Farm Babies

We decided to raise Barred Rock pullets, again. We have found them to be the best foragers, layers, and friendliest bird. The Speckled Sussex are going to a new home, as they just don't lay as well as Barred Rocks. Our Barred Rocks consistently lay throughout the winter, without missing a beat. We have south facing windows in the coop, but no other supplemental lighting. These gals also are meatier than traditional egg layers, so if we get an accidental roo in the bunch, we will send him to freezer camp. Hands down, the Barred Plymouth Rocks have become our favorite chicken.

Sad News

We had a big loss on our homestead a few nights ago. It wouldn't be fair for me not to post, as I really want people to know what they are getting into, and have a realistic perspective on homesteading. We lost all 26 of our meat birds. We had them in the tractor without any issues for quite a while. Then, we found the remains of the birds. All 26 had been killed, only a few were taken though. It looks like raccoons sat on top of the wire and were able to bend the wire enough to give them leverage to pull the staples out of the side. It gave them enough room to get into the tractor. Signs around the tractor all pointed to raccoons, and our neighbor killed a large one recently, and we've seen others since. We were heartbroken.

Now, my dad has been a HUGE encourager in our homestead (he's also my beekeeping partner). Dad handed us a check to buy more birds. His advice (Listen very carefully, because this is GOOD ADVICE)--"You know what your weaknesses are. Fix them, and start right back up. Don't let this beat you." He's right.

Because we're short on time, we had to settle for Cornish X birds. We aren't thrilled by that, but we really want to have chicken to eat this winter. We're buying a very heavy gauge wire to put on the chicken tractor, and reinforcing all the weak points.

The big lesson in all of this: it takes a lot to be a homesteader. Sometimes we have to put aside our preferences to take what works best for our situation. We have to overcome the hardships that are inherent to raising livestock. We have to adapt to our surroundings and limitations. Sad days are hard, but the good days are worth it.

Chick-ums

I previously wrote about my dislike for Cornish cross meat birds. This year, we are raising 25 Buff Orpington cockerels for our freezer. We may hold back a rooster for our egg laying flock. I imagine we could hatch out a good table bird by crossing a Buff Orpington roo to a Speckled Sussex hen.

Mr. HH is finishing up our chicken tractor.

Birds- Currently known as "chicken nuggets"

Now, these guys won't get as big as a Cornish cross, but they also won't cost us as much in feed. They already get a good helping of grass clippings, and love them. They take a bit longer to grow out, but they taste so great, it's worth the wait.

Not about goats this time...

I realized that the last few posts have been all about, or at least in part, about the goats. I figured I would remedy the situation with this post, as to prevent a feathered-friend uprising.

We recently cleaned out the bedding in the chicken coop and put in fresh bedding to start our deep layer system. We just keep adding fresh bedding, and as the lower bedding composts under it, there is heat provided for the birds. Less work for us, benefits for the birds. Hooray! We also put down food grade DE as a preventative measure. We've not had any issues with any creepy crawlies yet.

A few of the girls being nosy, and trying to check in our the renovation process.

Since we've hit freezing temperatures, we put out our chicken water heater base.

We don't have any lights installed on the coop for winter laying, but are girls continue to lay well just the same.

Before we got rid of our rooster, we noticed that he was being a bit hard on some of the hens. They were missing quite a few back feathers, and they were molting on top of that. We had an issue with some of the Barred Rocks pecking on the red spots where the rooster tore feathers out. It seemed like we may have naked chickens going into winter. Well, with help of some Blu-Kote, we were able to get the hens to leave the bare spots alone. Feathers are finally coming back in!

This isn't a dirty chicken, her feathers are just tinted from the Blu-Kote.

I think something else that may have helped with their feathers is black oil sunflower seeds. I read somewhere that they helped with new feather growth. So I started bringing out a few handfuls for them to scratch up. Even if they aren't a huge help, they sure do love them.

Big Sister loves to help us with the chickens. She goes out and sings to them, pets them, and just watches them.
The picture above is reason number 1,487 that I'm glad we moved out here.

Farm Update- We Are Still Around!

A lot has happened since our last post. I'll try to catch you up on the more exciting bits.

Around the time of our last post, we got one of these.

It was very exciting for us to find out. It's even more enjoyable now that the morning sickness phase has passed!

We were even lucky enough to see the little guy!

Not long after this little guy makes his appearance, we'll be enjoying some other new arrivals on the farm! Both of our goats have been taken to be bred for spring kids! We heard news earlier this week that our Alpine doe was bred! Next year, we should have enough milk to experiment more with making our own cheese!

Chessie- Our Alpine Gal

We also took the hogs to the butcher. We miss having them around. They made short work of any food scraps we had in the house. However, we can't complain too much because we enjoyed some FANTASTIC pork chops for dinner tonight.

It's nice going into winter knowing this is here for us.

Additionally, some of our new Welsummer hens have started laying their dark brown eggs! We're still waiting to see some of the green eggs from our Easter Egger girls. I will say though, we are quickly becoming fond of the Easter Eggers. They have great personalities. There are a few that will just walk up to my four year old and invite her to pet them!

Here you can see a Welsummer egg nestled between eggs from some of our other chickens.

Finally, we've sold all our of pine trees! This gave us money to replace some windows in our house before it gets too cold. More importantly, it gives us more space to add on to the small orchard we've started. We will be using part of the cleared space, and space we already had cleared, to put in a small hay field for the goats!

Bye Bye Trees--Hello Spring Projects!

Is there anything you've done lately, or even something you are planning that you are particularly excited about? Feel free to share with us in the comments!

All Around the Mulberry....Tree?

We have several mulberry trees around our property. Now, around here, most farmers are quick to chop the mulberry trees down, but our mulberry trees have a varietly of purposes.

1. They provide a nice place for us to put our behive(s). We only have one now, but there will be more in the future. I'm looking forward to building some top bar hives this fall and trying them out in the spring.

2. The goats appreciate the shade they provide. They also find the leaves to be a tasty browse. (Just a side note--I love my Saanen. Isn't she cute?)

3. The chickens enjoy the shade and quick snacks. This is our rooster, Gus. You won't see too many more pictures of him, as he will be stew very soon. That's what happens to cranky roosters around here.

4. The kids LOVE to fill up their little pails with berries to munch on. I love watching the kids do this while I weed in the garden. This picture was taken at the start of my 4-year-old's picking for the day. After a while, her face and hands were stained purple!

Raising Meat Birds

This years egg layers with the Cornish Cross chicks

This year, we decided to purchase some new baby chicks to eventually add to our flock (better known as the Egg Brigade). Because we have a flock of birds already, we knew we didn't have a need for 25 egg laying chicks, and 25 chicks is the minimum order with many hatcheries. We thought that we'd just make up our remainder of birds with Cornish Cross birds to butcher this summer.

I feel this was a mistake.

Now, I'm sure that many people don't mind raising this little chirping freaks of nature, but I am not one of them. While my egg laying chicks are thriving, these creepy hybrids are not. We had the experience of a few of the Cornish Crosses having heart attacks--at one week old. We have had to remove their feed from them for 12 hours at a time, as a way to help prevent their over eating. These birds have been bred to have a drive to eat this much, and it seems sad that something would be bred to have habits that will kill it if they go unchecked. Aside from the depressing eating habits, their feather growth cannot keep up with the body growth, and they almost seem bald in spots at times. Finally, they defecate so much that they seem (and smell) like very dirty birds.

Once these chicks are grown out and butchered, it will be the last time Cornish Cross birds are on our homestead. If and when we place another order for chicks, we will make up the remainder of the 25 chick requirement with cockerels (most likely Buff Orpingtons, but any dual purpose cockerel breed will be fine). I would much rather spend a bit more time growing out roosters that can free range, then deal with the sad excuses that are Cornish Crosses.

I also wanted to note, I've heard great things about Freedom Rangers (a slower growing meat bird). This would be a great option for those wanting a larger number of meat birds to butcher.