Happy Chickens

Spring and summer is a great time for the chickens. Not because of the warmer weather, but because that's grass mowing season.  What happens when the grass gets mowed??? The chickens get fresh cut grass...and lots of it!! They will spend an entire day scratching and eating grass.  I took lots of pictures of these guys getting their eat on, but with the proximity of the sun, and my shadow, they didn't all turn out very well. So I picked the better of the bunch to share with you all.

In just a month or two, a lot of my pullets will come into egg laying. Right now, I'm averaging about a dozen a day out of my 14 layers. I do have days where I get 13 and 14 eggs, just not everyday.  The 4 remaining girls from the original 8, are indeed still giving me eggs. They don't lay every day, or even regularly, but that's ok, they were there in the beginning, and as long as they don't start eating eggs, they will have a nice long run with us...even if they do stop laying. I know we aren't in this for pet chickens, but since those 4 are part of the first, I don't see where it could possibly hurt.

I think the chickens I'm most excited about getting eggs from are my Easter Eggers. I should hopefully start getting something from them in July or August. They aren't fast maturing birds.  I just cannot wait to see what color eggs they will give me. Its an exciting thought in all reality. I'm used to getting white, brown, or cream colored eggs, so it will be fun to break up the monotony.
I only have 4 colored egg layers right now, but we have some more coming here next month. We went in with somebody else and ordered some. We had to order 15 of them, which stinks, because the guy we went in with only wants 5, and that's going to leave me with 10 extra birds that I don't completely have room for, unless the rabbits take off this summer, and I can get another kennel to extend the chicken run. (Sales from the rabbits would pay for the chicken run) (sales from chicken eggs will fund the animal feed)

Alright, that's about it from my end!!! I know its been a two blog day, and not everybody is interested in reading about my farm stuff, so I'll end it now since this was a chatty blog this time!!!
Enjoy the sunshine!!! I know I am!!!

Heartbreak of Rabbit Breeding

Hi all, let me start with, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Things get a tad bit crazy here as you can well imagine.  Last weekend we added a new bunny to our rabbit family. She's a Blue Silver Fox Bunny, but she didn't come with a pedigree, so she was a little bit easier on the wallet, just not the heart.

I picked her up last Sunday, from a wonderful lady that I met on a Rabbit group. She needed to downsize because she was running out of room, and most all of her Does had just kindled, and had lots of babies, so she really needed the space. This new bunny, who I named Doris (after Doris Day of course) was due to have a litter of babies, today actually. But the stress of the move, caused her to Kindle early. She had them on Weds and Thurs, and well, she ate all but 2, and those 2 passed away anyways. Doris actually had a very large litter, considering this was her first. She had 14 in total.

Now, from all of the reading I've been doing, I should actually breed her back today, but considering the size of the litter I'm going to wait 2 weeks, when I go to do my first breeding with Fred and Ginger. That way, if I have to, and Ginger turns out to be a good mom, I can foster some of Doris's kits over to Ginger.

So, on to some other Bunny news, I don't think I've mentioned anything about Cadburry and Pinkerton, who we have to recheck to make sure they are both still girls since we've gotten past the 8 week mark. (Apparently its not always accurate when you check them before 8 weeks). They have both grown significantly. Pinkerton, is probably close to 5 pounds if not over. The bigger she gets, the less she lets us handle her, which could be a problem, but I don't know yet. Cadburry, our bunny mixed with New Zealand and unknown pet rabbit, is starting to look like she may be mixed with Rex, which is a smaller rabbit. She's going to be a smaller bunny.

We still want to get into New Zealand Rabbits, we just have to wait until we have more cages built, and such. That has to wait until our Silver Fox bunnies give us babies that we can sell, so that we can get the money to build more cages. I have a feeling that no matter how many cages we end up with, its never going to be enough!!!

Hopefully you all have a very wonderful weekend!!!! I'm going to go around sometime soon, and take some pictures of a few things that are popping up around the yard!!!!

Cookies in a Snap

I love to bake, I really truly and honestly do. BUT sometimes, I want some fresh out of the oven cookies, without having to go through the mess of pulling everything I need out of the cabinets, and the mess that I always make when baking from scratch. I've discovered that sometimes, its ok to cheat. I bought some cookie mix on sale, and the best part is, I only have to add butter and eggs. With it being Betty Crocker, I got some school points to save back for my Nephew and Nieces school. (I save the box tops for Education for them)

Now just so you all know, I am not getting paid to endorse this product, I just like to share what's tasty...now if Betty Crocker wants to send me a case of cookie mix...I won't object...lol
alright...off to the farm work...I need to gather eggs.

New Bunny

So, I picked up a new bunny today, She's a Blue Silver Fox, who is expecting her first batch of Kits next week. I wanted to get some pictures for you guys, but I think its going to have to wait until tomorrow when she's properly settled in, and a little bit more used to her new surroundings. She had a bit of a rough start, the poor thing. First I got her in her cage, and set up, with food and water, and the boys scared her pretty good, and without thinking I opened the door to put the nest box in for her, so that she could start getting ready for her upcoming birth, she jumped out of the cage. Now the good news is, the cages are inside a big dog kennel, so she wasn't completely free. BUT the bad news is, this excited the dogs, who were barking and jumping and just carrying on and making it even harder on her. Finally, she got herself wedged underneath of Ethel's cage, so I just picked Ethel's cage up, and THANKFULLY she let me pick her right up. I think she new I was a safe bet. When I went out to do the evening feed, I noticed that she has calmed down, and seems a bit settled. She's breathing a little hard, but I think that's because she's still a little wound up. I'm hoping that the excitement doesn't send her into early labor. I'm looking forward to babies, but I want them to get to go to full term.

The chicks I hatched out are doing fantastic by the way. Growing, eating, chirping, running, playing. They are nice and active. I'm hoping to be able to do a photo session with those cute little things tomorrow as well.

Doggy Fun, and hatching Eggs

As you all can see, Bella is getting along with Sam and Jasper. She's not trained to the fence yet, but that's not something that happens over night.  So for now, we have her on a lead to play with the boys. They run, and play, and just wear themselves out pretty hard. They all 3 come in and promptly fall asleep.

I sold my first batch of hatching eggs. I sold 2 dozen Rhode Island Red Eggs. I threw in a few bonus eggs, for good show. Its kind of fun knowing that Sinatra's offspring will be spreading about the land. He really has been an awesome rooster, so the fact that his Legacy will be living on, is just fun.
Although, Martin has started making sweet Rooster Love to the ladies, so if we want to get Sinatra's offspring, we'll have to take and move him and a few girls together, and wait a few weeks, and get his offspring.

The weather looks to be leveling out here, its completely awesome. Today there is a nice breeze blowing, and the sun is shining. The day just couldn't get any nicer!!!

I hope everybody has a great Memorial Day, and please, take the time to reflect upon what its actually all about...remember its not about BBQ's and Beer, and good Sales...Its about those that died for our freedom.

Busy Farm Days

 

We've been busy here on the farm, with lots of new additions!!! We've been hatching out chicks, and working a new doggy into our home. Yup, we finally brought home a new girl!!! This girl is Bella, and she's almost a year old. She's a Treeing Walker Hound, and my goodness is she crazy!!! We love her though.
Bella loves the bunnies, and the bunnies seem to love her back. She will actually stand at the Rabbit enclosure and lick them. Ginger will actually lick her back. Its absolutely adorable.
We still haven't planted a garden. Its plowed, but not planted. At the rate we're going, I'm not entirely sure we will get anything planted. Most of what we started has died. (I'm a horrible plant keeper...seriously)
Right now, I'm on kindle watch. There's a great possibility that one of my bunnies (Ethel) is about to give birth. It should be today or tomorrow. If she hasn't kindled by Sunday, then she's not going to. She was pulling fur, but has stopped, so I don't know what's going on with her exactly.
I had to make leg braces for two of my newly hatched chicks. I think I may have to redo the one leg brace on the one chick. Mostly because its hard to do on my own. The one chick has gotten the hang of her braces, and is doing just fine with them.
Well...that's it from here for today, I'm still on incubator watch!!!!

Dehydrating tomatoes!!!

What do you do when your neighbor gets random trays of diced tomatoes, and wants to share them with you??? Dehydrate them of course!!! These tomatoes will be perfect for later on in the summer to be turned into dips, or in the fall for soups or stews, or casseroles. The most awesome part of dehydrating stuff is, it can be used for just about anything!!!

Growing Celery Inside Pt 2 progress

So, I thought I'd share some pictures of the celery that I have not killed yet!!! (yay) I can tell you, absolutely do not use coffee grounds as a fertilizer, it will kill your celery if you are trying this at home. Having this sitting here in the window seal works out perfectly, because then I remember to water it.  As you can see, its growing nicely, I'm going to guess that by summer I'll be able to actually get some celery off of this bad boy!!! (woo hoo) I am planning on starting a second one, I just haven't gotten any more celery to do this with. I got this bottom from my wonderful Mother in law. She uses a lot of celery, so chances are, I can get another bottom from her to get started.

Wednesday Farming

Well, happy Wednesday everybody!!!! I'm pretty well over the strep now. Still on the antibiotics, but I'll keep taking them till they are all gone. I think having Strep as an adult has to have been the worst thing I've ever experienced, and I've had the flue.

So, This weekend, Friday and Saturday the hubs and I are going to be doing some butchering. Our usual helper is unable to help out, so I'm going to be in there doing the hard work with the hubs. We're going to do small batches, which is why we're going to do it over a 2 day period. The one remaining Cornish rock will be the first to go before it has a chance to have a heart attack and die on us.  The Australorp, and Black Giant Roosters will be the first to go.  I'm not sure how many of those there are, because everybody runs around so crazy.  Then next week, the Silver Laced Wyandotte's, and French Black Copper Marans roo's will go. I have those two breeds up for sale on the Virginia Farm site on FB. If I don't get any takers, they will be meat for the freezer.

The bunnies are doing pretty good. Next month we'll be able to do our first breeding attempt with Fred and Ginger. Those are both blacks. (Betty is my only Chocolate right now) We have plans on turning into the cages into stackables. I'm not sure where we plan on getting the kits from for that just yet, but we need to decide soon I suppose. We need to make better room.

The worms LOVE the rabbit poo!!! Its really awesome, when I got to digging under there, they were just really wild and wiggly, and loving it!!! I'm hoping this means a jump in reproduction. I have some people interested in more, but I need them to recover from my last worm purge.

Sam and Jasper are in total Sibernation. The weather has gotten warm enough outside, that they are just way happier being inside, than out.  Of course that also means, that Jasper wants more rawhides.  He is totally addicted to rawhides. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that when they were puppies, we would order cases and cases of hides to help get them through that horrible puppy chewing stage. We did still loose some shoes, a couple of tv remotes, books, and some pencils...but it wasn't as bad as it could have been!!!

Alright, this has been your Wednesday Farm report!!! Hope you all hare having a great week!!!!

My growing chicks

These are some pictures I took before I got icky, and wanted to go ahead and get them uploaded and shared with you guys this evening (while I'm waiting to take my final dose of antibiotics for the night). 

So, everybody is truly growing quickly up there in that run. In fact, they have grown even more since I've been icky. When I saw them, when I finally ventured outside, I was like wow!!! Its just amazing how fast these little guys grow. Then again, I guess they would have to grow quick considering some chickens start laying at 4 months old. 

In the first pic, are my Golden Comet Chicks that I bought from TSC...oh I'm not going to lie, I don't remember when I bought them, but they are my youngest chicks. They are probably 6 or 8 weeks old at this point at least. (yeah, I did not do well keeping up with anybody's age this time around...even my hatches)

In the next 3 pictures are some snap shots, where I was trying to get a good Pic of Spot, but it wasn't happening...until the third picture, where she just awesomely stood up, and pointed in a great direction. I'm not going to lie, at this point she is my most favorite chicken I've ever hatched out. Even if she turned out to be a he, I think I would have kept her. Spot lets me just scoop her up, and carry her around the run, I talk to her, pet her...and just have a grand time with her.

The last pic, I had set my egg basket down in the grass to secure the door. When I turned back around to pick it up, I just had one of those...ooooh pretty moments, and decided I needed to take that picture.  Now, I must tell you all that my girls have turned into power layers. I have 14 that lay. Of course my older ladies have slowed down, but that's quite alright. I get between 10 and 13 eggs a day. I don't think I'm going to be getting 14 in one day anytime soon. Once all of the pullets are old enough and start laying, I believe I'm going to be getting a lot of eggs...no complaints about that.

Speaking of my older girls, Dot, Buffy, Maud and Red, 3 of them have started giving me doubles. That pretty much so means the end of being able to hatch those eggs. I'm kind of disappointed about that, because I really wanted to see if I could make another chick like Spot.  Dot, the Dark Brahma, and Sinatra are her parents. I've also decided that those 4 cannot be removed from the flock. I've come to realize that with the girls, there will be a power struggle between Sinatra and Martin, until their own personal flocks have been established. There are more than enough for each boy, but if those 4 are removed, then Sinatra is going to want them replaced, and he will take them from Martin, and that's just not going to make for a very good situation.

Ah, as we know, we had Sinatra in isolation so that he could heal. Of course the part where he had to be captured, wrapped in a towel, and pretty much so blindfolded wasn't helpful either. He hasn't become aggressive towards us, but he trusts us even less now than he did in the beginning. He will actually go to the opposite end of the run when we walk in. If I go into the house, and he's on a roost, he will jump off of that roost, and go into the run. I feel really bad, because I was able to go in there and collect eggs, and do just whatever needed done in there while he was roosting, and he just sat there and watched. I'm hoping by the end of the summer we will be good again.

Alright, I'm just minutes away from being able to take my last antibiotic for the night, and I think I'm ready for bed. I made myself do stuff today, and I'm pretty tired. (not much just basic little things)
I even crochet!!!!
Hope you all have a great week!!!!

Random Ramblings from the Farm

First of all, I would like to say a very happy mothers day out there to all of you mothers, grandmothers, foster mothers, fathers filling in for mothers, and animal mothers. Your love and care, helps to make the world go round.

Ok, on with the blog. Sorry, no pictures today, I've been sick since Thursday, went to the ER on Friday, and my Fever finally broke Saturday. If I can make it through the next 8 hours without the fever coming back, I will have been fever free for 24 hours. Yay!!! I have the Strep throat, and boy did I get a nasty strain of it.  Thankfully the hubby has been taking care of all of the farm animals for me.

So, on Wednesday we let Sinatra out of solitary confinement. His spurs are nice and scabbed over. Of course the first girl he ran to was Dot, he apparently missed her the most. Frank said from the looks of things, we're going to have to make her a chicken saddle, so I need to start looking up the instructions for that. We have bunches of old jeans that Frank has put in the old jean pile to turn into scraps or shop rags, so I've got the fabric. The only thing I don't like, is the fact that much warmer weather is on its way, I just don't want her to get too hot...and again, she loves her dirt baths, and takes them more than anybody, so there's that...ah, I'll get it figured out!!! I'm just happy that Sinatra's happy again. He was starting to get pretty pitiful out there.

The bunnies outside are doing pretty good according to Frank. I'm feeling well enough, that I'm thinking about venturing out today, and checking on everybody. Just a nice little walk around the back yard.  I can tell you my inside bunnies, are completely rotten. After they had their breakfast, after a nice long (and I do mean long) night of running around their cages, chewing on the wooden blocks hanging in there for them, and many other loud things that they could think of, they have finally collapsed into what looks like really uncomfortable sleep. I'm really starting to think, they need to be outside as well.

Next week the eggs in the incubator go into lock down. I really need to candle everybody tonight to see how many are still with me. I unfortunately haven't kept a very good eye on them over the last few days. I think however, Frank has. 

Well, that's it for these Sunday ramblings!!! Hope you all have a wonderful day, and a great week!!!

Candled Eggs

These aren't the best pictures in the world, but its kind of hard to candle the eggs, check them, and be the photographer all at the same time, but you can kind of see the veins. I was trying to get a picture of the little chick heart in the one bouncing around, doing its own thing, but every time my camera clicked, since I don't have the latest technology, by the time the pic took, it had disappeared back down. These guys and girls are due to hatch out on the 21st of this month. They are a White Leghorn/Rhode Island Red cross. Supposedly we will get sex links out of this mix. 50% of the people say yes, and the other 50% say no...so we decided to try it ourselves...we set 20 eggs, and I have already culled 2. They just weren't developing at all. But that's why we set 20. We tend to have pretty good hatch rates. But all of our hatches have been over the winter, so its a different season, with different temps, so maybe it will be good, and maybe it wont.

Keep your fingers crossed for us though, we are really wanting the red sex links.

preview

This is just a little preview of the doll pattern that I'm writing for my Craftsy store. Once its done, I'm going to give away a copy to one lucky winner.

How do you win???? Well simple...you just follow this blog!!!! Subscribe to this blog, and Once the pattern is complete, I will put your names into a name picker, and pick the winner that way!!!!

Removing Rooster Spurs

Hey everybody!!! I know, shame on me, its been a little bit longer between posts than normal for me!!! Things around here this past week have been a bit crazy. Last week Frank worked a really long week, and that made more work around here, so that took away from laptop time.

So, this weekend we played a bit of catch up. We still have a lot that needs to be done with the Chickens, but we did the most important stuff first. We moved the Cornish Rock coop out of the chicken house, and into the run, where they wouldn't be so hot, and could get some fresh air, and with the help of Aaron, our happy chicken helper we got the Spurs off of Sinatra. That poor guy, those things were getting so long, he actually cut himself with them, and he was tearing up the girls. It did take 3 of us, and this indeed was the first time we've handled Sinatra since we brought him home last year. As you can imagine, catching him was not easy.

For this process, the first thing we did was make sure Sam and Jasper were in the house, because we didn't know how well this would go, and in all honesty, it was a very good thing, because he had to be caught twice.  The first time he got caught, he got free, and ended up in the middle of the front yard. But he knew where safety was, and I manned the door to the chicken run, and let him back in there, so that he could be caught a second time. This time, he was handed off to Aaron, who was wearing a pair of gripper gloves. So, While Aaron was holding on to him, Frank wrapped him up in a towel like a burrito, and then they covered his head so that he would be calm, but not suffocate.  Once that was done, they sat down in a couple of chairs across from each other, with Sinatra in Aarons lap, and his feet in Franks. (he's a really big bird, easily 14 pounds) I played nurse, and handed Frank everything he needed. We used Vegetable oil to soften his spurs, and while Frank was doing that he examined the bottoms of his feet, which looked good. Once he was done softening them up, he took a pair of pliers (brand new ones bought just for this) and very gently, and very carefully rocked them back and forth until we herd a pop, and then they just lifted right off.

Now some people say that this is cruel, and like declawing a cat, but its not, and its not the same thing at all. For one, declawing a cat is a surgical procedure, in which the claws do not ever grow back. This is kind of like taking a fingernail off, that does grow back. Since my chickens are in a covered run, there is no worries of them having to defend themselves. I'm not saying a predator cannot get in there, because I'm sure that if there is a will, there is a way, but there are other roosters in there, to help fight off whatever may come. But Sinatra for the next 2 weeks, is in a big 10ft x 10ft run by himself, to give them a chance to scab over really well, and to heal up. We sprayed them down with this stuff called blue coat, which has an antiseptic in it. We also sprayed his wings down with it, so that his wing feathers can heal and start to grow back from where the chickens peck them. It will be nice to see those grown back. He's a pretty laid back guy, but right now, he's just not happy with us because we've taken him away from his girls. He will survive.

I tried to take a pic of him with his spurs still on, but I didn't quite get it right. I would have taken pics of the process, but I needed to be available should something go wrong. There are times, when the camera has to stay put.

In the third picture down, I did get a nice side shot of  Martin. He's really grown. The poor guy has been trying to get along with the ladies, but he's having a time of it, because he's still awkward, and figuring it out.

And yes, I took another selfie of myself with Spot, who is growing rapidly. She's my pal. I love that she lets me carry her around the run.

I got a nice picture of  a lot of our chicks, they are all growing up fast. Its hard to believe that in about 3 - 4 months we will have bunches of layers!!!! Next month however, we are going to have to do a rooster butcher. We have so many of them, that its just a bit crazy. I've decided that I'm no longer going to buy straight runs from Tractor Supply, because one ends up with way more roosters than hens that way. If I do buy more chicks from them next year, it will mainly be the sex links, and if they get more orpingtons in, I'll probably get more of those. I really like them, they have great personalities.

Well, I think I've rambled quite enough for today!!! Hope you guys are having a fantastic day, and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!!