Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

As I was feeding and watering everyone, I thought about how nice and plump the cornish x's were getting. I made Andy check to see when we bought them, since we used his card. 4/9/10. These guys have to weigh a pound at least already. I was thinking that they were maybe three or four weeks already, here, they're only two and a half weeks. Now I REALLY can't wait for them to hit 8 weeks! I'll soon have to get my outdoor pens around. There are the 7 cornish x's, 11 pekin ducklings, 1 turkey, 1 barred rock, 2 chicks (I think they're RIR) all in one 4'x12' "brooder". The ducklings added to the mix really make it fun to clean up. Their little feet work like buckets to pull water out of the waterer when they step in it! It's like bird poop soup in there! I really want to build an outdoor brooder, one that has a small wire floor, but I really don't think that it's in the budget. I have a lot of hatchings coming up. I have a small batch of buttons, some coturnix and a few more of the possible RIR coming up by the end of the month. Early May, I have just under two dozen mixed duck eggs and 17 bantam barred rocks, on top of whatever quail eggs are in there. I also will have cayuga duck eggs coming soon, eternal thanks to a member of BYC! I'm also probably going to be tossing in another batch of button quail, since nobody seems to be interested in them. I'll give them until Tuesday afternoon, if nobody claims them, they'll go in. The feed store can't take any chicks in, but I'm hoping to either take older chicks to the auction or trade in teenagers to the feed store, since the reason that they cannot take them in is because of brooder space. Hopefully I can get the stupid coturnix to start laying again as well. I've got all of these projects up and running for home raised meat, but it seems like I'll never be able to actually put something on the table. The chickens still have awhile to go yet, as do the pekins. The rabbits aren't even breeding age, they have another month or two before they can breed, then a few more months on top of that before I can actually put rabbit on the table. The turkey doesn't seem to be growing at all, and will only provide a few meals if I'm lucky. My quail aren't reproducing, so I can't even eat their eggs. My buttons, I could eat their eggs, but they're the only ones contributing to the finances around here! Plus, I've got to build breeder cages for the pekins AND the cayugas now, and I need to get a grow-out cage done for quail, plus grow out cages for the rabbits and one for the future meat poultry. Will I ever actually get a grip on this and actually become productive?! I feel like I'm spinning wheels and getting nowhere except broke. :/

 

[Bettacreek]

I sold the remaining four button quail chicks, plus I have two people wanting eggs locally. If the one person doesn't get back to me soon, I'll be popping those eggs into the incubator and selling the chicks. I've only been selling the eggs for $5/dozen, and the chicks have been $5/pair. Plus the chicks seem to draw more interest, since the investment in chicks is small. Anyways, here're some pics of the big "brooder". Now I need to build two duck pens (I'm hoping to get cayuga eggs soon, plus I plan to keep a breeding group of pekins), a quail grow-out pen (for the meat quail) and I think that's it, until later this year and next year, when I need to do grow-out pens for the meat ducks/chickens, since I probably won't be able to use the coal bin again, lol.
Almost forgot to mention that I found a coturnix egg today. It's from the new breeders, so hopefully everyone will start picking up again. Shame that I only have three hens. :/ Not to mention that the one hen that was lost, I think she was the one who was laying in the auction box and the day after she came home (the day after that, the quail were attacked).

The barred rock in the front is the same age as the meaties.

 

[TTs Chicks]

your ducks. Mine are growing like weeds and they talk to me when I go out to feed in the evenings. If I sit out there and talk to them the geese will come to the fence and talk to me - it really is cute. I have been feeding them and the geese a handful of scratch out of my hand - want them to be friendly when they grow up.

 

[Henrietta23]

Baby duck pics and baby goat pics are going to be the death of me! Nothing cuter!!

 

[Bettacreek]

We are just now building a pen for everyone. The chooks will be free-range, but the meaties will all be penned. We just need to finish up the netting, it was getting dark and it was raining the whole time, so we just figured that we'd finish it up tomorrow. I need to figure out a dog house type thing that I can put the brooder lamp in before they can go out for good. It's a nice size, 10' long, 4' wide and 5' tall. I'll divide it in half once the ducks are breeding.
For the fall group of cornish x, we're going to order straight from the hatchery. We're probably going to do 50 of them then, and they're all going up to Eric's house. He'll go in on them with us and he wants 50, and I told Andy to see if anyone at work wants to go in on an order. Eric said that for like 100 of them, you could get them for $75, including shipping, so if we get more people, maybe we can drop it below $.75 per bird. One of Eric's neighbors wants some of my barred rock bantams once they hatch, so she called and asked what I was charging (I told her no more than $2 per bird) and said that she wanted at least 10 of them. A little later in the conversation, she asked if I was interested in turkey eggs (I forget what breed she said they were) and I said sure, we'll work on a conversion rate for the eggs and trade up. She responded by saying that I can just have the eggs to hatch and sell, since she can't use them for herself (no incubator and the hens aren't setting). I'll probably just give her the barred rock chicks. I only paid $1.10 for the eggs, and she's being nice enough to give me eggs for free, not to mention that she has chicken eggs that she said she'll give me as well.

 

[Bettacreek]

We finally finished the duck pen. We stalled out the other day because it was getting dark, then yesterday we ended up having a neighborhood tree cutting party out of the blue. Today, it was finally finished. $73 for the lumber and poultry netting. I now have to hope that the guy that wants the coturnix chicks pulls through, because I only have $7 left, the chick food is just about gone (maybe 2 more days left if I'm lucky) and it's $20 for a bag. We were two boards short (we were going to put it against the house), and Eric's dad gave us what we needed, PLUS, he gave me a plastic dog house! Ironically enough, ducks were exactly what he bought it for, lol. Anyways, so now everyone is outside. I'm actually impressed with the pekins, they're growing very well. They are actually growing at least as well as the cornish cross, though I think they're growing much faster. I may try to sell some of the cornish cross that we raise for the fall, since we'll also have duck meat, and hopefully rabbit meat. Now, I'm looking for muscovies. I've been definately talked into them. Eric and the lady who is giving me the turkey eggs are both interested in muscovies as well. I may try to do a trade of the turkey eggs for someone's scovy eggs, then split them between the three of us.
As for the pekins, I think that I'll probably keep ALL of my hens, then butcher all but the largest drake. That way we should have enough eggs for selling and eating, plus enough to hatch to sell and eat ducklings.

 

[pioneergirl]

Looks great! And everyone looks so happy and cute!!

 

[Bettacreek]

I've got to figure something else out for their water. As soon as I freshen it up, someone hops in and poops in it, turning it the pretty brown you see in the above pictures. Now that I've switched them to a mash broiler feed, they get that goop on the bottom of the waterer as well. These guys are eating a LOT. As I said, I finally had to buy them a new bag of feed. They've gone through the small 50lb bag of starter and are now into a 100lb bag of broiler mash that's locally milled. Andy ended up giving me the $19.50 for that bag, since the guy who wanted my quail so bad never showed up. I also had my "barred rock" chicks hatch. I have four that are actually barred rocks, but the other four are mystery chicks. They may be OEGB's, but who knows. One's pitch black, two are blue and one is a splash. The little black one certainly is adorable.
Now my duck eggs are pipping. They were due on the 12th, and if anything, my bator has been running a little low, so I'm not sure what got into them.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm feeling a little better about the whole SS thing. I felt like I was grinding gears and getting nowhere. Now, it seems like things may be looking up, though some things I think were a total disaster. My cornish x chickens are soon going to be butchered. I think they're five weeks old now, and I keep checking them to see how big their different body parts will be, lol. I'm debating on whether or not I should do a few jars up for quick suppers. I still have 2-3 weeks to think about that. If I take the legs, wings, breasts and tenders, I can can the rest up, unseasoned, for things like chicken noodle casserole, stir fry, etc.
I bred one of the does the other day too. Hopefully I can soon have some rabbits to sell/eat. I'm really excited about the furs, if I can make a queen size blanket and two toddler size blankets before the winter, I'll be stoked!

I also have some success in hatching. All of my swap/online eggs were tossed into the garbage, none developed. My livestock auction eggs, on the other hand, were a bit of a success. My "barred rock" eggs gave me four barred rocks and four random chicks, which may be OEGB. My duck eggs were freaking awesome. They started hatching two days early, so I figured that they'd end up dying, but I ended up with 12 of them. I think that was an assorted batch, NOT a mixed batch, because they all look like specific breeds. It looks like I have blue and black swedish, mallard and some that look like khaki campbells or cayugas. I haven't done enough research to really get a good idea on some of them. Some look like mallards, but are silver instead of the typical black.
The lady who has turkey eggs wants them, but I haven't heard much from her. She was supposed to come down yesterday, but never showed, and again, haven't heard from her. The guy that was supposed to pick up my quail chicks did the same thing. If worst comes to worse, I can either sell them at auction or grow them out. I'd love to grow them out, but for efficiency, I really do need to sell them. We've gone through a 50lb bag of chick starter and are now about 1/2 way through a 100lb bag. That's counting everything except my breeder quail, so I guess it's really not all that much feed when you think about it.

The ducks have been growing like crazy. They're three weeks old and already the size of the 5 week old cornish x. They aren't nearly as friendly though.

Our garden has taken a huge hit. All of the plants that I had started indoors ended up dying (not enough room, light and the kids were constantly destroying them). I was left with about a dozen banana pepper plants that were just barely getting their first set of leaves on them. Hopefully next year, I can use compost to start my seeds, plus have some grow light strips. For now, we bought new seeds, and started them in paper towels, but we took ANOTHER hit. We had one hell of a cold snap and couldn't plant anything, so they grew a bit more than what I had wanted them to. Hopefully we can get them out of the paper towels and straight into the garden tomorrow. We're going to try to get plastic to cover everything. We planted corn and green beans straight into the garden, but haven't seen any sprouts yet.

I did make one major score. I was in the mountains and found a HUGE chive clump, and it was flowering. It's probably 15" tall and at least 7" in diameter. I ended up splitting it into two clumps (by accident really). It's a little wilty, but seems to be doing ok. There are about ten flowers on it, so hopefully I can collect seed from it and have lots of bacon cheddar fries with chives, lol.

The rabbits have been doing well on their feed. They're on the second 50lb bag, but with spring here, they've been getting a LOT of weeds, which helps cut down on the purchased feed.

 

[TanksHill]

Your birds all look so happy and healthy. Looks like you ave a ton going on. I hope those buyers show up for you. I know how that feels.

Sorry to hear about your seedlings. How long will your out door season last? You still have time right?

Have a great day!!

gina