Howdy ya'll!
I'm back again! Our garden experiment tanked, mainly because it didn't get watered as often as it should have.
Our turkey eggs hatched, and then died (stupid turkeys).
Our hens look horrible partly due to the heat and partly due to the overabundance of roosters (working on fixing this).
I've had customers from work give me two RIR chicks and one black silkie rooster.
We haven't had any deaths since May (I think?) so I'm happy about that

The ducks are doing great. They will hit 17 weeks old this weekend (I think I have that figured right) and should start laying eggs sometime between then and seven weeks from then

I desperately need to get nest boxes in there for them! (and apparently we have five hens and six drakes! yikes! how soon before I need to get rid of some drakes?)
I have blisters all over the palms of my hands and my fingers from using a pickaxe and a post pounder today but the duck run is a lot longer than it was so they will have more room to roam now

We have decided, together, that we are going to focus on just raising chickens ducks and maybe turkeys for now, and worry about other four legged outdoor animals later (later meaning probably not at all, I can't see a time when we won't both be working full time for one reason or another, and we can't really justify having a milk animal when we aren't home soon enough in the evening at least four days a week to milk them properly).
I am seriously looking at us moving to New Zealand sometime in the future (I'm well aware that sometime in the future probably means never, but you never know, right?)
I'm scheduled to have hyena surgery this Friday in the morning, and then I am scheduled to work late that afternoon and evening, which should be fun (and I'll leave it up to ya'll to figure out what I really mean by hyena

).
We have more turkey eggs out in the coop under a couple hens, so we'll see if these hatch. I'm kinda doubtful, since the eggs were two weeks old before I even go them, but who knows? They don't stink so we'll see what happens. The plan is to hatch them under the hens and then brood them in an actual brooder since apparently they are too stupid to be brooded the same as our chicks were.
Sorry I haven't been around lately. I was disappointed and hurt by our decision to not even plan for four legged additions and felt it might be better if I distanced myself for a while
I've missed all of this, and look forward to communicating again!
Matthew Ryan
(well aware that he can act very childish on occasion

)