Our mini-cow and calf arrives today. Her name is Marla and his is Mike.
We have been waiting for several months while she “honeymooned” with a registered mini-jersey bull. Sure hope she gives us a hiefer next spring.
Mike didn’t like the flash.
Adult tilapia love greens. Last year I fed them sweet potato leaves. I’d cut a vine and lay it in the tank and the next day all the leaves would be gone. Here they are eating some wilted lettuce from the garden. Sometimes they will grab it and shake it like a dog does a rag toy to pull bits off.
When your turkeys and chickens free range together funny things happen. They lay eggs in any nest and they don’t care who it belongs to. The only problem here is that chickens hatch at 21 days and the turkeys hatch at around 28 days. I keep the incubator running this time of year so when any of the birds show up with new chicks I can collect any remaining eggs and put them in it. If I have a broody hen to put them under that is better but it usually doesn’t happen that way.
A couple of days ago we has some new chicks hatch out of the incubator. Two were Royal Palm Turkey chicks. I sure hope they are hens. Turkey hens have taken a beating by the predators over the last couple of years. They insist on nesting on the edges where they are the least safe. That’s why I throw a few eggs in the incubator when I find them.
Tilapia
If all goes well I won’t have to buy tilapia to restock and I might have some to sell. The breeders I set up are doing their thing. These pictures are from this morning. The fry actually appeared yesterday. That means they hatched a couple of days before. Tilapia being mouth brooders I couldn’t see them until they came out of the females mouth.
There are probably 3 times as many fry than you can see here because as soon as I walked up they started darting back into the mothers mouths. From what I have read they will continue this for a few days and then become independent.
Earlier this year when I lost my last hive I placed an order for 2 packages of bees with R Waever Apiaries. They finally arrived last Saturday and wouldn’t you know it, it was raining cats and dogs. So they got to sit on my kitchen counter until I could get them into the hives late Sunday. I kept a bottle of sugar water close and gave them a few shots of sugar every time I passed by.
Most orders are placed well in advance so R Weaver was one of the few Apiaries that was still taking orders when I needed more bees. They have 2 varieties, “All American” and “Buckfast.” Not knowing allot about either I bought one of each. All of this was before I caught 2 swarms of course So I was scrambling to get 2 more hives ready. Better to have 4 hives than none and that is what I probably would have ended up with had I not bought the 2 packages. You are never guaranteed to catch a swarm.
