We HAVE to get rid of some chickens!

Too many chickens. The ladies are really ramping up, and we're getting anywhere from 8-14 eggs a day. Craziness, and it's only gonna get worse as the days get longer.

Planning on culling a several of the poor producers and escape artists, and will be giving a few more to my pal Paula. That should take us down to nice small(er) number, and we'll be able to let Bellina and perhaps another hen hatch a couple batches of replacements this year. We're even considering buying some good dark maran eggs to pop under Belly when she goes broody. Fun fun fun!

Oh, and Paula... LJ will be on a new shift here soon, and I'll have some weekend time free. Totally willing to come help you dig your ditch. :)

Happy Friday, all!

Update: more to come

We're busy. Busy busy busy. Hubby is changing jobs, we're trying to get the other house ready to go on the market, balancing farm and work and sleep, new critters, heartbreak over lost feathered friends, and on and on. I'm going to make a real effort to get a few posts up over the next week. I've even been catching up on the blog lives of blogging buddies and finding a few new blogs of interest.

Hope everyone out in the blogging world is doing well!

I leave you, for now, with a pic of our two new geese (because all of my goose babies are gone... More on that later) and our ducks.

RIP Affie Girl

LJ found Affie dead in the pen this morning. Apparently she was next to the fence, all curled up like she'd normally be for sleep, but missing her head. :( She was my darling girl, and the only one of our original geese that I considered a pet. The very same goose that nearly committed suicide the day we brought her home as a gosling, horking down a piece of shaving that we managed to dislodge before she could choke to death.

Gotta love breaking into tears while at work. Not awkward at all.

I'm heartbroken.

We'll bury her tonight, and I will be beefing up the goose pen by headlamp and putting out game cams to see if we can figure what did it. :(

We'll miss you sweetie pie.

BOTH ducks are laying! Yay!

Both Crusty AND Olga are laying now. They both gave us an egg yesterday and today. Good girls!

These eggs are weird! Very smooth/polished, compared to chicken eggs. Also, unlike the chickens who just drop an egg in the nest box, our ducky gals make a little nest in the straw and lay their eggs in the same spot. Haven't tried them yet, but planning on it this weekend before heading out to our tree stands.

A drive in the woods

Took a drive up above Molalla today. Henry had fun running in the woods. Lots of good smells. Especially after Gus went and rolled on a snake (retch). Plus, Henry had rot gut today, so it was a very fragrant trip, even with the windows down!

Got home and set up my new deer stand. Very cool. If I don't get a deer, may have a chance at a bear (lots of big bruin poopy piles around the property) or a coyote (got me a new predator call at Cabela's this weekend!)

Buck season starts next Saturday. Yay!

First whole duck egg!

I say "first whole duck egg" because the real "first" egg was two days ago and had been stepped on. Not quite whole once I got to it. :)

Don't know whether Crusty or Olga laid this egg. Gonna have to see if some ducks lay green eggs and others don't. Pretty exciting, though!

Still alive!

I really am still alive. There's just too much going on to find time to blog. Pigs went to butcher, turkeys too. We'll cull the young roosters here in a few weeks, and Dunder will be butchered as well and replaced by one of his offspring. Darkwing and Launchpad are gone... We gave the two drakes to our neighbor's brother, who has a pond. We drove by to look, and they were happily swimming around with his other ducks. Currently working to get the old house ready to go on the market. I'm at this moment covered in paint, taking a break from kitchen painting. The next few weeks will be spent working at the old house, along with a full time job and farm chores at home. Gotta get this last coat on and head home to check on the 5 new chicks (3 ameraucana and 2 speckled sussex). We saw them at the feed store and, well, we're suckers.

Hope everyone's well!