The Farmer Has Grown....

...as a person. The turkeys are gone, the ducks are gone, the goats are gone, and the chickens have dwindled to a good number of 15.  It took the past two years to decide what figurative direction my "farm" will be going, and I took on too much too quickly.  As much as I loved having it, I needed to become realistic financially, and the outgoing profits were not going to happy due to FDA/State laws. 

I still have my cows, and they have grown.  Annabelle has given birth to her first calf, a heifer, and I milked her for six glorious months, until hay was too hard to come by, and she was losing weight trying to provide for us.  Hallie is still just as antisocial as she always has been, though she is fully trained to walk on a lead, and she has a better recall than my sight hound.  Go figure.  I would like to breed her when Annabelle this year, though I am undecided if I will try to milk Hallie or not.  It might be too dangerous to try.  Even if I get sick, I would have no one to relieve me of my responsibilities.

I suppose that is the last two years in review.

I have other interests now that the kids have some.

Things Have Changed!

Wow!  Has it really been so long since our last update?  Where has the time gone?  Coincidentally, today is my (the owner) birthday!  Happy birthday to me!  No, it's not so special, but I have no complaints.  So what has changed in a year?  Well, let me tell you.

Let's start with the fowl, shall we?  I have sold chickens and went down to 18, bought chickens and went up to around 40, and sold chickens yet again and have gone down to an even dozen chickens.  We suspect the most recent addition infected my flock with mycoplasma gallisepticum infection, which is highly contagious.  It is with this that we have decided to close the flock, and no new chickens (either hatched or bought) will be bought, and no chickens will be offered for sale.  The flock will be closed until all chickens go in their own time.  Sadly, four of my girls have the motherly instinct, and they will be disappointed they will not be hatching clutches any more.  I will miss it, but it is necessary.

We were given another calf last December.  We named her Hallie (stands for Hallelujah).  She came from the same herd Oreo came from, and sadly for the same circumstances.  She is a beautiful beef girl, and will be bred next year to offer her first calf to our freezer.  Speaking of beef in the freezer, T-Bone is ripe for the picking.  We plan to take him to the processor in August to become our first home-grown beef.   We will also be breeding Annabelle in the next month or two.  We'll either have a heifer for sale or we'll be raising another steer for butcher.  For now, we do not need any more than the two girls, and though it is very difficult for me to say "no more," I will have to let her go if we get a heifer.

We no longer have any turkeys. We are down to 1 doe (Kittie), 2 geese (Peyton and 'Live), and 1 duck (Milla).

I am pleased to be where we are.  I feel as though we have grown a lot since last year, and our progress is becoming increasingly substantial and less of a dream.  It is turning into my reality, and with it, I have lots of pride.

We decided not to have a garden this year.  We will be working the land into a beautiful working space rather than just tilling up a large plot to let it become overrun by weeds.  We plan on creating raised beds to make it more manageable for me (since I do the majority of the work).  We'll post pictures when finished.  I have been neglecting the blog recently since we have decided to do away with our Internet service, it makes it difficult to make posts.

Getting some things done

Fall is here! Shhh! Fall is here! I don't care what you say, Fall is here! Look... The first day of Fall is in 3 days. Let me have my moment.

Okay, check it out. About this time every year, I thin out my Flock. Well, this year is no different. In all, I have 32 chickens, 4 turkeys, 4 geese, and a duck. This is after I sold several chickens. I'm trying to sell 6 chicks from a "grab special" at a farm store I bought a week ago. I already sold a dozen, so I'm not completely put out here. I also have a pair of Blue Ameraucanas and a Blue Wheaton cockerel from a prominent show breeder. I sold 10 chickens over the weekend, and now I have 32. As for the geese, I need to sell two or three, a pair or trio, if you will. The problem lies in there not being a market for them. They are good alert geese. I will give the ad another week before taking it down and trying again in the Spring. I love my geese, and I don't want to sell, but I need a pen too. Hubs needs to fix my coop and set up a huge run so the fox won't get them. (Yeah, we have several foxes around here.)

(Pictured above) The Cornish Rock Pullet, the two Barred Rock ladies, two Polish, a Black Copper Marans hen and a Bantam EE have been sold. We still have all others.

(Pictured below) My Ameraucanas. I am focusing on the White variety, so I'm selling the Blue pair. You will also spot the three layers pullets from a replacement order: Elsa the White Rock, Anna the Red Sexlink,  and Laserbeak the Barred Rock. I did not name them.

 

(Pictured below) is my front yard minus the fat chicken. You see my delimma? No run, too many lost feathers and poop. A whole Lotta nope going on right now.

(Pictured below) The most recent haul to the feed store. Who would have thought such small animals eat so much. 😉

On to other news, here are some chicks, goats, and a cow selfie.

Sold More Chicks Today

I've been selling chicks the last few days, and I'm down to 44!  Amazing!  :)    Minus another 12, and we'll be down to 32, but in a couple of weeks we'll be getting 4 more (three for Luke plus one Spitz).  Hopefully I can get the remaining ones I have for sale gone.  At least then I can simply relocate my chickens once the new coop is built.  I want a nice one that people ooh and ah over.  DREAM BIG!  :D

Chick Went to the Vet

Yes, I took a chick (Buff Laced Polish) to the vet to see what's going on with her leg and what we can do to fix it. As you can see from the following picture, her leg doesn't sit right. I thought it was because she had a slipped tendon. Doc says otherwise.

She is currently in an inside brooder with a cast-like splint to see if we can slowly work her leg back into its proper position. Doc said it could be congenial, nutritional, or from an injury. We are treating nutritional first, getting a chick starter with vitamin B and Calcium. She collected a fecal sample to test for cocci, which she (the chick) is thankfully negative.

She is supposed to go back Monday or Tuesday for a re-dressing. I will be updating this particular post with updates as it progresses. I normally would not take a chicken to a vet, but I need to learn, and this vet shares an interest in chicken rearing. (Chicken tenders are we. 😉


(Update: Vet chick died)

May Update

Aside from the sells (just sold 2 Polish chicks, Pekins pending, Buffs pending, Speckled Sussex pending, 1 or 2 Ameraucana cockerels pending, Blue Ameraucana pair pending), the rest of the farm is doing beautifully.  I need to mow, pretty badly, and I need to work on cleaning up the yard (a weekend activity coming), T-Bone has been banded today so NO chances of early pregnancy.  Hoorah!

Bambi is adorable, as always.

This gale, no name, has an old injury.  She has a slipped tendon, and we aren't sure what to do.  I tried popping it back into place, but it has already healed, and I do not have the professional means to help, so I called around, and we have a vet appointment set up for her.  Hopefully we can get her fixed up.

We have an amazing group of adolescence.  Several are staying, though at some point, some will be chosen to be sold.  I finally found a Cochin I adore, this little girl.  

Sablepoot (Sable-Poot) the Sablepoot (pronounced Sah-Blay-Pooh), also known as a Dutch Booted Bantam.

Popeye, the one-eyed Polish.

Little Mister.  He's the sweetest little cockerel in the world.

Sale Post

Working on selling some chicks and juviniles to make some room and lighten my load a bit.  Three Ameraucanas are gone, still have five left (Blue Wheaten, Wheaten, and White) at $5 each.

And a Blue pair (pullet and cockerel), though I'm not sure for how much to sell them for....

cockerel

pullet

All these chicks.... 15 total (plus one Cornish x Rock I just didn't have the heart to butcher)

I'll likely post more.  I have about 55 chickens, and I need to get down to about 30.  If I can sell all the ones listed, I'll be pretty close to my goal number.  I hope I can get there soon....

I sold 2 goslings, and I'm selling 6 ducks, 3 Buffs and 3 Jumbo Pekin.  Afterwards, I'll be down to just 4 geese and 1 duck.