "play" arrow below:



For you folks outside the city limits, check out the ALBC's list of rare heritage livestock in need of conservation. You may find your next barnyard friends and be doing a good thing too.

Thanks for stopping by Larrapin.

Before the Rains Begin

Greetings from Larrapin Garden on the day before the rains start (again). Hurricane Ike's rains should get up to NW Arkansas on Saturday and we could get soaked. Nothing compared to what may happen down in Texas. We're supposed to get up to 4 inches each day this weekend, compared with potential 15" of rain in Houston. Geesh, what a rainy year. We'd already had our usual yearly rainfall by June or July this year...

All the rain has had an amazing result on all the greenery and some things are still blooming even as the weather has started to get cool early. Those are scarlet runner beans growing on a fence and a happy bumble bee. The seed packed said "loved by hummingbirds" and that is so true. These are the 2008 favorites of the four hummingbirds that hang out at Larrapin.



Meanwhile, the Monarchs finally arrived after being absent nearly all summer. I think they are not so fond of all this rain.



The last month has been AMAZING for butterflies. We've finally got enough nectar plants to have been noted on the butterfly flight paths it seems! Their favorites: Tropical Milkweed (favored over the native perennial I see, but will plant more of both), four butterfly bushes (wow, deadheading will keep them blooming ALL the time), and scarlet runner beans plus assorted flowers. We've also got a lot of host trees - oaks, willow, river birch, wild cherry, with more to come such as Paw Paw...



This is a blurry photo, but it's the first time I've seen this type of butterfly here. Will have to look it up. Anyone know the name?



Don't let this pic fool you. It's from mid-July I think, when we had enough dry weather to have good tomatoes... The one in my hand is the old fashioned Brandywine, which turns out to be as good as everyone says. The one on the right is Cherokee Purple, which we LOVE but this year's batch was abysmal between the rain and the first time onslaught of stink bugs on the tomatoes. Will study up on organic control of those buggers next year. They poke the tomatoes just enough to scar them and make them prone to rot. We've had a few Ananas Noir (not pictured -- but they are soft red and green swirled, both inside and out) and the oddly colored tomato remains the favorite tomato of Larrapin.

So I'll end this post with a chicken photo since the next post will be a Buckeye update. This unusual chicken is one of the two I picked up as day-old chicks at the hardware store to be companions for the solitary guinea that hatched back in June. The grab-bag chicks are both solid black. One (not pictured) is an Ameraucana,which was confimed when she laid her first blue-green egg! The second black chick has grown up to be quite lovely. Is she a jungle-fowl variety of chicken? Not really sure, will study on that later... Here she is. The white blob in the foreground is the lone guinea chick grown up. And completely convinced she is a chicken. Which is a good thing. It makes her the ONLY guinea who reliably roosts in the chicken house every night. From now on, all my guinea will be raised by chickens!



Thanks for stopping by Larrapin before the rain!