R.I.P. Chauncy

So I was going to get rid of 2 of my roosters. The other day I walked into my coop and found my old rooster dead. I have no idea what happened. No sign of trauma or sickness. I guess it was just his time. Rest in peace Chauncey. Our first rooster. He sure was a mean guy but I will always remember him.

Dead Rooster Walking

I have decided to get rid of 2 of my roosters. We still have our original boy, we raised 1 extra, and one slipped by without notice while we were getting rid of a bunch others. The big reason I am wanting the 2 new guys gone is my poor hens are being hurt. The new guy is so rough on the hens that their back feathers are being plucked out! I hate seeing them like that. This weekend is it for them. My husband has to do the honors. Hopefully my one rooster can handle the flock of 25. I am not hatching chicks much right now (I am hatching a baby myself) so I am not worried about that right now.

Egg Mystery goes unsolved

The Chickens were put up in their coop from 7pm at night to 3:30pm the next day. I was expecting 10 eggs in the nest boxes. I got 1!!! But as soon as I let the chickens out 8 of the flew over the fence and ran to the house. I think they were holding their eggs in until they could get out and lay in their hidden spot. Next time I will keep them in for 24 hours! The mystery continues.

The Egg Mystery

I have 25 hens and yesterday I collected 1 egg. Only 1!! There is something fishy going on! Egg collecting has been steadily going down. The hens fly over the fence everyday and live around our house. Then they go to the coop to roost at night. We think there is a huge hiding place filled with eggs somewhere near our house. So today all the chickens got locked up in the newly cleaned coop. If I get 20 eggs today I will freak!

Weekend Plans

This weekend we have a few chores to do around the farm

1. Clean out Chicken coop (wow it stinks!)

It needs to look like this!


2. Clean out goat barn



3. Bush Hog(Tractor Mow) the whole property (summer time means tall grass)



4. Trim goat hooves (not fun for us or the goats)



5. Kill wasps in shed (they have taken over!!)

I can only help with a few since I am so hugely pregnant. But I will pitch in when I can.

September Update

I have been super lazy and have not posted in 3 months! Sorry.

Goats

Clementine

Tallulah

The camera smells good!!

Pushing Clem around as always

They are bigger now but still so sweet. They like to eat and get pets. We are not breeding them this year so no milk yet :(. Tallulah is the boss and Clementine is the follower. It seems to work out fine for both of them. My husband(who was against the goats in the first place) loves them both. They don't jump up which is great. They keep losing their collars so I think I might just leave them off for now. We move them back and forth to the chicken area so they can eat up that grass too. My husband has still not installed the auto water for them so it's filled up everyday with this 95 degree heat. I love my goats so much and they are a great addition to our little farm.

Chickens

We are down to 28 chickens now. That is a relief ! We have stopped hatching chicks for now. I am just too pregnant to deal with other animal births right now!

We processed a couple of roosters and gave a lot of them away. I just did not have the energy to catch, kill, clean, and freeze 25 roosters.

We have 3 roosters and 25 hens. One rooster is young. He will end up on the table soon. The other 2 are being kept for breeding. Although they are tearing up my poor hens backs all the time. I might have to go down to just one again. I wouldn't mind seeing my old mean rooster gone.

We had one hen go broody on us and hatch out a few chicks. But it did not go well. Most of the hens kept laying in her box and we got a lot of rotten eggs. Only 3 chicks hatched out of 20 eggs. 1 chick hatched before we new it and it got eaten by ant so sad! So we sprayed the area with ant killer(the only thing we could think of). The next chick hatched but died. We had only one survive. It was doing great for a while but I think the heat got to it b/c we found him dead one morning. So we are not going to let our hens brood again!

Mama hen looking sickly!

None of the chickens stay in their yard except for the mean rooster. They all fly over our 4' fence. I think the rooster is just too heavy.

My husband really need to clean out our coop. It is way past due! I need remind him a couple more times and it might get done. Or it might wait until after my baby is born.

Dogs

We moved all 3 of our dogs outside. I just couldn't take them in my house anymore! The other day our Coon hound broke off his lease and ran away. He has not returned and think the worst. He was 7.5 years old and loved to run. I am guessing he got hit by a car, shot, or hurt in a fight. I guess we will never know. But he had a nice life with us! So we are down to our boxer and our Pitt bull. The boxer is on a run and the Pitt bull runs free. She is very good and stays on our property. she has chased off many other dogs who were trying to get the goats and chickens. The Pitt loves the goats. She kisses them through the fence. we are still unsure of our boxer. But he is always on leash.

Family

I am now 32 weeks pregnant. Only 8 weeks to go! We are having a baby boy. Katie(2) is starting preschool. She is very excited. My poor husband hurt his Back(siatic(sp) nerve). He is working through the pain. I pray it heals soon.

So that's all for now I will try to post more regularly and keep my blog up to date. I hope everyone is doing well!

Farm Update

Hi all, I am doing great here on the farm. We are loving our goats! Tallulah is 6 months old now and Clementine is 5 months. They are sweet and sassy. I love how gentle they both are with my 2 year old daughter. I can't wait for them to give me milk in a year or so. But they are so sweet I don't mind.



The Chickens are out of control! We have about 75 chickens on my property right now. Primarily cockles too. We have 17 baby chicks for sale right now. So anyone near us that is interested please let me know! Here are some pictures of a bit of the craziness of our farm.