Aquaponics Update, April 27, 2011

I'm excited that folks at our Seicho-No-Ie truth realization seminar made a short visit to the house to see my "mini farm" this weekend. We checked out my aquaponics system, little chickies, bunnies, fishies, and even worms. I think the kids enjoyed feeding all of them and collecting eggs! Chicken eggs, that is! And we picked alot of lettuce and watercress for our dinner salad. It felt really, really good to share what I grew with friends.

That evening, we boiled and colored the eggs using natural dyes ... blue with purple cabbage, green with spinach, yellow with ground tumeric, yellow with onion skins, pink with beets, and red with red onion skins. To make green, we also mixed the purple cabbage and onion skins dye and it worked really well! It made a delicate green.

And we even had a taste test. Clifford, our chef for the weekend, tasted mainland eggs and my chickie eggs side by side ... and he said there is a definite difference and that my chickie eggs tastes like what eggs used to taste like! That's the biggest compliment ever!

Shut out and shut down!

Lily is looking rather confused ... "NO CHICKENS ALLOWED!"

*fingers crossed*

Little Tulip

Tulip is a bantam silkie pullet and already 5.5 months old! She's gotten quite a bit fluffier in the past couple months.

Egg to riches

From this ...

... to this.

The Experiment: Raise chickens from hatching eggs (i.e., purchased fertile eggs), sell them, apply funds toward feed and supplies needed to raise 2 hens for eggs. Goal: net input = net output.

The Result: Utter and dismal failure ... sort of.

The Analysis: I ended up adoring (*love*) my three silkie chickies as pets rather than commodities and the idea of selling them became very distressing and yes, there were many tears. I should have known. Already, 2 have crowed (roosters *gulp*) and had to be reluctantly rehomed. Buttercup has already been rehomed to a ranch in Kona and Camellia will follow this weekend. Sell them? God forbid! I gave them to a family with 13 kids that I know will give them a good life and love `em up and that was a good feeling.

The Lesson: I am not cut out to be a chicken farmer. Maybe having many will offset their uncanny ability to tug at my heartstrings but then, of course, naming them was the first big red flag. I guess I'll just have to admit my little silkies are my pets and I should just relish the fact that my pets provide me eggs for breakfast. Will I be hatching chicks again any time soon? Heck no! Well, maybe not.

13 weeks old

Camellia is looking awfully rooster-ish!
The gang ... Tulip, the splash one in the middle of the picture is a lot smaller than the others but she's the sweetest.
Buttercup is just plain beautiful! The white and blue (i.e., black) ones are my adult hens, Lily and Daisy.

5 weeks

At 5 weeks, they are making up their way up the steps to the front door to loudly pronounce they need more food. *sigh* Lily and Daisy are really good teachers. Too good, in my opinion!

1 month old ... Buttercup

Buttercup's bloomers seem a bit oversized but she's ... he's (?) growing into them. Yes, I do think we have a rooster here but I don't think I'll know for sure for 3 months.

The awkward stage

19 days old ...

Tulip, Buttercup, and Camellia had their first independent adventure into the yard today. They somehow got themselves down from the top level of their coop in the morning and after much squawking, made their way up the ramp and back upstairs at the end of the day. It took much prodding from their mommies but they did it themselves. The life of chickens is amazing to me. They were tiny eggs just over 2 weeks ago! Now they look like awkward teenagers growing into their feet and wings!

12 days old ...

Twelve days old and their feathers are growing in.

4 days old ... Fluffy butts

From egg to this in 21 days. It just amazes me!

2 days old ... Camellia has two mommies

This little one is named Camellia. I think she's a splash-colored silkie, which is essentially spotted.
Daisy and Lily take their responsibilities very seriously ... I mean VERY seriously.

Hatch Day (Day 21): One fluffy butt!

All three silkie chicks have hatched! YAAAAYYYYY! Two are this color (blue, probably) and one is buff. More pics will be forthcoming as soon as they start venturing from under the mommas.

Day 20: Happy Birthday Tulip!

Found this little thing at 4:30 pm today (so that's 31.5 hrs since it pipped). Since then Tulip's been joined by another one! So, now I have two little fuzzy butts and maybe one more on the way!

Day 20!!!! We got pipping!

WOOHOO! Two of the 3 eggs have started to pip! That is, they have broken through the eggshell! Daisy and Lily have been fighting over the eggs so I took the dud one (the 4th) and placed it under Daisy to settle it. I'm a little worried this jostling about is not a good thing but watching the hens carefully and may have to separate them if it goes on. I got this shot of one of the pipping egg right before Lily slipped it under her. If you look carefully, you can see the crack in the shell.

Day 17

I guess hatching could take place from tomorrow through Thursday! I candled the 4 eggs last night and one unfortunately died. I haven't removed it yet because I have not fully acknowledged that one of the precious eggs has stopped developing! I am an optimist after all. The chicks are taking up most of the space in the egg with an air pocket at one end ... and not moving around at all so I am hoping that is a good sign. I will keep my fingers crossed that at least 1 will hatch. I took this pic today. Don't they look so SERIOUS?

Day 12

Just 7-9 more days to go. I tried candling the eggs tonight but it is already too dark to see anything. The air pocket is on the fat end of the egg but that's about all that's visible. I didn't see any movement but my guess is that it is a pretty tight squeeze in there right now so maybe I ought not see too much movement. The wait is killing me! I hear that Daisy and Lily can feel the chick's heart beat now. I wonder what they are thinking ...

Day 10

It is Day 10 (of ~19). Checked 2 of the 4 eggs last night and this is pretty much what the eggs look like now (the video's not mine; it's from YouTube):

*fingers crossed*

Countdown to Hatch!

Success! I bought 3 silkie chicken hatching eggs on Ebay from muki1234, a highly recommended silkie breeder from TN. The eggs were laid on Feb 8 and arrived on Feb 11th and set under Lily and Daisy the same day. Melinda (the breeder) stuck an extra egg in the box so my chances of success are even greater! My little hens were already broody and took to mothering immediately! They sit all day, leaving the nest only once a day to eat, drink, and poop. Since it takes 21 days to hatch, I am counting down the days. They are hopefully hatching on March 4. There's a countdown clock to the right so I welcome ya'll to join me with the watch! I'm so excited! If I get a chance, I'll post some candling pics of the developing embryos!

Update: 2/14 (Day 3) - three of four eggs are showing spidering veins! That means embryos are developing!

Update: 2/16 (Day 5) - Maybe it was wishful thinking. Two of the eggs showed embryo development.

Update: 2/16, 7:21pm (Day 5) - Candled tonight and ALL 4 eggs show signs of life!!!! I'm so so so happy!

Diet eggs

I call these my "diet eggs" because they are tiny ... much smaller than the large size I used to buy from the store. They are from Lily and Daisy and are absolutely yummy! I've already given away 3 dozen eggs and have more than enough for myself!