Fast growth!

What a difference a week makes!

Photo Friday

2-week-old American Chinchilla kit. There are 8 others in the nest box.

Have a great weekend!

This, That, and the Udder

In my last post, I talked about the swarm of honey bees that took up residence in our empty hive. You can see here a few workers moving in an out. The photo doesn't really show how much they've cleaned up the old hive. Free bees are a pretty great thing!

Our doelings are growing quickly. I'm so happy to have these girls here. I have high hopes for when they freshen next spring. You can also see our new batch of egg layers in the background. They are growing out nicely. We normally let them free range, but we have a fencing issue that makes them an easy snack for one of the neighbor's dogs. We're ready to fix that fence, and they'll be out of the run in no time.

If you have plans, don't count on 'em

As I'm approaching my impending date to kid baby #4, we have been trying to get things as well under way as possible. Something that has slipped away from being done was cleaning out our beehive. We had the hive die over the winter, and we moved it to accommodate the county coming out and fixing our drainage tile. Well, it never got taken apart, cleaned, and put away. Instead, it sat, like a fully functioning hive against the barn. It was just missing the bees. We thought about buying a nuc this year, but because of my impending arrival, we decided to leave that off our plates for one year. Do you know what happens when you decide you aren't going to do something? Well, you have a swarm arrive and take up residence in said hive. Sure it's more work, but at least we got some free bees!

Now we just have to figure out how to move the whole hive to someplace a bit better suited for the beehive. The fun never ends around here!

Inevitable

I have a gift card and they had ducklings on clearance. Seems bad enough, but combine that with the fact that my 14-month-old smiles, quacks, and talks to the ducklings, and it was inevitable. We are now proud owners of 6 Pekin ducklings.

Meet the Ducks!

Bringing Home the Bacon

It's always fun to bring home a batch of feeder pigs. We don't have enough fencing up to pasture them very much, so we do feed them grain. However, we feed a lot of other things to the pigs to cut the cost of the grain, and to vary their diet. They love whey, garden scraps, and any extra eggs we have. In the end, we get delicious pork. Can't complain about that!

More on the Rabbits

In my excitement for all things bunny, I forgot to mention some important details about the rabbits. They are American Chinchilla rabbits. More information on this breed can be found here. We specifically chose a breed of rabbits listed with the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. We want to help improve the numbers on a breed that needs a boost. We also wanted a breed that was known for being a good producer in terms of rabbit meat. We're hoping to be able to help other families get started with the breed as well.

The girls just had to name our breeding stock, so Isla, Charlotte, and Ken are adjusting to their new surroundings. To be honest, I think they find me a bit strange, as I just sit and watch them with a goofy grin on my face. This has easily been one of the best birthday presents for me, that I can remember.