Another chicken embryo

Heather cracked her egg for breakfast and we were dismayed to find this little guy.  This is why it's so important to mark eggs and keep tabs on a broody hen's nest.  When a hen goes broody, she stops laying but other hens will come add to her nest and so there is no telling how long eggs have been there if you don't keep track.  When I got around to checking her nest and deciding on marking eggs, she had 20+ in there and I decided to leave her with 12 of them.  We knew there was a possibility of this, so had made sure to put the questionable eggs that I had gathered from her nest into cartons marked "OURS" (so they are not sold) where any stained, dirty, questionable eggs go.  We are always careful to crack our eggs into a bowl individually instead of into a batter or pan.

This one is probably about 7 days along.

I think next time I go to remove eggs from a nest, I will candle them before deciding which ones to leave and take.  :-(  See how to candle an egg here.

Developing Egg

We have a broody hen who we have been allowing to set on 12 eggs.  She is in a corner of the hay shed and very protective of her eggs.  We marked the 12 eggs that we would allow to stay and just gather any extras from the nest once a day.  Today when I went to collect, I found that one of the marked eggs had rolled out of the nest and was stone cold.  I brought it in, knowing that the chick couldn't survive being that cold.  We opened it up for a little science lesson (being homeschoolers, we grab every opportunity).  It was less developed than I thought.  The yolk was completely runny (yolk is absorbed by chick for nourishment) and there was a bit of blood.  The kids didn't think there was anything there, but at closer inspection I found the baby chick, we could see it's eye and little heart slowly beating and then becoming still.  Wow!  From this website, it appears that the chick was about 2-5 days developed.  Amazing little life!  How sad.  Let's hope the next 11 survive.  I put some extra padding around the nest to prevent any others from rolling out, hopefully that will work.

Here are a couple pictures:

More learning and info, including some worksheets for kids is located here.

Here is a YouTube video showing all 3 weeks of development.

Black Jack

We picked up our new buck last week!

 Nubian, black and white - great ears.

Doesn't he look like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars?

I am tempted to change his name!

He will be bred with Annalise this fall for some great kids and yummy, creamy milk!

About the farm today...

 Will took this picture of mom milking.

 Daisy getting milked.

 Our milking stand (Curious is cleaning up the spills).

 Samson chilling in the shade.

 New "easter eggers" are getting big!

Luke and Beau in the new pasture.

A great article on broody hens

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Broody-Hens-1.html

Trying to figure out how to get these broodies to actually hatch out some chicks!  :-)

Update: heat, weeds, broodies, a deck and goats!

Peas

I haven't updated in a while, sorry about that.  We have had such a strange spring, very cool temps and lots of rain to suddenly very hot temps and dryness.  The garden is doing okay for the lateness at which we planted it, we've harvested a cucumber, a couple handfuls of peas, and are about ready to get some lettuce this next week.  There is still a lot to grow, beans and squashes are doing well.  I planted tomato seeds straight into the garden, and they are slowly but surely coming up.  I've never done that before but by the time I got around to it, it seemed the best option.  I will likely buy a few larger plants to supplement until they get large enough.

Domestic blackberries

The chickens ate all our strawberries this year, I need to get netting over and around that!  The blackberries and raspberries are doing very well and should be ready for harvest in a couple weeks.

Apples

The fruit trees in the orchard seem pretty happy - one apple tree had 5 apples on it (then 1 dropped off), still great for it's first year here.  The other apple tree didn't even flower, but one peach tree did.  The fig plants are doing surprisingly well, I thought I had lost one over the winter but it has surprised me.  The deer have been nibbling a bit on them, but not too bad so far.

Broody girls

"Easter-egger" chicks

We picked up 7 more hens - black austrolorps.  Two of them are very broody and I'm pretty sure that they are going to hatch out some chicks for us in the next few weeks.  The "easter-egger" chicks are doing well and have moved out to the chicken house, though still in their own shelter for their protection.  I need pretty soon to start culling out the hens that aren't laying and the extra roosters.  If I'm feeding them, they need to feed me in one way or the other.  :-)  I've been able to sell several dozen eggs a week successfully which has been nice.

Collected eggs

We sold all of our baby bunnies for the asking price, which was wonderful.  They all found great pet homes and I am happy about that.  I am planning to put my white buck up for sale too and just use the dwarf buck for breeding next year.

Deck in progress

Our deck is finally moving along again!  It now has the base finished and there are 10 boards laying across the top and we can fit 2 chairs out on it.  This makes me very happy!!!  I don't know when the rest of the floor will get down and who knows when it will have rails and steps but I'm excited for what is done so far.  :-)

Daisy saying hello.

Our goats have been doing pretty well.  I need to get out for hoof trimming and am considering summer shaves too, we'll see.  I've never done that before but it may help their comfort through the summer.  Everyone is a joy and lots of fun.  Our new buckling should be coming home the end of July.

New kitty Cassie has settled in quite happily.  She is mostly in the house still but has gone outside a couple of times and enjoyed that.

Samson smiling

Samson and Molly are doing great.  Samson lives with the 2 wethers and he loves his goats.  I look forward to him being old enough to be with all the girls too next spring.  We'll see how he does at kidding. We love them both!

I think that's about it, thought I should update for now while I had a few moments.

New kitty - Cassie

We have been looking for a new young cat to add to our outdoors as Jonah is at least 15 years old and while he sure seems spry and healthy, we know he can't live forever.  Cassie came from my dad and has been living outside and is reportedly a fierce hunter!  :-)  She is 5 years old and spayed and very pretty and playful.  She is Will's cat and is adjusting now to home, we will adjust her to the outdoors eventually once we are sure that she will stay near and she's met the other critters.