Dirty job done dirt cheap!

I finally coordinated a time for fellow vet tech and local farmer S. to come to the farm to help me process our rabbits. S. has been raising rabbits since she was a young girl so she is very experienced in processing them. Personally, I have no problem butchering and dressing out the rabbits. What I have a bit of a problem with is the actual act of offing the cute rabbits I have been feeding for 12 weeks. So S. did that part and we both dressed and cleaned them out. We only had seven to do and together we made quick work of it.

I had intended to give her some of the finished rabbits as a "thank you" but S. said she had plenty in her freezer at home. She then spotted our geese out in the pasture and commented on how she was looking for a trio for her farm. Done deal! She couldn't take them today but I will hold them for her until she can come get them.

Trading skills and/or goods is such a fundamental part of homesteading. I just love when it works out so well!

Later this evening as I was locking up the barnyard for the night I went ahead and put our American Chinchilla buck in with our two does. That would put new kits to arrive the end of August and they will be ready to go the end of October.

Flown the coop...

Well, all is quiet in the house now.

Two thirds of my children (Evan, 7 and McKayla, soon to be 5) were picked up by their grandmother at 7:30am this morning. They are traveling to Vermont for a week to visit with family. This time every year there is a large balloon festival in Quechee, VT that they all go to. Evan got to go last year but this is McKayla's first time away from home for so long. Even though I know they will be having lots of fun I will miss them terribly.

So, for the next seven days it will be me and baby Taylor hanging out.

I have grand plans to get lots of stuff done... we will see how productive I really am.

Muscovy duck with FOURTEEN newly hatched ducklings!

I sold a pair of American Chinchilla rabbits yesterday and two of the juvenile goslings this afternoon!

Evening update: Got a new batch of goat's milk soap made up tonight. I made a cornmeal scrub soap scented with cedar and orange. It should be a refreshing soap to use after doing chores. It will be 5-6 weeks before the soap has cured enough to use. At that time I will be selling some on our Etsy site and also (hopefully) at a local farm store here in town as well.

Independence Day Update #4

Happy Memorial Day!

A couple from Danville, VA came and bought some ducks today. They were here in December and purchased three of our Muscovy ducks and an Embden goose. They recently lost their drake and came back to get another. They also ended up getting another mature duck and a month old duckling. They will all have a wonderful new home with this couple as pets on their pond.

Here is my weekly IDC update:

Plant something - Russet potatos, Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb, Drunken Woman Lettuce, Iceburg Lettuce, Kuroda Long Carrots, Radishes, Bush Pickle Cucumber and Straight 8 Cucumber.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens. Plantain (the herb/weed) from our yard, wild mint.

Preserve something - Froze fresh mint leaves, dried plantain leaves.

Reduce Waste - Did our usual recycling efforts. Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. The kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin. Got a Little Tike basketball hoop off of Freecycle for the kids.

Preparation and Storage - Not much on this front this week.

Eat the Food -

Goslings are here!

When I was out feeding the poultry and rabbits this morning I noticed our gander was being very aggressive. I had a hunch what might be up, that his lady goose hatched out a gosling or two. The ground nest box that she sets in is in the poultry pen but behind the coop so I don't always walk back there every day to check on things... especially with all the rain we have had this week turning the ground to deep mud.

I braved the mud and was happy to see several yellow balls of fluff in the box with the goose. I happened to bring my camera down this morning so I snapped a few shots. Momma goose was not too happy that I was anywhere near and she kept hissing at me.

I was thrilled to see seven little goslings! Last year (which was her first year laying) she sat on six eggs, hatched only two and she crushed one in the nest. The single gosling that survived was doted on by her very protective parents. The seven in the nest this morning look vigorous and strong so I hope that they all make it.

Now, to find some folks that want some Embden geese.

When headed back up to the house I had babies on the brain I guess because I made a detour over to the tree stump that one of our Muscovy ducks has been setting in for weeks now. I moved the tires I had in front of the hole (to keep our dog out but still allow the duck to come and go) and could see that the duck was setting off to the side of where her nest had been. Four year old McKayla was with me and since she is smaller then me I asked her to reach into the opening in the stump and under the duck to see if any ducklings were there. To McKayla's delight she pulled out a little duckling! After she removed three more I told her to leave any more there with the mom (again I hate to take all the babies away from the moms that work so hard to hatch them for me). The four ducklings were taken back down to the coop to join the others in the brooder pen. That brings our duckling count to 16 in the brooder.

I grabbed my camera this morning...

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!

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.

And gosling makes three.

I was happy to see this morning that our new gosling was safe and sound. Our goose and gander are very good and VERY protective parents. They seem quite pleased with their new charge. I am happy that at least one of their eggs produced for them... otherwise it would have been a lot of work for naught.

Just so you can all see that my fear of the gosling becoming a tasty snack for one of our LGD was/is not unfounded...


This is Emmie our Anatolian Shepard LGD. She has been following behind the goose family quite interested in the new gosling. If she gets any closer the gander displays and goes after her. Hopefully, their guard will not falter and we can watch the gosling grow up.

Our American Chinchilla rabbit doe, Purslane, has been doing a great job of raising up this latest litter of 10 kits. Today they are 19 days old. Sadly, this morning I found one of the kits dead. It was out of the nest box (as was another kit) and I have to assume it died of cold exposure overnight as no other signs of trauma could be seen. I would have figured that at this stage it would have been fine out of the nest box (I mean really, it is May 1st in NC) .

I tipped the nest box on its side so the kits can leave the box but still huddle together for warmth easily. Plus, with the box on its side, Purslane is able to get up and away from the kits for a needed rest once in a while too. I was sure I was past the point of concern over fatalities but I guess you never know.

We had some other accountable losses today too.

While down by the goat barn this afternoon I noticed that our goose was not in the nest box on her eggs. She often leaves her nest once a day to get a drink and connect with our gander who goes wild when she returns to him. But, since she wasn't currently in the box I took advantage and went and peaked inside to see if I could see the goslings that I spotted two days ago.

At first peak I just saw a nest of eggs but with some digging around I found one dead gosling in the back corner. There were two duck eggs in there so I moved them under the duck in the neighboring nest box. I also found a turkey egg in there. That left six goose eggs. One of the eggs had pipped out quite a bit but it didn't make it. The remaining five eggs felt heavy and not "sloshy" so I wasn't sure what to do with them. It has been two days since I first noticed a gosling in the box but it may have been longer as it was under the goose where I couldn't see it. I made the decision to crack a "pipped" size hole in one to see what was going on inside. What I found was an almost fully developed dead gosling. It had not yet pulled in its yolk sac so it died just days before pipping out. I opened the other 4 only to find more partially developed embryos. So, with that I cleaned out the box and lined it with fresh straw.

It was just about then that the goose reappeared honking at me for being close to her nest. And there, waddling behind her, was a single gosling. She stuck her head in the nest box in search of her eggs and after finding none she settled down in front of the boxes and snuggled her lone gosling under her wing. She wouldn't be able to return to the box anyway as the gosling would never be able to climb up into it.

I worry about such a little thing wandering around the pasture as it would be a perfect snack size morsel for our livestock guardian dogs, but if anyone could keep it safe from the dogs it would be a pair of geese.

Broody Birds

I snapped a few photos today of our Embden goose and one of our chocolate rippled Muscovy ducks that have been setting on eggs for a few weeks now. They both laid their eggs in the nice nest box that Neil built for me a few months ago. None of the birds used the box for the longest time and I think Neil was doubting the need to build it. I think it was just something new to their environment and it took a bit for them to get used to it and trust it was a safe place to brood their young.

Egg Incubator

Well, here it is the end of March and I still don't have any eggs hatching out. The chickens I separated out are laying but not setting. The turkeys are laying but not setting. The ducks have laid nests full of eggs and have also been setting but at some of them should have hatched by now... but it hasn't happened. My goose finally found a safe place to lay her eggs (our LGD Emmie was eating them every day) and is now setting on them too so maybe I will have some goslings by the end of April.

Anyway, I have had multiple inquires about chicks and ducklings for sale with nothing to offer. I have even had several people ask about reserving a turkey for thanksgiving but until I get poults on the ground I don't want to do that either. So, this week I took the plunge and invested in an egg incubator. Just a small still-air incubator that holds 41 eggs. I have spent the last few days with it set up trying to adjust the temperature. This morning I set eggs in it. I put some of the Maren, Barred Rock, Welsummer and a few eggs from the Easter Eggers in there. This is the first time I have ever incubated eggs so I am hoping my hatch rate is at least 50% this first run.

It would be nice to have some baby birds here at last!

Going on a goose chase.

Neil got out of work a little early today and I was waiting for him when he got home. I needed him to help me catch our female goose, who I have named Gertie. I had noticed a few days ago that she had a bit of black plastic tubing(?) that had gotten lodged over the edge of her upper bill. It didn't seem to be bothering her too much and I have seen her eating and drinking fine but I wanted to get it off if I could.

So, Neil and I headed out into the pasture where the geese were grazing and walked them back up to the barn. The plan was to get them into the cow stall so I could get my hands on her. Everything went smoothly and I had her in my arms in no time. With me restaining Gertie, Neil easily pulled the offending bit of plastic off her bill.

Gertie didn't seem to appreciate our good deed very much and was quick to be free of me and get back to Gossie, our gander.

Photo taken of the geese yesterday. Gertie is in the back water trough and you can just make out the black plastic bit on her upper bill.

More mowing... and more mowing....

I spent most of my day mowing the pasture. Finished up the area I was mowing on Saturday, then mowed another totally unmowed section toward the middle of the pasture, then mowed the cows favorite section behind the female alpacas pasture (this had been mowed a few times now and is looking really good finally which is probably why it is the cows favorite area), then mowed the male alpaca pasture, then the tiny section up by the barn and finally the female alpaca pasture! While in the girls pasture I had to move the limbs from the large oak tree that we fell earlier in the spring. We haven't had time to finish sawing it up and chip all the limbs so it has just been sitting in the pasture were it fell. I have been mowing around it up until now but it sure was starting to look scraggly. I moved all the limbs from one side of the big tree to the other so I could at least mow along one side of the tree that could be seen from the road to clean up the look of the pasture a bit. All in all it was probably 3 acres of mowing I got done.

The difficult part is getting the tractor into and out of each of the different pastures without letting the animals mingle. When Neil is here it is fairly straight forward but when it is just me I need to get creative in how I open gates and then leave it open long enough for me to drive the tractor through, then jump off and close the gate again. The LDGs can be with both alpacas (male and female) but they can't be with the geese yet which are in the male alpaca pasture. The male and female alpacas can't mingle, as the two girls are two young to breed yet. Peter, our male alpaca can't be in with the donkeys as he chases them relentlessly. It is an exercise in timing and patience. But it got done!

All work and no play... not.

Neil and I were woken up early this morning by Berk barking non-stop. I lifted my head to look out the window at him to see what direction he was barking in. He was barking into the barn... at the geese! Neil had gotten home late last night with the two new embden geese. They were in our large wire dog kennel so Neil and I lifted them into the barn still in the kennel, put some hay and water in with them and left them for the night. Well, this morning Berk and Emmie discovered them and were not happy about having strange large birds in their barn. I trudged out of bed to go silence Berk before the neighbors started to complain. I moved the kennel closer to the fence so Berk and Emmie could get a good look at them. The geese put on a good show and didn't back down at all. They stayed there several hours until the dogs started to ignore them and went to lie down. Then I moved the geese into the male alpaca pasture which shares a fence line with the dogs so the geese could stretch their legs and get something to eat. The dogs got all excited again but it didn't take as long to get them to settle down this time. I sure hope getting these geese help with our poultry killing LGDs.

Speaking of poultry the first of our young roosters crowed today. Or at least he tried his best. It was the Hill Roamer rooster we had gotten with the goats. I am looking forward to hearing more of them crowing soon.

We had a full day working out in the barn today trying to get things finished so we can rearrange some of the animals to make room for the 7 alpacas and our rescue llama that will all be arriving a week from today!

Neil finished framing in the backside of the barn and got the siding up as well. I managed to get another acre of the pasture mowed while helping Neil as much as I could. Once the back wall of the barn was done we needed to reinstall the automatic waterer that the cows and donkeys are currently using since we put a wall where it formally was. But, I got to move it to it's permanent home on the other side of the 20x24 run in area that will soon belong to the female alpacas. The cows and donkeys are getting demoted to a smaller run in area on the other side of the barn. Finally, with most of the siding installed on the walls the cows no longer need to walk around and over the siding piled in the barn.

We finished up in time to get all cleaned up and headed into town. Neil took us to the movies to see Ratatouille by Pixar. It was only the second movie that the kids had seen in a theater and they did great! I was surprised the kids didn't fall asleep during the film as it was a two-hour movie and we had gone to a later show that didn't start until 9:35pm. But no, they both watched the entire movie through to the end. It was a good movie... as usual Pixar did not disappoint! For those Pixar fans out there you will LOVE the "short" at the beginning of the film.... so funny!

Tips for the LGDs...

Well, I heard back from our anatolian pups breeder about the turkey killings... here is what she said:

When teaching LGDs to work with poultry it is very important that the pups be put with the birds while the pups are still small enough to be pushed around a bit by the birds and therefore allow the birds to establish their role as dominant. Since we're already past that age, we'll have to go to plan two. You can pick from the following or try them all.

1. Get a large goose with an ill temper and put one pup at a time with it. Let the goose teach the pup to respect birds. Then do it with the other pup. Problems could be that the respect might not transfer to smaller birds.

2. Put the birds inside a pen that is inside the alpaca pasture so the dogs are all around them but can't get at them. The idea is that the dogs will eventually grow bored with the birds and pay them no attention. This will take a long time.

3. Get an electronic collar and use it when the dogs go after the birds. This can be very effective if done properly, but your timing is paramount. Make sure you can "read" your dog and know when he is thinking of grabbing the bird. That is the time to correct him. If he happens to look away at something else and you correct him he will associate the correction with whatever was on his mind at the time of the correction. If ou don't feel comfortable doing this get a professional trainer to handle the correction for you. Set up the event and then remove the dogs and birds from each other until you set it up again with the trainer.

So, with this insight here is our plan: we were already doing number two in that the birds were free ranging on the outside of the pasture near the pups. The pups never seemed excited about the birds, never barked or paced the fence so I thought #2 was going ok. I am leery about continuing that but I don't have much of an option right now so I guess I will. Next, I have tracked down some adult Embden geese in Lexington, NC. Embden are one of the largest breed of geese and the current owner says they should hold their own with the dogs... we will see. Neil will be picking them up on Friday July 6th on his way home from work. If the dogs still play/attack the geese we will move to using an electric collar and possibly a basket muzzle (so they can still drink and pant) when around the geese until they learn some respect. I am hoping by that time our turkeys will be grown up enough that they will be able to hold their own against the pups too.

Pair of Embden Geese

Gosh, I really didn't want to go through all this but the timing wasn't right to have the poultry when the pups were little so we will do what we can. Meanwhile, we are adding animal species number TEN to our little farm by adding the geese! At least the geese can live 100% off of pasture. They do not need extra feed unless they are breeding. So it won't cost anything to have them around.