Shiloh Acres - RAIN!!!!!!! and maple syrup! ;)

[Shiloh Acres]

And ... guess what I came home to today? Unfortunately, totally unexpected. Umm ....... please don't ask, but .... seems there was a boy living with the girls I had kept back. Soooo .... surprise!

Which also means these guys are from stock too closely related. They are all gonna be meats.

There were seven, but the mama trampled one. She's a young mama, and you know how they are. I hadn't planned to breed her this soon at ALL. But ... she did calm down and pull fur and all that. Still, the babies were getting too cold with her, and that's why I pulled them. I think they would all be dead of cold by now if I hadn't.

Here's the mama. I'm hoping she will settle down and feed them, and maybe even manage to build a warm enough nest, but I don't mind heating them and taking them to her if necessary.

So .... my day today was first day back at work, and two of the kids were sick ... sigh. Being around sick kids all day, when I wasn't feeling well yesterday ... well, I'm pulling out all the immune stuff. I don 't need to get sick now! Had to go to the library and had a monster fine (which I hate, but I had to go when they were open, otherwise the gas doesn't justify the cost) and came home to find babies I hadn't known were coming.

I'm tired ... just mentally I think, LOL. That's my day. And I still have about 15 pounds of chicken in the fridge I need to do something with. (Most of it's going in the freezer uncooked I think, at this point!)

Edited to add: at least I didn't give up and freeze all the chicken after all. I cut some breast strips I am grilling for fajitas or something along those lines for dinner, put the pieces I cut them from in the crock pot to simmer for soup, put about 9 breasts in the roaster to cut in slices for precooked meals (I'll slice them TOMORROW though), and only froze 3 single breasts. Huge ones. Monster chickens. It said "young chicken" on the package, and I don't doubt it but .... from the size of the breasts it looks like the "young chickens" would stand 4 feet tall! I know they don't but ...

Hopefully next year I won't be buying that stuff anymore.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I imagine you will be busy! I'm jealous you already have kits!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I had 20 kits last summer ... of which the mama was one of them!

These girls seem to breed early and make good mamas. I *think* I could raise a TON of meat from them if I work on it.

I just don't want more than I can use. Still though, I've decided this year to look into making dogfood and catfood, and I think rabbit would make good dogfood.

My kitchen smells good right now ... chicken soup, roast chicken, AND fajita strips. But I just saw it's TEN PM!?! How did that happen, sigh ...

 

[savingdogs]

Sounds yummy!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

The problem with me having a journal on SS ... I'm more interested in reading everyone else's posts than I am in writing my own during the brief times I have to be online.

I actually started the journal pretty much because I realized that all my posts over the months have added up to the kind of records I SHOULD be keeping on my little farm anyway. So I thought keeping them all in one place would be a good idea.

Well, today the geese made me happy. And frustrated. Happy because it looks like I WILL have broody geese this year. Frustrated because the first nest is being built in the corner of a very open and busy yard where the chicken yard, goose yard, and pasture all join. And nowhere near the protected shelter I provided that I can enclose for safety! She'll be lucky if the llama doesn't step on her at night.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to move the geese to the nesting area I set up. They went there easy enough. And waited for me to leave, so they could get back to the open nest.

But it's not all bad. Someone used to live here who raised roosters, and there are a lot of thrown-together rooster cages in the chicken yard. I think I'll just put one over her if she insists on nesting there. In fact, it looks like I may have a whole row of rooster cages. Another goose picked a spot close by. She doesn't quite have the whole nest-building thing down though. She stands there and tosses leaves over her shoulders onto her back. Silly goose, LOL.

One of my guineas is trying to go broody too. No males though. But she's found a piece of PVC pipe elbow and placed that into her "nest" and spends most of her time in the coop making weird noises. I *might* give her a few chicken eggs just to incubate if she proves faithful to the setting. I'm not too hopeful there though.

And my ONE barred rock hen is going broody. I'd actually rather she didn't. I'm getting ready to set up my breeding pens of chickens, and I wanted a few fertilized eggs from her AFTER I separate her and the BR roo out.

Two of my silkies are currently on nests of silkie eggs. My buff silkie is apparently deciding to let the other two do all the work.

I'm getting antsy to plant. There have been a few days here of near or over 70 degree weather! But ... they say it might snow in two days, and the low will be 16 and the high 28. Going to be nasty for a while yet. I really, really REALLY want to start my garden!!!

But I take a lot of comfort from the possible broody geese. I have 5 geese, and if I can average a few goslings each, that would give me a couple extra geese to retain as breeders and enough for the freezer to have one per month. And all the oil I am likely to need.

I might see if I can incubate the eggs if they don't brood well. I'm going to look for ducklings locally (last year they could be had for $1) and give them ducklings/goslings and let them raise them. I suspect they will be good parents, whether or not they manage to hatch eggs. That will be a big blessing too, NOT to have to brood baby waterfowl!!! Maybe I can even get a few muscovy, which I REALLY want a few ducks and a drake.

Last night I finally used the goose grease on some oven-baked potatoes. They WERE yummy!!! I originally expected the grease to have a flavor, but it's really quite mild. I think I could maybe even use it in pastry (don't know that I will) but it's a very nice, fine lard. Fried rabbit to go with that. I DO love rabbit. I need to get even better at cooking it, and I will probably abandon raising chickens for meat in favor of rabbit.

So, that's my update.

 

[abifae]

Heh. It was 60 here this week and we're snowing today. Or ought to. It smells and feels like snow.

 

[TanksHill]

Wow those are some, err uuhh, cute babies? Rabbits are so weired looking when they are born.

I know how you feel about the journal thing. I have so much more fun reading others than writing in my own.

Great job on all the chicken meat. I need to get some grilled tenders done and ready for meals. So convenient.

g

 

[Denim Deb]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks they look weird when they're first born! IMO, they're not very cute at all then. They look like a big, long eared baby rat!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

"long eared baby rat"


Yup, that's what they look like when they are born!

I'm getting ready to breed my *intended* breeders soon. I wish I knew if we're going to have a freakishly late winter again this year. If so I should wait another 6 weeks, but ... I have waited too long already and don't want to compromise the fertility of some very nice does.

I'm not doing anything with them this week though, except wrapping the cages and trying to keep them warm. Tomorrow is supposed to get down even colder now, maybe single digits, with snow/ice/sleet.

I know a lot of y'all are used to that, but this is the SOUTH!!! My work is closed for the rest of the week, and I went to the store to "stock up" in preparation for being iced in for a week or so. I bought an onion and some grits, and a loaf of bread that was actually for dinner tonight.

I love being already prepared. The store was a madhouse.

 

[Denim Deb]

I can imagine! I know the stores around here used to always be packed b4 a storm. Then, last winter we got a ton of snow. 80" was the official amount for Philly, which is what most people in this area go by. This year, we haven't had anywhere near the same amount of snow, and you don't see people stocking up.