SA Farm's journal

[SA Farm]

Got a dent in my work done today. A lot of the crud was still mostly frozen, so I had to take it out in sections So now I'm exhausted and that was just one pen
I've been spending a lot of time with Koda lately. Which has been good for both of us. She's doing well with her house-training and she sticks to me like glue, so I think she'll be a good farm dog as she won't leave me to do things like chase chickens or the farm cat or anything. A huge relief, because if she was inclined to do those things I would have to rehome her!
I love the little cutie

Sadly that's all that's new

 

[SA Farm]

Nothing to report at the moment. Right now it's just the endless waiting...
Waiting to pick up things for the farm (fencing, more fencing, so help me fencing lol)
Waiting for the ground to thaw
Waiting for my ladies to produce eggs or offspring
Waiting for the weather to be something other than miserable so I can get some work done
Waiting...endless waiting

I feel like I'll be old and grey before this winter ends. First day of spring, my foot

Not one of my most upbeat posts, but it'll do!

 

[kinder]

Hurry up, and wait.. I'm with you on that SA Farm.

 

[SA Farm]

Things have been nice and quiet lately. My NZW doe Zap kindled her first litter of babies yesterday, a whopping 9! Way to go, momma! She's doing very well taking care of them too
I have eggs hatching next weekend, so my main goal is to clean up my other incubator since I have a staggered hatch and my duck eggs need to keep turning for a while, so the chicken eggs will be going into the still-air for hatching. It tends to hold the humidity better for hatching anyway!
Franny is doing well with her kids. They turned 2 weeks old this weekend and are already starting to nibble on some grain and are eating hay, so that's good

 

[SA Farm]

Well, my sweet little brown buckling went to be bottle fed in his new pet home today. I'll miss his little cuteness, but I'm glad he went to a good home
My chicks (well, eggs right now) are going into lockdown tonight! Yay for this weekend!
I have a bunch of critters getting sold on Friday and for some reason we decided to try breeding budgies, so we got a breeding pair! Already on eggs! So excited for those chicks too!
I've had budgies for years, so I've been keeping busy doing a bunch of research. I learned a lot from the previous owners as well, so I feel prepared right now. Still hoping nothing goes wrong though!

All of a sudden things are starting to happen!

Here's my new pair of budgies

 

[SA Farm]

4 chicks out of their eggs and a few visible pips, so looks like we'll be going into tomorrow for the majority of the hatching. So tired and excited!
Today was productive. I got two of my three chicken coops cleaned out and combined the third coop into my bigger coop. I now have 9 hens and 1 rooster in the one pen, the other pen sold (I also lost my SS roo to a marauding dog ), so I'm now streamlined and ready for spring!
Starting to get a decent amount of eggs now that spring has finally started to rear it's muddy head, so I've been checking them for fertility and will soon be hatching from my own stock! Yay!
Also got my one brooder cleaned up and my other set up for the new hatchlings, I'll be moving a few over before bed and the still-wet babies will be moved in the morning.

 

[SA Farm]

Looks like a lot more eggs were duds than I was expecting. Only got 6 chicks from 30 eggs
I'm fairly certain the majority of them were too cold when collected, so I'll be contacting my source and getting replacements for those ones.
I feel like I got a lot of work done today, though I spent a lot of time just sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and warm temperature! Finally spring is here!
Looks like one of my Rouen ducks is laying green eggs! I'm fairly excited about that since apparently there's only about 35% chance of them laying colored eggs!
I'll be setting a new batch of eggs probably next weekend with some of my ducks thrown in. I have two incubators, so doing a staggered hatch isn't an issue
I'm just so happy it's spring, I can hardly contain myself!

 

[SA Farm]

Okay, now spring is here! Got my first turkey egg of the season this morning!
Sadly, the egg I thought I was getting from my Rouen was, indeed, coming from my EE. She flies out of her enclosure to lay her egg in the duck house
Disappointing, but at least she's laying! She's a very pretty blue EE, so I'm excited to hatch some chicks from her You can see her egg is almost as big as the Pekin egg beside it. Above are my turkey egg and an egg I'm not sure who's laying from my chicken coop. You can tell that the duck house is messy comparatively. I do my best to keep them tidy, but they refuse to be clean for more than a day

 

[SA Farm]

So, ironically, my Rouen does lay green eggs after all! My EE was laying her green eggs in the duck house, but day before yesterday, there was not only her egg, but one of the Pekin eggs and an egg identical to the Pekin egg, but green!
I'm really getting excited about setting a bunch of my eggs tomorrow! Time to test the hatch rate!
Other than my excitement about hatching, there's nothing really exciting going on around here. The ground is a mess of mud and my ongoing battle with muddy dog prints in the house is never ending! Looking forward to the ground being a little less of a mess!
Next weekend we'll be able to start working on the Pheasant run, so I'm definitely looking forward to that!

 

[SA Farm]

Set about 30 eggs today
Updated picture of Koda!