Self-taught farmers confidently raising chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs. Our focus is on practices that are environmentally harmonious and respectful to our livestock. We appreciate the beauty around us, clean eating, fermenting, and responsibly utilizing the bounty of the land. If you like thinking for yourself, continuous learning, and connecting with the homesteader lifestyle, check us out.
The teens have been going out in the tractor daily. We’re glad they’re out, they’re glad to be out, and the rabbit does are undoubtedly glad their noisy neighbors are out during the day.
The grass is already greening up, and both the adult and juvenile chickens are enjoying the tender shoots. We ensure that the teens have chick grit in the tractor so they can “chew” up the grass (and any other edibles, like bugs) in their gizzards. Continue reading “Sunny Days And Chicken Tractors”
It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since the Muscovy eggs went into the incubator. Since they usually take 35 days to hatch, they have one week left.
We started with 7 eggs. Two didn’t develop and we removed another last night that had stopped developing some time ago. The eggs that continued to develop were nearly completely dark – full of duckling. The one we pulled was only about a third dark, way behind the others. The eggtopsy showed that the embryo had likely “quit” a couple of weeks ago.
If all goes well, the four ducklings will hatch in about a week and will eventually join the adults in their free range adventures. Speaking of the adults, they’re enjoying the sunshine and their wading pool today. Actually, all they need is some squishy mud that they can drill their bills into. If only we were all so easily entertained!
Before we acquired our own chickens, we heard about this phenomenon called “chicken math”, where people seem to lose the ability to think rationally about how many chickens they can/should have. We chuckled and imagined that these were people with latent hoarding tendencies. Until it happened to us. Continue reading “Chicken Math Is Real”
The first batch of chicks from our stock are now about five weeks old (we call them “teens”)and nearly fully feathered. They’re also creating a crazy amount of dust in their brooder, so we figured the weather – 70 degrees with a gentle breeze – would be perfect for a first day outside in the chicken tractor. Continue reading “The Teens’ First Day Outside”
The snow that fell yesterday and through the night is beginning to slowly melt. This slushy stuff reminds us of the occasional snowfall in western Washington – it would be heavy, wet, messy stuff like this, and it would usually melt quickly and leave a big muddy mess.
Rain’s in the forecast for later today and it is welcome – this slush needs to go! If it remained, it could freeze into ice and make for some real fun (think impromptu skating rink and trying to carry buckets of water across it). Fortunately, warmer weather is supposed to be on the way, even into the low 60s later this week. Continue reading “Sloppy Snow And Shoveled Paths”
It’s snowing – lightly now, but it’s supposed to pick up this evening. There’s a very chilly breeze, which is the really unpleasant part; spend any time out there without a balaclava, and you’ll be sorry.
We had noticed that the duck coop was looking poopy, so we took advantage of the weather to clean out old straw bedding and replace it. Helpfully, the wet duck poop had frozen into solid chunks that were easy to identify and pull out. While raking around in the bedding, we found a frozen duck egg that had been buried. Bummer. We left a nice, thick, dry layer of bedding so the ducks would be comfortable tonight, even if the temperatures dip. Continue reading “Brr…Still Cold Out There”