All posts tagged: wade jean

A World of Speckles

🌿Breeders Choice🌿
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When we first began breeding and selecting for egg color it was speckles and texture that captured my interest. Every breeder throughout history has selected traits in an animals that they thought were unique, valuable and beautiful. We are carrying on they tradition by selecting for what is most pleasing to our eyes and senses. The result is a whole world of interesting speckle patterns through us ❤️

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A speckle is like a hens unique finger print. A hen that throws speckles on her eggs will do so in a similar pattern every time she lays an egg.
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Speckles, just like egg color can be selected and bred for. It is something that we are constantly tinkering with.
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Sometimes the speckles have a raised texture which is really fun! I am not a big wine drinker but being in wine country here in Northern California I hear a lot of folks talk about “mouth feel” of wine. Well, I guess I have lots of “egg feel” practice 🤣. I could close my eyes and tell you which breed lays what egg based on texture. Smooth, slick, matte, raised, heavy and light bloom powdery-ness.

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Do you all notice a difference in the way your ladies eggs feel?
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From top to bottom our breeds that laid these eggs are:
🐓Heritage welsummer
🐓Azure Egger
🐓Marans
🐓Sage Egger
🐓Moss Egger
🐓Azure Egger
🐓 Heritage Welsummer
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alchemist_farmA World of Speckles
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A Diary Of Color

🌿A Diary Of Color🌿
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Every season our rainbow shifts as we work with new generations of our various lines of birds. Speckles change shape, saturation of blues and greens deepen or lighten and sometimes even the size of eggs can shift.
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Currently our largest eggs are laid by our Olive Eggers. Their eggs are so big and round they barely fit in our incubation trays!
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Taking one large photograph like this is a fun project. It captures the current colors we produce. A similar photo taken at the end of the season will look different. Egg colors will change slightly with the seasons and some breeds will slow down production. This is a sweet moment in time to be grateful for.
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We do a lot of heavy lifting on the ecological front. We donate a lot of time and spend a great deal of mental energy on problem solving waste issues that come up. Getting to have a spot of time to make art with natures palate in this way is a deep fulfilling joy.
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There are issues in this world for sure, some days it can feel overwhelming. Having chickens to care for takes us out of our heads and into our hearts. The birds and our food garden bring us back to the earth, back to the connection with the natural world. This connection is so valuable for mental and emotional health. When the world feels like it is in a weird place there is great hope and joy in planting a garden and collecting eggs daily.
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May we all give ourselves permission to create beauty in our lives as we do our work we are called to do!

alchemist_farmA Diary Of Color
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The Most Patient Chicken

🌿The Most Patient Chicken🌿
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Over the next few weeks here I am going to be highlighting each of the 13 breeds we work with on our farm. There are hundreds of types of chickens out there in the world. Large, small, robust, demure. We believe that there is a chicken breed for everyone just like there is a dog/cat breed for every human personality.
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We have selected the 13 breeds we work with because each one has something unique to offer folks. From large scale homesteads to apartments – we have you covered!
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For this week we are highlighting our silkies. ❤️ There is no chicken breed more patent and docile on the planet than a Silkie. They will happily sit in a basket as a child carries them around the yard. They are flightless so they do not escape from their designated area of your yard and they make EXCELLENT mothers, adopting any young chick when they are broody. If you have fertile eggs they will also hatch them for you, they are an off the grid homesteaders dream because they will keep a flock replenished year after year without the use of electricity and incubator if you have a rooster keeping the eggs fertile.
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They are suited to all climates but they would love some extra comforts in a coop during the winter if it snows in your area because they are all down without the covering of smooth feathers that other chickens enjoy. They do well in the rain and enjoy running around on pastures.
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Dutiful layers of smooth 3/4 sized cream eggs, they have won their place on our farm for the sweet personalities they bring. I used to think they were nothing more than a designer chicken but I have been shown that they are far more versatile than most chicken breeds!
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Their amazing head feathers make it challenging for them to see predators from above. To remedy this, we give them a little hairdo (second image below) 
this way they can see any dangers lurking from above.

 


alchemist_farmThe Most Patient Chicken
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The Beauty In-between

🌿The Beauty In-between🌿
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In a world obsessed with uniformity and perfection it is the “imperfection” that catches my eye. 
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The in-between sizes, the different colors and textures are all opportunities to create something new. For years I wished I could paint, sketch or draw. I longed to create art but did not have the skills within the conventional artistic box. As I age I now see that I can create with natures palate through her awe inspiring eggs. It took 30 years, but here we are – creating something beautiful and useful everyday. ❤️
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If you are one of those folks who feel like they are in-between and not quite on the conventional track, know that we appreciate you. There is great possibility when we can see and live outside of the box. Have faith, keep working toward your dreams because you never know where your heart will lead you!
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These are all quail eggs, #coturnixquail and #alchemistbluequail both varieties are lovely additions to any homestead large or small. We ship chicks and fertile hatching eggs of them nation wide. ❤️
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alchemist_farmThe Beauty In-between
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It is What’s Inside That Counts

🌿Its What’s Inside That Counts🌿
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Crack open an egg from the grocery store, what do you see? The color, the texture, the firmness of the yolk is a direct correlation to a hens diet and the health benefits (or lack there of) of the egg.
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Not all eggs are laid equal. How we treat our birds is how well they will produce something that has the full health potential possible. 
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I read once that a tomato can contain over 22 vitamins and minerals. It can only do so if the soil it is planted in has those minerals available for the plant to uptake, it cannot create them out of thin air. The same is true for eggs, they can be one of the most nourishing foods on the planet or a simple calorie and protein filler created in a factory warehouse.
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The longer we work with the birds the more we see the incredible gifts and lessons they can teach us. If given proper pasture, sunlight and space to catch insects, the humble hen can create edible gold. Treat our animals, soil, eco systems better and they will support us in not just surviving but thriving. ❤️
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Take another mental step with me. The eggs you see open here and the yolks there in are setting the stage for healthier chicks and birds in the long run. We all know that eating right in pregnancy is vital to setting our children up for robust lives. The same is true for chickens. The birds we breed and the chicks they create are getting the best start possible.
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Solid genetics and ample nutrition from parents make for more disease resistant hens. We are all about preventative care on our farm. We do not vaccinate, we do not use antibiotics because we do not have to. Healthy food systems, healthy animals can be created if we get back to the basics of caring for our land and animals properly. 🌍

alchemist_farmIt is What’s Inside That Counts
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Eat The Rainbow

🌿Rainbow🌿
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Almost too good to eat. . . . .almost 😉.

Want to feed your family the best food possible? Eggs laid by chickens that are truly raised on pasture are the way to go. Not every egg is laid equal. Eggs laid by hens in a warehouse will have the protein you are looking for but will be lacking in many of the other possible nutrients a chicken egg can contain. To build healthy eggs the hens must be given healthy conditions.
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We get to be co creators in the making of nutritious, beautiful and delicious food when we give our chickens room to roam and healthy lives.
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Don’t have space for birds of your own? Find a friend or someone local who has a flock, chances are they have eggs to spare! ❤️

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Quail Eggs

🌿Quail Eggs🌿
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Quail are SO prolific! They lay 5-6 eggs a week without fail and begin to do so at just 8 weeks of age which is lightning fast in the world of poultry.
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Did you know that whatever pattern of bloom a quail hen lays on her eggs is the pattern she creates her whole life? It may not be in the exact same place on the egg from a given day to another but it is always in the same theme. Big dots, gentle speckles or even swirls that look like smoke.
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Nature never ceases to amaze us here on the farm. It inspires us, beckons us to come outside and interact with it, care for it, and conserve it. 🌏
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What’s your quail egg color fancy? Blue or brown speckled? 😊

alchemist_farmQuail Eggs
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Perfect Design

🌿Perfect Design🌿
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Every Monday during our hatching season we open our hatchers and sort/count the weeks fluffy chicks. After the chicks have been carefully moved from the hatcher we inspect the eggs that have not hatched to see if any chicks are still making a late entrance into the world.
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This chick was quietly sitting in its shell, looking around at the world around it. It was pausing before making its final pushes to get out of the only home it has ever known.
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We know they the chicks are quite snug in their eggs but this visual was a stunning reminder of nature’s perfect design. There is not a millimeter of extra space inside a chickens egg. The chicks grow to fill the space and then carefully, oh so carefully peck their way out.

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Nature only takes what it needs, and uses its spaces and resources wisely. It is a powerful example for us humans to follow. ❤️

alchemist_farmPerfect Design
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Barnyard Romance

All of our breeding groups are kept in separate pastures over our acreage. They have permanent fencing in between them and their flight wings trimmed so they stay with their individual group to create pure bred offspring.

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It is rare, but every now and again we have a hen that falls in love with a rooster of a different breed. Once a hen like this gets it in her mind that she needs to be with a particular rooster it is a straight up Romeo and Juliet situation and she will stop at nothing to be near him. I have seen these hens climb a 4ft tall fence with their talons while flapping to scale the height and pop over into a different pasture out of sheer determination!

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Over the years of working with livestock I have learned to lean into and work with nature as opposed to trying to force it in a direction it does not want to go. When these hens emerge I now let them stay with their barnyard lover and her eggs become part of our barnyard dozen. Not purebred anymore but created with a whole lot of love!

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I have been thinking about regenerative farming a lot recently. A great example of working with nature and not against it in the regenerative farming space is building up who/what is in the soil to create healthier crops and higher yields. Right now, large scale farmers all over the United States use massive amounts of pesticides to kill something specific that they do not want. Regenerative farmers are offering a new approach. If the life under ground is healthy and vibrant (worms, microbes, healthy mycelium etc.) then that soil is feeding the plants and making them more disease resistant. If to soil is built up as opposed to stripped away then that also aids in soil/plant health and higher yields. Boosting the life in the soil instead of killing part of it is producing amazing results.

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We are at a beautiful point in human history where information sharing is swifter and easier than ever. We can learn from one another and share all of the powerful ways that we can work with nature for swift and amazing results. 🌿

alchemist_farmBarnyard Romance
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A Weeks Collection

We hatch our chicks weekly and make them ready for pickups and shipments the day after they hatch. Hatching once a week means that we save eggs up for a week before setting them.
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The numbers of eggs laid in a week ebbs and flows with the seasons, weather and emotional state of the flocks. This last week was a good solid average week of eggs laid so I decided to pop them into a giant basket that my mother gave me last time we visited and whooooie was one heavy beautiful basket! 🌿
We do not wash our eggs, they are clean because we are on top of keeping our nesting boxes clean and we make sure the birds have comfy places to roost at night away from their nesting boxes so they stay fresh longer. Clean nesting boxes mean clean eggs that do not need to be washed. 🙌
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Why don’t we want to wash the eggs? The eggs have a lovely protective bloom on them that makes viability higher for hatching. It is natures protective blanket and there is no way we would want to wash that beautiful business off. ❤️
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This basket contains eggs from our:
🐓Alchemist Blues
🐓 Azure Eggers
🐓Copper Marans 🐓Double Silver Laced Barnevelders
🐓German Bielefelders 🐓Golden Laced Orpingtons
🐓Heritage Welsummers
🐓Moss Eggers
🐓Sage Eggers
🐓Serama
🐓Silkie
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The only breed we work with not pictured in this basket of delight are our Olive Eggers, they are a new cross we are working on and they will yield dark green eggs with a blue undertone. More color, more depth to the egg collecting basket will be appearing soon. ❤️❤️❤️

alchemist_farmA Weeks Collection
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