The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

The company has offered to send a replacement in three weeks but those hungry pigs will be eating 25lbs of feed a day for an extra 21 days with no return.

Profit from pigs can only happen if you can minimize feed costs.

It also effects the efficiency of my whole program as I have to delay the breeding of the next batch because farrowing pens will be occupied.

The cost of the delay is about 1 ton of wasted feed.

 

[chickadoodles]

I am so excited! I have been working on the pen for my broody hen that has been sitting on 4 Sweet Grass Turkey poult eggs. I knew they were suppose to hatch tomorrow so I wanted to get her into her pen so she would feel safe with the poults. When I went to get her and the nest I found egg shells on the floor and panicked where are the babies! And when I picked momma up she had 3 poult's hatched and one was zipped all around and hatched in the pen. Momma stayed on the poults! YEA!!!! Thanks Arielle!
If you zoom in you can see the one that just hatched in the corner

 

[ronott1]

I am so excited! I have been working on the pen for my broody hen that has been sitting on 4 Sweet Grass Turkey poult eggs. I knew they were suppose to hatch tomorrow so I wanted to get her into her pen so she would feel safe with the poults. When I went to get her and the nest I found egg shells on the floor and panicked where are the babies! And when I picked momma up she had 3 poult's hatched and one was zipped all around and hatched in the pen. Momma stayed on the poults! YEA!!!! Thanks Arielle!
If you zoom in you can see the one that just hatched in the corner

they are adorable!

 

[Wisher1000]

Chicka, does she ever stand on the edge of the dish pan and flip it over? I bought some to use as nestboxes, but have been afraid they would flip the eggs out and break them. I have been intending to make a frame for them so the hens would stand on the wood instead of the lip of the pan.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Thanks Ron. They were not suppose to hatch till tomorrow. lol

 

[CanuckBock]

Two standard Partridge Chanteclers, one project F5 bantam Chant and a bantam Brahma rounds out the hatch.​

Next week; waterfowl and turkeys...7 days later and a whole new round of new lives and fun stuffs. Ah summer...so very LIVEly!

One of the moments I enjoy the most is when the youngsters are no longer youngsters but more "young adults" that like all the generations previous and all the generations afterwards will be. The experience IS enjoyable...both for the ones living it and the ones witnessing it. I always marvel at the adventure...the intrigue, the potential fear and outgoingness it takes to see what is on the other side and then the happiness of purring as they return to their new home, glad to have experienced a bit of an adventure but also relieve to rejoin the flock.

Time and again...you get to witness the outgoing gotta climb that mountain and explore the next valley attitudes of the new birds learning the ropes and getting to know their surroundings better. Why the old rooster don't much care to go explore what is over the hill and dale from the comfort of his coop and his harem...for in his younger days he did that walkabout to know what was over there and he had gone far enough to see more of the same and is content to live in the world as he knows it. Things mighta changed, but the old folks know that can be something the younger ones go investigate...give them stories to tell, repeat over and over like a comfortable woolen sweater on a nippy night in the Fall.

The grass is always GREENER...

Been saving this overgrown and wonderfully shaded plot for the ruminants to feast upon - looks about harvestable, eh?​

So when I set the quad of cockerels (natural hatched this winter in the Duece Coop) out and about to be yard birds, one can expect them to do a bit of investigation of their general environment.

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It is never a big surprise and why I do a head count on the yard birds. These four were missing but I knew exactly where to look for them yesterday afternoon.

Wandered a bit off the beaten trail and were behind the coops...no worries, always fun to see how my chicken herding capabilities are...if I fail, can always grab a dog and let them put me to shame. Fixins helped last night with a goosey gander takin' a wander. She is always in exactly the right spot...so long as the human don't throw a monkey wrench in the strategies...fine herdy dogs instinctively make us humans look good and like we know what we are doing...HA!

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I opened the back gate on the way by and went WIDE...not too close because these boys are prideful and figure they are not to be fussed and mussed with...indeed, not letting me get close enough to scoop one. Yes, pride factor they don't want the others to see them cuddled and coddled in the arms of the KEEPER...such ribbing would ensue that they had wandered off and gotten tired and lost and could not strut back to tell their tales of the mountains they conquered and the pretty lassies they saw!

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There the boys go...thru the back gate, down the middle pathway and into the sunshine of the Bird Yard...another generation of succession has succeeded.


Ah summertime in Alberta...so I took a photo this time of the thermometer...

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39C is 102F and this is in the early evening when the sun beats down upon the sensors of this particular unit. It was only 30C or 86F for the day but I often wonder...if the sensor stays at 102F/39C for an hour and a half...I realize that is not the day time high but if you were sitting there, with the sun beating down on you and heating you at this level for an hour and a half...does it really matter what the weather persons rate the day time high as? Temps like that would bake even an able bodied brain into an oozy stew of goo?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ozexpat

The company has offered to send a replacement in three weeks but those hungry pigs will be eating 25lbs of feed a day for an extra 21 days with no return.

Profit from pigs can only happen if you can minimize feed costs.

It also effects the efficiency of my whole program as I have to delay the breeding of the next batch because farrowing pens will be occupied.

The cost of the delay is about 1 ton of wasted feed.

Thanks Oz for the exact info on the monitor lizards...TV shows can be so ill informed! I still figure a small one (another stolen Australian kidnaped to Canada?) that was more temperature extreme tolerant would make a fine night time carouser here to harvest the excess of rodents...until its preferential tastes turned to poultry...hee hee hee. This would indeed be a pet you'd want to handle with (maybe not) kid gloves..."Maa...not the GOAT!" Just something about them, looks very intelligent and I bet can be a whole lotta trouble. Really neat you got to see them in person and take photos. They are magnificent in all their powerful and dangerous mannerisms.

I have heard it is mighty touchy balancing the feed costs on raising pigs with profits in mind. The meat they provide would be superior raised by your own hands; much good in it and healthful/happier for both the pigs and you (you do keep a very awesome admirable piggery!).

I can see why one would have pigs as in by gone days, great food providers and they cleaned up the excess a diversified farm had that might otherwise be wasted...the extra dairy, garden products and grains...but that is like a mini job on its own indeed to keep them on a balanced ration.

Any way to get yourself a dry ice tank? I expect the semen would be less efficient if frozen over fresh but I have heard some purchase a tank (maybe a used one if you have the connections) and rave about the convenience of it all...it could be offset if you chose in the future to sell semen but that could be just adding to the complications of your already amazingly busy fun life.

Darn weather...the hiccups are costing us all outta pocket and eating away at our happy factors. Off to water again to just keep things we have here alive. In a human weak moment, it makes no sense to have record snowfall, continuous rain and then continuous drought (and fires...red sun seems the normal now...that eery red glow...unsettling--Yellowknife is being threatened and that has never happened before!). Thoughts on a little more moderation...like Mother Nature hasn't got any measuring devices left past deluges and then abstinence.

Hope all are safe and those that need moisture get it, those that don't get some sun. We should be able to divvy it out in better portions and share the wealth, eh?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[ozexpat]

My piggery is being set up to produce quality terminal boars

Stud services are offered 2 ways.

The first is traditional buy the semen and perform the AI yourself like I am doing with superior quality product to produce high quality product.

The second is roving boar direct breeding or AI by the breeder. Payment for this service is the pick of the litter piglet - worth about $55 at weaning.

Our area lacks quality boars so I should capture a decent market.

Logistics of frozen semen is way more complicated and not worth the money. S

 

[chickadoodles]

Chicka, does she ever stand on the edge of the dish pan and flip it over? I bought some to use as nestboxes, but have been afraid they would flip the eggs out and break them. I have been intending to make a frame for them so the hens would stand on the wood instead of the lip of the pan.

We made a wood frame for them to sit on and DH used some thin ply wood for dividers in between them and we have a sheet of tin over the top. So there really is not room for them to flip them over. But there is no board on the front so if they wanted to stand on the edge they could but just don't. They step into them. I love them I get them at the dollar tree and use them for everything. Food, water, grit, oyster shells and nest boxes.

 

[chickadoodles]

Tara, congrats on your new little chicks they are very cute!

 

[ronott1]

My piggery is being set up to produce quality terminal boars

Stud services are offered 2 ways.

The first is traditional buy the semen and perform the AI yourself like I am doing with superior quality product to produce high quality product.

The second is roving boar direct breeding or AI by the breeder. Payment for this service is the pick of the litter piglet - worth about $55 at weaning.

Our area lacks quality boars so I should capture a decent market.

Logistics of frozen semen is way more complicated and not worth the money. S

I hope it all works out for you!