North Carolina

[AmyLou1782]

Well, I finished cleaning out the feedroom this morning.

There's a bunch of anger-energy productively directed. Now I'm going to scarf some lunch, and go back out and rake the barnyard. Hubby has called and he went to Lowe's on his lunch to pick up some needed items for chicken house predator proofing. We will get this taken care of. We haven't had foxes since 2003, so I guess we'd gotten complacent. Should have wired that henhouse when we built it.

I should have thought of it.

This too shall pass. (See what all that anger-energy conversion will do for me?

)

I get the luxury of a visit from CSB, RF and her own chicks this afternoon!

I feel your pain! I've been battling the predators myself at our farm and my DH has finally finished my new chicken coop (we call it the Pecker Palace) and run that is covered and skirted. I will end up running hot wire around the bottom too. We've been fighting off foxes, snakes, and owls. I hope you have a good afternoon!

 

[AmyLou1782]

sounds like cocci get sulmet and give to all the chicks

Thank you! I've already gone out and got it and all the chicks have had it. Hopefully everyone will be fine!

 

[lyklos]

OK... day six. All has been going perfect until I woke up to 97 degrees this morning. I threw a towel over bator, and then it was 102....towel off again. I hope my babies are OK.

 

[lyklos]

 

[BennieLangdon]

broody season is in full swing......even our little finch was caught it....she is sitting on her 4 tiny eggs

 

[NewHomesteader2010]

Poison Ivy is one of a goat's favorite treat.

<enables just a little bit> LoL

Mary - enable away. DH is still trying to convince me that we NEED pigs so he can have his own endless supply of bacon. I told him I'd rather pay $10/lb for bacon than have pigs here...now though, I could offer a compromise...a pig IF we get a goat to eat all the poison ivy!! LOL. You'll have to work your enabling magic on him when we go to the WCA - we'll go ONE of these days...hopefully DD#2 will get on a feeding schedule soon so we'll have an idea of WHEN she will need/want to eat.

Not a bad idea, actually. Since I'm running sheep now instead of the dairy goats, my fences are grown up with all sorts of goodies. Maybe I should just borrow a couple goats and let them clear it for me.

Running sheep?? I still plan to drain all of your sheep knowledge once we get our farm fenced in and are ready for sheep!! I've never even seen sheep shearing or milking, so yeah...although it makes me sad to know that the sheep won't take care of all that overgrowth. I thought they were good lawnmowers?!? LOL. Hmm...maybe we'll do goats and sheep.

I'm hopeless!! LOL

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

My preying mantises hatched!

And then I released them all and didn't think to either take pictures or even save one for RF's kids to see...or hubby for that matter!

Sometimes I think my brain isn't wired right.

 

[MaryRuthLangdon]

Mary - enable away. DH is still trying to convince me that we NEED pigs so he can have his own endless supply of bacon. I told him I'd rather pay $10/lb for bacon than have pigs here...now though, I could offer a compromise...a pig IF we get a goat to eat all the poison ivy!! LOL. You'll have to work your enabling magic on him when we go to the WCA - we'll go ONE of these days...hopefully DD#2 will get on a feeding schedule soon so we'll have an idea of WHEN she will need/want to eat.
Running sheep?? I still plan to drain all of your sheep knowledge once we get our farm fenced in and are ready for sheep!! I've never even seen sheep shearing or milking, so yeah...although it makes me sad to know that the sheep won't take care of all that overgrowth. I thought they were good lawnmowers?!? LOL. Hmm...maybe we'll do goats and sheep.

I'm hopeless!! LOL

LoL.... we have pigs & goats. Although the pigs get to smelling to high heaven, in the summer.

They are quite a ways from the house... and mini's.
Of course, the chicken coop isn't smelling like daisies these days... with all this rain we have been having.

I will enable you both.

My preying mantises hatched!

And then I released them all and didn't think to either take pictures or even save one for RF's kids to see...or hubby for that matter!

Sometimes I think my brain isn't wired right.

Those things give me the willies.... especially if they get to staring at you.

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Well, I quit running a breeding flock two winters ago, due to my health issues, winter chores, and hubby traveling on business frequently not working well together. Now I just get weanlings in the spring, raise them up, shear the lambswool and send them off to Freezer Camp somewhere or other. One for me, a few colleagues want them, my vet wants one this year, and any extras to the livestock sale. I've only milked them for colostrum, or to tube feed a weak lamb. You're welcome to come watch shearing, or I have friends who run a bigger flock up in Four Oaks who usually have a Farm Day during shearing, if you'd like me to get you info on that.

I did try sheep and goats together, but it was problematic. The amount of copper a goat needs will kill a sheep. The fighting techniques of ram and buck put the buck at risk of broken legs, 'cause as he's rearing up doing his threat-before-hit thing, the ram has already plowed him down. We've only got five acres, so it wasn't feasible for us to keep them seperate and still be able to rotate our small pastures to keep parasites down. I could run all the girls together and give the goats supplements when they were on the milking stand, but I couldn't keep the boys together, nor keep the minerals right. We would have had to feedlot them, and that defeats our purpose of having better food. If I wanted the meat/milk/eggs from penned animals fed commercial feeds, I'd just go buy it!

Some of the older breeds of sheep will do some browsing as well as grazing, but for the most part, goats prefer browsing and sheep prefer grazing. Mine will certainly do some nibbling, especially on the maple trees(!), but they won't clear the fences!


edited to add that I did get the chicken moat raked before the storm hit...mostly. We were coming in when I realized my mantises had hatched, so I had to go right back out in the rain to release them, since they're cannibilistic. I'm glad it wasn't raining too dreadfully hard. I dispersed them in the grape arbor and the garden, which are both mostly chicken-free. Now I'm filthy and soaked and CSB and RF will be here shortly.

They may never come back!

 

[MaryRuthLangdon]

This little guy/gal was hatched off of my barnyard mix eggs.... out of my community laying pen. So the daddy was our Americauna Roo... mom unknown... but it sure is a cutie pie. We are calling him/her "Creamcycle".