Too Poor For Cows

Easter Egger: a chicken with mixed genetics that lays an egg that is some shade of blue, green, or brown.

I think its funny that the public just assumes beard in a chicken = blue egg layer or other form of Easter egger.

The beard gene Mb only needs one copy to express and there are plenty of bearded breeds out there that could contribute to a random bred chicken's genetics. Bearded Polish, Silkies, and D'uccles to name a few.

On the flip side people seem to think birds who arent bearded cant be Easter eggers lol to be an Easter egger all the bird has to do is lay a colored egg ideally in a blue or green shade preferably.

These two hens right here are Easter Eggers for example

These are also Easter eggers

This is NOT an Easter egger

yes! this is my absolute favorite website for anything of the sort

porter's is also a well-established breeder in the usa and has some information on their site as well

It's seed catalog time! One of my favorite times of year, honestly. While my garden mostly sleeps, full of dry leaves and fluffed-up birds and cold breezes, I'm indoors contemplating tomato varieties and telling myself that *this* will at last be the year I get the peas in on time.

As it is that appointed time, my usual yearly reminder: don't buy from Baker Creek!

Baker Creek are racist, fascist assholes! They intended to platform Cliven Bundy at their yearly conference, and Native seedkeepers have said that Baker Creek stole from them (and sell the product of that theft). They did a For Ukraine fundraiser that actually went to a far-right Ukrainian organization invested in obliterating LGBT rights.

Baker Creek might have some fun varieties of seed, but I can very nearly guarantee that if you see something there you want, I can find it or an analogue for you somewhere else.

Here's a selection of seed companies I personally have bought from, or people I trust have recommended; there will be a secondary and possibly tertiary reblog, since Tumblr only allows me to do ten links at once. If there's a company you've bought from and liked, please leave a review for them in the comments! What did you get, what did you like, how was the germination? Native Seed Companies: (please, please feel free to add more in comments to this post)

Companies Specializing in Native Pollinator Plants and Seed:

New to me last year, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED seed preservation company (they have an incredible selection! My 2023 germination of their seed was like 98%! But they only accept paper order forms):

Cool weird nightshades, I got a bunch of dwarf tomato seeds from them last year and THEY didn't suffer from peppergate because they're a small company that does a lot of their own seed:

Want to try just a few of something? Seedsnow is *really cheap*.

I got my first real year of tomato seeds from Totally Tomatoes, and a full decade on I'm still getting germination from packets I bought that season:

HUGE selection of most every kind of bean you might want to grow:

Then my partner and I decided we were going to get more chickens. So I emailed the local hatchery, and guess what!

I’m getting muthafuckin silver laced wyandottes in February!!!!!!!

You can just see on the bottom left of the first photo there's another wire cage for overflow, but it's rarely used. That doubles as the sale cage when I go to swaps. The water has vitamins in it this round, it's not dirty.

Chicks stay in the top portion for the first 2 weeks or so, where they have access to heat. I hatch chicks weekly, so the oldest move down when the new ones hatch, and the middle chicks by that time are usually sleeping on the cold side of the brooder, meaning the new hatch can't go over there and get cold, because there's always bigger birds to snuggle up to.

It also prevents a lot of stress, to have staggered hatches. I used to hear a lot of crying when a new hatch got put into the brooder alone. Now one or two might protest being alive for a few minutes directly after being relocated, but they calm down almost immediately and begin following the older birds around to eat and drink.

The stand is made of 2x4s screwed together. The bottom of the brooder is a Low Boy 50g aquarium that doesn't hold water. The top is 2x2s and 1x2s screwed together and covered in 1/4" hardware cloth. It actually fits snugly over the lowboy and is not attached to anything, so it technically can be removed but it's a massive hassle to do so. The entire front opens and folds down flat, for easy access. The heat lamp (I actually got a new one yesterday) is secured with metal shower curtain rings in several ways from several points, to prevent failure, and plugs directly into the wall. Both top and bottom have an aquarium grow light bar on top for full spectrum lighting.

I really love this setup! It's been very easy to use and clean, and it serves the purpose very well.

Bonus, it looks rad as hell at night