I'm still here!

I've been wrangling runaway turkeys...

Playing with cute puppy dogs...

Taking care of baby chicks, baby ducks, baby turkeys and a few guineas as well...

And taking care of some BIG, noisy ducks...

I know people say that you can't brood ducks, turkeys and chickens all together, but it's worked out great for us!  We did lose a couple turkeys when we first got them, but they are notoriously hard to raise.  So far, everyone gets along great.  Although I did see one little Bourbon Red poult pecking on an Indian Runner duck who finally got tired of it.  So, he turned around and whacked the crap out of the little poult with his beak.  It was pretty funny...

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My ducks are going through puberty.

We let our ducks outside to roam this weekend for the first time.  And they had a blast.  They were a little hesitant at first, but dove right in eating dirt and grass.  And like I said, they are going through puberty.  I about fell on the floor laughing the first time I heard them.  So, let me explain, when ducks are little they peep just like baby chicks.  I was surprised by that, because I always assumed ducks quacked since they were born.  These ducks are about three weeks old and I just noticed last week that their voices are changing.  Instead of a cute "peep-peep", its more like a broken bicycle horn.  I wish I could imitate it for everyone, because it just cracks me up!

I took a video of them getting let outside for the first time and you might be able to hear them with their voices cracking.  But you will also get to see what happens when one of the ducks gets his foot caught and his owner panics...

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that guy... married to that girl... on a farm...

Greetings All,
I am Jamie's husband, Jon. Since we do so in all other aspects of our lives, we've decided to work together on the blog as well. When Jamie doesn't have time to post a blog (usually due to the time needed to upload pictures with the internet we have), I will try to fill in the gaps with updates from the farm. I will leave the pretty pictures and smart commentary to "a Girl on a Farm", because she is VERY good at it. Instead, I will offer a slightly different perspective with more general updates on the farm progress and happenings.

While I'm at it, I might as well start now -
We've been working tirelessly for a while now and this week was no different. What was different was we were able to see more of the fruits of our labor.

• Our house is finally starting to get a bit more organized. Which is very important because it is hard to not be stressed if you come home to a house in disarray.
• We cleaned up the chicken coop and have started making notes of the things we would like to differently when we brood poultry the next time. (e.g., put the water for the ducklings over a wire floor to prevent constant messing of the bedding; use a hover brooder instead of just the lamps; don't use cardboard as liners/dividers for ducks)
• We have had tremendous support from our family and Easter weekend was no different. We were able to put up more interior fencing for the cows and we went ahead and separated the bulls from the cows and combined the heifers with the cows, in preparation of calving. Which should be any day.
• We finally found a great source for our organic pig and poultry feed. Mike Ostry out of Bruno does a great job and is very reasonable. I'd be happy to pass his contact info along to anyone who's interested.
• We swapped generators this week (used to charge the batteries when we are low on power). The other one we were using was very nice but we weren't able to take advantage of all it's power because a circuit breaker kept tripping. So we went to a smaller one that will use less fuel and actually produces a bit more power. We are still looking into ways to get all the power out of it that it's rated for.
  
• We have also asked Dixon Power Systems to give us a quote for adding solar. Mr. Dixon installed the wind turbine so he is very familiar with our situation and has been extremely helpful with us learning the system. We hope to have somewhere between .5 - 2 kW's of PV Solar installed in the next few months.

We look forward to seeing your questions and comments on our posts. Please don't be shy, we really enjoy the feedback. If you're not sure how to comment, send us an email and we can help you.

That's All Folks!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Farmer Jon (I had my name as "a Guy on a farm" but thought it might be too easy to get the two of us confused.)

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The Great Chick/Duckling Massacre of 2011

It makes me so sad to write this post, but it's just what happens on a farm.

When baby chicks and ducklings come in the mail, it can be a stressful time for them.  Since their yolk will sustain them for a couple days without food or water, they are able to be mailed out from the hatcheries.  Still, it's stressful!  The hatcheries always add a couple more chicks in since they assume that a few won't make it.  I was so pumped for the first couple days after we got our ducklings and chicks because we didn't lose any of them!  I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself for being such a good mama.

And then it happened...

The big ducklings pecked a hole through a cardboard divider and tramped several chicks and a baby duck. 

When I say big ducklings, let me just illustrate:

The duckling on the left is about two weeks old.  The duckling on the right is a couple days old.  See the difference?  The Pekin duckling on the left is huge!  The breeder we got them from said he has never seen such big ducklings.

So, the big ducklings pecked a hole through the cardboard and must have rushed through the hole.  We found the little duckling underneath the hole so he must have got trampled by the big ducklings.  Then the big ducklings pushed over a two by four that we had separating the ducklings and the chicks.  The chicks were right on the other side of the two by four since that's where the heat lamp was located.  So, we lost four baby chicks that were crushed by the board.

I was so mad at those big ducklings!  They are such bullies!  I've gotten over my anger, because I know this is what happens on a farm.  Sometimes animals get out and sometimes animals get killed. 

On another note, we are losing our baby poults rapidly.  We ordered 15 baby turkeys and are down to about 10 or 11.  I knew ahead of time that baby poults are difficult to raise, but man it sucks to go out and find that baby who was fine last night and dead the next morning.  We didn't lose anymore this morning, so I'm hopeful we are over the hump.

Life and death are just a part of a farm and it's something that I will definitely have to get used to.

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Ducks and chicks and ghosts dogs...oh my!

First up, the ghost dog.  Obviously it's just Max taken with a too slow of a shutter speed, which is why it's blurry.  But to me, he looks like a ghost dog!  Or even an angel dog, which he is...

Here are the ducklings!  These are Pekin ducklings, which are primarily used for their meat.  I thought I liked chickens, but man do I like ducks.  These guys have such personality!  They will come running right up to you peeping (they don't quack yet) and I can just imagine what they are saying..."Where's our food, We're hungry...he pushed me..no, she pushed me!"  As you can see Huey, Duey, Louie and Bob are in the mix as well.  They have a nice open space to run, which is more than they had in the house.

This is blurry again, but ducklings are hard to instruct to stay still.  They came running up at me as soon as I opened the door and just about all fell off the step.

Jon is on his way this morning to pick up either some turkeys or more ducklings that came in the mail!  And maybe some yummy donuts for his hungry wife too...

And we also got our chickens last Saturday.  We were not expecting them until Monday, so we were surprised to get a call from the Post Office that our chicks were here.

I was always partial to chickens, but ducks are definitely edging closer.  These guys are so cute and little.  Three days later, they are already starting to feather out.  We've had some of the ducks for two weeks and they still haven't feathered out.  We did get one free exotic bird, which is the yellow one in the middle that's dive bombing the rest.  He's starting to get big cheek feathers, so we are interested to find out what he or she will be. 

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Meet the ducklings!

Hi!  My name is Bob the duckling!  Why don't I introduce you to my brothers (sisters??)

This is Huey.

This is Duey.

And this is Louie.

Oh my...how have I never had ducklings before?  They are so cute and I just want them to stay small forever.  So, their names are Huey, Duey, Louie and Bob.  Huey, Duey and Louie are interchangeable as I can't make up my mind which one is which.  But there is no mistaking Bob!

Here he is giving me the stink eye, one of his favorite things to do.

Not sure of the breeds, just four cute ones picked out at Tractor Supply Company.  I think ducklings might even be cuter than baby chicks!  These will be our pets and will definitely earn their keep once they are outside eating some ticks.

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