We have had a really fun summer, full of successes and failures -- lots of lessons learned, that's for sure! We moved up to the little farm, and lived there for a bit more than a month. In the meantime, we rented out the villa in Salo to holidaymakers, and thus recouped about 2/3rds of the cost of the well fiasco. So we got to try out the life on the farm, and pull ourselves out of a hole at the same time! Lots of board games in the evenings! We also got 4 new kittens, which kept the kids more than entertained on long summer days...on the top right picture, clockwise starting with the black cat...cleopatra, stracciatella, cora, and bella (the calico). Bella, Straccia and Cora are sisters, and Cleo is about a month older, an egyptian short haired cat with a rather queenly attitude.It will be impossible to describe in detail all we've
done and all we've learned in a single post, but I'll try to do it theme by theme over the next few days. Today, its all about the chickens. And maybe tomorrow I'll be able to go over the harvest and all the food production done in the last few months...
The Chicken Story
Big time trials and tribulations here...to round it up in a nutshell...the ones that are left are really really strong...that's darwinism for you! Of our first batch of 22 hatched Valdarno chickens, only 2 survived. When they were about 1 month old, we released them from their protective cage to run free -- when you are a small chick in the springtime, freedom can be over-rated. They were relentlessly hunted by a local eagle. The eagle got 9 of them in two days. Then, a couple weeks later, the local fox and her cubs were coming out hungry...they got 11 chicks and 3 of our leghorns before we figured out that they only attacked when we weren't around. So, for the rest of baby fox season, we played "chicken Shepherd" keeping them near us at all times, and that kept the fox at bay, though was a major pain in the butt. 
The turkeys and other adult chickens were fine, strong enough to defend themselves. (although 3 of our first 4 turkeys died due to a respiratory disease that they had when we bought them -- we were ripped off by a dodgy breeder). To the left, two turkeys we bought to replace the sick ones, a boy and a girl we call "christmas and easter"...unless they figure out how to get jiggy before the frost sets in. A breeding pair is worth feeding through the winter...
The last of our leghorns actually fought off the fox -- he got all her tailfeathers, but she survived! Now the geese are strong and aggressive enough to defend the whole flock, so we are a lot less predator prone now than a few months ago.But that's all OK, 'cause we had another full incubator of eggs on the go. Only, out of 50 eggs only 10 hatched. We still don't know what went wrong, but reckon it was the weather -- too humid perhaps. So another big disappointment. Of course, the answer is to fill the incubator again. This time, the incubator was already up at the little farm, humming away on the kitchen counter. About a week before the eggs were due to hatch, we moved up there to live for the month of August. We bought a gas stove to cook on. It was placed beside the kitchen counter. The first plums came ripe. I made Jam. Has anybody figured out where this is going yet?
All but one of the chicks were cooked in their eggs, GAAAACK! the heat from the stove raised the ambient temperature and humidity too much for their continued development. Out of the whole incubator full of eggs, we only got one chick...we call her "Nemo" (pic right), and she's a tough little thing (we hope its a she anyway, seems to be but too early to be sure).
So, a fourth and final incubator full of eggs, in the bedroom in the most controlled climate we can give, with constant care given to the humidity channels -- this time only 3 hatched out of 50, so something is wrong with the incubator or its just not a good idea to incubate eggs in a non-professional incubator in August (professional incubators have humidity controllers as well, but cost in the thousands instead of a hundred bucks or so). But luckily our broody hen was broody and sitting on another little clutch, and 4 of her 5 eggs hatched, so we got 7 new chicks from the batch. The broody hen then happily adopted the 3 from the incubator, and Nemo as well, though she's a month older than the others. Now they are strong and free and out scratching.
So, from 200 eggs, we have a total count of 2 + 10 + 1 + 7 valdarno...20 chickens, less than hatched with the first batch! And of those, we have one super prize cock, a few great hens ready to start laying any day now, and a good 5 or 6 yummy boys for the freezer. The wee ones from the last batch are still to small to tell whether they will be freezer bound or layers...not enough to be self sufficient on the poultry front, but enough to establish our own flock with second generation hatchings next spring. So we didn't achieve the goal this year, but its well in sight! That's just the Valdos, though -- we also have 2 geese, 4 turkeys, AlPacino and four dwarf hens that go broody, and Isa and Liv, the two consistent layers (Liv is the lastest bravest leghorn, Isa is the greatest layer, even though 'just' a commercial that we bought to protect the dwarves from the cats a year ago).
Next installment, or about the harvest, or recipes for what to do with it all...haven't decided yet!
