The "F" word... Frost! And congrats Bethanial11 !!

It happened. The first frost - granted it was extremely light and I don't think there will be any real damage but... its here.

Last nite I covered the last of the basil and also took up the last of the green tomatoes. We also put another heat lamp in for the meats so they wouldn't be cold. Normally I'd be mad at the first frost but I have to tell you, this year I'm OK with it. I'm tired and need to turn my attention to other things. The garden is mostly tucked in but I still need to pull up, clean off, and till under a few areas.  But other than that I need to use this time between gardening and hog slaughtering to get a few construction projects done. 

Last year we built the duck garage, this year I need to put a decent foundation of gravel in the goose house and frame in an actual door and 4th wall. We kinda hillbillied something up last year that worked just fine.  Their house used to be a 3 walled shed for firewood. But its perfect for our flock of honkers.

We have the geese next to the turkeys on purpose. OD and his crew are great night watchmen and if there are any shenanigans out there they will alert us. They will also alert us if a leaf blows by, or if another goose is in their spot, or if someone has a feather out of place, or if the feather blows by, or.. well you get the picture.

Anyway. The first frost also means something else...it means that I get some extra sleep. No sense in running right out there until it warms up a little. In the winter we don't let the flocks out until after the sun clears the treeline. I keep dreaming of that magical day when I really get to sleep in. But Little Mo and the Insane Cat Posse usually get me up early enough.

Say - how about a round of applause for Bethanial11!?  Did you see over on Thy Hand Provided that she won a major award!?! Great work, baby! And if someone would tell Thy Hand how much I appreciate her?  For whatever reason I can't leave comments on her site. But wow! I think she is the tops. I found her over on Mr. H's superb site. He's my hero - I'll never be that organized and I can only hope to be that productive.

Happy First Frost everyone! Now hurry -- back to bed.. no sense getting out there just to freeze!

Creepy Meat - a bucket of laughs

Its time for a creepy meat update - they are just over 3 weeks now and we have moved them out of the basement. Thank heaven. It was starting to get mighty stinky down in the basement. And several of them managed to pop out of the kiddie pool they were brooding in.

We fixed up half of the turkey house for them. They are now bedded down in pine shavings over gravel in one of the coops. They turkeys are in the other coop next door and the formerly-Inside-Meeps sleep just inside the door of the turkey house (but not in the coop. Got that?).  I used a bucket to transport them 4 at a time out to their new home. The dog thought this was the best thing he'd ever seen. It was a bucket of laughs for sure.  And yes, its a kitty litter bucket. They are good for everything, including meat transport.

As always, the dog was very happy to help.

Meat, meet Mutt.

In fact, the dog kept them from popping out. It seemed that they were interested in heading outside.. but we'll put them on the grass on a warmer day when they are more feathered in.

Usually the dog herds slightly larger animals. 

So far so good. We set up the heat light in a corner so they would be out of the breeze if the outside door is open and we moved to a hanging feeder and drinker. We are also starting to follow a 12 hours with and 12 hours without food. Some folks use this method so the meat chickens don't grow out too fast and flop over dead. While we want them to grow out effectively, we also don't want to rush. We are using a 20% un-medicated chick feed. Some folks use a higher protein for faster grow out, but since the "green muscle incident" we'd rather they just take their time.

When I walk in to check on them in the mornings they attack my boots. Won't I have the last laugh...

In other brooding news... The Four Pack, our incubator hatched baby turkeys, are doing great. Poults tend to be more fragile than chicken chicks so we've been watching them closely. I've had to put them in the bra-brooder a couple times to make sure they are warm and dry enough. Somehow they spilled their water the other day and were wet and cold. I had a shirt-full of peeps until everyone dried off.

Also if any of the poults looks like they  need a little pep in their step, I give them some "momma" time and put them in my shirt. This way they can hear and feel my heartbeat and it allows them to calm down and warm up. If they had a turkey momma they would climb up into her feathers and hold on. They mimic this by crawling up under my chin, under my arm, or wherever they can get the most skin-to-feather contact. Its actually pretty cute. And no, no one has pooped on me yet... but it probably wouldn't even phase me.

That's all the news, Happy Friday Everyone!

Getting Nibbles to the church on time

Somebody write these dates down: March 8th - 13th... and as late as the 18th. That's when we'll be expecting Nibbles to have her babies next spring. I'm not kidding!

 Nibbles looking like the Hindenburg - the day before kidding this spring

Today we drove like mad to get Nibbles to the breeder. I thought she was in heat last week and had planned to take her next week. Well. Nibbles had her own ideas. This morning I went out to find here screaming her head off.  And she had a detailed, and complex set of plans to get her to the Good Neighbor's buck.  Her drawn in the dirt plans involved a trebuchet, a hot air balloon, and a cross bow. We headed her off at the pass and loaded her up in the truck. And away we went.

We got to the breeders in about an hour - all the way screaming out the window at slow drivers to "Drive faster! We got a hot goat here!"

Finally we made it.

We hustled Nibbles out of the truck and into the buck pen and.... bing, bang, boom, and a little of the old 23-skiddo later.... Nibbles declared she was in love, the buck declared he loved her, and I was the most embarrassed person on earth.

The breeder laughed and said we could probably just run some errands and come back to get her in a hour or so. But we said we'd be back in a couple days "just to make sure." I'm pretty sure that Nibbles said she wasn't coming home with me "now or ever" as we were walking away. However, that buck had a couple other ladies lined up so I'm pretty sure she'll want to come home when she realizes he never really loved her. Goats. Sheesh.

What we are hoping for in the spring - come on Pickles and Ice Cream!

On the drive home we decided to name the first two babies 'Pickles' and Ice Cream. We hope to see them somewhere around March 13th. We'll put our 4-H neighbor kid on notice. Heaven knows we'll need her help.

You can learn more about goat breeding here.

The County Fair

We went to the closest county fair, its one of the last of the season. I just love this part of the country. You can get anything batter-dipped and deep fried, then go next door to the "Prayer Request" booth, and then order gravel for your drive and get a new tractor.

This is what it looks like...

Have a great day everyone!

Cold Weather Chicken Care

I saw on Chi Chi's blog that she is wondering about how to take care of her hens when the cold weather hits, so lets talk about it before the snow flies.

The best thing to do for your hens in cold weather is.... nothing. Really. Chickens are remarkably hardy, that is, most of them can take the cold better than we can. Just give them the tools they need and let them deal with it. Don't make the mistake of over-managing them. I did this the first winter we had our older momma goose, Penny. I called Bourbon Red up all in a panic and wondering if I should try and warm poor old Penny up??

Nope. Actually the worst thing you can do for stock is subject them to warming and cooling. Really - its us that can't deal with the cold not them. The process of heating and cooling is hard of them. Think of getting in and out of your car on a hot day - going between air conditioning and oppressive heat is just draining. Same with cold weather care. Give them the tools to deal with it, steel yourself, and then let them deal with it. After some initial complaining about how the service is so bad and some murderous looks they will find their routine and adapt.

The key tools your stock - especially hens - need for cold weather are:

1. Get them out of the wind. You don't want to seal up your hen house so its air tight because they need good ventilation, but you don't want their feathers blowing in the breeze either. Hens will fluff up and sit on their feet to keep warm. And they will snuggle together especially at night.

2. Feed little and often. Not only does this give them something to do, but it will keep their metabolism going which will keep them warm. Whole ears of corn, a flake of hay, pumpkins or squash, or a head of lettuce or cabbage will keep them entertained and fed throughout the day. Some folks say to increase the amount of corn as its a "hot" food and will help keep them warm. We do this for all our stock - even the goaties - but not too much and make sure they get enough protein. I like to feed smaller meals 3 or 4 times a day.

3. Make sure they get warmish, not hot, water at least twice a day. In the coldest weather the water in our turkey house will freeze so we have to keep up with this. You'll be surprised at how much water your poultry need during the cold weather. Tromping out there with buckets of water can be a pain but you just need to bundle up, cowboy up, and trudge out there. Make sure the water isn't too hot. You don't want their waddles to burn, or worse, scald their crops.  For us, its easiest to use buckets and not drinkers. Its easier for us to fill them and also to break the ice out of them.

4. Bed everyone down so they are dry. Some folks use the "deep litter" method of just piling on the straw and letting the droppings create compost. This compost will generate its own heat and provide lots of crawly bugs and such to keep the hens feed and entertained. Just throw in a handful of scratch and the hens will keep everything mixed up. In the spring you'll have fantastic compost for the garden. We have wood floors so this doesn't work out so great for us as the floors may rot. So we clean out the hen house often and keep piling on the straw.

On our coldest nights we leave a 75 watt light bulb or one of those red heat lamp bulbs on in the hen house. This will keep the water from freezing solid and to keep the frostbite off the chickens with the longest combs.

The first year we got here we were sitting inside and enjoying the news when they said that a Saskatchewan Screamer was bearing down on us and our windchills would be -30* that night. Before they finished the report we were in the truck and headed off to the nearest straw place. Straw (not hay) is an amazing insulator, is readily available, cheap, and can be used in the garden after the cold weather lifts.

We piled the straw bales up to create an outside wall on the windward side of the hen house, around the foundation, and also a few on the inside of the hen house. We also hung heavy towels over the glass windows and made sure everything was locked up tight. It worked great.

Other than that, we let the hens out during the day unless there is freezing rain, sleet, or on the absolutely coldest days. Keep an eye on everyone's feet for frostbite. I have a few hens that want to be outside even in the snow, but most will want to keep their feet dry. You can sprinkle some hay just outside the hen house door to get some of the snow to melt and to give them a chance to pop around outside. I also make a path of straw from the hen house door to the goat house door so they hens can go and scratch around in the goat's bedding.

A few random thoughts:

Is your hen house facing south? That will catch the most amount of sun and warm up so they are comfortable. My hens like to lay just inside the door and let the sun shine on them. If you are starting from scratch plant deciduous trees so they shade the hen house in the summer and let the sun shine in the winter.

Keeping your waterfowl dry is the most important thing you can do in cold weather. It can be challenging because they need to splash around in a water source (a bucket for instance) and it gets the bedding all wet. Keep piling on the straw, keep it cleaned out, and consider putting a straw bale for them to roost on at night.

Remember that your poultry are going to be as bored as you are being cooped up on the cold days. You may have never considered yourself as a 'poultry cruise director' but its part of your job description now! Give them something to do. This will keep them busy, warm, and from picking fights.

Make sure everyone gets into shelter at night. One of my silly hens got left outside one snowy night. I went out to turn off the lights and make sure everyone was OK and she was huddled by the hen house covered in snow. To tell the truth, I didn't find her - one of the dogs did. She probably would have lived, but wow I was glad to put her inside with the others.

We have lots of hens, so we don't think about it, but if you only have a few hens they may not have enough body mass to keep warm on the really cold nights. I think they say at least 3 hens are enough to snuggle together to stay warm. But you'd be surprised how much heat that little hen will create.

If you notice frost on the INSIDE of your hen house you may not have enough ventilation. Also make sure the water you bring isn't too warm, the steam will create condensation which may freeze.

That's pretty much it. I don't know about you but I'm not looking forward to bundling up like the Abominable Snow Dork... but its coming.

Pippin' ain't easy

Our fourth hatchling made his debut this morning... with a little help from me. This is what I found when I went to check the incubator...

A+ for effort.. but C- for implementation.  Hey buddy! Its head first not foot first!

Usually they get their beaks out first so they can breathe and use their egg tooth to break the shell. But this one was a little "breech"...So I helped free him from his pod.. I mean.. egg.

See how the membrane has already dried? Look just below where the egg shell is cracked.  Use the zoom feature to see more clearly.

I'm thinking we need more moisture in the incubator.  This is the second one who has gotten stuck because the membrane inside the eggshell was too dry for him to bust out. We'll be working on that. For now he's drying off in the incubator then we'll put him in the brooder with the rest later on.

The membrane had pretty much pulled away from the shell and was just stuck on the top of his head. The shell came off in two big pieces and he was somewhat dry. I'm glad I got him out.

Some folks think you should not help with the pipping process because they feel a chick that is not strong enough to hatch on its own probably wouldn't live. But honestly... if they are going to die anyway you might as well try to help. We took this approach before and ended up pipping out 3 or 4 poults who lived, thrived, and grew out just fine. So our position is, why not try to give them a fighting chance?

Hatchlings #2 and #3 spent some time in my "bra-brooder" yesterday. They had gotten wet from their drinker and were chilled. But they got dry soon enough and were just so cute. Their Peeps of Misery turned to Musically Peeping and all was right with the world. After sleeping for a while with their little heads on my chest they started screwing around... and then there was too much of a ruckus in my shirt. I popped them in the brooder and they spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what the chick food was...they got it.

Happy Monday!

Happy 10-10-10 at 10:10!

Whoot! It's 10-10-10 at 10:10!

Apologies.. I'm given to nerdiness on all levels.....

But hey! Here is a cute chick...one of Floppy's Five

His coloring is really interesting... a stunner for sure.

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