Aggieterpkatie-Pics of my new rabbit-Page 38 !!!!!

[aggieterpkatie]

~I've been telling them about where to buy incubators, what to do, etc. One asked how to tell if the chickens that hatch will be egg laying chickens or not~

Then she asked if she needed one "chicken and one rooster to make an egg", and if I could give her tips on how to get eggs they can eat. She's coming by this evening. Maybe I'll go make sure the coop looks nice and pretty in case she wants to go see my chickens. I don't want her to see piles of poop and get scared.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm fed up with broody hens! Well, stupid broody hens, at least. I have 2 broodies that have been trying to hatch eggs. One is a light brahma bantam, and the other is an easter egger I hatched last year. They'd share the duty of sitting on the nest. They had one corner of my 4 hole box occupied, but they'd constantly "forget" where their eggs were. So, finally the eggs started to hatch. Well, the stupid EE hen left the nest last night, so there were 3 chicks and one pipped egg (plus 2 other eggs) left with no broody hen. So, I got fed up and put the EE back on the nest and lifted the perch to lock her in. The stupid light brahma was in another hole sitting on a newly laid egg.

This morning I went out and the stupid EE hen had DIED! :/ Who knows why. So, I put the chicks (the pipped egg had hatched!) in with the light brahma, and she hated them! She started pecking them. So, in they went with the 2 week old turkey poults. I was a little nervous about the turkeys ganging up on them, but I really didn't have a choice. I plopped them in and checked on them a few minutes later. THey were all cuddled up with the turkeys. So hopefully that will work out. BUT, there was still one unhatched egg (the other was sloshy, so I tossed it) and I heard cheeping coming from it, so I put it unde the light brahma. Hopefully she'll keep her butt in place on that same nest until it hatches. She probably will abandon it, but hopefully it'll at least hatch so I can put it with the others.

Stupid broodies!!

 

[glenolam]

Wowza did I miss some stuff over yonder!

Congrats on the healthy lambs!!! Glad to hear it went so well!

I hate broodies too. My hens never take good enough care and I always end up loosing some chicks.

So - what happened with the lady & the hatching eggs...did she come over this past weekend?

 

[mandieg4]

Love the lambs! Almost makes me wish I had sheep again.

Good luck with the egg. I have never had a chicken go broody, despite all my pleading with them.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Well, the last chick hatched from the broody eggs, with no help from the broody Light Brahma, I might say. I went out yesterday when I got home, around lunchtime, and found the egg all alone, so again I stuck it under the light brahma girl so it could try to hatch out. Last night I went out and she was on the nest, but the egg was outside the nest just a tad. Most of the shell was picked off (from her pecking it ), but the inner membrane was mostly in tact and that little chick was really trying to hatch. I put the egg back in the nest and she was trying to peck hard at the chick, so I took it out and headed to the barn. I set it in the brooder w/ the turkeys and other chicks. I came back a few minutes later and it had kicked itself out of the egg. This morning it was all fluffy and dry. So out of the 8 eggs they sat on, 7 hatched but the killed 2 of those. So I have 5 healthy chicks and the eighth egg was a dud.

I'm thinking I may sell the chicks....or maybe I'll keep them for a few weeks and then sell them. I don't know yet.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I wanted to share some pictures I took yesterday. First, we'll start with the sheep (and goat) and rotational grazing on our small place.
Here are the sheep in their current small cell. That fence isn't currently hooked to electric, but they still respect it. Well, the lambs don't, but that's ok with me because they don't stray far.

Another view:

Lambs escaped and view to the pasture:

This area of the lawn has been designated as pasture, so DH knows not to cut it when he mows. There is so much grass right now! It's great. Well, our property line practically stops at the other side of the tall grass. All that short mown area is the neighboring lot, which was subdivided from our lot before we bought the house. We really wish we had the money to buy it...it's an acre.

Sheep gang:

View of the backyard. You can see the pasture, chicken coop, and behind that is the shelter for the sheep.

The front of the pasture, showing the other side.

Here's the sacrifice area. I've started cleaning out the waste hay that's accumulated from the winter, and I swear overnight the bermuda grass started creeping up (on the left side of the sacrifice area, you can see the greenish tint). I'm glad though, because it makes a nice, tough, vegetative cover.

Here's part of the back of the pasture. This is a nice shady area and grows pretty nice grass. I think it's also our septic drain field, so I make sure to leave lots of cover and not overgraze.

The chicken coop. The shorter part to the left is the side of the 3 sided sheep shelter:

And opposite of the sheep pasture, on the back of the barn, is the "hog pen" as we call it. We've never had hogs in it, but that's the name it got. The goat kids are living in their now. I would like to cut a door under that little shelter to go inside the barn, where my inside pen is, that way the animals can access the barn and the outside pen.

Here's some alfalfa seedlings that have started coming up in the pasture. I got free seed from a friend!

And here's one of the turkey babies! I forgot to upload the group shot, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Hope you liked the pics!!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Pretty sheep and that grass is already looking nice.

 

[glenolam]

Beautiful!

Those Purl babies sure have grown!!!

Hee hee....sacrifice area...is it named that for a reason?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Beautiful!

Those Purl babies sure have grown!!!

Hee hee....sacrifice area...is it named that for a reason?

Yes, but not for the reason you're thinking! The sacrifice area is a small lot for keeping animals when it's really wet or there's no grazing. It's the sacrifice area because you don't care what happens to it (like if all the grass dies) because it's keeping your pastures nice! If I didn't have that little area, their whole pasture would be overgrazed and probably not have any grass on it. I have to be really careful since I'm overstocked. I have to make do with what I have!

 

[glenolam]

That's what I thought, but it sounds more fun if you think of it as the kill zone.