Planned Turkey Arrival

Turkeys!

Plans were made today for the new additions to the farm to happen tomorrow.

Cluck Acres will be home to 8 turkeys, 5 Sumatra Chickens, and 10 Brahma Chickens tomorrow evening around 5 p.m. That will bring our total of "birds" up to 92. 

It is always exciting to make additions to any farm. We have never dealt with turkeys and this will be a new experience for each of us here at the farm.

I am curious to see how Sally, Daisy, and Charleston will react to the new additions. I hear goats normally get along well with chickens and other fowl so we are hoping for the best. As we learn new information and have that trial and error period we will keep everyone posted on what works, what doesn't, and how things are going.

I was able to get some photo's taken and uploaded today. Hope you enjoy them!

The Great Eggscape

Everyone who follows my blog knows just how tickled pink I am when I get eggs. Yes, I know, I get them every day and the eggcitement should have worn off by now. Well, It hasn't.

I was so excited about getting my ducks enough eggs for them to set on. Yesterday there were 4 wonderful eggs in the nest by the end of the day. Today there are only 2 in there and there should be between 5 and 7. 

I was curious about it most of the day.

Tonight as we went for a drive there was a copperhead in the road. My husband does the justly thing, of course, and runs over it. A mile or so down the road we see a rattlesnake in the middle of the road that someone else had already run over.

It then dawns on me that the temps have been cooler at night, the snakes are on the move for warm, comfortable places that will also afford them a nice meal.

I believe they found my eggs. Especially since we have found 2 rat snakes in our home this summer. 

I am not completely sure how ducks work as this is my first time with them so I am going to have to do some extended research but the ducks are rarely in the nest where the eggs are so I can't imagine one of them eating them. Tomorrow I am certain I will be finding some information to figure out if ducks, like chickens, on occasion, will eat their own eggs. 

Heading out on an egg search to make sure the other eggs weren't hidden in a strategic place for me to find.

Wish me luck!

28 Heritage Rhode Island Red eggs and 9 duck eggs, all nestled in a friendly, warm incubator.

2 eggs are in the duck nest. I am leaving them there to see how the ducks respond. They are all new layers and so I am curious to see how long it will take them to figure out that they are suppose to actually set on them. I am also curious which one will prove to be broody.

The Cochin pen has an egg today, too. How exciting. I love my Cochin chickens. They are always ready to be mommies and never mind setting for long days on the nest. I hear a lot of people who just don't care for broody hens, however, I rather like them. They are good foster mothers as well and they will take good care of all the chicks. I would much rather let a hen be a mother than incubate babies. Hens do a much better job of mothering chicks than I could ever do.

Have you ever seen a mother hen? It is the most amazing thing. The chicks depend on her much like our children depend on us. The mothers spend every moment checking on their chicks. 

Although it is actually fall the weather has been in the mid to high 90's here and the chickens just aren't sure what is going on. Last week we had several cool days and the birds were really active. This week they look at me like I am the mean weather woman.

Some of our hens have decided to molt. Naturally this was a tad bit aggravating since I haven't been getting eggs lately. I suppose that it is actually a good thing. As much as I love eggs I prefer that they go ahead and go through their molting process. Get it all over with at one time!

This weekend we will be adding 8 turkeys, 5 Sumatra's, and 10 Brahma's to our wonderful. I have never had turkeys so I will be doing some reading over the next few days to figure out what we should be doing and how they react with other things.

Well, my chickens, ducks, and goats are awaiting their dinner so I must go for now. Let me know what your favorite breed of chickens are and why you like that breed so much if you have a chance. 

Free Furniture, Compost, Duck Eggs! Oh MY!

So much is happening at Cluck Acres today.

We had a sleigh head board and foot board given to us, for free, from a friend today. It needed to be sanded down and readied to stain. Morgan has been working on getting it sanded down. It is a gorgeous, antique bed. Although we do not own a full size bed to use with it I have so me special plans for it. Our daughter, Melissa, is going to be turning 18 in May and I assume she will be moving so I plan to use this headboard in that room as a guest room.

I love older wood and furniture. The sturdiness and the beauty of well made furniture makes for a wonderful addition to any style home decoration. My plan is to stain the head board and foot board with a dark Mahogany stain. I love the darker woods and find that they really go well with any other decorations in the room.

I plan to start a quilt that will go well with this bed once it is able to be placed in the guest room. I haven't decided what pattern I will be making on the quilt but it is going to be one that matches the era of the bed which should be early 1930's. 

On a much different note I am having a chicken pondering issue. In the pen with my Heritage Rhode Island Reds I have just one rooster and two hens. Both hens laid brown eggs when we first got them. The hens are not very old and are in good condition. However, after the fowl pox spell one of them is now laying white eggs. Her eggs are a tad bit larger than the other hens but they are definitely white compared to the other ones being a medium cream color.

Three of my Khaki Campbell Ducks laid today and for that I am truly happy. I had gotten an egg everyday so I wasn't sure if it was one or more of them laying. Today there were three wonderful eggs waiting for me to find. I see that they have made a nest in a little box thing I made for them so I am thinking I may leave the eggs and see if I can get one of the girls to go set. Duck eggs have a much greater, richer flavor than chickens. They are wonderful in baking and the taste of food is absolutely wonderful. I am not sure for the reasoning behind this but I didn't believe it until I cooked with them.

We got just two eggs so far from the barn yard mix hens but we use those just for eating. We have consistently gotten two eggs per day for the last week. I have some Arcana hens in there and none of the eggs have been green so I know those two aren't setting yet, but I am glad that the others have completely recovered from the fowl pox and are on their way to being much healthier. 

So many problems can happen that cause chickens to have a slower egg production. With the triple digit heat we had for 47 days, plus the fowl pox, plus going into molting I believe their little bodies were just overwhelmed.

Lately we have given all of our hens and roosters an unlimited supply of crumbies (aka layer feed). We have not hindered how much they have eaten. In the heat they ate very little other than the frozen fruits and veggies we placed out for them. They are still continuing to eat the fruits and veggies but have been really drawn to the crumbies. I believe they have built their protein levels back up and that has allowed the egg production to begin again.

I know many people who limit the amount of food each particular chicken eats. However, I have learned that the stronger birds will sometimes eat the weaker birds food and I learned once I put out enough for everyone to get completely full that they eat until they are done and there are crumbies left over. I prefer to feed this way. Besides crumbies, I do feed a chicken scratch mix in the evenings. My chicken pens have straw in their runs and pens so they enjoy looking for the scratch. When I clean the pens out every week I am able to put all of the cleaned out stuff into the compost pile. Nothing goes to waste. If there is a vegetable peel left over then it doesn't hurt to throw it in the compost. The straw, manure, vegetable and fruit peels, seeds, and other things that go in the compost is a complete mixture and therefore my compost never has a smell nor does it have flies. I have found worms who have lived in my compost, which makes the compost even richer, but have never had an odor or varmint issue. Here is a photo of one of the feeders that Morgan made for my pens. It is a simple feeder. A piece of wood on bottom and then some small cuts of wood that we had from a different project. It didn't cost us anything to make because it was from left over wood from other projects.

Any compost that has the correct mixture of things will not cause odor. Here is a photo of my compost pile. It actually had started growing squash from seeds that were put in it. By the time of harvest I had as much squash from the plants in the compost pile as I did from the ones we planted in the garden. Of course, all the excess is now in the freezer and goes into the flock block that I make for the chickens.

My name is being hollered from the kitchen so I am sure my crew is ready to eat and wondering what is going to be for dinner. 

Do you have a compost pile? How much success have you had with yours?

Return of the Eggs

The eggs have returned.

I believe we are finally over our Fowl Pox issue and are now seeing production again.

We currently have 17 Heritage Rhode Island Red eggs in the incubator along with 2 Khaki Campbell Duck eggs.

My barn yard mix hens have left me a glorious 3 eggs in the last 2 days. There are twelve hens and two roosters in that particular run and pen so I should be seeing a huge rise in production in a few days. These poor hens were hit with a very bad case of fowl pox and after coming out from that decided to molt.

At this point none of my other hens, including my Old English and my Cochin hens, have returned to laying but I am hoping in a short time they will all be feeling back up to par and giving me some wonderful eggs to place in the incubator.

Sallie Mae, the latest Boer Goat doe that we bought has been loving on Charleston, our buck. They are both around 9 months old at this point and should be playing the mating game. Daisy Mae, also 9 months old, seems less interested in the idea of mating with Charleston and more interested in beating him to the feed trough.

Our goats graze at their leisure and we also supplement with sweet feed, oats, and hay. It is amazing to see how fast the goats grow and how well they thrived through the hot summer. They seem to be enjoying the cooler temperatures and I often find them in the mornings playing in the back part of the pasture. 

We are working on getting the side area tilled so we can get our fall garden in the ground. We are several days past due on this. Here is hoping that the weekend is a productive one rather than a destructive one. You know how that works. You go to use something and it falls apart even though it worked fine the very last time you used it? I like to call it farmer aggravation. 

I am interested in hearing what you other hobby farmers are planting in your fall crops and how your family of animals is doing! 

Tonight I will leave you with a photo of Daisy (left) and Charleston (right).

8 First Place Wins With Duck Video

I apologize for the time away from the blog. We had been preparing for the Carter County Fair as well as working on some buildings and getting some things ready for the fall season.

We did fairly well at the fair. Our Heritage Rhode Island Reds won first place for Rooster, Pullet, and Hen in their class. 

Our Khaki Campbell Ducks won first and second place respectively for each pair. The younger pair placed first while the older pair placed second. They also won first and second place for singles in their division.

Daphne, our Pekin hen, won first place in her class. She was able to get out of her cage several times during the school time showing and let the kids pet and handle her. She did very well and didn't seem to be overly upset about the whole ordeal.

Our pigeons, Duke and Di, won first place for male and female. They did not seem to enjoy all of the noise like Daphne did but they did well in their class of birds and for that we are grateful.

We brought home a total of 8 first place ribbons, 2 second place ribbons, a fourth place ribbon and a fifth place ribbon. We were very proud that every single bird we entered placed in their division. 

After a full day at the fair and several other days of going to town and caring for the birds during the viewing and judging we, as a family and our birds, were exhausted when we arrived home at 10pm last night.

An hour of putting up birds, checking our other birds, and making sure everything was secure made the day seem longer but every single minute of it was worth it.

The ducks were very happy to be home to their pond. There isn't water for them to play in at the fair but I was still rather surprised when we put them back in their pens that the ducks headed straight for bathing time instead of nestling in for a good nights sleep with their pals. 

More exciting news is that we added another Boer Goat to put in with Charleston and Daisy Mae. Her name is Sally Mae and she is quiet active. I haven't been able to get a photo of her yet but hope to add some in the next few days. She, like Daisy and Charleston, was born in January. This means that we have a good start to a breeding set of goats that are all around the same age. Sally Mae has already come into heat (we only figured that out once we put her in the pen). If the breeding "took" we should have a kid on the ground around February. 

I am leaving you tonight with a video of some of the ducks. We have added 3 more since this video was taken but I love to watch them! Forgive my daughter and her loud talking! Somehow she didn't realize that recording was on while I was taking the video.