One at a Time?

Count the number of chicks:

Sean went outside before me today for the morning chores, but he quickly came back inside with a delightful present for me. A NEW Chick! Day two of waking to the happy surprise of another chick born from nest #2. I give up; just when I start to think I might have some clue about what I am doing- I get thrown a curve ball. A happy, fluffy, peeping curve ball, but still...

Broody Wyandotte and Broody Barred Rock are taking turns sitting on this nest and apparently, this is working out for them. I do not understand why the chicks are hatching one at a time, but they are. On the bright side- at least, they are hatching. Maybe we are just going to get one each day until the eggs are all hatched? Maybe the hens in question are practicing Judaism and they are like Hanukkah Chicks- one gift each day for a week!?!?! Has this happened in any of your hatchings? I would be very curious to know.

Critter Update: we are still on the search to buy a registered Oberhausli doe and a registered Lamancha buck. Our girls are all in season and should be for a few months still. We still want to breed Leah, Rachel and Pepper this year in anticipation for lots of milk come Spring. The piggies are as ornamental as ever and grunt at me regularly. Jasmine is looking well- though Meg is definitely going to need to see to her stall today. I discovered Brighid hiding in the wood shed amongst the wood while I was out mowing the lawn this morning. The cats are not pleased with Daddy Dale locking their door while he painted the area, but once it dries and I let them in, I suspect they won't hold a grudge for long.

The house has been getting some maintenance and work done on it. Daddy Dale was here today and painted the trim he replaced for us earlier this week, which looks wonderful and is much appreciated. And, Sean started tiling the cement board where the new wood stove is going to live in preparation for a homey Maine winter this year. I am almost looking forward to the frigid temperatures, just to try it out. And, I love how wonderful the house smells by keeping a iron pot of yummy smelling oils simmering on the wood stove. Our next step is to set the tile on the walls and then, all the tiles will be set with grout. I love the hue of the tiles and how it compliments the color of the kitchen walls. We will have to replace some floor trim, too, but that is an easy fix.

I planned on making some soap today and may before the day is out, but I still have to pick up borax and lye at the store to be able to do that, so that project might be on hold until tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by!

Sonja ♥

Goat Milk Soap?

One of the things I wanted to try my hand at making was goat's milk soap. I have not been getting milk this week because Ellie is in the main pasture with her voracious offspring. This is in the hopes that they will help to stimulate some milk production, which had been on a real decline. This arrangement is due to come to an end this weekend, but for now, I am out of goat's milk to use for cheese or anything else. And, in case I am out of goat's milk until Leah, Rachel, and Pepper are bred and kidded this Spring, I wanted to use what goat's milk I had on hand to, at least, try to make soap.

After searching the Internet and reading multiple recipes, I decided to try out this one; it looked like it was the easiest. I really want to find a recipe that does not call for using lye, but unless I want to buy a goat's milk base, it looks like I must use lye. If any of you have a good recipe for making soap without the use of lye, I would be very interested in it.

Ingredients:
3 cups goat's milk
1.5 lbs lard, tallow, or vegetable shortening
6.5 oz lye
1 cup baby oatmeal
2 tsp borax
2 ounces glycerine

In preparation for making soap tomorrow, I purchased 3 essential oil fragrances; honey/almond, cucumber/melon, and eucalyptus mint (I am picturing this one for use in pedicures.) And, I froze 2 batches of 3 cups of goat's milk in some freezer safe plastic bags. The lye causes a chemical reaction that raises the temperature of the milk quickly and it can scorch. Freezing it, is said to help alleviate that issue. We'll see.

Thanks for visiting!
Sonja ♥

Another Blessing!

I was up a goodly part of the night, feeling wretched and wondering what on earth I could have eaten to cause such stomach distress. In response, I am working from home today. I have to work on creating the "Thank You" notes for the tournament recently held, check for new applicants to schedule for interviews, and get started on planning Riverfest parade and fair activities. Plenty to be done- even moving slowly, which I am. Sean left for work hours ago. I assured him that Kristen and I would manage the morning chores without him, especially if it meant that he would be home closer to 3 pm than 4 pm today. (Meaghan left at 9 am to spend the morning with Grandma Becky intent on preaching the word- I hope she meets some nice people today). Before Kristen could break her fast this morning, -I am not eating ANYTHING solid for a while- we attempted to feed and water the critters.

Kristen was drafted into feeding the piggies and the chickens in the backyard. That left me to feed the chickens, ducks, and geese in the main coop, the pullet chicks beside the barn, the chickens in the front tractor, and the horse and goats. When I realized that I pulled the short straw on that deal, I added feeding the dogs and cats to Kristen, too. Fair is fair, after all. Besides, I had made her homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast yesterday and she was going to have the pleasure of eating them again this morning. Me? Not so much.

Sean reminded me to check for more chicks in the main coop as he headed out the door. I thought that he was being a bit too optimistic, since I was fairly certain that the eggs in the 2nd nest were at least a week or more behind the first nest. Imagine my chagrin when I opened the nest box to find this:

Another chick!

Sean was right.

It did not make sense to me why we would have another chick hatch out of the 2nd nest, but then remembered that Meaghan had so very helpfully collected all the eggs from the nests about 2 weeks ago and brought them inside. Sean simply divided the eggs into two nest of 10 eggs and returned them to the broody hens. Obviously, at least one of the eggs was in the wrong nest! Which also goes a long way to explaining why I have 3 eggs in the incubator at a much less developed stage than it's nest mates chirping away in the brooder. Now what? I removed the new, healthy chick from the nest and brought him/her inside, too. Now, we wait and keep watching for more chicks, of course! I suspect that we will have another mass hatching some time this week. I checked the rest of the eggs in nest number 2 and none of the other eggs have pips in them. I do not think any more hatchings are imminent, but what do I know?

Current Total Chick Hatching Count- 34

33 were healthy and lived.

6 were sold.

27 were added to our flock.

We still hope that most of these are hens. ♥

See you soon!

Sonja ♥



Nature Versus Nurture

What a happy, happy morning. ♪ Happy Dance ♪ worthy!

I was in the midst of finishing making some of my Greek Bruschetta for a gathering this afternoon when Sean came back into the house from caring for the morning chores. He asked me to come outside with him for a minute. I followed him outside.

We walked to the main coop area and Sean lifted the nest box cover to reveal broody Barred Rock Hen and 6 new fluffy day old chicks; 3 striped chicks, 2 black chicks, and one black chick with a white spot on its head. (According to the breeds we had mixing at the time these were set, the black one with the spot could either be a Barred Rock of either sex or a cockerel Sex-Link chick.)

I cannot express how much joy this discovery brought me. Of course, we have been waiting to see what would happen with the eggs hatching naturally in the main coop by our broody hens, but we were not getting our hopes up to any of them hatching successfully. She hatched 6 out of 10 eggs. And, when we candled the other eggs, 2 of the 5 others were developing and appeared to be alive- I would guess that they are at approximately day 11 of development. We placed them into the incubator inside. It is unlikely that broody Barred Rock would continue to sit until these hatch and even if she would, it is probably not the best for her to do so. Broody hens usually remain on their nests for most of their day, eating and drinking very little while they are sitting on eggs. Another 10 or more days of that would be an unnecessary hardship to her physically.

We gathered up the chicks from their nest and placed them inside our brooder area inside our living room. We made this decision to avoid the chicks from falling out and landing on the floor 3 feet below. Not only could the fall injure them, but it would be impossible for the chicks to get back into their nest. Also, chickens are carnivores. It would be terrible if one of the adults injured the chicks somehow. I felt bad for Momma hen, effectively losing all her chicks, but when we checked her this afternoon, she had taken the place of Broody Wyandotte sitting on her nest of 10 eggs. Broody Wyandotte spent the day in the main yard enjoying a dirt bath in the sun and the company of the other hens.

With these babies hatching, that brings our total new chicks hatched this year to total 33. Of these, 32 lived. 6 were sold and the other 26 were added to our flock. We are hopeful that many of these will be hens and not roosters. Our intention was to add more hens to increase the amount of eggs we have available to sell to Customers next season. I think we are well on our way. ♥



As I write, the chicks have settled in for the night. I love how soft and sweet they are. Thanks for stopping in for a visit!

Sonja ♥

What the WHAT????

The more you do something, the better you get at it. Right??? Practice makes perfect and all that. So, riddle me this...



Our incubator still set up and calibrating on the desk in the living room.

THAT is a pip. In an egg. That I could have sworn was not living when I candled them and decried the loss of my hatch.

On Tuesday, I was so disappointed that I had lost the entire batch of eggs Ryan and I set. I thought it might have been caused by a malfunctioning temperature gauge and Sean brought me home another one. As you can see, the gauge is reading differently, so that IS probably what happened. I had not disposed of all the eggs, though. Sean buries them for me and had not had the time to do so. They weren't hurting anything waiting in the incubator until he could. I also check a final, final time before any of them are discarded- just in case I missed something.

On Wednesday, I was picking the eggs up and the one on the front left moved- I thought. I candled it and *Surprise* it was alive and moving! I hadn't posted that update because I didn't want to update you all with that happiness only to have it not survive the hatching. I was waiting and planned to surprise you with the good tidings. I have been watching the incubator for 2 days since... just hoping and waiting.

Last night, when I went to bed (at 2 am because I was at the ER with my eldest daughter- who is fine.) there was no change to the eggs' appearances. This morning, (at 7am) there was a pip in an entirely different egg (that I had seen no life signs in.) I was excited to see this, until I realized that the chick inside, pipped and died all in a few hours. What the WHAT??? There was nothing to be done. Even if I had known it was alive, I would not have intervened until there was no progress for more than 12 hours. This is just the worst hatching. The little egg that I think may be still alive has not pipped through the shell, but definitely looked to have breached the air sac inside. I had to work today until 2pm, so if upon returning home, it has not made any external pips, I may try to see if I can assist it.

I had planned on sparing you all the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride of a hatch, but this is just too bizarre! I have no idea what I am going to find when I get home in a couple of hours. Any of you wanting to pray for wisdom for this farm girl and the safe hatching of any little guys that might be- are more than welcome to do so. I sure have been.

Sonja ♥

My Reason for NOT Getting Near the Trash Cans-

He (or She) wins. I will not be going anywhere near the trash cans until it decides to vacate it's position.

For those of you wondering-

-No, I will not/cannot just kill it.

-No, Sean will not/cannot kill it for me.

-A world of No to moving it by some device- we will not be getting anywhere near that close to it.

While much appreciated, the response to whatever your suggestion, is "No. Just, No."


There is nothing else to be done. We have no recourse, but to move out... immediately.



I just had to post this tonight. It is ironic (and I swear coincidental) that both Tammy and I posted about eggs today. Then, I noticed her post HERE with a picture very similar to this one about a garden spider near her compost pile. I took this picture a few days ago, but couldn't control the heebie-jeebies long enough to post about it. I just thought it was really funny that our posting ideas have been running along similar veins of late.

I guess farms of a feather blog together?
Sonja ♥

Win Some or Learn Some...

Lately, I feel like I am learning a lot and winning rather little. I think this run of farming failure partly stems from attempting to juggle too many things and subsequently, ending out becoming not very good at any of them. And, partly it stems from... well, life. Time and unforeseen occurrence befalling us in our turn.

Brighid is an older bunny. She now wheezes when she is inside over the freezing winter months and develops a terrible sounding barking cough. She is a sweet, tolerant lagomorph, but bunnies don't live forever. Usually 6-8 years is the norm and we are fast approaching year 7. With this in mind, I have not been overly vigilant in moving her house as she repeatedly tunnels her way out to freedom. She never wanders far. The cats do not bother her and do hunt other pests that might. I am mindful that other predators are a potential threat to her, but anything that really wanted to eat her, could attack her inside the bunny house, too. There is danger to freedom. But, there is Freedom to freedom, too. (That is not redundant, it is the only way to describe it.) At this point, I am considering her quality of life for what probably will be one of her last summers- exploring all day, snoozing where she'd like to- versus longevity of a life in captivity. Usually, Brighid can be found in the mornings hiding in the shade under Sean's vehicle or wandering near the barn in the hay stacks or under the porch or the woodpile... Before my morning chores are complete, she pops out of some hiding place to investigate what we are doing. She didn't this morning which has been weighing on my mind all day.

Also, it seems that we shall not have any new chicks hatching from the incubator this go around. I candled them this afternoon hoping my hopes, but though they all showed signs of beginning their development, none of them harbored any signs of life. How frustrating and disappointing!

I think this failure may have been caused by a malfunctioning thermostat. After Rudy's hatching group having a poor hatch rate, I was extra vigilant regarding the temperature. The thermometer has steadily read that it has maintained 100 degrees. The automatic turner worked perfectly. There were no power outages. The eggs were mostly all fertilized. I cannot think of any other reason for our losing this entire batch- except that the temperature was wrong. Sean is picking up another thermometer at the store on his way home from work today. I will place it into the incubator and compare the readings. If that is the case, it will be a simple matter to calibrate the incubator before attempting any future hatching.

It feels good to have some kind of plan of fixing this, but I still feel sad over this loss. Thinking I would feel a little better to spend some time with the other chicks, I went outside to visit them.

In the main coop, almost everyone was quietly napping in the shade- out of the mid-day sun. The geese had their bills tucked over their shoulders under their wings, eye closed, sleeping until they noted my approach. Then, the male became animated and approached honking loudly. He started biting at my skirt hem to check whether it was suitably edible. Deciding it wasn't he wandered off to rouse the ducks and announce a visitor. Where has the time gone? It was only the beginning of summer that they were teeny babies following me around the yard and playing with me in the grass. Now, they still allow themselves to be pet, but barely tolerate hugging or holding anymore. I love my geese, but today, they did not do the job of making me feel happier. Instead, I felt a little sad at how much they've grown.

My attention wandered to the ducklings, which also foiled me by growing into ducks. Still cute, they are no longer tiny fuzz balls, either. Remember when had to help these to hatch? (READ HERE and HERE. ) They were such tiny fuzzies. And, in just a little while, the sounding pat-pat-patter of little duckling feet announced them following us around while we worked. They slept curled in our arms (or shirts). No more. Charming, friendly, wonderful as they remain, it didn't help my blues today, either.

The 2 month old pullets/cockerels were napping in the shade. I was pleased to see both Sebastian and White Snake standing guard over their new charges. The young chicks have been accepted into the flock. They still keep mostly together, but are doing very well. I had to smile at them all "pig piled" in the shade. Definitely cute.

I spent a little time watching the month old chicks in their new temporary pen. They had reached the point on Sunday where they smelled too badly and too constantly to be allowed to remain in my living room any longer. But, with all the tractors currently engaged in their correct occupants, what to do? Our solution was to move the unused bunny fencing to between the walls of the barn and the walls of the main coop. Located just a few feet across the driveway within view of our porch, front sitting room, and in a heavy trafficked area, they should be safe from any predators. Then, it was an easy matter to add the chick shelter we built earlier for the other hatchlings. A bit of protective netting over the top to deflect unwanted raptor attention and we were in business. They loved the expanded room to roam and wasted no time in pecking at their first offering of fresh grasses.

I haven't described them in detail previously. We have two partridge patterned Cochins (which I suspect are crosses between Aloysius and one of the Americauna hens) and one lovely copper Cochin. We have a striking white chick with smart black striped feathers and cream colored feet. Two others have white and black banded feathers. And, lastly, we have one partridge colored Americauna chick. These are so different from each other that they will also suffer our naming them. I especially like the golden colored cochin and the pale white chicks. Now, to find suitable names for them. I disallow names that have to do with physical characteristics. I do not mind naming them for people of whom they remind me or of whom I am fond. Any suggestions???



Watching the newest healthy babies did help me to get out of my funk. What helped even more was Brighid coming out of hiding this afternoon and being promptly returned to a newly fenced bunny yard. (Kristen, Meaghan, and I repaired the fencing this morning in anticipation). No doubt, my mood reflects cumulative exhaustion from 1- working full-time this past month in helping with the charity golf tournament, 2- toiling at necessary farming chores and improvements, 3- mental fatigue from planning life changing decisions, 4- the wicked wrenching knot living in my right shoulder/neck area, and 5- the whole aforementioned LIFE. I am certain my mood will improve and my aches and pains will decrease, but just now, I could really use an adjustment!

Tammy from http://www.ourneckofthewoods.net/ reminded me in the value of finding joy in the simple pleasures of life this morning with a post she made on her blog. With that in mind, I add this final photograph.

 I am going to forget about what is not working as well as I want it to and focus on this thought, "THIS was harvested from our farm today.":

...and, THIS is only the beginning.

I hope this post finds you all well and happy. I appreciate your checking in. ♥

Good night,
Sonja