Chicken Swap

I am so incredibly blessed to belong to a fantastic facebook group called Chicken Swap of Missouri... they have been my helpers and teachers and I am just blessed. We did an ornament swap this year which was super fun. I found rooster ornaments at Hobby Lobby and sent those out.. and I received some cute ones back.. I received a snowman made from a lightbulb ( forgot to take a pic of it, but it was super cute!!) and here is the other two I received!!!

Both were homemade... crafty ladies!!!

Aren't they adorable?? It's kind of hard to tell, but the one on top is a sewn hen.. super cute and the one on the bottom is a clay star with a sparkle rooster stamp!! LOVED THEM!!!!

Do you have a go to group of friends that help you with all your chicken problems?? Or a group of people just to chat with about chickens? I am incredibly thankful for the awesome "peeps" at missouri chicken swap!!!!

Love, JL~

Feed the Birds.. Tuppence a Bag!

Don't you love that movie???? It has to be one of my many favorites! We are blessed here at Fruit Tree Hill.. we have hundreds of birds that flock around the bird feeders and we love to watch them and listen to them! The kids have actually held a couple of the baby birds, and we love to watch the resident cardinal couple make a nest and hatch some cute babies!!

Here is one of the bird feeders... you can probably see the 1.00 sticker on it.. good ole yard sales!! Plus we have multiple suet feeders which they go crazy for!! This week we will be making some new feeders. I have been browsing pinterest and they have such cool ideas!!!

This one is made out of a slinky!!!! How smart!!!

This is a great idea to me... I can just picture lots of these stars hanging in the trees etc for the birdies to eat!!!!

What kind of bird feeders do you have at your house?? Any fun stories about the birdies?? Leave a message in the comments!!!

Love, JL~

The case for the turkey....

My son is saving his money. This in itself is a miraculous feat, but he is saving it for something special. A Turkey.

He has a plan. He will buy the turkey at Farm and Home in the spring. Then he will bring it home and keep it in his bedroom until it's old enough to go outside ( remember this is HIS plan.. mommy has the right to change any parts of the plan ... like letting the turkey sleep with Dylan, umm no.).
The next part of the plan is to build the turkey a pen. He is also saving money for food, as they eat more then chickens etc. He wants to sell the turkey eggs. Sigh. He has a big plan. For now, we are letting him dream and save his money. We will see in the spring, whether a turkey on an "urban farm" in the middle of town is going to fly.. hehe get it fly??

For now, he has a good case. We will see what the judges decide in the spring. :)

Winter at the Hill

Brr!! Last night we got the first flurry of the season. Nothing stuck, but it was pretty for the little bit it came down. Now, I was born in Florida, but raised in Ohio...so I hate snow.. but unfortunately, living in Ohio and now Missouri, I'm used to it. I guess it's just in my blood to hate the cold!!

The animals are all dealing with the winter in there own special ways :

Roxie likes to stay inside and lounge on her blanket  ( She is so very very spoiled lol)

The Ladies like the cold, as long as they have scratch grains!! ( they are also so very very spoiled!)

and my little fluffy butt, Elvis, also doesn't mind the cold. He is a bantam cochin and he has a special job in the flock... he is the protector of the eggs... it is so cute!! Sometimes he will even lay beside the hens as they lay the eggs.. then he sits with the eggs until we collect them! What a gentleman!!

Fancy Egg Cartons

My girls were busy this weekend!!! They blinged out some old walmart egg cartons so we can have something snazzy to give away eggs in!!! It's hard to see in this pic but they are COVERED in glitter!!! LOL... anyway.. I think they have something here... blinged out egg cartons! We are ordering egg cartons and labels at http://www.customeggcartonlabels.com/  this spring.. so we can use them at the Farmers Market... I'm thinking the girls will have to add some glitter!!! LOL!!!!

The egg carton artists :

Marlee and Sydney

( this is an old pic but you can see how fun they are!!! Buckets of fun I tell ya!!!)

Chicken Hats

So.... do you think if I crocheted some warm chicken hats and scarves... the ladies would wear them???

Cute huh! :)

Winter is coming.....

Winter is coming.... that means it is time to break out the garden catalogs and hatchery catalogs and start planning for next spring!!! What are some of your favorite companies for gardening? Right now I'm really liking the Gurney's catalog, because they are running a deal I am going to take advantage of! You spend 25 bucks.. you get 25 bucks free!
www.gurneys.com

Also, this weekend has alot of plans... we need to finish getting the yard ready for winter.. time to put everything to bed. Being in Missouri, you just never know what the weather is going to be like. Last winter we had tornadoes and also ice storms. So we will mow the yard one last time, get straw on the beds, and put away all the outdoor toys. Keith will be finishing getting the coops and cages winterized and then we will just have to take care of daily needs for the animals. Keith built a new huge run in the back of the big coop for the chickens. They LOVE it. They have been chowing down on pumpkin ( the obligatory front porch pumpkin that everyone has on their porch for fall) they love the pumpin and it is super good for the chickens. I have read it also works as a natural de-wormer which even tho my chicks don't have worms, I am hoping it is a good preventative too! I have been reading alot on what makes healthy chickens, because we have happy healthy chickens, and we are getting beautiful eggs. We are blessed.

Don't tell Dylan ( the rooster whisperer) but he is getting an incubator for Christmas. He can't wait until spring so we can incubate our eggs and grow our flock , so we can sell eggs at Farmer's Market. I have huge ideas for Farmer's Market next year. I can't wait!!

So I will leave you with a pic of the kids enjoying the park this fall... just because I can. HA!!!

 

New Ladies at the Hill

 

Recently we aquired two new ladies... a beautiful black australorp named Skylar and a rhode island red..... possibly mixed with something else? Her name is Ginger. They are happy so far :)

 

 

 

I'm also not sure if I introduced the two ladies we received a few weeks ago.... two beautiful dominiques who have been blessing us with their eggs!!! So when all the ladies start laying ( we are at about 6-7 eggs a day now.... we will be getting a dozen eggs a day!!! Next spring we will be adding more so we can sell our eggs at the Farmers Market!!! Right now we are blessed to be eating all these awesome eggs and providing our extended family with fresh healthy eggs!

 

Monster Egg!!

This morning we found a big surprise in the hen boxes!! This monster egg! Here is a pic of it... it's the one in the middle... on the left is one of the rhode island red eggs, then in the middle is the monster egg, and on the right is a store bought egg :) super cool huh!!!

The story of the mole....

So we were sitting outside enjoying the evening and all of the sudden I saw a mound of dirt move! Keith grabbed the shovel... we weren't sure if it was a mole or a snake! Turned out it was the chubbiest little mole ever! He was darling... but he made a run right for the chicken play yard! Hershey, our big rooster kind of squeaked and jumped out of the way which made us laugh! Then Rose, our brave hen, took after him and chased him to the wall.. he started to dig under but she grabbed his little tail! Finally Keith just flung him over the fence so he could find a new home... far away from our house and garden! But I thought it was just so cute because Hershey is supposed to be the protector... but I guess he's afraid of moles!! Here's a pic of the mole trying to get under the wall and Rose being our protector!!!!

some updated pics of the animals

Here are the beautiful girl bunnies :) They love to play ball and they're snacking on alfalfa and carrots !

 Handsome boy bunnies enjoying their morning snack of alfalfa and carrots.. they also have a ball to play with!

 Johnny and June... man i love those bunnies!

The ladies telling me good morning! :)

The Farm Accident

It was bound to happen.... when you're a farmer, whether a big operation or a teeny tiny urban "farmette" , you're going to have an animal or human get hurt. Last night we found our polish hen , Kate, had been pecked like crazy by the other three chicks in her coop... they were pulling her feathers out!!! She has a raw chicken meat back.... but we immediately asked for help on BYC and also my new friends at Missouri Chicken Swap on Facebook.... they were amazing telling us what to do to help our little Kate. She has always been weaker then the others... and she can't see because of her feathers ( she is getting a trim today!) so she was picked on :(    soooo awful!!! I will spare you the grizzly pictures... but after getting her all fixed up with medicine ( blu kote bought at farm and home) and having her sleep inside in roxie's pen, hehe, she looks great this morning!!! Keith made her a bachelorette pen... she can't be with the others anymore, we gotta keep her safe! So here is a fun pic of her waking up this morning ! She is like " what the heck am I doing in here???" :)

The Rooster Whisperer

My sister made Dylan this tshirt for his birthday.... he is defintely the Rooster Whisperer!!! He can carry around our big roo Hershey, like he's a baby! He is defintely amazing with all the chickens! I thought this tshirt was awesome!!! My sis is super talented... im thinking I need one that says "Hen mama" or chick mama! LOL~~

Dolly's new trick!

Look what Dolly can do! She loves to hop onto the fence then climb into our laps! She's a lovey!

EGGS!!!!

Look at the gorgeous eggs!!! They taste so amazing !! Thank you Ladies! ( we now have two laying!)

Look what Rachel is doing!

Hey everyone! Come and see what Rachel is doing!!! She's laying an egg!!! ( hoping these two take lessons from her and start laying too! so cute how they are so curious!)

FIRST EGG!!!!!!! 7-29-2012

Dylan said that Rachel was making the egg song... lol... so he and I went outside to check... we looked inside and just as we did... PLOP!!!! She laid the first egg!!!! She was so proud and so were we!!! It's a perfect little brown egg. I'm so excited and proud and thankful that I got to be with my son and actually see it happen!!!!

Good Job Rachel!! ( she's a rhode island red!!)

fresh footage !

Chickens in the Coop

The New Bunnies of Fruit Tree Hill Part Two

We have two more left to introduce!   Flash and

Here's Sebastian and the other one is Foxy Cleopatra :)

We Love Them!!!!

The New Bunnies of Fruit Tree Hill

The 4th of July seemed like a good time to get some new friends here at the Hill. We traveled to Center, MO to meet a neat couple who raised thousands of bunnies, chickens, pheasants, and quail! We came home with 7 new babies!!! Lionhead Bunnies and Netherland Dwarfs. Here are some pics of our new bunnies!

Sydney with Teddy......  they are lounging on the couch.... Syd hasnt moved for like an hour... she is just cozy with Teddy!

Winter - she is a netherland

This is Violet :)

this is Paris... hiding under Dylans knee :)

Sebastian... he's a cuddly little guy!

Ok, we have a couple more, but I need to make a new post lol! To many pics in this one! :) 

Cherry Picking and Raspberries getting ready!

Well, the cherry trees are FULL!!!! We have had a blast cherry picking and as you can see from the other picture, the raspberries will be next!!! Also, Marlee and Sydney picked two strawberries yesterday, we probably wont get a lot of strawberries this year since we just planted twenty new plants this year. :)

Sweet Polish Hair

Kate one of our Polish chickens is getting quite the do!!!!!!

Chicken Coop Building

As of last week... I no longer have chickens in my house!!!!! Keith finished the big coop.. I still need to take pics of the finished product, its gorgeous and the ladies and two roo's love it! It's painted barn red with white trim. The baby chickens are in the smaller coop now and everyone is happy! The big chickens are out in their big play yard all day, then the baby chicks come out in the evening while the big ones go in their big coop. ( they don't get along to well!) the bunnies love all the chickens and yesterday June tried to dig out of the play yard! She was so cute!

The Gentle Giant, The mini roo, and the ladies

Hershey, our gentle giant rooster

Our mini rooster who thinks he's the boss * he isnt * Elvis :)

Lola, the real boss of the coop

Pretty Rose... who is never without her pal Loud Lucy ( in the background)

One last picture.... a chicken butt!! hehehehe.... that's Elvis. He's got a cute behind :)