Mimi’s Lil’ Rustic Farm

05/14/2026

I feel like a little kid in a candy store… 💜

I have been hatching my own eggs almost all season and working on my crosses, darkest BCM’s until last month. That’s when I got in my black silver from GypsyHen and all those beauties from Cluckleberry Cottage.

I got in more black silvers from Gypsy last week with a new line of chocolate ameraucana.

This week, today actually I have more chocolate from T&M where my lines I have now are from. I have some pretty speckled, bloomed Silverudds from Wonder Hooves. These are different than what the lines are I have, and the ones I got rid of. I also ordered their pretty lighter bloomed mixes. I actually was first on Hollyoaks post and I’m super excited for that dozen. Heavy dark bloomed speckled I’m already in 🤤 mode and they haven’t even arrived yet. 🤣 Y’all know how hard it is to catch any of those posts in time.

Then next week I have my solid black ameraucana line I’ve been waiting for since last summer from the same breeder as my chocolate. With more blooms coming from winning the breakfast for Chelsea from Webbed foot.

The end of the month give or take a solid black line from Gypsy to give myself two lines to work with. And another speckled bloomed from another. And the much awaited(almost 3 years now) my purple coppers.

And this will close down my season of hatching for awhile. Until I can get my HB lines in. I will put my incubators up save one small one that I will keep back to be able to hatch some of my mauves and pinks. Yet, that is it. I will officially have put the brakes on.

This will aid in the direction of what I am focusing on with my program. Of the ones I’ve kept, the ones coming in and how I want to move forward. All the pens I omitted of breeds and varieties has led me to this. I had planned this last season, yet I never pulled the plug fully until back in March. It was hard, yet it’s been so perfect.

Notice the theme….
Lots of blooms and speckles. 💜
One line of black silver marans
Three lines of BCM
Two lines of solid black not BBS Ameraucana,
Two lines of Chocolate.
One line of BBS Ameraucana

Each line I brought in will be kept separated. I have no desire to undo all the work these breeders have put into these lines. I want to work on, aid in preserving and hopefully even bettering the lines. I have specific plans for how I will breed moving forward. That will be a post for later 😍

I can’t wait to work with the pure breed lines from the amazing breeders who have spent so much time with them. The blooms and speckles are for the pretty eggs. Any of the above breeds that do not make the cut to be kept in my program will go to my color laying pen or to another home. I plan to have a full olive pen with them. Using an olive male.

A favorite f1 with a speckled bloom 💜

05/13/2026

So maybe I'm not done incubating quite yet. I think these beauties here are definitely going to find their way into one of them with my eggs that arrive tomorrow.

And these right here are a prime example of why I never stopped incubating. I've been hatching only my favorites now. I've gotten very selective with what I actually set

05/12/2026

Do you ever just have that one memory or picture you stumble upon and you laugh or it makes you smile?

Well this one did it for me this morning. I have not seen this picture in years.

This is from 2010 and it was the end of a work day before leaving to head home. Just a silly moment where we were all laughing at the silliest thing… Me…. Haha. I decided to pop a pose and it was so dumb, it was funny. They caught this picture and I’m glad they did.

It’s really the silliest, tiny things that can bring such joy.

Enjoy your day!

05/11/2026

It’s approaching close to the end of hatching for me for a while and it’s actually going to be nice to take that break. Honestly I have to. Work is now in full swing and I just don’t have the time to have all these different ages. With them being inside the brooders, the tent, then the ones outside are easier, yet work is hectic every season for me during this time of year and chicks are A lot of work.

I do have several dozen coming this week and next from orders and once those are done, I will take a break for a little bit. I may have a dozen or two coming closer to the end of the month and I will keep one incubator back just for them. The cabinet is definitely getting put up.

I will say… it’s a beautiful thing going out to the pens and having the growouts separated by the pullets leaving, my keepers to evaluate and the boys. I had 70 cockerels leave in this past week which has also freed up even more space. It was so nice having them in one pen when it came time to pull them.

Then once I stop hatching, I will then be able to separate my grow-outs. I’m not sure why this is so important for me to do, but it is. I’ve normally left them all together, but this time, I want them separated by breed. And only having BCM, blooms, Ameraucana & olives egger now… it has Been game changing. I love it! It was the Best decision ever made for me at this time. I have a few wtb left just under an ameraucana for deeper blues( which is what was used to create them) Then I kept a few SRB girls and they will now be for f1’s.

Saturday was hatch day and I pulled them last night. Look at these adorable chocolate olive eggers. These hatched from a dark olive who was put in my chocolate pen to go back under blue and create sexable pullets at hatch. 💜 I also have two BCM girls in that pen for f1 sexable at hatch chicks 🙂 🐣

05/10/2026

Available to 🚢 tomorrow. 💯 Brings them to your 🏠

What's included:
1- F1 Lavender Ameraucana under BCM
2- BCM light mauve bloom
2- BCM
5- BC olives under BCM
2- Pink Bloom Project
2 extras are F1's WTB under BCM

05/08/2026

This is a great read and information for all us chicken tenders.

As you all know, nutrition is incredibly important to me for my birds, not just for their health and vigor, but to support them at the subatomic cellular level. For this reason, I am adamant about feeding a soy and corn free ration to support not only a reduced level of inflammation in my flock, but also there is promising research that is emerging that links soy to increases in testosterone as it is a phytoestrogen food which could contribute to more Z chromosomes (cockerels) being passed on from females that are on a soy ration. More to come on that as I continue to collect my own data as well as work with others that are also testing this hypothesis. If you are interested in reading more about how the converse works (higher progesterone), I have linked a study in the comments.

I recently have been testing King Brand feeds which is a feed mill that is native to California and I have been very impressed with their feed. I have had to make a few trade-offs with my breeder pens, namely, that I no longer can keep them on a fully organic feed. When you have a fully organic feed, you are limited with the kind of amino acids you are able to add to the feed for it to remain organic. Because of this, I had to heavily supplement and I still was not able to strike a proper balance across all of my pens. By converting to at least a GMO-free feed that is also soy and corn free, I was able to at least minimize some of my other concerns with their nutrition, and also reduce their exposure to chemicals such as glyphosate which are heavily found in corn and soy rations.

Here is a write up that I did for the company recently that I’m sharing here. I am in no way sponsored by this company nor will I ever be sponsored by any company, but I do believe that it has contributed positively in a number of ways for my breeders so I thought I would share this with you here. If you’re in California, it’s easy to find…if you are outside of California… not so easy, but I do think that researching the guaranteed analysis could help you with your own feed goals and perhaps you can take from their breakdowns and get this feed similarly made at a local mill near you. I would add the suggested components I mention in this write up:

”After extensive testing across multiple breeder pens at Little Chicken Farms, I can confidently say that King Brand Freedom GMO-Free 19% Breeder/Layer Pellet has been one of the most biologically balanced feeds I have worked with in a long time, particularly for highly demanding breeding programs such as Black Copper Marans and Olive Eggers.

One of the most immediate improvements I observed after transitioning onto the feed was overall flock condition. Feather quality improved noticeably, with richer sheen, tighter feather structure, and stronger overall body condition in both hens and breeder males. I also saw meaningful improvements in shell quality and consistency across several pens that had previously experienced intermittent shell irregularities under other feeding programs.

From a breeder standpoint, one of the strongest aspects of the formula is the balance between protein quality, digestibility, and metabolic stability. The 19% protein level combined with the methionine content at 0.47% creates an excellent foundation for feather maintenance, reproductive output, and sustained breeder performance without pushing birds into excessive condition or metabolic stress.

Another major advantage has been gut stability. Compared to previous feeds I have tested, the birds transitioned extremely well onto the ration, and overall digestive consistency improved substantially. I believe the inclusion of probiotics, hydrolyzed yeast, and the soy-free/corn-free approach contributes significantly to lowering inflammatory burden and improving nutrient utilization.

I have also been particularly impressed with fertility resilience in breeder males while on the feed. Maintaining fertility, feather quality, and dark feather saturation simultaneously in heavily melanized birds can be extremely challenging, and this ration has supported all three better than most breeder feeds I have tested.

If I could suggest a few areas for future optimization, I would personally love to see lysine pushed slightly higher, ideally closer to 1.0%, especially for advanced breeder programs focused on feather quality, recovery, fertility, and heavy production demands.[editor note: my feed rep got back to me to communicate that the lysine IS actually closer to .96% but the tag is reduced to allow margin of error during inspection.]

I would also be very interested in the addition of Bifidobacterium bifidum as part of the probiotic profile to further support gut resilience and immune stability, particularly during periods of stress, heat, breeding intensity, or recovery.

Finally, I believe there may be room to modestly increase vitamin E support within the formula, especially for breeder flocks utilizing higher-quality fats and omega-rich supplementation programs. Enhanced antioxidant support could further benefit feather integrity, fertility longevity, oxidative resilience, and long-term breeder performance.

Overall, King Brand Freedom 19% has become one of the strongest foundational breeder feeds I have worked with and aligns exceptionally well with a more advanced, health-focused breeding philosophy.”

05/08/2026

Willow is not impressed with me today... lol

It was either this or the dreaded cone... since she will NOT stop pulling the bandage off... It's been raining and even snowing here over a week now. She can't have her leg exposed right now outside.

She is a hot mess with 7 stitches and does not understand why she's wrapped. 😂😂😂

05/08/2026

Good morning. Have a great day!

05/07/2026

Good morning. It’s time for my AIV testing and I can either do it myself or pay the testers to come out. I have not done the swabbing myself yet and maybe overthinking it. How hard is it really? I mean my main concern is how far do I put the swab in?

05/06/2026

Today's weather has dictated my day. And I'm here for it 100%

I was prepared ahead of time for the storm coming so I have taken a very long overdue day off. My injuries from the fall the other day are thanking me.

With this day of rest that I am doing heat/ice alternative... I've started The Madison.

Has anyone watched this? What are your thoughts? Did you ugly 😭 or just silently ball your eyes out?

05/06/2026

This pup!!!! Willow darling what am I going to do with you?!

At least this time it wasn’t a snake, mouse, tumbleweeds, a chunk of wood or whatever you could find to fit through the dog door and brought in. 🤣

Nope she sliced her front leg from one side to the next. 😢

I opted to not have the cone of shame and they wrapped her leg instead. She's been pretty out of it from the sedation until now. She's going bonkers over this bandage. Oops. Poor baby