Chickens and Eggs

We are having success selling all the eggs our hens produce. That is why it's so hard not to get a large qty of hens and/or chicks.

We started with 20 laying hens and worked our way eventually last May to about 200 total.   Since that time, several have fallen prey to predators, a few have just died of heat or old age....and let's face it, the neighbors dog did us no favors when he took out over 20 of them in a few days.   Even our dogs have disappointed us with a few injuries and deaths.   Overall,   just when we think we have it under control though....we will find something else to worry about.

Currently, we estimate we have about 130 laying hens in total out on the pasture.   In the brooder, are 150 that we just ordered, plus about 12 we've hatched.    We have another 200 coming the end of October.   We also have 50 broiler chicks in the brooder.   Who doesn't love a baby chick?

We have tried to grow our numbers slowly to see what works best and have our lessons learned on a small a scale as possible.  Plus we are hoping to do broiler (meat birds) on a larger scale after the first of the year, so we don't want to overextend ourselves.  

This is a hard thing to do in actuality....not to purchase 1,000 birds and go "all in".   But there is so much infrastructure still to be done on the farm, that were are trying not to burn ourselves out and save a little time for each other and our families and friends.

Here's a picture of Ward putting in water pipe in the pasture.
There you go!

Where is the time going?

It's been awhile since we posted, but we've been busy!  Egg production has been slowing...don't know whether it's the heat, the hens molting or what...but we've been struggling to keep up with orders.  Hopefully a little cooler weather is doing some good.   We rented a trencher along with our friends from Slow Food Farm and Ward dug a trench of about 2000 feet for water pipe.  It took about 3 days at a snail's pace.  I watched him start the process, and several hours later looked out and it seemed like he was in the same place.  But somehow....he managed to get done!  YEAH WARD!   some of the pipe is in, and the rest is laid out.   We got 150 layer chicks and 50 broilers chicks in the last week.  Ward has modified our previous goat shelter to make a brooder and all are happy and chirping away.   We had our grandbabies the first weekend in September.  Whew...it's hard parenting!   But both babies were good and happy to go along with the feeding of chickens and cows....doing chores, taking care of animals.  both were natural.   We even got to ride in the back of the pickup together!  We have guests coming next week....Ward's mom and stepdad are flying in from Seattle.   Hope to show them some Texas hospitality.  Thanks for staying with us and we promise to update more soon!  

I Dig Turtles!

No really I do...let me explain. ( Buy the way this is my first post - Jill has done all the previous posts and since its so hot outside I'm looking for things to do inside where its cool.)
Back to the story - since we have been so lucky to have this extreme drought, I took advantage of the drying pond (they call them tanks in Texas) to dig it out.  The main idea was that when/if it finally does rain we would have a nice new tank that was deeper and would hold more water.  When I was getting close to completing the big dig I noticed a blob of mud was moving.  It turned out to be this Alligator Snapping Turtle.  I cleaned him off and relocated him to our larger pond.

 

He was not too happy at first - he had this eerie low pitched hiss when you got close to him - you might be able to hear it in the video.  Moved another large turtle today but it was not a snapper.

Babies, babies, babies

Several weeks ago, I mentioned to my friend Jennifer from Slow Food Farms that we had several broody hens.    She offered some fertile eggs (she has a rooster...we don't) for the broody hens to sit on.   We placed a dozen eggs in 6 different nest boxes in the mothership and selected our cranky broody hens to sit on them.   We marked on the calendar 21 days and the journey began.   The whole process is fasinating, but there are some particular notes of interest.   The hens sit most of the day and night on the nest, only occasionally getting up to potty, drink and eat.  Ours seemed to get up first thing in the morning when the coop was opened.   The hens know to keep a certain temperature on the eggs.  When they need warmth, they fan their feathers and make a big fluffy tent to cover.  If the eggs are warm enough, they'll stand up a little over the top with their wings jutting out.   The hens are the best incubators, they turn the eggs and will kick a egg out that is rotten!   Finally this past Monday evening, we opened the nest box to discover a little chick!    Like two kids on Christmas morning, the next day  we scrambled out to see if there were more.    5 more!   Wednesday brought us 3 more chicks, and as of this morning, Thursday August 11th, there is one little fluffy baby in there.    We are very excited that our first hatch has brought us this many chicks so far.   And with great probability, we will have a rooster and can start the process all over again soon.

In addition to baby chicks, we have a new calf on the farm.    And it is a HE.   After the incident with the vet, we carefully checked the sex on our new miniature hereford calf.    We knew her mother Betty was expecting.....she looked like she going to explode with milk the past few days.    It is a hot dog day of summer to be giving birth, but the calf looks healthy and beautiful.   And like Ward says...we have another mouth to feed.    We have been feeding hay for many weeks now to the cattle.   We had them on a rotation of fields, but alas, we're at the end of the rotation and the grass on the beginning fields is not sturdy enough for them to come back.   So they are in an upper part of our property that has the last bit of grass and now a big hay ring.    This is the best area for them to camp out for awhile.  There are quite a bit of trees, and the shady glen was perfect for Betty to have her calf.   We're hoping in a few more weeks, the heat will break and bring the animals and US relief.

The Heat Continues.....

The biggest problem with the heat is the inability to get much done. There are a few precious hours in the morning before it gets too hot that we scramble to get as much done as possible. We're still working on ripping the interior out of the old buildings to build out a processing facility for chickens and some storage, and the other building we're going to make into an equipment shed. The equipment shed had structure on the outside that had previously been a brooder. We plan on rebuilding and continue to use it as a brooder.

We spent a couple days helping our friends Jenn and Harry process chickens. It was good practice for us. Plus Jennifer is a great conversationalist.

Yesterday the bull got out...again. We really couldn't tell where...maybe he just jumped over the fence? We couldn't find any breached fence line. Fortunately, he was hungry and was more than willing to follow a food bag back to the pasture.

Then this morning when we stepped out to do our chores...we could hear a calf bellowing loudly. We went to investigate and found her mother, one our Zebu cows, up to her legs in the muck in the middle of the pond ward has been trying to clean out. I was very concerned, but Ward did a fabulous job of tying a rope around her horns and pulling her out. He had a method of pulling a little bit, then letting her right herself by getting her feet back underneath her. Then he would pull some more. The poor cow was exhausted, her eyes were rolled up in her head. But she finally emerged muddy, but all right. All the cattle watched the whole event, and the bull stayed with her for a long time afterwards. Ward had me take photos and additionally I yelled "Come on COW" the whole time. This was my contribution....otherwise I would have just stood there wringing my hands.

Novice Farmers

The vet came yesterday to castrate our young bull calves. He asked us to have them in the round pen when he arrived and he would help us sort them out. He has a portable squeeze chute and brought that along to catch the calves for the "procedure". Since we had the whole herd plus a few guest cattle, Dr. Hebel was very instructional in how to drive them around the outside of the pen and then through the chute. If the cows went in, he just let them go on by. We got the biggest guest cow and Gunslinger our bull out the other side relatively easy. Most of the cows were thru the chute when we got our first calf in there. After Dr. Hebel finished with it, he released it and said "I thought you said you had four bull calves". Ward and I looked at each.....could this vet not count? One was finished and three were still left in the pen. "There are still three in the pen"....I replied. "One of 'ems a heifer, but I can still charge you for it", he said. WHAT? But what is that hanging down? "It's her belly button.....it's an outie!" Honestly I'd love to post a picture and get everyone's opinion and see if they wouldn't make this same mistake also. But we laughed it off......and said we promised to know the difference between boy and girl calves next time.

Ward has been digging out a small pond in our back pasture since it is practically dried up. He's taking the opportunity to make it a little bigger. If it ever rains again, it will be a nice addition. If not, it will be a dirt hole.

The donkey and baby donkey "Whiskas" have been hanging out in the pasture with the cattle. I think this arrangement suites everyone well. Whiskas is so friendly. She demands attention and rubs when you come out. She will chase you when you try to leave. We're hoping her mother Annette will let us pet her eventually...or at least take this harness off she has had on since we got her. You can tell by the picture that she is tempted to get in on the action.

Something has got 5 of our broilers chicks in their pen. It is a big mystery to me. It's not eating them or carrying them off, just killing them. And there is an electric fence around the pen. No signs of digging. Can't be an owl, what owl wouldn't eat them? We reinforced the pen with more chicken wire and no losses today. strange.

What the hay

I once worked with a gal in Seattle that said "sunshine makes me angry". I honestly thought that was the silliest thing I ever heard. Now...I'm not changing my mind, sunshine is still one of the best parts of life. But the drought and parched conditions....that could spoil my mood. Everything is dusty. My house, the vehicles, everything sitting outside, my eyes and even my sinuses. I daydream of smelling a rain shower coming and feeling the air cool with the moisture.

In the meantime....the crunchy pasture just isn't cutting it for the cattle. So we bought hay. The land should be providing a bounty of rich food for livestock and they should be putting on weight to get them through the winter. The fields should look lush instead of brown. Instead we're putting out money for feed and taking a whole day to move it. Now that could make a person angry.

On the bright side, when we pulled into the drive I told Ward I wanted to ride up on top to the barn. Brings back memories of being a kid and going on hayrides, especially with the church group. It was a great view, and a very fun 10 minutes!!!