Saturday 31 March 2012

Chick Photo Shoot!

I decided to do a photo shoot of some of my chicks last week.

The Barred Cochins were really working it!



The Turkeys didn't know what to think!
Typical long legged model...

The Meat Birds making the most of their cute faze.

Blue Laced Red Wyandotte.  How could you know love that face?

The Blue Laced Red Wyandottes were relaxed.

Taking a little down time.

Maybe a little too relaxed?

The Rhode Island Red thought they were above such nonsense!

The Frizzle X Polish thought they weren't paid enough to show their faces...



Such a pretty little stream!

While coming back from a little hike earlier this week, my husband and I passed by the most beautiful little spot.  I had to go back with my camera and take a few pictures.






Saturday 24 March 2012

The Meat Birds and Turkeys Have Arrived!

So yesterday morning dawned bright, clear and cold.  But it was the day that we've been waiting for for a while now.  The day that our meat birds, turkeys and rhode island reds would arrive.  The post office had called the afternoon to say that they would be arriving at the post office the following morning first thing.  

So as soon as the Cable Car opened, my husband went to go pick them up.  I would have loved to have went too, but we had my neice sleeping over for the night and there wasn't enough room in the vehicle for us all to fit.  So it was decided that he would go and get them, and I would meet him across the river after he picked them up, and I could take them home from there, since he had to head back into town again into work.

So I headed across in the cable car.

This is our Cable Car that we ride back and forth in during winter, low and high water times. 

We wrapped the box in a sleeping bag to try and keep the little ones warm for the ride home.  The cable car can be a cool place, but only takes about 5 minutes or so to cross on.

From there, I loaded them onto the back of the quad for the short ride home.  Poor little things were peeping very, very loud.  They must have been very unhappy.

The kids were waiting for them with great excitement!  I'm so glad my niece was there to share the moment with us.

We open the box...
Then open it all the way!  Wow!  That's a lot of chicks!
As I took them out of the box one at a time, counting, and checking them, I gave them each a drink.  I added Electrovite to the water, which consists of Electrolites and Vitamins.  This is to give them an extra boost, because I think that being mailed is very hard on them.  This is the first drink that they get since they are hatched, and after over 2 days of being closed in a box with a hundred other chicks, I'm sure they need it.  I then placed them under the heat lamp to warm up because they were chilled.  They Hatched on April 21st.
After I finish taking out giving drinks, checking and counting them, I do the same for the baby turkeys, One at a time.
They bunched Under the heat light to get warm.  A few head back to the water for another drink, and some do a little exploring.
To show them where the feed is I tap on the feeders.  Chicks have a natural curiosity, and if I was a mommy hen, I would peck and cluck at the food to show them where it was.  Ok, I will admit, I did cluck, but I think I scared them because they all stopped peeping and dropped to the floor.  Yeah, I'm that scary.  
Some of the Turkey's took the trip here really hard and were weak, floppy and not much interest in eating or drinking.  I've been babying them since yesterday, trying to get them to eat and drink, but this morning one died anyways.

Here are some drinking on their own.

I'm wondering if perhaps I got some production layers as well as Rhode Island Reds?  The one on the right is a lot darker then the one on the right.

Today I've been continuing to make sure that they're eating and drinking.  I've also started to notice some pasty butts (when poo sticks to their butts and plugs them up) so I've start washing butts that need it.  This is caused by stress and getting chilled.  I noticed that my home hatched chicks from the incubator don't get this as much.  Ones that a Broody hen has hatched gets this even less.

One of the turkey poults died and another most likely won't make it.  The meat birds this far seem to be healthy and active and so do the Rhode Islands.  Some of the Turkeys are even ripping around.

Turkey Poults.

Meat Bird Chicks

Rhode Island Reds


Thursday 22 March 2012

Gettin' Ready For Meat Birds and Turkeys!

Yes, today I am getting ready for the big day tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are bringing home 25 day old turkeys, 60 day old meat birds and 10 day old Rhode Island Reds.  That's a total of 95 chicks in one day!  (Not counting the 24 I already have and the 30 Cochins I have coming next week!)  I'm secretly excited about it for now.  I'm sure the excitement will wear off fairly quickly once they get bigger, lose that cute fuzziness, the dander and smell gets to me.

Last week I built a nice Brooder Box.  It's 8 feet by 4 feet wide and the sides are about 2 feet high.  I divided off a section with a removable piece so I can have a smaller part for other chicks.  I lined the bottom in Vinyl to make for easy cleaning.  Then spread shavings on top of that for litter.

I use red heat lights, to help prevent the chicks from picking on each other.
I have hung a heat light about 18 inches up off the floor, for warmth.  The water is up on a pizza box out of the shavings, and I put the food on a piece of vynle flooring to help keep some of the shavings out of it (same reason I put the water up).  When the chicks are bigger I'll put the food up on something as well.

Here you can see the chicks that I hatched last week in the small section of the brooder.

I know that soon they will outgrow the lovely little brooder I built,  and I'm desperately hoping against all hope that the snow is gone by the time I want these out of the basement.  (Fat chance of that.  I think the snow plans on staying around for a while!)

Anyways, there you have it.  There's my brooder set up in my basement.  I also have a brooder box in my chicken house, and some grow out pens as well.  I'll have to get around to posting pictures of those.  






Tuesday 20 March 2012

I Seriously Love My New Camera! ~ Some Pictures Included

First off, I want to say, that I am not a photographer.  I am just simply a girl who likes to take pictures.  That's it, that's all.  Purely for enjoyment.

A few weeks back I got a new camera.  I have to say that everyday, I love it a bit more!  

I've always like taking pictures.  A few years back I got a Nikon Coolpix P90. 12.1 Mega pixels, with 24x zoom. It's a point and shoot camera and has a lot of automatic settings.  Pretty easy to use and I loved that I could zoom in pretty far away.  I have taken some nice photos with it.  But there were times when I would get frustrated that I couldn't focus on things (especially in low light), and I couldn't put different lenses on it.  When I went and bought the Nikon, I went in with the intent to get a camera I could put different lenses on.  But was talked into the Nikon P&S because I led to believe the other camera's might be over whelming for me.  Anyways, I walked out with the Nikon.  And while the camera has served me well, and I'm not ready to part with it yet, I always dreamed of getting a better camera.

Nikon Coolpix P90
Nikon Coolpix P90 with extended lens


So a few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and got a beautiful camera.  It's a Canon EOS 60D.  18 mega pixel and shoots Raw.  Oh yes, this thing is my newest baby.  It came with a lovely 18-200mm lens.  Have I mentioned that I love my camera?  

Canon EOS 60D with 18-200mm lens and Sigma 17-70mm macro lens
Extended Lenses


I have been trying to not use the Auto Focus mode, and instead get used to using the manual focus.  So far I am enjoying the manual focus.  It seems to be more precise then the auto focus of my old camera, where I had to keep auto focusing and auto focusing to get the camera to focus where and how I wanted it.  This is a whole new learning experience for me which I am really enjoying.  I've never auto focused anything in my life besides binoculars before.  lol

The Camera also has a HD Video mode which I have yet to try.  There's lots of things and modes I've yet to try, but slowly and surely!

The lens that I got with it (18-200mm) isn't really meant for really close ups so the other day I got a Sigma 17-70mm Macro lens (It was the only one the Sight and Sound store had), and I'm not sure exactly how I like it yet.  I've just really tried it out the once on some moss, and couldn't zoom in as close as I would have liked to.  What I want to do is zoom in really, really close to mosses, bugs, flowers and mushrooms.  Stuff like that.  I want to see those amazing details.  I'm not sure if this lens will do this for me yet.  (Please remember, this is all new to me.)  But I have been reading about extension tubes that can be added in between the camera and lens that lets you zoom in even closer.  I'm going to check those out.  

Boy, lenses are really expensive!  I also need to pick up a flash too.  And I've yet to get a computer program.  I have Adobe Lightroom 4 on order.  I can't wait to get it and see what sort of things I will be able to do with the pictures I take.

I wish I could figure out a way to keep my camera settings with the picture once I take the picture off the camera card.

Here's a few sample pictures.

This is a water fall near my place.  This picture was taken with my Nikon camera.

The rest of the pictures are with my Canon.

Same waterfall, with new camera.  Playing with aperture. 


The creek further down.  I can't wait for the snow to go, and things to start growing.

One of my first pictures I took with my new camera.  Using the 18-200mm lens

With my new macro lens.  

Another fence post.  I find mosses, lichen and fungi fascinating.  

Of course, testing it out on my kids is always fun!

Of course, we have to throw some chickens into the mix.

Trying to see if I can capture water dripping.  

I love it!

That moment when the water leaves the ice.  If you look closely you can see the river rocks reflected upside down in the drop.  (I will admit that I cropped the next two photo's).

Reflections of the rocks caught in the drop.

Testing out my 18-200mm lens on some mosses and things.  Not as clear as I would have liked...

The Green Lady

Trying to figure out how sharp I can focus in on details.

Testing out the portrait setting outside.  


Indoors with the portrait setting.


For once we have a nice day, and the sky is another colour besides gray.

I attempted to take pictures of the stars the other night.  But you can see the glow from town.  The tree's in this picture are lit up by a passing train.  On my computer screen where the picture is bigger, you can see stars.  It looks really dark here.

Finally some colour in the sky this morning!  I must admit, I was worried how it would handle the color of sunrises and sunsets.  This morning's sky wasn't especially bright, but it came out good anyway's!

Not zoomed in.

It zooms in from a distance pretty good, I'd say.

So now, I have lots of learning to do.  But I am really looking forward to this adventure of learning my camera.  I can hardly wait for things to start growing and turning green.  I can't wait for life to return so I can try and capture it with my camera!