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Showing posts with label eggs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eggs. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Surprises From The Freedom Rangers!

It seems the butchering of some of the Freedom Rangers yesterday got the point across to the rest of the birds that I didn't get to: I don't keep birds who don't lay eggs. 

This morning I found nine eggs (I think I have 10 hens left?) in the nest boxes. Made me think of something from the movie "Chicken Run", it did... Hehe. 

For pullet eggs, they're a good size! All jumbos!




I've missed having homegrown eggs around the place...

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Pumpkin Hulsey Chicks!

Well it looks like I will only get two chicks out of this hatch. :-/ I'm going to buy a new thermometer soon and try doing another batch, but for now I am at least happy that I got a couple of chicks! Had I bought these two from a hatchery, they would have cost me a total of $250; buying them via Ebay saved me quite the chunk of money! 





P.S. I got my pair of pigs today! The story and pictures are coming tomorrow!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Eggs Are Hatching!!

If you look very, very closely on some of the Pumpkin Hulsey eggs, you will see some hairline cracks on them that weren't there a few hours ago...

And if you hold your breath and listen as hard as you can, you will hear two chicks peeping from within the close confines of their egg shells. 

It's enough to make this farm girl flush with excitement and grin wildly. The stork never came, but the mail lady did three weeks ago when she first delivered the eggs, and I guess that's good enough for me when it comes to game fowl.

Stay tuned...

Friday, November 16, 2012

Soon!

The Pumpkin Hulsey eggs are due to hatch sometime between tomorrow and Monday!! I don't think I'll get a very good hatch this time around since I think my thermometer might be a bit off, but I do hope that I at least get a couple chicks!

Stay tuned for updates, and maybe some pictures and videos!



Monday, October 29, 2012

The Hulsey Eggs








Dead Turkeys, Hatching Eggs, and Cycling Cows

The day is only half over and already I am tuckered out, and desire to simply curl up with a warm blanket and a River Cottage episode. Maybe I'll do that later... Hmm, and perhaps even with a cup of homemade hot chocolate? Okay, the deal is sealed. Once I'm done with this here post, you'll find me in the living room oblivious to the rest of the world with the laptop sitting in front of me and a cuppa' beside me. I'm easy to please. :)

I got up earlier than usual this morning to milk the cow and goats before the day's adventure began. Normally I milk the cow first, and then do the goats last, but whenever I milk early, I have to reverse the order and do goats first. Mattie (cow) refuses to get up before the sun has risen, and unfortunately that doesn't happen until 7:30 these days! You can push, prod, plead, threaten, beg, and curse all you want with that cow; if the sun isn't up, then she ain't movin'. On the days when I have no choice but to milk her in the dark (not that it's dark in the barn, seeing as I have lights galore!), I have to wake her up 30 minutes prior to her turn (this gives her time to ponder getting up), wait for her to slowly get up, stretch herself like a cat, go potty (this one is imperative; the rubber floors in my milk parlor don't drain very well), drink 10 gallons of water, go potty a second time (seriously Mattie??? Can't you do it all in one round??), give a few grunts of either happiness or displeasure (depends on the time), and THEN she's ready. What do you mean she's got me wrapped around her finger hoof? 

Milking chores were done hurriedly today (as much as one can hurry with a cow like mine!), since I had to be in Willamina at 8:45am, and I was hauling four turkeys with me. Today was the day: The turkeys were going on their last voyage and their destination was the slaughter house. [enter Beethoven's 5th symphony]

As many times as I've raised poultry for meat, I'm always anxious on slaughtering day, wondering if my birds would weigh enough. I told my customers this year that I was hoping for 15 lb. turkeys, but part of me was nervous... What if they don't weigh enough? What if they weigh *too* much? What if something's wrong with one of them? I don't have any extras! 

It's hard to entertain worrisome thoughts though when you're busy trying to catch your victims. Still in their 10'x12' chicken tractor, I wondered just what I would do if they scurried to the farthest corner of the heavy, covered pen. I really didn't want to be crawling on my hands and knees inside a 2' tall structure that was covered from a day's worth of turkey manure. I may be a farm girl, but even I have my limits. Thankfully, since the turkeys had been on a 24 hour fast (necessary for all animals about to be slaughtered), they were more than happy to come right up to me. And they still kept approaching after I whisked them away one by one. Can't decide if that's lack of brains there, or a case of well-socialized birds... Although the term "bird brain" had to come from somewhere I suppose... Hmm, well that's something to ponder with the hot chocolate later. 

When the turkeys were all loaded up into the back of our little pickup truck, I was an utter wreck. My birds were muddy from the heavy rains we've had, and they shared their war paint quite generously with me. Oh well; I was just going to a processing facility, not church. I was delighted however, to find that turkeys travel amazingly well. Accustomed to the cackling of chickens, and dramatic wails of the goats, the turkeys surprised me by simply plunking their chubby selves down and staying stock still for the 15 minute drive. 

After the turkeys were dropped off, we came back home since it would be an hour before my birds were done. When we finally went back, I was dismayed to see that all of my birds were neatly wrapped except one. Since I used to work at this facility, I knew that an unwrapped bird meant something was wrong and the business manager needed to discuss the problem with the owner. I could see large purple blotches all over the breast of the hunk of meat, but other than that it looked normal. The business manager came up and motioned me to come over to the problem bird. It turns out that it wasn't anything hugely terrible. One bird had a broken wing and some bruising on the skin. The meat was in perfect condition, but on the outside my bird didn't look so great. The wing was thoroughly checked for any signs of gangrene or other infections from the break, but there was nothing, save a few blood clots. Personally, I can't help but wonder if this break didn't occur today. One of the workers pulled my turkeys roughly out of the truck and put them in a waiting pen, and it just so happens that he grabbed the birds right where the break was on the condemned turkey.. The broken bone looked too fresh to be something that happened while it was on my property anyway. Oh well; what's done is done. All the turkeys dressed out great, weight wise. They're all within a few ounces range of 15 lbs. some slightly over that, and some slightly under. I'm taking the last two to be butchered on the 13th; these two needed to gain a bit more weight (they're hens, and thus smaller) so they stayed behind. 

By the time I got home, it was 10am and I wasn't even finished with barn chores. The layers and meat birds had to be fed, Mattie had knocked over the water buckets again, the hay manger was empty, and I had to feed the remaining turkeys. Halfway through barn chores, I saw our mail lady drive up with a package. Surprise, surprise, it was for me! My Pumpkin Hulsey hatching eggs had arrived! :) The eggs all look great from the outside; I'll candle them in a few days to see what I can see. All total I got 11 Pumpkin Hulsey eggs, and then 1 surprise Swedish Flower egg. My incubator is being fired up as we speak (er, as I write this and then as you read it, I guess), and the eggs will be put in there tomorrow morning. And then we have the long, slow, boring wait of something like 27 days before the eggs hatch. [faints dramatically]

After the eggs were dealt with, I went BACK outside yet again to finish up barn chores! It was getting quite close to 11am now and the laying pullets hadn't been fed!! Slogging out in my filthy clothes, I momentarily grinned at my dirty state. You eventually hit the point where you're so dirty that you really don't care if you get any dirtier since it won't even show. You gotta' love that, right? Finally, all the poultry were fed, the ruminants had their hay and water, and everyone was tended to.

And then there was Peaches...

Oh goodness me.

My dear little heifer is experiencing her first heat cycle today. In other words, she wants a bull, and she wants one BAD. She's eleven months old now, which is a little early for a heifer to be cycling (or for a Guernsey cross anyway) but Peachy seems to be doing it despite what the books say. Her main victim is Mattie, as the determined heifer repeatedly tries to mount her. Mattie is not impressed and  turns to face the impudent youth. Peaches ignores the hint that her forwardness isn't wanted and simply trots to the south end of her elder again and tries once more to mount Mattie. Actually, Peaches is mounting just about anything she can, from the hay manger, to trying to get the goats and sheep. If you stand outside the barn, you'll hear a lot of bumping and banging against the metal walls. No, there's no construction work going on inside, it's just my antsy heifer. Oh Peach cow... Darling, I wasn't planning on having you bred until July of 2013! But aside from her rambunctious behavior today, Peaches has been as good as gold. She just recently went through a growth spurt (last week I think it was...) and she now stands just slightly taller than Mattie. Okay, so Mattie is a seriously short cow to begin with, but something tells me that Peaches is going to be a downright giraffe in stature. Mattie is my elephant, and Peaches will be the giraffe; Hm, methinks I have a nice little zoo starting here! LOL. 

So now I'm tuckered and craving bitter hot chocolate. My day has been full of dead turkeys, hatching eggs, cycling cows, elephants, and giraffes. Sheesh, no wonder I'm tired...

Off I go now to watch some River Cottage! 

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Duckling Update

I really, truly, honestly didn't forget to update y'all on our duckling hatch! But with this lovely weather, I've been outside in the garden when not in the barn, or at a goat show! :-/

So without further ado...

We ended up with two teeny, tiny ducklings!


Bad picture, sorry. :-/  There was a total of 6 eggs in the incubator, but two died at three weeks into the incubation, and then the other two died after pipping (cracking) the eggshell. :( 

But I at least got these two, so I'm happy. 

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Small Noises...

This morning I checked on the incubator, as I have been for the last 28 days.

But today...

As I leaned closer to it, I heard a very distinct noise coming from within the Styrofoam walls...

A very small noise...

A quiet, but steady peeping! Upon closer inspection I found that one of the eggs had a small hole cracked into it,  and from there came the small noises! It is so cute watching our first duckling start to hatch, and hopefully within the next 24 hours it should be ready to come out of the incubator and explore the big world!

I'll keep y'all posted... :)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Wish Me Luck!

Some friends of mine loaned me something...


I'm sure you can't guess what it is, can you? ;)


Yup, I am attempting to hatch out some duck eggs! We'll see if it works... I've got seven eggs in there right now, and hope to put some more in soon. 


I was extremely grateful that the whole thing is pretty simple to work. It now sits quietly in a corner. Humming softly to itself.


And there the eggs sit. Quietly. Peacefully. Will anything come of this adventure?


We'll find out in 28 days...

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Eggses

I dunno'. Plain ol' "eggs" seemed so boring. Eggses has a nicer ring. Or maybe it just gets your attention... ;)

Some sweet friends of mine surprised me the other day by giving me a free bag of chicken feed from Q-Bar farm; I had heard a lot of good about this particular feed mill, so I was especially excited to see how my pullets did on the whole grain feed. To my surprise, on day #2 of switching feeds, my little ladies started laying! Coincidence? Methinks not. :)

The eggs are only about 2" long right now, as the hens get older, their eggs will get bigger. They look so cute nestled amongst the gargantuan brown and green eggs in our fridge.

Below is a picture of an egg comparison. On the right is one of our tiny pullet eggs; on the left is a duck egg.


Wait a minute! Where'd that duck egg come from!?

Hehe, I couldn't resist...


A friend mentioned to me that she needed to re-home her pair of Magpie ducks. And who was I to say nay to such an opportunity? ;) I absolutely love these two new additions to the farm. They are so hilarious as they waddle around, quacking softly to each other. As you can see in the picture, I dug out our kiddie pool that had been gathering dust in the shop, and filled it for my small aquatic friends. 

The female has been faithfully laying an egg every single morning, and for awhile we would have them for lunch (personally, I LOVE duck eggs!), but now I have been leaving the eggs in her nest in hopes that she will go broody and hatch out some ducklings! We'll see...