Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[scottcaddy]

Ben? Are you still with us?
Are the feathered friends still doing ok?
Scott

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hi Scott,

I am still floating about mate, just not as often as I used too.

All the little ladies are doing great, just about everyone is back to laying. Twice this week we have had 12 eggs, never had that before! And to top if off pretty much every one of them is different, which is pretty cool.

Between 3 jobs, the family and my training I find it hard to sit down and cruise the web site, was much easier when I was working from home most days.

I have my first 100 mile race coming up next month and getting ready for that has taken up much of my spare time.

I really should extract a digit and get some new photo's to share! I will try fix that next week when I have some down time.

Thanks for checking in Scott, I needed a nudge!

 

[vehve]

Hiya Ben, hope everything's going well. How did the race go? Can we find a description of it somewhere? I love reading your run play by plays.

And Scott, as promised, here you go:



By the way, here's where the tree in question is located:
https://www.google.fi/maps/place/60...39m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

 

[Kusanar]

Hiya Ben, hope everything's going well. How did the race go? Can we find a description of it somewhere? I love reading your run play by plays.

And Scott, as promised, here you go:



By the way, here's where the tree in question is located:
https://www.google.fi/maps/place/60...39m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

very pretty place!

 

[scottcaddy]

Hiya Ben, hope everything's going well. How did the race go? Can we find a description of it somewhere? I love reading your run play by plays.

And Scott, as promised, here you go:



By the way, here's where the tree in question is located:
https://www.google.fi/maps/place/60...39m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

Thanks, It's good to see that tree is holding it's own.
Scott

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hiya Ben, hope everything's going well. How did the race go? Can we find a description of it somewhere? I love reading your run play by plays.

And Scott, as promised, here you go:



By the way, here's where the tree in question is located:
https://www.google.fi/maps/place/60...39m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

Hi Felix,

Sorry to let you all down with the posts. Life has just been ticking away nicely, so I have not been posting very much although I do check in every day or two.

The flock is going well, we have had5 broodies this season, currently have three sitting on nothing. We are not planning any hatches anytime soon as we currently have 18 healthy birds.

We did hit a record 17 eggs in one day a few weeks back in the peak of Spring, currently we average 11 or 12 a day which is nice. $3 a dozen to friends is helping offset the feed bills.

The three vines growing over the run are going great, should get our first grapes this season and had a bumper haul of yellow passion fruit just gone and the black passion fruits are just starting to grow.

Everyone is healthy, no health issues or concerns for months now which is awesome.

We also just put a deposit down on a new puppy, which we have to wait 5 weeks until she is ready to come home. She is a pure bred Weimaraner. I can't wait until she is old enough to come run with me.

As for my 100 mile race just gone it went very well. Naturally I would have liked better but I can't complain with the result. Running 100 miles in one day is hard work!



Very happy to earn a win both for myself and the team I had helping. I did write a race recap, it's a long one but that's nothing new for me. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/benzilla80

 

[vehve]

Nice job, Ben! Once again, the post was super interesting to read. Crazy pace though, I can't understand how you did it. My personal best of all time with anything similar was 85km in 27 hours in the military. Ok, that was carrying a weapon, 15 kg of gear, and in combat boots, but still. Never been the fast sort. And I can't imagine doing any of that in the heat you must be having. During that it was interesting to see how different people are though. We were moving in a 6 person group, out of which I had the worst Cooper test results (2870m at that point). The top guys did about 3500m, but at the end of the little trek we took, I was the only one still in any shape to continue, had to carry another guys gear at the end and everyone else had horrible blisters.

Nice to hear everything is well on the animal and egg production front too, and good luck with the new puppy. We got a new lab in the Summer too, Myrkky is about 5 months old now. Egg production is way down here though, we're starting to run short on light.

 

[Kusanar]

Hi Felix,

Sorry to let you all down with the posts. Life has just been ticking away nicely, so I have not been posting very much although I do check in every day or two.

The flock is going well, we have had5 broodies this season, currently have three sitting on nothing. We are not planning any hatches anytime soon as we currently have 18 healthy birds.

We did hit a record 17 eggs in one day a few weeks back in the peak of Spring, currently we average 11 or 12 a day which is nice. $3 a dozen to friends is helping offset the feed bills.

The three vines growing over the run are going great, should get our first grapes this season and had a bumper haul of yellow passion fruit just gone and the black passion fruits are just starting to grow.

Everyone is healthy, no health issues or concerns for months now which is awesome.

We also just put a deposit down on a new puppy, which we have to wait 5 weeks until she is ready to come home. She is a pure bred Weimaraner. I can't wait until she is old enough to come run with me.

As for my 100 mile race just gone it went very well. Naturally I would have liked better but I can't complain with the result. Running 100 miles in one day is hard work!



Very happy to earn a win both for myself and the team I had helping. I did write a race recap, it's a long one but that's nothing new for me. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/benzilla80

Hey Ben! Good to see you back! Ahh, that link wants me to log in, does tumblr require an account to see things others post? Also, I want pics of the puppy when it gets home! I have 3 kittens in my basement that are a bit over 4 weeks old right now.... so looks like everyone is getting small cute animals right now!

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hey Ben! Good to see you back! Ahh, that link wants me to log in, does tumblr require an account to see things others post? Also, I want pics of the puppy when it gets home! I have 3 kittens in my basement that are a bit over 4 weeks old right now.... so looks like everyone is getting small cute animals right now!

Thanks!

Maybe try this link? Not sure if I am sharing the correct link. http://benzilla80.tumblr.com/post/130065707710/***-100-miler Thanks for the interest.

A year ago today we hatched out last birds, (thanks Facebook for the reminder!) Since then we got some day olds but they are all grown up and laying pullets now.

We spent a very long time choosing a dog breed, was a hard choice to not adopt but in the end we went with a reputable local breeder.

 

[vehve]

I'd say getting a dog from a breeder is often the better choice, but really depends on what you're looking for in a dog. But adopting from a shelter usually means that someone has gotten rid of that dog for a reason. More often than not, it's caused by the previous owner, but adopting a grown dog that's been treated wrong can be pretty challenging. They often have serious behavioral issues. They might be easily frightened, and a scared dog often reacts aggressively, something you don't want happening with children around. Also, teaching them new behavior takes a lot more time than it does with a puppy.

Personally, when we're selecting a new puppy, we go for certain traits that will make it a better working dog. That pretty much rules out dogs with unknown pedigree (if not only for the reason that to be able to compete the dog needs to be a registered breed), as to have a chance to get the best possible dog, you'll usually look for a litter with parents that have a proven record of being good working dogs. And also, to get the dog trained the way we want to, it's important to get to work from as young an age as possible.

Shelter dogs in my opinion are best suited for people who don't have children, and who have the time and knowledge to work through the problems their new family member might have. Especially if you just want a small couch potato floofloo, then shelter dogs are a good option in my opinion. Because most couch potato floofloos I've seen will be badly behaved anyway, just seems to me that the smaller the dog is, the easier it is to physically overpower it in different situations, making it easier to tolerate bad behavior from them. I know I'm guilty of this myself, our Dachshund enjoys far more privileges than any of the real dogs do.

When it comes to cats though, I would never care about it's pedigree. The reason I would get a cat would be that I would be living out in the country, and I would need a good mouser. Any barn cat would do in that case.

Good luck with your new puppy, Weimareners look pretty awesome, and I'm guessing the little one will make a good training partner for you in about a year or two. I'd take it easy in the beginning though, they have a tendency for hip issues and taking them on long runs on a leash at a young age can lead to the wrong kind of joint development.