SA Farm's journal

[frustratedearthmother]

What a cutie...and congrats on the eggs!

 

[SA Farm]

Today was 'build the pheasant run' day! Made good progress, so they should be able to move into it tomorrow, finally!
I'll be setting over 3 dozen eggs today since all my birds have been laying profusely! 1 dozen turkey, 1dozen chicken, and over a dozen duck. The ducks are the best layers, the turkeys are above expectations and the chickens are holding steady.
Last night I candled the eggs I set last weekend and every egg I checked was starting to vein beautifully! I'm really looking forward to little baby peeps again soon!
I love farming! The babies, the challenges, the management - it all suits me perfectly!

 

[happy acres]

Know what you mean!

 

[SA Farm]

Lockdown for some of my eggs today, so I'm looking forward to Sunday hatch! Got tons of fencing done lately and moved a bunch of chicks outside. They're pretty much fully feathered and have been without a heat lamp for over 3 weeks, but the weather was so up and down, I didn't feel comfortable putting them out until now! Normally I wouldn't put them out unless it was about 20 degrees, but since that's not even in the 14 day forecast, they'll have to deal with the 10-15 that's out there now. I also need the brooder space now, since I should have something hatching every weekend from now until some undetermined future date! (What can I say, I'm addicted to hatching!)

And, of course, I have pictures!
Adorable baby bun, Obsidian my gorgeous Ameraucana rooster, Ducks sunning in their pen which is finally starting to green up a bit!, Copper strutting his stuff, my pair of Silver Pheasants, and my incubator full to the max of duck, chicken, and turkey eggs! The duck eggs are a little dirty since their pen was a mud puddle up until this week , but the ducklings inside are growing nicely, so obviously not too muddy!

 

[SA Farm]

My first hatch went well: 11 of 13. I can live with those odds! One of the chicks pipped and zipped, but didn't make it, so there would have been 12 All chicks have gone to their new homes and lockdown for the next batch will be tomorrow, so things are moving along.
I'm really hoping my silver pheasant hen sits on her eggs. She just started laying on Sunday and there were two in there yesterday, so she's doing her thing. she goes broody next week or so and raises them! I really don't have room in my incubator for more right now! Not to mention brooder space!
Pictures of a few of the hatchlings:

 

[SA Farm]

Well, I have to admit I've never done hatch or fertility rates before. Never really understood it and never needed to know until I started selling hatching eggs. So, I have figured out based on my first turkey hatch, that my turkeys have an 83% Fertility Rate and a 100% hatch rate!
Copper, Platinum, Brass, and Mercury are the proud parents of 5 little poults! Still in the incubator fluffing out! (The last one in the egg hatched too)

So excited about my first poults from my own stock! Thrilled with both the hatch rate and fertility rate as well, actually! The last two batches of hatching eggs I bought were Fertility 33% and 57% and Hatch Rate 75% and 80%, so just not nearly as fantastic as my own stock!

We've been getting a lot of rain and still have rather cool temperatures 10-15* only! Unheard of for May! It's been strange to have the season start so late!
Today we traded an unwanted table saw for a small shed, so DH is going to fix it up and we're going to move our big brooders into it. We'll still have the day-olds inside, but once they start feathering out, they'll move into there with a heat lamp instead of being all dusty and messy in my basement!
So things are looking up!

 

[happy acres]

I moved my chicks out yesterday! It's good to have the house back!

 

[SA Farm]

How is it that in under a year I can forget how fragile turkey poults are? I lost two of the five within the first day. The other three are going strong and are getting friendly too, so that's the upside...

Platinum has decided to go broody and since it'll only be her first time, I gave her 7 eggs to set on. She's been sticking so far, so

I think Mercury may be next since she was sitting beside Platinum hissing at me this morning. With Platinum out of commission now, I'm not sure how many eggs I'm going to get...I'll have to check under Platinum every couple of days in case Brass and Mercury are still laying and she's absorbing them under her
Don't worry, I marked the 7, so any I take from her will go straight into the incubator and I'll just lock them down early to be on the safe side.
I also set the 5 Silver Pheasant eggs since the hen has shown absolutely no interest in brooding them herself. Hopefully they're fertile!

 

[RockyMountainFarms]

that the pheasant eggs hatch.

 

[Pioneer Chicken]

Got the turkey run completely done the other day! Finally, the turkeys can enjoy..the, well, two feet or so of snow... The main fencing was done, I just had to raise it a few more feet. Once the ground is thawed, we'll be digging some wire under as well.
At least the sun is shining!
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The bucklings are doing well. I can't get over how adorable the little brown kid is : The little roan is cute too, but just such typical colouring that it's not as fun Which is why the little brown may be sold already! Who could resist him?
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I'm thinking that it may be time to start milking Franny. I don't relish the idea of wrangling her, but at the same time, I really would like to have some more milk for my bottle babies and every bit of real goat milk I can pour down their throats the happier I am! Of course I can hardly wait to be able to drink it for myself too!

Cheeki is doing good. She's so adorable and I already feel like we're bonding so well! I even went out and bought her some fun toys the other day! My absolute favorite picture of her, I think!
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Other than that, I'm just keeping busy with regular chores, housework, and entertaining my younger family members

Gosh, that little brown buckling was cute! I'm with ya on the real goat milk; it's what I'm doing with my bottle kids (mostly on goat with no more n' half/two-thirds of cow's milk when need be).

Pardon me, but adorable is an understatement! Cheeki looks like a princess sittin' on a lovely wreath of flowers.

Thanks, Kinder, please do keep in touch

There are obviously down-sides, heartache, worries, and struggles with my farm and my family, but I have a hard time complaining about my life because I've been so blessed and I read about others struggling that have it so much worse than me, I just can't bring myself to carry on about my problems
We picked up another rabbit cage today for a brooder since we also bought about 21 chicks on Friday
Mostly Barred Rock, which is good since we'll have a couple different bloodlines that way, the rest an assorted mix that we'll probably sell.
Yes, now that kidding season is over, hatching season is in full swing. I have 42 eggs in the incubator right now and that's just the beginning!

My niece talked us into getting her a hand-raised budgie next weekend (she fell in love with Cheeki!), so that's what we'll be doing then! So Cheeki will soon have a friend

That's a good thing, SA; wish I could do that too, but when I get a lot of hard hits, it just kinda gets me down. I'm glad you can see through it and keep pushing on. : )

Aww...who couldn't fall in love with Cheeki? She's such a precious little thing.

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
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How exciting! Let us know how they do raising their brood and all. What kind of turkeys do you have again? And, one more question; did you make your own incubator or did you buy one?

~PC