The chicks are hatching!

With only a week into spring, the chicks have made their presence known. Hatch rates have been fantastic, and the chicks are growing like weeds. So far we have Easter Eggers, a few mixed brown layers, some stunning blue and black copper marans (some clean legged, some feather legged), blue and black ameraucanas, and the latest hatch this weekend was some beautiful blue and black barred olive eggers and mottled javas! (I have another very large hatch of both these breeds due towards the end of April, if anyone is interested). I will post pics very soon. The next hatch will be this weekend, of F2 olive eggers and some more black copper marans, plus some show-quality mottled cochins and porcelain d'uccles. These will be offered for sale. The next few hatches I will be doing this year will be some black ameraucanas (from a very nice show line), silver ameraucanas (John Blehm's line), wheaten and blue wheaten ameraucanas, a mixed maran group (including some golden salmon and golden cuckoo marans), lavender orpingtons, buff leghorns, plus more olive eggers, blue copper marans (Davis), and blue ameraucanas (Cree Farms line).

I do have chicks arriving from Whitman Farm soon (welsummers, delawares, and ameraucanas).

I will have some chicks available at the Gilman swap on 5/7. Happy hatching!

Linus returns with big wins from the TB Celebration Show!

Linus, Leo and I traveled to the Thoroughbred Celebration Show in Lexington, VA from March 17th-20th. This show would keep Linus very busy. Shown as 'Tinsel Town', he definitely turned some heads at the show. Although it's hard to miss a 17h grey horse, especially one as cute as he is. He took 5th place in our first 2 3" jumping class out of 15, which I was very proud of him for. He has tons of scope and shows so much promise; we still have work to do but I'm very pleased with his progress, with his confidence ever increasing. We rode in 4 hunter pleasure classes, 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday. Linus won BOTH of his classes on Friday, and on Saturday he took a 2nd (out of approximately 24 entries) and a 5th. He was Champion in his first division and Reserve Champion in the second division. Leo was shown in-hand in the model class, and while he didn't pin, he certainly showed himself to have the aptitude to be a well-behaved hunter.

This show was mostly a spectating event for Leo, to get him used to the show scene. I'm proud to say he handled everything in stride, and was a perfectly behaved gentleman. He received lots of compliments on his good looks and cute head, and I even found time to hop on him a few times in the evenings. He is showing great promise, and will be taken to a few more shows to spectate before his debut in some pleasure classes later this spring.

The chicks keep coming! As of right now I have 6 Easter Eggers, 1 buff orpington, 1 olive egger, and 4 'mixes' that will eventually lay a brown egg. Expected this week are blue and black copper marans as well as some stunning blue and black ameraucanas from Chicken Scratch Poultry in IL. Next week will be very busy with 2 hatches, including barred olive eggers and mottled javas from a breeder in TX, and olive eggers plus black copper marans from a breeder in WA. While I'm not much of a bantam fan, I saw some show-quality birds from a breeder in GA and couldn't say no to eggs from her mottled cochins and porcelain d'uccles. Those will be out on 4/2. I will have a limited number of chicks for sale from these hatches. Later in April and early may I will have hatches with more barred olive eggers (these produce a speckled green egg!) and mottled javas, and I am expecting live chicks from Whitmore Farm in MD.