purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

[redtailgal]

OH those are nice!!

 

[elevan]

Safe travels when you leave in a few days!

Your pics are always really nice, I cannot wait to see pics of your trip to Germany and Italy! Have fun and travel safe!

 

[purplequeenvt]

Thanks for the compliments. I take pictures for my own pleasure, but it is nice to know other people like them too. I am planning on taking tons of pictures while I'm away.

I still have a ton of prep before I am ready to leave on Saturday. I have to especially get the chicken coop set up. I have 2 broody hens and a broody duck that I have to move into crates because at least the chicken's eggs will hatch before I get back.

This was what I found the other day.

The 1st three boxes (from the left) are the broody birds.

My little Danny Boy left today. *sniff* I will miss him, but I think he will be in a good place. He and 2 other lambs went to be pets. The family wanted "3 ewe lambs, 2 white and 1 black." And they wanted them now (not in a month). Normally I wouldn't let people dictate things like that, but we were doing a barter deal for use of 25 acres of hay field. So I pulled out a number of sheep - Danny (I really wanted them to take him, but he isn't a girl), 2 white ewe lambs, Waverly - the black and white crossbred who isn't ready to leave for another month, and 2 yearlings. The daughter wanted Danny right away, but the mother wasn't sure....she didn't really want a boy. That's when my dad played the "dinner card". They picked Danny (we have to save him from being someone's dinner, mom!) and the 2 white girls. The lambs are now living a couple roads over and we'll be able to see them once in a while because my sister shears sheep for the relatives of these folks (they also got sheep from us and the live on the same road as their relatives) and I'm sure she'll shear the lambs too.

 

[elevan]

You're being overrun with broodys too! I just gained another one myself today. Seems like everyone wants to be a mama!

 

[purplequeenvt]

I've got broodies coming out my ears now! I set up the coopyesterday to make things easy for when we are gone. The broody count has now gone up to 2 ducks, 2 d'Uccles, 1 Sumatra, and there is possibly a Speckled Sussex under the sheep feeder, but I haven't checked this morning.

 

[elevan]

I hear so many folks say that they want broodys and can't seem to get one that goes broody. I place zero stock in the "broodiness rating" that is placed on chickens as I've had breeds that aren't considered broody go broody. I wonder what it is about yours and my farms that have our poultry all going broody. I free range with minimal supplementation (most supplementation is for younger birds but since they're all together everyone gets a little) and keep waterers all over the place. Besides that I really don't do anything special

 

[purplequeenvt]

I do about the same. They free range and they have their feeder which gets a set amount in it everyday and when it is gone it's gone. They have a waterer, a wading pool, sheep troughs, and whatever other water sources they can find.

One of my ducks broke her set. She was mad at me because I moved her, but my little mille fluer d'Uccle is hatching babies right now! There are 3 last I checked and there were at least 2 more eggs pipped. One baby looks like it is full Speckled Sussex and the other 2 look like they could be full d'Uccle. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll have time tomorrow to post any pictures of them as we leave on our grand adventure at 11 am.

 

[elevan]

Congrats on the chicks!

Have a marvelous time on your trip! I'm quite envious and will live vicariously through your photos when you return

 

[purplequeenvt]

*Sigh*.............finally, we are DONE with lambing. Betty, the last ewe, just lambed. I am so relieved. She had a big black girl (kind of wanted 2 boys to be named Romulus and Remus, but oh well ).

The chicken has hatched out 5 chicks so far. 1 Speckled Sussex and 4 d'Uccles.


I will definitely be posted some trip pictures when I get back!

 

[purplequeenvt]

We're in Germany! We arrived Wednesday evening and we are staying with friends. Last night my brother and I went to a Christian music festival with some of our friends. We saw the Newsboys, Casting Crowns, and several German groups as well. It was great, but we didn't get back until 1 am and my stupid farmer's brain won't usually let me sleep past 6:30 am.

Italy was awesome! Someday I will go back to Tuscany. And Pompeii! Wow. Pompeii was amazing. I took tons of pictures, but I won't be able to upload anything until we get home.

I'm trying not to miss my creatures too much, but I am a little sad to think that all my babies will be big when I get home. We've been getting reports from the home front occasionally. Ingrid (the hen that hatched chicks right before we left) has 5 babies, Demon Chicken (Sumatra) hatched out 4, and one of the Speckled Sussex has 3. That makes me feel like a bad farmer because I didn't think she would hatch anything before I got home - meaning she was setting (and I didn't notice she was gone) for a while before we discovered her. This means that I have around 35 chicks right now between the ones that I bought and the ones that just hatched. Plus I still have one more hen setting (due to hatch as soon as I get back) and also a duck with around 12 eggs due a week later.