Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[ohiofarmgirl]

i was gonna ask for pix too!

have you walked your property for the missing hens? this might help you figure out the culprit... no bodies means that either a hawk took them.. or something like foxy brown grabbed them and ran off.

I feel a little like I neglected my first babies because of the second, but I know we did nothing different in reality, I just didn't have the chickens or ducks foremost in my mind.
If anyone has any insight for me, feel free to lecture me or give me advice! hit I really hope I don't lose this weak duck.

nah. no lectures here. these things happen - its all part of it.

i'm sure you got some good advice on your duck thread but i havent checked. Four Horses over on BYC or Cottage Rose are great resources..in addition to all the fine folks here, of course
;-)

 

[savingdogs]

No one showed up tonight at the coop. That little pullet was such a pretty thing, too. And my RIR hen has been with me since I first got chickens.
I did walk the property today hoping to find them, that is how I found my orloffs. At least I found two of the four!

 

[BarredBuff]

Im sorry

 

[savingdogs]

Well, I do live in the danged forest and I'm pretty happy about it most of the time, I should expect some predation. But I only managed to hatch three pullets this year and that was one of my three. And my RIR hen has been a great layer, she is quite a loss. That breed has given me, consistently, the most eggs overall, and very nice beautiful large ones. And I hate to think of the varmits getting a hold of some of my livestock and being drawn back or what kind of deaths they had.

OFG I think your idea of hawk is very likely, we see many every day. Also we have quite the coyote population. We have a neighbor who thinks that a nutrea (sp) is loose in the neighborhood too, and I have seen some sort of slinky beaver-like creature a couple times on the road at night.

I've decided I need to have Computer Nerd create a website for me (he tweeks websites via internet as his living these days) that is a sort of blog and sales website for our farm products. Right now we don't have many products to sell, but eventually I'll have ducks, baby goats, goat milk soap, eggs, show rabbits and maybe some chickens or turkeys. He suggests I do it blog-style, but I've really not even read very many blogs. Perhaps you all have some suggestions for me on how to learn more about something like that.

I'm thinking of calling ourselves Dunegan Mountain Farms, does that have a nice ring? Our last name is not conducive to sales and our city name and county name are plain, but the mountain we are on is rather pretty and next to a lake.

 

[Denim Deb]

As long as no one reads it the way I did at first-Dungeon Mountain Farms.

 

[savingdogs]

lol.....that is a valid point

Dungeons doesn't have a good feeling for the animals does it?

 

[Javamama]

I read it correctly, but now I can see how people not from the area might read it as Dungeon.
It's hard coming up with a farm name. I just put in for membership with the mini goat assn, and they spelled our last name 3 different ways - messed up my last name in billing, the farm name, and my herd membership name. Golly, it's not even that hard and I made sure to print clearly. Now I'm second guessing using our last name for part of our herdname.

Wifezilla has a nice little farm/sales blog. Check her out. I think she has a link in her siggy.

 

[Wifezilla]

I just set up a freebie site on blog spot. www.blogspot.com

I used it to post info about what is going on, what I had available, and where people could get it. The farmer's market I had been putting items at moved and they don't have the same amount of space so I am out. Some of the regulars do have my info and just buy direct now.

You can't beat the price on a free blog site and you can list items you always have in one of the side panels so that wont change as you make new entries.

 

[savingdogs]

Thank you WZ, I'll have to check out your blog! Thanks for the advice. We don't have a Farmers Market here that is close enough to make it worthwhile for the amount of products I would have available.

I'm hoping to become more of a soap maker because that could be sold over the internet most easily. As far as locally, I think my bunnies and eggs would be the most in demand. I also need a way to market my wethers and eventually extra doelings and hopefully sell some ducks. We are also thinking about worms for fishermen going to the resort.

I'd love to create some sort of petting farm arrangement for people who came here to buy things, plant a pumpkin patch, that kind of thing. Unfortunately Hubby is a packrat and I have junk laying around everywhere. He does assemble things for me out of his junk, but I still can't quite see my petting farm idea ever going over....he would have to learn to be more tidy. We do some dog sitting here but even that means I'm constantly tidying up his piles.

He has visions of building a giant shop when we build our new house here (this house needs to be replaced). He was fantasizing the other day and describing a shop bigger than most homes. I told him he would have it full in one year, why bother?

I must say, he did erect four rabbit hutches for me out of thin air, so some times being a pack rat has its advantages. But when I visit the homes of my brother or sister, with their tidy garages and manicured yards, and no piles of clutter anywhere inside, I have to sigh. I guess I gave that life up when I married him because no amount of persuasion has turned him into a neat and tidy person and nothing will. I have literally covered his piles of clutter with colorful blankets in the past just so I would not have to LOOK at it anymore. He occasionally organizes but it lasts about a week.

When we had cable, I used to watch that show where they go in and throw away everyone's junk and have a garage sale, then re-arrange it all organized and redecorated, and I'd fantasize that they would pick OUR house. My husband, on the other hand, would groan just to see that show on! When I do organize his junk, he can't find anything for weeks and constantly asks me where things are until I've learned to just leave his junk piles alone.

Anyone else live with a packrat? I love this man but I wish I could manage the house better, especially to be making soap and cheese and products for sale here at the house. It is hard when you don't see eye to eye on how the house should be and there isn't enough space.
Part of my problem is that my prior house was big and airy and had nice work spaces and a huge kitchen. I really miss that house, I just wish it were sitting here.

 

[JRmom]

Hello! Just read through your entire journal (the dog fostering grabbed my interest!). I have two Jack Russells and have been researching fostering opps in my area for JRs.

I too live with a pack rat - my sympathies to you! We just celebrated our 27th anniversary of junk yard bliss. Actually, he's pretty good about keeping the yard neat (at least the visible parts LOL), but our shed is another matter. I gave up trying to go in there. We will be downsizing to a much smaller property (this year I hope - fingers crossed), so he'll have to finally go through all his stuff/junk and sell/recycle/throw it out. It's funny, but at our smaller property, where we spend our weekends, he has been sooooo good about keeping everything neat and tidy and only keeping things we truly need and use. Weird.