Illinois...

[homeschoolin momma]

Who eats a serama

Well, they are a little bigger than quail, so I guess you could look at it like your eating a large quail?

Then there's "Micro" = the most useless, but adorable chicken.

I know I should take the little guy, but I just don't know what to do with him. I dont think Jasper would take kindly to him and could hurt or kill him. Jasper has been.....um....moody lately. Some days he's fine. Other days if you even look at Phoenix much less pick her up, he gets upset. Will fly up at you, chest puffed, making his upset cackle. I scooped him up the other day when he was in a bad mood only to get nipped on the nose!!!!

I am STILL looking for a small winter coop for them. Its so frustrating and getting to be concerning. I cant keep them in a cat carrier all winter!

 

[BReeder!]

Well, it

I had eastern wild turkeys for a bit. I dont think my hen would have fit through a 8x10. Maybe if she squeezed really hard, but it would have rubbed or pulled a lot of feathers. Perhaps a midget breed would be ok.

Well it looks like I will be enlarging the pop door then so the turkeys will be able to get in and or off the run. I need to build a pop door for the ducks on the opposite wall anyway. I will just do them at the same time. Maybe I will actually install some pulleys and ropes this time so it's easier to open and close.

 

[Molpet]

@Molpet and @Faraday40 do I need a bigger pop door for when those turkeys get big? I only plan to keep hens around, which are a bit smaller than toms from what I know. However, my pop door is just 8"x10" I think. It works perfectly fine for all the chickens, but how is it too small for an adult turkey hen?

I only have one coop with a pop door
It's 12" high and 8* off the coop floor.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

An updated picture of Jake with his new tail.

So much more handsome now.

 

[Faraday40]

So much more handsome now.

I agree!

 

[chickendreams24]

Turkeys are broody, but I haven't had any luck selling poults. You might be getting a wedding gift of jennies
Logistics of getting them to you might be an issue @Faraday40

We would love more poults! In fact we have been considering ordering from Porter's to add even more genetic diversity. If anyone is interested in going in on an order please message me. They're running a special right now.

I heard in chickens inbreeding for 4-5 generations was ok
I was told that turkeys have less genes so inbreeding effects them quicker

Well, we should be getting eggs in a couple of months, so maybe I can send some your way soon!


I also like the recessive whites too. Since I seem to have the gene in my flock, there may be more on the way! Faraday thinks that my silver laced is probably the daddy.


This roo is the one with the leakage.
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Im trying to find him a good home. Still have too many roos and he's all the way on the bottom of the totem pole.

Well, I also too don't think they are silkied, even though those strands are still there, but they definitely aren't pure spitz. Jasper has done his deed and has a secret hostel somewhere. Jasper carries the silkie gene, so I guess these spitz mixes will too.


I think it came from one of two chocolate hens, plus that roo above. Faraday thinks its a partial laced chick. Time will only tell on this one. Here's an updated picture of her.
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I'd have to clear that one with the DH2B as we haven't taken the plunge into them yet due to the mess. Maybe this fall yet or next spring/summer. Silver appleyards are the other breed of duck that really interests us. That and Cayuga I really want a couple of them to try and get some of the eggs with the gray or black bloom.

FIL hates the poultry. He thinks they're a waste and doesn't understand it at all. This man is a farmer and used to raise cattle and pigs to eat and sell every year but as long as I've known him he has a live in long term gf that has totally changed his mind about tons of stuff. They don't even ever eat frozen meat any more. You know in a situation where the store doesn't have meat or he can't get to it he'll be showing up here.
He also argues with us about aspects of the poultry until he's blue in the face even when we try and teach him kindly. Apparently we can't eat our eggs since we have roosters. Fascinating.

He doesn't know yet that we've added rabbits. I'm fairly certain there will be a fit.
LOL DH2B figures what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

Since we are in a family owned rental house we can do much of these things but we do still have to pay attention to them somewhat.

We drove up to visit our former neighbor yesterday. (She was like the "grandma next door" and enjoyed spoiling our kids.) Her actual grand-kids were up visiting from TX & our children have played together every summer for over a decade. It was nice to see them again.

On the way we drove by this:
View attachment 1834560
This big guy was posing perfectly for us, so I slowed down to grab a pic.


We were pretty tired after such a long, fun day ( & late night), so we took it easy this morning. I made a nice breakfast with cheese crepes & fresh strawberry sauce from last weekend's harvest with @chickendreams24 . (If our blueberries were in I would have made it look patriotic.)

YUM!
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* Our poor cherry bush was put into shock when the gas co dug up 1/3 of it's roots. The left side of the pic shows our entire cherry harvest this year. Thankfully the tree is putting energy into recovering, so I think it will live to bear fruit next summer.

I'm hopeful for our cherry next year as well. Also our blueberries. I saw a female cardinal sticking her head between the bird netting to pluck the blueberries off our Perpetuas. Drat.

This year has been a wash on asparagus, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries so far. The blackberries aren't done but I'm not hopeful for them right now with everything eating the rest of the fruit. Raspberries aren't ready yet.

The cherries we bought are coming in tomorrow. Also tonight we spent picking peas to blanch and freeze. All of our work didn't yield as much as I would have liked. That said we are planning to pick more tomorrow.

Normally we get TOO many
View attachment 1834985
About this much at ONE picking.... and about 3-4 big pickings each year. They must all happen during a 2 week period at the end of June.
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I pit them and make giant pots of pie filling. I seal it bags and freeze it for the year.
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THIS YEAR:
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Our hope is to the future. The tree seems to be putting its energy into regrowth.


...and there's this little gem we added last spring.
View attachment 1834996
In it's 1st year, it already gave us 2 cherries.
Yet, can you see the gas co's yellow flag right next to it? They're about to push a new line to our house - right next to this little cherry bush. I hope to talk to them before they dig. Since it's small, I would rather they use a machine to dig it up for me to move it out back than to have them leave it & mess up the roots.
View attachment 1834993

Fingers crossed it recovers. It has been 2-3 years since we planted our first blackberry that almost died when a gopher dug a hole next to it's roots. It is still recovering. Last year I got 2 shoots and 2 buds. This year maybe a dozen buds I've seen.

Our dog took off due to the fireworks tonight. We have not found him after 3.5 hrs of driving around the area where he was last seen Please pray that he is returned home to us. His birthday is on Sat. We even have new toys & chewys waiting for him. We’re all crying ourselves asleep tonight.




If anyone has some advice on ways to spread the word of our search, please let me know.

I keep telling myself that
- he's got a collar with a tag
- he's micro-chipped
- he's friendly & may let someone bring him in
- we reported him to the police
- he's part hound & may find his way back to where we were when he took off
- a few people living in that neighborhood know to look for him

Tomorrow we'll try calling shelters. He must be so scared and alone.

Oh my goodness how terrifying!
Molly isnt really bothered by fireworks or gunshots. Bella on the other hand is terrified but runs to us. We always always always lock them in the living room with the windows shut and try to have the TV on for them. Molly stays inside as a precaution and mostly to keep Bella company.

Collar and tag,,, I feel that someone will catch and call you.
I have returned a few dogs that had tags. Since we have 3 dogs, my front yard area seems to attract other dogs.
Just hope not get hurt by a vehicle.

I have taken so many dogs home that had a collar and tags. I had quite the report with the dog owners in town growing up.

He's home!!

One of the police officers we spoke with last night saw him this morning. The dept called us at 6am & said the officer was right outside our house. The dog was found about 5 mi from here, but only 1 mi from where we were last night. I'm sure it was a very rough night. He was cold and wet.... and will need a bath.

As soon as he came inside, he ran around to each bedroom to wake each kid up with kisses, then laid down by DD and fell asleep. It's 9am and the 2 are still sleeping.

Oh thank God! Hopefully he's a reformed big big puppy.

So glad he's home.


I always leave the dogs home after this almost happened to a friend... They took the dog because she was afraid of fireworks and would tear up the house. She freaked out and pulled the lead right out of the owner's hand.... she went in my truck when I opened the door to see if she would get in... couldn't get her out then
I ended up sitting in the truck with her until the fireworks ended and taking her to her home.... She never liked me until that night

I think crooked toes are more of a hatch and early development issue than a genetics issue. At this point I am also blaming my incubator for the lack of feet as well as the unhatched eggs and early deaths... that hatch was just a mess. I'm hoping to figure it out before incubating quail eggs, which I want to do soon since my quailies are laying well.

I mostly agree however I do think if it's genetic or dietary usually both feet are affected. Sending good haatching vibes your way for your next try.

In seem to be holding the thread at the moment... others need to post more.
I have posted a pic of our small pond before. I thought I would share our waterlily with you. Also, check out the beautiful blue koi.
View attachment 1837227

Beautiful! Some day DH2B and I would like a pond. I think some lilies in it would be gorgeous. Also a beautiful koi.

We have full sized bullfrogs. I still cannot believe they just appeared out of nowhere. We'r had people over on the 4th and they were intrigued by the pond, garden and all our birds. It was nice to see our hardwork appreciated.

By the way, appreciation of the garden and birds might have saved our relationship with a neighbor. The people behind us apparently had a lot of firework debris in their yard from our 4th of July festivities. I found out when the husband walked up to the fence today and told me about how they had to clean it from their lawn, deck and pool. I offered to come take over the cleanup duties, but it was too late. I decided we should grab a dozen of our freshest eggs and some of the lettuce that had just gotten large enough to pick and bring it to their door. Their son-in-law answered the door. I explained we were sorry and gave him the gift add an apologetic pace offering. A bit later I was back in our yard and clearing twigs from the netting over the chicken run. The husband came up to the fence again, this time to apologize to me. We chatted on for a bit like we typically would and all was well again. If they like the eggs we may even have another family to offload or extras. Who knew that a dozen dggs and a head of lettuce would be so valuable?

Gotta love the power of fresh eggs and produce! But really it's just a wonderful treat for most people.

 

[chickendreams24]

Let's see. Lots going on.

Well we are waiting on baby bunnies. Mommy can have them any day now. We are tired of waiting and checking her neat box. Since this is our first kindle we are a little anxious. Also she is a first time Mom.

Our AC is still out thankfully the weather has cooled.

Clean up around the farm has been in full swing including the silo they dropped a year or has it been two ago.

Had a buyer for the calico pair but he backed out I'm very bummed about that. I'll keep looking.

We attended one of my cousin's wedding celebration this last Saturday. They eloped. It was a nice time.

Friday night we drove up to some friends a couple hours north east. They gave us all of their canning jars and we had burgers and fireworks!
It was wonderful! So much fun. Lots of amazing fireworks. Good food and good company. I also got to spend some time with their exotics. Including some goslings I've never heard of the breeds, a couple cranes, and swans!

I got to pet a baby swans and it was possibly the softest thing I've ever touched! It's a far cry from her swan last fall that bit me/mildly attacked me. Those birds are huge and it was intimidating at the time. Now it's a running joke that I prefer her swans froma minimum distance of 8-10'. Seriously though the babies could change my mind.

And the cranes oh my gosh! One is a sandhill crane the other is. ... Shoot I can't remember I'll have to ask her.

But so pretty and funny. A bit intimidating after the encounter with the adult swan but he was very gentle and curious. He also loved my engagement ring. LOL. I would totally get one of his species if I could and I could guarantee that it would stay nice like him.

I must remember to snap some more photos up there next time we visit.

Unfortunately Frida night in about 5 minutes before I got bug spray on I was bitten by no less than about 25 mosquitoes. At least 11-13 or more were on my left foot and ankle alone. I spent the whole weekend with a miserable swollen foot that had no ankle and was taught and itchy as heck. The swelling has been going down but isn't gone yet. Unfortunately I got at least two more bites tonight picking peas. I worry what my foot will look like tomorrow again.

I have a pretty big reaction to mosquito bites although not as bad as when I was a child. 11-13 or more on one foot well yeah it wasn't pretty. That said I had fun at my cousin's reception when she showed me a mosquito bite and it was a bad one and I said that's nothing look at this! LoL

Cue horrified gasps. DH2B that has always maybe thought a bit that I was exaggerating the reaction to bites thought maybe I should go to the doctor. Lol.

Here's a reminder to tell everyone about my likely mild concussion tomorrow. For now I must get some sleep. Goodnight all.

 

[BReeder!]

tonight we spent picking peas to blanch and freeze

Picking peas... I hate doing it. Peas and greenbeans... I hate that it takes 30 minutes to get a pot full. I like growing them though since they are easy and quickly outpace and shade out weeds. This year we have a 4'x4' patch of each, peas and greenbeans. I plan to let them all grow to maturity and pull the entire crop at once. No more messing around with "Is it large enough? Is it over-ripe?"

On that note, anybody elsr having a rough year in the garden?
Our watermelon didnt come up. I cannot ID broccoli or cabbage amongst the weeds in those rows. Potatoes seem to be doing will. Starting to wilt a bit though and flowers have bloomed and fallen off now after 9-10 weeks - could be a good or bad thing, not yet sure. Our bok choy was leggy. Spinach and lettuce are doing well. Pumkin and squash vines are flowering and seem well. It will be a while. Corn is about 4' tall so far and seems well. Tomatoe plants almost all came up and a growing well. A few flowers finally, but we usually would have ripened tomatoes by now. Cucumbers did not come up well, but those that did are starting to flower. We would usually have ripened cucumbers by now as well. Radishes didn't do very well - I blame tge dense soil for that. We are holding out still on onions and leeks, not very much faith in getting large ones those. None of our pepper seeds came up so we transplanted some we purchased. They are now growing well at least. We got to harvest a few takara peppers (DW's name is Takara, so we had to get these). Eggplant was transplanted and are doing OK, but not impressive.

Overall, it has been a lot of work and little reward. The weather stayed cool and wet for so long, and now we are hot and dry. We were appeared to get hammered with rain this past week for 3 days in a row, and all we got was a brief shower for about 30 minutes.
I keep telling myself all this work will make the garden better next year... That's what I said last year though and ended up overhauling nearly the entire garden this spring and hauled in a few yards of compost in addition to our own compost. I thought we were supposed to be living in fertile plains. Darn home builders just rip away all that fertile to soil though.

OK, rant is over...

 

[Molpet]

Picking peas... I hate doing it. Peas and greenbeans... I hate that it takes 30 minutes to get a pot full. I like growing them though since they are easy and quickly outpace and shade out weeds. This year we have a 4'x4' patch of each, peas and greenbeans. I plan to let them all grow to maturity and pull the entire crop at once. No more messing around with "Is it large enough? Is it over-ripe?"

On that note, anybody elsr having a rough year in the garden?
Our watermelon didnt come up. I cannot ID broccoli or cabbage amongst the weeds in those rows. Potatoes seem to be doing will. Starting to wilt a bit though and flowers have bloomed and fallen off now after 9-10 weeks - could be a good or bad thing, not yet sure. Our bok choy was leggy. Spinach and lettuce are doing well. Pumkin and squash vines are flowering and seem well. It will be a while. Corn is about 4' tall so far and seems well. Tomatoe plants almost all came up and a growing well. A few flowers finally, but we usually would have ripened tomatoes by now. Cucumbers did not come up well, but those that did are starting to flower. We would usually have ripened cucumbers by now as well. Radishes didn't do very well - I blame tge dense soil for that. We are holding out still on onions and leeks, not very much faith in getting large ones those. None of our pepper seeds came up so we transplanted some we purchased. They are now growing well at least. We got to harvest a few takara peppers (DW's name is Takara, so we had to get these). Eggplant was transplanted and are doing OK, but not impressive.

Overall, it has been a lot of work and little reward. The weather stayed cool and wet for so long, and now we are hot and dry. We were appeared to get hammered with rain this past week for 3 days in a row, and all we got was a brief shower for about 30 minutes.
I keep telling myself all this work will make the garden better next year... That's what I said last year though and ended up overhauling nearly the entire garden this spring and hauled in a few yards of compost in addition to our own compost. I thought we were supposed to be living in fertile plains. Darn home builders just rip away all that fertile to soil though.

OK, rant is over...

bad year for me too
didn't get warm crops in until first week of June. have some green tomatoes but not many. Cukes, zukes, watermelon and cantaloupe are about a ft tall not near flowering.
Kale, potatoes and onions are doing ok
soft neck garlic has been harvested this week, right on time, but small heads
spinach is all bolted and need to plant more.

 

[Faraday40]

My garden....

I have a few edible plants in my garden, but most never got planted. The weeds, however, are doing great! Some are even up to my hip! The few plants that I did get in are no where near ready to be picked. My pitiful tomatoes are knee high but flowering. I picked a 3" banana pepper from a tiny 6" plant. (It was uncovered when I was weeding. I knew I had pepper plants & had to weed in order to find them.)

Everything is late. My strawberries were OK and the raspberries & blueberries are coming in now. Pears & apples were picked by a critter last week, so as usual we won't be getting any this year. The gas company nearly killed our cherry bush, so no cherry pie filling for us this year. Today they came back and are trying to kill our little cherry bush planted last year. I sent DH out there to ask them to use their machine to dig scoop it out & we'll replant it out back. The man said that it wasn't in the way & he'd work around it. UGH!


BTW- Does anyone know about cherry bushes from seed? We have some tiny cherry plants growing around the main bush. They were likely planted by the kids during a cherry pit spitting contest. I'm thinking of moving some into the back to provide chicken cover..... and maybe snacks. (The bushes are sort of dense even after the leaves fall.) Any tips to help them get started? Will they be the same as the parent? (It's not grafted, but probably a hybrid.)