The Chickie Babies Get a New Home

 Yesterday was moving day for the first set of five hatched out chickie babies between three mama hens. They moved  out of the brooder box permanently to their new home. We still have two hatched out by Little Blackie, Australorpe, in the brooder box. Now they have the entire brooder box to themselves. Her third chick piped the shell until it was almost free, and then died.

But this post isn't about Little Blackie's babies (just 2 weeks old), it's the first hatched fivers. Why fivers they were five that survived and they were five weeks old when we first put them outside during the day to socialize with the older birds. Don't worry, the babies are in two dog crates. At eight weeks old, they were more than ready to move out of their 2/3rds of a brooder box.  They complained loudly when put in their brooder at night after the first three days.

The bigger, and much older chickens looked at them with curiosity. Meanwhile, the chicks looked out through the bars, "Are you my Mother?" Even the mother hens did not lay claim to them and went about their business of clearing the weeds out of the new chicken run. They take their housekeeping duties very seriously even though it's open for them to free range again. The best part is I'm now able to find their eggs again.

The chick spend their days napping in the sunlight, scratching for wayward bugs and seeds, and dust bathing all in the comfort of their protected environment. The chicken tractor is now finished. It has all the bells and whistles like a small 5-gallon rain catchment system for water and an automatic feeder that holds 10 lbs of chick starter feed per fill up. I simply reconnect the water tube to the bucket and carry it separately when I move it..

I still don't know which are hens and rooster, but I'm watching their wing and tail feathers. But unfortunately/fortunately, I'm beginning to think I have 3 roos (they have saddle feathers)  and only 1 hen of the older chickie babies. Unfortunate because I wanted the opposite. Fortunate because it means more meat in the freezer for us. I noticed two of them flying at each other so I'm thinking these two are roosters, but I could be wrong because hens do this too. I'll know for sure if they start crowing by sixteen weeks old. Then it's butchering day and freezer camp for all but one lucky one. I'm still hoping for four hens and one rooster for homestead production needs. I could still get that because I believe the two in the brooder box are hens.

I was looking into the cross breeding genetics. With a RIR as a sire he could contribute not only coloring, but in egg production and size by as much as half. This surprised me. If a Easter egger lays on average 240 medium eggs the cross with Rhode Island Red, the offspring could lay up to 300 eggs per year or more with a possible egg size jump to a large. I know two of the chicks are EE/RIR cross. One is definitely RIR/Australorpe cross. Both hens lay, on average, 309.5 large eggs per year. Would that mean a possibility of 365 large to extra large eggs from this hen? 

I can see tons of angel food cakes and lemon egg yolk cookies in our future. There won't be an event, meeting, or get-together that I'm not giving them away at by the dozens. Every pot luck I go to I'll have to bring an egg heavy casserole. And, that's only with four laying, household hens. Just the two of us don't eat that many eggs.😎It's not counting my chickens before they hatch. They've already hatched! I may be left with two or three hens out of the hatchlings which would put us about break even in eggs laid/eggs needed.

Of each of the five, I can tell who the mommas were that laid the egg that they hatched from within one or two choices. When we got the chicks we had two of each kind of certain breeds like Bared Plymouth Rocks and Dominiques, and the others were later identified by their coloring. plus one mystery chick that died in the original fifteen we ordered. One of the black chicks is definitely a black Australorpe cross, one black chick with a brown chest is the Blue Birchen Maran's egg who we lost last week to a stray dog.  One was from a Steele Egger cross because I call their mama Polka Dot. And, the last chick came from one of the Dominiques.

The Dominique cross managed to get out of the outdoor cage last week. Not quite sure how she managed that feat. Two days passed and I figured it was gone for sure. It was the biggest of the bunch. While I was doing the final fiddling with the chicken tractor, I see this little head pop out from under the food stores building. I was hope against hope tossing out chick starter crumbles along one edge of the building in case it was still alive since it went missing. After all, didn't Hoo-de-hoo, aka Houdini, our two-week old Buff Orpington rooster, survive for two weeks in the open with the odds against him surviving. We just have too many predators around that would love to eat a tender morsel little chicks provide: dogs, cats, hawks, owls, snakes, the adult chickens, and even rats. So when I saw it, I was relieved. I got some extra chick starter and put little piles along the food stores building and a small container of water. Since it wouldn't let me catch it, it had to stay where it was. Meanwhile, I'm hooked the butterfly net on my pants pocket while I'm out and about...just in case.

I made an A-frame design chicken tractor. Except for placing the laying boxes in it, the chicken tractor is done finally! I had thought to use chicken wire but decided to to use the heavier cage wire and 1" hardware cloth for the exposed areas. It has a roosting bar in the little coop. The coop has no floor save the coated, wire shelves inside. This way the chickie babies' poop can drop to the ground. So there will be no straw nor hay to clean out until they start laying eggs. When one area gets too thick in droppings or the grass is almost gone, I'll simply move it to a new area. I figure I'll be moving it every couple of days.

I saw on YouTube where somebody used 5-gallon buckets for nesting boxes. I decided to do the same, but flipped it. The opening end with the lid faces the outside of the tractor so I can get the eggs. All I have to do is snap off the lid. It's not one of those rubberized thick lids. I built the supports inside under the coop area. So when they start laying in a few months, I'll just snip the cage wire for the buckets to slide in. It's pretty ingenious if I do say so myself. I even put small drain holes in the bottom of the nest boxes for ventilation and to drain any moisture that gets in there. With the whole back snapping off, removing and replacing the straw will be a breeze unlike conventional nest boxes.

With no wood to speak of in this build, this coop is ultra light weighing in at less than 35 lbs. I mean, it's only plastic. I used "J" clips, zip ties, strapping tape, glue, and wire to build it. It's not huge. It's only 3'x6'.  Unlike the coops and runs down in the orchard. It'll never be more than a couple hundred feet from the house. An easy jaunt from wherever we are, or our dogs. If I need to, I drilled four holes, 5/8th", at the corners so I can stake it to the ground with 12" spikes for added protection. I tried to think of everything that could happen short of a tree falling on it. Don't laugh! It has happened here to Mel's first chicken coop.

Well, enough rambling. It's moving day for the chickie babies. Time for me to get off my hinny and get busy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Yet Another Chick Update... A Chicken Tractor in the Future?

 The chicks are four weeks  now. I  had to look back at my posts to be sure since the chicks hatched. They are almost fully feathered out...just a little tuft of fluff on their heads and chests now. They are huge compared to when they were born, but too small to go into general population. But they need to go somewhere. They have stayed away from the heat lamp for a week now. In fact, I've turned it off. They're ready to go somewhere else.

I had thought to move them into the "hospital/quarantine" pen, but they'd quickly outgrow it. I decided to keep these birds separate from Mel's flock. I think I've got four hens. It's still too early to tell. While the blurb on the chicken enclosure says four to six chickens, from experience it's more like two and even then, the birds are crowded than we like. I'll use the eggs from these girls for homestead use. 

Mel calls them "mutt" chickens because they are Rhode Island crosses. Personally,  I think they are unique and beautiful. The variation of the colors of the Barred/RIR, and the laced feathered Americana/RIR are striking plus the ones I haven't figured out yet. Their coloring awakens the artistic gene in my soul. I wish I could show them to you. I wonder how much an effect the RIR genes will play with the egg colors and sizes, but that's four to five months away. 

I do have a line on a used computer that I'll be checking out this week though if not, I'll be buying another thumb drive. Thumb drives are really cheap these days. I remember when they first came out and how expensive they were. Computers too, but even the cheap ones are beyond my reach right now. I miss my pics on my posts, don't you? It's hard to replace or buy anything when you're broke all the time. Sigh! But I digress.

I was thinking of a way to house my new chickie babies and keep them separate. I could just let them free range throughout the yard, but they'd have no protection from predators. I could build them a small coop and run. I started looking online for designs that I could build. Mel is too busy with her own flocks. All the authorities say 1 1/2 to 2 square feet per bird, I'd rather have 3 square feet per bird in their run. A 3x8 run was doable, but I'd need a 8' square coop at a minimum. What if it were mobile? That way my chickie babies would have the luxury of being free range, but have the protection from predators. Now there's an idea...a chicken tractor.

THE PROBLEMS

It would have to be lightweight enough for me to pull. There in poses a problem. I have a hard enough time walking with one bum leg. I can push or pull the garden cart with no issues. I can lift 45-50 lbs of feed with one working hand and arm. but dragging the same amount of weight is problematic. Whatever mechanism I build to pull with, it's got to be waist high, 3' for me. So a solid wood contraption is out. It would be too heavy. The coop alone could almost be that heavy.

I've got another issue too. I found another broody hen! I thought I was missing one the black Australorps. 😏She's sitting on three eggs in the barn/workshop. When I went to check the eggs, they are full, heavy, and one even was chirping. So it looks like three more chickie babies are about to be born. This will make eight babies. So I'm revising my estimates. Sigh! 

In revising my estimates, I've got to know how many hens I have, but need to house them somewhere between 4 weeks to 13 weeks old to allow them to grow out. Hmmm, I could use the old chicken coop. Of course I'd have to rebuild it. The constant rains and winds have pretty much destroyed the seven-year old coop anyhow. Half the roof caved in while we went through the storms spawned by Hurricane Sue when it hit us. It's been a bad year for rains and hurricanes coming from the Gulf where we are. It has either smacked us from the Gulf or sideswiped us from the Atlantic. Not to mention other rain storms.

I think we'll do another pallet coop, but smaller. Yes, I'll have to involve Mel. If we turn the pallets longwise up, we just need to break apart a few pallets to have board and batten side walls so we wouldn't need additional plywood. I can fashion a new roof from the old sides. Two pallets for each wall, four pallets covered with reused plywood for the floor to keep the varmints out. Plus the wood frame of the current structure to do the roof. We also have the tin from the outdoor rabbit hutches to do the roof. Unlike the previous coop, I'll paint this one. The new 6x6x4' hen house should be big enough to last for a while. I can even reuse the branch roost and laying boxes from the old coop on the new one.

Pre bunny barn and chicken coop n run

If the law of averages holds up, of the eight chicks, 50% or four will be roosters. These will go to freezer or canner jar camp. For our homestead of two adults, four hen would supply our needs perfectly. It will allow me to bake goodies to my heart's content and have an egg breakfast once a week not counting other egg use breakfasts. Any more than four hens would be too many. So if I use the number of four hens and possibly a rooster, for protection, I'd only need a tractor for five chickens at most, right?

So, I'm right back where I started from in number of birds. I've got pressure treated 2x4 pieces from another project on the homestead. If I split them that's half the weight. Or, I could use PVC or electrical conduit to build a tractor. Now the shape could be either hooped or squared. I'm thinking rectangular so everything will square up and be more sturdy.

You may ask why not just use the refurbished coop and run for the chicks on a permanent basis? Well, I look at it this way. I had five hens of Mel's flock go broody this year and they were less than a year old. Usually, once a broody chicken, they'll always be broody trying to hatch out more chicks. I'll need that grow out area each year whether they are the colorful egg layers or not. I can see them hatching out the purebred flocks too for the types of chickens that do not go broody. We'll just swap out eggs. It will keep Mel from having to buy new chicks as they age out of laying prolifically about 2-3 year old. We'll have a built in incubators as nature intended them to be. I don't intend on having anymore "mutt" chickens. 

That also means that Mel will have to decide on the purebreds she intends on raising for breeding and raising for her farm this winter. Though there's always the Rhode Island Reds and readily available, she's also got her heart set on Barnevelders. Although Sussexes wouldn't be a bad choice either. both of the latter are dual purpose breeds and vary in rarity. So chicks and pullet/cockerel sales would be more desirable. Who knows, she might choose both. The egg sales enable us to buy a month's worth of feed for the birds, we have and build a new coop and run every two months towards progress towards the future. So the first batch of chickens are now self sustaining. Wohoo!

So the chicken tractor for my new chickie babies will be a split level 3'x8' there will be space underneath the coop for an automatic chicken feeder and waterer. While Mel prefers the nipple waterers, I prefer the cups like I use for the quail. I'll be making it out of the leftover tin from the rabbit hutches for roof screwed into the PVC frame. The sides will be made of leftover political (vote for me) signs. Total weight is about thirty pounds. I'm recycling all the previous rabbit cages' cage wire to protect their free range area. Why not make it 4x8? Because I want it to fit over my rows in the garden each fall after the last harvest. The chickens will pick over what's left and fertilize it for the next spring. A hefty layer of compost and hay will follow the the chickens, and then the garden will be put to bed for 6 months. The walkways between the rows will get their pass of the chickens to gobble up the weeds/ leftover plants before new wood chips are added in the spring. There will be a slight overlap of the garden beds but no worries, I usually don't plant within 6" of the walkways unless it's flowers later in the season.

Will I put wheels on the chicken tractor? I dunno yet. If it proves too heavy for me to move safely, I will. I'm thinking big wheels like the front wheels of a tricycle rather than small ones. We've got some pretty uneven terrain on this homestead. I've even considered an adult bicycle wheels. Considering these are large birds apposed to bantams, the lift shouldn't be an issue. 

There is minimal chance for them to escape. But these birds will be trained to the sound of my voice and come when I call them too (just like the others) if they do. The other chickie babies we raised were no problem getting into their area. All it took was me walking into the run and they followed me. They were clambering all over themselves to see who could be the closest to me. All except Big Red, the rooster, that is. He still gives me a shovel handle distance just in case I've got a shovel or stick handy. It was just a question of me getting out before they did, but I did have a can of scratch grains for that eventuality.  Ya gotta love well trained chickens.😜

Hopefully, I'll either have a new (to me) computer or a new flash drive for pictures of the mobile coop and run with the chickie babies in it soon.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Home Grown Chick Update

Well in all total, the three broody hens hatched out nine chicks before demands of motherhood broke their broodiness. I believe more would have hatched if the hens had not broken their broodiness, but not worries, we currently have enough hens to meet our egg sales. Of the nine, three were crushed to death by their first time moms. A shame but it happens. I couldn't sex them. We'll just have to wait until they are 13 weeks old. We'll butcher the roos and reintroduce the hens back into the flock.

One chick fell from the coop during the storms from tropical storm Sally. It landed inside the run and was a soaked and cold two-day old chick by the time I found it. It was barely cheeping when I found it. It was the smallest of the bunch too. I scooped it up mud and all and started calling for Mel as I approached the back porch. Mel had hurried because I used the word "help." I quickly explained to her what had happened as she snatched the little chick up and wrapped it in her in her t-shirt and light weight jacket. Clucking at it in smoothing tones as she hurried inside.

It was still sprinkling rain as I tended to the rest of the flock. I knew they wouldn't be doing much foraging in the rain so I gave them an extra portion of scratch and feed. I made sure everyone had water and picked up the two eggs that the momma chickens had allowed to be laid in the coop. The polka dot and silkie hens wouldn't allow many hens into the coop. They were fiercely protective of the babies.

 Mel and I decided not to let the mommas raise their chicks, but to bring them inside into the brooder box. I lined the box with chuck pads and placed the heat lamp in the box. To put straw or hay in the bottom would have meant more time in the rain for me. I had just dried off and changed my clothes from my last adventure outside and wasn't relishing the idea of going out in the current downpour unless I had to.

Meanwhile, Mel had checked out the chick. It was finally warm enough for her to do so. It's chirping was definitely louder and stronger. Mel found the only other injury this black puff ball had suffered was a broken toe from it's 3' fall from the coop. What do you do for a broken (nondisplaced) toe on a chick smaller than the palm of your hand. All the tape she trued was way too thick. We decided to leave it alone. It chirps in pain constantly, bit there's nothing we can do for it. The only   Otherwise, its eating, drinking, and pooping fine.

 I had asked Mel why she didn't use the blow dryer on the little chick to warm her faster and she replied that she thought it would scare her. She'd had enough trauma in her short life. The only time she was quiet was when she it snuggled under my chin. It was in this position when it died a 5 AM the next morning. Poor little thing.

And then, there were five.

The next lull in the storm, I went outside to pick up the rest of the chicks from their nests. Three from the hen house and three from the nest on the front porch. They are now safely housed in the brooder box. They were moved to the inside brooder box. They didn't like being taken away from their mothers. After a couple of hours they were all snuggled together under the warmth of the lamp sleeping peacefully. When awake, they found their food and water with no problem. A few more adventurous ones explored their new surroundings. They are so little and so few compared to the fifteen we had in there  earlier in the year,  their surroundings seem way too big for them. But, they'll grow. 

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

We got Chicks!

Friday, I went to check on Polka Dot after I gave the flock their ration of scratch and pellets. This is still in supplement mode since they are all free ranging too. By process of elimination, I knew Polka Dot was on the nest because I saw the Silkie pecking greedily at the grain and cracked corn. I have to throw out a couple handfuls of scratch out for them or they'll swarm all over me while I try to put out their feed in their feeder. I don't like the chickens flying at my face while I'm filling the feeder. Their claws are sharp.

As I approached the nest box I thought I had heard some cheeping. I opened up the drop down access and sure enough I spied a broken eggs shell. After raising some of Polka Dot's wing feathers, despite her threatening protests, I saw a black bundle of joy.  The first four of 22 hatched yesterday to the Polka Dot/Silkie tag team mommas. Ms. Puffy Cheeks is sitting on her pile of eggs on the front porch.

The chicks look to be Delaware or Barred Rock/ Rhode Island Red cross babies and one Rhode Island Red chick. Hens or roos? I'll try feather sexing them tonight when we move them. But honestly, I'm not that good at it yet. How many hatched out this morning, I haven't checked yet. This was only day 19 for the hens on the eggs.  She is in the main coop so we'll be moving them all to the brooder box this evening. The chickies babies were so new that they were still wet so I left them alone.

I figure when the Polka Dot hen decides to break broodiness in a few days, we'll move all the babies and her to the hospital hutch. Ms. Puffy Cheeks' eggs should hatch late next week. Both hens and babies should be able to stay in there. That is until next week when we move all our free range flock to their new habitat. The rains has really slowed progress on the build and putting in the fencing for the run. The new coop with their 20' run will be a change but they'll soon get used to it again. It will be winter again soon and we always coop up our flock for their own protection. There's not enough forage for them anyhow.

Well, that's our news for this week.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Cockeyed Jo

The Great Chicken Experiment Results

I'm a bit late with this report by a week or so. I simply just plum forgot to blog it.

Three days before we stopped turning the eggs, Mel candled them with a small mag-lite flashlight. Mel was impatient (grinning). One of these days, I'll spring for a regulation egg candler, but that ain't today. We can't justify the expense in our mind.

What she found were two empty eggs, unfertilized! I still can't figure out how this happened with two roos and only five hens. But then, maybe they (the roos) were having an off day, or the hens managed to run faster or hid well.

We lost two eggs, to temperature variations, they died in the eggs. Darn Kassity kept pulling the blanket off the eggs during the night for a comfortable spot to sleep.The last five were kicking up a storm inside the eggs. I'm guessing these were highly viable eggs. 😝 We candled them again before we put them in lock down on day 17 with the container, same results.

When we put the eggs in lock down, we filled the bowl with the sponge with water to increase the humidity within the tub, We also removed the heat lamp leaving only the heating pad under the eggs. The temperature held at 100 degrees just fine.

On day 20, we heard cheeping in the tote, but resisted the urge to open the container. It was hard not to cuddle the new babies. But if we wanted all the chickie babies to hatch, we had to keep the humidity high in the tote.

Sorry for the blurriness.

On day 21, the noise in the tote had increased so we chanced it. The new babies would need hydration. Their internal yolk sack would handle the nutrition. Plus, we couldn't wait any longer. We opened the lids and were greeted by five little puff balls. I haven't sexed them yet, but we're hoping for hens. They look to be all RIRs because of the darker coloring on their heads. But as they get to feathering out, we'll definitely know.

So we would have had 100% hatch rate again except for the unfertilized eggs and if Kassity had left the blanket alone. I still can't believe two eggs weren't fertilized! Instead, Mel's method gave us a 55% hatch rate this time. Next time I'll break out the gifted incubator too to see if we can get more. I'm experimenting here preparing to hatch quail eggs closer to spring.

WTG! for Mel's Cockeyed Homestead Chicken Farm, but none for Hoo-De-Hoo's (AKA Houdini) harem, poor guy. Maybe he'll have better luck with the next hatch out. We plan on doing this three more times before spring. I'm still hoping for at least five more RIR/Buff crosses for him. All crosses will free range plus get fermented feed.

We should have a full complement of Rhode Island Reds (RIRs) and more than enough to start her egg selling business and a few spares to sell at auction. So some reason, brown egg layers command a premium at auction. I guess it's an esthetic thing, they don't taste any different. We'll start all of them on organic starter feed with no antibiotics. Yes, I'll be supplementing their water with ACV (apple cider vinegar) and their crumble with dried herbs and garlic powder.

Cockeyed Dog Food

They'll eventually "free range" in our garden and orchard in tractors until the hens start laying or they are sold. Our breeder flocks of RIRs will not be free ranged, but will have their organic, fermented feed supplemented with fresh greens and veges daily. We only produce organically raised birds not that it'll matter to most frequenting the auction house, but for us it matters. All but a select few RIR roosters, will be culled or sold at about 20 weeks old. Mel still hasn't found a processor for her chicken yet. I guess she's going to have to learn how, because I ain't gonna do more than two a day for our household consumption. That will cut into her dog food making ideas.

I'll cull the Hoo-De-Hoo/cross rooster babies because we only need the hens for egg layers. I consider these homestead only stock. I'll use the meat for our use. I don't expect to get many of those. I'll keep an eighteen-month rotation of hatching these eggs schedule unless one or two go broody. Hens older than four years-old tend to lay more sporadically. We can't have our eggs business lag once we get a strong customer base. After all, we all do even more baking during the holiday months, don't we?

Americanas

Once Mel gets established, I can see needing a greater number to sell to maintain and increase her profit margin. I don't foresee a glut in the chick, egg, layer, rooster market anytime soon. So she'll probably have a pretty good income/profit margin within two years. We still want the Americanas too. We'll probably purchase those in the spring from our Tractor Supply. As far as a third or fourth breed, I dunno. It remains to be seen as she grows and whatever strikes her fancy to add.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Something to Crow About

This morning, I was sitting at my computer when I heard the first, low, strangling attempts of crowing from our young chickens. I knew it was going to happen soon. I figured about a month or so. So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard this at the crack of dawn this morning. Even Mel woke enough to ask if this was the babies crowing.

I'm not real sure, because it was still to dark to see, but I think it was Houdini making all the noise.  I've heard of young roosters crowing at about seven weeks old, but these babies are twelve weeks old. So, they are a bit behind on the growing curve. So far today, since daylight is in full force, I haven't heard it again.

I know this is only the beginning, but as a proud mama hen type I had to do a bit of my own crowing. It looks like I have THREE buff roosters out of the five. Not a good ratio at all. Someone or two may be heading for freezer camp in a few weeks. Right now they are less than three pounds a piece. I'll let them fatten up a bit first. Now the Rhode Island Reds are holding to the planned ratio of two roosters, I think.

We have one hen (yes she's a hen) that is definitely not a RIR or a Buff. Not sure what she is. She's not red enough to be a RIR or light enough to be a Buff. She may be a different type or a mixture of the two. She'll live in the Buff side of the hen house and run. A very tiny crown and an almost nonexistent wattle.

We'll have to buy some more Buff hens at a later date. Probably later in the summer for butchering. I should have done it earlier, but didn't want to have to butcher a lot of chickens plus set up the garden. There's only so much you can handle when homesteading. Since I'm the one that tends and weeds the garden and the only one that butchers animals, I have my limits. I have other things demanding my time including physical therapy once a week and the rabbits.

Speaking of time. I think we lost our WWOOFER, Amy, and son. I haven't seen them since October or November. It's  a shame too because plenty of extra hands would have worked wonders here at the Cockeyed Homestead. Instead of going full tilt, we are moving at a snail's pace only partly because of being short staffed. The tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, green beans, pole beans, and corn did get planted but it took several weeks instead of doing it all in a day. A wealth of information was lost by them.

It's been in the high 50s and low 60s with all this rain. I've been taking advantage of it by canning. So far, I've pressure canned about five pounds of navy beans into baked beans, four pounds of small dry limas beans, and four pounds of kidney beans into chili beans. I still have about six pounds of dried black eyed-peas to can for the following year. How do I know how much I'll need for a year? I simply kept a running mental total of what I've bought the last year.

We're a Zaycon Influencer. If you didn't know, Zaycon is a farm direct meat supplier of hormone free meat. I'd bought 10 pounds of all beef hotdogs. Not the kind made with beef waste products but whole meat ground like ground beef. We like baked beans with this. I also bought 36 pounds of hickory smoked bacon, 40 pounds of 80/20 ground beef, and 40 pounds of sausage links. With all this meat in the freezer, I need vegetable sides to go with them. Now keep in mind there are only two of us one this homestead. This is approximately a year's worth of these items for us. Throw in some steaks, beef roasts, pork chops from our local sourced farms and the butchering of our own chickens and rabbits, we have plenty of meat for a year.

Mel hails from England so a meal of Bangers and mash with green peas is often a full meal for us. I make a mean onion gravy to accompany it. Breakfast fare such as bacon, eggs and grits are also appears a fair amount also. It all depends on what is going on during the day. If it's a quick, slop on the table because we've been busy this often is the quick fix.

We'll that's it for this week from our homestead.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Rainy Days on the Homestead

It's been raining here on the homestead. In fact, I'm thinking about building an ark. No, not really. It hasn't rained that much. Still, for the past couple of weeks, it has rained more than not.

It's great for the garden.  It's even helping replenish our spring and our creek. A real shame we didn't get the totes for our rain catchment system yet. We've had a few inches dropped on us in the past couple weeks and it's cooler. Yesterday during a break in the weather, I did a tour of the garden and pulled a few weeds. Since we mulched the beds with straw the seeds in it started to sprout. No worries, I just fed them to the rabbits. They loved it.

Speaking of rabbits, all but one rabbits eating fodder now. Keekee, a Jersey Woolie/lionhead, is the only holdout. So I'm still buying rabbit pellets. You may have heard Mel talk about her. She's an ill- tempered bunny. She'll growl and try to nip at your fingers whenever you put your hands anywhere near her. We'd sell her, but she's got such luscious fur. Three inches long and soft as any of our angoras. We can't get rid of her because of her bad temper. Nobody would want her. Everyone wants nice bunnies even us. I'd cull her but there's not enough meat on her for a meal unless I made rabbit stew with plenty of potatoes and carrots. When she's sheared, she only weighs a pound.

So what do you do on the homestead on rainy days? Not much. Most of our time is spent on the internet or watching Netflix shows. Sad isn't it? I mean other than the morning and afternoon chores of feeding and watering the animals, not much else can be done. All we want to do is curl up in the bed with a good book.

When there's  a break in the weather, we go out to the new metal structure to build the new chicken coop. But most of the time the lightning is so bad, it's not a good idea. Or driving metal fence posts or connecting fencing in the rain is not a pleasant idea for that matter. A metal roof and metal supports make excellent lightning rods.  Have you ever seen St. Elmo's fire run along a fence line? I have. It's real interesting to watch, but not when you are holding onto the fencing. But still, we try. It is slow going. The weather is putting a damper on our videos too.

 I could always cook, but without the work, we are not so hungry. I guess I could do some canning videos. Lord knows the weather has been cool enough to stand to be in the kitchen. But it means a trip to the grocery store or the farmer's market. In the rain? I don't drive unless I have to. Maybe when I have to go for my therapy session or my podiatry appointment, I'll make a quick dash into the store.  
What am I talking about!? There's nothing quick about the way I move these days. I'll be soaked by the time I get inside and then be chilled by the air conditioning in the store. I mean I'm a one handed gal who walks with a cane. Hello! There's no holding an umbrella. At times like this, I really wish my stomach tolerated coffee because most stores offer complimentary coffee. I guess I could always pray for a break in the showers. My daddy used to tell me that I need not worry about getting wet "because poop floats." Okay, he was just being ugly and didn't really mean it. Hmm, I sometimes wonder after he tells me that for the umpteenth time, I'm a product of his loin, so what does that make him?

chicks in the garden

The chicks are adolescents now. About three-quarters of their adult size. The roosters' voices are changing so soon they will begin crowing or at least they are trying to now. They utter a squawk in hoarse undertones. It'll probably be in another month or so. I can hardly wait. It's been pretty quiet since Whitie died.

But rainy days are no fun for anyone except ducks and we don't raise those. All the chicks are stuck on the front porch. The roosters start fighting. The little hens try to roost on the Camellia bushes and are getting so big that only one can fit on a branch at a time. The branches can't hold that much weight. They start yelling at others trying to get on because they will all fall to the ground.

When bored, like they always are when it rains, they'll play "king of the mountain" on the wood pile next to the dining room window. A few chicks will get over rambunctious and actually fly into the window. The dazed looks on their face when they hit are precious. "Duh! Where did that come from!" Every evening they look at me through the window as I'm on my laptop. Just as curious as can be about "that human that feeds us." They will peck at the glass or the fan to get my attention. Not that they are out of food, but just because I'm not looking at or talking to them.

 Just like every morning, they trail behind me as I go to the rabbitry building (No! we still haven't moved the rabbits). The older hens have shown them that Jo gives them goodie! The unsprouted seed from the fodder system. I've started spreading the seed in the area where their run will be. Any uneaten seed will continue to grow if they let it. Once they are in their run permanently, I'll continue the process and give them their ration of fermented seed for feeding time. It shouldn't upset their young tummies by then.

That's it for this soaking wet weekend.

Y'all have a blessed day.