Spring Chicks

Our boy Thor has proven his rooster-hood! (I believe he is a Speckled Hamburg.)
One of our hens went broody, so I marked about 16 eggs for her to sit on, really not expecting anything to happen. I've been a chicken lover for about four years now, and have always had to purchase my chicks from a retailer.
Mary-Kate, (or Ashley, I cant tell them apart) was such a good and patient momma, never leaving the brooder. I really felt sorry for her, and would leave her handfuls of feed and little dishes of fresh water. The other night I went out to lock up the coop, and she was out of the brooder and on the floor of the coop, all puffed up and staring at me, not moving. We've had predator attacks lately, and I was worried that maybe she was injured. When I picked her up to put her back in the brooder, about a dozen little chicks took off running in every direction~ It was so exciting! I hurried to Farm-n-Fleet to get electrolytes for the water, and some chick feed. Apparently, the adult layer feed is bad for baby chicks, and can damage their reproductive systems. I also bought a heat bulb, but that wasn't necessary, since these babies have their momma to keep them warm. I also do not need to worry about keeping them separated from the rest of the birds like I do when I order chicks from Welp. Momma is right there to protect them, so the others just leave them alone. They are now a few days old, and I have not found any sad little chicks that didn't make it for whatever reason. Typically, when I order chicks, I always have to order a few extras because I would always lose at least one or two. Partially, it would be error on my part, for example, not knowing to put marbles in the water and one would drown. Also I think the being one day old, then put into a box and mailed is probably a rather traumatic experience.
I have no clue what breed these babies are, looks like a few different types. Most are black and tiny, a few gray and a bit larger, and one gold colored bird.

Spring Stuff

Last night we celebrated the new Spring growing season with a few small fires in the newly expanded garden beds. March had been freakishly warm and lovely, but now early April is back to normal temps, including snow flurries. The past few years, once the soil warmed and things started growing, it seemed like all we did was turn our backs for a moment and the weeds would crowd in. By mid-August, we'd be so frustrated with what seemed like futile efforts, the whole garden would become pretty weed ridden. This year, we are expanding the bed to twice the size, with the aim of creating a more manageable garden. One Shermen can ride the mower through, and one we can (occasionally) spray a bit of Round Up on the paths when necessary. We'd tried to "totally organic" thing, and it was just too much work. We cannot afford all the organic sprays and oils, and the home made remedies just weren't effective enough for us. Apparently Round Up is a pretty non-deadly alternative....safe for animals, and gone from the garden in a few days. I guess the University Extension gardens use Round Up...so if it's good for them, it's good for us. All I know is it makes life much easier.

We've transplanted our strawberries into raised beds, much narrower, to reduce the space for weeds to move in. I had been letting the runners go and take root, thinking "hey, more free plants" but read somewhere that allowing runners reduces "crowning" so this year I'm cutting them back to see what happens. Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold, and Norland Red seed potatoes have been cut and are curing in the solarium. I cut, cured and planted some of the Kenneboc potatoes we had left over and sprouting from last year. Last weekend I direct sowed a few varieties of lettuce, wishing I'd started a little sooner. Now I have to wait over a month to harvest one of those mind blowing home grown salads. If Shermen doesn't make me work in the bathroom grouting all day, (see http://www.ferndellfarm.com/ferndellfarm2010.html for renovation pictures) I plan to direct sow some sugar snap peas today. I got my Rouge Vif d'Etampes and Sweet Lightning pumpkin seeds from Jung Seed Co. and would like to get those started inside this weekend. I am excited about expanding the varieties in our pumpkin bed from the oranges, blues and whites we had last year. Pumpkins are so low maintenance, and such a fun way to end the growing season since you can use them for both decoration and yummy seeds and pies. I'd like to try a few different pumpkin recipes this year, since they are supposed to be so good for you, high in Vitamin A and beta carotine.
I ordered some fertilized Norwegian Jaerhon chicken eggs. These are lovely and unusual birds, and very appropriate for a couple of Norse hobby farmers. It will be my first experience with attempting to hatch eggs, and I will post how it goes. I plan to use my hens for sitting, rather than purchase an incubator. I (plan to) also try a homemade incubator, found some plans on Mother Earth News, and will post how that goes as well. Wish me luck!!

Chicken Killing 'Possum Smackdown

After losing my beloved Japanese Bantam rooster Leif and a sweet Barred Rock hen to unknown predators, I did some online research. Chicken predators can be partially identified by the manner in which they kill....in our case, the predators left egg shells and a partially eaten carcass. This ruled out weasels, which apparently kill randomly and only for the taste of blood, biting the head or neck of the chicken then moving on to the next victim. My mother remembers one of the few times she'd seen her own mother cry, when a weasel got into her hen house and killed about 30 hens. The fact that the animal left empty shells indicated either an Opossum or raccoon, since other predators take the eggs with them to consume later.
Predators are an ongoing bother for anyone raising chickens. I took care of our current "bother" the other night when I surprised two enormous opossums in the act of raiding my hen house. Because I did not have a firearm of any kind, it was "deux contre un".....me against the two nasty creatures, with nothing but a large stick and a five gallon pail to finish the job. It took about an hour. As I dragged a bloody feed bag through the snow to the garbage, I felt monstrous and victorious all at once. I had protected my girls. When I returned to the barn, I found the tail feathers of one of my lovely white Brahmas, and a live hen with a large bald spot on her bum. I had arrived in the nick of time.


Rest in Peace my lovely Leif

Garlic Scapes

Our garlic has started shooting out these lovely garlic scapes. Apparently they are quite delicious, and must be cut so the plant puts it's energy into producing bulbs. I've been putting it off because they are so graceful and lovely to look at. I think some of the kidney shaped swirls echo the organic shapes in a Joan Miro painting. Today is the day.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-10-01/Garlic-Scapes.aspx

Kittens and Chicks

Julie, daughter of Maude and still essentially a kitten herself, finally had her kittens. 5! Born Thursday May 21st sometime in the PM, in Kaaren's luggage, relocated to cozy towel lined box.

Wednesday May 20th I picked up the new chicks for Mom and I. Barred Rock, Auracana, Light Brahma and Golden Queen. Thought I was doing great this year, really becoming an adept Poultry Farmer, because I didnt "lose" any due to drowning, overheating or just weak chicks the first few nites. I didnt have a chick feeder tray, the ones with the holes in them to keep the chicks from standing in their food tray. I was using a small household serving tray, and it seemed to work just fine aside from the chicks throwing their feed all over. Then we had a cooler nite and the chicks crowded onto the tray and one of the Barred Rocks was trampled to death. The Barred Rock must be a more fragile breed, I remember that was what I lost last year.
On May 29th I noticed I lost 2 more chicks....another Barred Rock and a Light Brahma....not sure why this time, they werent trampled, cold or overheated, and they had food and water. The only thing I noticed was the food was getting low, and the chicks had to reach down into the holes of the feeder to get at it....possibly the two that died werent able to reach down that far? Or possibly just weak chicks, which does happen.

Chick tips:

1. Do not put water dish under heat source, they will crowd under heat source and chicks can drown
2. Do not put heat source too low, chicks can become overheated and die
3. Do not use dish with any sort of depth, chicks will crowd in it and trample eachother
4. I read not to feed chicks the layer mix, it can mess up their reproductive system, use starter grower feed
5. Make sure the chicks can reach inside the holes of feeder trays to the food, if food levels get low, some may not be able to reach all the way down to reach the food.

Tail Docking

It is a balmy 40 degrees out on this sunny Saturday morn....we are ready to open all the windows and let this dusty old home air out a bit. Our lovely pink abode is an island in a sea of mud, gray ice and post-construction piles; but that warm air hinting at Spring wont let the mess(es) get me down.

One of our "to-do's" for today is tail docking on Marti our lamb. Note I am sitting here rather than getting right to it. Farm and Fleet sells the supplies, (little rubber bands & tool,) as well as a tetanus shot to give the poor beast to prevent infection. I guess you (are supposed) to do this when they are very young so that if they have the scours, it doesnt fester up under their rear and cause maggots! Gah! Marti didnt seem to have the wicked scours, and I just havent been able bring myself to be the cause of fear and pain for her. We are trying to make friends, not enemies. I think I'll have Shermen do it.

New Baby Lamb

While feeding the sheep and chickens today after work, I noticed Daisy our Lab creating a commotion in the sheep pen…closer inspection revealed a little lamb! The most adorable thing I've ever seen….brand spanking new and TOTALLY unexpected. We thought these "things" happened in the spring, not mid-January Wisconsin. Thank goodness Matilda (the ewe) chose today- this most auspicious of days, Martin Luther King Jr. day, rather than a couple days ago when the temperatures we dangerously below zero.

Now I am in a bit of a panic, researching the web, trying to figure out what exactly we need to do to give our new baby Martin the best chances of survival. Hypothermia is an obvious issue, however, tempting as it is to bring the baby into our nice warm home to snuggle and keep toasty, the research says warming beds should only be last resort. Best situation is to keep the lamb with the ewe. Check that the mouth is warm and the lamb is feeding, not lethargic or apathetic about feeding. There seems to be a yellow tint to the amniotic residue, (these are totally non-vet terms,) but the research indicates this yellow tint is result of birth stress, and one of the causes of birth stress is "inexperienced shepherding." I was all prepared back in summer/fall for something like this, bought the extra vitamins, or "drench" and syringe and kept checking the ewes to look for evidence they were carrying twins. But nothing happened, so I just figured we would have to wait for next year. We don't even have iodine to spray on the cord.

I've been up to the barn checking on them a few times now, and plan to go up once more before calling it a night. Martin seems healthy, he/she is walking around and not shivering or anything like that. He's feeding vigorously and baahing in a way that sounds healthy not scary. He has a little diarrhea on his backside, but not much, and it's dark. Scary sounding "scours" which lead to dehydration and death are yellow or pale. I will check again in the morning, if they are worse I guess I'll have to call in to work in the morning to get hydration and electrolytes etc for him. Hopefully fate will smile on us with this first one. Pictures coming soon!

"Off With Her Head!" - Processing Chickens is Totally Gross

Yesterday sherm and i "processed" our first chicken. apparently the variety that we have, the cornish cross, is simply bred to be very fast meat producers so you dont have to keep/feed them for more that about 8-10 weeks. sometimes, for whatever reason, they "break" which i guess means they lose the ability to stand. we know this because about a week ago we pointed out this chicken that suddenly would not stand/walk to his step-father, who said, "oh yeah, it broke." and said we needed to process it asap because it wouldnt get better. we were not able to bring ourselves to do this until last nite, so we went about a week having to move the bird by hand so it had access to water and food.

i researched processing techniques on the net, and we had lots of advice from family, so we had a pretty decent idea of what we were up to. however, as neither of us had actually killed anything (on purpose) before, we were both pretty nervous about the whole thing. the poor bird was pretty complacent. she just sat there next to the cutting block, unable to walk, while i shoo-ed away our 3 layer hens because i didnt want them to see us kill a chicken. we had a kettle of boiling water on hand for dunking to open the pores and release the feathers. i held the body and looked away while sherm stretched the neck over the block and whopped off the head with one chop. then i had to hold the body neck down to let it bleed out. letting the body run about without a head is apparently not the right way to do it, from what i read online. this part was pretty horrible. soon as he chopped i looked over at sherm and saw him staring at the head on the ground with a weird look on his face. then i felt the body start to quiver and the legs were kicking pretty hard. i continued looking away and gagged pretty good a few times, but did not throw up. then i kind of started to cry but pulled it together because, as sherm said, this whole thing was my idea in the first place. i couldnt bring myself to look at it to see if it was done bleeding, so sherm let me know when it stopped. then we dunked it in the hot water for about 30 seconds or so, and started pulling off the feathers. they came off really easy, we were both surprised about that. then i used a set of kitchen scissors to cut open the body for the 'evisceration' process. that was gross. i did not set aside to later put into a baggie and freeze inside the body the liver, neck and gizzard as suggested in one of my research articles. the bird is pretty scrawny, but i think thats cuz it was not 'well' there at the end. sherm is supposed to grill it later tonite.

our cucumber crop sucks, the ones we picked so far have been so bitter they are inedible. i used organic seeds this year, as opposed to buying seedlings at menards last year. these are not the 'bush' variety either, and their shape is also very disappointing. large and not uniform. i thought maybe the bitterness was also a result of the organic seeds, but i guess it's some kind of chemical found naturally in the plants and effected by moisture and temperature. this is a drag because i opened a jar of last year's pickles the other day and they are really really good. i think i will go ahead a try to make a batch or two of pickles anyways.

we have about a gazillion sunflowers, planted from seeds from last years flowers. we are so happy that they actually grew! this year we are going to collect seeds from everything to grow next year. we even have some tomato plants this year that just came up i guess from fruit left on the ground at the end of last season.

we bought a big chest freezer and hope to be eating our chickens and frozen garden veg all winter. i'm planning to go with freezing and drying over canning for most of our storage this year.

Chickens

started process of becoming potential organic chicken farmers. wednesday, picked up 25 adorable baby chicks from farm-n-fleet. setting up brood area, put water dish directly under heat light. thursday morning, 1 deaddrown chick, 2 verging on death. move water dish. at school, students place bets on how many live chicks kaaren will have by last day of school- june 7th. not too many votes of confidence. bets hover around 12-15. thursday afternoon, remove dead chick #2, pray over borderline dead chickie gasping for breath. all others look pretty good.
meanwhile, the 4 hens: vessie, polla, tyrina and odette are in hen house on lock-down due to bad behavior in the gardens. our challenge- find way to house all these damned chickens in humane fashion.
expediture so far, approx 25$ for chicks, 10$ for chick feed, 3$ for feed tray.