Quality Probiotic Cultures

Chicks

Started Barred Rock Chicks

I have two dozen Plymouth Barred Rock hens and a few Cuckoo Morans laying eggs regularly. These chicks were hatched on the farm and are naturally raised on unmedicated feed. These are the healthiest chicks I ever raised. It must be because their parents eat kefir soaked oats every day. I can spare about 6 hens.  I am getting ready to set more Cuckoo Moran eggs. Let me know how many you want.

I have still have the four muscovy ducks that I hatched last summer. It turns out I got 3 ducks and a drake. I anticipate many clutches this summer. Stay tuned.

The six guineas I had up for adoption are sold. All extra quail from a second hatch are sold. Right now I am getting 34 eggs/day out of 34 quail. I've never seen such a thing. We have 15-25 eggs sunny side up all the time. So cute. I am not sure if I will be setting more quail eggs this year. They are cute as the dickens as you can see by the photo of the day old chick above.

Marilyn Kefirlady,
who has always loved chickens and now with my new fancy incubators am able to hatch eggs to my heart's content

An Interesting Experiment with Eggs

A friend of mine orders eggs from me every six weeks when we see each other for food co-op distribution. He told me I have good eggs and this is how he knows. He says they last longer than other eggs he gets. The other eggs stay fresh for two weeks. These are from free range chickens. He said my eggs last for six weeks. He doesn't know how long they actually last because he uses them up. I told him my chickens are not on free range but I do give them grass clippings when I mow plus they are on a raw diet. I make their feed starting with raw milk kefir as you already know. The chickens who lay eggs that only last two weeks are on commercial egg laying mash.

Chick news

After selling six hen chicks I have 15 cuckoo morans left, which hatched March 30. Another 21 cuckoo morans hatched April 13.

In the incubator are 24 eggs from Barred Rock/Rhode Island red chickens. We are making out own black sex-linked chickens this year. Thank you Butch for the huge, beautiful Rhode Island Red rooster.

My only banty is raising four chicks, two of her own, and two from eggs I snuck under her. She is doing a great job.

As of April 22, there are two piles of five eggs each from my Muscovy Ducks. I haven't found another nest, if the third duck is laying.

Guinea News - from the incubator

The first batch of guineas hatched today and were two days early! I transferred them to the hatcher last night but before I did I put all the eggs into 100 degree water to soak for five minutes. There was some loud chirping from inside those eggs.

I had been soaking my duck eggs twice/day for five days before the expected hatch as per a friend's suggestion. He had been doing that with his goose eggs and was getting better hatch results. Since about 10 guineas last year couldn't not get out of their eggs I thought it wouldn't hurt to soak them a little. Ha! That really got things rolling.