Critter musical chairs

We played a little musical chairs this weekend with the birds, as the meaties had enough feathers to go out, and were reaching the 3-week old "omg, they stink, I can't keep up with the volume of poop" stage. But before the meaties could go outside, their chicken conestoga had to be vacated.

So, the 11 pullets were rudely snatched from their chicken tractor and thrown to the wolves moved to the chicken yard. Miss Speckles was extremely mean, and a couple lost some feathers, but the other hens pretty much just ignored the new additions. Deputy Guinea dictated the rules of the barnyard (go to bed promptly at dusk, stay in the yard, no fighting) and herded them around for a while. Other than that, not a whole lot of excitement there. The Fayoumis kill me. They're so tiny, they just run in and out of the fencing, like it wasn't there. Ugh.  The Fayoumis are the ones with the white heads.  They're roughly the size of a Stellar's Jay.  No joke.






The meaties were hauled out to the chicken tractor, where they'll live til Memorial Day weekend, at which point they'll transition to freezer camp.  Can't wait for the day.  Grody birds.  Tasty grody birds. On Tues, 4 BBW turkey poults took over the newly vacated brooder in the shop.  Love turkeys.  Love love love.  Wish I could keep a BBW tom.  They're great.

(pics from last year)

We installed two nucs last Saturday, and the new bees seem to be very happy (knock on wood). They're very local bees, as there's a big bee place about 2 miles away as the crow flies.  I did totally biff it while carrying a frame, and it was nearly a disaster.  But I did my best to control the fall and didn't jar the frame much (but did land on my left arm and totally torqued my shoulder).  Anyhoo, two hives are up and running, and LJ is copying the design of the cardboard nuc boxes to make some swarmcatchers to put around the property.  They'd also double as a catch kit to keep in the car.  If they work out well, I'll post an entry on how he made them.

Hm... what else.  None of the 17 duck eggs in the incubator were fertile, so I chucked em and put 7 of Maggie Muscovy's eggs in there.  We'll see how that goes.  She's currently filling up a nest out in the duck hut as well.  I want cute little waterfowl babies! (that turn into fat tasty freezerbirds).  :)

Quick update... Birds, bees, and busy

Still crazy around here! Between my off-farm job, chores, post wedding stuff (almost done with thank you notes!), and general summer stuff, I just haven't had the time to blog. So, a quick update, and I'm determined to get some real posts (with pics no less) done this weekend. Maybe by actually posting an intended deadline, I'll actually do it? We'll see.

This year's chicks are getting huge, yet are still able to squeeze through the fence, and they have discovered the blueberries and huckleberries. $@%#!

Both Jeffrey and MiniMeatGoose developed angel wing, and I fixed them! Woot!

We caught a bee swarm. It was in a tree at a coworker's house. I have a friend that really wants one (her bees bailed this spring), but in my rush to run LJ his bee stuff, I left my phone at home. With time running short to go grab them and get them installed, the decision was made to get them home. Sorry Paula! :( I don't know if there's enough time left this season for them to build up for winter. From what I've read, "a swarm in July isn't worth a fly". We'll see. They've started drawing out two frames already, but I don't know enough yet about bees to hazard a guess at survival. More on the swarm in a future post.

Busy busy... Moved 3 project cars from old house to new (come-along, a tilt trailer, and a 49 4dr... Not fun), moving bird yards, the garden of weeds, prepping the old house to go on the market, my new piano, double whammy dead AC (in the house AND my car!), and more. I need a nap. :)

LJ's newest project

Headed home to their new hive.

The Icky Chickies have arrived!

And, the next-to-final shipment of springtime fluff balls has been picked up! (still need to get some turkeys) Today we brought home 17 Cornish X meat chicks.  Ordered 20, but the gals at the local feed store mis-counted, and when we got the couple miles home and called, they had already sold the few birds they had left... grrrrr!

Behold an Icky Chicky, while it's still cute (the cute phase only lasts about a week).

Haven't posted in a bit, as we've been running our butts off. Over the last couple weekends, we have ground out around 20-25 stumps and smoothed the stump areas out in preparation for more lawn/chicken/goose/duck yard locations. We've seeded and leveled and seeded some more.  This last weekend we thinned a small grove of alders and maples to the north side of the current chicken yard. We limbed the saplings, and will use them to beef up our chicken run construction. Last year the heritage turkeys (never ever again) liked to jump to the top of the chicken run and they collapsed it more than once. Since we're pretty sure it will be a prime guinea perching spot, we need to beef it up before we put those birds outside. And now for the rest of the happenings....

Bees-
Yes, we're getting bees this year (or rather, LJ is getting bees this year). The hive is painted lemon lime and is sitting in the shop. The plastic inserts are in the house where shop-living mice can't gnaw away at the beeswax coating. We've cleared an area near the garden but away from any areas we want to clear this summer (don't think the bees would take too kindly to saws and the tractor running next to the hive). We leveled the area, and LJ seeded it in clover in the hopes that the clover will spread and help to choke out other weeds. He picks up his 3lbs of bees on Friday, so we need to get the hive set up this week.

Yucky Duckies-
Are growing like weeds. They are freaking huge at just 4 weeks old, and are out in the chicken tractor. We're planning some brooder musical chairs, hoping that the layer ducks can go outside before the Icky Chickies outgrow their brooder. The Icky Chickies will go in the big brooder when the laying ducks go outside. The guineas will go outside so the turkeys can go in their brooder. And, if all goes well, the Yucky Duckies will go to the processor just in time for the Icky Chickies to go into the chicken tractor. That's the plan, in any case. *fingers crossed*

Guineas-
Are also growing rapidly.  They are scared to death of us, unless we're refilling their feeder, at which point they jump all over our hands to get to the food (which they mostly fling out of the feeder and onto the floor).

Laying ducks-
More quick growth! All 4 run away from us. Darkwing the runner is sweet and calm once caught, as is the Swedish female (I named her Olga, which LJ does NOT like). The white-ish runner is a spaz, and very vocal (still no name), as is the Swedish male (Sven… LJ doesn't like that name either. Lol). I hope the runners are both female, but we'll just have to wait and see. They were straight run, so we have no idea. I'm thinking at least one male, one female, given the difference in personality and vocalizations. Darkwing is rather quiet and raspy. The white-ish no-name is a freak and extremely noisy. Another we'll see situation, eh?

Pigs-
Are doing well, though one has a cough and we'll need to catch him and give him a shot. We've had to treat two others. Not fun trying to catch a 60 some-odd lb pig, sit on it, and jab a needle in its neck. Not fun at all. You wouldn't believe how loudly they scream.  Not over the needle, but over being caught.  Craziness!  We don't like medicating, but neither do we want to have animals that are sick or unhappy. It's a line to walk. I've read blogs/stories of people that just let their critters die rather than call a vet or administer wormer or antibiotics… all in the name of "natural". The way we see it, that's cruel. Additionally, they're LIVESTOCK, not wild animals. The "natural" has been bred out of them over countless generations. True, some are a bit more hardy or disease resistant, but all the same, I don't get letting an animal suffer. If it doesn't fit your ideals, treat it and sell it so it doesn't "contaminate" your farm. Ok, ok, turning my rant off now. :0)

Geese-
I have 4 eggs in the incubator right now, and they seem to be doing well.  My only concern is that the eggs have not lost enough weight.  I've been trying to follow the incubation guide that a wonderful dude named Pete posted on the backyardchickens.com forum.  The ideal is for the eggs to lose approx 13%, so the goslings aren't overloaded/overheated, and so they have the room they need to breathe and move in the egg.  I've been doing a daily water spritz and 15 minute cool down for the last several days, which mimics momma goose's getting up/taking a swim/setting back on the eggs.  We'll see how it goes.  They are due to hatch next Tuesday or so.  The goosey gals are still laying eggs.  I checked the nest last night, and they had built up a nest of 27 eggs.  One egg had broken on top of some of the others.  I removed the broken egg and the ones that had been contaminated by the contents and threw them to the pigs (the pigs LOVED that).  I stole the four freshest eggs (for another incubator run), removed the eggy straw, replaced the eggy straw with fresh, and replaced the good eggs in the nest.  Baby Girl hollered at me from 3 feet away the whole time I was in there, and has since been on the nest.  Perhaps my messing with her nest convinced her to get down to business?  Hope so, because it would be great to have some naturally hatched goslings.  Again, fingers crossed!

And, that's about it for the moment. Lots and lots going on, and dreaming of SUN. Right now it's a dream, but hopefully will return well before July this year!

Hope everyone is having a great week!