Bees

Our backyard bees are all set up, but Jed noticed another set of bees set up in a new location. He called me one day and asked me to come look at what he was seeing. What he was seeing was a bunch of bees coming in and out of the bottom hole of a clay pot. The pot was turned over so that only the drainage hole was showing at the top and that is where they decided to make a colony. We've decided to leave them in their new home so that brings us up to 3 hives on our property. =) I'll see about taking pictures when I can.

Chickies

As always, when it gets busy we have a tendency not to post as much. Although in a perfect world, the busier we were the more we should post to keep up with what we're doing.

Well, the last chickie count was 10 inside and 3 outside. Then the Sumatra hatched out her chicks which moved the count to 23 inside and 3 outside. We had one chick get trampled by the rest (we have them in two separate brooders) and so we had to separate him and try to bring him back to full health. That was working but in the mean time the mama Sumatra was dragging her chicks all over the place and had one injured chick. We called him Rolly and brought him in. Tended to his wounds and had him sleep and eat as much as he wanted. Melody called the trampled chick Derp, so that stuck. Unfortunately, Derp ended up passing one night, so although he looked as if he was getting better he was not able to get over all the trauma caused by it.

And after chasing chicks all around the baby room I asked one of our neighbor if he still wanted chicks and as soon as he said yes I came back in the house and grabbed all the polish chicks I could find and the smaller ones and brought 6 chicks in a box to him. Rolly did go with this group since most of his energy had gone into healing and not into growing. We'll see how he does.

On to sad news - there is a Giant that has sat on her nest for a while and I keep finding dead babies. I'm not sure what is causing it as I've never seen anything like it. I'm going to ask some of our local farmers as well as some of our online community to see what they think. The same thing happened to the geese. All the babies were dead in the eggs. They were fully developed, but not alive. Depressing, but we'll see what we can do for next year.

Chickie count

We now have 10 indoor chicks with the 3 indoor poults. I saw 3 baby chicks with the geese today and I heard one other outside that I was unable to find. Though I will look for it tomorrow. If the turkeys and the geese keep hatching out chickens we'll probably never have an issue with raising our own... now if we can only convince them to hatch their own.

Our fearless huntress

Trouble is very good at catching prey. In fact, the other night I heard a loud thunk when she climbed in through the screen door and then some crunching, which made me ask Jed to see what she was feeding on. It turns out that she had killed a gopher, climbed the screen door with it in her mouth and then brought it in to feast on right in our entry way. The only thing of note on this is that the gopher was as big if not bigger than her. So how was she able to climb with a gopher in her mouth and then fling it in between the loose screen and the door? I have no clue but she was having a blast and munching away. We ended up having to warn Aaron about the blood stain on the entry way.

I've also found mice that she's brought in to eat. I think Calvin did a great job of teaching her how to hunt. Now if we could only get her to bring down a coyote or a fox.

Chickens and baby chicks

Last time I posted about our sumatra she had 3 chicks, well the coyotes struck and ended up eating not only her babies but her as well. That has left us a little peeved, but at least some of our other birds are broody.

On Tuesday night we took the piggies their food after fighter practice and heard some baby chirping. We walked over to the old coop and found a baby chick on the floor flailing around. I picked him up and took him into the house and placed him with the turkeys. I brought him food and water with some apple cider vinegar and had him drink a little bit. He then laid there and looked really sad. We weren't sure if he was going to make it. Jed worked in the morning so I made sure to go check on the chick and the old coop in the morning. The chick looked content as it was surrounded by the turkeys. The turkeys had all jumped from their roosts on top of the box and kept him warm. I found another baby chick on the floor of the coop in the morning and I took him in and did the same with food and water.

After getting home from work I went straight out to the coop to see if there were any others. I found three live chicks huddled together and one dead chick off to the side. =( I picked up the live chicks and noticed that there was a chick with the geese. It was a cute fluffy grey chick. I was huddled with the goose so I couldn't go and just pick it up. I brought them in and gave them food and water. I walked out after that and went back outside to see another baby chick fall out from under the turkey to the ground. I picked it up and brought it in. In all we ended up with 9 inside, but unfortunately one drowned. =( I'm not sure what I could have done as it was shallower then any of our chick water dispensers. On the plus side it was the only chick that looked to be a cross with the polish so I guess it was just fate that it would not grow up to breed. I ended up planting it at the base of one of the elderberries this morning.

We're going to see if one of our neighbors is still looking for baby chicks and see if he would like to pick out some of our little guys. So to re-cap we have 8 healthy happy chicks inside, one confused chick outside that was hatched by a turkey and thinks it's a goose and our two sad chicks that were laid to rest with trees. We'll see how our other chickens do.

A-hole goat = birria

When we brought the goats back home after their run from the law Melody and Lucy mentioned that Ramses as trying to butt people. That put us on alert and we watched his actions.

Well, he's being a complete a-hole that's what he's doing. I've found him trampling, butting, kicking, and trying to gouge the smaller goats and frankly a pregnant woman running across the field to kick him is not really a nice sight. I've had to run over because he waits until they have their head through the fence to eat grass and then he keeps attacking them. I've had to clean up Lucy (Unigoat) and Bugger a couple of times because they were bleeding because of his actions. Melody also mentioned that that he tried attacking different people when he was at their house. Well, as many of you know, that is not acceptable. Good personality counts for a lot in this homestead.

We moved Rosie, Lucy, and Bugger over to a friend's house to eat the weeds over there and have Ramses at the house. We're planning on slaughtering him this Friday before Ginger gets home so that we won't have to deal with any more comments. If you're available, feel free to stop on by to help. We'll see if we can make some birria for this weekend.

As my co-worker mentioned... it will be interesting for our child to grow up in a house where if you're mean or don't keep up with the contract you are eaten. =) I hope our little one gets a clue.