Visit to Chicken Ridge Farm

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an add on Craigslist about some French Black Copper Marans chicks available.  Marans being one of my favorite breeds of chickens I had to check it out.

French Black Copper Marans

Marans are not only colorful birds but lay the darkest eggs of any chickens.  These birds are always refered to as marans even if there is only one.  Must be a French thing.








 After several emails and text messages I got to meet Julie the owner of Chicken Ridge Farm.

It was a 90 minutes drive each way but it was definitely worth it.  Julie has a great collection of rare chickens.  Several of which I brought home with me.  One of the breeds she raises is

English Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington

The picture does do this bird justice.  The coloring is awesome and would look great in anyone flock. Julie also is starting to raise one of the strangest chickens around.

AYAM
CEMANI

These birds are totally black inside and out.  Julie held one while I opened it's beak and the tongue and inside of the mouth is also black as night.  Reportedly all the internal organs are also black.  Though we didn't test that.  Oddly enough this bird lays white eggs.  Go figure.

And now to my favorite breed.  Or at least it's my favorite at the moment.  Julie has some spectactular Crested Crème Legbars.

Crested Cream Legbar

There are three things I love about these chickens.  The color of the eggs.




The fact that the chicks are easily sexed at birth.

The girls have a chipmunk stripe and the boys have a spot on their heads.










And of course the funny little tuft or crest of feathers on their heads.








Check out the Chicken Ridge Farm's web site. www.chickenridgefarm.com And if you get a chance to talk to Julie, tell her Bob says hi and thanks for the great birds.

What to do with extra Sunflow Seeds

I planted giant sunflowers and had an abundance of sunflower seed.  What to do with them..... ?

Watch how big his cheeks get.  He ran off and came back for bowl after bowl.  I hope I don't have sunflowers popping up everywhere next spring.  No telling where he stored them.

Fall Harvest

It's getting colder and rainier in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  So it was time to get the last or almost last of the vegetables harvested.  Still have a few winter squash on the vine hoping to get a bit ripper before picking.

Was a good year.  No pest problem, everything seemed to produce well and overall I'm very happy with how this year went.  Here are some pictures of the last harvest.

 

It's Hummingbird Season

There are 4 species of humming birds that are seen in Kentucky.  Can you tell which ones are visiting my feeders?


KENTUCKY (4)

1. Green Violetear --PHOTOS
2. Ruby-throated Hummingbird, n --PHOTOS
3. Black-chinned Hummingbird --PHOTOS
4. Rufous Hummingbird --PHOTOS

  

Here's a video of the group that are fighting over my feeders.  I have several out but they seem to like this one the most.

 

 

 

Edible Roots

I love root vegetables.  Potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips everything except beets.  Not fond of beets. 

I planted the usual onions and Yukon Gold potatoes.  The onions didn't get very big this year but they are sweet and tasty just the same.  And the Yukon Golds are terrific.  Pretty good crop for the small area I planted (I have a couple more tubs of potatoes and onions).  I could have gotten more if I used deeper boxes and buried more of the potatoe plants as they grew.  But I have plenty for myself and plenty to give away to friends and neighbors.







This year I've added carrots to my list of root vegetables grown in the garden.  I purposely picked a short variety since I knew my beds probably weren't deep enough or had enough good loose soil to grow regular size carrots.

Some came out very short as you can see.  But turned out to be just the right size for popper carrots.  Trim and pop in your mouth. 









I still have sweet potatoes to harvest, but I will wait till the end of the season for them.  They usually do very well.  And I do love sweet potatoes. 

Next year, more Yukon Golds, more carrots and maybe I can get to like beets enough to plant some.