Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Newest Additions

About two weeks ago I had my first yearling hen (3rd generation of my breeding) hatch 6 of the 9 eggs she was laying on. She had laid 15 eggs earlier in the year but the Guineas had hit the plastic pail she was nesting in and disturbed the nest so badly that she abandoned her nest! i was so upset! Fortunately she hatched out 6 of the 9 eggs and has only lost one chick (this weekend while I was away at a dog show). She has five remaining. She is shown in the photo above.

The next three photos are of a hen (half sister to the hen above) that is also a yearling and this is her first round of eggs. She laid 11 eggs and had 9 hatch while I was away this weekend and we lost one somehow (I found it pecked to death on Sunday when I arrived home). She has 8 little youngsters that are just so adorable. I forget how tiny the babies are!

So if anyone wants any chicks (ahem NANCY K!) do let me know! They are bred down from top show quality stock from South Carolina called CHOICE BANTAMS and I am so extremely pleased with them!

And last but certainly not least is Owl Hill Butter. She is line bred on Heights Orion and Enfield Greyling and is 72% UK. She came from Michelle McMillen in OR but was bred by Susan Kimball in CA. Her yearling fleece test was AFD: 24.4, SD 5.6, CV 23.1 with a Comfort Factor of 85.7%. I am planning on AI'ing her this fall. She is currently in quarantine in a barn on the other side of the farm with Sea Breeze and her ewe lamb as we await our OPP, Johne's, CL, BT testing as well as fecal testing and health exam :)

4 comments:

Michelle said...

She looks good, Garrett, and so do all the lambs in th last post!

Michelle said...

Psst. Maybe you'll have a full-poll ram lamb next spring that you can bring to BSG for me. :-)

Nancy K. said...

hmmmmmmmm. Choice Bantam, huh? Are they good layers? What size eggs? White or brown? Are they all the same color? (these are very important chicken purchasing questions, you know!) Are they broody? Bantams are small, right? The hens are pretty and the chicks are adorable!

Karen Valley said...

Are your bantams some color variation of Seebrights(sp?)? Always interested to hear about neat bantam breeds of poultry. I had Belgium Antwerp bantams a long time ago and loved the hens, but the roosters were sneaky mean.

A long time coming!

 It has been a long time. Too long in fact. We lost access to our farm website and ebonwald website when WEBS.COM was closed by VistaPrint. ...