Monday, July 27, 2015
Friday, July 24, 2015
We're building a brooder. Dewayne has a really neat design. (It sounds neat anyway...haven't seen it yet, it's still in his head, lol)
That's one of this weekend's projects. We started on it the other night but got rained out and it was getting late. The floor and one side is done.
We have some chicks ordered and will go pick them up next week. We ordered 2 Black Laced Golden Wyandotte cockerels, 10 pullets and 2 roosters of the Columbian Wyandottes, 10 pullets and 2 cockerels of the Dominiques. We may get more of the Black Laced Golden Wyandotte pullets when we get there, depending on money.
Hopefully the brooder will be finished and ready for the young ones to grow up in. It will be so much easier to keep them clean and they will have plenty of room to grow.
All of these birds, added to what we already have, will be our breeding flock.
That's one of this weekend's projects. We started on it the other night but got rained out and it was getting late. The floor and one side is done.
We have some chicks ordered and will go pick them up next week. We ordered 2 Black Laced Golden Wyandotte cockerels, 10 pullets and 2 roosters of the Columbian Wyandottes, 10 pullets and 2 cockerels of the Dominiques. We may get more of the Black Laced Golden Wyandotte pullets when we get there, depending on money.
Hopefully the brooder will be finished and ready for the young ones to grow up in. It will be so much easier to keep them clean and they will have plenty of room to grow.
All of these birds, added to what we already have, will be our breeding flock.
I had to take our incubator back to the store yesterday. We plugged it in the other night and the little red light never did light up. It never did heat up either. I followed the directions and did it step by step to make sure everything was right, but it just didn't work. The fan was on, cause I could hear it running but no light. Soooo, brought the replacement home and went right in and plugged it in. Behold....the red light!
Good thing we tried it now instead of waiting until we had something to put in it.
Good thing we tried it now instead of waiting until we had something to put in it.
Sometimes I have a hard time making a decision. Right now, it's the ducks. Do we keep them or sell them?
We raised Lucy and Daffy from ducklings. We got them when they were only a few days old. I'm kind of attached to them. Lucy and Daffy used to fly out of their pen every day and follow me around while I was doing chores. I know they thought I should have fed them first, that's why they followed me around. Still, it was nice to have company and someone to talk to.
Now comes the hard part. Ducks are extremely messy. They smell, they poop everywhere (I thought we were gonna have to change our farm name to "Duck Poop Acres"), they always have dirty water as well as all of the other animals since everything that holds water is their own little swimming pool. All this being said, it adds to my work load.
I have come to the final decision that my buddies have to go to a new home. They stay in their pen now, since we trimmed Lucy's wing and Daffy got too big to fly, but I know what good foragers they are. I don't feel it's right to pen them up just because I don't want them pooping all over the property. Only two ducks don't make that much of a mess, but Lucy was teaching all 21 ducklings how to hunt too. That's a LOT of duck poop!!
So again, final decision has been made........hasn't it?? I guess I'll see what I think tomorrow.
We raised Lucy and Daffy from ducklings. We got them when they were only a few days old. I'm kind of attached to them. Lucy and Daffy used to fly out of their pen every day and follow me around while I was doing chores. I know they thought I should have fed them first, that's why they followed me around. Still, it was nice to have company and someone to talk to.
Now comes the hard part. Ducks are extremely messy. They smell, they poop everywhere (I thought we were gonna have to change our farm name to "Duck Poop Acres"), they always have dirty water as well as all of the other animals since everything that holds water is their own little swimming pool. All this being said, it adds to my work load.
I have come to the final decision that my buddies have to go to a new home. They stay in their pen now, since we trimmed Lucy's wing and Daffy got too big to fly, but I know what good foragers they are. I don't feel it's right to pen them up just because I don't want them pooping all over the property. Only two ducks don't make that much of a mess, but Lucy was teaching all 21 ducklings how to hunt too. That's a LOT of duck poop!!
So again, final decision has been made........hasn't it?? I guess I'll see what I think tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Living the kind of life that we live can be so hard. Some days, like today, I feel sooooo overwhelmed. The garden has been completely taken over by weeds and it's so hard to get to the plants to harvest. We've already wasted (not really wasted, it goes to the critters) so much because I haven't taken the time to get to the garden. There always seems to be something that's more pressing. I need help! I need to hire me a "Weed Warrior" next year. Their sole purpose of being here will be to help weed the garden every week. Problem is, I need someone to work for free or trade for meat or garden produce, since I can't afford to pay someone.
There are so many things to keep up with here.
I would really like to get some worms and meal worms going again (they died because I forgot about them, oops) Both would be nice to raise for the chickens. I just don't know if it's worth it to add something else to my already to long of a list.
As it is, we recently bought a new incubator for when our roosters start doing their job and we are building a large brooder for the chicks we ordered that we will be getting next week. I am also trying to get all of our rabbits bred again. There are 13 total and they all need bred. Problem is, they don't want to! So that's very frustrating as well and I am feeling like I'm behind in EVERYTHING!!!!
I guess I need to go fix some coffee and think about the few things that ARE done instead of feeling sorry for myself and get my butt to work. Until next time......happy farming:)
There are so many things to keep up with here.
I would really like to get some worms and meal worms going again (they died because I forgot about them, oops) Both would be nice to raise for the chickens. I just don't know if it's worth it to add something else to my already to long of a list.
As it is, we recently bought a new incubator for when our roosters start doing their job and we are building a large brooder for the chicks we ordered that we will be getting next week. I am also trying to get all of our rabbits bred again. There are 13 total and they all need bred. Problem is, they don't want to! So that's very frustrating as well and I am feeling like I'm behind in EVERYTHING!!!!
I guess I need to go fix some coffee and think about the few things that ARE done instead of feeling sorry for myself and get my butt to work. Until next time......happy farming:)
I've been trying to breed the Californians again. They should have already been on their next litters, but they don't seem to be too interested. Processing will be this weekend of the last litters. Maybe the does need to be put on diets. Honestly I think we feed them too much. Even though we've been raising rabbits for years, there's always improvements and learning. For us, the management part is trying and a challenge. How much to feed so they don't get too fat and still do there job, without them losing condition when they eat with their young. I would love to go to a rabbit producer and see in person how they do there management: feed rationing, etc
I have been researching Muscovy ducks. Apparently, our Lucy is amazing. One person said that 15 is a good size for a nest. Our Lucy has raised 21. She had a nest of 23 and hatched 22. One duckling died the nest day, probably getting stepped on by the chickens.
We thought we would sell the ducks since they are so messy and we wanted to expand on our chickens. I listed the ducks on every facebook group we belong to as well as Craig's list with no interest at all. We figured there had to be a reason we are supposed to keep them. The ducklings will be processed next weekend. We will try the meat and decide if we like it enough to raise more. If so, we will build them a wonderful pen area where they can keep producing. If we don't like the meat, we will sell Lucy and Daffy and move on.
We thought we would sell the ducks since they are so messy and we wanted to expand on our chickens. I listed the ducks on every facebook group we belong to as well as Craig's list with no interest at all. We figured there had to be a reason we are supposed to keep them. The ducklings will be processed next weekend. We will try the meat and decide if we like it enough to raise more. If so, we will build them a wonderful pen area where they can keep producing. If we don't like the meat, we will sell Lucy and Daffy and move on.
Friday, July 17, 2015
More changes to come for us here at the farm. Since we now have our grandson's little billy goat, a polled Sanaan, we will be using him for breeding our girls this fall. Now, we will have Ajax for sale.
Ajax is an Alpine buckling that we bought a few months ago. He does have horns and he is a longer haired goat than what we thought he would be. He's warming up to me, but not overly friendly, which I didn't mind too much since he's a buck. I will list him for $75.00 since that's what I paid for him. He is not papered.
Ajax is an Alpine buckling that we bought a few months ago. He does have horns and he is a longer haired goat than what we thought he would be. He's warming up to me, but not overly friendly, which I didn't mind too much since he's a buck. I will list him for $75.00 since that's what I paid for him. He is not papered.
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