Tomorrow is shearing day.  Our shearer will arrive around 9:00 tomorrow morning and then the fun will begin.  We think we have everything ready.  Last night we set up a tent outside one of the barn doors an got all the alpacas in the barn last night.  It rained last night and all day today so we were happy we got them in the barn, so all alpacas are now dry!!

We’ll be shearing all 16 alpacas tomorrow.  We have a number of people coming to help.  Julia’s parents are here to help, Becca will be here.  We’re keeping the girls home from school to help (that’s what you do when you live on a farm).  Robin from Bailey Hill Alpacas is going to come over and help, and another friend is going to try and come and her husband if he can will also be here.  And finally (but definitely not least) Kim (and maybe Tim if he is available) are going to come and help.  Kim and Tim are Brownie’s owners.  So we hope we have enough help!!

I’ll try and take some pictures and videos tomorrow (if I can), and I’ll try and post them tomorrow night.  Here’s a video from last year when Feline was sheared.  The gentleman shearing Feline in this video is the shearer we have coming down tomorrow from Portland.

This weekend I had to finish the nest boxes since I am picking up a laying hen (a Golden Laced Wyandotte) this evening.  I’ll add some pictures this evening of the nest boxes and the new hen.

My nest boxes don’t look as good as the ones I would like to get at HenPals Chicken Nest Boxes.  These are nice.  They would look GOOD hanging on my wall!!

They are having a giveaway right now of their 2-box nest box.  Maybe if I’m lucky I can win some!! 

Went out to the coop tonight and took some picures of the chickens.  Thought I would share some of the pictures:

First off, this is Millie.  She is my favorite.  When I go to the coop, she comes to me and wants me to pick her up.  She doesn’t like me to put her down at all.  This was the first chick I hatched.  She will be with us (even if she is a he) for a LONG time!!

This next one I call Whitie.  He also likes me to hold him.  He was our third hatching chick.  I am pretty sure he is a roo!  I don’t know the breed, but I’m guessing maybe a California White (just a guess!)

In the coop I built some shelves and put some tree limbs on them that had died and fallen out of one of our trees.  The girls ignored them for the first few days but now they are enjoying roosting on them.

And sleeping!

Here are some pictures of our Welsummers and Silver Laced Wyandottes.  They are getting larger and very cute!!

Here are our Speckled Sussex chicks.

One of them has some malformed toes.

Our Rhode Island Reds

And the Barred Rocks.

And the Roo with the big comb!!

That’s it, that’s our chickens. This last week on Craigslist I saw someone in Eugene looking for one bantam chicken to keep their one bantam chicken company. I called her and she fell in love with Little Blue so I took Little Blue over to her and she was very happy!! Here is the last picture of Little Blue.

Thanks!

I won an auction last week of some beautiful Maran eggs.  They arrived today.  The women who sent them sent me 9 eggs but unfortunately 3 of them were cracked during shipping.  This is one of the hazzards of shipping eggs.  I was happy to get 6 beautiful eggs!!

Here are the broken ones!

This third one is was one of the most beautiful eggs I have ever seen.  I was really sad to see this one broken.

Here are the eggs that made it.  Maran eggs are some of the darkest brown eggs out there.  I’m hoping to get a few hens out of these eggs!!  They’ll be going in the incubator tonight!

Keep watching as I try and hatch 2 separate batches in one incubator!!  Keep your fingers crossed!