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!
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