2012 4-H Fair Update

It dawns on me that while I seem to have taken a vacation from my blog, I never updated everyone on the outcome of our 4-H year.

It was the first year to compete in Poultry and boy did we have a lot to learn!  We purchased eight pullets last winter with the hopes that one would be special enough to compete with.  What we learned is that although they were great egg layers, they were not a breed that was recognized for showing.  Think of them like a mutt being shown at Westminster.  I think one of the breeds we could have used for the Commercial class but our kids wanted to show in the Exhibition class so we had to start all over.  Thankfully some friends of ours had purchased Plymouth Rock chicks about the same time we had for 4-H also.  Their kids picked out their bird for the fair and offered two of the remaining ones to us.  Originally we were told one was a rooster and one was a hen, they were very different in size, but after looking at pictures online I was skeptical.  

Saying we have a lot to learn is an understatement.  For example, did you know that you have to bathe a chicken before the fair?  Yeah, wrap your head around that for a minute.  It is actually a multi-step process consisting of a soap bath, rinse, chemical dip (mites), and another rinse (water/vinegar).  Our friends with the Plymouth Rocks joined us for this process and by the end of the last rinse with their own chickens they had mites running up and down their arms.  Yeah, gross.  We never saw them on our own birds but we did repeat the process a few days later just to make sure.  Chickens with bugs do not get to go to the fair.  After that experience we did a really thorough cleaning of the coop and sprayed down the entire place with Malathion to make sure nothing was lurking in the corners.

Thinking we could show both birds (I still think that the 4-H handbook says you can) we arrived at check-in with both birds.  After some discussion with the Poultry Club leaders, one of them insisted that we had a rooster/hen pair - which is hysterical really because later that same day both chickens laid an egg for the first time in their lives.  I was still skeptical that I had two different sexes so we decided to just enter one to be safe (how embarrassing to be wrong about that!).  We grabbed their copy of the Poultry Standards book and quickly decided that the smaller bird looked to be more like the standard described.  Her name is Annie.  We settled her into her cage and took the other chicken back home.

The day of the show we really had no idea what to expect.  Apparently it is as simple as:  1. take your chicken up to the table, 2. wait while the judge looks at other chickens, 3. let the judge look over your chicken, 4. wait some more while the judge looks at the rest of the competition....all while keeping your own chicken on the table looking calm, cool, and collected.  A friend of mine kept insisting she could read the judge and knew he liked our chicken but I saw nothing to believe that.  There were two huge groups of birds in our division so judging took quite a while.  At the end of it all, Annie took home a win for best in class (American Standard).  Talk about shock followed by huge helping of guilt for having used a bird that another person gave us.  Annie took home a Reserve Grand Champion overall in the Exhibition class, losing out to a Black Sumatran that was shown by the brother of a friend of ours.  The judge then spent a while educating the audience on why he liked these two birds so very much.  Sure wish we had entered Annie at the State level as I would have loved to see how well she placed.

This year, Annie will be back in the show ring.  I am hoping she still has a chance and doesn't disappoint my daughter who thinks she has a sure thing going with her.  Our son will be entering his own bird this year but we have figure out what we are going to buy first.  I would love to have a cool crested variety in the coop but Tractor Supply and Rural King only offer boring meat or egg producing chicks and ordering the minimum quantity from a catalog means too many chickens to deal with.  I might consider ordering eggs though as the minimum on those is only 6.  We will let you know what direction we decide to go.

  

Farm Fresh Eggs for Sale

The kids made some signs this weekend to put up in the yard announcing that we are now officially selling our eggs.  Of course we have been giving them away like mad since the big batch of chicks started laying.  I wanted to wait a while to get the egg size up a bit before we started actually selling them.  Finally, we have begun to get about a dozen decent sized eggs per day so I gave the green light to begin the selling.

And today an older gentleman drove up and asked to buy some eggs!  He seemed very excited to have someone selling eggs in the area so I believe he will become a regular customer.  We do have one problem though and that is how to get folks to realize that they can get their eggs themselves from the refrigerator on the front porch.  Our dog is a friendly little guy but he is a barker when visitors drive up so I can't have people ringing the door bell every time they want eggs.  My nerves will be shot trying to tackle the dog for the door every time the bell rings!

Coming up, I will post some pictures of the newest improvements to the barn.  We should have a flurry of other exciting farm activity coming up in the next few weeks to share as well.

Hot Enough to Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk

Because our egg production is so high at the moment and the eggs are too small to really sell yet, the kids and I got a little creative the other day when the temperature tied for the all time high in our area - 106 degrees.  We tried to see if we could really fry an egg on the sidewalk.

I opted for putting my egg on some foil.  The kids fried directly on the concrete.  The result?

A big, buggy mess.  The foil blew away even though we thought we'd weighted it down enough.  The others dried up and became a sticky glob.  So apparently, no, you can't fry an egg on OUR sidewalk.

Next time we will try a blacktop driveway.

Fried Chicken Anyone?

Baby it's hot out!

Last Thursday we topped out at 106 degrees.  Today we're only supposed to hit a mere 97 degrees.  Oh, but the heat index is targeted for 110 or higher.  Fun times.

We were not really clear how cool our chicken coop would stay but I have been pleasantly surprised that at the hottest times of the day the coop feels a good 10-20 degrees cooler than outside.  We experimented a little with propping open the front doors to see if a breeze would be helpful but what we actually experienced was a bunch of warm air blowing in.  So the doors stay shut and the chickens stay put inside the coop enjoying the relative shady coolness.  Although they have been panting a little, no one has seemed even close to being distressed.  Of course we are keeping them supplied with lots of fresh, cool water to drink and checking on them several times throughout the day.  Then there is one more little treat I have discovered for those that are in the big coop - a sprinkler.  These girls (and Big John too) really love to splash in a puddle!  So a few times a day we turn on the sprinkler to build up some cool puddles and they all come running out to splash and play.  Makes for some muddy feet and subsequently muddy eggs at times but they seem happy.

Coming out to check on the puddles.

Thank you to all of the past and present members of the military for your service to our country.  Happy 4th of July!

Chicken Updates

Whatcha lookin' at?

I noticed while looking back upon past posts that I probably should update a few items that I blogged about previously.  I know, you've probably been having a hard time concentrating on your own lives without hearing about what is happening around here.  Let me keep you in suspense no longer...

The little roosters

Of the 15 chicks we bought from friends of ours, seven of them have turned out to be hens.  Eight are roosters and are cracking me up with their pathetic little crows.  A couple of them I believe are going to be quite beautiful so I am sad that they are destined for my crock pot.  I have heard of folks that keep an upcoming rooster in case their veteran dies unexpectedly but I doubt we will do that but things change around here sometimes by the minute so who knows how that will end up.

First day in the big coop (six of seven hens)

Last weekend we introduced the hens into the big coop with the adults.  They had access to the outside for the first time and the process went rather smoothly.  We put three in the first night but one threw a fit trying to get back to the others in her group that we put her back temporarily.  Looking back the next morning, I wonder if perhaps that one was a male.  Either way I paid more attention the second night and put the remaining five hens in under the cover of darkness.  They still have not figured out the roosting bars but they have figured out how to get the heck out of the way of the older hens.  John seems comfortable with the little ones already and is quite attentive to them just like a good big brother should be.  If I was to do it again, I think I would have moved all of the chicks in at the same time - because I think the quantity of new faces actually spread out the pecking of the older ones and was less stressful for the new chicks.  Just a theory.





The 4-H chicks are growing fast!  Here they are today enjoying themselves in the nursery outside in the big coop.  We still do not have a clue what we are supposed to do to show them at the fair but the kids have been handling them loads so they should be friendly enough and used to whatever we throw at them.

The new "chicken pasture" was finished a few weeks ago.  We fenced in a larger area of grass and removed the old fence from the paved portion.  The adults are loving it and have already scratched out a couple of holes to "bathe" in.  We decided to try an unconventional way of keeping the chickens in the pen by running string across the top of the fence.  So far it appears to work - although we did have a couple of escapes we think it was through the gaps they created at the gate.  We have now barricaded that area and so far no more escapes.  Either that or they were so traumatized by not being able to get back in the area that they have not tried again.  I know you can clip a chicken's wings to keep them from flying but this would also take away their only real defense against predators so I'm not ready to take that step.  I also have no idea how to do this so for now the wings will remain unclipped.

To those of you that would wonder why we do not allow the chickens free range - I can answer that in one word:  neighbor.  Our chicken coop is directly on our property line and the first time chicken's escaped I found them in the road.  Silly birds.  I love the birds and I love having a friendly relationship with our neighbor.  'Nuf said.

Happy Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day today, our family planted three of my all time favorite flowering trees - the Purple Leaf Plum.

I can only dream of the day when mine look as lovely at the one pictured above though because obviously it is going to be a few years before we get to that size.  But I am so thrilled to have them back in my landscaping.  I had one at my last home that we planted at the corner of our house but thanks to some hopelessly tenacious squirrels we had to remove it so as to stop their route onto our roof and eventually into the attic.  It happened more than once so I know it was inevitable.

Out here on the farm we have yet to see a squirrel anywhere in the neighborhood.  Coyotes, yes, but not squirrels.  Call me crazy but since the coyotes have kept to themselves for the last year I feel more affection to them than I ever will again for a squirrel.  I am sure that will all change the first time they get into my alpaca pasture.

I will finish today's entry with a photo of the eggs we put into our new incubator this evening.  Assuming that we get some to hatch, they will be ready the week before my son's 9th birthday.  I thought it might be a fun new family tradition to hatch a batch of new chicks around the time of both of the kid's birthdays each year.  That would be spring and fall chicks.  What do you think?

4-H Season Begins

 

When we began our multi-year plan to own alpacas, we learned that our county had a fabulous Alpaca Club in the 4-H program.  Our daughter was in the third grade so it was perfect timing for us.  We jumped in with both feet and with the help of some 4-H experienced friends we made it through our first year.  The worst part for us  is simply setting limits on what the kids can actually accomplish in time for the fair.  When it is the middle of February it is really easy to think that you can tackle six or seven major 4-H projects in time for the mid-July fair.  I am sure some families CAN tackle that many and more.  I know that we are not that family.

So our first year she did alpaca (includes showmanship, obstacle, and costume classes), alpaca poster, alpaca craft, sewing and foods.  What I did not realize is putting her in camp the week before the fair was a horrible idea as projects were due to be turned in before the actual fair week.  Okay, lesson learned.

Second year she did all of the same alpaca projects plus dog obedience, genealogy, gingerbread house, and cake decorating.  Now that seemed a bit smarter for the following reasons - 1) dog obedience was over before fair week, 2) I have most of the genealogy work already done, 3) gingerbread houses can be decorated way ahead of time and sit on a shelf until it is time for the fair, 4) ditto on the cake decorating because it is just a Styrofoam cake and royal icing.  Here is the lesson learned:  all of these projects each come with their own club meetings or training sessions - often on the same day.

So I got smarter in some regards and yet still underestimated the craziness.  However, I suppose we might have gotten through it relatively intact if we had not also tried to move during the same time frame.  What a nightmare.  Did I mention that the second year was also the first year for my son in mini-4-H?  He took alpaca (showmanship, obstacle, and costume class), alpaca poster, and woodworking.  Yes, that's right - that means I made FOUR costumes (two for kids, two for alpacas) last summer in the midst of moving.

This year I am determined to keep the crazy at bay and enjoy the summer.  The plans are for my daughter to take alpaca (all classes), alpaca poster, photography (color and b/w) and genealogy.  My son will take alpaca (all classes), alpaca poster, archery (poster only for mini's), and woodworking.  The woodworking he will do with my dad so that one is an easy one.  Again, the genealogy can be done well in advance so I'm not scared of that either.  Posters can be done well ahead of time too and last month I purchased the poster boards and poster sleeves - three for her, two for him.  I am disappointed not to have my daughter doing gingerbread this year but she had an experience last year that robbed her of the joy she had from making her house.

Here is where I take a moment to insert the photo that will make you all laugh:

Yes, that's right.  We have been talked into taking on a poultry project for each child.  This week we purchased eight new pullets - the black ones are Sexlinks and the yellow ones are Production Reds.  After I saw the tiny ducks at the store it was all I could do not to take a couple of those home too but I had to remain cool headed.  We have no clue what we are doing and no clue if we will be able to EVER make a Poultry Club meeting but we are in it for the experience so we are going to try to make it a good one.  Wish us luck - we are probably going to need it.

To stay on top of it all, I am off to make a master list of the tasks we need to accomplish to make sure nothing falls through the crack.  All this thinking about critical paths makes me thankful for my years as a project manager.  Unfortunately, I have many MORE years of being a procrastinator.