Rebuilding the Flock: Take 6

We had some seriously crummy luck with chickens this year.  Let's see... we bought some young pullets that ended up having MG (Mycoplasma gallisepticum), were stupid and didn't quarentine new recruits so we exposed most of our flock (so we had to cull them), had a fox or other critter get some, had horrible luck with hatching eggs, and ended up with no birds at all.  How depressing. 

After a break from even trying to hatch again (I ran into some really bad luck on my hatches.  Humidity, maybe?), I'm giving it another shot.  The kids and I drove out to Garry Farm to pick up two dozen blue/black/splash maran eggs and a dozen lavender orpingtons ones.  We will be using these as a Life Cycle project for our class.  Hopefully, we will be able to candle them and track their development.  I put them into the incubator tonight, so technically there is a good chance some will begin hatching on a Thursday, November 3rd.  Back when my hatches were successful, we had a few that would start hatching on day 20.  The kids would love to watch as they hatch out!

 The farm visit was a good one.  It is always so nice to go to a working farm and be reminded... it's never the rolling fields and the red painted barn and matching silo.  It's real.  It's messy.  It's pieced together with what you have... and that is just fine. 

As we begin working on our property and laying out what we would like to raise here, grow there, and where to put this pavilion or our home, I need to keep in mind that a farm can take on many shapes.  It can fill many different needs.  Martha Stewart does not have to design my layout.  She sure hasn't designed the vast majority of the farm scenes I have visited.  Why?  Because they are bustling and growing and changing and adapting and surviving.  And that, my friends, is a good thing.