Whew, It's hot!

Farm life now occupies only morning and evening with the rest of the day spent staying cool or refilling water buckets. The critters are all doing well. We're still having some broody hen issues that we're trying to work through. Our egg production has gone down due to broodiness and also the broodies don't let the other chickens lay near them so we're constantly playing egg hunt with the other girls. However, the broody chickens have successfully hatched some guinea eggs, so maybe everybody will go back to their normal schedule. The guinea eggs were a test to see how the girls did (since they were determined to set anyway) through the whole process. The 6 keets hatched Thursday and are doing great. A black giant and a buff orpington are the adoptive moms and seem to share responsibility for all the keets.

Brand new, peeking out from under momma chicken

Momma chickens showing them how to eat.

Today the black chicken had them all outside the coop showing them how to forage. It's really interesting to see how they all interact. She is constantly making a soft clucking noise to them and sort of fusses and they all come running back to her. Maybe next year we'll be hatching our own instead of using a hatchery!

On to the next group of fowl. These guys are almost 4 weeks old now. They have been moved out of the barn and into the coop, but they're still in the brooder box, except for the ducks that have moved into the duck pen. Most of the chickens and turkeys have all they're feathers so it won't be long before they get newer accommodations as well.

Barred rock roo and blue slate turkey

Ancona ducklings

Here are a few of the chickens that made the cut and did not get put in the freezer. These two are the Araucanas (they'll lay blue or green eggs). We call them the Cheekies, because of their puffy face feathers. We also still have Zombie Chick, she is the runt that had the gaping hole in her head. She has fully recovered and will rejoin the general population soon. She still has weak legs and is stunted, but is quite the fighter so we're giving her a chance and a cool name.

This is Spaulding. He is the rooster that we kept to hopefully hatch our own Delawares next year. The plan is to avoid rooster drama, but if we have any he'll be penned with a few select delaware hens for breeding. This group is about 17 weeks old and should be laying their tiny pullet eggs by 20 weeks. Fingers crossed they put them in the coop where I can find them.

Next, we have Cheese and Quackers. Cheese may lay a few eggs this year, but won't go into full production until next spring. They have all their big duck feathers and are so pretty in the sunlight. They are going to be used as breeders instead of dinner.

The does are still producing about a gallon of delicious goat milk a day. We have been running the cream separator occasionally for skim milk and cream. We use the cream to make our own ice cream. Yummy! Even with making cream, ice cream, cheese and drinking our fill we still have plenty to share with the animals.

Got milk?

Right before running the separator and making cheese

Sharing with the animals, the cats are waiting under the porch for their turn.

Here is Rupert watching all the action from his hammock. He's such a sweet dog and is learning about life on the farm. He really enjoys playing with the kids dog, Conan. He REALLY wants to chase the cat- Pearl is quite the instigator.

Crops: well- the corn is coming in nicely, the potatoes are looking good, the tomatoes had blossom end rot but we fixed that. We have 2 beets growing, 2 carrots, and 4 lettuce plants. The cucumbers and pumpkins seem to be hanging on after a good dosing of fertilizer and the bean plants have all been eaten to the ground by Scarlet, who escaped her paddock one day. It's OK, taking it in stride, we're learning still and all that. This afternoon we're heading to Lowes for more seeds for a late planting. Have to buy more since Rupert got into our seed packets and chewed/ate what we had left over. Good thing I bought the non-treated varieties! Puppies!!

We think our first rounds of seeds we planted too deep and we also seem to have a nitrogen deficiency since a lot of the things have perked up with fertilizer. There may be a trip to the Agricultural Extension office for some soil testing if the next round doesn't do better. Dad's blueberries and blackberries are getting ready to come in strong. I'm looking forward to cobblers and such!

In random news, my (city boy ;-) ) brother bought himself an antique John Deere tractor and brought it out here. It certainly dwarfs the Kubota. He was giving all the kids rides on it today.

Doesn't he look proud?

Chicken Processing Day

Today was the big day- 15 chickens have been processed and frozen. I'm glad that's over for several reasons- we had entirely too many roosters and the drama was beginning, we had too many chickens period, we now have lots of yummy healthy chicken in our freezer that were always humanely treated (and sometimes pampered) , and mostly- I did it! I have been apprehensive about being a part of the processing, and until we had 15 to do Chuck has taken care of it all. It really wasn't bad- the worst part since we were not doing the whole group was I was one that decided who lived or didn't. So of the Delawares, we're left with 1 rooster, hereafter known as "Spaulding" and 6 hens. We still have the mystery chick and the Araucanas from this order.

We are VERY appreciative of our helpers- Chuck's parents and his karate instructor. We had a good system going and it only took us a couple hours- excellent for our experience level. Chuck dispatched, Keith skinned and Sue and Crendell gutted. I wrangled, delivered and held birds through all stages. Madison barricaded herself in the house, but Willow came out towards the end and looked at all the internal organs (she's been fascinated with how our body's work recently).

Afterwards, we all had a yummy vegetarian lunch!

For the future, due to the temperature and humidity both being about 90, we're going to schedule large processing days for cooler weather. Blech. All in all though, a really good day.