Wednesday, January 22, 2014

These chickens


These chickens are all about work. I thought of those little Face Book funnies, where someone says something like "people be like..." I made some for the chickens.


This one is: Chickens be like, we don't have time to eat. We're late for work!



And this one is: Hens be like, let us out of here woman! We're late for work!


Even though there is a nester box in the coop, these hens will jump out of the coop as soon as I open the door, and they run as fast as they can next door to the other nest boxes to lay their eggs. They don'y even stop to eat. They are true working girls, these hens! I just thought this was funny.

Monday, January 20, 2014

It just takes one...

to rock the boat. Sheep, that is. I have been letting them in to the chicken yard side of the farm so they can have the 2 stalls at night. Then they go back over to the bigger pasture for the day. But to get them back and forth is a bit of a job. They have 3 gates to go through. And I have to get them all at the gate to go to the other side and make sure they all go through to the other side. I have a fence I put up across the driveway to keep them from going into the yard. But then there's the whole driveway they could end up going down instead. So far, it hasn't happened. Til tonight.

I have been only giving them hay at night now, since the weather has been so nice. And since I realized I only have about 30 bales left. So I'll put hay in the 2 stalls at night to get them to go over there. It's been working rather well. But last night, I saw that there was a lot of hay still in there, so I just raked it up to make it look like I had just put hay in for them.

Darned ole sheep are smart. They whined for a little while til I went back inside. But they know in the morning they get grain and bread on the other side. So they always go. No problems at all.

I guess they were onto me tonight. And all it took was one sheep to go the wrong way and they ALL go the wrong way. Down the driveway toward the road.

It just took a few minutes to get them all back to where I wanted them. With a little cussing and hollering of course. Darned ole sheep! I think they will be staying over there this week, since it's going to be cold again. Like in the teens at night til the weekend. It just makes it hard to give them the grain when they are bumping me and running all over the place. It's so much easier to get the feed into bowls with no sheep around, then get them over to the feed. SO much easier. I'll have to figure out what to do in the morning.

This morning, I trimmed all 4 does feet. It had been a few months since I have done them. Had to clean the milk room up first. They weren't as bad as I was thinking. And I didn't make any of them bleed this time. I usually get at least one hoof too close. But they look good again. And Bubba and Stella were happy dogs! They love those nasty hoof pieces.


Also did a little spring cleaning. It was so beautiful today, it got me up and doing things. I worked in the bedroom and got a lot done. Will be going to take a load to Goodwill tomorrow and some recycling to the Community Kitchen. And spend some time with my mom. We've been missing our Tuesday's together.

And will y'all please say some prayers for my husband? His right ankle is just not getting better. In fact, it's been infected. I was telling the nurse last Thursday at the would care center that I was concerned about how it's not healing at all and looks horrible. The doctor came in and did some things. He took a culture to be sent off. And we're trying a different type treatment instead of Silvedene cream. But I ran out. So will go get more tomorrow. Also put him on antibiotics. He's not been feeling too good and his blood sugar has been around 200 for over a week now. So I knew something was wrong. They may try a water treatment soon.

Y'all stay warm. It's gonna get cold again!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

And peace is restored to the Kingdom once again.


Friday, I put an ad on CL for the roosters. It was really getting bad around here. The poor hens couldn't get a moments peace with all these guys chasing them all day. And for those with chickens, you know what I'm talking about. When there is more than 1 rooster, the testosterone is flying. It's not fun at all.

So, this one rooster seemed to be the one that the hens liked. He would go into the big coop at night with all the hens. The other 2 roos would go to the chicken tractor. So I just got the 2 roos in there a few days ago, by their selves. Put the ad on CL. And got a call a few minutes later. A friend not too far away came and got them both!

I was so happy. And I could tell right away that the hens were happy, too. And Black Bart is very happy. They are ALL his now! And he is a good rooster. Doesn't have any favorites. Just goes along with whatever the girls want. He's good like that.






                                          Here's the big boy. The king in his peaceful kingdom.