This spring has been a busy one for us: between working full time and projects around the house, we also decided to hatch out guineas and mille fleurs, purchase ducks and cornish rock chickens in addition to maintaining our flock of silkies. What on earth possessed us to go crazy with poultry you may ask? Two words: chicken math.
Two of our silkie hens did not want to get off the nest and were broody for about 3 weeks before we finally gave in and let them hatch out 5 mille fleurs and 4 guineas. I’ve never had a pet have babies before and it was such a unique experience. I loved checking on the chicks and seeing little heads pop out underneath the mother hen. It was also very interesting to watch the hen teach her young how to eat and drink, how to dust bathe and have fun.
The ducks and cornish rock chickens were not really pets, Tim got them to raise and then butcher. The cornish rocks were ready to butcher within 8 weeks and the meat we got from them is filling up our freezer and our families’ too. I really loved having the ducks, but when we went on vacation for Memorial Day weekend, we didn’t have anyone available to take care of them and ended up having to sell them at an auction.
The cornish rock hens went from being little chicks to full grown birds so quickly. This picture is from April 5 and the video afterwards is from May 21.
Now that we’ve sold the chicks and the ducklings and butchered the cornish rocks, we are back to just having our silkies. It is curiously quiet and my 1-2 hour per day list of chores is down to nearly nothing. Guess that means it is time to enjoy the flock and start planning for what creatures to add next spring.