Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

[StinkyAcres]

Awwww, the little chicks running around with everyone is so cute! I have a Souffle as well!

 

[thistlewick]

The dessert names are the best honestly!

I lost Pepper this morning - I think she was egg bound, yesterday she was alright, didn't notice anything bizarre but this morning she was on the roost, panting just trying to close her eyes. She let me have hands all over her and it felt *weird* back there but if there was a stuck egg it was higher?? than it has been in Custard. I couldn't 100% say if it was a stuck egg or not. I certainly AM NOT doing an autopsy nor am I spending $40 to find out what it was.

I will spend that kind of money if multiple birds start keeling over, not before.

Some of these tractor supply birds have always laid weird eggs. Custards are weird and Pepper's were weird. Shaped weird.
Jane's are weird too.

Oh I technically got Pepper from Mt. Healthy but after seeing what a silver laced wyandotte SHOULD look like... their lines are.. ehhhhh not great.

Anyway, she was the meanest hen I had (to other chickens) -- and she wasn't very mean but if I had to pick one that had a 'tude it was her. I'm glad she didn't suffer long, though. RIP Pepper! I saved her from a Hawk's clutches last year

 

[StinkyAcres]

Sorry for your loss. The weird eggs could be from the respiratory illness you mentioned your birds might have. My hens' eggs have been funky since they started showing signs of MG.

 

[thistlewick]

Sorry for your loss. The weird eggs could be from the respiratory illness you mentioned your birds might have. My hens' eggs have been funky since they started showing signs of MG.

Hmm not sure, the only one that ever had sniffles (and still sometimes does) has gorgeous perfect eggs

No one else sneezes except her. But that doesn't mean they didn't low key pick.it up

Custard has a multitude of calcium leftover on her eggs. She chows it lol. Her eggs are otherwise shaped fine.

Pepper and Jane both have skinny eggs that aren't quite rounded at one end. Janes is worse and even less rounded.

Neither of them sniffle or sneeze like Pudding does.

I just chalk it up to the fact that Hoovers is pumping out chicks like mad and their genetics are 'good enough'

 

[Shadrach]

It's hot. I'm old.

Yup to both.
A recent conversation in the hot spell.
A. I can hear that spade hitting the rocks half down the road."
Me. "yup, lucky it's down a hole or it could start a fire."
A, "I thought you would have finished that by now."
Me,"I'm 70. It's 28C in the shade and has been close to that for days. If you want to dig, be my guest, otherwise feck off."

I don't know. The heat, it's done something to my usual endless tolerance.

 

[Shadrach]

They don't eat the dogfennel, no, they ignore it. Only 4 sheep on the 2.7 acres of pasture, they have plenty. They don't even get close to even looking like they are eating anything down at all. That pasture could have a lot more sheep on it lol

The pasture was pristine, uninhabited pasture with no livestock on it, ever. No need for 3 week anything. They were de-wormed when I bought them, put on a separate pasture for a week while they pooped all that out, then put on this pasture. We've had them out there for months, no worms. We check them often for signs. Also fwiw, these sheep are a strain out of Univ of Mississippi for resistance to worms and heat, specifically.

The lady I bought them from was *over the moon* about my pastures for them lol she told me everything I needed to know and I have her on speed dial. She raises border collies and these sheep are dog broke - we bought our BC from her as well, but our BC isn't... she's a mess lol we do not train her on the sheep. The sheep get calm lives haha

The horse is a MAYBE idea, just a pondering - I just want reliable lawn mowers because I'm tired of taking the bushhog out during the summer every 2-3 weeks. It's hot. I'm old.

I might just get 2 or 3 heifers as well, anything that can mow 2.6 acres all summer long lol

We had donkeys. They can carry the firewood down the mountain the smallholding owner said.
For the amount of money spent on a stable, the price of the donkeys, the feed, the vets bills they could have got a second hand Bobcat which wouldn't have tried to kick you and mostly, did as instructed to which one can fit a range of tools making it a very versatile small machine.
The kept the donkeys.

 

[kattabelly]

We had donkeys. They can carry the firewood down the mountain the smallholding owner said.
For the amount of money spent on a stable, the price of the donkeys, the feed, the vets bills they could have got a second hand Bobcat which wouldn't have tried to kick you and mostly, did as instructed to which one can fit a range of tools making it a very versatile small machine.
The kept the donkeys.

They sound like my kind of people

I don't drive, can just about manage a quad bike when I need to for work but I hate it. When I sometimes helped out on a farm with a herd of Sussex cattle I really wanted to have a go at training up an ox or two.

 

[thistlewick]

@Shadrach @kattabelly you know what I wanted to do, originally, with this piece of land I bought??

a living museum kind of farm like they have at Butser and the Weald and Downland museum -- a medieval farm... but then I thought about it for 3 seconds at all the manual labor required, realized I could never do it myself, would need a bunch of * p e o p l e * here to help and thought better of it. I'd love an Ox, though!! hahah

I used to live in Sussex and those places inspired me so much, also reading James Rebanks, who if you haven't picked up any of his books I HIGHLY recommend English Pastoral at the very least but The Shepherds Life is fantastic as well.

The scope of my plans has changed over the years being here - sometimes I regret even switching from cultivated crops to pasture (the fence was expensive)

tax; I've also been up your way kattabelly; (honestly since 2010 I've been traveling all over the UK)

 

[thistlewick]

Chickens!

Okay so here is Jane's weird egg compared to two "normal" eggs -- Jane's is in the middle:

It's just weird to me, it's not wide enough at one end. In any case, I've never taken one of her eggs to incubate. Nor Custard's. And she's a tiny "Jersey Giant" anyway. Smaller than almost all my other chickens. Like I said, I just chalk it up to Hoover's blasting out thousands upon thousands of chicks each year.

One of Tilly's brood - I LOVE her coloring.

Welsummers/EEs? unsure lol They don't all stay together and they are wily - the only time they are all together (kinda) is at night, all the babies sleep in 2 piles kinda near each other. Def one little Cockerel though!

and the cutest little 9 week old crow (though this little guy has been crowing for 3 weeks!)

https://imgur.com/a/cuuehx3

I had to sneak to catch it hahahah

 

[kattabelly]

the Weald and Downland museum

They have a pair of Sussex oxen! Or at least they did, I think they went to stay somewhere else during covid and I'm not sure if they brought them back or not.

tax; I've also been up your way kattabelly; (honestly since 2010 I've been traveling all over the UK)

Do you need to pay tax on your own thread?

Brodgar, Maeshowe and Skara Brae are the most well-known sites here but I think some of the brochs like at Gurness or Midhowe are at least as impressive and often overlooked. There's something special about walking through the remains of what are still recognisably buildings where people once lived, more than two thousand years after they were built.

I probably owe some tax. Love how cute baby chicks can manage to look this grumpy.