North Carolina

[TarheelBirdy]

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".

So pretty!

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

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!

A little mud and rain is not going to sway me from visiting a great lady like you.....

and the kids were showing us all how to get truely muddy

if anyone should be scared of another visit I would expect it to be
you after the show the kids put on. Thanks so much for the visit....
really enjoyed it

 

[ramirezframing]

A little mud and rain is not going to sway me from visiting a great lady like you.....

and the kids were showing us all how to get truely muddy

if anyone should be scared of another visit I would expect it to be
you after the show the kids put on. Thanks so much for the visit....
really enjoyed it

x2 the kids LOVED the visit and your BIG kids and the rain was the icing on the cake for them

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

The kids were great!

Makes me miss having young ones around here. Neither of my offspring has plans for reproducing at all! It was fun to see the kids wear the Boys out!

They've never had three "people puppies" at once! Those were good, happy kids. That's the best kind. They didn't misbehave at all! They are welcome back anytime.

I so very much enjoyed seeing you both again.

Thanks for the eggs for Daddy, RF.

He will be pleased with them, I know.

By the by, CS...I've never had anyone refer to me as a "great lady" before, even tongue-in-cheek! I about fell out of my chair laughing!

( I hope Scott approved the pullets!)


After my guests left, hubby got home, and we spent until after dark doing temporary fox-discouraging stuff to the henhouse. The puppy, Reilly, found the trail through the fence, too. Good puppy! at any rate, hubby has 2 x 4 wire buried straight down by both doors. He cut the wire with four inch prongs, then bent them so they pointed back up. A digging animal is likely to get stabbed in the paw. Around the rest of the building there's now chicken wire, that overlays the ground by a couple feet and up the wood. It's stapled, and pegged. On top of that, we just laid the loose cattle panels down on it, with the small squares next to the building. Then we took all the teenagers, put them in rabbit cages, and put them up on the perches and took up the ramp. And hubby is using the pullet that was killed and left behind as bait in the live trap. She spent the day in my fridge.

He's going to come back and bury the pronged wire all around the building, but we didn't have time tonight. Now he can do it a side at a time.

I'm still kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Complacency. I should know better.

 

[vfem]

I didn't think today I would have time for ANYTHING... then I got constant threats of rain (we got like 5 drops). So thrilled to have gotten some stuff done in the garden AND when I thought all was lost with my potatoes so I gave up... I spoke too soon! Stuck a shovel in and turned out mounds of red and yukon potatoes. So thrilled to fill up a 17lb bag. May be canning potatoes tomorrow.



Here's some shots of the rest of the garden from today:

















Happy butterball meat birds!

 

[Moores6]

very upset.
One of my dogs killed my kitty

poor thing walk by a food dish and got bite.
Now, what to do with this dog.
She has attacked a couple of my other dogs, but never the cats.

 

[BHep]

Moores6

 

[Hollowoakfarm]

Moores6

x2

Wish I had good advice to offer, but I'm afraid I don't. That's a tough one.

 

[BennieLangdon]

bad dog!!!

we got one dog like that.....anything gets near her food bowl....its a goner!

 

[dlockey]

Went back to work today after being out for over a week with the crud. Two rounds of antibiotics and one of steriods later!! We went to WCA on Sunday and had fun, met Mary , sure was good to meet in person!! Came home with 4 Columbian Wyndotte pullets for our CW roo. Also 4 teenage ducks, and 7 ducklilngs!! Our first ducks!! They are so much fun to watch!!


Mama C. and her quints are doing well. She is such a fierce mama!! They are soooo cute just want to snuggle with them!! We also have a Jersey Giant hen that has gone broody!! She only had one egg, but yesterday, I slipped 6 more under her. We shall see what happens!! One of our favorite things is to go into the BO / EE teenagers' yard and just sit and watch them. They are so funny and have so much personality too!! And, the EEs have such different markings! We have a white/gray splash all the way to a dark black brown tweedy looking girl!!


Welcome to new folks, and good luck with those foxes and sick babies! Fingers crossed that Beryl goes on his merry way and implodes!!




Time for bed, night ya'll

Debbie