Author Archives: frankie

About frankie

Maiden name is Farmer so I guess I am getting back to my roots. I love raising chickens and especially when the baby chicks are hatched out. I am a senior citizen and live with my husband in Florida. We live a quiet, peaceful life on our two acres with our one dog ( two dogs died past year and we miss them) and various amounts of chickens. I have had up to 120 chickens but now at about 45. That seems to be a good number for us. Feed and medicines can be expensive and you certainly don't get enough money for the eggs to pay for the feed. Selling the chickens and chicks helps, too. It is not a business for me though....they are my pets. I have three terrific grown children that I am very proud of and two wonderful granddaughters. With my children living in DC, Texas and North Carolina, we will be doing a lot of traveling now that my husband has retired from 40 years with civil service. If you are new to raising chickens, I hope I can tell you amusing stories as well as give you information that will make your experience with chickens fun. I sometimes feel like raising chickens is like raising kids. Some days it is so rewarding and other days, it is a darn lot of work. I am very much interested in making life simple and trying to be self-sufficient as much as I can. I enjoy grocery shopping and getting the best prices as well as stocking up on food and household items. I also love to go to the thrift stores. I have bought numerous pairs of name brand jeans for $3. It just makes sense to be thrifty and since we have the time to look around and find bargains, that is what we chose to do. It also gives us something to do. We planted our first garden this year. Though it is small (squash, watermelons, sweet potatoes and tomatoes), it is a start. My daughter bought me a dehydrator for Mother's Day and we are looking into buying an upright freezer. Those things were needed before we plant a bigger garden. Hope you enjoy my blog....God bless.

Another buff Silkie chick

I went outside this morning to check on my chickens and feed and water them like I do every morning.  I was out there about an hour and a half cleaning their water dishes.   Can’t stand the thought of nasty water.

I checked on Lacy and her cute little buff baby and I was delighted to see another buff baby.  Yoo hoo.  I think it is buff.  It is hard to tell because the white chicks actually look a little yellowish when they are first hatched sometimes.  She still has four or five eggs left under her so I am hoping for more.

Nothing to do with chickens really

I just wanted to say how blessed I am to married to my husband, Calvin.  He is the a wonderful husband.  He has the patience of a saint. He is the only man that I ever met that I have really felt like he is my soul mate.  He makes me better.  He makes me feel whole.

Recently, we went in Walmart looking for a web cam which we know nothing about.  We got separated and a lady asked him if she could help him.  He said no but you can help my wife.  Realizing he was looking around for me, she asked what I looked like.  He said she is very pretty.  She then told him he is a keeper and wanted to meet his wife.

The purpose of telling you that story is so you can see how blindly in love he is with me, too.  We dated when we were 16 and with our fathers being military men, we moved apart.  We never forgot each other and kept in contact all thru our lives.  I married and had three children but he never married because he always said I was the only woman he loved and wanted to marry.  My husband passed away from a motorcycle accident.  Calvin and I married in 1996, thirty years plus after dating during our freshman year of high school.

If I am grouchy, he looks outside to see if there is a full moon but doesn’t say a word to me.  We just laugh.  I feel so irritable when there is a full moon.  Obviously, he is making excuses for me.

I don’t know if we would have lasted all these years had we married out of high school.  He is an easy going man and I was …. well, I was difficult to settle down.  But, I have settled down now and we are perfect for one another.  We enjoy the same things. And we laugh all the time.

He is the stability I have always needed in my life.  I know he will never leave me, cheat on me or hurt me.  He has worked hard all his life and is retiring in December with forty years working for the government so he has a retirement pension.  He has bought property and just made some wise decisions in his life.   I am so proud of him.  He is so happy to be able to take care of me.   Oh, we are a long way away from being wealthy but we are healthy and love one another.

I can hardly wait for December to come and be able to spend every day with Calvin.  We have gotten up at 5am for so long and it will be great to sleep in and spend the morning together enjoying our coffee on the back porch.

And we plan to travel, too.  I always wanted to be an archeologist so we are going to be adventurous and go look for diamonds and stones and gold…oh my.   But first, we will go see our new grand daughter, Catherine.  She will be eleven months old by that time.

I know the world is in a mess right now and the economy is struggling.  There are people without jobs, people losing their homes, and people who are hungry.  I believe it is all in God’s hands and everything that happens, He has allowed to happen.  So reach out and help your neighbor, if you can.    And don’t forget to thank Him for all your many blessings.

So I just wanted to say, thank you Lord.

Bread ties come in handy

I started saving my bread ties a couple months ago.  I didn’t know exactly what I would do with them but they just looked like something I could re-use.

I was out in the chicken yard today moving chicks into another yard.   I needed to attach the smaller fence that is two feet tall (and has smaller holes) to the fence that goes around the chicken yard.  I had run out of the ties that I usually use which by the way, are a pain in the butt.  The name of them escapes me right now but it will come to me.  They are plastic and come in different colors and sizes.  You put one end thru the other and it catches if you have put it in on the right side…..which I do not do quite often.

Well, I thought of my bread ties and they worked perfectly.   I attached the one short soft fence to the outside fence quickly with a lot less cussing under my breath.

So now I am putting all my bread ties in an empty peanut butter jar with a lid and putting them in the shed with the tools and chicken supplies.  And best of all, they are free.

Finally, a buff-colored Silkie chick

I have been putting the eggs from my buff-colored hens under any hen that is broody and not getting any chicks.  Well, I had one chick hatch out yesterday and I am pretty sure she looks like she will be buff-colored.  It is sometimes hard to tell when they are first hatched out.  I realized a couple days ago that one of the chicks hatched out in April is actually going to be buff-colored, too.  I am thrilled.

Lacy is a white Silkie that I got back in December, along with her week old chick.  Her baby chick stuck by her for months and is now full grown and laying eggs herself.  Lacy B (baby) is her name.

Lacy has gone broody twice since December and hatched out chicks for me.  She still has five more eggs under her but none hatched out today.  I put them under her at various times for about a week so I don’t know if more will hatch or not.  Hope so.

Today, I was moving the chicks around and they were not happy about it.  They were making all kinds of noises and the Light Blue Silkie rooster decided to attack me.  He jumped at my legs.  I had on shorts so I got a slight scratch on my leg.  That was the first time I have ever seen any aggression from the roosters.  The momma’s get very aggravated when I try to look under them to see if the eggs have hatched or if I come near their newly hatched chicks but this was a first for me.   Then the Black or Grey Silkie rooster (didn’t really see which one as I had my hands full just trying to carry the three chicks) decided to try to jump me a few minutes later when I was moving more chickens.

I was glad I decided to move the chicks because there were so many ants in the one yard.  The smaller chicks are still eating starter food and they get it everywhere so it has attracted a lot of ants.  Usually before I put chickens in a small yard, I rake it really good to get any old poop out of it.  Sometimes I hose the area down, too.  After it is dry, I sprinkle ant killer granules LIGHTLY in the area.  I make sure there is not any piles of ant granules.  Sometimes I even rake it a little more just so its not so obvious to the chickens.  Then I spread hay on the ground lightly.   This seems to be working for me.  I just make sure there is plenty of food and water for them so they don’t have to start scratching the ground to look for food for awhile.

Well, the chicks are all settled down in their new yards but I still have 7 chicks in my second tub.  They are barely one week old and I don’t want to put them outside yet.   I will get the area that I cleaned out today ready for them in the near future.  Fortunately, the 4×8 cage is moveable so it will be a little less work.

I don’t know how many ant bites I got today.  I am not allergic to the bites but I have noticed that if I get too many at one time, I don’t feel real well.  I bet I got fifteen or twenty today.  Dang it.  I had to trim my trees in my chicken yards, too because every time I went under them or I brushed against one, I ended up with an ant on my blouse or arms.  They must be after me.  I do run around the yard putting ant killer granules out when my chickens are not free ranging so they must have spread the word.  lol

So my count now is 121 chickens.  I really am going to sell some in the near future.  I was out there looking closely at them today, determining hens and roosters.  I know I have two extra black Silkie roosters.  I have the cutest little grey Silkie…I will add a picture tomorrow if I can.  It grey and has white under it’s neck area and it is so fat and fluffy looking.

I was talking to my husband out in the chicken yard commenting on how this one is so cute and how much I like that one.  My husband said, “So which one don’t you like?”  He knew my answer.  NONE.  Though I do get aggravated when one chicken seems to be picking on another one.

More chicks…. for me!!!!!

I sold some fertilized Americuana eggs to a lady about six months or so and she called me today.  She said she had hatched out some eggs for a friend and had extra that she didn’t want.  The chicks were one week to two weeks old and there are thirteen.  And she gave them to me.  Hopefully, most of them are hens.

So I have another Barred Rock chick, five Americuana and 7 mixed Rhode Island Red/Buff Orphington.  I just love chicks.  I had to put them in my bathtub for now.  I segregate them for a few days just to make sure they are healthy before I put them around my healthy chicks/chickens.

I was sad to lose one of my Silkie roosters the other day.  He was just lying in the chicken house dead…I saw nothing to determine why he died.  I was thinking maybe the roosters got in a fight and he lost but there is no sign of blood or damage to his body.  Strange.  Occasionally, I find a chicken dead.  I guess there could have been something wrong with his internal organs.  Who knows?

So, now I have 120 chickens.  All these babies will someday grow up and I will have bunches of eggs every day.  Actually, as they get a little older I can see which ones I need to get rid of to keep my flock proportioned.   I only need one rooster for every 8 or so hens.  I know I need to get rid of two black Silkie roosters because there are three and I have only three or four hens that are black.

I can’t wait until the cooler weather so I can spend more time outdoors.  It is just so dang hot in Florida right now.  With my husband retiring soon, I am thinking about moving closer to my family back in NC.  Or maybe to the mountains in Tennessee.  I guess then I will have a new set of problems with my chickens.  I will have to build better houses that will keep my chickens warm during the winter.   If I move closer to my grand children, maybe I won’t need any chickens to mother.  lol