Day: May 24, 2011

Turkey Tracks: Nan’s Gift

Turkey Tracks:  May 24, 2011

Nan’s Hand-Crafted Bookmarks

My niece and namesake, Louisa Nancy Howser Gardner, aka as Nan, makes hand-crafted bookmarks.  This endeavor is in addition to making a beautiful baby six months ago:  Judah.  And, in addition to being an artist.

Anyway, she recently sent me one of the bookmarks, and I treasure it.  Every time I use it, which is daily, I think of her and how she made all those tiny, tiny braidings.  And, I think of how smart and how wise and how sweet she is.  Though she is drop-dead beautiful, she doesn’t seem to know it.

To send someone something you’ve taken the time to make is a very special endeavor.  They are not only telling you that you’re special, that you are worthy of their time, they are sending all the positive energy that surrounds the piece–energy the piece accrues while they are making it.

Here’s a picture of my bookmark from Nan–in use:

You can see more of  Nan’s work on her blog:  http://gardnerinthemaking.wordpress.com.

Tami Enright lent me FARM CITY.  She loved it.  And FIBER MENACE is up next in my read pile–a list I’ll be posting on this blog eventually.

Turkey Tracks: Copper Black Maran and Wheaten Americauna Chicks

Turkey Tracks:  May 24, 2011

Copper Black Marans and Wheaten Americaunas

In addition to the Freedom Ranger chicks, Rose and I had two other baby chick endeavors happening.  Because our CBMs have a white feather gene, we didn’t want to reproduce too many of them–although their egg color is a beautiful dark brown.  Also, we felt like we needed other breeding stock.  So, in order to keep the CBMs going–so we get enough for Rose to have more hens and so I could replace ageing hens whose laying has slowed down considerably (but who are as sweet as can be)–I ordered 15 CBM chicks for us from Tom Culpepper in Grantville, Georgia.  Tom’s chickens derive from a famous line–the Wade Jeane line of CBMs.   To recap, CBMs are NOT rare in Europe, but because of the fowl importation laws and avian flu, America has to get along with its own, rare CBM lines.  So, CBMs are rare in America.  Here’s Tom’s web site if you want to see some pictures:    http://www.mydarkeggs.com/home.

CBMs are spectacular.  They are both meat and laying birds, are BIG, and the rooster is gorgeous and a great protector.   The hens are docile and very social and great foragers.  The only problem with CBMs in Maine is that their generous combs can and do get frostbite, so a good owner lubes them up with vaseline a lot during the winter.

In addition to the CBMs, Rose and I wanted to get chicks from her Wheaten Americaunas.  These birds are also spectacular.  The hens are good layers of beautiful blue eggs, they’re lighter and can fly quite well, they’re funny and friendly and emotional, and are great foragers.  So, Rose isolated her Wheatens, collected eggs, borrowed my incubator, bought two more, and started incubating eggs.  She also included “backyarder” eggs, but as William was the father, they could likely be “Easter Eggers” who would lay a blue, olive, or blue-green egg.

Here are eggs starting to hatch:

Here are some newly hatched Wheatens  that are still wet and weak:

 Here’s a picture of the chicks at about 2 1/2 weeks, just after we got back from Charleston.

Now you can understand how fast the Freedom Rangers are growing!  (See below)  They’re only a little over two weeks older than these chicks.  The CBMs are the black shaggy chicks.  See their feathered feet?  They’ll lose the white fluff when they feather out.  The blond on the brick is a Wheaten Americauna.  She’s backed by a backyarder.  The light chicks in the front may be Wheatens as well.  It’s too soon to tell.  the little grey/lavender chick comes from Baby, the Blue Cochin mix (lays a blue egg) that Rose raised by hand.  Rose is keeping her!

Rose and I feel there should be more healthy baby chicks for sale locally, so that’s what Rose is trying to do.  Her backyarders are half Wheaten Americauna, so will have a good shot at laying blue range eggs.  She does have a Barbanter rooster as well, and there are two Barbanters in this batch of chicks.  They are beautiful, tall, rangy, spotted chickens who lay a white egg.  So, Rose’s egg collection is going to be so colorful!

Turkey Tracks: Freedom Ranger Update

Turkey Tracks:  May 24, 2011

Freedom Ranger Update

 The Freedom Ranger meat/layer chickens are growing like weeds.  You might remember that they arrived in the mail about a week before we left for our Charleston trip.  Here’s a picture of one that’s about a week old.  Rose and I were admiring the wing colors.  Freedom Rangers are hybrids, with four distinct grandparents.  So, it’s impossible to reproduce a Freedom Ranger by breeding them to each other.  There is only one company that markets the eggs–and only a handful of companies worldwide that market all hatching eggs commercially.  Freedom Rangers are the famous “Red Label” chicken sold in France.  They are both meat chickens and layers, and they arrive with varying color combinations.  They are good foragers, food sturdy birds.

Here’s what they looked like last week when we arrived home.  Now they are about three weeks old.  They’re growing so fast that they have bare patches under wings and the like, so they look quite scruffy.  But, their feathers will catch up with their bodies soon.

Look at the size of the feet!  We think the real “big foots” may be roosters.

As soon as we can tell hens from roosters, I’m bringing home one of the hens as a layer.  It will be hard to pick one out as they are all so beautiful.