Doing the math

Well.. in a way, Jed is right. There is such a thing as Rosie math.

Remember that at first we thought of having... oh.. 4 or 5 chickens.. well in a way I can explain the quantity of poultry we have at home right now.

Count:
28 - Dorkings, Andalusians, Old English Game, Spanish Bday - 3/14, Amauracanas
28 - Polish, Buttercup, Giants, Frizzle, Leghorn BDay- 6/14
3 - Turkeys Bday around May9th
6 - Runner Ducks
Total = 65 potential meals... But also.. the numbers 6 and 5 are close to the numbers 4 or 5... in in truth it's all right because they aren't anywhere close to 7, 8, or 9.. which would be wayyyy too much. =D See, it works.

I was thinking about picking up a male runner duck and possibly a pair of breeding peckings... we'll see. I think we might be fine for the winter. ... unless if I move to binary... that would so totally be awesome and I will never get to high since I'll only be in the ranges of 0's and 1's.. Rock!!

Soo for any of you who would like to learn how to raise chickens or would like some laying hens.. let us know. We'll move some over your way. Especially if it means I'll be able to bring home some more ducks or geese to take their place. =D

Exploding egg of doom

I was out back when I heard a loud "POP!" I had an idea of what it was and my idea was confirmed when the ducks jumped up and started quacking. They have been laying on a set of eggs and I figured that the once that weren't fertilized were going to start exploding if I didn't move them away... well they did. One popped underneath one of the ducks and they all ran over to the pond (BTW, I was frustrated the other week and I dug a pond that is about 4.5 feet deep in some areas about 9 feet long and about 6 ft wide in some areas) and they washed off. I walked over laughing because my first thought was "that duck is never going to go broody again" They're still laying on the remainder of the eggs so we'll see what happens. Not sure if any of the eggs were fertilized but we'll find out soon enough. I wish I could take them away for a bit and candle them. I might just do that tomorrow night to see if there is anything in the eggs. We're due a shipment of poultry next week and if there are any ducks I might just put them under the ducks so that they can raise them as their own. I hope we get some meat ducks... Rouen would be nice, or maybes some pecking.

Animal Count - As of Today

Sooo, as of today we are at:

Chickens:
1 Silkie
1 Rhode Island Red
1 Rhode Island White
9 Ameraucanas

Chicks:
8 Dorking pullets
2 Dorking cocks
4 White Faced Black Spanish pullets
1 WFBS cock
3 Blue Andalusian pullets
1 Blue Andalusian cock
3 Old English Game (something or other)

Ducks:
7 Runner Ducks

Goats:
3 Boer/Nubian Crosses
1 Nubian

Cats:
Calvin and McGee

Guinea Fowl:
2 Guinea Hens
4 Guinea cock

Our averages:
9 chicken eggs
6 duck eggs
3.5 cups (2.25 lbs) of goat milk

All but the guineas free range which has caused issues with my veggie garden and fruit trees. If the ducks don't trash it all and the goats don't eat it all, we should have enough wheat to hold us over for part of the year.

Ducks.. almost spelled it as Dukes...

Well, Jed has wanted runner ducks for a while, mostly because they look so funny; so I got him some ducks. There is a gentleman out in Cal Valley that is getting rid of most of his animals and so I called and asked to pick up as many runner ducks as possible. He thought he had 10 runners but it turned out he only had seven. It was a gorgeous drive out to Cal Valley, all the hills were green and covered in golden, yellow, purple, and blue flowers. It actually wasn't a bad drive, I made it there in less time than it normally takes me to drive to AG. I showed up and picked up 7 ducks and put them in the back of the van. I had layered the bottom with cardboard and covered that with tall grasses from the front yard. They ended up eating grass, feed, and drinking the whole drive home. The first day they gave us 3 eggs, then 5 eggs, so far the egg count goes as such (3, 5, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8) Yup, today they gave us 8 eggs from 7 ducks. Jed thinks he might have missed one yesterday, but who knows. As we have these as primarily layer ducks, I think they will work out just fine. We do not plan on eating any of these as they are still a bit skinny and will not grow to be very big. If we are to have eating ducks they will most likely be pecking or some other type. If we get a male runner in the group of chicks we get in June we'll see about keeping one to breed with our ladies. As for their coloring, we have 2 spotted (their feathers almost look black laced), 3 spotted (traditional brown and white markings), and 2 black.

We tried a couple of their eggs on Sunday with our waffles and their yolks are still not as golden as the chickens. We noticed that they have started eating more and more of the grasses so hopefully their yolks will turn a bit more golden after some time. They made the waffles really light and fluffy, but still filling. Part of that could have also been the goat's milk and goat butter we used for the waffles.