Back to the Basics

I have been remiss in updating this blog, and for that I apologize. Especially to those who donated recently to keep this up and running. Those funds have been used to expand my allotted media library and blog site fee. The videos in this post are made possible by those gifts. It’s time to get back on the proverbial horse. Ironically, our daughter has taken up actual horseback riding in addition to her other activities which has been one of the reasons why finding time and the will to write has been difficult. I think the best way to pick up is where this all began, with the birds, the bees, the garden and the trees. I plan on doing a post about each, we will start with the fowl.

Two years ago, spurred on by my insatiable desire for unique psyanky eggs I found out about Black Copper Marans. These are a French verity from Marans, France. Because they are named for a location, even when referring to a single chicken the ‘s’ is always present. The hens are relatively unremarkable from a distance appearing to be mostly black. Up close and in the sunlight you can see the iridescent blue body feathers and copper neck feathers. The roosters are a rather classic copper neck and saddle with green black tail feathers.

I found an amazing hatchery in Ca to source this rare and very expensive breed . The Alchemist Farm is an admirable operation, not only are her eggs usually a 6 out of 9 on the egg color scale, but her practices are directed by a singular desire to avoid a lot of the pitfalls and unfortunate results of raising chickens on a large scale. As always, things went off the rails pretty quickly and I soon embarked on a breeding program of my own intended to darken the line I started with.

The amazing thing about this breed are their eggs, dark chocolate, deep red, speckled or even purplish eggs.

I am on my third crossing of those original eight birds and I’m finally starting to see some consistently darker results. In an effort to offset the cost of keeping chickens I decided to sell hatching eggs and chicks this spring. It has been nice to gain more experience in the process, though I’ve been hatching birds of all types for more than a decade, it was always for personal use. I was limited by how many I would be able to keep, so this was a welcome opportunity to really go wild. I started the season with two roosters, which was great for fertility rates, but not so great for the hens’ backs. The revenue from selling eggs and chicks allowed me to invest in really good chicken saddles.

I know from experience that once a hen is ‘bare backed‘ (loosing some or all her back feathers to rooster feet) that they won’t come back till they molt in the fall. Naked chickens are a sad sight; thus, chicken saddles and battle chickens. Since the breeding season is coming to an end, I rehomed one of the brothers. I will sell the other one too in the future as I want to keep a roo from this year’s run. He is very sweet but, not a perfect specimen and I will not be keeping more than one BCM (Black Copper Marans) rooster.

Hatching BCMs is a whole other trip. The extra pigment in the shell fills in the tiny pores that allow air exchange in an already extra hard shell which means that getting live chicks out of those shells can be very difficult. I have never had such heart brake with any other breed. Fully mature ready to hatch chicks that just never pip or make it out. When hatching BCMs the best technique is called ‘dry hatching’ meant to mimic a more natural humidity than the standard incubation procedures. Dry hatching seeks to limit the ambient humidity and so no water is added to the process until the last couple days and even then it is kept to a minimum. The lack of humitidy stops the chicks from getting too juicy when they are developing, often this breed will get too big during development impending their ability to turn inside the egg when they are trying to ‘unzip’ their shells.

Normally intervention during hatching is verboten, opening the incubator drops the humidity and the internal vascular membrane of the egg shrinks and strangles the chick, but this year I have found myself midwifing at least half of each batch. My other eggs from my Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers will hatch without issue, even when I add them to a run already in the middle of incubation. They can go through tremendous variations in humidity and hatch all on their own without any help from me. The BCMs are a hardy breed in all other aspects, but this one. This has led me to have what I refer to as ‘zombie gardens’ by day 22 of every hatch. Chicken eggs should hatch on day 21 but after talking with a couple of accomplished BCMs breeders they said that they will go in and hatch out every egg by 24 hours after the first one pips. This results in my incubator looking like this.

All of these chicks finished hatching on their own but would have died if I hadn’t helped. Hatching out eggs poses its own unique set of challenges. I could write them all down, but this video I sent to a customer is more succinct explication of assisted hatching.

It’s been three months of weekly or bi weekly hatchings, I have learned so much more than any other year. In addition to the pure bred BCMs I’ve crossed my first hybrid, F1 Olive Eggers. The first generation of this cross between a dark brown laying chicken and a true blue laying chicken will result in a hen that will lay dark green eggs. I’m excited to see what this next generation will become but I will have to wait till next spring to see the result of my efforts in terms of their eggs.

I don’t have to wait at all to enjoy the beautiful temperament of my flock. Every person I have sold chicks to has commented on how mellow and easy our chicks are to handle. They rarely spook and readily accept hands and cuddles.

I joke that this is because of generational trauma inflicted upon them by our daughter, who holds each chick in turn throughout her day. Truth be told, it is also due to chicken Fort Knox that we built a few years ago, free ranging is well and good, but I have lost dozens and dozens of birds over the years. Chickens do not share yards with gardens and dogs well and vice versa. Years ago I insisted on making a year round enclosure with a large fully covered outside area, this has resulted in generations of birds that don’t know much about predation. They know that people mean food and care. They trust bipeds implicitly and I think that makes for easygoing birds.

Hand naps from birth probably help.

I also believe that non human animals are very capable of communication, I talk to them and make my chicken noises ( you can hear my chicken communications in the above videos) but most importantly, I listen. I believe I demonstrate my comprehension by my actions. It is this ongoing conversation that engenders trust and closeness, it helps me to understand how I can better be of service to the flock and that is very rewarding. I enjoy the different energies all the critters emit, different cultures living closely. I often write about the systems we create and maintain on the homestead, sources of production and waste absorption that enrich the whole. The chickens are a huge part of that, they take in the waste from the garden and kitchen, produce eggs and give rich fertilizer that is used to build the soil so that the garden can be replenished year over year.

It’s a lot of work, sleepless nights and at times, getting into my car and feeling sure I hear something peeping. Though I know it’s just the echo of last nights hatch. Kind of like how years after you have a baby, the sound of an infant triggers something so deep that only time can mute it, but nothing ever really turns it off. I could go on and on in my belated effort to catch up, but for now I will end it with gratitude for your attention and patience with me for my lack of sharing recently.

The happenings on the homestead still serve as my anchor to deal with all the other ‘fun’ going on in the world at the moment. It is our little bit of chaotic sanity in this insane world.

Be well and thank you so much for reading!

Here’s a bunch of pictures of chicks 🙂