I put our alpaca stud Peter in the girl's pasture today to spit test the girl's.  Within minutes he had our female, Eloise, cushed down and breeding.  I knew Eloise was open but it slipped my mind when I put Peter in there.  Since Eloise is Black and Peter is Medium Silver Grey I can hope for a grey or black cria next June!?

The game hen that hatched out the five ducklings was missing from the barn this morning.  Evan went on hunt into the woods and found her scratching in the leaves with all five ducklings.  I wanted to collect them all up and put them in the chicken coop to keep the ducklings safe.  As I said she is a very protective mother and did not want me or the kids near her babies.  She puffed herself up and attacked me numerous times while picking up the ducklings.  I managed to get all the little ones and put them into a pet carrier... mother hen was then easy to get as she wanted to be with her charges and she went right into the carrier after them.

Rooster Rescue

I met a new neighbor last Thursday when he stopped by the farm to let us know his favorite rooster had gone missing and wondered if we had seen it around.  At that time I had not seen his rooster.
Then around 11 am this morning I looked out into our middle alpaca pasture and could see a rooster pacing the fence line. I looked a lot like one of our Brown Leghorn roosters but something about him just looked a bit different.  Evan and I went to check him out and try to catch him if needed.

Well, it turned out to be the neighbor's lost wandering rooster.  Evan and I walked him into the corner of  the fence line and fairly easily caught him up.  We put him into a pet carrier until we could take him home.

When we returned him home my neighbor was so shocked that he was still alive.  He was very thankful to have him home again.

Kids and Chicks

Went down to the feed store this morning to pick up new day old chicks.  They get thier chicks straight run (which means they are unsexed) and all the breeds in one big pen.  I picked up 16 chicks in hopes that at least 50% will be hens for future egg layers.  I think I have 2 Barred Rocks, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 10 Americana (Easter Eggers) and one unkown (could be an odd colored RIR or maybe a plain looking Americana).

McKayla just loves babies and must hold them!

Had a great family stop by tonight to see our Nigerian Dwarf goat kids. They visited with the kids and decided to take our doeling and one of the bucklings as a whether.

I will be disbudding them this weekend and will then get them started on bottle feeding. The new owners will be picking them up next weekend.

Turkey season has arrived

Well, here it is, the weekend before Thanksgiving. The push to get the remainder of this year's turkeys sold has begun. I had two gentlemen come by the farm this morning to purchase a breeding pair each. Those were my last two hens for sale. I have one hen left that will be retained here on the farm as a breeder since I lost one of our hens this year.

One of the guys ended up also purchasing the four Brown Leghorn chickens that I mistakenly was sold this past spring. They just started laying so he was pleased to get them. I even threw in a Brown Leghorn rooster to boot. One less I have to process here!

Neil and his Dad got the exterior wall to the bedroom sided with cedar siding to match the rest of the house on that end. So, the French door removal project is pretty much done. Then Neil got most of the lawn mowed for the final time this season. Looks nice and tidy now.

Chirp, Chirp, Chirp

That's what I heard while in the barn this morning.

I sound I hear a lot of around here... in the spring!

I went to investigate the chirping in the chicken coop and could hear it coming from above the brooders. I called to my seven year son, Evan, to come help. I boosted him up the seven feet to the brooder ceiling to find the babies I could hear. He found them in an old cardboard box; nine little chicks.

He passed them down to me and I put them one of the brooders. Once we started handling the chicks it quickly became apparent which of the chickens had hatched them out as she came flapping over to me protecting her babies. I quickly captured her and deposited her in the brooder with her chicks. She fussed over them making sure they were all there and safe.

Since it was so late in the year and a bit chilly at night I put them into a box with a brooder light over it. The hen is able to come and go from the box at will. It didn't take long for them to settle down.



Funny to have chicks this time of year. But no matter when they come they are always cute!

Farm Photos from Today

This is one of four roosters from our Southern States chick purchase this spring. He tried his hand at crowing for the first time this morning. He was supposed to be a Americana hen but instead he is a Single Comb Light Brown Leghorn as are the other three roosters and four matching hens. I may keep one Roo to go with the hens... maybe.

These two hens are also from the spring chick purchase. They are supposed to be two of four Barred Rocks. But two look like the closer hen with bright orange legs, larger comb and more white to the bars. They other two look like the far hen with dull yellow legs with grey on the front and toes, smaller comb and less white on the bars.

Here is our new cria born yesterday. Looking much drier and cleaner today. He is also much more steady on his legs and his knees are pointing in the right direction now!

Gabby is one of my original two Nigerian Dwarf Goat does (along with her sister Pepper). Gabby has turned into a beautiful goat and everyone comments on her when they come to the farm.

She is also very sweet and loves to give kisses. (A rare photo of me. Taken with the camera held at arms length.)

Independence Day Update #3

Between yesterday and today there are three new ducklings and two more turkey poults in the brooder. I expect a flush of ducklings in the new few days. Also, yesterday one of the oldest turkey poults that I had left with its mother found its way into the pasture and became a dog toy for our LGDs. When I found it in the barn I wasn't sure if it was still alive or not. It was missing feathers and wet from dog mouth. After I determined it was still breathing I put it with the young birds under the heat lamp in the brooder. In the afternoon it was dry and sitting up a bit. By this morning it was eating, drinking and looking BAR (bright, alert and responsive). It did not want to get up on its feet though... I wonder if it has a broken leg? They are not floppy at all so I have hope it will fully recover with a bit more rest but its days of free ranging with mom are over.

I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. Took the weed whacker around the outside of the raised beds. It looks so much tidier now. I haven't been able to plant in the 4x8 box that I cleaned out earlier this week as I hadn't figured out how to chicken proof it until today. I cut a 16 foot cattle panel in half to give me a 4x8 metal grid to lay on top of the box. Over the grid I will place a bird net for fruit trees. This should keep the birds from scratching up the bed and eating the seeds and disrupting any tender starts. I hope to get some lettuce, radishes, carrots and cukes planted in that box in the next few days.

Here is my update for the IDC this week.

Plant something - Mr. Stripy tomato, sweet yellow pepper, sweet orange pepper, sweet banana pepper, sweet potato.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.

Preserve something - Does feeding my sourdough count as something I am preserving? If so, it is something I do at least every other day to keep it alive.

Reduce Waste - Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. Knitted up a reusable produce bag. No more plastic produce bags for me... YEAH! You can read about it here. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin.

Preparation and Storage - I scored a few more great items on the discount table at the local grocery store to have in the pantry. I am continuing to clean out garden beds when I have time and still keep up with the weeds in the boxes I already have planted. I am using newspaper with aged barn floor straw over it as mulch to keep the weeds at bay and the soil moist.

Our two oldest children have life insurance policies through Modern Woodmen of America. One of the many benefits that MWA offers to their policy holders is a free tree every year. This week I remembered to log onto their website and order our two free trees for this year. I don't expect them to come until the Fall for planting but it is something I got done this week! Oh, I ordered a Sugar Maple and a Redbud. The maple for Fall color and the redbud for Spring color!

Eat the Food - Made a Shrimp Scampi from shrimp from the freezer, pasta out of the pantry and served it with a loaf of sourdough bread, also out of the freezer. Brought a pan of Chicken Enchiladas, made with home grown chicken out of the freezer, over to the In-Laws for dinner Saturday night. Made more homemade granola and bagels this weekend for breakfasts.

It's pool time again!

The kids have been looking forward to today all Spring! Today Daddy set up the pool again!

The past two years here at the farm we have had an 18' pool (the kind with the inflatable rim). It was great to have for the kids to cool off with in the hot summer months. Unfortunately, last summer we had to chase and patch leaks constantly and by the end of the season it was determined it just wasn't going to make it through another year. So, this week Neil picked up a new 15' pool and this morning he set it up and started filling it before we had to head into town to do some errands.

When we returned home around 1:30pm the skies turned grey, the thunder boomed and the rain came down. About an hour later the storm moved off and the kids begged to go into the pool.

The post rain sky as seen from the deck.

Now the pool was being filled by the garden hose with water from our deep well... read that as ice cold water. I said "sure" thinking that they would put their toes in and quickly change their minds.

The new pool still filling up with water.

McKayla was the first to "go all in".

Evan took a bit longer to get in but then was all about swimming.

Never underestimate the power of the pool! Brrrr......

Out in the chicken coop I found a turkey poult under one of my broody chickens. The turkey hen that had been setting down in the unused pig house left 8 eggs in the nest when the other nine hatched out last week. When I discovered the eggs they were cold but I gathered them up and put them in a nest box in the coop next to one of the broody hens. I didn't expect anything to come of it but I figured it couldn't hurt. After a week had gone by and no more poults had hatched out I reached in a gave the eggs a gentle shake. Three of them sloshed when shaken so I removed them... for a moment I thought of just removing them all thinking they must all be spoiled by now but I left them in the end. And today there was a poult under the hen! There are still four more eggs so I will wait and see.

Oh, and I also discovered a tiny chicken chick under one of the ducks in the coop as well. Funny, it was marked just like the turkey poults... it must be an Americana chicken cross. Both the chick and the poult got moved into the box under the heat lamp in the brooder.

First duckling of the season

McKayla holding the 1st duckling of the season.

I discovered the first Muscovy duckling of the season in the barn this morning. It was hatched out by our game hen that adopted us the Fall of 2007 after a neighbor moved. She is the best (aka meanest) mother hen we have. She is fiercely protective of her nest and her hatchlings. I was suspicious that one of the duck eggs she was sitting on had hatched after seeing some shell fragments outside the nest. She was not happy to be lifted and I have several red spots on my arm to remind me not to do it again. But, under her was a little yellow duckling. She was even more unhappy when I took it away from her! I have found that I loose a lot of young birds if I let them be raised by the hens... there are just too many dangers out there.

So, our duckling is now happily living with the 7 turkey keets in the brooder pen... which, I was happy to find, did just fine overnight.

The game hen setting on about 10 Muscovy duck eggs and 1 Americana chicken egg.

Farm Update

Let's see...

The 16 chicken chicks are growing well. They are feathering out nicely and are even starting to fly up onto the roost in the brooding pen. I still can't tell the sex of the chicks so I am keeping my fingers crossed that more then 50% will be hens.

The rabbit kits are also growing well. I pulled them out of the nest boxes a few days ago to put clean bedding material in so I got a head count on them finally. Purslane's litter has 7 kits while Camomile's litter has a whopping 10 kits!

The goose is finally sitting on her eggs in the ground level nest box that Neil built for me last year. I have counted 7 eggs in the nest. I hope she successfully hatches out more than one gosling this year.

The alpacas are looking skinny after their shearing earlier this week. I moved our 10 month old male, Seamus, out of the females pasture and put him in with the young boys out in the back pasture. He is mildly stressed by the move, I always hate weaning time, but he seems to be getting along fine with the other boys so I am happy with that. I also moved our llama into the cow pasture. There is more grass there right now and she can't be in either of the back alpaca pastures since I have intact males in both of them. She seems to enjoy having new pasture to explore.

I got the lawn mowed again today... I need to start mowing sections of the pasture soon to keep the thistle and wild dill from taking hold again.

Neil and his Dad started framing in the rear wall of the garage this weekend. It will be nice when the building of the garage is done and Neil can spend his weekends using the garage instead. I have lots of projects for him. :)

Evan picked these buttercups for me today... they sure brighten up the kitchen!

Day on the farm.

It was a pretty typical day here at the farm.

Our new chicks are doing well as are the new rabbit kits. I always worry about new babies while it is still getting cold at night. I tend to check in with the little ones first thing when I go out to do chores. The chicks are under their heat lamp and the kits are snug in their rabbit fur lined nest box so hopefully all will be well with them as they grow.

I had started mowing the lawn yesterday and managed to get that finished up today just before lunch so I felt pretty productive. The lawn looks tidy as usual once it is mowed. I can tell already that this year our lawn/former neglected pasture it going to be even more full and green. It is amazing what routine mowing can do for a weed covered area... no weed killers, fertilizer or other chemicals have ever been used just mowing. That simple act keeps the weeds from maturing and setting seed and allows the grasses the room and resources to grow.

I do have a bit of exciting news to report. We sold our Irish Dexter heifer calf today. A very nice gentleman from south of us in NC is just starting up a herd and is starting out with about 6 heifers. He came out to the farm this afternoon to look at our small herd and at the little heifer we had for sale. He is an experienced livestock man so I am happy to have her go to his farm. She will be well cared for... which is always my worry when selling our animals. She will stay here for a while yet until she is weaned at six months old... about the middle of June. We still have our bull calf available for sale. If we don't sell him he will become our freezer beef for Fall of 2010.

I started a new batch of sourdough bread tonight. It is a recipe I use that has a long (12-18 hours) first rise so it will sit out all night doing its thing. This long rise time allows for a more sour tasting finished loaf.

This and That

I was happy to see this morning that all sixteen chicks survived the night out in the chicken coop. They were all piled up on each other when I opened the coop door and popped up at the sound.

I found another turkey egg on the floor of the coop and slide it under one of my broody Buff Orpington hens that is sitting on two other turkey eggs for me. So now she has three and seems quite happy with her post... pecking at my hand when I check for any chicken eggs under her.

One of our Muscovy ducks has laid her eggs in the hollow tree stump out by my raised beds. She is sitting on about twenty eggs. I also have two nests of duck eggs in the barn and one in the chicken coop. If they all hatch out I will have plenty of ducklings this season!

I managed to get my hands on our rabbit buck at feeding time today and removed him from the does. He has been with them for about three weeks now. I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to catch him before now. You see he is wise to my presence when he is with the girls and will stay out of reach in their pen. This morning though he made the mistake of eating with his back to me. A swift move on my part and I scooped him up and returned him to his adjoining pen. All went well until he jumped into his pen and ripped three holes in my shirt with his back feet. It was a nice t-shirt too!

This afternoon, Neil and I took the kid's out to lunch at a restaurant and then visited with friends (classmates of Neil's from HS) in Durham, NC. One of Neil's friends was here visiting from "up North" and it was great for Neil to see her and for me to meet her for the first time. We had a wonderful visit and the kids played while we had some adult time. What a relaxing afternoon!

New chicks!

With the recent sale of 11 of my crossbreed laying hens along with the loss of two of my purebreed hens this winter to the cow's watering trough I am significantly down on laying hens. Our local Southern States feed store was selling chicks this weekend so I headed to town to pick up a "few" purebreed chicks to add to the flock.

I returned with 16 baby chicks! Four Rhode Island Reds, four Barred Rocks, and eight Americanas (I think). They are straight run... which means that they are unsexed. I am hoping for at least 50% of them to be hens but more would be better.

I got them settled into the brooder with a heat lamp, waterer and some chick starter. Baby chicks are so cute...

More chicken sales

I sold another 7 laying hens today. I think I am going to regret selling so many... I may not get enough eggs to fill all my customers needs. Oh well, I have a hard time saying no when someone asks if they can have that many. While we were collecting the hens (more of the cross breeds we raised last year) he noticed all the roosters I had penned up and asked about them too. So, he took all eleven of the roosters that I was planning on butchering out this week!

I know I will be without the birds for the freezer but I have such little time now with the new baby. I was happy to sell these knowing in just a few months I am sure to have more chicks hatch out. Which means more extra roosters. We are now down to just the three roosters on the farm. It is going to be quiet around here for a while.

Chicken sales.

Got a call this morning from someone looking for laying hens wondering if we had any for sale... we sure do! They arrived about an hour later and we picked out six hens (mostly the cross breed chicks we hatched out last year). They also rescued one of the roosters to add to their flock as well. Since we are getting more then enough eggs it will be nice to have less birds to feed. It will also make room for the chicks I know will hatch out this year from hidden nests around the farm.

My new sourdough starter is doing well. I only started it about 48 hours ago and it is already beginning to bubble. Below is a photo of it before I fed and mixed it for the day. I hope not to forget about it this time around. Unfortunately, I can't seem to lay hands on my sourdough cookbook at the moment... it's around here somewhere.

I remembered to take my camera to the barn to get a photo of our newest buckling. I think he is very handsome with his black and white markings. I wish I could use him as a future buck but since he is related to our all our does he will have to be sold or at least wethered. Anyone interested in this great boy?

Oh, I made another 2 dozen bagels today. I put a dozen in the freezer for later. I told you it was a bad thing I learned to make these!

Evening Update: Our LGD, Emmie, was out again tonight. When I went down to the barn to lock her up again I discovered the last two roosters sleeping on the milking stanchion. I caught both of them up and put them in the hoop house. Now all of the roosters to be butchered are separated out from the flock. That leaves me with just three roosters: my Dominique, Speckled Sussex and Hill Roamer.

My Speckled Sussex Rooster (aka Speck)

Today's update

Let's see, what did I get done today? I managed to track down seven of the roosters and get them isolated into the hoop house pen. Looking around the barn yard I still see two more roosters that have evaded me. I will get them when I can as it will be awhile before I get these others butchered anyway.

The birds are all still laying well. The chickens gave 23 eggs this morning! I had a customer drive in and purchase them before I even made it back to the house to package them up. :) Oh, I keep forgetting to mention it up to this point but our goose has been laying for a few weeks now. She has been giving an egg about every other day. I have been taking them from her as I am not real interested in having a larger flock of geese... the two we have are enough. If she keeps it up into warmer weather I think I will let her set on some. Meanwhile, I have been blowing out the goose eggs so I can save them. I plan on using some for Easter Eggs for the kids this year. The others I plan on listing on our etsy.com sight for sale for others to use in egg art.

I also got creative with one of the goose eggs and made this little gargoyle...

It uses a goose egg for the body and a bantam egg for the head. His features are made with Sculpty polymer clay and he is painted with a textured sand paint. I thought he came out adorable for my first attempt.

In the kitchen I started something new for me today. The kids and I love bagels but I have never made them before thinking they would be too much work. Well, I found a recipe on the King Arthur Flour site for mini bagels and it didn't seem too intimidating so I got it started today. It uses a 14 hour starter consisting of flour, water and yeast. I got it mixed up and it is bubbling away on the counter. Tomorrow I will make the bagels!

While I was mixing the bagel starter it occurred to me that I hadn't even peeked at my sourdough starter in about 6 months! It has been in the back of the refrigerator and forgotten during my final months of pregnancy and the two months since our daughter was born. I dug it out of the fridge and discovered it taken over by mold... yuck! I threw it out, cleaned out my sourdough crock and started over.

This and that....

I managed to get three more roosters butchered off today. It would have been four but one of them escaped from the pen I had them in as I was trying to get hold of him. Now that all the roosters I had separated out are butchered I will start catching a few more this evening and put them into the pen so they can be easily caught during the day when I want to butcher more.

I also put our American Chinchilla rabbit buck in with our two does. I will leave him with the does for a few days. If all goes as it should we should have two litters of kits the middle of April.

The warm weather has definitely effected the birds as I found another duck egg today and the first turkey egg as well.

Neil and his Dad are still working away on the new garage. Today they are framing in the front wall that will have a car door, a people door and a window in it. Once it is all framed and sheathed I look forward to getting it painted like the barn so our farmyard will start having a cohesive look to it.

Berk, one of our LGDs, lazes about on this warm afternoon.

Butchering day.

It was a nice warm day today and Taylor took a long morning nap so I actually managed to get four of our roosters butchered out. I still have 8-10 more that need to get done soon. I will try to get them done before the girls get too pestered by all the excess males during the spring breeding season.

Chicken Little

I was doing my normal chores in the barn this morning when I heard the muffled sound of a baby chick. I knew I had two ducks setting on eggs by the hay bales in the barn so I went over to investigate. I lifted the first duck and there tucked in beside 6 duck eggs was a single chicken chick. Muscovy duck eggs incubate for 35 days while chicken eggs only take 21 days so I knew that mother duck was going to be stuck on her remaining eggs for another 14 days. The little chicken chick could not stay under mother duck all that time.

I removed the chick and with a lack of a better place to put it (it is getting too cool in the chicken coop at night for a single chick with no mother) I set up a box in the house for it. It will have to stay here in the house until it is old enough to regulate it's own temperature and can move out to the barn. A put the box in the bathroom to keep it safe from our new cats. I don't want them to get a taste for young chickens!