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.

Winter preparation

When my husband wakes up this morning, I have a long honey-do list for him to help me with today.  He retires in two months.  When his friends ask him what he will do when he retires, he tells them his wife will keep him busier than the job did.  That is probably pretty accurate except I do allow for afternoon naps.  I only nap on weekends when my husband is home but I do love a good nap.  Especially when it is so hot and you have been outside for a few hours trying to get stuff accomplished before the heat of the day.

Well, the heat is practically over here in Florida and it is time to start planning for protection for the cold for my chickens.  I am still in the process of selling some chickens and I am down to 97 from 122.  I keep thinking I want to keep them all but I know it is too many chickens to ask anyone to help take care of while my husband and I are off traveling and visiting our relatives.

I really do enjoy planning out what to do with my chicken yards.  I know I mentioned I am constantly moving or adding chicken fencing.  I want to separate the different color of Silkies to produce solid white, black, dark blue, buff and splash chicks.  I have had a number of people mention they would like some Splash chicks.   But all this involves building more 4×4 chicken houses, putting up separate fences, and netting over the top of the yard.  I have to use netting so the chicken hawks don’t get the small breed chickens.

The main thing we will be doing today is moving chickens around so no one house is too crowded and closing-in a couple of the houses so I can lock the chickens up if there is a need.  Just hope it doesn’t rain all day like it did yesterday.

I am going to sit down and make a list of supplies we need to pick up for our chicken projects today.  Since most of the houses we have built recently are open in the front, we will need to enclose this area to keep the cold winds out.  But, you also have to keep a good ventilation system for the houses, too.  And make it easy to clean the bottom of the coop.  I am thinking hinges to pull the bottom of the board up so I can rake and collect eggs.  I don’t like the idea of dark coops and reaching in to collect eggs and perhaps running into another snake.

I will let you know how the day goes…so many projects and only so many hours in the day.  Let’s see what we can get done today.  Good thing it is a three day weekend for my husband.

Guinea chicks (keats) hatching

My little buff hen has patiently sat on the Guinea eggs for close to 30 days and four keats hatched out yesterday.  They all looked fine when I brought them inside and put them under the heat lamp though two were rather sluggish.  I assumed they were just hatched out and were tired and sleepy like the baby chickens I am use to raising.

I went back an hour or so to check the temperature and they were fine but after four hours or so, two were dead.  I was so sad.  Their perfectly formed bodies just lying there limp.  It was a mystery to me why they died.

Now, when I brought them in and put them on the towel in the bottom of the box, I did notice maybe five or six ants had been on them.  I am wondering if they could have bitten them enough to put poison in their systems.  I know when ants bite me, a get a nasty pimple with white pus.  If I get too many bites at one time, I actually feel sick and run a low grade fever.   My body is a whole lot larger than a chick’s so I can only imagine how bad a baby chick could feel with multiple bites.

As soon as it is daylight, I am going out there to check on the eggs and bring the keats inside if any are hatched.  Maybe I can get them before the ants start moving around.  With chicken feeders filled with food, it is difficult to keep the ants away from the chicken yards.  You would think the chickens would eat the ants.  I guess when the egg hatches and there is material left in the egg shell, it attracts the ants to the nest where the momma hen is sitting on the chicks.  With four hatching at one time, it could be difficult for the momma to dispose of the egg shells.  Sometimes, part of the egg shell is eaten or missing before I realize a chick is hatched out.

Well, I am thinking about getting outside and working on getting my chicken houses ready for cold weather but that is another post so I will end this one now and start that one.

Selling chickens this week

As much as I love my Silkies, I have decided it is time to let some of them go to other homes.  It was a difficult decision because they are my fuzzy butts.

One lady bought a Splash Silkie rooster and she lives in Tallahassee so she definitely wanted the rooster.  She drove from St. Augustine where she was visiting relatives to get the rooster.  I like to think my chickens go to good homes that will take good care of them and love them as much as you can love a chicken.  ha ha

A nice Russian lady came today and bought two Silkie hens.  I really liked the little grey hen I sold her but she seemed so nice and I decided she could have my special hen.  She bought two so they will have each other even though the environment will be unfamiliar.  I am going to call her when I have another Splash chick hatched out.

Another mother and adult daughter bought 6 baby chicks, two Americuana hens about 2 months old, and two Silkie hens (one splash and one black).  She is going to breed them and I believe she will take good care of them, too.

I made a few bucks this week and made a little more room in my chicken yards.  Guess I could call it a good week.

Re-homing my chickens

I like to sell my chickens to a home that is going to raise and enjoy the eggs or just having the chickens around.  I don’t want to sell them to someone who is going to eat them or resell them to make a profit.  The only reason I actually start selling any of mine is because my feed bill is just too high or I realize certain chickens do not fit into the scheme of what I am trying to do.

I put a note up on the feed store bulletin board saying I have chickens for sale.  So this guy calls me this morning wanting to buy chickens from me.  He is being rather pushy that he wants them really cheap.  Now if you tell me you are out of work and trying to feed your family and want fresh eggs for them, then I will bite and lower my price.

I asked him if he was going to eat them and he said probably not.  Not a good answer for me.   He said he was trying to get them as cheap as possible so he can make a profit…out of work and got to do something to make money.  I really don’t see how anyone can make much of a profit reselling chickens unless you buy super cheap and sell a whole lot of them at one time.   When I told him I had 116 chickens including the 8 babies just hatched out yesterday and he asked how much I want for all of them.

Is it ridiculous that I don’t want to put my chickens thru the trauma of being moved from home to home or even being killed for food?  My chickens are more like pets.

I may be selling two dark Silkies hens and one rooster to a family will need for their 4H project.  Now I know they will take good care of them.

Guess I will just pray my chickens lay lots of eggs to pay the feed bill so I don’t have to sell any of them to people that do not fit my “adoption rules.”   lol

Silkie eggs hatching out today

It is 10am and I have four chicks hatched out so far with two more that have pipped but resting at the present time.  There are two dark chicks, one buff and one white.  Yoo hoo.  Then I went outside and my black Silkie hatched a buff chick and my multi-colored Silkie hatched out a dark colored chick.

Before I went to bed last night, a couple of the eggs in the incubator had already pipped…broken thru the shell enough to breathe. The two eggs below, I actually chipped some extra shell off so the chick could get plenty of air.   It makes it harder for them to zip out of the shell so I may end up helping them out if they aren’t out in a couple hours.  I usually take them out of the egg turner and lay the eggs down but I thought I would try it this way for a change.  It does make it easier for me to tell which eggs have pipped.

I have the four chicks that hatched from the incubator in the bathtub.  I put towels or old t-shirts down on the bottom of the tub since it is so slick.  I am trying to decide whether I want to let the mommas outside that hatched their chicks keep them or put them in the tub with the other four that hatched out today, too.  After recently losing one of my chicks to a snake, I believe, I am not comfortable leaving them outside.   I think snake because that is the only thing that could have gotten into the small 2 inch by 4 inch openings.  I have wood along the bottom that is approximately 18 inches high, too.

I have a number of things I should do today but I am pretty sure I will just be staying home enjoying the baby chicks.  I love to watch them take their first steps…so funny.   It is only a matter of hours and they are up and running around.

Yes, it is a good day today.  Maybe I will spend some time in the kitchen cooking up some foods for the next couple days.   I can make some egg salad, put the beans in water to soak, make a pot of chili and  some spaghetti sauce, and there is a cake that is calling my name.   Some days, I just love being home all by myself just piddling.  Other days, I just have to get out of the house.  Two and a half more moths and my husband will be retired and we will have all day, every day together.  I can hardly believe it.  We are going to have so much fun and get so much accomplished.  I tell him his honey-do list is growing every day.  He just smiles.