Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

Very excited to see those... I have knee surgery next week, so I will be stuck on the couch for the next while with nothing to do but stalk BYC!!

On another note... one of my brown leghorn girls didn't make it to the coop tonight. Fingers crossed that she simply flew over the fence and is roosting in hotel pine tree for the night. Odd target out of the bunch for an owl or hawk... super flighty and matched the ground well compared to the whites and ssh.

I love that scene in your avatar.

Its a shame that pine trees also mean snow.

Good luck with the knee and the leghorn!

 

[MistyMountain]

I love that scene in your avatar.

Its a shame that pine trees also mean snow.

Good luck with the knee and the leghorn!

Thanks, Oz. That is the view from my front porch. Not so green this time of year, though! I moved down here (Virginia) from Wisconsin, so this is almost paradise. Sure we get snow and cold weather, but it doesn't last.

Great news on the leghorn. I went out to lock up the coop this evening and lo and behold, a little brown clucking bird charges me from the pine trees. Our property backs up to the country club, so I imagine she just had a golf outing for the day. If I could tell her apart from the other 3 brown leghorns, I might name her "Fore!"

 

[ozexpat]

Thanks, Oz. That is the view from my front porch. Not so green this time of year, though! I moved down here (Virginia) from Wisconsin, so this is almost paradise. Sure we get snow and cold weather, but it doesn't last.

Great news on the leghorn. I went out to lock up the coop this evening and lo and behold, a little brown clucking bird charges me from the pine trees. Our property backs up to the country club, so I imagine she just had a golf outing for the day. If I could tell her apart from the other 3 brown leghorns, I might name her "Fore!"

lol

you have 4 leghorns so fore seems like a good name.

My pigs are pig 1 pig 2 and pig 3

My two year old boy informed me that he is pig zero

 

[Wisher1000]

My pigs are pig 1 pig 2 and pig 3

My two year old boy informed me that he is pig zero

Now, that's funny! All the personality of regular Pig with half the calories!

 

[ozexpat]

Now, that's funny! All the personality of regular Pig with half the calories!

you crack me up!!

our boy has a wicked sense of humor at 28 months. God help me when he is 15.

 

[ozexpat]

An update on the goings on at CocoBeach Farm

The eggs were candled during the week. There are 30 viable chicken eggs. It looks like we will be strengthening the Ameraucana, Orpington and RIRs. Hopefully a few of the SIlver Penciled Rocks will also hatch. The Wyandottes and Dorkings failed to develop.

The quail will be 14 days in tomorrow so they will go into lockdown on Monday.

Our 12x12 egg house now has a 6x12 incubator room with a ceiling. Next hatch we will run a dehumidifier in the fairly sealed room. We added a 12x12 extension to the egg house this week. The marine plywood walls will go on the last section today. The new 12x18 room will accomadate the quail brooder, the larger brooder and feed storage. The 3 of the 5 55 gallon and all 3 15 gallon drums Mrs Oz brought back from Cavite will all be used for different feed mixes.

I added a sack of fish meal to my order. Its 70% protein with a high lysene content and protein per dollar per kilo is the best value. Even at $28 for 50lb, It drops my feed down by another dollar per sack over soy. At a 3% inclusion to 97% grain it should not taste in the eggs.

The 6 week old chicks have a bug. Some sort of resp illness with clear runny noses but no sneezing or coughing. No smell of puss. They are getting a dose of tetrox all the same.

Caprino the new Nubian buck is learning to graze. He gets a kilo of rice bran/copra meal at the end of the day to help him adjust. I will try and get him a pair of girls at Christmas. The casa chiva will start this week. We milled enough 1x3 coco lumber for a 10x14 floor on the goat house. I would love to make it a little whimsical.

I need to order 1000 pieces of thatch roofing for the goat house and new piggery. I will do that this week. I also need a few lengths of angle bar to finish the last farrowing pen. I am bringing over 2 qt of cold galvanizing compound to spray the finished product with. I could not find it over there.

The pigs are gaining weight fast. They are 9 weeks of age. I need to find a boar fast. We are looking for a 5-6 month boar. It looks like I will be settling for Landrace as Duroc is only available on Luzon as far as I can tell.

The second fence is about 30% complete. I have to build 2 gates to use for a truck access when I am there. We had the guys put pipe in the concrete pillars to weld the hinges onto. We have been using scrap milled wood for the palings but after around 1 mile of 6-8" wide strips my free supply is just about exhausted. The last 400 feet will be solid hollow blocks.

The angle iron tank stand we built 5 years ago is ready to collapse from rust. As we now have municipal water, I am going to re-purpose the 200 gallon ABS tank into a feed mixing drum using the pump motor to turn it. The iron will get cut up and used as rebar in the piggery floor.

Next year we may put a concrete roof on the pump shed (built over the shallow well) and then pop a concrete tower on top for a new tank. I like the idea of 500 gallons of water in an emergency such as a fire.

Other constuction projects include a seperate Guinea Fowl shed, a row of 4x4 breeder coops and a turkey shed.

We have arranged for 30 bushels of night crawler casings to develop soil for Mrs Oz's new fruit trees she is getting for christmas.

Its never ending. Paradise is a lot of work

 

[piglett]

wow OZ sounds like Cocobeach will be a 5 star kind of place

 

[ozexpat]

wow OZ sounds like Cocobeach will be a 5 star kind of place

Five star for the animals lol

Our house roof leaks, grates are rusting and ceilings need patching. I am hoping to be able to replace the GI roof this year

 

[Phage]

So awesome!

How much land do you have?

 

[ozexpat]

So awesome!

How much land do you have?

2.5 acres and shrinking every day lol