FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[prairiegirl]

Oh, how very cute! Fluffy baby chicks shout Springtime - which doesnt' look near for us here in the snow and cold.
That's a real good hatch.

 

[keljonma]

I love the pics of Susie and her chicklettes! It looks like she will be a good mama hen. And her feathers are looking wonderful compared to how she looked last year. She is a very beautiful hen, FD! Congratulations.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have a hard time waking up in the mornings. I need at least 2 cups of coffee and my spirulina, which is a vitamin supplement. So after another poor nights sleep (coughing a lot, stuffy nose and such) I woke up around 8:30 and went to get my 1st cup of coffee. CHICKS, I remembered and was wide awake!! Took my coffee over to the box and looked in on Susie and her chicks. She had moved her remaining three eggs to a different spot in the box and was showing her babies all the tasty morsels of food that were scattered all over. I watched them a while, then went to check on the hen whose tail got pulled off yesterday. She told me that she had no business being cooped up inside!!!!
After my second cup of coffee, I decided to candle the remaining eggs, there is definitely one more chick ready to hatch, I could see it's little head move in the airspace and then it peeped! Awww.
I think I saw movement in one other egg and the third one was completely dark except for the airspace. So I guess we'll have to play the waiting game a little longer.

Susie is a very good momma. Unfortunately she doesn't take care of herself, when she has babies. She barely eats. That is how she lost her feathers last year. So I am going to try and remove her from her chicks for maybe 1/2 hour every day to force her to feed herself.

I took the Brahma hen outside. Her rear looks nasty, but like it is going to be ok. She was happy to be running outside with her buddies. We are do for some major rain, and we figured it was better for her to be outside in the sunshine today. I'll bring her back inside tonight and then keep her in during the rain. That way I'll be able to keep her wound clean.

I am also doing as much laundry as I can, so it can line dry. We are getting our firewood ready, stacked near the door, kindling and all that.
Too bad I have a doctor's appt today. I hate waisting the time sitting inside and who knows how long it'll take. I have yet to go to a doctor and actually get to see them at the scheduled time!!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

So we had been very busy preparing for the rain torrents that were due to arrive today.... It finally started to lightly drizzle around 5 pm.
The sun actually peeked out a couple of times.
I ended up doing more outside work today, got more leaves gathered up from around the stonework in the front. Dumped it all into the henhouse.

Yesterday I thought I would take Susie outside into the field with the rest of the chickens. BAD MISTAKE!! She got into a henfight the minute I turned my back. I don't know if she started it, but I think so. She is a feisty little thing. I had to pull one hen off her and chase all of them away. then I got Susie to come to me and brought her back in the house as she is bleeding all over me. The bleeding slowed down in a few minutes, so I left her alone with her chicks.

I was still checking on the remaining chick to hatch. I ended up helping it just a little bit. One of the times I checked I saw lots of blood all over. Susie had started to bleed again and it was just running down her beek!!!
I coudn't find the styptic powder right away, so I used corn starch. it slowed some of the bleeding, enough for me to remember that I had moved all the animal medical supplies
Applying the styptic powder with a little pressure did the trick.

This morning the last little chick hatched out. I checked the remaining eggs and they were no good. I even opened them up to make sure. It was a big chick and looks different than any of the others.

Here is Junior with some of his ladies in their favorite bathing spot

A chick not quite out of the shell

Susie with babies

 

[Farmfresh]

Wow what is that shinning down on the chickens... is that ... could that be ... the sun? !!!

I haven't seen that in a while!

I have a question about your little broody - how big is she? Somehow when I see her pictures she looks like a bantam to me.

 

[Dace]

Cute cute cute!!!! I live all the little peepers!

Poor Susie, she has a rough go of things huh? I guess she is destined to be a house chicken

 

[murphysranch]

Poor cooped up Susie, who then proceeds to pick a fight. I agree, she likes living with her mama, being catered to all the time. Poop duty, food deliveries, housekeeping on a daily basis. Who'd wanna leave that?

It was gorgeous here yesterday and the day before. Even with sun screen, my face got a little pink. We planted and planted, and mixed in our peat moss (I know, bad, but clay is clay) and turkey compost. Also dug up some old old bearded Iris and moved them to a new spot. Spread chippings (when we rented a chipper a few months ago) around all the new trees and landscape plants to try to prevent run off for the next two weeks of torrential downpour. Put two wheelbarrows full of oak leaves in the chicken run, and watched with glee the chicks working harder to find their scratch that I tossed in. Woo hoo!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Susie is a bantam. She weighs maybe a pound, when she's been eating. 12 chicks is way to many for her, but I didn't get to choose
She barely eats, when she has babies to care for. She is sooo thin already. She is pretty independent and usually does not like being in the house. She is very smart though too. She has been trying to tell me, when she has to go to the bathroom, I just wasn't smart enough to get it Now I know!!! It is also really cute the way she comes right up to my hands and stands there to be picked up to go back inside, when she is ready. She used to run from me!!!

We had a break from the rain all morning and I got the animal chores taken care of and more wood brought in. I finished just in time. It is really dark out and the raindrops are coming down.

I kind of like these downpours. As long as there is a break every day or so, for the rainwater to seep into the soil and us to get things taken care of. It's natures way of washing everything down. It always smells nice after a rain. Even the concrete.
I don't like that people get hurt in mudslides and floods. But usually those happen in places where homes shouldn't have been built in the first place. Unfortunately the people who live in them now, often don't know the history of the place, or didn't have much choice as to where to live.
We are prepared for this rain and I am going to enjoy it. Even if the power goes out. We have plenty of food, wood to heat the place and we can cook on the woodstove or on the bbq in the enclosed porch (it has a built in fireplace with a special bbq grill that can be inserted, really cool) , if we have to. We also have rainwater for washing outside and can save the well water in the tank for drinking. We have flashlights and batteries, all our camping gear, and candles.

So let it rain, we need it!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Hey murphysranch , Now you know why I toss all those oakleaves in the chicken house
Since I have to gather those leaves up with my hands (I gather is out of rockwork) I also get slugs, snails and assorted bugs in with them and weeds. The chickens just go crazy digging through them. And wait til you clean out your chicken yard! All those leaves, weeds, hay and droppings will have partially decomposed and is a great addition to the garden. After doing this for a few years, we have noticed that we have fewer and fewer pests on the property. I also go hunting for bugs for my lizzard and am finding it harder and harder to track some down. I used to be able to feed my lizzards mostly wild bugs, now I have to supplement with mealworms And I am down to just one little anole, who really doesn't even eat that much.

 

[Farmfresh]

That does explain a lot. Bantams make great little broodies!