Like I said, HUGE

Calling all Farmers

Ha! Tricked you guys. This isn't a blog post! This is a demand! It's time to build the coop. How's Saturday AM work for y'all? These birds are getting HUGE. I am about to post some photos to illustrate my point.

A note about raising Quail...(from Wikipedia)

I actually first posted a big long paragraph about quail from Wikipedia. I decided maybe I should edit it for those with ADD. so here goes. I cut the riff-raff and selected some key words and edited the article...everything else has been deleted for your convenience...

here are some key words:

three ways
adult chicks
If you are only interested in...
*young cocks*. (i didnt say it, wikipedia did)
day-old chicks

and the meat:

it is impossible to sex them before they are at least two weeks of age. (good to know) At this age, most males will start to show their distinctive color differences. The males have reddish breast feathers and the females are speckled and grayish. Separate the cocks and hens as soon as you can determine their sex.

Because of their small size, Coturnix can be kept in small pens. Plan on a square foot of space per bird. When startled, quail tend to fly straight up and can gain enough upward momentum to break their necks when they hit the top of the cage. If your cages are high enough to allow flight, make the tops of burlap, nylon netting, or canvas, otherwise you will be removing dead birds as they smash themselves on the solid cage tops.

Cages can be raised or rest on the ground. Many quail breeders favor raised cages because they are easier to keep clean. The droppings fall through to the ground and can be raked up and removed to the compost heap without disturbing the birds. In raised cages, the birds will never be standing in manure and the eggs will remain clean.

A nesting or brooding box is necessary if you want to get eggs. This should be a solid box with a small opening for the hens to enter and leave by and a large door for you to collect eggs and change bedding. You should be able to get into the nesting box from outside the cage. You can keep 40 birds in a cage three feet by three feet by seven feet. The nest box should be 16 inches by three feet by three feet.

Always provide the birds with fresh, clean water. Very young chicks can easily fall into water and drown, (NIC!!!) so take this into consideration when selecting water dishes. Special waterers made for small birds can be purchased. These containers have small openings for the birds to get at the water but too small for them to fall in and drown. Study the ready-made water containers and you should be able to duplicate them with a little ingenuity and some empty milk jugs.

You can supplement your hen’s diet with chopped greens from the kitchen. Food scraps that you would normally put in the compost pile can be processed through the Coturnix hens first. Chop leaves and other vegetable scraps fine enough for the birds to eat easily and there will be almost no waste.

The added bonus of raising quail is their pleasing voices. They are not raucous and shrill like chickens and listening to them coo and whistle to one another can be very soothing after a stressful day. Your quail cock birds will never wake you from a sound sleep by crowing loudly under your bedroom window.

An Addition to the Acre

It's a baby musk ox and it's mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok maybe this photo is from here but that little guy is GOING to be mine.

Gender Neutral Bathrooms

Sexing rabbits is daunting. Bucks have holes and does have slits -- see drawing above. But keep in mind that they're pulsing flesh tubes that dilate and can be both slit-like and holeish, making this job tougher than need be. I wish the boys were blue and the girls were pink, just like the rest of the world. I feel like I'm going to get tranny hate-mail/comments. ta ta

Although I think this is cuter...can we get one?

Even Hauter in Here...

another photo of the dude who helps us - ehem - plow the fields...he has the coolest tractor...

Sunset rips us off again

First it was our official Fancy Acre vacation spot (got the cover the month after we got home) and now its our ideas! Sunset SUDDENLY has a "one block diet" blog in which they discuss growing your own food, raising chickens, etc, on your own land. Fancy Acre would like to make a statement about this. "We were the first people to ever do this. Sunset was still in diapers when we thought up the idea of raising chickens in our yard. Also we don't like it that you call it a diet. Everyone knows the only acceptable diet is the Karl Lagerfeld Diet."

Get out of our heads Sunset. Focus on the top ten best hot tubs for infants or whatever it is you were doing before.

Portland Guide

Do you want to have a fancy acre? Good luck. But you can at least get some chicks or grow a couple of carrots. Here are some good places to go if you are looking for trouble:

The Urban Farm Store this is where Patsy, Loretta and Wynonna arre from. They also have edible plants and fruit trees.

Pistils this is where you get fancy chicks and expensive plants and wish you lived there.

Costal Farm Supply this is like farm walmart and is where Tammy is from (doesn't that just explain everything.)

Naomi's Organic Farm Supply My uncle gave me this reference! But I have still never been. He says it's the best. But he also is totally nuts. You be the judge.

Garden Fever This is the garden store near my house and I LOVE it there. They have great veggie starts and like six different blueberry varietals. I always spend too much money there so I am on probation for the week.

Growing Gardens This is another great edible plant store with all the fixin's, also in NE Portland.

We. Need. This.

This is a genius product that we fully endorse- as farmers.

She's Always Has the Best Advice

R.I.P. snowball

Um..so...this is real you guys...

How Many Ribbons Can One (third of a) Fancy Acre WIN?

Nic kindly reminded me that the count down to the Oregon State Fair started like YESTERDAY. Which categories do you see us reeling a big blue in for this year? I'm thinking it's going to be embarrassing to the other farmers who have been toiling fruitlessly for years in hopes of a win at the fair and also to feed their families when we just show up holding Patsy Cline, a strawberry rhubarb pie and all the fixins for a Pocahontas tablescape and sweep up 900 awards and ribbons plus free tickets to Willy Nelson. Suckas!

Which category seems like the most important win?

farm & garden????

food arts???

table decorating??? (Probably YES.)

needle work???

Poultry???? (forget it, Tammy)

Look at this fucking hipster.

Farming...It's hawt in hee-uh!

here is a photo of my friend on a tractor. we used to farm and farm and farm. oh wait wrong blog. anyways. i have always like heavy farm equipment - except when i am driving behind it on a narrow country road trying to get to a square dance i am late to, or a chicken and dumplings party in a barn. oh i love the country. fancy acres reminds me of my childhood in that there are lots of things growing and there is so much potential. oh wait...wrong blog again.

Awkward Stage (life)

I wish I could say that the chick that Nic picked out from Gresham was the only one that was looking a little rough around the edges- and Tammy certainly does look the worst- but I must admit that Patsy Cline is also in a state of hard to discuss awkwardness. Her neck is long and light of feather. Her fluff is pushing outward and pointy, underdeveloped teen feathers are starting to erupt like acne all over her body. What happened to my baby-nugget-tiny-princess-puff? Luckily she still lets me pet her on her little tummy, but even that is going through a weird transition! Not that I would ever say that to her face.
 As you can see, Tammy is starting to get teen feathers on the top of her head. Nothing says "I will resent these photos for the rest of my life" quite like the look on her face in photo #1, blur and all. She looks crazy. I can't wait to watch those weird feathers get longer and longer until she emerges from the rubble looking like this:

Just gorgeous. 

En Vogue

These are the quail - in much less cute form then when they arrived. And oh, they just started to have much larger poops than when they were fuzzballs the size of quarters. These dinosaurish egg thieves and I have had two weeks of paradise, now I'll regale some quick stories with alphabetical bullets:

A. There were four quail to start, and then Topher needed rosemary shoestring french fries from Burgerville, so we left the hatchlings in the trunk of the car. They were in a box with holes, what else did they need? So the temperature proved too cold for these babies, and their communal metabolism slowed. Now the farm store lad(y) recommended that we get two dozen, lest some don't make it - and the survivors will form a family (more to come). So I rush home and with mayo fingers hold up the dying hatchlings to their new heat lamp. Well they were all cool except for one that wanted to die and drown herself. I'm detached now, but it was really dramatic at the time, like The Bodyguard (no underlining Google? really?). So we have three quail now, one in the backyard, and a pine-scented garage. They are all indistinguishable from each other, so they went from En Vogue at 4 to Destiny's Child at 3. One is the biggest and strongest - obvs Beyonce, and the other two are those other bags - oh one did that good Nelly song.... whatevs, they don't have an accapella (sp?) Ave Maria track on the best album evs - jus sayin. :::: sidenote :::: I'm only blogging because I'm drinking white wine. Excuses Excuses :::::: BUT, my friend Joe reminded me that they lost a member of En Vouge, so we're back to a less competitive name.

B. I don't know what to do with quails - eat them or have their eggs?! Or how to raise them so much... SEAT OF MY PANTS IT IS!!

C. The other night I let Beyonce out to dance on the countertop with us and play balloon volleyball if she didn't have to work in the morning, but she FLEW AWAY FROM ME!! And went under the couch. BUT! when she was pulled away from her sisters, she went from cheerily chirping to an alarm call, and ceased to do it once returned. Supposedly that's how they find each other in the wild - so I'm proud of their innate awareness. I got her back to her gal pals, and all was well.

D. They're too big for their berry pint houses now -- being a parent is hard.

E. The runt rabbit is in heaven now - unrelated - but in theme with letter D.

F. The grade I get for this first post. See you soon chuckleheads.

Future Food

These are gonna be pie cherries

These are gonna be apples


These are gonna be pears



these are gonna be radishes
 














These are gonna be sassy lettuces

Field Trip

Loretta is HUGE.



Exploring the yard for the second time


Just hangin'


The line-up


The proof is on film, WYNONNA.

How They've Grown

I hope she is never too big for this.


They got too tall and also learned how to fly (!?1). We had to get them a new house after this photo was taken.


That's not flattering, Wynonna


Nic's new bunnies- they won't be raised at Fancy Acre


These bunnies will soon be supper.

The Chicks

Patsy Cline of Infinite Beauty and Composure


Loves a good belly rub


Tammy Wynette is basically an outcast due to her hair


You can try Tammy... but it's not gonna work.


Pasty, Loretta and Wynonna (the bitch)

Hearty Breakfast and Raised Beds

Blub's Muff's


The Construction Workers (so rude!)


Old Dogs are No Help


The Beds! Pre-Dirt.


Like I said Before...