NoobieChickenLady's Journal - SS Score and Mah Kitteh is HOME!! Yay!

[glenolam]

Guess that buck stink comes in handy for them
Did I mention that Dixie STINKS now!?

"Buck Stink" For the manliest scent ever, give this a try! It's sure to lure the gals!

I hear ya on the doe stinking now. My other goat, Fudgie, stunk for WEEKS after I brought her home. She actually sent 2 of my other does into heat because of it. Now that Eloise is home everyone can't stop sniffing her.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

*snort* Manly, ha!! Yucky buck pee or... Whatever it was.
At least you are saying weeks. Weeks I can handle, but I think I'm out of luck. Billy's owner's girls are halfway to kidding and they STILL stink!
I'm seriously debating washing her & hoping the rain today will clean some of it off... Both my girls sleep curled up together, so the little one is starting to get smelly, too. Icky icky icky

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Wow...
It's been almost 3 months since I updated?
Oops
Well, the peas are doing nice, the strawberries are putting on, the asparagus is up & doing nicely, the early blackberries are blooming & the warm weather stuff has started coming up nicely. The mulberry tree is putting on, the grapes are looking very nice and the wild muscadines are leafing out. I got a 75% germination rate off the okra seed I saved from last year. (75% so far, still got a while before I give up, since okra can take a while) Pretty good for a beginning seed saver

The goats are sleeking up & losing their winter coats, Dixie is getting fat (yay! hoping for trips!), I had to seriously trim their hooves. I guess the growing grass made their hooves grow fast too, cause I had just done them a few weeks ago. Finally got them trained to stay in their pasture except for supervised browsing excursions & we moved the milking stand to their shed. They seem to like it a little better now and can be regularly seen snoozing in the shade in front or dancing on the milk stand. Watching their lids, poop & condition very closely because a lot of people are having worm problems with the warm & damp weather. So far, the herbal wormer (both formulas) are working well. I think it's because I've only had goats on the place for about a year, and the girls had just been wormed when I bought them.

Bred the 3 rabbit ladies, lost 2 litters and 1 mommy didn't take, re-bred and revamped the nest boxes so hopefully they will use them this time. Trying to arrange a buck trade between 2 friends. The free range pair had kits under my mom's shed, I cannot WAIT until they start peeking out. Found out we do still have wild bunny. Man, that sucker is FAST! Makes my CA/NZ crosses look like turtles! *zoom*

I'm now down to 30 chickens and I'm getting about a dozen eggs a day. Got a record 15 last week. Some of the newer gals aren't laying yet, heck, some of them aren't even half the size of their hatchmates. I'm going to band the keepers & the girls from last year, the others have until the beginning of summer and then they are soup! Thinking of ways to tell who is laying what egg, other than just spying on the girls. They don't really like that anyways But I'm getting 3 huuuuge green ones and one huuuge pink & white speckled. I'd like to know who is laying those, so I can keep her around

2/3 of the "all male" brown-egg breed assortment turned out to be female. So I got a bunch of brown egg layers for $.50 each, nice!
Down to 30 because I sold 5 beginning layers & 4 layers to my aunt for $80. There's my wire for sectioning off the pasture!

Started selling a few eggs at work, 4 dozen so far, at $2 a pop.
The pig is still alive & friendly, still planning on bacon.
Got a bunch of slightly freezer burnt local river fish to feed the pig & the chicks and some fresher stuff for us, for free. Free is gooood!

Hmmm, I think that's all. Man am I glad spring is here!!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Oh, and the buck stink finally wore off.

 

[2dream]

Wow, you have been busy and a lot going on. Great going on the seed saving.

As far as which hen is laying which egg. Do you have an area you can seperate a couple of hens at a time. Maybe one brown egg layer and one EE. Give them a couple of days. If no eggs, use a zip tie to band them with and move a couple more into isolation. Sometimes it takes a week after moving for my hens to start laying again but for a good layer its usually just 2 or 3 days.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Nice! Great advice. I do have an area I can put a few girls.
Thanks dear!

Yeah, I had done tomatoes, squash, watermelon & peppers, those are pretty easy, but all my dad really bothered with.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Dixie looks like the goodyear blimp. Poor girl... I swear she gets bigger every time I look at her.
150 day due date is June 15, I don't know that she will make it that long, but this is my first goat birth. Her ligs are still nice & strong and she is milking the pregnant female drama for all its worth. "Bring me some more of those branches, I simply cannot get up at the moment. No... Not those, THOSE!"
Been over on the herd site reading & reading & reading, got my kidding kit ready all but the puppy pads. I do have towels so if she pops before I get them, well, we'll just use towels won't we? She's been a champion for her last 3 kiddings, so I'm hopeful. for trips!!!
We're going to sell Umbra (the little one) she's just not right for us, not nearly as smart & trainable as Dixie has been and I got asked if we would by my breeder, soooo. With all they did for us to get Dixie to the buck, plus the free breeding, I'll let them have her for what I paid, $100. DH danced for joy, he can tolerate Dixie because she's smart, but Umbra just annoys the turds out of him.

On other fronts, the garden is starting to explode, I picked a double handful of peas off 4 plants yesterday. Zucs are putting on (now that I got rid of those squash bugs ) tomatoes are blooming (got 6 volunteers this year, first time for that!) and I STILL have asparagus sprouting up. Rattlesnake beans are climbing over the fence, grapes need fertilizing I think. hmmm what else, chard looks sick, something is eating my amaranth (leaf miners, I think) and the radishes look great.

Up to 24 bunnies total, 18 babies. Getting a new buck from a friend who is moving out of state, pretty flashy pattern to him. I do sell a few bunnies as pets (only to responsible folks I know personally) and everyone wants one with some splash to them. The meat rabbit folks don't care, as long as they aren't tiny

Got 3 new roosters, traded 2 laying hens for them. 1 is a one year old cornish x. He's HUGE I tell you. Like turkey sized. But he's not getting with the program, so he's probably going in freezer camp. Mmmm soup. Takes him forever to meander his way into the coop at night and the pen in the morning, although he waddles really fast whenever one of the other roos puts the moves on "his" hens.

Oh, and for anyone who thinks that mulch would not make a difference in soil quality, let me tell you, last year if you dug up some dirt you would simply NOT find any worms. The dirt was just too dense & wet for them. This year, its the same everywhere I haven't mulched, but in my garden, where I dumped dozens of bags of leaves over the fall & winter... There are thousands. It really looks like red spaghetti when you turn up some garden soil. That makes me happy

On a sadder front, my favorite, bestest cat in the world has vanished. He took a ride with me up to the convenience store Saturday night and either someone let him out of the car or he dashed past me when I opened the door. I surely think I would have seen him though. Going to post Lost Pet posters tonight. I miss my kitty!!! Come home Catsumoto!!

 

[abifae]

oh noes for lost kitties!

Good luck with the kidding!!!

 

[Denim Deb]

Hope you find your kitty, soon. And, we expect pics of the kids.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

But of course!
I've finally got DH to where he can take pics with my phone (only digital way of phototaking we have) so he'll be manning the camera and pouring me shots. DD will be my hands on assistant, per her request, I'm so glad one of my kids is not squeamish at all.

Here's Dixie's rear end & baby bulge. Her teats are much plumper than they were even 2 weeks ago and her udder is definately larger.


Still missing my cat... He's so not a wanderer. ~come home kitty~

Record number of eggs yesterday, 21 total, I usually get 18-19. Woohoo!
Oh, and I almost forgot, still have the pig, he will be turned to bacon (or rather, roast pork) some time this summer. He's not growing real fast anymore, is just about the right size to roast whole, has killed most of the grass in the places I wanted to put in garden beds and I'm tired of feeding his stinky butt.