Category: Goings on at the Farm

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Hatching Season 2019

Got my Leahy 415 redwood incubator up and running this winter, and a week ago we set our first hatch! This one is really a trial balloon since it’s a new incubator and the girls aren’t laying strongly currently. The weather has been brutal, and the nights are still long, so I don’t blame them! So, I’ve had my first hatch in for the week, and just added my second tray last night.

This Leahy is a manual turn incubator, so I have to turn the eggs three times a day, which is easy for me since I’m home and always check my incubators a couple of times a day and right before bed to make sure that temps and humidity are within parameters. However, the turning system of yore involved egg positioners that were for standard sized eggs back in the 1950s, and with us hatching a variety of heritage breeds, they didn’t work.

While I don’t mind manual turning, moving each egg by hand three times daily gets old fast, so I looked around and found a great inspirational video below:

The video on the left shows the version I came up with (if you can see the video preview, just click the triangle and it’ll come up).

We used PVC pipe and fiberglass rods that are made to hold up electric field fencing. It took us awhile to make the prototype (a few hours) because of gathering tools and sizing the spaces between the rods for our specific eggs, but it eventually worked! Last night, we whipped up a second one in under an hour in order to set Hatch #2.

Each day — morning, midday, and before I go up for bed — I pull or push each rack, check the hygrometer, fill the water pan if it’s needed, and close the box. Takes seconds/turn!

Tonight I’m candling Hatch #1! It will be interesting to see how fertility and air sacs are coming along.


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Wheaten Marans

We have enjoyed breeding Black Copper Marans for years. We love their large, dark, almost chocolate colored eggs. We love their docile temperaments. But, we’ve been having trouble raising show-worthy cockerels. These are not supposed to have white underfluff, but ours somehow always do! So, this year, we decided we’d take a break from Black Coppers and try to raise Wheaten Marans. They have the same dark eggs and delightful temperaments, but white underfluff is no problem for them! I’ve been looking around for a source for show quality Wheaten Marans, and found a good one in Marans Unlimited, in Tx. That’s a long drive for me from WV, but luckily Bev and Sandy (the sister team who breeds these award-winning Wheaten Marans) agreed to bring some hatching eggs to a chicken show that we were both attending.

Did you know that they have chicken shows? They sure do, all over the country. Chicken fanciers bathe and condition their chickens for the shows, and when they get to the show, they spray and wipe their feathers with a silk scarf, and moisten their feet and combs with Vaseline. It’s pretty amazing to wander through a huge room full of varied and beautiful fowl of various sizes, shapes, and colors. (There’s a great documentary about the process of breeding and showing chickens entitled “Chicken People.” Find it and watch it if I’ve peaked your interest! It’s fascinating.)

Scott and I at the Dixie Classic in Knoxville, TN

This year, I went with my husband to the Dixie Classic, which is a major chicken show given annually each first weekend of December. The first of December happens to be our wedding anniversary: this year, number 39! I had been more sure than ever that I’d been blessed with the husband of my dreams when Scott agreed to take me to the Dixie Classic for our anniversary last year. We had a great time, and so decided to return this year. Not only did Scott take me to Knoxville for the weekend, but he even wore a matching chicken shirt to the show. What a guy!

We were to meet Bev and Sandy at Knoxville and get the precious Wheaten Marans eggs that they had promised to bring. We did indeed meet them there, and get the eggs, but God had a beautiful gift waiting for me at Knoxville. I also came home with a beautiful pair of young adult Wheaten Marans! We called the pullet “Anni” and the cockerel “Vern.” (Annivernsary, get it? 😉)

It all started when I saw Annie. She struck me as SO beautiful: balanced, with a wide tail spread (something that I’ve been working hard at in my lines) and clean, lovely plumage. She was also a Blue Wheaten, which is among my favorite color patterns. I found out who had brought her and said to her, “I want your pullet!!” Then, I quickly amended according to my original intent, “I mean, I want eggs from your pullet this spring!” She smiled sweetly and said, “I’ll let you have her!”

I was dumbfounded! After a few minutes more conversation, when she found I had no cockerel of age to breed to her, she decided to let me have the male that she had brought to sell, too. As you see in the picture above, they are a lovely pair. 

Annie and Me

And as you can see in the picture to the right, I am one happy gal to have been so blessed on my anniversary! Bev and Sandy were not sure the the fertility of the eggs they brought, since it’s the dead of winter and their birds aren’t laying well, so they gave me the eggs and they are now in the incubator. If all goes well, we’ll have Wheaten and Black Copper chicks hatching on Christmas Day. I’m grateful to be in the Marans Chicken Club of the USA, where I’ve found mentors and friends who are helping me to succeed with breeding quality chickens!

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Ameraucana Pullets are Finally Laying!

Today is a slushy, cold, wet day in the mountains of West Virginia! It’s a day where we’ve seen rain, sleet, and mushy snow falling, as well as a weak sunshine hours ago. I think they call it “winter mix.” It’s a great day to sit inside and write a blog post about chickens!

As unwelcoming as the weather was this morning, Scott went out (faithful man that he is) to feed and water and found our first Ameraucana eggs! We’ve been raising these girls since March of 2017, and hadn’t seen a single egg yet. Part of that was that the days got short just as they should have come into lay, and none of our 25 laying hens was giving us a single egg. It’s healthy for the mature hens to get a laying break right after they molt, but the pullets didn’t really need one.

Two weeks ago, we put on lights, and the eggs have been coming back slowly. Interestingly, first it was a mix of mature and pullet Light Sussex eggs, in various shades of pink and tan. Then came the Black Copper Marans’ dark chocolate eggs—pullet size only. And now, we see the first Ameraucana eggs—blue green and quite large for pullet eggs, which leads me to suspect that they either did, or could have, laid earlier in the year if the lights had been right.

We do so love having a colorful mix of eggs in our basket. We love also the insides: free ranging layers lead to dark orange yolks and freshness unparalleled by what we can buy in the store. (I know, because we’ve been buying eggs through the fall before we turned on the lights.)

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Ameraucanas at Storybook Farm!

All this year, I’ve been growing out my new Ameraucana breeding stock, and they have turned out so nice! I am beyond thrilled!

Splash Pullet

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Ameraucana is a relatively new breed of chicken, having only been accepted by the American Poultry Association in 1984. They have quickly gained popularity, however, and are bred in a number of color varieties. We breed blacks, blues (which are both APA approved) and also splash. This last variety is a fun change from the more run-of-the-mill color schemes among chickens (see a picture of one of our splash pullets, right). Our original stock came from the show-stopper lines of Paul and Angela Smith in Texas.

Here at Storybook Farm, we raise four breeds of Large Fowl. By far, our favorites for personality, egg color, and overall cuteness are the Ameraucanas! They are not large birds as compared to our Light Sussex and Marans, but they are quick, bright, and funny. I love their feathery muffs that half hide their faces, while their expressive eyes peek out at you and twinkle merrily. Ours are curious, but shy. I have known people to make real pets of them, however, with a little effort–and a fair number of treats!

Three Beautiful Boys: Black, Splash, Blue

Ameraucanas are layers of large, blue eggs–the color of robin’s eggs! Their feather colors are beautiful: the blacks have a deep green sheen. The blues have delicate lacing on their feathers. The splash are a funky mixture of black and white. If it’s a fun factor you’re after, you’ve come to the right place with Ameraucanas!

We managed to raise three beautiful boys this year. Our black cock, especially, is large and lovely, but the other two are great as well. Because we have one of each, we can mix and match with our four blue hens and two splash hens to get all three color combinations. In case you’ve never learned this before, the “blue” gene is actually acting to dilute black coloration in feathers are achieved by breeding differing colors together. Chicks inherit one of a pair of genes from each parent. The combinations that result give the following colors in chickens:

  • When there is no blue gene present in the pair, any black markings will be normally colored (i.e. they will appear black)
  • When there is one blue gene present in the pair, any feathers that would have been black on the bird will be diluted to blue (which can appear as anything from a slate gray to a darker, colonial blue color).
  • When there are two blue genes present in the pair, any black will be diluted to (blue splashed) white. This variety is called “splash.”

We are so looking forward to being able to offer hatching eggs and day-old chicks from these parents in the coming 2019 hatching season! First, we have to brave the cold, but we are praying that they’ll all come through just fine, and we’ll have lots of beautiful babies to share come spring! If you’d like to reserve chicks for 2019, please email us today.