Cock-a-doodle-doooooo!

Swingin' Goat Farms at Sugar Creek's Farm Animal Update

Princess Pi (white nose) and Bunny, our french angora rabbits. Both doing well. They have actually moved out of this home and into their newly constructed bunny palace, courtesy of Dad. It is housed in the goat barn, and they are loving their two story home. We may look into a different colored gal sometime in the future, but with my cat allergies (and thus bunny ones, as well), these two are enough to groom.

The teenagers. These birds recently moved from this, the brooder, to the big bird home. Up front are our two guineas and the rest are just and end of the week special from Sand Hill Preservation Center. Everyone looks good and has moved into the coop and run well.

The bird coop and run

Most of these birds aren't here anymore. We butchered and processed everyone a couple weekends ago, so now they reside in my freezer, save for 21 hens that have been happily laying eggs that we have been happily eating :)

Chrysanthemum

Dawnae and Cassidy

Autumn Star, the goat's guard llama

Skooter-the pest

Chewie, (Chewbacca) our buck. A very laid back buck, who is doing, from what I can observe, an excellent job at what he's supposed to do. Once the gals start kidding in the spring, he and Skooter will move into the buck pen. For the winter, though, they are with the ladies, to help keep everyone warmer.

Thorn, our mighty Border Cheviot ram. We have another ram, Melmoth, coming soon, so we can start keeping breeding lines separate.

Jazzmin

Cloudy. We had to put Cloudy down a couple weeks ago, very sadly. She served her purpose very well, protecting our sheep, and also was the proud mama of Autumn Star. Though she was stand-offish, she was a good llama and mother (she even extended nursed Autumn Star, a good 6 months past when she was supposed to nurse her). She will be missed, and we will be looking into another llama for the sheep. For now the dogs do a good job of keeping predators at bay.

Sullivan (Sully), our beautiful herding dog, courtesy of Ebersole Cattle Co.

Bolt, a charity case, but a gentle dog.

The view of the front paddocks

The play set I built in the spring after it sat in the garage for a year. A great investment!

New Chooks

That's Aussie for chicks ;) It is terribly confusing the first few times you see it on a message board or in the listservs I receive. Just thought I'd throw it out there for fun, hee hee. Anyway...we have these adorable little boogers in the garage right now. This will be the first time I get to do fall chicks. Last year's attempt ended rather horribly, if you remember. They are about a week old now (though the photos are from their date of arrival) and doing wonderfully. The weather has been great-I only really have to have the heat lamp on them during the night, though it looks like this weekend they'll get it all day. Sixties are pushing it for weeklings. There are a few guineas in this mix, just like last year. I am excited to raise them-they are so pretty. They tend to be flighty birds, of African origin, and prefer to roost in trees. I am hoping, by training them to the coop early, that I may be someday able to let them out in the yard to perform their usual duty on a Midwest farm-alarm animal and tick killers. Yea for that!

Houdan

Firetruck

An End and a New Beginning

Early Thursday morning our chicken coop caught fire, most likely from the use of a heat lamp on some chicks we had just received. The building didn't take long to burn down completely, and we had to hose the goat barn down the whole time to keep it from catching, as well, because of how hot the fire was burning. I had never brooded the chicks in the coop-always in the garage, so had started the lamp on them during the day and kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't get to hot-specifically because I was wary of keeping them out there. Something, I am not sure what, went wrong in the middle of the night, and thank heavens a neighbor came over to say they saw smoke when they did,or we may have lost a lot more. The chicks were at the point of ignition, and didn't make it, but my hens got out okay. They are pretty confused, and keep going back to where the coop is, trying to find home. We are already in the works to try to figure out how to rebuild. In the meantime, the insurance company has got us upset, because our agent is a ditz and managed to miss the 12X20 structure when came out to survey what kind of policy to enact. We are hoping the underwriters see it as her mistake and rule in our favor. I think we will be finding a different agent-I like the company itself. And I need to make a point to look back over our policies and make sure no future incidents leave anything to question.

Store Bought Eggs vs. Free-Range Small-Farm Raised

The center egg is store bought-the rest are from my chickens. Hmmm.

Sayonara, Mister

One of the 18 roosters who met their doom a couple weeks ago and headed to the freezers of local chicken eating families. This particular breed-I am too lazy to go look him up right now-is aggressive, so when I get them, I take out both the males and females. I have had a few attack issues with the birds and kids, but these types never fail to freak out and go after short people.

The Birds

This number is a he, who thinks he is a she. He sits on nests. He lets the other guys "man handle" him. He will be on our dinner table when the younger birds go in. Seriously, man.

How Awesome is That?

I am never ashamed to promote businesses I believe to be honest and have wonderful products. One of my favorites from my standpoint as a farmer and gardener is Sandhill Preservation Center. I LOVE them. I loved them even before my most recent interaction with them, which is what prompted this blog post. The last two years I have ordered poultry from Sandhill. They specialize in antique and heirloom varieties, and I am a firm believer in protecting our heritage, and through that, our future, by maintaining sustainable farming-hybrids=NOT SUSTAINABLE (but that's another post). I have ordered seeds with them for several years now. Apparently my name has stuck with them (the crazy lady with funky orders and a penchant for the thrifty). I ordered one round of their end of the hatch runs of birds-any birds, no definite numbers, but your money's worth. Last year I ended up with chickens and a few turkeys (see last year's oops on those-I still feel like a dummy for that one). This year was all chickens. I also ordered another round for the fall. These are birds specifically for us. For sale I order through McMurray, simply for ease, though if this year's buyers are going to be regulars, I will transition over to solely Sandhill. I am all for supporting more, smaller, mom and pop type organizations. Anyway, I digress so easily. When I picked up my birds I noticed there were an awful lot of them. I got them home to count them, and wouldn't you know, not in that 20-30 vicinity, but 53. 53 chickens. Wow. I just got them all set up, and then a few days later finally got around to calling Sandhill. I thought I might have ordered my fall birds wrong, and wanted to make sure I could still get a fall order in if I had. I left a message and after only an hour or two, Glenn, the husband in the married couple's duo, called me back. I posed my question, and he reassured me that I had ordered correctly, but they had a busy week and extra birds. They were packing my order and recognized me as a loyal customer from the last couple years and gave me the birds. How awesome is that? Just gave them to me. He said I will probably get extra birds in the fall as well. How often does something like this happen with big companies? Almost never. It is the small ones who can do things like recognize a name because they keep a smaller, more loyal customer base. On top of that, I know God had a hand in it. That same weekend I was camping with the family (another blog post to come on that) so my mom was caring for the birds. Apparently our rooster sensed I was gone and took out 20 of the teenage chicks. Not good. at. all. Those are pre-sold birds. That knocked the number down to an unacceptable number to divide amongst the buyers. But, now I have 25 to help replace what he decided to kill for me. I still may reorder more, but at this point that puts me back up to 17-18 birds per order, which should work out okay. In the meantime, I kicked the roo roo out of the coop, and, though it has never worked out that way before, I came back the next day to find nothing but wings in the back yard. So, he's gone. But a small price to pay for such a huge menace. But the main point of the post:Sandhill (and so many small mom and pop companies/businesses)=AWESOME! They will have as much of my business as I can send their way in this and every year in the future.

Another reason I love coffee shops

After reading several awesome articles on using scraps from businesses to supplement your chicken operation, both as feed and also use in compost, I decided that it was something I wanted to do. I thought about what I was interested in most, and came to the conclusion that I really want to keep my birds vegetarian fed. That being so, I decided to start asking local businesses what they do with their fruit, vegetable and dairy scraps. Carlisle was a bust, as they were already supplying local farmers, though it was nice in that it meant that I was not necessarily going to get shot down all the time for reasons like the idea being too odd. I moved on the Altoona, where Fareway was pretty rude about the situation, throwing perfectly good fruit scraps away right in front of me as I asked about bringing in covered garbage cans for them to use instead, that I would empty a few times a week. They said the state "frowned upon that sort of thing" and took my name and number to talk to a manager about. I never got a call back, but aim to go back in just to prove a point later, armed with the articles published my waste management groups applauding city vegetable big wigs, like Loffredo produce, for actually having similar programs in place. They actually DELIVER to local farmers, I was going to do the leg work. But, you know...Anyway, I moved on to Coffeehouse Hollander, one of my faves anyway. They were EXCITED to have someone take the coffee grounds (for my gardens) and scraps (for the chickens) off their hands, and glad to know they weren't going to waste. I have talked with the wife of the owner many times now, and am finding friendship there in us both enjoying a natural, country lifestyle. They are always kind and I cannot push their business enough, as they continue to always welcome us, and by us I mean my kids as well, in, are always accommodating my drink splitting tendencies for the kids, plus now are partners in recycling perfectly good foodstuff for the farm. I hit up another great little coffee joint in town there, Being There Coffeehouse. Kara, the owner, was very accommodating as well. Her business is another I love to frequent, and I was excited to have yet another source for my birds and plants to find nourishment. It is comforting to know that people are open to new ideas. It actually helps reduce the amount of waste going out on their part, which should help with the waste pickup costs, and also make them feel good in knowing the waste is not "wasted" but being put back into the earth in a very earth friendly manner. I happened to swing through Des Moines to pick up some free tomato plant extras from Ed Fallon and his wife Lynn, and may have talked them into trying something similar with their city bird set up, possibly asking Gateway Market about their waste food and such. I talked with Smokey Row in Pleasantville, and was kind of upset with the response I got. I think I will be calling the owners to talk with them. The Row is definitely owned and run by very liberal thinkers who try to keep up with the green movement. That being said,I would have thought it a shoe-in to start a setup with them. Rather, the lady working was very cold about the idea, saying that there would be health inspection violations. With covered buckets. Picked up every other day. Because that is different than the uncovered garbage cans I see you using. Right. Then she made off about how she couldn't guarantee anyone would actually put the grounds into the bucket, but I could bring it in and try, and so long as the health inspector doesn't disagree, we would give it a run. Seriously, folks. COVERED BUCKET. If it starts to draw flies (one of her arguments) set it outside. But its covered. And picked up more frequently than your trash is. We'll see what the discussion with the owners goes like, but I was not happy with a coffeehouse I try to give business to because they are local. That is the big news on our chicken front. I am excited,both because it will help with the bird health and my bird budget, but also because it is yet another aid in keeping things healthier, earth-wise for my kids. I am hoping to continue adding business, I just have to keep them within a certain driving distance a on a certain schedule in order to not make it worth my time to make the rounds.

Dumb Birds

The stupid chicks have started cannabilizing again. Dumb birds. I hate when they do this. It is a hard habit to break. I may have to risk animals getting into the coop for awhile in order to make sure they have access to fresh grass immediately in the morning by not shutting them up entirely at night. I hate to do it, but seriously. They are well fed, have a dry coop, fresh water, and grass access most the day. They're just dumb, too. Ug.

Farm Stuff

Before the rains over the weekend I was finally able to get some veggies into the lower garden. I don't have the specific varieties with me, but we planted the first rounds of onion sets, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, carrots, several varieities of radishes, lettuces, spinach, swiss chard, brussels sprouts, parsnips, salsify, marigolds, nasturtiums, kohlrabi, collards and kale. Once things dry up again we will get broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower in. I was happy just to get that much, though. The few rhubarb plants we have are up and happy. Once it dries enough to get the top perennical bed turned up we will move some rhubarb and strawberry plants some friends are giving us.
I planted a cinnamon spice apple tree, a pie cherry tree, a nectarine and a pawpaw, and have a hardy kiwi to join one I already have going, as well as a few grape vines awaiting the ground. I am hoping to get some herbs into the flower bed area near the house soon, too.
The chicks have totally taken over the big garage. We have let them out a couple times this week to see grass, which they have loved. We have had two more die-one got lost and didn't make it back into the barn, and one is a mystery. We just found him inside and are really not sure what happened. I am hoping to talk my husband into building a chicken picker before July to process the new birds. In the meantime, I hope to clean at least two birds a weekend by hand until I have all the roosters gone. Once they are gone I can move the new chicks in, in anticipation of hte next round coming late May, and also start work at cleaning the two year old hens that are doing nothing more than snack on eggs before I can get to them in the coop. I also am seeing the needs for some better situated and accessible nesting boxes. I may employ the mad skills of a friend or two to build them, as well help build a door so I can access the eggs from outside, making it easier to get them frequently. I also have decided to look further into an incubator. I don't know if we will get one this year or next,but I do know it will be a worthwhile investment if this year's chicken program works out well.
I am in pursuit of mini sheep and llamas at the moment to use for fleece, friends and protection. The minis will be for the kids to love, as well as for use for fleece, while the llama will be great for keeping my goats and sheep safe from dogs and coyotes. He can also serve as a companion animal for my inlaw's horse Sonny when she is out here in warmer months. We will see if we get lucky enough to get some soon! I have some emails out that are sounding very promising.
Our goat kids are techinically ready to come home, but our fencer can make it out until June, so they are staying at their birth home for a while longer. I am so excited for them, though. I also need to get their shelter out here and keep trying to decide between building something or having something built.
That's what's happening for now. I will try to get pictures of everything soon and post them. I am so bad with a camera.

The First Time

Last night Superboy had his first run in with a rooster. I had been watching them pretty closely, and most the roosters are pretty laid back. I think with the advent of a skunk in the hen house everyone was a little on edge, and it was just enough to send one into a cock fight with Superboy, who was pretty scared. He ended up with a few scratches on his neck, and after this afternoon, we will have a new chicken in the freezer:)

Little Egg

If you look closely at this picture you can see that one of last year's hens has just started laying (well, they all are now, but...) and she hasn't quite gotten it down, yet. At the edge of the eggs is one, very small egg. It was about the size of a robin's egg. After we opened it, it did, indeed, have a yolk and everything. Someone had put forth the idea that it could be a starling's egg, but there aren't any birds out there, yet. They are pretty easy to spot, as they can't really get in the coop/run too easily with a fully covered operation. It's always fun when they start laying. I think since they are a full year old now, most of them have really skipped the smaller egg stage pullets go through when they first start laying. It's kind of nice. It gives me a steady dozen eggs a day to sell/eat, after the older birds kind of gave up early last fall.

Goodbye Dasher

I think I had posted earlier that we were taking my mom's dog in, both as a favor to her, and as a guard dog for the goats once they got here. Unfortunately, Dasher (also known as Chewbacca) is not going to work out. We had been keeping him on a leash around the chickens so he could get to know them and I had assurance that he would not attack them. Everything had been fine-they would come up right next him, and he would totally ignore them. So, since we were outside today, I let him off to run around and play. He stayed pretty close to me, then decided to explore. I couldn't see him, but suddenly noticed feathers where there were none before. The roosters have really started getting cocky lately, and I had just seen some fighting, so I kind of brushed it off. I asked the girls if they could see the dog, and they did-"Dasher's eating a mama chicken." OH. NO. I ran to see, and sure enough, he was going at it. I was able to grab him and chase her a bit to get her to run the other way, while praying that she was not mortally wounded. Dasher fought me pretty violently the whole time. I have scratches on my face where he got me with his claws, as he wiggled and jumped to try and get at another bird. I had to drag him up to the bigger garage and lock him in, so he wouldn't take off or injure another bird. After a rest, the hen looked okay. She had some wounds on her backside, but was pecking and scratching about. I'll keep an eye on her, and unfortunately, Dasher will be taken elsewhere tonight. My birds are a priority, and in general, once a dog gets a hanckering for chicken, you can't change them. They get pretty determined to accomplish their goal.

Yay!

While checking on my birds last night I noticed an odd sheen from within one of the nests. Upon further investigation...eggs! Finally, after a 5 month hiatus, they have started back up. That should help me determine whether to cull the oldest hens this or next, after seeing what their laying performance will be this year. There were three in that nest-I didn't check the others, though, as there was a rooster protecting a large group of hens in the other nest and it was too cute to disturb.
On another chicken note, there was one rooster who just wouldn't head inside the other night, so I left him out. He is still out. He refuses, and I haven't had a chance to get back down and bug him. I think he was bottom of the pecking order, and may have been blinded by one of the others cocks in one of their little battles. I need to look closer at his comb to see whether it is frostbite or blood leaving black spots. He is just very flighty and nervous. Definitely heading to the meat locker in April

On husbands and oppossums

We have planned for awhile to purchase a rifle. Where we are located rodents and coyotes, as well as stray dogs are always an issue. I am not some killing freak, but if something endangers my family or livestock, I will take measures assured me by the law. So, last night Dad finally got around to purchasing a .22 . He got it home, was showing me this and that, and then locked it and put it away. We have no problems with anything other than the now gone neighbor's cat getting into the chicken coop, and she stole eggs, and birds. I let the biddies out yesterday since it was so nice, and around 7 finally went down to shut them back up, as they are very good about just heading into the coop of their own accord after dark (something, for some reason, our chickens growing up never did). I never carry a flashlight with me-I just call into them, and cluck a little to let me know they are okay, and I lock them up. But last night they were making noises I had never heard before, and as I neared the coop I saw a wiry grey tail round the corner. I ran back to the lower garage and grabbed a mag light and got back to the coop only to find an opossum staring me straight in the face. I yelled for Dad a couple times, and (this is so comforting, mind you) he DIDN'T HEAR A THING, so I ran up to get him. I informed him of our little visitor, and he was more than thrilled that the night he brought home his new gun, would be the first night I ever caught vermin in the coop. He worked on getting it unlocked and loaded, and I headed back out to keep an eye on the visitor. After what seemed like far longer than it should have taken, Dad made it out. I couldn't find the opossum, though. We did see the other neighbor's cat hanging around, but the opossum had slipped off. The girls haven't started laying yet, and there were no missing birds (though a friend reassures me it is only the eggs and scraps they go for), but I really would really rather that the neighborhood rodents did not learn of the free pickin's at the farm, so if we found Mr. Opossum, no matter how laid back he was, he was going to be obliterated. And Dad was disappointed in not being able to fire his new possession, not matter how great the timing was.

Chicken Poop

That was the story of our Saturday-but I would gladly scoop poop for a rare 60 degree (yes we got to 60 out here) day in the middle of February. The grain elevator was closed, so the birds will have to wait till Monday for fresh bedding unless I can come across some on Sunday. I may try to at least get some pine shavings, then add hay later. They looked rather happy out about in the yard again-I know they are as antsy for spring as we are. I am hoping maybe the fresh bedding and day out will jumpstart their laying again. I ended up with Asher on my back for most of the work, as he was not too fond of the giant mud mess that moving the wheel barrow back and forth from the coop to the gardens was making. And NO MICE. Thank goodness. I think we killed more than 200 last year during our mid winter cleaning. But there was not one. I am guessing that the wood shavings must have served as a bit of a deterrent. I was able to get one of hte large bins I use to start babies out, which is good because I am going to have quite a few going at once. My big goal for the birds this year is to get a permanent transitional run built on the coop to keep the teenagers in when they are too big for the bins but still getting used to the older birds. It won't take much, but it will take some cooperation and help from Andrew, which can be tricky.
So, anyway, we've got the pizza dough in the bread maker, the cottage bacon from the pig we picked up yesterday (very nice to meet you Ethan, if you read this)thawed and ready to go on the pizza and themud ball kids have been bathed. I am looking forward to an evening of movies and crocheting knowing I accomplished something today, and glad to be spent after getting the privilege (and I do consider it a privilege this time of year) of working outdoors most the day.

Thinking Spring

This weather has got big ideas swarming around in my head. This weekend, I know, for sure, I am finally going to get to clean out the chicken coop. Which makes me more happy than you know. It has been getting pretty stinky in there, I think some fresh hay may do a lot for morale. And may even jump start egg laying. The veterens in there know that fresh hay means it has been warm enough for us to get out, which means though winter is still on the books for awhile, it won't be more than a couple months more. It also gives the manure awhile to age out on the garden before it gets tilled in. I know scooping poop probably doesn't sound too fun, but I enjoy finally getting some not-lung-freezing time outside every once in a while, and this chance is sooo going to be taken. The kids need it too.