Cast of Characters

  As everything is still in the just now emerging stage as far as foraging and gardens go I thought I'd take a moment to introduce you to the current (but ever changing) flock!

Of course I've already introduced Arpee, Blucinda, and the three bronze babies. We have a good lead on some RARE heritage breed poults and will be ordering more soon!

I prefer turkeys to chickens as their health problems seem fewer and I really fell in love with their personalities. They are all very unique and individual with a really fascinating social structure.

These cuties are coturnix quail. They have been bred for centuries to be egg producing machines and some of my hens pop out multiple eggs per day. We kept four outside and four inside this winter and while we got eggs from our indoor ones our outdoor ones are larger and healthier. Coturnix quails are most often kept in very very close quarters but I have found mine prefer a bit more space and LOTS of hiding places. A few of them are very friendly and will visit with you when you are out there, but others prefer you just drop the food and leave. They are cute and make nice pets but their life expectancy is only around two years. I have not successfully incubated eggs yet despite them producing fertile eggs. I also have not yet had one try to go broody, but some of them seem to be trying to form clutches so I'm moderately hopeful? 

 Apollo and Artemis are my current breeding pair of red golden pheasants. I originally purchased these gorgeous creatures to use their molted feathers, but Artemis is currently brooding a clutch of eggs! This is something most ornamental pheasant keepers will tell you is not a possibility but I really believe it depends on the bird and conditions. These pheasants eat next to nothing and are super cold hardy. They will NOT free range though and need to be kept in covered runs. If you make sure they have lots of shade the males' colors will be brighter. These two are actually going to go live with a friend once Artemis raises her babies for a little while as we have upgraded out pheasantry!

These beaky babies are ring neck pheasants. We are also waiting on an order of melanistic pheasants which are a ring neck genetic mutation. The melanistics will make up for my loss of color variety in feathers (although the person taking my red goldens has promised me feathers so that's very nice!), but ring necks are also able to be utilized as meat birds. We plan to keep a breeding quartet though as these are also very very cold hardy, something which is vital to survival in our area. 

 An example of my feather art (find it at facebook.com/thehappyhippiehusky ). All of my birds are kept as safe and happy as I possibly can. We have grown quite a bit and learned so much since obtaining our first birds last year, but I look forward to a long and exciting journey with my birds. Our true goal for livestock on our homestead is quite a bit larger than fowl, but that is another post, and there will always be room for my feathery friends here!