adjustments

Sozo lost 2 more babies. 

Reality is 12 is just too many babies for her to deal with.  I have read about one breeder who "adjusted" each litter so they were 6 kits.  Either by moving babies from one litter to another or by actually just, well you know.  6 is thought to be the optimal by many people.  When there are larger litters some say you need to separate them into groups of no more than 6 and the thought is that the mom will go to each nest to feed babies and there is a better chance of all babies getting something to eat.  Not everyone believes this though, some say the mom might only feed one group of babies.

Lovie has been successful with her 7 babies and now Sozo is at 8 so we'll see how they do.  She has some really cute little bugs!  One is grey on her back and white on her belly.  I will get more photos when their eyes open up. 

I got some fresh goat milk at Trader Joe's on my way home and I finally tried it and it was really good.  I tricked Shane into trying it, told him it was some new organic milk for him to try...ok not a total lie really, and he thought it was really rich and couldn't believe it was goat milk.  He thought goat milk would taste more goaty, I guess goats smell.  So that is one more plus for us getting goats, we will have our own milk.  Course we won't be able to leave home when they are in milk but maybe we can plan ahead and have it timed so during the summer they will have a break?  Our own goats would also be our own butter, yogurt, whipping cream and even cheese.  Better find a good goat magazine and book to start learning about them!

really strange

So I was cracking eggs for breakfast and inside an egg was a beautiful yoke and what looks like an almond. 

It is actually a tiny egg with a soft shell that got caught inside another egg.  I cut it open and although having a soft shell it was just a miniature egg.  I wish I had thought to take a pic with it next to the yoke but you can see a push pin in the upper right corner to show size.

Photos

The prep work is all done and we are going to paint the main part of the house today!  The dormers are done and Shane is taking the scaffolding back now to save us an additional week rental.

We are waiting to do the trim upstairs because of time,  we are planning to replace the 2 front little windows in the dormers before winter and we will paint the trim from inside the bedrooms when the windows are out.  People keep asking how my house is set up so upstairs the right window is the boys room and the left is our room.  Main floor the right window is currently Shane's office but will be the guest/craft room once his new office is built and the left window is the living room.

1st photo of Sozo's babies!  I checked them well last night and found that she actually had 12 babies and 2 have passed away so we are left with 10 which is still a big litter.

Here is Rosey and one of her look alike babies.

The triplets.

And Lovie and her babies try to crawl out as soon as the door is open unlike:

Rosey and her babies who huddle in the far corners when the door opens.

And lastly isn't this a sad nest?  The upper right corner nest appears to be the favorite of several of my girls and they squabble to get in and lay their eggs so most of the bedding gets pushed out.  Today I really need to get the coop cleaned out and the chicken run racked up.  It is amazing how quick the poo builds up with 20 birds in there.  Can you keep a secret?  I am already thinking about getting a few more chickens next spring.  Shhhh don't tell Shane...

Here is a photo of my garden it runs from the chicken coup back to the barn.  Yesterday Sky harvested Zucchini (green and yellow), carrots, beets, potatoes, lettuce, blue berries, peas and Chinese pea pods.

Well, there are some photos.  Once the painting is done Shane is going to start on the dock down at the river.  That will be so wonderful!  The fishing area will not get much work this summer though.  Next year we should be done with the big house stuff and can focus on making it a wonderful camping/fishing Oasis!

home again

To start, Sozo had her kits, 11 in all.  I need to go out and check them all over still but all appear to be in good shape.

Lovie's babies are getting so big and are chowing down on everything in sight.  They are almost a month old and cute as can be!

Rosey's babies act just like her and want nothing to do with anyone.  But they are cute little balls of fur!

My chicken girls are as beautiful as ever!  They were stepping on each other to get close to me when I went out to see them this morning.  Red Velvet jumped on my back, even Christmas came over and let me give her a hug and quick scratch. 

So many emotions came up going back to Spokane.  I miss my life there so much.  Things have been rough on the boys because we have a total new life.  I am always telling them how much better our life is now but while in Spokane I really questioned if I am doing the right thing.  I started making my to do list this morning and there is no way I can get the list done!  I will never have a day to zone out, watch tv for an entire day ever again. 

Although I have to say, I was very happy turning into our driveway. 

Krista wants more pics so I am going to try and get more posted, well as soon as I get some of my to do list done.

Road trip

So I am taking my baby to spend a few days with his grandparents.  I am not sure if he or I are ready for this...Ok mostly me.  I have already lost Sky.  He is in a life of sleep overs and calling friends, bugging us daily for his own phone too!  Not to mention the attitude!!!!  When he rolls his eyes at me I just want to slap him.  I want my babies back!

On a happier note, we are working on getting the house panting done.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be done by the end of the week!

Monday Update...

You asked for it...Here it is...

All 7 of Lovie's babies.  They were not thrilled with being taken out of their nest.

Here you can see the size difference between the smallest and the other bunnies.  So far little runt is holding his own though.  He is even smaller than Rosey's babies! 

2 white bunnies are starting to have their ears, tails and noses turn black and have pink eyes (like their daddy) and the 3rd white one has brown eyes and staying pure white.  2 are silvery grey like the mom one is pure grey and little runt is pure black.

And now for my chicken girls:
Egg production is doing great, actually got 6 eggs yesterday and as I opened the side door I saw Turdis actually lay her egg...Brady thought it was gross but I thought it was cool.  How can you not think it is interesting how this chicken's body is able to create the hard shell around her egg? 

After another 2 double yoke eggs I did some research and young chickens tend to have more double yoke eggs until their reproductive system settles into the process...interesting.  There are a couple breeds in India (I think it was) that the norm is to lay double yoke...FYI. 

I can hear a chicken having a fit in the coup, Birdis squawks so much in the morning but she hasn't layed any eggs.  When ever someone is laying an egg she is cackling not far away.  I think I will sneak out there and check for eggs...

Twins!

When we started to fix breakfast we found that the 2 larger eggs were both...

double yokes!  The boys were very excited as I explained that if they had become babies they would have been twins.  Each boy got to eat a double yoke for breakfast and they were very happy.  I will have to look at the odds of double yokes but I would think it would be odd to have 2 from such a small sample of eggs.

4 eggs today!

Aren't they beautiful?  So this is the collection from the last 4 or so days.  We have been busy in the mornings and haven't made any eggs but today we are having "a feast" according to Sky.  As you can see there are a couple that are getting much bigger and we have a brand new layer as of today!  Queen Bo is the only chicken we have that lays white eggs.  Still no blue eggs but keeping my fingers crossed that Pokie, Cutie and Rocko will start to lay soon...need to remember that they are the younger chickens, hatched around March 1st so they won't be 5 months until August 1st.  This is so cool! 

I am thinking it would be better to build a 2nd coop and chicken run and forget about the damn rabbits.  Course don't know how it would work to eat the chickens after we have had them for pets laying eggs...never mind that is a bad idea!

Hey Pam, I'll bring you some eggs when I come to visit!

What the @#$%

Went out to give all the animals some Honeydew melon and the largest grey baby of Lovie's was dead.  Last night he had crawled through some small holes between the cages and made it clear over to the triplet's cage, Shane moved him back and put new boards up over the holes.  I don't know if maybe he got internal damage from that or the other rabbits or what could have happened.  There was no blood.  That chunk was the biggest and I was just sure he would survive.  Unfortunately he was also Sky's favorite.  He is so upset. 

I think we need to get a small breed bunny to be a pet for the boys.  That way they have something small to cuddle and they can think of the others as just food.

Farm Family Updates...

The littlest of Lovie's babies finally opened her eyes!  She is about 1/3 the size of the others but still holding her own.

 

Rosie's babies are still doing good.  All 5 still alive.

 

We are getting 3 eggs a day on most days and they are starting to get bigger!!!

 

The turkey girls have been put in with the chickens and everyone is mostly getting along.  Every now and then I have to go out and put a turkey (usually Christmas) in their place and get her to stop chasing a chicken.

 

Gogo is a girl...we have proof that she is one who is laying eggs.  It is starting to look like we might not have any boys.  Which is good, more eggs but we really hoped to have at least one rooster so we could raise some chicks.  I just have to wait and see, not everyone is laying eggs so there is still a chance someone might start crowing...

 

Trying to get the boys to pick black berries so I can make a batch of jelly but they refuse, saying this is their summer and they shouldn't have to work...?  When is my vacation from all work?

Baby bunny first aid

So one of Lovie's babies has a problem.  The side of his face swelled up 3 days ago and his eye was sealed closed.  I brought him inside and used a warm wet wash cloth to clean the eye and once the eye was clean a bunch of pus came out which, once it stopped flowing out all the swelling was gone.  I spent a couple days cleaning the eye a couple times a day to get all the dried crusty off and started putting Vetericyn Ophthalmic gel on his eye.  there isn't large amounts of pus anymore but I do believe he is going to be blind in that eye.  I call him One eyed Willy from the movie Goonies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The top photo is after I put the meds in his eye so the eye area looks wet from that.  The 3rd photo shows him having the eye open (the white is the actual eye ball).  The bottom photo shows his cute little face. 

 

 

Tinker found!

It appears a woman on her way to the Kenny Loggins concert last night found Tink by the highway and took him to her daughter's house.  Her daughter and husband took wonderful care of Tinker all night and saw one of our signs this morning and brought him home!  I am so excited!  I got his harness back on him so he has his ID tags and I am not letting him out of my sight!!!  I can now get some sleep!

Dog Missing

Tinker is missing!  We were stacking wood last night and he is now missing.  I am guessing he wandered up by the highway and someone picked him up.  Unfortunately I took his collar off the other day when I was putting on his flea meds and didn't put it back on.  My stomach hurts and I have not slept all night.  He is 9 years old and my baby.  He sleeps with me every night and normally he isn't too far from me.  When I am gardening he is usually laying down the next row over, when I am working in the kitchen he is ALWAYS underfoot.  I just don't know what I am going to do.

2 eggs in one day!

We actually got 2 eggs today (so far).  I chopped up some cantaloupe to bribe the girls to put a little extra effort into laying eggs.  I got so excited when Chirpie started laying but I need to be patient because originally we didn't think we would get eggs tell the end of July.  I have this dream of not having to buy eggs anymore.  When we have omelets for breakfast we go through 11 eggs!  I am not sure we will ever get to the point we don't have to buy any eggs though.

The metal roofing is in for the wood shed so we should have it done today and can start moving the wood in leaving the house clear to start painting again.

Anyone reading this who want gift ideas for my boys or just want to help me out, both boys are currently into Lego minifigure people.  I can not find anymore around town here so keep an eye out for me please.

eggs

I took photos but I have to say it is hard to truly get the difference between the eggs in the photos but here they are:

 

 

The top photo has the egg shells by the bowl but there is not any difference in the 3 from our chickens but the store bought is a lighter/brighter yellow and our girls lay a darker orangey egg.  The 2nd photo shows a bit of a difference but I am not sure how to light these to show the color difference the best...

 

 

 

 

 

now looking from the side you can see the yoke from the fresh eggs our girls layed are rounder, the store bought yoke flattens out more.  unfortunately in this photo the color looks almost the same.

Life...

Lovie's babies are starting to open their eyes and they are all so darn cute!  I could eat them up!! 

Rosey is another story.  All 5 babies made it but barely.  One black one was found in a tote next to the hutches yesterday afternoon because Rosey keeps hopping around the babies at which point they try to latch on and eat then, Rosey would hop away from the nest dragging babies all over the cage.  I am guessing then the little blind black one wondered out the front of the cage and fell off the ledge.  I re-packed additional hay into the cage and hopefully that will do the trick.  Rosey is being so protective when we try to check the babies she will charge at us.  I really wonder if she wouldn't be better off as rabbit stew.  She is so frustrating!!

Now here are more of our eggs.

 

Aren't they beautiful?!  The bottom group includes an eggland best egg so you can see that the eggs are smaller, although they are suppose to be large.  All 3 of these look different but not totally sure who layed them except the middle one on the bottom is Chirpie's.  The lightest colored one on the right was found in the chicken yard last night.  REALLY?  Hours and hours of building the coup, and the nesting boxes not to mention the hours spent cleaning them out so the bedding is nice and comfy for the girls and one of them opted to lay an egg in a hole they dug in the yard.  chickens...

Today I am going to cook the eggs for breakfast burgers and will take photos comparing the insides too. 

Hopefully we can move the turkeys into the chicken yard soon too.  It would be nice to give the turkey girls more space to run around.  They are getting so darn big!

Have a great day!

Farm additions

Rosey had 5 babies last night and she built a nice nest lining it with fur!  They are 3 reds and 2 blacks.  So let's see how she does.  When I went out to check on them she got very pissy when I tried to touch them.  All 5 had big round bellies so she fed them good this morning.  So far she is stepping up let's see how things go. 

Lovie is the best mommy!  Her 8 babies are so big.  The biggest is grey and he is HUGE!  Their eyes should be opening up any day now so that will be fun to play with them.  I know they are dinner but I am so excited to have them surviving finally I can't even think about that part of it...

Now for the chickens.  I am sure Chirpie has layed 2 of the 3 eggs collected but the 3rd egg is much smaller and the color is different but still brown so I am thinking it must be someone else but not sure who.  Most of our hens will lay brown eggs so unless caught in the act like Chirpie was not sure how to tell the others.

egg #2

Not sure if it is Chirpie again or another hen.  I was inside canning Kosher Dill Pickle slices all morning and no one else went out to check and see who was baulking so loud.  But we have a 2nd beautiful little brown egg again today.

We scrambled up the first egg from yesterday this morning.  Visually the egg is smaller than the large eggs I buy at the store.  The yoke was darker, orangey color and very round instead of flattened out on top like a store bought egg.  (I should have gotten a photo, maybe next time) We cooked it plain so we could taste just the egg and it was good.  A mellow flavor and a darker color when scrambled due to the darker yoke.  Although we had not added Oyster shell to the hen's diet the shell was a nice thickness.  Not as thick as the white Eggland's Best shells but thicker than the brown organic eggs I usually get at Costco.

I will pick up Oyster Shell in town this week and use that until we get a good egg production.  Then I will only use the our own egg shells to provide the girls with the extra calcium needed.  Many articles say their girls prefer the egg shells but I want to wait tell we have enough of our own shells since we do not know what the store bought egg history is.

The farm is coming together!  Yesterday I planted mint and peppermint in front of the house.  I am trying to create a tea garden so I can brew my own teas.  Ok that is way off in the future but it is a dream I have.

We have egg production!

Chirpie laid our first egg today!  Chirpie is a Road Island Red and we actually thought she was a he at first.  This morning she was in the coop making all kinds of noise.  I opened the side door by the nests and when see saw me she climbed into one of the nests.  I pet her for a couple minutes then closed the door.  I just went out to see if she was still in the nest and if she was ok and there in the next was a little brown egg!

 

Isn't she beautiful!  Standing next to her is Gogo, we are pretty sure he is a rooster but hasn't crowed yet.

the 4th...added photos

We had a good time for the 4th over here.  We first went to the beach and flew kites and the boys played in the water and Romeo LOVED all the new smells.  Then we brought the 4 legged boys home and picked up KFC and went to the park by the river to watch the fireworks. 

 

 

 

Only bad part was that the fireworks were going off all around us so if you were sitting you missed some of them because you couldn't turn around fast enough.  I still miss watching them from my living room, not going to lie, was nice on cold nights to not leave my house to see them but Aberdeen had as awesome a show as I ever saw in Spokane.  Best part was living out in the country we didn't have to deal with neighbors setting them off!

Shane wants to take the boat up the river next year so we can get a better view of all the fireworks.

Oh and they had the Lady Washington there too.  The town is very sentimental about that ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok...

so... We lost 2 white babies sometime on Wednesday.  The 2 smallest ones.  We knew the runt was a long shot.  When I checked them yesterday evening one black one was very skinny so I brought him inside and got a couple ccs of formula in him to hopefully get him through the day until Lovie fed the babies again and it worked.  When I checked him this morning he is a big round belly.  This one is the smallest one still alive so he is obviously going to be pushed out by the much larger siblings so I will try to keep an extra eye on him to be sure he is getting a full belly each morning.  So we have 8 babies.  Rosie is due soon too.  hopefully she can do the mommy thing this time. 

On another note Christmas has attitude!  When I try to bet her she makes a new sound and tries to peck me!  She even was sticking her head through the fence to peck me!  Shane thinks she is a male.  In fact he thinks we have 2 males, they better watch their behavior because one will be dinner!  Really hoped to be lucky and end up with 2 girls and a boy, I just hope the 3rd one is a girl.

still have babies!

Lovie has been a wonderful mommy so far?  We checked and all 10 babies were still alive last night.  The runt is so small I worry about her but so far so good.  This is day 4.  We stuffed lots of hay around the nest to keep the babies from wondering around the cage and it has worked wonderful!  I don't want to get too excited because it is still early but keeping my fingers crossed!