House or Barn?

I know I wasn't born in a barn, but it's starting to feel like I live in one.

The girls got a new rabbit recently, but he's too young to live outside with the other rabbits in our cold winter. So he's living in Jade's bedroom.

As if that isn't bad enough, my favorite old rooster got an extreme case of frost bit and is presently living in my bathtub.

Now all I need is a baby goat in the house and barn will feel complete.

Animals in Winter

The Muscovy ducks don't seem to mind the cold at all. Often they sleep outside even though they have a nice warm, straw lined shelter under one of the porches.

We have a Shetland Goose now (at lest that's what we are about 95% sure she is) that doesn't seem to notice that it's winter at all. Goose and Lucky (Pekin drake is named Goose, it gets confusing) only seem to notice the winter cold a tiny bit more than the Goose. They all prefer to spend the day laying together in the snow. I'm not sure they could be coaxed into their shelter at all if it weren't for the fact that's where the food is!

The chickens will come outside if they don't have to walk though any snow that actually covers their toes. This pictures is a rare thing this time of year. Usually it's only a brave few that venture out of the coop to actually enjoy the sunshine. Most of them just crowd by the door wishing for spring and bugs to eat.
Now the goats, they are my animals to the core. They do NOT like that cold white stuff at all. Leah (the Nubian) couldn't even be convinced to come out and play during the brief warm spell we had a few weeks ago that melted all the snow in their yard. After a lot of effort, I did manage to coax Leah and Cream Soda out of the stall.
Ginger Ale, on the other hand, wasn't falling for it. She likes to look at me like I've lost my mind, unless I bring cookies. Then she is the first one to the fence. I forgot the cookies today.

The Teeny Tiny Egg

Last week Rob brought in the smallest, cutest egg. I have no idea which hen laid it.



Here it is next to one of our "normal" sized eggs. Not only was it really small, but it was almost perfectly round as well
.

Only about an inch long. Just over 1/3 the size of the other egg. So we wondered what was in side it.


The little blob to the right is the little egg, the big blob on the left is the normal egg. The yolk wasn't even whole and firm like it was suppose to be. The kids thought the whole thing was pretty cool.

What Do You Do With All Those Eggs?

I get this question a lot. Some get sold to a friend, some are given to family, and some are used to barter with. I've traded eggs for everything from babysitting to fresh produce.

Sometimes we have more eggs than we can sell, give away or barter with. We eat a lot of eggs. He have a lot of hard boiled eggs and often do breakfast for dinner, but my favorite is something I call "Egg Bake Surprise".

To make "Egg Bake Surprise" take some eggs (usually 6-12 depending on the size of my baking dish) and beat them well. Then start adding in anything you feel like using up. I usually go through the fridge and grab leftovers. It's a great way to use up those small containers of cooked veggies that have less than a serving in them. Cheese is a must in our house. I've put just about any meat you can think of in it as well - ham, leftover meatloaf, chicken, bacon, sausages of all kinds - you get the idea. Sometimes I will add in some milk. Seasonings, of course - salt, pepper, garlic, hot sauce. Day old bread is great in there too.

Once you have all your chosen ingredients mixed in, pour it in your baking dish. Bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the center is set.

Here's one I made recently with shredded potatoes and cheese:
It's a good way to use up eggs without making the same thing over and over until everyone is sick to death of eggs.

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs

We're getting almost 2 dozen a day most days. The bigger whitish one on the upper right is a duck egg. We got our first two duck eggs in months three days ago.

Time to get the "Farm Fresh Eggs For Sale" sign made.

This and that, but mostly chicks

Here it is Wednesday and the chicks are still doing well. They are four days old now and starting to get real wing feathers. Actually, some of them were getting them when they came. But all of them have them now and some of them have quite large wing feathers for such little birds.

I was having problems with them making a huge mess of their water, both by spilling it and by getting bedding in it. I still had the plastic that was cut out of the tops of the totes to make the brooders, so I cut them to make platforms to go under the waterers. So far it's working quite well. Tomorrow I quit using the paper towel though and they will just have pine shavings. So I'm sure I'll be cleaning out the waterers more often. I'm thinking I may leave some paper towel just under the waterers.

I have one of the garden beds planted finally. I know I should have done it a couple weeks ago, but I can't change that now. I planted lima beans (thanks Chris), green onions (thanks again Chris), green beans, wax (yellow) beans, sweet corn, radishes, lettuce, serrano peppers, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. The other garden bed will be done with all transplants since we still don't have all the dirt in it yet. It will have tomatoes, various squash, peas, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumbers and herb. I think I'm going to like gardening with the raised beds.

The worm bins are going good. I think we may have to get a bigger bin soon or start putting them in the garden. There are a lot of worms in the one bin. It looked like there were a lot of eggs in there too, so many more on the way.

Here are some pictures I took of the chicks today:


This chick didn't want to sit still to have her picture taken. Her landing was successful, so no need to worry about the fall.


This is one of the araucanna bantams. Compared to them, the other chicks seems to be growing much faster.


Here are Jade and Megan with a couple of the chicks. The chicks didn't mind sitting on their laps, but didn't really want to be held. It all went well until Braden decided to grab a chick. The poor thing survived it though.


The picture doesn't do justice to how pretty this chicks wings are. She has the most beautiful white feathers coming in.

I've found it's really nice to have two brooders. I put them all in one while I clean the other, then put them all in that one to clean the second one. I'm also hoping that mixing the chicks up daily will help to stop any problems occurring when they all go into the coop together.

If anyone has any guesses about the breeds of any of the chicks pictured in the blog, I'd love to hear them.

THEY'RE HERE!!

I got the call from the post office at 7:27am and was at the post office and back home by 8:00am. There were 30 chicks in all and so far they all seem healthy and lively. They are eating and drinking well and seem to be comfortable with the temperature.

Here are some pictures.Brooder 1 has 15 chicks total. Obviously if you count them you will know there are one or two missing in this picture.

Brooder 2 also has 15. Again, not all are pictured.

I think this one is a Light Brahma. It looks darker in the picture than it actually is.

This is our one and only Turken. I thought I didn't want any, but now I might be wishing I had more. So far this chick is the first one to run up for attention when my hand goes in the brooder.

So there they are. Megan is in her glory and just can't decide which one is going to be her "Boo Boo Chicken". The order was for 25 of McMurrary's Brown Egg Layer Assortment and 3 Araucana Bantams. They gave us an extra bantam free and also the order included a free rare chick. I'm hoping that we have at least 2 roosters so that we will be able to hatch chicks in the spring.

OK, I'm off to dote on my new babies. I'll post more pictures soon. I'm just so EXCITED!