Got Eggs?

We do! Clearly we need to do something with our excess of eggs, giving them away to family is not working! We have 13 dozen in the house and over a dozen in the barn waiting to be picked out of the hay. I had expected to have fewer eggs over the winter, but my hens didn't let the season get to them and have regularly given us a dozen a day. We have 21 girls (plus one roo!) and one of them is old Midge whom I doubt is laying any. I anticipate more eggs each day, as the days get longer, so we have plenty to go around.
Maybe I should put another batch in the incubator. The first four chicks now have all of their feathers and I just set them loose in the barn today. Maybe I should go check on them to see if they are getting along OK. Plus, the last group of three are starting to get ugly, so they are growing up too!

Is it Spring Yet?

So we tried breeding Fannie, but she was not nice to the boar. "Peter" is a Berkshire Tamworth cross that was offered up for breeding, but so far breeding number 1 did not take, we were too late to catch Fannie's next heat, and we are really hoping the third time will be a charm. Pig romance is not easy!
We had another batch of egg hatch, but only got four chicks again. This time we lost one due to cat or child injury. We aren't sure which. I think we are going to wait for spring now, I am hoping the Delaware hens will do some of the hatching for us.
We are on foal watch now, Diva is ready to foal any day now and that is always exciting. Nothing like fuzzy new babies to brighten up the barnyard!

Happy New Farm Year!

And now a new year begins on the farm, and we got a head start on Boxing Day. I saw an ad for a 2 yr old Berkshire sow and I jumped at it. So, the day free Christmas we piled into the truck to bring home Fannie. She is a great big sweetie, and it just do happens that we found her a boyfriend on-line and she is going to spend some quality time with him today! With any luck, in three months three weeks and three days, we will have piglets!

My big Christmas gift this year was an incubator and we saved a weeks worth of eggs and started it up before The holidays. On 7 Jan 2012, we had 4 of the eggs hatch and we were blessed with our first home grown chicks! Not as many as we hoped, but our very own nonetheless. I have already cleaned out the incubator and started a new batch yesterday. A few weeks ago a neighbor gave us a gift of seven hens and four of them are Delawares. Since our rooster is a Rhode Island Red, I am looking forward to that cross. I am enjoying these layers and I think that the poultry aspect of our farm is here to stay!

CATCH-UP

Ok, I haven't posted since we have moved to the farm so I am going to try to remember everything!
We were very busy at first, mostly with fencing. We had to get something set up for the horses, and then we had to make that area bigger, and then bigger again.... We now have the whole pasture fenced with electric and the pony field done in pine rails.

The first new animals we added were the chickens. We bought a flock of laying hens and Rhode Island Red rooster (Archie!). The girls have been laying well for us and I love watching them wander the farm

Next came Ginger the Jersey cow. She is awesome! She is four years old and was a puppy in her previous life! She is sooo friendly and easy to handle. It took me about two weeks to get good at hand milking her. Even though she "only" gave two gallons of milk a day, it was plenty for us. I have just recently let her dry up for the winter, mostly because I don't feel like milking in the cold! Also, she is bred for next year (March?) so it will be better for her to stop as well.

And then we bought pigs! Out of the blue we went and picked up four Landrace piglets and put them in a stall in the barn. We had every intention of building them I large outdoor pen, but it just never happened. But they seemed happy enough in the barn, and once we set up the electric fence in the paddock, we put the pigs outdoors every day.
I have to say, the pigs were kind of fun to have around, other than cleaning out their stall -super nasty! But since they hit six months old and about 150lbs each, they have gone to the butcher shop. I was afraid I would have a hard time with it, but even when we dropped them off, they seemed ok about it all, so I felt better. We should be picking up our meat next week.

And we had more chickens. We raised a flock of broilers, Cornish-Rocks. We bought 100 and ended up with 84 at butchering time. We had some trouble at first with our brooder set-up at first. They were too crowded and we lost some to smothering. Once we moved them to a stall in the barn, they seemed better. We have since had them processed and they are in our freezer and a portion have been sold to friends and family.

Oh yes, the Highland cows! Again, kind of a whim, we bought an 11 yr old cow, her 5 mo bull calf at her side and bred back for the spring (Crystal and T-Bone). Also, a yearling heifer named Fiona. They are not as friendly as Ginger, but they are so cute! Ginger was happy to have some non-equine friends! We had a few issues with Fiona and the fences (she didn't believe in them!) but after adding more wire and a stronger electric charge, we have not had a single escape!

Well, we are now waiting for winter. Even though it is December, we are in the midst of a rainstorm. I think we are ready, but only time will tell. We are building a new stall in the barn so that the horses and Ginger each have their own, and I hope to get some straw bales for Diva's baby in February. I can't wait!