Silver-laced Wyandottes

Yesterday I picked up 6 new chickens from Ravenna. They are about 3 - 3 1/2 months old. Wyandottes are supposed to be friendly, great layers and cold hearty. Plus, I think they are gorgeous. With the temps in the 90's a good part of this summer the Buckeyes decided to molt and just weren't laying. I actually had to go out and buy store-bought eggs to cook with. I will only use them in recipes, not on my plate. So, once I had to do that I realized that we needed more chickens. I went round and round trying to decide what kind. Then I saw an ad on craigslist and I was sold on the Wyandottes. I am hoping that we have zero roosters on board this time. Maybe one would be okay, but that's it. They are in quarantine right now in the barn, but they are bright-eyed and healthy looking, so I might move them into the coop in a couple of days. They are much smaller than the Buckeyes at this time since they are only juveniles so I will have to introduce them to each other slowly. First the cage will sit on the lawn during the day and we will put it into the coop at night for about a week. Then we will let them out to free range during the day and hopefully they will go in their cage at night. After a week of that we will let them duke it out in the coop. If you don't introduce an already existing flock to newcomers slowly there will be a bloodbath.

Getting Finn and Tali ready for 1st grade. We finally decided on Firelands and I feel so good about that decision. I think it will be a much better fit. I want them to grow up with kids who speak the same language. ie. farm language

Ruby and I are doing very well. She is steering nicely and yielding to leg pressure. I rode her all around the big pasture with no problems at all yesterday. The only thing that could cause a bolt I think are those darn horse flies. They drive her nuts and she comes to a complete stop and will not move when one is on her. She just waits for me to kill it, but if it is on her chest or underneath there is nothing I can do. So, I sit there banging my legs against her waiting for her to move on. Now if I could only figure out how to get the saddle to stay on better we would be in business.