Moving to a Bigger Coop and Mud, Mud, Mud

This morning we came to the realization that the chicks and poults had outgrown their brooder. Honestly, I think they grew overnight again. We wanted a temporary set up to separate them from the hens. The chicken coop is made up of 2 stalls in our barn. We had the green plastic mesh chicken fence which would be just perfect. We divided a stall in half to use and gave part to the chicks and part to the poults. This way they would have a whole lot more room to roam. The poults took off on a run around the stall. They even attempted to fly. We had turkey races for about 15 min straight. Then they had to eat and take a nap.

The chicks scratched around a bit and began eating with gusto. They always eat with gusto. They are Cornish Rock X. They literally eat and sleep, oh and eat again. These pictures are not the greatest.

The hens came in to check out the peeps. I was hoping that the motherly instinct would be stirred in my girls. I would love to have a broody hen. Please...Please....Please

This hen we call Lady. She was from our first set of chicks that we got last year to start our laying flock. We lost several chicks to Avian Encephalitis. One girl survived but is cripple. She is able to get around the coop by walking on her whole legs, not her feet. She lays an egg a day and is available to be loved on. The other hens do not like to be petted. She probably should have been culled but I don't like to eat our hens. There is just something wrong with eating something that provides us with eggs. I'm sure that there are plenty of folks who would disagree but that is my theory. They all have homes for the rest of their lives.

Finally, we got sunshine this afternoon. We were able to install one gate. Now we can get Fuzzy into her new pasture home on Monday. I should have put my mud boots back on and waded over to take a closer picture of the gate. However, I am just tired of mud this afternoon. Please forgive my laziness.

We have so much mud, that the sheep are getting muddy just hanging out at the barn gate. The hens don't seem to mind, I think it helps them find more worms. Ted has been moving some of the crushed rock here to help with all this mud. Notice the puddle? There are more.... Many, many more.

The work never ends. We are happy with this work. It brings a smile to our faces.

We are working for the next two nights so we will do maintenance on the farm until we have something more to blog. This is the time that I get to browse and enjoy all of your blogs. Have a safe and peaceful weekend. Much love and prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Kelly

Rain and Early Mornings

I don't usually do early mornings. I have worked too many years of the 7p-7a shift and there are some nights that I just can't sleep. Last night was one of those nights. I dislike these nights immensely. It is great when I can come home on my last morning, sleep for a few hours and get up. I may still be tired, but it allows me to reset my internal clock. There isn't a whole lot of farm work that you can do at night so this is a necessity. Thank goodness we have cats. When I cant sleep they are up with me. I finally gave up trying to sleep about 3:30am and got up. I am still amazed that we have such early daylight. At this time of year it gets dark around 9pm and daybreak about 3-3:30. Abbey was up looking out the window. It has rained steady for about a week now. We along with much of the population have puddles, water logged streams and weeds in the garden. We are enjoying not having to water the garden. I feel for the farmers that are under water. My heart goes out to them.

Abbey saw Timba in the pasture. He loves to hunt. Abbey will go out and hunt occasionally, however, she is the most "indoor" cat we have.

This will one day be where we will have our pigs. Right now it is being populated with daises.

The sheep are up early grazing. They love the buttercups and other weeds in their pasture. The goats are still asleep in the barn. We are waiting for a few dry sunny days so we can start haying the pasture.

One of Alex's favorite pastimes is looking on Uncle Henry's for deals. We have used the barter method and I love it. There are times when we have to pay but we feel like we always get a deal. Theses two gates will grace our pastures to gain access for the tractor and the delivery on Monday, June 29 of Fuzzy the llama. We got these two gates for what we would have paid for just one new. What a deal.

The broiler chicks are growing by leaps and bounds. I can see a difference in their growth overnight.

The poults are growing too. The still have the heat lamp on them to prevent a chill but we raise it to keep them from being too warm.

We had a few warm sunny days but seem to be back in a rainy trend. Temps in the 60's. How I miss those warm sunny day!

(We have had such cloudy days that I haven't been able to get online to post. We have Wild Blue Satellite and it stinks in the best of times, clouds really muss things up)

Much love and prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm

Kelly

Poults and Chicks 2009

This year we thought we would expand our learning experience and take on Turkeys. We ordered them from Blue Seal in Bangor, ME at the same time we bought Bella, Edward, and Sophie (the goats). We wanted to keep them in the coop with the other chickens since we opened up an additional stall in the barn for this winter. We had our two 6x6x2 brooders we built last spring. We got everything cleaned out, the water containers bleached, the heat lamps cleaned and checked for working bulbs. Put clean shavings in the brooders and waited with baited breath for our new additions. Finally, the call came that we could come in and pick up our 2 hens and 6 toms. All together now, awwwwww..... how cute. They came in a cake box with holes for air vents. We put the box in the brooder under the heat lamps so the poults wouldn't get chilled,

then opened the box carefully not to startle the little ones. They may not look like it now, but they are Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys. The will have a metallic sheen of the feathers which change from copper to bronze to burnished gold. They sound pretty impressive.

Imagine him being the Lord of the Barnyard?

How about these guys?

We had ordered our yearly Jumbo Cornish X Rocks from Murray McMurray Hatchery and the call came from the post office in Bradford to "come pick up your chicks" on Monday morning at 7am. I popped up and got ready, ok, I groaned, rolled over, pulled the covers up and thought, crap I have to get up. You see our animals are on our schedule on this farm. We generally get up and going by about 8am. We work nights and don't get home till 8am in the morning, so when we are home we try to keep the animals on that same schedule. I am truly impressed with the folks that are up by 6am. I just can't switch over to early mornings when I'm off. Hey, it would really confuse the animals! Yeah, that's it. Sounds good to me. Back on the subject, I did get up, put coffee on and head off the the Post Office and get the chicks. Boy were they noisy.

We always order Gro-Gel with the chicks. It reminds me of gut load for crickets. It has vitamins, minerals and absorbs water for the chicks to eat. It sounds good. It may be a rip off but the chicks seems to love it each time.

Izzy was interested in the small box of treats.

Again, we went through the same motions getting the chicks set.

A little dip of the beak in water.

Then they all get to sit on the feeder and eat gro-gel till their little gizzards are full.

What cute little faces.

This was our extra surprise chick. It has the sweetest eye liner on. Any ideas on what kind of chick this is?

So far we have lost 1 turkey and 2 of the chicks. They are staying warm and eating well. We have frames with chicken wire to keep any visitors out. That is chick week on Mainely Ewes Farm. Much love and prayers to all.

Kelly