Post Bear Flock

I am officially finished incubating and hatching birds until I am able to upgrade and bear proof my outdoor brooding capabilities.  We have reinforced the entire aviary with plywood and 2x4s and put three bolts on the outside door to the coop.  Suffices to say that although the bear keeps coming around and tore the moulding off my car trying to get to a bag of chicken feed I had in the trunk, we have managed to fortify the bird habitat enough to keep the bears out.

As of yesterday afternoon, I have NO birds in my house, save for the occasional humming bird that comes in an open window and I am relieved to say the least.  Poultry are stinky, messy, high maintenance creatures and I would prefer to wait a little while before resuming my flock expansion.  Not all is lost however as you will see in the photos below three hens have diligently taken over the responsibility.

For those who supported the Nicole's Farm Indigogo campaign and would like to name a chicken,  here are the fruits of my labour.  The smallest of the chicks are six weeks old and examples of the silkie dominant breed that I am aiming to develop.  I do not know whether they are males or females yet, but when they mature the hens will lay blue eggs.

Hens in the coop.  The golden one with blue colouring has been sitting  on over a dozen eggs for some weeks now.  She is too small to cover the entire clutch.  The red faced hen tries to take her place every morning when she gets up for her few minutes to eat and drink.  Now they seem to be sharing the space which could turn out well as the second hen will take over any protruding eggs.

These three chicks are the first of my hatch.  They are mixed breeds and I believe the black one and the black and dark orange one are roosters.

My silkie chicks.  There are seven in total. Three white, two darker and two grey/tan.  I'm very happy about the tan coloured ones as we lost their mom to the bear a couple months ago.  Glad to see her line carried on.

The Alpha rooster in my flock. We've name him Bon Jovi. His breed is Polish Crested.  He stay pretty clear from people but has never displayed aggression towards us and keeps the flock in good order despite the abundance of lower tier roosters.

This is Bon Jovi's son and the first chick I hatched from our eggs.

This is the best mommy out of my hens. This is the second chick she has raised since arriving at Nicole's Farm. 

This is one of the other roosters.  He is HUGE and has a very deep crow.  I look forward to finding some  attractive black hens in the future and creating a line from his genes.

White Silkie Chicks

Grey and Tan Silkie Chick with great colouring on its face

Broody silkie momma.  She has hidden herself in the dark in the very back recesses of the coop. I tried to move her and her clutch of eggs into a more reasonable location with easier access to food and water but she wanted nothing of it and I find her back here the next morning.

The three pheasant chicks that made it to outdoor viability.  It looks like three females but I am not  going to know for sure until they fully reach maturity.

Proof you can off leash train a jack russell terrier.  Bongo killed a number of my birds when we first brought them home and hadn't fully reinforced the habitats.  I wouldn't trust him unsupervised but he has been trained to abstain.

The other chick that was successfully hatched by one of my hens. 

My favourite hen.  She rarely lays an egg, is tiny and brave beyond her size.  She escaped from the coop one afternoon late last year and Bongo got her and chomped her a couple times. I nursed her back to health in the house and she mothered Bon Jovi's son in returned when he was the only chick that made it through my first small hatch.  She is the first to jump out the door when I allow the chickens to free range and the last to go inside.

Silkie chicks

Tan Silkie Chick

The four quail chicks that made it to outdoor viability.  They will replace their parents who were all lost to the bears.

Brown silkie chick

Chicks

I've been collecting all the eggs I can in hopes of growing our flock. My current project is to develop a silkie dominant breed with an araucana strain in the genetics so that they lay light blue eggs. I absolutely adore Silkie chickens as they are small, quiet and the roosters are protective of their ladies but docile with humans.

The Parents - Rooster in White

White silkie chick.  Pheasant chick at bottom right.

Eggs in the 'bator. Phesant in dark brown, silkie in blue, other chick in light/white.

Four silkie chicks.

Community Engagement and building brand

Since our family does not have to relocate to the eastern part of BC for work this spring, I have had the luxury of joining some local community organizations.  In 1998/99, I particpated in a Rotary Youth Exchange to Sweden and now 14 years later I have had the profound joy of joining the same club that sent me on that character building trip.  The folks in the Sechelt Rotary Club have proved welcoming and eager to make a change in our community.  The club has chosen to focus on youth and literacy, both topics rank very high on my personal priority list.

I have begun joining in on meetings with Voice on the Coast, Sunshine Coast Breakfast for Kids, Sunshine Coast Community Foundation - Vital Signs team and of course the Agriculture Advisory Committee at the good old Sunshine Coast Regional District.

Also of interest, I've been upping my participation in small business and social enterprise platforms and competitions.  At the end of May, I submitted my application for "The Challenge Contest" sponsored by The Globe and Mail and Telus.  They're offering a $100,000 grant and an invaluable round of great nation wide press!  Both would be tremendous game changers and launch platforms for Nicole's Farm, so keep your fingers crossed for it.

In addition, I have been working with the BC Ideas Team from Ashoka Changemakers.  You'll see me featured as a Thought Leader for the campaign.  I also helped host a #socentchat last week,  a guest post go live on their site in the next couple days, next week I'll be moderating a BC Ideas discussion piece and I have a little spot in their campaign video.

All in all, I've been working hard to hustle brand while hunting for seed funding for the proof of concept.  Dynamic is the life of the entrepreneur but I wouldn't change it for a thing.

Proof of Concept Farm - The land

My partner has been clearing the land for the one acre proof of concept farm in Halfmoon Bay, BC.  The spot has great sun exposure and excellent visibility from highway 101.  Once the fence is up and the beds are lined up and planted all those passing by will be able to watch as the project grows!

View from back of spot with highway in front.

View from on-site looking towards highway and Sechelt.

View of spot with highway at my back.

two eldest daughters walking down to farm site

Berm pile at far back will be screened for topsoil

Rookie Lessons in Poultry Raising

Valuable lessons learned today.

There is nae a happier bird than a chukar patridge in a dust bath after a long wet winter.  Ditto goes for ringneck pheasants especially the females. Pleasure induced chirps and coos and song could be heard from afar.

On the same topic, not even a handful of scratch tossed in will entice a flock of chickens to climb into a blue kiddie pool for same dust bath opportunity.

The crops I've planned this year

Check out this pinterest board of crops I have planned this year at Nicole's Farm.

http://pinterest.com/nicolesfarm/crops/

Looking for a good reason to buy Canadian?