The heat and sad mystery

Well, the heat is something that lots of folks are talking about and those of us with feather and fuzzy heads that live outside are particularly anxious. Luckily my featherheads and rabbits survived the 108 degrees of the weekend and I am extremely thankful. I spent an hour and a half alone on Friday morning trying to prepare everyone...getting extra water filled, setting up an extra fan in the barn, one on the rabbits, one on the chickens and turkey coop...both of which are inside and open barn but no access to a pen at the moment (that will change as birds get older and bigger but while I have babies, it isn't possible for me to open them to the pens). I had frozen water bottles for the rabbits, as well as the fan. It was rough but everyone made it. I am not looking forward to that kind of heat again but it is supposed to get really hot the end of the week again. So, after doing some reading, I read about someone using frozen treats...I will be doing this on Friday...for feather and fuzzies.

Sadly, I did lose most of my turkey babies, I honestly don't know what is happening to them, they are just "disappearing". I have sealed up as many holes as I can find...I did fine little round holes and I am wondering if I have a snake or something...some of the eggs in the coops have been missing too. I am down to 2 turkey babies as of this morning. :-( As soon as these babies are ready to release to the pen, I am doing a full revamp of this coop...somehow I have to seal up all the possible ways of digging in and out.

I do have some major improvement projects lined up for this week...pics and details as they get done!

EDIT: Well, when the last turkey baby died (the last two I found where I saw them hanging out the night before - looking perfectly fine). I had a couple buckets and larger waterer in the coop (high sided bin that the babies couldn't climb into that I refreshed with water everyday but didn't move too often). Spring drank from the large waterer and the buckets were nesting boxes. I cleared all those out and cleared the bedding out and found 2 of the babies wedged behind the waterer and the buckets...pretty much under the barn wall. *sigh* So, yeah, it is being reformed like the fancy coop was. Needs this to keep winter drafts out anyway...the birds just love digging the edges of the barn. So, door is opened now and all turkeys hanging together.

a hard week

Well, as any homesteader knows...some weeks are just harder than others and sometimes losses are harder to take than others. This week has been super stressful in other ways because my car broke down...again...and it is State Fair prep week (starts tonight) and I am in charge of 3 exhibits (not homesteading related but wetland/beach preservation)...and I am going for my Scuba certification this weekend and have been trying to figure out how to get there(the only weekend I can for the rest of the season because of the shop's schedule and mine). So...yeah, been a stressful one.

THEN I get home from having my car towed on Tuesday and I found my oldest hen, Gertie, my only Sussex, was hit by a car and was still warm and lying on my driveway. I was devastated. I am still very sad. I just stood and held her and cried. Sometimes doing this pretty much alone is just too hard. But I am lucky and I do have friends that remind me why I am doing this. Then I go and work with my animals and I remember.

Gertie is the hen at the bottom, the Speckled Sussex. It is the last picture I took of her.

But, I feel guilty about Gertie. See, she was the hen that didn't really care to freerange. She liked to hang in the coop with the turkeys. But when the babies were born I kicked her out, because I was told you never know how others besides the mother will act with babies not their own. She ran around with the other hens sometimes and sometimes did her own thing. She roosted in the barn at night with everyone else. She did not take direction from Henry though, she has been around a lot longer than him. He pretty much kept his girls away from the road. I feel guilty because Gertie really didn't care to be out and about running around and if she had stayed where she wanted, she would not have been hit by a car.

And...I have lost 3 turkey babies too...just literally disappeared. Not sure how or why if they got out of the pen they didn't come back as I have seen them do when Momma calls them. I can't find any way that anything has gotten in to them...the other babies in the coop next door are all fine. I am down to four babies now.

So, I know all homesteaders go through things like this...and I have lost hens before and I know I sadly will again. Just sometimes it is harder to handle than others.

latest on the babies

For the most part the turkey poults are doing great. Unfortunately I am down to 6 from 8. One of them is missing and another I found this morning looking perfectly fine but a little squished, I am wondering if Spring could have sat on him wrong? I think they are getting big for her to keep under her but that is where they all were (one peaking his head out) when I checked on them last night. *sad* but still doing better than raising poults in a brooder.

I spent some time with my Polish babies too. One of them is so Pachy like in his ways ...defnitely a roo and the other 2 full Polish I am pretty sure are girls. The Sebring mix is still more skitsy and standoffish. I have opened up their "brooder" and took them all out but they end up all back in there at night. So, I will leave it in the coop with the top propped open for a few weeks so they can decide when they want to hop out or feel safer in there.

The picture above to the left is the two girls, a buff and black/white splash...doesn't quite look like Mani, my silver. To the right is the boy with Goldy, my gold wyandotte. Still working on names for the new polish. Below is a pic of Czyna, one of my older Polish.

To the right here is a bunch of the featherheads together. In the back is Merlin, in front of him is Vivianne, my Americaunas. Three of the little ones are drinking along side Bardy (Barred Rock) you can sort of see.

The Ducks...

The ducks and geese still want to have very little to do with me but the ducks sure do love when I fill the pond up!

The brown is my female Rouen and the white is one of the Pekings, the black is one of the Cayugas. I have not figured out the male/female of the Pekings or Cayugas yet.

Friday work and hang out day

Working full time and going to school makes it very hard to spend as much time as I would like to just "hanging" and doing the little things on the homestead. Friday was a day off from work and I ran errands all morning but I got to spend a bit of time with everyone in the afternoon.

I had picked up my two new turkeys, a buff adolescent pair. So, I spent a little time in the pen hanging with them and Tom.

Isn't Tom a handsome one?

Well, the weekend was pretty hot but I spent a few hours doing chores Sunday...the little ones that don't get done during the week...sprayed down the rabbit cages (rabbits weren't too happy with me but they WERE cooler!).

I also got a new addition to the homestead. My friend found a little bantam rooster on the side of the road so asked if I could take him in. He is full grown but I have never seen such a tiny adult chicken! LOL My polish 1/3 grown babies are the same size! I think his name will be Lil Dude. There was some scuffling and pecking but order has been re-established. It is hilarious seeing him and Merlin (Americauna roo) sitting on the perch together crowing! Of course, I didn't have my camera for that pic! I did get some pics yesterday morning though.

I also got some pics of the turkey babies. They are starting to fly! Only a little over a week old! They are feathering out nicely and look great. Makes me very happy!

interesting discussions...

I am on a rare breed turkey list and I was asked a particular question about how I can "harvest and eat" the birds I raise. The person asking the question raises turkeys and chickens, eats meat but did so from the grocery store because she couldn't stand the idea of eating something resembling an animal, let alone an animal she knew. Also, as a heritage breeder, she asked, why wouldn't we keep the heritage as pets only and eat the more popular birds instead. It started a very interesting discussion and I thought I would share my response here because it explains a lot about what I do and why. Most of the people that replied on the list did so in a similar vein or just agreed with my post,which made me feel good and gives me hope for a change some day in our way of eating as a society.

Here is the post:
I was a vegetarian for 20 years. I worked in animal shelters for a living, volunteered for other shelters, including rabbit rescue, wildlife rehab, etc. So, I have seen the worst of the worst to the most wonderful happy ending stories.

My problem has always been about people who "wear blinders". People go to the store and buy food, never thinking about where it comes from, what the animal went through to get from the point of being born to finally on our table. I abhor the animal "food" industry. CAFO farms are some of the worst places in the world for animal suffering and environmental damage.
(I am an environmental scientist - or will be soon - working in that world
and in school now...so I see that side of things too).
There are two reasons I raise my own animals and why I raise heritage breeds:
1. I know the animal was raised kindly, treated with respect, allowed to "live" and enjoy life and I know that animal was killed with respect and honor and I know how that animal was treated after that moment, as well.
When I started into homesteading I talked to some friends of mine, ones that were spiritual like me. I asked them how they did it. They raise chickens and Icelandic Sheep. They told me that it is sad when it is time for an animal to be butchered and yes, tears are shed but they think ifyou felt nothing for that animal, then you didn't raise it right...it didn't have the life it should.

The very first meat I ate after 20 years was that Royal Palm turkey I spoke of in my last post. I had raised chickens before but only for eggs. I raised that bird from a day old poult...and he had a good life...ran around the yard, did turkey things....and I killed him, cleaned him and cooked him (with help). You can bet I had tears in my eyes...but I thanked him and knew his life was better than all the ones in the grocery store.

2. I raise heritage for food. I do this with the chickens, turkeys and rabbits. I do this because the breeds we are raising were raised for food. Part of my philosophy extends to the "diversity" idea. We (as a people) are going to get into severe trouble because most of our food, meat and vegetables, has been
bred to just a few breeds being the ones raised on big farms, feeding most people. I live in southern Delaware, chicken capital of the world, trust me, I see this on a daily basis. One of these days that common breed...bred down to specific characteristics that makes it so they can not live naturally, breed naturally, etc will be wiped out by one single virus, bug, something. Heritage breeds will have a much better chance, the same idea and reason for "seed banks" and the SeedSaver organization.

If we raised heritage breeds just for pets, there wouldn't be that many of them. The lines would not grow and continue and be refined as much, the lines would stagnate. These breeds were the breeds our grandparents knew...these breeds were (are) dying out because they are no longer the popular breeds on farms and many of the lines HAVE stagnated. I totallybelieve in the SlowFood movement.
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/

I do have my pets, they are generally my breeders and the rest are
destined to be food, but are treated just as well as my "pets". They are raised
with respect and honor.

I hope I explained it okay...and didn't ramble too much. It is a subject I am passionate about, the idea of eating whole good food...the back to the land/eating local movement. I do eat meat now after 20years and I believe that raising animals for meat can and should be humane and is environmentally friendly and beneficial when done well. I only eat meat I raise or are raised on farms I can visit and I know the animals are raised well - so in most restaurants...I am still a vegetarian, but there are a few restaurants here in Rehoboth Beach that buy primarily or only from local small farms.

And back to turkeys in general, Black Spanish and Royal Palm are some of
the rarer breeds, and Black Spanish, in particular, is one of the oldest. They are not popular, which is why I want to raise them. I like their characteristics and if I can share the breed with others (even if just on the Thanksgiving table), maybe more people will think about what they are eating and where it comes from.

Blessings,

Kitty
Little Rooster Croft

Rain and gardens

We finally got some rain today!!! This is always a hard time of year in Southern Delaware. Last year I tried to have a garden on this new property I am renting and it was a disaster. The soil (sand) is just not good, the location seemed good but got way to much of the afternoon sun, so between horrible soil, little rain and high heat, no matter how much watering was done, the garden just fried.

So, this year, I took up the "who needs a front yard...you can't eat grass" method. And I am doing raised beds and container gardening. I am also much less ambitious this year and the size is more manageable. I have two raised beds in the front yard, made out of left over fire wood as the border...filled with rabbit manure courtesy of my rabbits, organic soil and hummus bought from the local store. My compost is pretty much gone due to chicken scavenging.

My mother gave me topsy turveys so I planted a bunch of cherry tomatoes and one with hot peppers and one with mild peppers hanging from my porch. The idea is that I can walk out the front each morning, water the plants, grab the tomatoes for my lunch and go! The peppers are for my jelly that was so popular last year (jalepeno berry jam). I have pickling cucumbers in containers, plum tomatoes and basil in a couple others. I have some herbs growing like rosemary and lemon balm, parsley, dill and chives. In the raised beds are zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash and more plum tomatoes. I love my sundried tomatoes and refuse to buy the chemical laden expensive things in the grocery store! So, I dehydrate my own, put them in a container in olive oil and I have enough for the whole year!

My chickens have been very "helpful" with the bugs, but have also eaten all the flowers off the squash plants and uprooted a few things like my lettuce, so a fence just went up this morning, not fool proof but hopefully proves too much trouble for the chickens who have more than an acre to play in...I only ask for a few feet for myself!

Tomorrow, ducks, geese and turkeys....oh my! And hopefully pics!

been a long time and lots of change

I have not been here in awhile. There has been a lot of change at the homestead, some very sad, some good.

I had some losses over the winter, most notably was my Polish Rooster Pachy, one of his girls Sunna and Kaninchen, my siver fox buck. It made for a very sad winter...Pachy, especially, was my baby.

The good that has happened in the year that I have posted (I can't believe it has been that long!) is the addition of 2 Standard Bronze turkeys (Tom and Spring), 6 ducks (a pair each of Rouen, Peking and Cayuga), 6 new Emden geese, 4 Polish babies and a new Silver Fox buck named Ronan. Most of this happened in the past month or so.

The turkeys I got last summer, 3 of them actually, one was "Autumn" and thanksgiving dinner. "Spring" turned out to be a hen so I kept the pair. Spring started laying eggs a few months ago and started being broody a few weeks ago so I let her. She hatched babies this past weekend! 8 of the 9 lived and are running around the coop like crazy things!

I will post pics in the next post and then talk about the garden...what there is of it!