***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Matt in Okla]

Holy cow! This one must have hurt!

One of them girls might have longer legs and neck than the others lol

 

[Ironsights]

Little humor for the day. Hope everyone is safe from the past days events

 

[NanaKat]

Gentle showers today....
Chickens are all staying inside.
Babies are hatching under two hens and in the incubator.

We have kept up first time heifers and 2nd time cows in the lot to watch for problems with calving. We have two in the lot now. One had her calf on 5/7 and the other lost a calf on 5/9. Both cows had to have help birthing. The one with the live calf (317) is a first time mom and has yet to let the calf suckle unless she is in the squeeze chute. The cow that had the dead calf (384) has been in the squeeze chute to let the calf suckle also. The cow 384 has raised one calf and has now been licking the calf and also stands still for the calf to nurse. We had been alternating the cows in the chute until one of them accepted the calf.
Now that 384 is accepting the calf, we have milked out 317 and have been saving the milk for the freezer until needed by another baby. She has a lot of cream in her milk so we wash her bag each time and I've reserved some of the milk for the kitchen. Yesterday I made butter from the cream from the milk from the day before and last night, I made 4 quarts of yogurt from the milk. There is a full gallon of milk separating in the fridge from last evening's milking. One of the benefits from having a good milk producing line of cows.
We will reduce the amount of milk retrieved over the next several days to allow 317's bag to reduce the milk production and put her in the new calf pasture. We doubt she will allow any of these babies to suckle.

 

[BetsyOK]

Nana, my red carnation poppies are beautiful! I didn't get the sees out when I should have, so I sowed some in small pots in the window an put the small plants in the soil when they started getting leggy--during mid-winter. They lasted only a few days, but then seeds that hadn't sprouted in the pots sprouted in the garden--all three colors. There were very few purple ones, and managed to step on the one remaining one enough times that it didn't develop further. There is a small clump of pink ones that I still have hope will bloom. Wish I'd known I could plant them that late--I'd have large clumps of all three colors!

Will last year's seeds germinate this fall? I know I'll have red and maybe pink ones from this year's plants. The soil where the red ones are growing may have been amended better than for the pink ones, and the reds probably get more sunlilght.

Kass, my raspberries have gone wild and we are expecting a pretty good crop of berries. I'll even share a couple of plants with my nice, young neighbor.

 

[NanaKat]

Yes, Betsy. I have sowed seeds several years old and they have sprouted. It will be mixed seed because I put them all in a pint jar after sending the seed out.

I can also save you fresh seed this year. The plants will begin to self sow soon too.

 

[NanaKat]

A few more garden photos

 

[Matt in Okla]

Goofy chickens. I threw them a couple of canned peaches. Turned their noses(beaks) up at it. Lol weirdos

 

[Fallenone05]

NanaKat your garden is absolutely beautiful!! I'm jealous!
Also, I candled my eggs today and I can see that 2 out of 3 are developing!
The one that I'm not too sure about is super porous and I can't see inside it very clearly at all.
One baby is half speckled sussex, 1/4 buff brahma and 1/4 buff orpington (mom is a half and half), and the other is speckled sussex/production red! ;;
I'm so excited! The Brahma/Orp cross is the one sitting and she's doing such a good job. It's so cute seeing her interact with the eggs.

 

[dunnmom]

My 10 chicks are about 8 weeks now, one is definitely a cockerel. He hasn't crowed yet, but I can tell by his comb and wattles. We half expected him to be top of the pecking order, but it seems he hasn't established much dominance over the girls yet. It's been pretty funny watching him try. We also aren't sure what to do with him, we really can't keep a roo and I'm not sure how I feel about culling him for dinner. I might keep him if he's quiet, but he's an SLW, so I know that's not likely. It would be intetesting to let him breed our BO's and see what their babies look like. Anyone ever mix those breeds?

 

[Kassaundra]

My 10 chicks are about 8 weeks now, one is definitely a cockerel. He hasn't crowed yet, but I can tell by his comb and wattles. We half expected him to be top of the pecking order, but it seems he hasn't established much dominance over the girls yet. It's been pretty funny watching him try. We also aren't sure what to do with him, we really can't keep a roo and I'm not sure how I feel about culling him for dinner. I might keep him if he's quiet, but he's an SLW, so I know that's not likely. It would be intetesting to let him breed our BO's and see what their babies look like. Anyone ever mix those breeds?

There is a vet in Spiro OK that does a decrowing surgery, it isn't cheap, about the same price as a spay or neuter (couple hundred) it is a very specialized surgery he has a thread here on BYC. If you need a no crow roo but still want fertilized eggs. There are also "no crow" collars, most people seem to have mixed success. If you don't care that he be able to fertilize eggs there is always caponizing, if you go that way it would need to be done fairly soon before he gets to old.