Great Pyrenees Puppies for sale!

2010-12-30T07:31:00.000-08:00

Sam and Elly Mae have had the first (maybe last???) set of puppies. 400.oo for males and 450.00 for females. We have several still for sale. Give us a call if you are interested. 540-747-4781

The Making and Release of Eagle 1

2010-03-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

The first of our egg mobiles has been built and released. The frame body actually came from the front end of a 1929 Studebaker that was donated to us by our friends who operate Wolfe Tractor. It had come to them from Earl Landis, who had at one point hauled this trailer round trip to California.

We were all in hope that it would have sections that we would be able to utilize. However, we found that even the floor had areas of rotten wood. We had a few of our primary flock come by to check it out, and they did not seem too impressed.

We striped it to the bare frame. Our Great Pyrenees guard dogs (Sam and Elly Mae) took one of their many day time naps while we were sawing, hammering, and making all of the deconstruction noises.

We had some assistance during the next phase by Jay's cousin Mike. We were able to build it up to the point of the start of the external nesting boxes. We even had an inspection during the process.

The next day we had more volunteers. David Wheeler, our son's college roommate and our nephew Jason, wife Nicole and their son Tanner came and we got a good bit done.

Tanner kept us all entertained with the ducks, chickens and turkeys. He gathered eggs and got to see the horses and the cows. This is him working on the small duck pool.

David spent the night so we were able to get everything done on Eagle One but the cleaning door latches, the linoleum and roosts. David even helped us start on the first of the turkey arks before he had to go back home.

As you can tell there are a lot of pieces and parts. We saved everything we could from the construction of the original chicken coop and are now making use of those scraps and left over chicken wire. We have found that it is much easier to have linoleum under the wood shavings. The clean up process is so much easier. We found a scrap piece at Lowe's for almost nothing for this project.

The next weekend Jay's brother David and his other nephew John (John and Jason are both David's sons) came over and Uncle Davie laid the linoleum and made the roosts. We then came the fun part of catching over 50 chickens that will call Eagle One their home. This includes BT/UP Chicken and her flock.

BT/UP Chicken and her flock were in the aviary and it took 45 minutes of effort for the 4 of us to catch them. They are now settling into the new home and soon will be feasting on the fresh grass.

Not all chickens are born equally leading to the saga of BT/UP chicken.

2010-03-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

With Her Peeps on March 1. 2010

The Porch where she got under.

From under the netting.

Not All Chichens Are Born Equally, Leading To The Saga of BT/UP Chicken.

In big business, weak chickens are culled out and destroyed because the bottom line is production. In small business, to some effect, it is the same. We attempt to be as humane as possible. We have four juvenile chickens living in our garage right now that don't have the sense to run away when bigger/meaner chickens pick on them. They have no flight or fight mechanism at all. We have no clue what to do with these four, but to put them in with the flock means cruelty and certain death. If exposed to a real predator, they would stand there and be dinner. So they hang out in the garage hiding from the world. We also have a small chick whose beak does not line up at all. Not even close. One points east, the other west. How it eats or drinks I have no clue, however it is growing so we will see how it survives. We have a lame duck. We have a springer spaniel named Casey, who lets our cat named Mango/Mongo/Yellow make biscuits (knead) on his back. We have a male horse that loves me and hates Jay and a female horse that loves Jay and hates me. She frenched kissed our son's VT college room mate, David Wheeler, who will never live it down. She loves him like no other. Basically, we run a zoo and the animals take over most of the time.

Quite awhile ago we got a batch of chickens and we noticed one Buff Orphington had a leg that was completly sideways. The batch also contained a Dominique that had a leg that would not bend. She moved around well, but Goose-stepped like a good German Soldier in 1944. The Buff Orphington is no longer with us. However, the Dominique is notorious.

To all of our fans: I am apologizing up front. We have many Jewish friends and family and I hate to say the name of this Dominique chicken.....but, we called her Hitler. In our defense......SHE GOOSE-STEPPED!!!! Across our yard, all the time, every day....marching to God knows... likely Wagner. I beg for forgiveness. We have a wicked sense of humor and it gets us in trouble all of the time. Other names where tried, none worked, all failed.

One day, we found an injured chicken and she moved into our bath tub for treatment and recovery. She was unable to put weight on one leg, and had been slightly mauled. She would seem to get better, we would release her, then find her pitiful again. Back to the tub. My daughter-in-law, Erin noticed one day that I was placing blueberries, cutting grapes, and ham and putting shredded cheese on a plate for the "Bath Tub Chicken" and she told me that this chicken would never leave with that kind of room service. Every day I would take her out to the porch and hold my hand down. Step off for freedom, or stay on the hand for the bath tub. She knew a good thing and stayed on the hand. There are health concerns for humans that live with poultry, so the day came where she was given no choice and was forced to freedom. Later that day I could not find her. We both looked and she was missing. I felt terrible. Days turned into weeks. Jay realized that Bath Tub Chicken had actually been Hitler and we felt even worse. You know your horses and cows. You come to identify certain chickens, either by how they look, or by their actions. We bulk buy most chicks now so we can not identify them because we don't want to "know" them.

Then one day Jay found that a chicken had somehow gotten under the netting that is behind the latticework on our porch. We could look through the grey screen and see her, a Dominique, very skinny and she was trapped. We had to much snow to get her out, and so the "Pancake/Pizza diet" started for her. By that I mean anything I could slide under the netting. I poured water through the decking for her and gave her sliced tomatoes, slices of bread, kale leaves, sliced cheese, crammed the edge of a dish under the netting edge and poured chicken food in to her. I realized one day it was the Bath Tub Chicken. She had escaped the weather and danger of being weak and lame by somehow getting under the porch. Finally, after about 10 days we were able to take down the latticework, cut the screening and get her out. She had laid not one single egg the entire time. Chickens need 14 hours of daylight to lay an egg, so this was not a surprise. Also, she was conserving energy to survive. It had been below freezing every night. Back the the bath tub. Pictures of her were posted on Facebook from ground angle under the netting and she started having fans. Since we refuse (I know some of you have money ridding on this) to have a house chicken, she was given a new assignment and became one of our Momma's for new arrivals of day old chicks. She moved into a brooder with 50 new day old chicks and she thrived. After awhile....she surprised us with an egg. A glorious day. She has since laid several eggs and loves her adopted chicks.

Not posted on Facebook: One morning, I fed and watered the chickens in the garage and has to tighten the bulb on the light in BT/UP (Bath Tub/Under Porch) Chicken which had loosened and had gone out. Everything was good as I left and I did not go back out that day. When Jay came home that night, we went out together and as soon as we opened the garage door we smelled the smoke. The light had dropped after I had left and had fallen down onto the pine shavings. The large metal cupped rim contained the heat and only allowed the liter to smolder. It slowly burned down through the liter, and the Laun (Thin wood sheeting.) onto the concrete floor. The bulb had then started to mold across the shape of the floor from the heat. Thanks be to God for saving the lives of close to 200 chickens and the building. We have our photos and sentimental items stored in the top of the building and our loss would have been to horrible for words.

As we ran up to the brooder and pulled out the lamp and started pouring water on the area, we realized that BT/UP Chicken had forced all of her chicks to the very back edge of the brooder and was keeping them there with her body stretched and wings spread. She was going to protect them to the the bitter end. She realized that we had intervened. That the risk was over and allowed the chicks to get food and water. She had not allowed them to go out to the containers the entire time. The hole burned through the bottom of the container is over 5 inches across.

Recently when I moved her and the chicks, she fought me beak and claw thinking I was separating them. She started slowly clucking to me in approval when she realized that I was moving them together, then let me have it again when she saw they had not yet had been given food or water.So, not all chickens are born equally. But BT/UP Chicken has risen above it all and even has a new nickname: Superchicken.

2010-02-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

Just published the first verion of the farm's web site. www.eagleridgefarmva.com It s a start and we will see how it does. We have had our first 20 turkeys for a week now and so far we are doing well. We also have 300+- chicken chicks (all layers) in brooder boxes in our garage. These chicks will add to the 120 hens we already have laying. These hens will be slacking off on their laying this fall quite a bit since their age will be between 24 and 36 months.

This winter has been hard for all the animals. The cattle have gone through 35 tons of hay so far. We will need to buy hay once again this year even though we produced an abundance of hay off the hay field last year. Time to seek out some rental property for another hay field!

Eagle Ridge Farm Happenings

Great Pyrenees Puppies for sale!

The Making and Release of Eagle 1

Not all chickens are born equally leading to the saga of BT/UP chicken.