May 1st 2017 and spring is in full swing on the farm.

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Ned Newby

A couple of weeks ago, April 18th to be exact, Rosie gave us another healthy little heifer.

Here she is at two days old enjoying the morning.

We have five turkey hens sharing a nest. They each have a few eggs under them so I guess they are just sharing the nest site. This brush pile is relatively close to the house so they should be safe from predators. They usually nest out on the fringe of the property and we loose a couple each spring. The dogs just can’t be everywhere.

I got the garden planted and set a box trap with chicken feed to catch a few chickens that are determined to fly over the fence. Not only did I catch several chickens and clip their wings I also caught several members of our squirrel population. Here are two.

Friday the corn started to break through to the sun. Buy Sunday evening the crows had eaten every single one. Each of those little pock marks was once the home to a new corn plant.

Notice the bare patch in the back. Crows…

I replanted about 2/3 of that spot in corn and the rest in sweet potatoes. If something gets the corn again I’ll just plant something else. Maybe okra. I didn’t have room for it this time.

The little garden is only about 40 x 40. I am adding 12 to 16 feet along the back but it won’t be usable until next year and it won’t be good then. I have some work to do building up the soil back there.

I received notice that my bees have been shipped so I will be re-hiving them in the next day or so. I have two of the top-bar hives cleaned up and ready for them. I’m debating on if I need to buy another package or two to fill the remaining hives or just hope to catch a swarm. Decisions, decisions.

New Additions!

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Ned Newby

I haven’t been doing a very good job keeping the page updated. Summer is a busy time for sure.

Two weeks ago we picked up a little Nigerian doe from my sister. It was an early birthday gift for Lisa. She is still a little skittish around me but will crawl right up into Lisa’s lap. She and the little buck (Timmy) we bought earlier will significantly downsize our goats over time.

I couldn’t resist. The last thing we really needed is more chickens but I found these Polish Crested chicks at the feed store and couldn’t leave without them. The top hats are hard to see in this picture taken a week ago. I’ll post new pictures soon. They look like they have little puff balls on their heads now. New Updated picture.

And lastly, Bobbie Jo finally gave us a little bull calf Saturday morning. It’s her first and she is worrying him to death. Or maybe it’s he who is worrying her. He is still wobbly on his feet but he is spunky and goes where he wants no matter how much she calls to him. It’s funny to watch them. She licks him so hard it almost pushes him over. Then he’ll take off as she follows behind softly calling to him.

Almost forgot, Sunday morning a hen showed up with 9 chicks. Now if she will just keep them close. We have had several hens with a few chicks one day and none the next. I don’t know what is getting them. The most recent was a game hen that had two chicks that were several weeks old and all feathered out. I almost think it was a hawk because there was no sign of any other birds being bothered. In the past when we had a vermin problem they would take larger birds too and we would find feathers if not partially eaten birds.

We moved three little boars Saturday. Two had gotten out and into the area whit the sows. I hope we don’t have oops piglets in about 4 months. I’m afraid we may have a few from a previous escape. During the move our adult boars got in the mix and one of the young ones thought he was going to match up with Hank and Willie. When it was all said and done he was on the run with a cut on his hind leg. Nothing serious, thankfully. He’ll limp around for a few days but should be fine as long as he understands his place in the pecking order. The smaller ones backed down and moved aside when the big boys walked by. They didn’t want any part of them.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Ned Newby

I pray that everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend but please take a moment to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day. Thousands of men and women have laid down their lives so that we can have the freedoms and comforts that living in The United States of America provides.

After years of talking about it we finally put in a new walkway and a flag pole just in time for Memorial Day. Have to have Old Glory flying.

I’m no fan of concrete but after weighing the cost of other materials, concrete was the only way to go. It looks nice and once we get the front yard re-sodded it will be even better.

I’m glad we waited for the flag pole because where we originally planned to put it was too close to a young maple tree. The limbs would be nearly into the pole by now. The only thing close now is a crapemyrtle tree that will be kept short and bushy. It is taller than I would like because I didn’t trim it this winter.

Here is a perfect example of why we are downsizing out goats. Calvin is climbing on the fence to get to the willow tree. In the process he has the fence pulled down. If I wouldn’t have ran him off and ran a strand of electric fence along the top he would have been going over in short order.

One last note just for a good laugh. When I went into our little barn where several hens had been setting on nests I found this guy keeping a couple of eggs warm. lol

At least it missed the tractor

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Ned Newby

As if I didn’t have enough going on we had a tree go down over night. It just missed the tractor.

All the chicks are now hatched from the incubator that are going to hatch. Very low percentage of success this time around. I had a hard time maintaining a constant temperature. It never got off to much but maybe enough to prevent a good hatch. We ended up with two turkey chicks. Praying they are hens because Lisa is already making pets out of them. We also got five easter egg chicks from blue eggs. There is still 3 goose eggs in the incubator that I don’t think will do anything but I will give them a few more days just in case. Goose eggs take a few more days and since the temp was bouncing around it might even take them longer than normal. Everything else was a day or so off.

We fought to save one little turkey chick but lost that battle. It had trouble freeing itself from the shell and never stood up even when we were hand feeding it medicated water. It finally lost it battle some time after 11:00 last night. I was staying up late to feed it and Lisa was getting up a couple times at night and even took it to work so she could feed it over the last couple days. Most wouldn’t have spent that much effort for one chick but if nothing else we can honestly say that everything gets a fighting chance on the farm. Most of the time at the expense of money, time and sleep. I feel like a zombie today. I’ll be calling it an early night tonight.

The puppies are growing fast. All are spoken for except for two white males and one gray male and someone is interested in two of them. Born on March 19th they all will be ready to go to to new homes after the first week in May.

We don’t need another dog but have decided to keep one of the gray males. His name will be Teddy. We took him for a visit and he got to play in the grass for the first time. He dove into it and swam through it like it was water.

Last Saturday, April 14^th, Rosie gave us a little heifer calf. I knew she was due any day and last Friday right at dark I saw her heading for the back of the property when everyone else was coming to the barn. Saturday morning I found them safe and healthy.

We got some unusual eggs from the hens last week. One was from a very young hen and was not much bigger than a nickel if that. The other didn’t have a shell.

Here is a good picture of Mike next to the water tank. He is a good bull. We got lucky with him. If Bobbie Jo has a heifer in another month Mike will have sired four heifers and two bulls in two years. I’ll take anything 50% or better any day. The fact that he is also nice doesn’t hurt either. I’ve never been afraid of him. I don’t let my guard down either because he could still hurt me if he ever took a mind to. At which point he would probably be burger.

A hen with nine chicks helping me milk. Olive spills a lot and they clean up.

Billie Jo has moved on.

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Ned Newby

Well Billie Jo has gone to her new home. She now lives in Arkansas with a small herd of Lowline cattle. Thank you Dewayne and Cindy and I hope she makes you a nice little homestead milk cow.

The only real downside to selling her so soon is now I have to milk Olive twice a day. Bobbie Jo, our other midsize Jersey should be giving us a calf in the next month or so. It will be her first. Assuming all goes well I will milk her and give Olive and me a break. Olive didn’t get dried off as long as I would have liked so she could use the extra time to put on some weight until the next calf.

I have some eggs in the incubator. I started a few goose and turkey eggs and then a week later I added some chicken eggs. The turkey and chicken chicks should start hatching about the same time with the goose a couple of days later.

Bees! Mom had a huge swarm in one of the oak trees in her backyard. It was too high for me to reach and the limb was too small to climb out on. I set the swarm trap up neat the swarm but once the storm ended and the sun came out they left. I’ll have to move the trap to it’s usual location. I probably should have put it there in the first place but I was hoping closer would be better. Guess I was wrong.

The storm I mentioned hit Thursday night and it dumped between 5 and 6 inches of water on us in a short time. I didn’t notice it until Sunday afternoon but it washed out my fence along the power line. I have know idea how the horses, hogs, and dogs didn’t find it and go roaming. Just lucky I guess.

While I was repairing the fence I noticed that one of my 2 remaining hives did not have bees coming and going. I opened it up and it was empty. No pile of dead bees or any sign of problems. They just left. I wonder if they were the swarm I saw last week. Looks like I now have 4 boxes to fill. The last hive is full of bees or nearly so. I might try to do a split. That is something I have never done. I’ll need to check and see if they are making queen cells. If they are I can move about half of the bees into another box along with the queen. The existing hive should raise a new queen and the new hive should continue on as if it had swarmed into the new box. In theory that’s the way it is supposed to work. Well see if my bees read the book.

We also lost 6 chicks to the flood. A hen hatched 10 chicks 2 days before. She hadn’t set up for the night in the same place twice and unfortunately the night of the storm her resting place flooded. Fortunately for her and 4 chicks there was a board laying next to her and they were able to get up onto it. Sad way to find things first thing in the morning but you can’t be everywhere all the time. I don’t think anyone expected that much rain either.

Snake!?

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Ned Newby

Looks like Ladybug ran into a snake Sunday. Sunday night I thought she looked a little swollen above her right eye. Monday morning you couldn’t see her right eye and the entire right side of her head down into her neck was swelled up. It was cold Sunday so I never even considered a snake. I was thinking wasp or bumble bee because they have been flying lately. The vet is sure it is a snake though so I will go with it.

These pictures are after she spent the day with the vet. The swelling has gone down and you can see her eye again.

On a side note I have been collecting turkey, goose, and blue chicken eggs. I started the goose and turkey eggs in the incubator and will add the chicken eggs in a couple of days. That way the chicks will hatch off a day or so before any turkeys. Turkey chicks always do better with someone to teach them to eat and drink. The goose eggs may not do anything. She started a nest in the compost pile but the chickens covered the eggs scratching around. She abandoned the 3 eggs so I scooped them up before this last cold spell. I haven’t had much luck with goose eggs. Over the years I have only hatched out 2 geese. Time will tell.

Peach Blossom

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Ned Newby

The peach tree is about to explode with blooms. The hens are laying eggs again and we have a hen turkey and goose getting ready to set. Looks like Spring is upon us.

The calves are growing well. I applied dehorning paste on them several weeks ago. It looks like it worked some on Billie Jo (Jersey cross) but I don’t think it did anything on Mark (black baldy). The paste may have gotten old. I will do it again this weekend with new paste.

Almost time to plant the garden. Around here we always wait until after Easter. Most years we have one last frost right before Easter. Potatoes will go in this weekend and probably should have gone in sooner than that.

Spring is by far the busiest time of year for me. I just hope I can keep up this year. I sure don’t want another wasted year like the last one where everything got away from me.

Vermin

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Ned Newby

The hen got off the nest in the barn yesterday. She had only lost one chick that didn’t follow and died from the cold. When I checked on her last night she had 6 chicks. A little brown one and 5 black ones. We were worried about the cold but we should have been worried about something else.

I found some feathers near the barn when I went up this morning. Thinking the worst I looked for the hen and chicks while I was feeding the animals.

Found her and one little chick. She is missing a few feathers but other than that she is ok. The chick is keeping up with her fine so maybe they will be ok. If they stay close to the dog they should be fine. My guess is I have a raccoon slipping in looking for feed and found her. The dogs probably ran it off but not before it got the chicks and a mouth full of feathers.

Just some pictures from the last weekend in January

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Ned Newby

I finally got the new gate up for the milking area. The old one was too big and will be used on a section of fence I am rerunning.

Everyone is lounging around soaking up the sun before the coming rain.

Bobbie Jo wondering if this muck is ever going to dry up.

Calves watching to see if I am going to put ropes on them again.

Lazy mouse catcher. Tux is catching a few rays like all the rest.

Bobbie Jo getting a chin and nose scratch. She should be giving us a 1/2 Jersey calf this spring.

Otis is still all puppy but he is also the biggest dog on the place.

Bees sucking up some sugar water.

Hen setting on a nest in the barn. She doesn’t know it is still January.

Olive washing Billie Jo’s face. She’s a good mama.

New batch of muscadine/ elderberry wine bubbling on the counter. The first batch went so fast I’ll have to ration this.

Winnie letting me know her bowl is empty. She should be giving us a litter of puppies in late March.

Even in January you need to watch where you put your hands. On this day the ground was frozen in the morning but the temperature had risen significantly by the time I found her. She was quite active and could have ruined my day had I not been paying attention.

Sad day

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Ned Newby

Sadly Calliope didn’t make it. She was doing so well and then Friday she started going downhill and we were not able to get her to bounce back. She died sometime early Monday morning. I think it was probably inevitable but everyone gets a fighting chance on this farm. We were hoping her condition was one she would outgrow but it wasn’t to be. She really made an impression on everyone who met her. She would stay at the feed store while we were at work and Jim said she had taken the place over. I’m just glad that she didn’t go while one of the kids were watching her.

RIP little fighter.
As sad as Monday was Tuesday brought new life on the farm. We had two hens show up with 10 baby chicks each. I know one was on a nest but I don’t know where the other one was nesting.

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Category Archives: Chickens and Turkeys