Say Hi to Laddie!

Say Hi to Laddie!!!!

He came to live with us today. He's very skittish, not being around kids very much and all of our commotion so it will take some time. He and I sat on the swing for awhile tonight, watching the kids swim and I think he is going to be fine.

And of course I've been hatching eggs!

I chose mostly my Cuckoo Maran eggs because they are a beautiful dark brown. I also chose a couple of Americanas that were crossed with my Maran rooster. Two years ago I crossed Americanas with a Barred Rock rooster and got hens that laid really cool olive eggs and some even had brown speckles.

I hatched a couple of those too. Here are the empty shells that hatched. The two olive ones are from those Americans/Barred Rock crosses that I love so even though I only got nine to hatch I'm very happy.

Here's the first one hatching but it was upside down in the egg so I had to help it a little. It cried and cried til I opened it up a little. It was a little too bloody to open all the way so I was going to wait til the morning but when I got up it was out! Very cool.

The only bad thing is that now I can't tell them apart.

There is one that is definitely smaller so it has to from the pale blue egg.

Fishing Report!

Kevin started fishing in earnest out at my mom's lake and he has been catching some good ones. This was a really big crappie. At first when I saw the picture I thought it was a largemouth.




My BIL Tom caught this nice bass. The beer can is for a size comparison. Of course they took no measuring tape with them. The crappie was definitely a Fish Ohio fish.









Kevin caught this nice bass too. Don't know how big, again no tape or scale.

He was really surprised when he reeled in this northern pike. He didn't know that they have had a stocking program there for the last 30 years.

He, of course, didn't keep the bass or the pike or even the giant crappie but.....

He did keep some from the next trip last weekend. A nice perch, I made him put it back together so I could take a picture, he had already started cleaning it before I took it.

And I think he said that this was a black crappie.

Bunches of fish for dinner.

And if you notice, he is cleaning them on the table in the kitchen. Don't tell my mom or my sister. My mom thinks it is against the law to clean fish in the house and the table that he is cleaning them on is my sisters. He put down plastic and plenty of newspaper so there was no mess at all.

I think one time my dad cleaned fish in the house and he scaled them. The end result was a kitchen full of mess. Kevin filleted his so no resulting scaly mess.

Yummy!

Til next time,

Beth

PS. Hopefully I'll get off of my lazy behind and post more often. I have a post all ready with pictures of the rock wall progress but never got the energy to sit and write the words. Some of the pictures were out of order and it's hard to change them around so I got discouraged.

(Here's a picture of me that Kevin just took while I was working on this post, check out my helper.)

Hatching Guineas and Eating Locally

And by eating locally I mean very locally, from our own garden. So finally, last week we were able to have a dinner made entirely from our own farm.


First we had a cucumber salad with onions. Kind of a sweet and sour salad with vinegar and a little sugar. Of course we didn't grow the vinegar or the sugar, we just grew the large items.


I picked the biggest beets, boiled them and added real butter, no, I didn't make the butter either.


So, speaking of real butter...a couple of weeks ago the son called and asked me to get milk and butter from the store. Well, I knew that I had butter because I had started buying real butter and had stopped using the cheap tub stuff after I was called back to work.



I am determined to use only real butter because I know thatit is actually a real substance and not chemically "created". For the past month or two I have kept a couple of sticks on a plate, usually on top of the toaster (the cat can't find it there). If it gets left on the other counter it ends up with "lick" marks on it.




Lick Marks





Anyhoo, when I went home, after picking up some milk, I noticed that we did indeed have some butter, soft, on top of the toaster and more boxes in the fridge. So, the next day he calls again and asks me to get some butter.


I'm a little perplexed so when I get home I pointed out to him that we do have butter and showed it to him. It slowly dawned on me (when he looked at the butter with a blank look on his face) that he did not know that there was such a thing as real butter and he did not know that butter comes in stick form.


I have been remiss.



Do not try to take a picture of steaming hot broccoli right over top of it, the steam will fog the lens (and hopefully not cause permanent damage to your camera).




Hold your camera a little to the side of it.



And for the main dish, a little butter fried venison. (It counts as home grown.) We paid a lot of money to fill our deer feeder with corn last year.




On to the Guinea Hatching.

A friend at work has guinea fowl. He wanted to hatch some of the eggs and he did not think his hens would sit so about a month ago he brought me nine eggs. At first I told him they should hatch in three weeks but after some checking into it I was very surprised to find out that guineas eggs take four weeks to incubate.

The eggs are so much smaller than the chicken eggs that I am used to that I was really surprised. It just seemed so strange that a turkey egg, which is at least twice as big as a guinea egg, will take the same amount of time in the incubator.

So finally, after the four week wait they started to hatch.

The first one after I moved to the brooder.

I put the shell in with the brooder and took a picture to give to my friend at work. He's not picking them up for a few days and I knew he was ecxited to see what they look like.

The first one hatched really quick but a second one was pipped but getting nowhere. It had pipped that morning so I waited all day but nothing had happened even the next morning, the keet's little beak was still moving around when I checked it so I knew it was still ok.

I figured that when I got home from work if it was still not hatched that I would take matters into my own hands. So, when I got home about 4:00 and there was still no progress, I picked off a little of the shell, bit by bit to check the membrane for blood in the vessels. They seemed dry so I picked a little more, still dry so I decided to remove the top of the egg and get the little guy out. As I was removing the shell the keet was peeping loudly so I knew it was strong still.

I finally got the end removed and popped it's little head out and it went into action. It kicked and kicked and flopped it's way out of the shell. The yolk sac was retracted and there was no blood at all so obviously it was really ready. I think for some reason it was stuck and couldn't turn in the shell to get itself out.

It scrambled all over the incubator, it didn't even rest for a minute, but couldn't stand up yet. One of it's feet was a little turned in. I held it up every couple of minutes so it could get it's legs under itself a little. I put it in the brooder, after only about an hour, with the other one because it kept peeping, I think it was lonely.

By the next morning the one's foot was normal and they were both doing fine, making little guinea noises and pecking around the brooder. I don't think I can even tell them apart. They were acting a little mean though. One kept pecking the other one's foot and making him cry.

Sadly, none of the other eggs hatched but at least my friend has two to grow up together.

I can see now why they need 28 days to incubate. They are crazy strong and fast as soon as they pop out of that shell. They make poults and chicks look as dumb and slow as turtles.

One does seem to be a little different in color though. Maybe slightly browner and the other one a little grayer. Cute, huh?

Til next time,

Beth

How to find the Energy................

I have about 15 million things to write about but I would have to write five pages to keep up with all the goings-on here. I have people calling like crazy for turkey poults but I am sold out until the 20th or so. It's so hard because I have to tell people that I will have poults after the 20th but like that old adage "Don't count your turkeys before they hatch" it's hard to believe they will hatch. It still is so exciting every time I see a pipped egg I can't tell you! It takes all my willpower to NOT help them out. I do cheat though and help a little.


I have Americanas hatching and the colors are amazing. Everyone is kinda different. I will go right now and take a picture so you all can see....(It's 7:48, I'll see how long it takes me, cause I have to use my cell phone, my camera died............OK, I'm back and it's 7:54, not bad considering all I have to go through to download them)



Let's see how the pictures turned out






Not too bad.

When this one in the bottom of the picture pipped I could see it's little beak and it was black! I could not wait to see it. It's the only black beaked one. Very cool.

The little one in the center hatched an hour ago, still not sure what color it will be, not quite fluffed up yet.

I love the little one with the eyeliner. When it hatched it eyes looked HUGE! It was the black eyeliner, it looked deformed it eyes looked so big.

We put the babies in with our second gosling. (not Flipper but this one has no name yet, trying very hard to not have him imprint on us!) They think he's mama and won't leave him alone. They freak him out though but he is getting used to them, letting them snuggle up when they sleep. We had originally put this gosling in with Flipper but Flipper was beating the tar out of him. He would grab the feathers on the baby's neck and jerk him all over so we separated them. Flipper is still with two turkeys and he lays with them and tries to groom them. I think they are starting to like it. Very strange to see a giant gosling nuzzling a little turkey. (Little refers only to size as the turkeys are older than Flipper.)

Of course, I had to include a picture of him. All he wants is for us to hold him. He is even bigger now than when this picture was taken, he can reach the top of his cage. with his little beak...or I guess I should say bill. I went in search of a bigger cage today but came up empty handed. I will keep looking because I think we will have him with us in the house for a while.

He has become very attached to us. No one told me that a gosling will imprint on you. While researching goose stuff I found out that a gosling will become so attached that they won't accept other geese or breed or anything. I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM! Although he does seem happy and kind of content with the turkeys maybe because he was in with the turkeys when he first came out of the incubator.

He is the cutest thing too! He has ten times more personality than the chickens or turkeys we have had. I will take more movies and try to capture his behaviors. So sweet.

See ya everyone, gotta go tuck kids in and turkeys and chicks and a goose!

Beth

We Have Baby Turkeys!

See what greeted me this morning when I got up.










There are three hatched and some more have pipped but no action as of yet. I will be very thrilled if we only get these three. I have 15 more eggs slated to hatch on the 29th and seven goose eggs for a few days after that...that will be plenty. Plus, we have the 15 turkey eggs coming that we ordered. Also, I am going to fill up the incubator with all the other eggs that I have been gathering since I put these in. I have eggs from the Bronze hen to put in too. We have two Bronze hens but only one is laying. She started laying much later than the Palms did. I wonder if that is normal.

Here's my little guy!

I got to take some pictures while the third one was hatching. There was a hole but it was not all the way around yet. You can see where he was working his way around on the hole. The other babies were tripping all over it so I took them out and put them in the brooder so this one could have some peace and quiet.

See it's little beak poking out? After about an hour it finally pushed it's way out and started squawking.

It looks like a dinosaur!

It is so cool how they just popped off the tops of the shell. I numbered the eggs as I put them in so I could see if the ones I held longer would hatch. Also, I wanted to see if both hens were fertile. I was not sure if the one was laying down for the tom. For instance, I have two number two's, four's and eight's and maybe only one number six because one of the hens did not lay that day. If only one of any one number hatches thatn for sure she was not bred.

Here they are in the temperary brooder until we get the big one set up in the chicken house.

I can't believe how the month has flown by. I was looking at old posts and when I saw the one with the snow it seemed so surreal. The day I took that picture I thought spring would never get here and all of a sudden......BAM!... it snuck up on me. We have been so busy with spring maintence that I need to be still and enjoy. It seems that my mind has been racing. There are so many things I would like to get accomplished in these next few weeks.

We need to build a chicken tractor, get the brooder ready, finish the barn floor, build our plucker, get fish for the pond, order my turkeys (today!), finish trimming my dog, get ready for bonfire party on Saturday, get the garden going and on and on. We planted 100 hybrid willows and six blueberry bushes this last weekend. I couldn't walk for a day, my legs were killing me! Just ten more cherry bushes and we are done planting trees for now.

Phewwwww, now I can relax, I am not a failure at egg hatching! An update soon on how the final hatch turned out.

Happy, happy days,

Beth