I actually slept late today, I didn't wake up until 6:50am! Hey that is not half-bad since some days I wake up at 3:00am, here lately it has been 4:50am for the past week or so. I did very little today, cleaned brooders and the necessities of raising poultry, but not what we originally planned to do. We did not dig the holes and set the last two posts for the covered chicken run. I will get the tiller out tomorrow and try to reduce a hump of dirt where the front door of it needs to go...I just hope there isn't an old stump or burn pit there.
Our baby ducks make a really bad mess in their brooder, they were a big mess too...my husband decided they needed to go for a swim. It was really more of a bath because they are really to young to be in deep enough water to swim. A duck can drown, believe it or not...and baby ducks don't have feathers or the natural oils that make them basically waterproof. We kept a close eye on them and the water was maybe up to the bottom of their little bellies, but they seemed to enjoy splashing around and cleaning themselves up. We had them in our garden cart...then we put them back in the brooder and dumped the water out of the cart and put a layer of dry grass in the bottom of the cart. We put them in the sun for a bit to dry off and moved them into the shade and just watched them for hours. I took a lot of pictures of them, hey they are cute...what can I say?
The ducks love water, they play in their drinking water and it floods the bottom of the brooder...we sat there and brainstormed how we could fix the problem. I cut 1/4 inch hardware cloth to fit the bottom of the brooder and put three of these metal rods across the bottom to suspend the hardware cloth almost an inch above the brooder bottom. I then layered the pine shavings over the hardware cloth...then, I put their water inside of a dog bowl so the sides were higher to contain some of the water. I am keeping them in the office bathroom so I check on them often...so far, so good. I guess the true test will be tonight...because last night they drained their quart sized water container...I was using puppy pads, but they got soaked and get pretty disgusting with ten baby ducks pooping all night. Have I told you baby ducks are eating machines? All they do is eat, drink tons of water and poop...and sleep occasionally. They grow very fast and they need a lot of nutrition to support the size and weight gain. But, they will be big enough to go outside in a couple of weeks, the main thing is making sure they have what they need to survive this growing stage.
So basically today, we watched what we call "Duck TV" we sat in the shade with our cold water or iced tea and watched the babies most of the day. I came in the house and checked on the chicks hatching every once in awhile and Crew (my hubby) played frisbee with the dogs awhile. It was a great day of relaxation...he even cooked dinner. Oh, and now we have 3 little blond chicks and 5 black chicks so far...more pipping too. I also checked on our broody hen, she left the nest for a little while...she has been sitting on 18 eggs! I didn't put all of them under her...I imagine the other hens laid in the box.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Yard Work - All Day Project
Where I live is very sandy soil, and it rains a lot when it rains...sometimes 8 inches of rain in a twenty four hour period. I put as few chemicals down as I can, when you have almost 20 acres you can't keep up with it anyway, so you treat around the house and that is about it. We also have a lot of bugs. Fire ants, spiders, beetles...you name it...and tons of Mosquitos and other biting no see ums. I usually have bites of some sort on me all the time.
Today I did yard work. If I can keep the weeds mowed they don't germinate and spread worse into my garden areas. Since we have put up a lot of fencing, I weed whack a lot too...today was one of those days. I know from the start now, to fill up everything I am going to use with gas and oil, check the tires and all that. You don't really want to have to lug a five gallon gas can around and if the riding mower runs out of gas when you are on the back 10 acres...well, it is a pretty long walk to make with that much gas. I like to keep the grass mowed every week and just mowing pretty much takes all day, when I weed whack, that probably takes half a day to do up around the house, the drainage ditch and around and in the gardens. I have to keep replacing the string, weeding close to the wire fencing breaks off the line so I cut a bunch of extras to carry around with me. The past two times I have weed whacked, I ended up with a burn on my arm from the engine getting so hot and resting or balancing the weed whacker on it towards the end of the day. I got a blade attachment for the weed whacker but had to get a new shaft for it to fit on...it has not been installed yet, I think it would make my life easier...dangerous, but easier. Some of the weeds out here have tree trunk like bases...of course I could not use it by the fences because it would probably cut through them...think circular saw on the end of a pole? Yeah, but not much of a gaurd on it...cuts through 2 inch diameter trees...we have a lot of those and bushes around the lake.
Anyway, I always wear steel toed boots when I do yard work, I hand mowed about 3/4 of an acre yesterday with a push mower and weed whacked that area too, but garden areas and chicken pens were number one on my list, along with the fenced part behind the house..the back yard. I did not get done. I spent time filling holes on the backyard that the dogs dug before starting to mow, it is not good to step in a foot deep hole that grass has grown over, so I try and fill them regularly...but it is a practically daily occurrence. The dogs play rough and when they start doing it in the house they spend the day outside. A lot of the time I let them run free while I am out there working, but our neighbors have all gotten new dogs and they keep running over in there yards. I cannot see my neighbors houses from our house, the woods are thick and viney...and if the dogs are not in my site...they are usually at the neighbors, either digging through their burn pile or barking at their dogs...or chasing a cat or deer. Oh and they chase them across the street too...and go into the fields over there...so they have been on lockup in the backyard.
My husband fixed the riding mower yesterday, I had mowed a week or so ago and a branch popped up and got into the mower belt and popped it off. Last time I went into the big city I got a new belt, oil and air filters, and a spark plug for a tune-up for the mower. Yesterday he worked on the mower, got everything replaced, oil changed and blades replaced. So next time I mow won't be so bad. Doing all the work manually was a bit rough on me yesterday. I stayed on my feet too long and I could not get my left boot off. I iced my leg for several hours, propped my foot up and kept waiting for the swelling to go down enough for my husband to pull it off...it was not the first time this had happened. Well...at around 10:30 last night he tried once again to pull the boot off for me...it would get to a point...but then stuck tight, so with regrets...I went and got some good scissors and he cut the boot down the front and kept trying to pull it off and finally after cutting a hole or two in my sock...and cutting all the way down to the middle of my foot, the boot finally was able to come off. I was glad, when you do a lot of weed whacking and yard work when it is in the 90's and humid...you sweat a lot, on top of that I was pretty covered in grass and weed pieces. It was nice to be able to take a shower after all that.
Today I did yard work. If I can keep the weeds mowed they don't germinate and spread worse into my garden areas. Since we have put up a lot of fencing, I weed whack a lot too...today was one of those days. I know from the start now, to fill up everything I am going to use with gas and oil, check the tires and all that. You don't really want to have to lug a five gallon gas can around and if the riding mower runs out of gas when you are on the back 10 acres...well, it is a pretty long walk to make with that much gas. I like to keep the grass mowed every week and just mowing pretty much takes all day, when I weed whack, that probably takes half a day to do up around the house, the drainage ditch and around and in the gardens. I have to keep replacing the string, weeding close to the wire fencing breaks off the line so I cut a bunch of extras to carry around with me. The past two times I have weed whacked, I ended up with a burn on my arm from the engine getting so hot and resting or balancing the weed whacker on it towards the end of the day. I got a blade attachment for the weed whacker but had to get a new shaft for it to fit on...it has not been installed yet, I think it would make my life easier...dangerous, but easier. Some of the weeds out here have tree trunk like bases...of course I could not use it by the fences because it would probably cut through them...think circular saw on the end of a pole? Yeah, but not much of a gaurd on it...cuts through 2 inch diameter trees...we have a lot of those and bushes around the lake.
Anyway, I always wear steel toed boots when I do yard work, I hand mowed about 3/4 of an acre yesterday with a push mower and weed whacked that area too, but garden areas and chicken pens were number one on my list, along with the fenced part behind the house..the back yard. I did not get done. I spent time filling holes on the backyard that the dogs dug before starting to mow, it is not good to step in a foot deep hole that grass has grown over, so I try and fill them regularly...but it is a practically daily occurrence. The dogs play rough and when they start doing it in the house they spend the day outside. A lot of the time I let them run free while I am out there working, but our neighbors have all gotten new dogs and they keep running over in there yards. I cannot see my neighbors houses from our house, the woods are thick and viney...and if the dogs are not in my site...they are usually at the neighbors, either digging through their burn pile or barking at their dogs...or chasing a cat or deer. Oh and they chase them across the street too...and go into the fields over there...so they have been on lockup in the backyard.
My husband fixed the riding mower yesterday, I had mowed a week or so ago and a branch popped up and got into the mower belt and popped it off. Last time I went into the big city I got a new belt, oil and air filters, and a spark plug for a tune-up for the mower. Yesterday he worked on the mower, got everything replaced, oil changed and blades replaced. So next time I mow won't be so bad. Doing all the work manually was a bit rough on me yesterday. I stayed on my feet too long and I could not get my left boot off. I iced my leg for several hours, propped my foot up and kept waiting for the swelling to go down enough for my husband to pull it off...it was not the first time this had happened. Well...at around 10:30 last night he tried once again to pull the boot off for me...it would get to a point...but then stuck tight, so with regrets...I went and got some good scissors and he cut the boot down the front and kept trying to pull it off and finally after cutting a hole or two in my sock...and cutting all the way down to the middle of my foot, the boot finally was able to come off. I was glad, when you do a lot of weed whacking and yard work when it is in the 90's and humid...you sweat a lot, on top of that I was pretty covered in grass and weed pieces. It was nice to be able to take a shower after all that.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
New Life
I am still amazed at how much I like it in the country, everything has changed so quickly and I still can't believe how much I enjoy all the chickens, ducks, and geese.
The ducklings started hatching a few days early, I half expected them to as hot as it was when they were shipped. We had a mishap and I was afraid that we might have accidentally killed them in the shells. We had a beautiful day and my husband opened up all the windows and turned off the air conditioning. Neither of us even thought about how it might affect the eggs. It got really warm in the house while we worked outside, which is not a good thing when your incubator was set up to run when the temperature is 78. The house only got up to 84 degrees on the Inside, however we also had a brooder with chicks in the same bathroom that the incubator is in...with a heat lamp on it. With the additional heat of the heat lamp and the house...the incubator temperature got up tp 105 degrees!
I was horrified to find the temperature was that high, I figured all the ducks and chickens would be fried in the shell. We got lucky with the ducks, we ended up with 10 out of 14 viable eggs hatching. I had to help a few out of the shells, after one died after zipping...I didn't want any more to die. I had three eggs that at one point had live ducks in them...I candled all of the duck eggs looking for movement after the heat incident all of them were alive, so we actually lost 4, I just didn't open the eggs...I candled them again, and even though I saw no movement any more, I left them to incubate several more days.
Today one of the chicks hatched, I put about a dozen chicken eggs in the incubator a few days after our rooster died. I tried to select only our Rhode Island Red hens eggs. I believe the first chick to hatch is a Rhode Island Red. A new life to replace the one lost. I have more eggs pipping, just no others have hatched yet. I also have a hen sitting on a lot of eggs, Brown Racer is a very broody girl...I hope that she passes that trait on to her offspring. We shall see how many of these eggs that could be damaged end up hatching. If nothing else hopefully Brown Racer will have a successful hatch.
Since our Rouen's started laying eggs, I collected a dozen of them and put them into the incubator. In about a week I will candle those eggs and see if they were fertile, if they are we will have more ducks in about 28 days. Ducks grow very rapidly so they should be about the size of an adult at about 5 weeks, they should do pretty well in the duck pen provided I get the new shelter built for them before cold weather hits. All of them should be old enough to start laying come spring. I have my doubts about the eggs I hatched being full blooded Khaki Campbell ducks...and I ended up with two of the eggs labeled HY hatching out yellow chicks. I contacted the lady from eBay that I got them from and they are a hybrid called Golden 300, if I remember right. She claims they are even better layers than Khaki Campbell's...and sometimes lay two eggs a day!
The ducklings started hatching a few days early, I half expected them to as hot as it was when they were shipped. We had a mishap and I was afraid that we might have accidentally killed them in the shells. We had a beautiful day and my husband opened up all the windows and turned off the air conditioning. Neither of us even thought about how it might affect the eggs. It got really warm in the house while we worked outside, which is not a good thing when your incubator was set up to run when the temperature is 78. The house only got up to 84 degrees on the Inside, however we also had a brooder with chicks in the same bathroom that the incubator is in...with a heat lamp on it. With the additional heat of the heat lamp and the house...the incubator temperature got up tp 105 degrees!
I was horrified to find the temperature was that high, I figured all the ducks and chickens would be fried in the shell. We got lucky with the ducks, we ended up with 10 out of 14 viable eggs hatching. I had to help a few out of the shells, after one died after zipping...I didn't want any more to die. I had three eggs that at one point had live ducks in them...I candled all of the duck eggs looking for movement after the heat incident all of them were alive, so we actually lost 4, I just didn't open the eggs...I candled them again, and even though I saw no movement any more, I left them to incubate several more days.
Today one of the chicks hatched, I put about a dozen chicken eggs in the incubator a few days after our rooster died. I tried to select only our Rhode Island Red hens eggs. I believe the first chick to hatch is a Rhode Island Red. A new life to replace the one lost. I have more eggs pipping, just no others have hatched yet. I also have a hen sitting on a lot of eggs, Brown Racer is a very broody girl...I hope that she passes that trait on to her offspring. We shall see how many of these eggs that could be damaged end up hatching. If nothing else hopefully Brown Racer will have a successful hatch.
Since our Rouen's started laying eggs, I collected a dozen of them and put them into the incubator. In about a week I will candle those eggs and see if they were fertile, if they are we will have more ducks in about 28 days. Ducks grow very rapidly so they should be about the size of an adult at about 5 weeks, they should do pretty well in the duck pen provided I get the new shelter built for them before cold weather hits. All of them should be old enough to start laying come spring. I have my doubts about the eggs I hatched being full blooded Khaki Campbell ducks...and I ended up with two of the eggs labeled HY hatching out yellow chicks. I contacted the lady from eBay that I got them from and they are a hybrid called Golden 300, if I remember right. She claims they are even better layers than Khaki Campbell's...and sometimes lay two eggs a day!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Our Ducks
My husband thought we needed ducks for our pond, so after raising chickens for awhile and determining that we could do it...I bought some baby ducks to raise. I was really surprised at how rapidly they grow and how messy they are. No lie...ducks and geese poop constantly and are almost full size by the ripe old age of five weeks.
Our ducks have finally gotten old enough that we can tell what sex they are. We have 2 Khaki Campbell male Drakes, 1 Rouen Drake and 2 Rouen duck hens. Because we have no female Khaki Campbell's I decided to get some Khaki Campbell hatching eggs and put them in the incubator about three weeks ago...hatch day is fast approaching, it takes 28 days to incubate duck and goose eggs. They sent 12 Khaki Campbell eggs and 4 extra eggs...I haven't got a clue what they are, they are marked H4 or Hy...so maybe a hybrid? I have been taking eggs out and candling them to see the progress of the duck eggs...we may have a very successful hatch. I am guessing duck eggs are just better for mail order eggs...tougher and can handle being shipped better than chicken eggs.
I originally got Khaki Campbell's because they are suppose to lay eggs as well as chickens do...when we had no females I was rather disappointed. We have male African Geese too, I was told they were Toulouse geese...I guess we need to learn how to sex ducks and geese so we get females when we need them. We will probably get female geese come Spring...even if I have to get hatching eggs and hatch them myself.
I got a nice surprise 3 days ago, after separating the two females and male Rouen ducks from the others...I got my first duck egg! The very next day we got two duck eggs! So my females are both laying now. I want to put a few of their eggs in the incubator too. They may be hybrids...a Rouen and Khaki Campbell mix. But, we shall see. Ducks, Geese and chickens love to eat bugs and weeds...we may need to fence more of our property so they can free range a greater area to take care of all the front part of our property...my husband believes they eat ants and I am all for them getting rid of those!
We separated the geese and two Khaki Campbell males from the others because they were picking on the Rouen male so badly, the Khaki Campbell with a white ring on his neck was constantly chasing and pecking him and one of the geese was pecking and sometimes tried to drown one of the females. They are much happier without getting pecked on and chased. The two African Geese and two Khaki Campbell Drakes are in the pen with the teen chicks who are rapidly becoming adults...they can protect themselves, but the pen is also really big and they have room to get away from each other too. We have a kiddie pool in that pen for them to get wet in, but we may end up moving the smaller 50 gallon cattle tank over into the pen. The kiddie pool only has a couple of inches of water in it...chickens can drown pretty easy.
We have not named very many of our poultry beyond the first hens and roosters. Just a few and normally we call them a name based on a characteristic...like Poofy Face, Big Red, Brown Racer from our original flock. We have a Mister and Mrs, the Speckled Sussex pair my neighbors gave me (they tend the smaller chicks), Spike the dominant Dominique mix rooster (he has a big spiky comb) and that is about it so far. I am leaning towards naming the ladies gem names like Amber, Topaz, Garnet, Diamond, Pearl...etc, but some are hard to tell apart. I have some bands to put on their legs to help ID them...but I gotta catch them first.
Our ducks have finally gotten old enough that we can tell what sex they are. We have 2 Khaki Campbell male Drakes, 1 Rouen Drake and 2 Rouen duck hens. Because we have no female Khaki Campbell's I decided to get some Khaki Campbell hatching eggs and put them in the incubator about three weeks ago...hatch day is fast approaching, it takes 28 days to incubate duck and goose eggs. They sent 12 Khaki Campbell eggs and 4 extra eggs...I haven't got a clue what they are, they are marked H4 or Hy...so maybe a hybrid? I have been taking eggs out and candling them to see the progress of the duck eggs...we may have a very successful hatch. I am guessing duck eggs are just better for mail order eggs...tougher and can handle being shipped better than chicken eggs.
I originally got Khaki Campbell's because they are suppose to lay eggs as well as chickens do...when we had no females I was rather disappointed. We have male African Geese too, I was told they were Toulouse geese...I guess we need to learn how to sex ducks and geese so we get females when we need them. We will probably get female geese come Spring...even if I have to get hatching eggs and hatch them myself.
I got a nice surprise 3 days ago, after separating the two females and male Rouen ducks from the others...I got my first duck egg! The very next day we got two duck eggs! So my females are both laying now. I want to put a few of their eggs in the incubator too. They may be hybrids...a Rouen and Khaki Campbell mix. But, we shall see. Ducks, Geese and chickens love to eat bugs and weeds...we may need to fence more of our property so they can free range a greater area to take care of all the front part of our property...my husband believes they eat ants and I am all for them getting rid of those!
We separated the geese and two Khaki Campbell males from the others because they were picking on the Rouen male so badly, the Khaki Campbell with a white ring on his neck was constantly chasing and pecking him and one of the geese was pecking and sometimes tried to drown one of the females. They are much happier without getting pecked on and chased. The two African Geese and two Khaki Campbell Drakes are in the pen with the teen chicks who are rapidly becoming adults...they can protect themselves, but the pen is also really big and they have room to get away from each other too. We have a kiddie pool in that pen for them to get wet in, but we may end up moving the smaller 50 gallon cattle tank over into the pen. The kiddie pool only has a couple of inches of water in it...chickens can drown pretty easy.
We have not named very many of our poultry beyond the first hens and roosters. Just a few and normally we call them a name based on a characteristic...like Poofy Face, Big Red, Brown Racer from our original flock. We have a Mister and Mrs, the Speckled Sussex pair my neighbors gave me (they tend the smaller chicks), Spike the dominant Dominique mix rooster (he has a big spiky comb) and that is about it so far. I am leaning towards naming the ladies gem names like Amber, Topaz, Garnet, Diamond, Pearl...etc, but some are hard to tell apart. I have some bands to put on their legs to help ID them...but I gotta catch them first.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Deaths on the Farm
We have been really lucky not to have any death's from predator attacks, we have coyotes, hawks, racoons, opossum, wild dogs and whatever else hangs around in the woods. Our dogs have not killed any of our poultry, although they have pulled some tail feathers out a couple of times.
Our first death was my favorite hen Ms Poofy Face. We went outside to let them out for free ranging and found her dead in the chicken run, she was still warm...we inspected her and found no wounds. I read up on sudden deaths in chickens and since she had no illness prior to her death, we think she may have had a heart attack.
Our second death was one of our Rouen ducks, he had some health issues, Angel Wing and a vitamin deficiency we believe. I noticed him standing in water...and not moving, in the beginning I just thought he was keeping cool. Later in the day the other ducks were pecking him and I went and got him out of the water. I read up on ducks more trying to figure out what was wrong, he stopped walking too. I brought him in the house and started giving him vitamins and Salmon cat food, he was getting better and standing up and flapping his wings and scooting around the floor making a mess. I started taking him outside and let him swim, I kept him in a cage on the back porch for a little while until my husband thought he would get more exercise if we took him to the pond. I was worried about him getting eaten by a predator or the dogs. He did well out at the pond, I would go down and call for him and he would swim to me. He was far from well, but he could get on the bank and into the water and swam pretty well. On his second week at the pond, I called and he didn't come see me like usual. I told the dogs to find him...Kensie, our lab found him. He was not moving. I could not get to where he was, but he still looked like he was in one piece. I am still not sure what happened to him, I just know he died.
Our third death was a chick. I let my hens hatch some eggs when they were broody. I had two broody hens at that time. One had three hatch and got off the eggs after three days, so I stuck the rest of the eggs under the other hen. She had five eggs hatch and then pooped on the rest of the eggs and switched to a different nest box. I took the remainder of the eggs out of the box and cleaned up the nest boxes. I left the eggs out overnight on top of the coop...it got down in the fifties that night. When I realized that I left them out I was going to toss the eggs into the compost bin but decided to do an eggtopsy. I gently cracked the eggs open...all but one were not fertile. The fertile one had a live chick in it! I made the mistake of putting the egg in the nest box with a hen, I thought it would have a better chance at finishing hatching. She promptly pecked it to death. I will not make that mistake again. I have since gotten an incubator.
We had two other chick deaths, the chicks were not healthy when they hatched in the incubator. I delt with pasty butt and bullying from the other chicks. They seem to peck on any that are not strong, natural selection I suppose. Some chicks are just small and weak sometimes...and do not thrive like the others, especially chicks from hatching eggs sent through the mail. These were both from hatching eggs that I incubated. Both times, they had pasty butt, I tried everything I could but found them dead in the morning at around 5 days old.
Our latest death was heat related. Our Rhode Island Red rooster. I separated the roosters into separate pens inside of a fenced area. Each of them had their own food and water. I put up shade cloth in the fenced area for shade and their kennels both have roofs or tarps over the top. My husband usually lets all of the chickens out in the mornings, we make sure the feeders and waterers are full when we put them up at night so all he does is let them out and do a quick check on them. I usually go out and check on them later in the morning...usually. I got busy and didn't check on the chickens until late in the afternoon...I found big Red face down in the dirt. He had spilled his water and was laying on a wet spot his face was covered in dirt. I bathed him in cool water and gave him droppers full of electrolytes and vitamins. I filled up his waterer with more electrolytes and vitamins and laid him on a towel in his kennel. I put a nipple waterer in his cage too...something he could not spill. I hoped he would be OK in the morning, he was standing up when I left him. The next morning, I went to check on him and he had died during then night. That is one bad thing about having so many animals...you cannot save them all when something goes wrong. We are building new waterers out of PVC pipes and hooking them up to 55 gallon or larger rain barrels or water containers now, something that they can't spill. We are learning the hard way at times how fragile life is.
Our first death was my favorite hen Ms Poofy Face. We went outside to let them out for free ranging and found her dead in the chicken run, she was still warm...we inspected her and found no wounds. I read up on sudden deaths in chickens and since she had no illness prior to her death, we think she may have had a heart attack.
Our second death was one of our Rouen ducks, he had some health issues, Angel Wing and a vitamin deficiency we believe. I noticed him standing in water...and not moving, in the beginning I just thought he was keeping cool. Later in the day the other ducks were pecking him and I went and got him out of the water. I read up on ducks more trying to figure out what was wrong, he stopped walking too. I brought him in the house and started giving him vitamins and Salmon cat food, he was getting better and standing up and flapping his wings and scooting around the floor making a mess. I started taking him outside and let him swim, I kept him in a cage on the back porch for a little while until my husband thought he would get more exercise if we took him to the pond. I was worried about him getting eaten by a predator or the dogs. He did well out at the pond, I would go down and call for him and he would swim to me. He was far from well, but he could get on the bank and into the water and swam pretty well. On his second week at the pond, I called and he didn't come see me like usual. I told the dogs to find him...Kensie, our lab found him. He was not moving. I could not get to where he was, but he still looked like he was in one piece. I am still not sure what happened to him, I just know he died.
Our third death was a chick. I let my hens hatch some eggs when they were broody. I had two broody hens at that time. One had three hatch and got off the eggs after three days, so I stuck the rest of the eggs under the other hen. She had five eggs hatch and then pooped on the rest of the eggs and switched to a different nest box. I took the remainder of the eggs out of the box and cleaned up the nest boxes. I left the eggs out overnight on top of the coop...it got down in the fifties that night. When I realized that I left them out I was going to toss the eggs into the compost bin but decided to do an eggtopsy. I gently cracked the eggs open...all but one were not fertile. The fertile one had a live chick in it! I made the mistake of putting the egg in the nest box with a hen, I thought it would have a better chance at finishing hatching. She promptly pecked it to death. I will not make that mistake again. I have since gotten an incubator.
We had two other chick deaths, the chicks were not healthy when they hatched in the incubator. I delt with pasty butt and bullying from the other chicks. They seem to peck on any that are not strong, natural selection I suppose. Some chicks are just small and weak sometimes...and do not thrive like the others, especially chicks from hatching eggs sent through the mail. These were both from hatching eggs that I incubated. Both times, they had pasty butt, I tried everything I could but found them dead in the morning at around 5 days old.
Our latest death was heat related. Our Rhode Island Red rooster. I separated the roosters into separate pens inside of a fenced area. Each of them had their own food and water. I put up shade cloth in the fenced area for shade and their kennels both have roofs or tarps over the top. My husband usually lets all of the chickens out in the mornings, we make sure the feeders and waterers are full when we put them up at night so all he does is let them out and do a quick check on them. I usually go out and check on them later in the morning...usually. I got busy and didn't check on the chickens until late in the afternoon...I found big Red face down in the dirt. He had spilled his water and was laying on a wet spot his face was covered in dirt. I bathed him in cool water and gave him droppers full of electrolytes and vitamins. I filled up his waterer with more electrolytes and vitamins and laid him on a towel in his kennel. I put a nipple waterer in his cage too...something he could not spill. I hoped he would be OK in the morning, he was standing up when I left him. The next morning, I went to check on him and he had died during then night. That is one bad thing about having so many animals...you cannot save them all when something goes wrong. We are building new waterers out of PVC pipes and hooking them up to 55 gallon or larger rain barrels or water containers now, something that they can't spill. We are learning the hard way at times how fragile life is.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Our Geese
I stopped by a new feed store one day, looking for better prices on feed and came across a cage and bins full of turkey's and geese. I had already purchased 6 ducks and they were so much fun to watch, I just stood there watching the geese until a lady who worked there told me she would make me a deal if I would buy some...she needed to get rid of them before her surgery she was having soon. They were cute, I decided to take two home with me. If the turkey's had have been Bourbon Reds, I would have bought some of them too.
It was fun taking care of the ducks and geese...they are horribly messy though and I cleaned their brooder at least twice a day. I enjoyed it a lot when I filled the bathtub a bit and let them swim around a bit. I tried to let them have time in the water at least once a day. Those little boogers grow incredibly fast! They recommend keeping them in a brooder for 6 weeks, but they outgrew everything I had! I ended up getting a large Rubbermade tank to keep them in, I had to add wire around the top to keep them in it...and at threes week old they went out to the covered and screened back porch. My neighbor said they could go out in the yard by that age, but I thought it would be better if they were bigger still...we have a lot of hawks and I didn't want them to appear like an easy meal.
The ducks and geese have their own fenced area and in addition to the Rubbermade tank that they really have to take turns getting into...I bought a 265 gallon galvanized cattle tank for them to swim in. The trouble was they had no way to get into it. In the beginning we would run around and catch them and put them in the water one at a time. Then I remembered the dog ramp that I had gotten for our deceased dog Orion...I just had to find it. Once I found it and put it on the side of the tank, I had to teach the ducks and geese how to walk up it and jump into the water. That took a little while, every time I could catch one I would set it down in the middle of the ramp...they would run down it instead of up it every time. Then I tried using food to get them to the ramp, and up the ramp...they would only go so far and then run back down the ramp. It took me several days of trying to get them to walk up the ramp to the edge of the water...then I had to get them to jump in. After we got them up the ramp, into the water, we had to teach them how to get out. We ended up moving some lawn chair close to the tank and watching them while they swam, they really loved it. But we had to catch them and put them on the ground for awhile because they just didn't have enough strength in their wings to get out on their own. They did finally get the hang of it though...and now they jump up on the ramp and walk down it most of the time.
My husband wanted ducks for the pond, the first time we tried to take them down to the pond was just plain funny to us. We each took a duck with us, just carried them...and when we got to the pond we thew our duck into the water...the ducks immediately turned around and got out of the water. We tried again, and it looked like they were going to stay and swim awhile...they started swimming across the lake. You could hear the other ducks quacking and they were answering and headed straight toward the sound...swam to the other bank, jumped out and started running toward the creek! We ran after them. I started calling the ducks and they came running to me...I always call them my babies...we have still not named them. They ran behind me and followed me all the way back to the house. We did not try again with the ducks. We did try with the geese this past week. It was the same thing...we threw them into the water and the immediately swam to the edge and got out. We walked down to a shallow spot and they followed us...we tried to get them to get into the water on their own..we thought that if they saw the fish, they would go after them. We had purchased minnows and put them in the water tank they swam in and they were scared of them. We ended up scooping some out into a big bowl and it was only after we actually started throwing to minnows to them that they actually ate them...then they put two and two together and ran to the bowl and started eating them all. They walked around in the shallow water and pulled up weeds and dug in the mud...but barely got their feet wet.
Then my sweet husband took his shoes and socks off and waded into the lake and tried to call them in...it didn't work either. He asked me to try it...so, I took my shoes and socks off and walked into the shallow water...and tried calling them...very slowly they worked their way into the water a little bit until it looked like they were floating. But still, they did not swim around. We will have to try again...but, the geese did the same thing as the ducks...they followed us all the way back to the house.
It was fun taking care of the ducks and geese...they are horribly messy though and I cleaned their brooder at least twice a day. I enjoyed it a lot when I filled the bathtub a bit and let them swim around a bit. I tried to let them have time in the water at least once a day. Those little boogers grow incredibly fast! They recommend keeping them in a brooder for 6 weeks, but they outgrew everything I had! I ended up getting a large Rubbermade tank to keep them in, I had to add wire around the top to keep them in it...and at threes week old they went out to the covered and screened back porch. My neighbor said they could go out in the yard by that age, but I thought it would be better if they were bigger still...we have a lot of hawks and I didn't want them to appear like an easy meal.
The ducks and geese have their own fenced area and in addition to the Rubbermade tank that they really have to take turns getting into...I bought a 265 gallon galvanized cattle tank for them to swim in. The trouble was they had no way to get into it. In the beginning we would run around and catch them and put them in the water one at a time. Then I remembered the dog ramp that I had gotten for our deceased dog Orion...I just had to find it. Once I found it and put it on the side of the tank, I had to teach the ducks and geese how to walk up it and jump into the water. That took a little while, every time I could catch one I would set it down in the middle of the ramp...they would run down it instead of up it every time. Then I tried using food to get them to the ramp, and up the ramp...they would only go so far and then run back down the ramp. It took me several days of trying to get them to walk up the ramp to the edge of the water...then I had to get them to jump in. After we got them up the ramp, into the water, we had to teach them how to get out. We ended up moving some lawn chair close to the tank and watching them while they swam, they really loved it. But we had to catch them and put them on the ground for awhile because they just didn't have enough strength in their wings to get out on their own. They did finally get the hang of it though...and now they jump up on the ramp and walk down it most of the time.
My husband wanted ducks for the pond, the first time we tried to take them down to the pond was just plain funny to us. We each took a duck with us, just carried them...and when we got to the pond we thew our duck into the water...the ducks immediately turned around and got out of the water. We tried again, and it looked like they were going to stay and swim awhile...they started swimming across the lake. You could hear the other ducks quacking and they were answering and headed straight toward the sound...swam to the other bank, jumped out and started running toward the creek! We ran after them. I started calling the ducks and they came running to me...I always call them my babies...we have still not named them. They ran behind me and followed me all the way back to the house. We did not try again with the ducks. We did try with the geese this past week. It was the same thing...we threw them into the water and the immediately swam to the edge and got out. We walked down to a shallow spot and they followed us...we tried to get them to get into the water on their own..we thought that if they saw the fish, they would go after them. We had purchased minnows and put them in the water tank they swam in and they were scared of them. We ended up scooping some out into a big bowl and it was only after we actually started throwing to minnows to them that they actually ate them...then they put two and two together and ran to the bowl and started eating them all. They walked around in the shallow water and pulled up weeds and dug in the mud...but barely got their feet wet.
Then my sweet husband took his shoes and socks off and waded into the lake and tried to call them in...it didn't work either. He asked me to try it...so, I took my shoes and socks off and walked into the shallow water...and tried calling them...very slowly they worked their way into the water a little bit until it looked like they were floating. But still, they did not swim around. We will have to try again...but, the geese did the same thing as the ducks...they followed us all the way back to the house.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Too Many Roos
I got the chickens originally for the eggs, started with 6 straight run chickens that were about 3 months old. It is a learning process, I had no clue what straight-run was. I do now.
After figuring out 2 of my original 6 were Roosters, I decided to get 4 more...but laying hens. I had 3 Easter Eggers, 3 Rhode Island Reds and now 4 Dominique hens. It was coming up on winter when I got them...those crazy hens slept outside on the roost all winter, I did wrap the run in heavy canvas and put a heat lamp out for them, but they have continued to sleep out on the run.
When Spring rolled around, I ended up with broody hens...the first time, I didn't let them sit on any eggs. You can break a hen that insists on sitting on eggs by locking them out of the nest boxes, they need to be cooled off and some people dip them in cool water or put them on a wire bottom cage with no bedding. The second time, I let two hens sit on eggs at first I got eggs from my neighbor, none of them hatched, then I used eggs from my chickens and had tiny little chicks, 7 black chicks hatched out and one yellow chick. During that time my favorite hen suddenly died, I only had one egg from her that hatched...it was the blond chick. My Rhode Island Red Rooster was the Daddy to all of these chicks. I had loaned my Easter Egger Rooster to my neighbors so none of the first batch were his. It seems like there is close to 1/2 and 1/2 on the sexes of the chicks. I ended up with 3 males out of 8 chicks with that hatch. But my hens actually stayed broody and sat on two clutches of eggs...they sat on eggs for 45 days total. They looked rough...so after they hatched the babies and took care of them for a week, I took the chicks away so they would eat and drink and gain back the weight they lost. Once my hens gained strength and started laying again, it was not but a month and the same two went broody again! I let them collect some eggs and sit again...but I had bought an incubator since the last hatch. I wanted some different breeds of chickens, so I bought some hatching eggs and substituted my hens eggs for the purchased eggs...and put my hens eggs in the incubator.
I had to separate my two roosters after my Easter Egger Roo came back from the neighbors house, he was beat up pretty bad when one of their roosters attacked him. I bought some chicks from Tractor Supply after my first failed hatch in the incubator, they told me they were all pullets...one was a rooster. I ordered chicks from a hatchery too, I purchased one rooster for each breed and a Dominique rooster for my Dominique hens. I found out that if you have any non-barred rooster and mate it with a barred hen, all of the females will be black, and all the males barred like their mother. I have a lot of little barred roosters running around, and about an equal amount of little black hens...but I can tell by the shape of their heads that a lot of those are fathered by my Easter Egger Rooster, they have beards! Lol, I hope I get some green or blue eggs out of the hens. I hate to say it...but most of the barred roosters will be dinner when they get older, they can be quite mean at times. They attacked me when I would try to change their water and feed them. The meanest will go first. I believe that I have about 20 roosters at the moment, but some are just too young to tell yet.
I just came in from outside and cleaning up the brooder on the back porch...I got all the 3 week old chicks outside in that brooder now, so just 4 chicks left in the bathroom for the next two weeks...until the ducks hatch, and a few days later a few chicks too. But, my little hen Brown Racer is at it again...she is still in the nest box from yesterday, yep she is broody again.
After figuring out 2 of my original 6 were Roosters, I decided to get 4 more...but laying hens. I had 3 Easter Eggers, 3 Rhode Island Reds and now 4 Dominique hens. It was coming up on winter when I got them...those crazy hens slept outside on the roost all winter, I did wrap the run in heavy canvas and put a heat lamp out for them, but they have continued to sleep out on the run.
When Spring rolled around, I ended up with broody hens...the first time, I didn't let them sit on any eggs. You can break a hen that insists on sitting on eggs by locking them out of the nest boxes, they need to be cooled off and some people dip them in cool water or put them on a wire bottom cage with no bedding. The second time, I let two hens sit on eggs at first I got eggs from my neighbor, none of them hatched, then I used eggs from my chickens and had tiny little chicks, 7 black chicks hatched out and one yellow chick. During that time my favorite hen suddenly died, I only had one egg from her that hatched...it was the blond chick. My Rhode Island Red Rooster was the Daddy to all of these chicks. I had loaned my Easter Egger Rooster to my neighbors so none of the first batch were his. It seems like there is close to 1/2 and 1/2 on the sexes of the chicks. I ended up with 3 males out of 8 chicks with that hatch. But my hens actually stayed broody and sat on two clutches of eggs...they sat on eggs for 45 days total. They looked rough...so after they hatched the babies and took care of them for a week, I took the chicks away so they would eat and drink and gain back the weight they lost. Once my hens gained strength and started laying again, it was not but a month and the same two went broody again! I let them collect some eggs and sit again...but I had bought an incubator since the last hatch. I wanted some different breeds of chickens, so I bought some hatching eggs and substituted my hens eggs for the purchased eggs...and put my hens eggs in the incubator.
I had to separate my two roosters after my Easter Egger Roo came back from the neighbors house, he was beat up pretty bad when one of their roosters attacked him. I bought some chicks from Tractor Supply after my first failed hatch in the incubator, they told me they were all pullets...one was a rooster. I ordered chicks from a hatchery too, I purchased one rooster for each breed and a Dominique rooster for my Dominique hens. I found out that if you have any non-barred rooster and mate it with a barred hen, all of the females will be black, and all the males barred like their mother. I have a lot of little barred roosters running around, and about an equal amount of little black hens...but I can tell by the shape of their heads that a lot of those are fathered by my Easter Egger Rooster, they have beards! Lol, I hope I get some green or blue eggs out of the hens. I hate to say it...but most of the barred roosters will be dinner when they get older, they can be quite mean at times. They attacked me when I would try to change their water and feed them. The meanest will go first. I believe that I have about 20 roosters at the moment, but some are just too young to tell yet.
I just came in from outside and cleaning up the brooder on the back porch...I got all the 3 week old chicks outside in that brooder now, so just 4 chicks left in the bathroom for the next two weeks...until the ducks hatch, and a few days later a few chicks too. But, my little hen Brown Racer is at it again...she is still in the nest box from yesterday, yep she is broody again.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Chickens Everywhere!
I know my family members probably think I am crazy...moving to the country in the middle of nowhere, raising chickens, ducks and geese...having a large garden...husband working 6 days a week and me taking on almost everything by myself. It is hard. I am tired once the sun goes down, but...I am losing weight, gaining muscles and building up my stamina and feeling pretty good most of the time.
At the moment I have duck eggs in the incubator and added some chicken eggs, 3 plastic tubs in my front bathroom with chicks in them, 8 chicks on the back porch in a brooder and around 60 in the pens and coops out back. My first chicks hatched back 2 days before Easter are pretty much grown, at least one has started laying eggs. I will be happier when all of the hens start laying, I am excited to see what color of eggs I get from all the different breeds. My Cream Legbars are suppose to lay blue eggs, I have Black Copper and Blue Splash Marans that are suppose to lay a chocolate brown egg, the Easter Eggers can lay blue, green, pink, brown and sometimes a lavender color...it will be a little while though...the other hens lay light brown and a few will lay white eggs. Since some of my chickens are only 4 days old and most breeds of chickens don't start laying until at least 5 months old...I have a while to wait.
I only have two female Rouen Ducks, 1 male Rouen and 2 Khaki Campbell ducks...I have read they don't start laying until they are about 7 months old. Both of my African Geese are males...we need to get a couple of females. Today I stopped by the feed store that I got them from, I may be able to trade the lady who works there a male for a female, but we will have to see what hers look like, if they are not healthy, I won't do it.
Today we let the ducks and geese into the chicken area, we opened the front door to the coop and let the babies explore. Geese are protectors and hung around the babies a bit, but they were mostly interested in the bugs and tall grass seed heads. We are hoping that by letting the geese into that area, they will handle the tall grass and weeds so we can stop mowing in that area...we shall see.
It is fun interacting with all the different aged chickens, they all have different personalities. At this point the youngest in the coop still look at me as their Mother for protection, it is funny how they hide behind me or swarm around my feet if they feel they are in danger. My neighbors gave me a male and female Speckled Sussex pair, they have been watching after the babies in the coop when I am not around. I have watched them through the window hovering around them while they were eating or drinking and they will attack other chickens who try and scare off the babies. Ahhh, life as a chicken mommy...don't knock it if you haven't tried it...it is a form of therapy.
At the moment I have duck eggs in the incubator and added some chicken eggs, 3 plastic tubs in my front bathroom with chicks in them, 8 chicks on the back porch in a brooder and around 60 in the pens and coops out back. My first chicks hatched back 2 days before Easter are pretty much grown, at least one has started laying eggs. I will be happier when all of the hens start laying, I am excited to see what color of eggs I get from all the different breeds. My Cream Legbars are suppose to lay blue eggs, I have Black Copper and Blue Splash Marans that are suppose to lay a chocolate brown egg, the Easter Eggers can lay blue, green, pink, brown and sometimes a lavender color...it will be a little while though...the other hens lay light brown and a few will lay white eggs. Since some of my chickens are only 4 days old and most breeds of chickens don't start laying until at least 5 months old...I have a while to wait.
I only have two female Rouen Ducks, 1 male Rouen and 2 Khaki Campbell ducks...I have read they don't start laying until they are about 7 months old. Both of my African Geese are males...we need to get a couple of females. Today I stopped by the feed store that I got them from, I may be able to trade the lady who works there a male for a female, but we will have to see what hers look like, if they are not healthy, I won't do it.
Today we let the ducks and geese into the chicken area, we opened the front door to the coop and let the babies explore. Geese are protectors and hung around the babies a bit, but they were mostly interested in the bugs and tall grass seed heads. We are hoping that by letting the geese into that area, they will handle the tall grass and weeds so we can stop mowing in that area...we shall see.
It is fun interacting with all the different aged chickens, they all have different personalities. At this point the youngest in the coop still look at me as their Mother for protection, it is funny how they hide behind me or swarm around my feet if they feel they are in danger. My neighbors gave me a male and female Speckled Sussex pair, they have been watching after the babies in the coop when I am not around. I have watched them through the window hovering around them while they were eating or drinking and they will attack other chickens who try and scare off the babies. Ahhh, life as a chicken mommy...don't knock it if you haven't tried it...it is a form of therapy.
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