Canesister's 2025 journal - Bushel & Peck Farm

[Mini Horses]

Yes, I'll be there

 

[farmerjan]

Already on the calendar for this year... It is my (our) twice a year get together, catch up, etc and so forth. I have been going for years... and so glad for @Mini Horses to come and meet for some "girl friend time"...
You can get the started pullets there that are like $15 each... ready to lay shortly.... direct from a pullet raiser that Joel gets to always have pullets to sell...they will be one of the sexlink breeds so will be good layers for a couple years... There will be tons of baby chicks, but I hesitate to buy them, mostly due to the transportation home, getting them settled etc... death loss thing you know... and exposure to so much stuff there...
Get there early to get to pick out the pullets... and stash in your vehicle and then we can roam the place again...

 

[canesisters]

Already on the calendar for this year... It is my (our) twice a year get together, catch up, etc and so forth. I have been going for years... and so glad for @Mini Horses to come and meet for some "girl friend time"...
You can get the started pullets there that are like $15 each... ready to lay shortly.... direct from a pullet raiser that Joel gets to always have pullets to sell...they will be one of the sexlink breeds so will be good layers for a couple years... There will be tons of baby chicks, but I hesitate to buy them, mostly due to the transportation home, getting them settled etc... death loss thing you know... and exposure to so much stuff there...
Get there early to get to pick out the pullets... and stash in your vehicle and then we can roam the place again...

I thought I had gotten there early for the fall one but parking was already in the 2nd aux lot .
Getting there EARLY this time!

 

[fuzzi]

Chance of snow had dropped to 40%. Going to watch today & see if it drops anymore.
So far the 'menu' has : potato corn chowder, gumbo & peanut soup.

For farm news - is time to make some decisions in the chicken coop. Those hens that a friend gave me NEED to go, along with several of my older girls. I want to pick up a few chicks this year & start over.
I'm afraid that at least 1 of the 'freebie' hens is an egg eater (which explains why my friend stopped getting eggs). So I'll need to try & find out if any of the girls I'd like to keep have 'caught' the habit.
I need to decide if I want to go with T.S. chicks or pick up some at Gilmanor. T.S. starts getting chicks in Feb, I think.
Gilmanor is May 3 (@Mini Horses , @farmerjan are you going to be there?)

I wanted purebred bantams that were clean-legged so my options were limited. I got my first set of day old chicks (Speckled Sussex) from a breeder who was about an hour's drive away. The second set were sexed bantam day old Dominiques from Cackle, mail order. I ordered 5 females, received 6 chicks, 2 turned out to be cockerels so I got a refund. No issues with them.

TSC and most mail order were limited to bantam mixes.

 

[canesisters]

It's snowing here. That tiny, fine snow that is hard to see but accumulates like an even blanket.

I reached out this afternoon to Select Sires about getting Eva bred. She's due to come into heat next week.

I have my back porch plants wintering in the guest bathtub. When I went in to see if they needed the shower on for a bit, I noticed something weird. It looked like a rock stuck in the attached drain dish of the ponytail plant. Turned out to be a frog! I can't imagine how it's survived since Sept or Oct when I brought them in.
I opened up the heat vent in there, put a shallow dish of water in the tub & scraped out a few small bits of the insides of a hot dog to see if he would eat. Looks like I have a new roommate until spring.
Anyone have any tips on frog care? What in the world will he eat? I suppose petsmart sells some kind of frog food....

The plant mgr asked me this am if I would be interested in picking up some extra shifts. The Beamer operator on the other night shift has something going on & has missed several shifts. I told him I would pick up a couple of shifts on my short weeks. The extra money will be GOOD as all of it will be overtime. The extra exhaustion will be difficult.

I canceled the soup party because the latest forecast is 100% chance of snow all night tonight with 3"-5" accumulation. Maybe I'll be making soup in the morning anyway.