Farm News

Hi all, sorry it has been a while since I have written.  The farm has been keeping us mighty busy!  The goats have still not had their babies.  The only thing we can think of is that the man that bred them got the wrong date.  So we wait...

The rabbits are doing very well, multiplying as always.  I tried butchering some and it was much easier than butchering chickens!  We got about 5-6 lbs of meat out of each one.  They were 9 wks old. When we tried some for dinner it was a little disconcerting to us all that you could tell by the bones that it wasn't a chicken.  So next time I think I will try it deboned and put it in a casserole or something.  My friend and I did butchering together and we butchered her extra muscovy drakes and a few roosters.  I traded her some rabbit meat for one of the ducks.  I deboned it all and got 5lbs of meat off one duck!!  I had also butchered 4 young polish roos and got 1 1/2 lbs from all 4!  So I combined the chicken and duck meat and ground it up and made sausage!  It is delish!  So I know have a pair of muscovy ducks to raise some of these guys for meat. 

I had planned to raise several mixed breed chicks from my laying flock for meat birds, but after seeing a 6 mo old marans and how little meat it had on it, I dropped that idea and sold the birds.  I am going to stick with the turkeys, ducks and lambs.  They seem to have a lot more meat for the work you do.

The sheep are growing and cute in the pasture.  All the chickens are doing well.  I am selling my frizzle cochin flock, so that I can have a coop for my frizzle polish.  I have several turkeys roaming around and getting fat for butchering in the fall.  The Oregon Grays are really pretty.  I may save a breeding pair or trio of those to raise more youngins next year.

I picked up an orphan mallard duckling this spring that we named Lucky.  It is getting big and doing well with my young runners.  A man also gave us a runner named Band-aid and a rouen named Daffy because he couldn't take care of them anymore.  They are in the teen duck pen too.  They are all getting along nicely.  Daffy is really friendly and fun to be around.

Well I finally turned off my incubator!  It has been on continuously since last fall when I built it.  I will give it a good cleaning and a paint job.  It is put away for the rest of the year.  I hope to hatch January through June.  That way all my youngins will be strong before winter.   That means less heat lamps!

I will try to get some pictures of the new animals soon.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

Ways to make my farm feed our family

I have been looking for ways for our farm to feed our family.  I recently got 2 min-milk goats.  They are nigerian dwarfs.  They are two pregnant does.  They are due June 17th.  I am so excited!  Their names are Nessie (the brown one) and Oreo (black and white-duh).  They are very friendly, alot like dogs.  They want their food and attention, in that order.  I have a steep learning curve to go from no goats to pregnant ones, but I can't wait!

 These pics are not very good because they wouldn't get back far enough to take them!  They were all over me and wondering what the camera was! LOL  We hope to milk them after the babies are weaned.  I plan to make goat cheese and butter, if possible.  Milk products are so expensive these days!

Then I had the idea to raise lamb for meat.  I have heard they are relatively easy to raise.  You just put them on pasture and of course, give them water, then they grow and in the fall you butcher them.  So I bought 3 little lambs.  They are all girls and all black.  They will grow horns.  They are in a small temporary pen right now until we fence off the pasture for the goats and sheep to share.  Hopefully they will provide about 50 lbs of meat each in the fall.

Of course there are some chickens in with them too. =}  It was quite the experience bringing them home in my van.  The goats just laid down and stayed calm, but the lambs were climbing on seats, bouncing off of the sides etc.  They were wild and crazy!  Next time they will be hog tied or something. te he

Izzie is growing up!

Do you all remember my little gosling named Izzie?  Well she is getting really big and starting to look like a sebbie goose!  Here she is;

She is definitely a pet.  She thinks I am her mama.  She wants to go where ever I go.  She is making this funny noise because she is starting to get her big voice in.  She kinda does this squeaky honk when she is looking for me. What a cutie!

Mille Fleur banty Cochins

I think these birds are my new favorite breed!  They are so pretty and friendly too!  I bought 2 trios, so I put one roo with the 4 girls and then put the other roo with my 3 mottled cochins in the garden.  We ended up having to put down David's bird, Pee Wee.  He broke his leg somehow and couldn't walk on it. Here are some pics of my new favs.  They are one year old so they already laying, and 3 of them have already gone broody.  =} 

They are a fairly new coloring of banty cochins.  The coloring is from the mille fleur d'uccles.  I love them!  I have already hatched their first egg laid here.

Here is the other roo with his mottled girls in the garden.

Frizzled Polish-Dr Suess birds!

When I went to the BYC Oregon swap about 1 month ago, I bought some very unusual birds.  They are frizzled polish.  They are so weird looking, they look like something from a Dr. Suess book!  They are blue, black and splash colored.  I have one that is smooth feathered too.  Here are some pics;

Aren't those a kick in the pants?  I hope to make a blue/black/splash frizzled polish pen.  Try to say that 3 times fast! LOL 

Lots going on at the farm

Hi all!  Our farm has been very busy lately!  I have sold many extra birds and roosters.  I ended up selling my golden laced polish girls and found a home for Maestro the mottled houdan roo.  I had too many pens and needed to consolidate, but when I added my glp girls to my other polish, they picked on them badly. 

I must've accidentally left the quail cage latch undone because they all got out.  The kids recovered two females and I sold them and the two doves left as I just feel overwhelmed with animal care.  It was worth a try.  Here are some pics of the doves.

Our last batch of bunnies (7) are getting big quickly.  They are 1 month old now and very cute and active.  I moved them and mama to a bigger cage so they have some room to play.  Here are a couple.

I bred both the other American Chinchilla does and one had her litter today!  There are 12 babies!!!  I forget how little they are!  The other mom should be kitting shortly.

I have also decided that I don't like the buttercups as much as I thought I did.  They are quite flighty and high strung.  I prefer more laid back and friendly birds.  So they are for sale.


After much thought, some anguish,  trying to pen different birds together and much fighting between the ganders I have decided to sell a trio of my Sebastopol geese.  So I will keep Baby Nibbles, Glad (her mate) and their gosling (Izzie).   They just wont stop fighting, even the girls were fighting each other and I can't see keeping them in separate pens all the time.  Here is a recent pic of Izzie.  She is growing very quickly and is very friendly.

Well today I had my first sale to a store!  Agnew farm and feed store ordered 25 of my cochin chicks to sell.  Only 16 hatched, but I delivered them today and traded bird feed for them.  Good deal!  He is also interested in bunnies and ducklings for Easter.  Very exciting!

The big thing coming up right now is the Oregon Swap.  I have about 30 birds already reserved by people and I am bringing many more.  My kids are making up organic chicken treat baggies to sell, beaded keychains and maybe chocolate eggs.  We are all excited!  The van will be packed, my friend Celia and I will make it a day trip, get up early head to Portland, OR, do the swap, then head home.  Hopefully I will be coming home with less birds than going down. =}

I will have lots of ducklings and a few misc chicken eggs hatching this weekend.    Well I better go clean some coops!  Have a happy Easter if I don't talk you before then!

From Benji to Izzie

Well we decided to keep our first little gosling.  We believe she is a girl, so we had to change her name!  We chose Izzie.  She is growing like a weed!  Here is a better pic of her when little.

She makes a different sounds than the ducklings or chicks, so is very unique.  She loves attention and will peep for it if she is feeling like a snuggle.  I have two ducklings in with her for company.  She is very active and loves different foods.  Her favorite is lettuce!  I was sitting in my lazy boy chair about 3 feet away from her and she flung lettuce at me! te he  I will wait a little longer before taking pics so you can see her growing!

Our little bunnies are getting big very quickly!  They are now the size of two fists!  They are coming out of the box and roaming around the cage.  Here is a cute pic.

A few of my silkie hens have started laying and so I of course put them in the incubator.  =}  Look at the cuties I got out after 21 days!