Peepers

I am going to try to squeak one in here before midnight, so that I will have a blog for today before it is tomorrow. I hear thunder, so I will have to make it quick before the storm hits.

Jasper and Onyx went to their new home this morning. Since Jasper had partial horn growths on both sides, I got to burn his horns again. It went very smoothly and hopefully he won't have scurs. It was the first time that I had ever actually used the iron, I usually just hold the kids while my DH does the burning.

I checked my Mille Fleur D'Uccle's nest yesterday and she had no baby chicks but when I went out to the goat/chicken shed this morning there was a little peeper looking out at me from under the hen. This evening we picked the hen up and she has three little peeps under her. Hopefully some of the other eggs will hatch out in the next couple of days but three is good if the others don't, because I was afraid that none of them would hatch for her.

I also set seven large eggs under my broody Rhode Island Red. Since she is bound and determined to set, at least now she has some eggs to set on that should be fertile.

Weaned

Jasper and Onyx are officially weaned and they aren't real happy about it. Their mother doesn't seem to mind much. We milked Cinder at 7:00 this morning and got 1 1/2 quarts. We will probably get more than that this evening.

Still haven't gotten Zinc and Copper's horns taken care of. We don't want to do it when it is raining and it has rained for the last two days.

We checked under my little D'uccle hen last night and no babies yet. It did look like one was in the process of hatching. She has a ton of eggs under her, the other hens must have continued to lay in her nest after we moved her, the sneaky things, one of the eggs is from one of the big hens. I don't know how she managed to get into the nest, the door is tiny. Maybe we will have some chicks today.

One of my Rhodies has gone broody now also, I have put in a request to my cousin for some eggs to set under her.

I know that I didn't blog yesterday because I got an e-mail asking me if I was alright. For the last three days I have been nursing a kidney stone I believe. This is the first one that I have ever had and the pain comes and goes. I am currently trying some home remedies. I don't like going to the Doctor.

Separation Anxiety

I did a lot of separation today but most of the anxiety was mine. I took Cinder and her kids out of the goat lot, so that I could put Cooter back in there to get some exercise and sunshine. He has been living in the horse trailer because he has learned to escape from his pen. As soon as we have time to put a hot wire around his pen, we hope to resolve this problem.

I put a rope halter with lead on Cinder and took her through the double electric fence gates and with much coaxing of her two babies and trying to keep the other two does from getting out, I succeeded finally but this was difficult to say the least. I was about half way to the barn with Cinder and babies when the other two does jumped the gates and caught up with us.

I turned Cinder loose and she joined Calico in the barn eating from an unopened bale of Alfalfa. Why they want to eat hay with all of the tall green grass, flowers and weeds that we have growing out in the yard is beyond me.

I haltered Cooter and took him to the goat lot, then went after the two escaped convicts. Catching, haltering and dragging the unwilling Paris and Collette was annoying but having Cooter waiting just inside the gate didn't help much either.

Next I found a kid halter and haltered Jasper for the first time, he did pretty well. I put him in the dog kennel and went after Onyx, she did very well also. I fed and watered them and turned around to find that Paris and Collette had escaped again. I struggled to put them up again, then again, and again. I finally managed to keep them up long enough to get a piece of webbing up higher than the top wire. Hopefully they won't be able to jump the gate now. They never knew that they could jump before. I had hoped that they would never discover this.

I also had to move my Mille Fleur D'uccle hen's nest, because two of my Rhodies kept running her off of the nest so that they could lay their eggs in it.

We went to a Graduation Ceremony last evening and when we came home I found one of my Barred Rock hens dead, I am thinking that it was probably that stupid Fox. I am getting paranoid about leaving home.

Egg Production

For some reason our egg production went down yesterday. We have been getting 9 eggs per day and that dropped to 5 yesterday. All three of my Banties laid on Wednesday and only one laid yesterday. But I don't understand what happened to the other three eggs from my Rhoadies and Barred Rocks. They are always so faithful.

I never did find my missing Barred Rock or any evidence of what happened to her. If she did hide a nest, she did a very good job of hiding. One of our neighbors reported seeing an Eagle again but we haven't seen it, that doesn't mean that it wasn't here and carried off my hen.

One of my hens has been laying eggs in my Granddaughters playhouse out back, but didn't yesterday. I have a feeling that I am missing something, they are probably laying somewhere but I just don't know where. That is the problem with free rangers, they can provide you with a constant Easter Egg Hunt.

Eggs for Sale

Spring has sure made a difference in egg production, my bantams are still not laying but everything else sure is. I just went out to gather eggs and every nest in the shed has a hen sitting in it. I have a refrigerator full of eggs and need to sell some. I have been selling some to a neighbor and giving them to my kids, but they just keep coming.

My chickens are doing wonderful and I really enjoy them. When I go outside in the mornings they are waiting for me. I slide open the big barn door and they follow me everywhere I go until I feed them. I feel like the Pied Piper with my little flock clucking along behind me.

Goodbye, Ethel

Maude is the giant cornish cross hen that was attacked by a possum and then by a Bobcat, she sustained some serious injuries from the Bobcat attack but it was Ethel that I found dead this morning.

I knew that they usually don't live more than one year because they tend to overeat themselves into an early grave, if they are not butchered and eaten. I was just surprised when I seen one of them dead and it wasn't Maude.

Ethel was still warm when I found her so I decided to get some butchering experience. No sense in her going to waste when I have two dogs and cat to feed.

I didn't think that I could do it, I thought that is would turn my stomach but it wasn't hard at all. I just skinned her in areas that I wanted the meat from, the breast and legs. It was really no different than skinning, cutting up or deboning a store bought chicken.

She had a lot of good meat on her and my dogs and cat got a fresh, raw, show dog meal today. I know a lady that shows dogs and she keeps chickens just for her dogs, they get fresh chicken meat everyday.

Chloe, my house dog, left a piece of breast meat unguarded for just an instant and one of the Rhodie hens got away with it. She grabbed it and ran, one of the Barred Rock hens chased her down and took it away from her and disappeared, so I don't know who ended up with it but it is a dog eat dog world around here. Chloe is still upset, she may have to have therapy.

It's Back...

After a few beautiful Spring-like days, Winter has come back with a vengeance. My chickens were all convinced it was Spring and gave me five eggs yesterday. Then today, it is only 16º and the temperature is suppose to keep dropping. It is also very windy, so it feels much colder.

I did get one egg this morning, I may get two more but I am not holding my breath. I don't know how old my three Rhodies are but most of my Barred Rocks are young. The Rhodies are very good layers, if I get three eggs today it will be from them. They are very faithful about laying even in bad weather but from what I hear they usually don't go broody even in the Spring.

I keep getting one large, deformed egg from one of my newer hens everyday. After researching this, I have found out that eggs get larger as hens mature, older hens also tend to sometimes lay deformed eggs. So, I am not sure which one is laying these eggs but it is interesting to see the weird shape each day.

I didn't blog yesterday and didn't even realize it until this morning. I was busy answering comments to Friday's blog, so, it slipped my mind. Sorry, Punky, is your headache better?

Bald Eagle

There was a time when seeing a bald eagle where we live was unheard of, but for the last 3 or 4 years we have been seeing a few during the winter months. This morning my husband came in the house and told me to get the camera. I grabbed it and ran out to see what was going on.

Sitting in a tree overlooking one of our smaller pastures was a bald eagle. He looked enormous but my camera doesn't have much of a zoom, so I am afraid I didn't get adequate pictures of him.

In comparison to some of the hawks that we have around here, the hawks might get away with one of my bantams, but this guy could take one of my standard Rocks or Rhodies, maybe even Shorty, our miniature horse.

Barred Rocks

I finally talked my wonderful husband into going after the chickens that he promised me for Christmas. He did some farrier work for my cousin and he paid him in chickens. I got five Barred Rock hens and three Rhode Island Red hens. I will try to post some pictures of them tomorrow if it isn't raining.

The temperature on this 7th day of January in Indiana was 69 degrees for a high and tonight, after dark, when we went to get the chickens it was 61. We are suppose to have thunder storms later tonight and tomorrow. Then the temp. is suppose to return to normal. But it was fun while it lasted, I was even able to go into my goat pen today without falling in the mud.

I can now call myself a spinner. I have been spinning yarn and even though it isn't very pretty, it is still yarn.