Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

So... how many chickens do you have now???

One BO rooster
Six 2-year-old BO hens
four RIR two-year-old hens
One 1-year-old BO hen
One BO/RIR cross
Two russian orloff two-year-olds
Three EE one-year-olds
(old flock)

One "americana" cockerel (EE)
Six "americana" pullets
Four speckled sussex pullets
41 eggs in the bator, 20 EE/BO crosses, 10 BO and 11 RIR/BO crosses.
(new flock)

So I have 29 live and I'm sure not all those will hatch in the incubator, who knows? This is my first try, maybe none.

I will probably eventually put everything EE in one group and everything not EE in another, and have two coops and the broody chick house.

I still would like a couple marans but Hubby will probably pop his eyes out if I buy any more breeds.

I listed the Buff Orpingtons cheap but was honest that they have slowed down laying. I'll see how that goes for me. We could have chicken soup, but those were my first chicks, it would be hard to eat them although I will if I have to.

I'm working hard to tame these ones. I do agree the ones raised by the hen are not friendly. I only have two like that, but they do not like me at all and are a pain to catch. That is how I tell that one apart from the other Buff Orpingtons!

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't know how much it matters if they've been hen raised or hand raised w/how tame they are.

Henrietta-hen raised. The only reason I can pick her up is because she's crippled, and can't get away.

Angel-hand raised, can't catch her, won't come near me

Ralph-hand raised, can't catch him, won't come near me

Penny-hand raised, I can't catch her, but she'll follow me around

Roxi-hen raised, I can't catch her, but she'll follow me around

Of course, I do have several eggs in the incubator, so if I get any chicks, we'll see how they do.

 

[BarredBuff]

SD I have a bunch of birds too. I havent a clue how Im gonna have my flock set up. I want right at twenty.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I do have a second "coop" for young birds, it just doesn't have nesting boxes or a good roosting bar. It is also next to a big unused portion of my yard that is hugely overgrown, so I hope to get a little pen built. There is already a fence around the larger front yard area,so I will just have to shoo them out of my garden and shut the door. But once they are old enough to lay eggs this area will not be appropriate, so I'll have to figure something out before fall.

I hope to start running ads and selling chicks and young birds, little flocks to the city people since everyone is getting so "into" this.

Maybe I should offer chicken lessons like I offered goat training with the wethers. That really helped!

 

[abifae]

Definitely offer a chicken class! That'd be great

 

[savingdogs]

Well perhaps it is simply that the ones the hens raised I did not handle since she was taking care of them? And my adult EEs that were raised "free ranging" that we bought were probably never touched and would like to keep it that way.

Farm Status update:

(My questions for y'all in bold.....)

Well Dizzy Dog Ranch is humming along, or perhaps spinning along is more appropriate. Over the weekend the dryer was repaired so there is a flurry of pile-making and shaking out of things and sorting clothes, hanging things up in their proper place and getting organized. My silly dumb drying racks are finally going away. Yay. Hubby had the parts here THE WHOLE TIME so while he gets points for repair, the delay in using his skills kind of negates his accolades.

Goats: Not liking those dang alfalfa cubes no matter how I present it. We were not able to buy any hay (what they had was gross) and had to buy "compressed" alfalfa. Anyone use this stuff? We'll see how it goes. I'm feeling guilty about the Ginger because she was so STUPID last night and I lost my temper.The dryer repair stuff was laying around (the laundry room is my milking room) and she got spooked and spilled everything (wasted feed, milk, my supplies) and I screamed at her and kicked her in the butt and chased her into the pen instead of finishing milking. I felt bad this morning when she was too nervous to get on the stanchion. Obviously I need to behave more like a grown up. But it was just the stupid dryer venting stuff sitting there that was so scaaaaaaaaaaary.....it was just so lame.

Chickens: Part of why I was upset was there was a dead Buff Orpington on the nest when we came home yesterday. In my "big" flock. I have two flocks now, this is my older one. I felt bad again because I had just decided to sell that hen and her six twins, they have not been laying, and she had been there long enough for rigor mortis to set in! The other chickens left the corpse alone. I dunno what happened. Ideas? Egg bound? Heart attack? She appeared to be trying to lay.....this was a two-year-old hen.

The little chickies in the front coop are doing great,working on taming them. We had a DELUGE yesterday and water got in there, but I think they are okay.
I also have the 41 in the bator, seems to be doing well, but I did not candle them on the appropriate day....ooops Is that a problem?

Rabbits: Doing awesome, ready to sell the two kits that are now seven weeks old. Money will be great. I am keeping one female now however since Nana has produced no offspring. I need at least two does. I'm not done trying with Nana though. They are enjoying the new forest greens. I'll be trying to work on identifying the most "showy" female next, using the Standard of Perfection that Blackbird sent me. Wasn't he a sweetie to do that?

Ducks: Laying nicely again finally. I'm saving eggs for the bator next. But in order to get 41 eggs, some will be rather old. What is the longest muscovy eggs can be saved for incubating, does anyone know? These would be about 15 days old, the oldest ones.

Foods: I'm needing to make cheese today, every container I could possibly conjure in the house is filled with goat milk. I finally have rennet, yogurt and buttermilk so YAY a few more recipes are open to me and I'm deciding what to make. I'm thinking I should make feta. Hen is the motzarella really easy? My sons consume pizza at an amazing rate.
My bread machine is working well, but I want to make a lighter fluffier loaf. The flour I have is just marked "flour" and the machine directions say to use "bread flour". Is there a difference? My loaves are great but DENSE, not really sandwich bread. Is this why? I made a pumpernickel type bread yesterday.

Family front: I just learned my middle child Computer Nerd is planning on getting his own place this summer. The one I didn't want to leave. He will be 19 1/2 at that point so I am not shocked or truly upset or anything, but he is very helpful and there are many days when I am very much alone up here except him and my dog pack of course.

Dogs: We have just our own five and the two long term fosters now, Hanna and Ellie. Ellie we wish would never leave, but these are the two we held out for the adopter who would adopt both of them together, we found a great family in Montana. They are on vacation however so we are kind of holding the dogs at the moment for her until she returns. We will be so sad to part with Ellie. We love her so much. This is the part of rescue that is hard. Luckily we do not love Hanna and she can be a pain in the butt, so it makes the parting bittersweet. But Hanna and Ellie make a beautiful pair and Hanna is the most gorgeous dog ever born, truly, she is, and she needs a family that appreciates her and has time for her and not us, who have five dogs and have eyes only for her sister despite having all these other dogs. We will have these two until June 10th. Considering the family was going to euthanize Ellie if RR rescue had not stepped in and we love this dog more than any other, we are still awful happy we did this. Ellie will have the best of everything, wonderful wonderful experienced family and her sister forever. Ridgebacks are expensive dogs to own because of their health, we could not own her despite her being healthy at this point. We have our EIGHT aging rescue dogs and cats, including the lymphoma survivor, one with massive lipomas, a nine year old golden and that doesn't even include my oldest dog, the border collie, who is turning 12 this year. I see vet bills in my future. Ellie cannot be ours.

Garden: Going well I think! The garden fence got a huge expansion over the weekend and is even better looking, well, as good looking as a fence made with 0 dollars out of pallets and junk can look. I have a few more things planted and need to have it stop raining so I can get more of that area ready for planting. At this point I figure much of the area will be planted more NEXT year, but a lot of progress was made. I was at the grocery store yesterday oggling and drooling a fully grown tomato plant that I really wanted to buy, but I had to try to feed us all for two weeks including packed lunches for 150 dollars yesterday at the store so a tomato plant wasn't in the budget. My seeds have not sprouted.

Financial: It is so hard waiting for SSI to approve me, and now in the news I'm hearing this program is only funded until 2018. Pretty depressing thought. I really don't know what to think, I've paid into these programs all my life and worked hard, that they may not be there for me seems like the ultimate rip off of my life. I was at Wallmart yesterday and in a pout that I need so many things there from virtually every aisle but have to, again, wait for SSI.

Health: Still not good. I seem to always have the spins in the grocery store, and after the grocery store. This was actually a wallmart super store.

Spiritual: Still working on this one.

So anyhow, that is the report from Dizzy Dog Ranch, hope you guys liked the format so you can zoom into your area of interest.

 

[glenolam]

Wow! What an update!

As far as the goat thing - don't sweat it. We all have rough days and then we have good days.

The dead chicken thing - dunno what happened there. Could be anything, really.

Egg candling thing - again, don't sweat it. Many people don't candle at all or candle every day (like me).

Family front - can't help you but

financial front - again, I feel the same as you - I'm paying into it too and I know it won't be there when I'll need it.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Cool update, SD!!! thanks for sharing!

 

[FarmerDenise]

We had 2 chickens die this week and don't know why. $hit happens! :/ Both were under a year old and laying nicely. I was bummed. But we did get 4 nice layers from a young friend a week ago, so we still are getting plenty of eggs.

I am not going to foster any bottle babies this year. I have my hands full with grandson and farm animals and food preservation. I hope to be able to do it again at some point in the future, because I really love doing it, but those babies are also very time consuming and I don't have enough time as it is. I am trying to talk SO into fostering adult dogs...

I hope your tomatoes sprout soon. We have tons of little plants. I wish you lived closer, I'd give you some of mine.

And I am not even going into the SSI thing. I really should look into getting on it. I just hate having to deal with the bull@hit to get it. so I keep struggling along.

At least we have each other on this forum.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

ok! pop by my place! cheddar making step by step