SA Farm's journal

[SA Farm]

Nice water fowl. Do you have a pond?

I do have a small pond that needs dug out, and my property is low and marshy in general, but I mostly just keep a kiddie pool filled for them since the pond is further back and more exposed than I’d like as it’s not really deep enough yet to offer much protection from predators.

 

[SA Farm]

Alright. You all, some farming friends, and DH wore me down. That and the ticks crawling on me the last couple of days Going to pick up some guinea hatching eggs tomorrow.
I might have a turkey going broody. I stuck two infertile duck eggs in there a week ago and I’ve been keeping an eye as the nest has been messed with and reorganized a little, but no one was sitting on it until tonight.
Side-Piece (DH’s name choice lol) the sweetgrass hen was sitting on it when I went out to lock them up this evening! I’ll give her a day or two to make sure she’s ready to stick, then give her either some turkey eggs or the guinea eggs...maybe half a dozen of each?
If she does go broody, I’m hoping Queen (RP) won’t join her for a while as she’s the only one still laying (I highly suspect).
Here they are from this afternoon. King still looking less than stellar with his featherless fan I noticed some pinnies and new feathers are coming in, so he should be looking better soon.

You can see the section I fenced off and planted. I give them several handfuls of grass and whatnot everyday, but I’d really prefer for them to have more than that.
I would love to free range them, but it’s just not worth the risk of losing them
Tomorrow, they’ll probably be staying in as it’s supposed to storm and rain most of the day.
The ducks and goslings will be pleased

 

[Baymule]

I admire those who raise multiple species of poultry. My efforts seem to be confined to chickens. I did raise some Pekin ducks for the freezer once upon a time and discovered that they NEVER sleep, NEVER shut up and that I didn't want any more after that. I tried Muscovy ducks, but my GP Trip, ate them. I don't know if he hated them or loved them, but either way, they were dead and gnawed on. On a whim, we got 6 Looney Gooney chicks, wound up with 4, then down to 3, about to have a population explosion if all those eggs hatch out. I'm not raising them, they are raising themselves.

So you are a hero type person, raising poultry and doing well with it. You keep up the good (and hard) work!

 

[SA Farm]

I admire those who raise multiple species of poultry.
So you are a hero type person, raising poultry and doing well with it. You keep up the good (and hard) work!

Aw, thanks, Bay

My DH really likes Pekins. Like you, I found them rather noisy, but I more wanted to replace them as they were really hard on the feed bill compared to my other critters and I’m focusing on heritage breeds.
I haven’t tried Muscovies, but the research I did on them indicated they might’ve been a good fit for me, but they are more like geese in that they’re rather defensive of themselves and I could see that rubbing a dog the wrong way. I ruled them out for me because I was concerned the drake would fight with the turkeys and geese.
Supposed to be really tasty though.

I didn’t want to have as many varieties of birds as we have...I wanted to focus on turkeys and waterfowl...so much for that plan I didn’t want to get sheep this early either lol. We were supposed to just get a few for the freezer, not raise them
Wouldn’t consider giving up my girls now, though!
It is a lot of work, but I love it

 

[Baymule]

My pekins were stupid crazy. I fed, watered and cared for them twice a day and they never stopped running from me in a panic. They would knock each other down, trample all over each other like a Black Friday Sale gone bad and on the 6 o'clock news. Idiots.

 

[SA Farm]

My pekins were stupid crazy. I fed, watered and cared for them twice a day and they never stopped running from me in a panic. They would knock each other down, trample all over each other like a Black Friday Sale gone bad and on the 6 o'clock news. Idiots.

For real

Had a busy weekend cleaning out pens and visiting with family. For some reason I was super tired all day yesterday and found out today my Mom was feeling the same way, oddly enough.

While I was cleaning the pens, I shifted some of the birds around this weekend as well, so I actually have an empty brooder in the basement. For now. My call duck eggs aren’t doing very well. I had one internally pip, but that’s it.
If it’s still alive tomorrow I’ll help it out.

 

[SA Farm]

Got my one little duckling hatched out with some help. Don’t know why only one of the 15 eggs made it all the way to hatch...I don’t typically have such poor hatch rates, but oh well. Got one baby, anyway.
Breeder says she’ll give me some ducklings once hers hatch out in a few weeks, so I’m happy about that
I’m pretty sure it imprinted on me. I have it with a chick for company and it’s still happy to run up to my hand as soon as it sees it
It’s a girl

It’s a rainy week this week which means the mosquitoes are out in full force. Had a face and side scratching session with the lambs today.
Been a while since I’ve posted pics of them.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Got my one little duckling hatched out with some help. Don’t know why only one of the 15 eggs made it all the way to hatch...I don’t typically have such poor hatch rates, but oh well. Got one baby, anyway.
Breeder says she’ll give me some ducklings once hers hatch out in a few weeks, so I’m happy about that
I’m pretty sure it imprinted on me. I have it with a chick for company and it’s still happy to run up to my hand as soon as it sees it
It’s a girl
View attachment 62573
It’s a rainy week this week which means the mosquitoes are out in full force. Had a face and side scratching session with the lambs today.
Been a while since I’ve posted pics of them.
View attachment 62569 View attachment 62570 View attachment 62571 View attachment 62572

Aw, nice sweet pictures of your duck and lambs

 

[SA Farm]

Such a gorgeous day out today. Moved some birds around, dug up some sod, cut down some dead brush in the turkey pen while the lambs munched grass and yelled for me when I got out of sight for long enough

My last chick hatch was 100%. Have two more small batches of turkey and the guineas coming up and that’ll be it unless I get some broody babies.
My sweetgrass decided she wasn’t motivated enough, so she didn’t stay on the duck eggs I’d put in there. They were in there long enough that I tossed them and replaced them with a few golf balls. If I get a good number of their eggs collected before I have to go house-sit for my sister, I’ll put them all in and see what happens.

DH got the grass cut today, so I’ll be spending the next few days raking it up to store for the lambs.
Now I just need to finally put in and plant the salad bar for the ducks and I’ll be done for the day. Should be able to get in there now that the brush is out of the way.

Better get back to work...

 

[SA Farm]

I managed to get all my work done, believe it or not. The lambs, of course, were very helpful while I raked up the piles of grass and put it away today...they didn’t get in the way at all

Here’s the completed salad bar. Of course Aragorn had to remind me that he’s the boss of my phone as it was intruding on his domain...

King is finally looking much better now that his fan is coming back in. He was keeping watch while the girls enjoyed the grass clippings I gave them.