Bee~ Journal of then...

[shareneh]

Yay! New babies! I can't wait for my chickies to try to hatch some.

I also appreciate that I am not the only person in the forum who hasn't evolved to cull. I know some day I will but I guess I'm just working up to it??

Please post some pics of your set up and the babies for us. No pressure.

 

[me&thegals]

Anybody else do their own hair cutting for the family?

Yup--My husband cuts my son's and I cut my husband's. I love it when they want their summer buzz cuts

That is so awesome about your own hatched chicks! I had to bump 8 hens off the nests tonight and should start thinking about letting them hatch something out. What do you know about barnyard hens? Is it coin toss on productivity, temperment?

 

[freemotion]

Ooooo, I am sooooo jealous!!! I am so hoping one of my hens goes broody. I have been collecting the eggs often, though, because it is still too cold here for my comfort with a first-timer, but in a week or two, I'm gonna start letting the eggs pile up in a nest of a suspected possibility....a buff orp hissed at me the other day when I reached under her to get some eggs.

Hoping for broody turkeys, too.

Must be so much fun to watch the progress!

 

[Beekissed]

This hen is a White Rock, new pullet, and this is her first attempt. I tried to pile up some of the breeds I wanted to hatch under her, but she eliminated 4 of my choices and it left me with 8 eggs of unknown parentage. It will be fun to try to identify who the breeds are responsible for the youngsters!

I don't really care about the breeds, though, as I have all breeds in the mix that are good layers and heavy meat producers. That is all I really want out of a flock....hardy, disease resistant, good layers and meaty enough bodies to make it worthwhile to eat them.

Free, my BOs always hiss at me if I put my hands near them when they are on the nest.....so do my Doms, for that matter! I only have one other chicken who is a persistant broody and she is not a good mother, so I'm culling her this time around. She is some kind of EE mutt and not a good layer.

 

[freemotion]

Oh, that is not what I want to hear. I have buffs, doms, one silverlace wyandotte, and 5 older EE's that lay consistantly, almost an egg a day each. None of the EE's have offered to go broody. I need to increase my flock, let it get far too low, and I don't feel like getting chicks this year. I have so many projects going on right now, I want someone else....a hen....to raise the chicks for me!

Well, we all have to tolerate our learning curve!!!

I just learned the wonders of a milking stand. Got Mya on it with a piece of brocolli and a boost in her rear end, and I milked in a fraction of the time. Beat her for the first time, I was done milking before she was done eating, so no messing around with a cranky goat.

The right tools make all the difference!

Keep us posted on the chick saga!

 

[Beekissed]

Milking stands are great! I can't imagine milking a short animal like a goat without one, so I'm sure you are in 7th Heaven with yours! That's how we used to milk the goats, feed them in the stand and milk them before they finished. Once she learns that she will get feed in the stand, she will scramble up there herself and be glad to do so!

Now, that is a pic I'd love to see.....Free milking her goat! Could ya?

Shareneh, I will try to get some pics of the new family this week. The little pen they are in is kind of dim and the nest is in a big doghouse, so that is dim also. We are having a rainy week, so I don't want to let them out on the wet ground yet. I'll have to arrange a photo op for them somehow!

Me&thegals, I think that there are several breeds that are very productive and with great temperaments. All the breeds I have right now are great, except a few given to me~one of which is part EE. All of those inherited birds will be culled except one, who is laying well(Austrolorp).

Here's what I have:

BO= very beautiful and big, laying consistently and surviving the winter well. Not real friendly but not mean.

Doms= quirky and curious, good, constistent layers and very cold hardy. Friendly enough, not mean.

New Hampshires= very pretty, matured early, laying consistently, very hardy, great personalities.

White Rock= big, meaty, bossy, make good broodies and is looking like they have good mothering instincts, consistent egg laying, very hardy.

Black Stars= good layers, very curious and friendly, escape artists, hardy.

Black Aussie=big, good layers, gentle and hardy.

I have a Partridge Rock roo who is beautiful and very mannerly, a big, Blue Orp who was nice until he gained power~then he got to be a tyrant and has injured a few of my hens in the breeding process, tried to attack my egg basket(didn't repeat that effort after a sharp correction! ), and has made my old RIR roo, Sue, a very miserable little guy.

 

[freemotion]

Milking stands are great! I can't imagine milking a short animal like a goat without one, so I'm sure you are in 7th Heaven with yours! That's how we used to milk the goats, feed them in the stand and milk them before they finished. Once she learns that she will get feed in the stand, she will scramble up there herself and be glad to do so!

Now, that is a pic I'd love to see.....Free milking her goat! Could ya?

I keep telling dh it is time to learn to use youtube, so keep bugging me and I'll keep bugging him to get a minute or two up there. Although it is not as entertaining now that I am becoming proficient! It was a regular sit-com a couple of weeks ago....

The funny thing is, Mya knows what a milking stand is for. I saw pictures of her last summer standing nicely in one, and she hopped on and off mine as long as I was not close enough to the stanchion to lock her in. So I began to suspect she was pulling one over on me, but couldn't figure out how to outsmart her. Having a bad cold doesn't make me any smarter, either. Those who've owned goats know who is generally in charge if you are not paying very close attention!

When I was a teen and we had dairy animals, first a cow and then goats, my younger brother had the strongest hands so he milked, and I don't remember a stool or a stand. But he was barely 12 when he got the chore.....oh, the flexibility of young limbs!!! And the cramping of older ones!!!!

I had the wood and the plans for the stand for weeks and weeks, but thought....this is where I always get myself in trouble....that I would let the "kids" nurse for two-three weeks, then start separating them at night and milk once in the morning, then let the kids have at 'er, then milk all the milk for us when the kids were weaned at two months or so. NOT! It was thrust upon me rather suddenly with the single kid and the big udder!

Well, I am ready, now and forever, because this indestructible milking stand will be passed on to.....somebodies' great-grandchildren!

 

[Beekissed]

Did you post pics of your milking stand that I've missed? I'd love to see it!

 

[freemotion]

Just got it up and running tonight, so no pix yet. Gotta show it off, so soon!

 

[Patch of Heaven Farm]

Congrats on the new chicks!!!!!