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Monday, March 8, 2010

What In The World?


Yup, that is a full grown chicken. It is called a Serama. From what I gather they are from Malaysian and are the worlds smallest chicken and you guessed it, the wife ordered some. We do not have a chicken pen yet nor do we have a brooding area yet, but she still ordered some. Now I am scrambling to redesign the rabbit side of the animal barn so I can house miniature chickens.
My understanding is you cannot call a hatchery to get these. You have to find someone who raises them and order either hatching eggs or chicks they hatch for your personal order and deliver them at a week old. At $10.00 a chick they better lay golden eggs.
I can't tell you where she is going with these little things or even what good they are. But I can tell you this, it seems most of the farms in this area are mini hobby farms and I have never seen one of these little things in person. That is telling me there might just be something to having the only miniature chickens around. So Cock-a-Doodle-Dooooo!!!!!!

I have collected all the materials for starting the worm beds and now just waiting on ordering the worms around the first of April. I have chosen to go with the Eisenia fetida worm due to there hardiness and unbelievable composting ability. A pound of these little creepy crawlers run around $30.00 and I am to believe about 500 to 1000 worms make a pound depending on there size. (I could only get 3 miniature chickens for that amount)
A friend of mine gave me a few trash bags of shredded paper to use for the initial planting of the worms and I have all the dirt/compost mix for the top. I have a couple of old bathtubs I am using for the beds and will be placing them inside the barn to keep them cool during the summer.
I do not know how it is going to work yet, but I plan on screening the drain hole of the bathtub and having a collection basin to see if I can extract some worm tea to use as a fertilizer.

1 comment:

  1. Hot diggidy dog! Fishing and Fried Chicken. I'll be ready when ya get-em fattened up!
    I've had a couple of worm farms around the house here and they are kind of fun. I used old igloo coolers. Fed them food scraps and if I remember correctly coffee grounds too. Me and my boy always had a few worms for fishing. I used the little red wigglers.
    You should have fun with the chickens too. I grew up with a fella that raised really pretty special chickens they were all different kinds, and some beautiful colors. They were special breads as well. Some looked like they had britches on, from the feathers on their legs. Them rascals were pricy too. I lived in a little town between Canton and Wills Point and he sold the chickens at first Monday.
    You should really enjoy the new members of your family.

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