Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

BTW, today is culling day! Surprisingly enough, after checking for eggs in the shute last night, I only found 3 hens not producing! So, the humongous roo and three older hens will "buy the farm" today.

Also slated for today's activities:

Planting seeds for my grow frame~I know, I'm getting them in late, but I've been working 10-12 hr days and haven't had a chance to do it. I'm sure they will sprout and be big enough before it warms up enough to plant around here!

Building racks for the truck.

Building gates and feed bin for the sheep shed.

Hauling a couple of loads of horse and sheep manure and spreading it on the orchard and yard.

Placing the permanent electric fencing up through the orchard.

Cutting up some slats to finish out the year's wood burning needs...supposed to get cold next week.

Maybe digging holes and placing posts for the orchard swing...my favorite place to watch over my smallholdings and let the chickens congregate around my feet.

 

[TanksHill]

I can just see it Bee.....
"Sweetwater Farm a place to rest and rejuvenate. Do nothing or learn to do it all."

Can I come!!! Remember you promised to show me how to process chicken?

 

[Beekissed]

The dirty deed is done! The bleach bottle converted to a killing cone was a great success and was just the right size for the enormous roo.

I have just got to tell you guys this.....I have been feeding my chickens way too much!

Those were the fattest chickens I've ever cleaned, with layers of deep orange fat around all the inner organs. Gross! And the livers of the three hens showed that I'm possibly feeding too much protein. They were enlarged and off color.

One of the older hens was enormously egg-bound and it was only a matter of time before she perforated. She had a huge mass of..... in her egg shute and the walls of the organ were paper thin and pulled to pieces in my hands. I'm glad she was culled. She couldn't have been very comfortable with a mass of rotten eggs in her the size of a human heart! She used to lay the biggest eggs ever, always double-yolked. I don't know how to describe what I found in her, but I wish now I had taken a pic for the curious and gross members to view.

So...cutting the rations as of today. Must keep in mind that more food does not equal more eggs....just the opposite, actually, so I'm going to help the poor chickens and save money at the same time.

I must mention this fact. If any of you have ever seen a pair of roo's testes, you know the approximate size....maybe kidney bean or navy bean sized. This roo had testes the size of golf balls! They were absolutely huge!!! No wonder he has been riding the feathers off all my blonde chickens. :/ His carcass was bigger than the Cornish Cross chooks that I killed earlier this year. He was very filled out and meaty, not stringy and angular like a regular roo.

I did not get all the projects I had planned done today because we had unexpected visitors. I've often read about people on farms getting interrupted by drop-by family and visitors and how frustrated they feel when work is interrupted. Today felt like that. I like visitors, don't get me wrong, but the two separate visitors that came today?... They stayed a couple of hours right during the busiest part of the day.

I don't know about you all, but momentum is important to me. I hate to even take a break for food on days of big work and pretty weather. I'll even break down and buy bologna and store bought bread for the boys so I won't have to prepare any food. They can just run in and have a sandwich of processed chemically tainted cow,pig, and chicken offal and white preservative-laden sugar dough~I don't care, as long as they are quick and don't get bogged down in the eating process.

 

[freemotion]

Last time I had a drop-in visitor....not even a close friend, just a curious person who saw us working in the front yard....I was on the ladder and dh was holding it on the unstable garden dirt for me. He weighs fully twice what I do and is strong as an ox. The visitor, a guy, had the gall to criticize that I was on the ladder with the crowbar, dh should be up there because he is stronger.

I looked at him and said, sweetly, of course.....I can't stabilize the ladder for him, but here is the crowbar, he can certainly hold the ladder for you.... He suddenly had to get going!!!

Now I say, I have to run and do such and such, on a tight schedule today, wanna help? I sure could use the help and the company. Shovel or pitchfork, your choice. I have extra boots for ya, too.

We live on a main road, near a major grocery store and a lot of people we know drive by. Drop-ins used to be an issue. For some strange reason, it is now rare....

 

[Beekissed]

Free, this lady was in a dress and "scuffle shoes" and the wind was blowing up the dickens....and her dress. She was freezing! City folks! She's a good gal and wants to know more about The Way, but hubby is not on board at all.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Bee, how much are you feeding those chickens???

I have a 25 pound feeder in the layer coop, but I only fill it 1/2 full each day. The other coop has two 7 pound feeders and I fill each of them full once a day.

Plus they get black sunflower seeds and rolled oats.

 

[justusnak]

I'll even break down and buy bologna and store bought bread for the boys so I won't have to prepare any food. They can just run in and have a sandwich of processed chemically tainted cow,pig, and chicken offal and white preservative-laden sugar dough~I don't care, as long as they are quick and don't get bogged down in the eating process.

Call the food police!!! Bee is TORTURING HER KIDS!!!
I have been known to do this as well....more often than I would admit of course!

 

[Beekissed]

Well, we've been throwing them about 4 med. scoops of laying mash a day. They are so moochy when we go out in the yard, like they are starving all the time....but then, that's chickens, huh?

Putting them on a diet, as of today!

 

[freemotion]

Bee, our discussion of grass inspired me to bring my goat Mya out for a walk on a leash today, where I pointed out nice dandelions and tufts of lush grass for her! I thought of you rolling in it!!!

 

[Beekissed]

I was out rolling in it today! Let mama hen and chicks out again and communed with them while she took a dust bath. The grass is so green and soft right now that its a pleasure to sit down and relax upon it.

It might very well be a sin how much pleasure I get from working this place! The farmyard was so very peaceful and bucolic today with that big, gray roo gone! Quiet....

The city lady that visited today asked me how I get any sleep with all that noise going on!! I had to explain that the noise she is hearing is like music to my ears, that, at night, the birds are nestled soundly on their roosts and all I hear is the owls hooting and the occasional dog bark, and that I much prefer the hens cackling to sirens blaring, traffic rumbling by, and the light and sound polution of the city.

She looked at me like I had lost my mind.....maybe I have, but if this is lost, I'm not going to bother looking for it!