New hens and nesters.

 Chickens are hilarious! I just spent a few hours this morning cleaning out the sheep shelters and putting up a new chickens nester. I put this one up in the next stall. The coop is to the right. I had this old wire nester out back in the goat barn, so got it cleaned out and brought it up here. I have 34 hens now, so thought I might need a few more nest boxes. But do I really?

The white hen jumped right up and started getting her nest all nice and fluffed up.


Then this other white hen jumped up and decided this was a great nest box so she got in too. They love each other so much they have to lay eggs together. Silly chickens!

Even over here in the coop. Togetherness is the key. Why mess up a whole other nest box, right?

These are the new girls. I picked them up after the market last night. One of the other vendors went to a 4H auction last weekend and got these for me. They are Black Sex Link and 3 of them look like Black Austrolourpe. 3 of them have had their beaks clipped. I hate that! Why? But they all look good. One has a crooked foot but seems fine.

They will stay in this tractor a few days til they all get to know one another. Then I'll let them out after I put the others back in. Then eventually they all need to go in the big coop. Right now, the 4 black hens and Black Bart the rooster, still go in their little chicken tractor at night and the others go in the coop. I'll just have to take that one away and get the black ones to go in the coop.

Some of the others coming to say hello. Black Bart was doing his thing earlier. Introducing himself to them. It was kind of cute.

So now I have 34 hens and a rooster. And he has not crowed yet. He's about 5 months old I think. When will he start crowing? I really miss that. He's a handsome boy too. So hopefully I'll start getting more eggs. There were a lot of hens in several nesters awhile ago.

Alpacas?

The past 2 days I have had my booth set up down at the community center for this re-enactment. It was totally not what I was expecting at all. It was a little disappointing for me. Not near the traffic or throngs of people I was thinking would be here. But most of the traffic was routed down Hog Jowl Rd to the East of us, over the ridge. And we had signs up too. Anyway, it was fun and I did sell a lot of soap.

So I was next to an alpaca person. Her name is Susan Darling and she had My Little Darling's Alpaca farm. She sells alpaca wool and also knitted  and felted items. She also has her spinning wheel with her. Anyway, we talked the whole time we were there. I have met her before so had talked to her before this a few times. She has about 60 alpacas right now. She had taken in 10 from a couple who had to give them up due to health reasons. She can't seem to find people to sell them to so is going to give them up to a rescue group in a few weeks. She has a vet coming to castrate all the males.

As we were talking about this, I asked her if she was just giving them away. She said she would give me 2 of them if I wanted them. I have NEVER wanted an alpaca. Ever. Nor a llama. Nor a donkey. Always said I would never have any of these animals. They scare me. And llamas and alpacas are ugly. And they spit! BUT their wool is amazing! I love alpaca wool.

SO, I have about 1 1/2 weeks to think about it and make up my mind. I told my husband and asked him what he thought about it. He really could care less, as long as it's not pigs. So I will go to her farm this week and look at them. If they spit at me I will not get them. If not, I will consider it. I would love a brown one. I think the 2 she said I could have are white and a tan color.

Does anyone have alpacas? What do you think about them? I would love to hear more about them. And there are 2 different kinds. She did say the Suri's she has are a bit high-strung, so I know I don't need them. Big decision for me. I also need to buy a hair ram and a Boer buck in the next few weeks too.

Help for a fellow blogger

http://mysticmud.blogspot.com/

I have been reading this blog for some time now. She had her 11th baby a few weeks ago very premature. They are at Vanderbilt in Nashville. I just feel like I need to share this with you all. She needs all the help she can get right now. Please help if you can or just pray for them. I'm sure it's all appreciated.