Busy, Busy Bee

I Love my Azaleas!

Things have been slowing down at the tax office that I work at, just in time to try to keep up with all of the things that are going on at the homestead. Notice, I said try. I am still falling behind! Coops need to be built, fences put up, and gardens tended to. None of the projects I needed to do over winter were accomplished. It seems that we either have the time or the money, but never both at once. Oh well. All in good time. I have still been busy!

The turkeys are doing great! Two of the Bourbon Red Toms are destined for the chopping block in a couple of days. There are just too many toms for my 3 poor hens, and they are fighting amongst themselves. Choosing which ones will go is difficult. Turkeys really are easy to get attached to, but this has been the plan for them since we got them as poults. I keep reminding myself that the life that they have had is turkey paradise and their death will be as painless and free of fear is death could possibly be. I refuse to give money to factories that raise birds any differently. I also don't want to put those unhealthy birds into my family's bodies.

The second generation of turkey-heads are in the incubator! I set 18 turkey eggs on the 22nd and their hatch date is April 19th! I have not separated the breeds yet so they are going to be a mix of Bourbon Reds, Bourbon/ Slate crosses, and there may be a blue slate or two in the mix. That is doubtful though because my Self Blue tom, Yellow, isn't the alpha tom and despite how hard he tries, he usually doesn't get mating privileges. One of my next projects is to build two small hoop coops. One of them may be used to give Yellow and Miss Tallow the privacy they deserve and, hopefully, give me the Blue Slate eggs I so desperately want! I may increase the gene pool by buying eggs from a friend of mine who also raises them. Hopefully, most of the poults hatched from this batch will be sold and the next batch will be used to increase my breeding stock.

Scissorus

One of the three chicks hatched in my emergency incubator, named Scissorus (Keegan said he was Roman), had scissor beak. I tried to feed him and give him water, but he wasn't doing well and his beak got worse every day. He didn't make it. The other two (both roosters, BO/BO and Einey EE/Ruthie NH?) are doing wonderfully, and we had a wonderful surprise last week when another egg from the emergency batch hatched! They have a cute fluffy little brother or sister (EE Greta mom- BO Jack dad). The rest of the eggs were duds, but I am overjoyed to have saved this many of them!

Keegan, INSIDE the chicken tractor playing with the babies.
Coincidentally, this was shortly after he he told me that he
doesn't actually like chickens (I asked him to feed them). <3

The "Outside Babies" are doing well and are getting HUGE! They will be too big for that chicken tractor soon. The other hoop coop I am going to be building will be for most of them. A few will be going into the project after that: boxes that fit directly in my raised garden beds so they can scratch around, till and fertilize the soil, and get rid of any bugs or weeds that are in there. My garden beds should be ready to go soon! This morning when I was feeding them before work I noticed a single bloody-ish looking stool in the coop. I have noticed the silly things hopping on top of their waterer, even after I raised it off of the ground to keep it clean, and are pooing in the water. I'm worried that one may have coccidiosis, which means they all likely do or will, so I treated the whole flock with Sulmet. I will treat them again when I get home. They are on medicated feed but when they are this young I don't like to take any chances. I don't give medication for the sake of giving medication. Not to myself, my family, or my animals. That is why we have the super-bugs that we do now-a-days. None of my adult birds are on medication, but babies are much more prone to getting sick, regardless of how well they are taken care of. They are all taken off of medicated feed when they are 8-10 weeks old and their immune system is stronger. I tried giving the babies unmedicated feed last year and nearly lost my whole batch to cocci. I am a fanatic about keeping coops clean, but apparently sometimes that doesn't completely eliminated the risk. As icky as many people think it sounds, it is VERY important to keep an eye on your poultry poo! Sometimes that is the first, or only, sign that something is wrong. It also helps to catch things early enough to do something about it!

No matter how many egg baskets I get, this is how my eggs
usually get carried to the house. :)

The adult chickens are producing lots of eggs and they are selling really well! I have to make sure to keep some back for us! Our foster puppy, Chicago, has been fighting Pneumonia since we brought her home. We have had her for nearly two months and her improvement is amazing! She couldn't breath through her nose at all when we first got her, and would not eat. She was losing weight rather than gaining it like a puppy should. After changing her antibiotics, she showed a little improvement with her breathing, but not much with her eating and weight gain. I gave her wet food, dry food, NutriCal nutrient supplement gel... nothing seemed to work. I was really getting worried that she wouldn't make it, simply because she wouldn't eat! Finally, not knowing what else to do, I started giving her boiled eggs. Farm fresh pastured eggs are packed full of nutrients and protein. She ate them! She started gaining weight and getting her energy back immediately! She also got her appetite back and began eating like a horse! She goes through more dog food than I think she has room to put it in her bony little body, but she is increasing the space every day! She is on another round of antibiotics to try to get rid of that last pocket of fluid in her lungs, and her medicine is delivered twice a day, you guessed it, hidden in the middle of a boiled egg! All the antibiotics in the world wouldn't have helped her without her getting the nutrients that her body needed to give her strength to fight the infection. Ah, the power of eggs! She is going to be healthy enough to be spayed soon and then will be on her way to Maine to find her new forever family! I love happy endings!

From bottom to top: Elliot, Chicago, and Ari is hiding way in the back. 

All of Sunflower Hill is covered in snow white dew berry
blooms! What could be better? The whole place
being covered in dew berries soon! 

Speaking of happy things, the seedlings I planted are still alive! Yes, I am thrilled about this! I love growing things, but starting seedlings inside has always been my downfall. They always start out strong and then wilt and die. The tomatoes are getting really big and the peppers are looking dark green and strong. All except for the jalapeno peppers, none of which came up at all! I'm probably going to have to replant those. Some of the eggplants failed to come up, as well. I am loving my new seedling shelf in the kitchen! I think that the space put aside just for them in a draft and bump free area, and the shop lamp hung over the trays, might just keep my seedlings from dying before they get planted! The strawberry plants have tiny green strawberries and flowers on them. Now I need to fence the strawberry patch off so the chickens don't get them all before I get any this year! The peas have sprouted, the brussel sprouts budding, and I got my first little bunch of broccoli the other day! I am counting down the days until I get some fresh dewberries!

All in all, everything here on the homestead is bustling and growing! That is what spring is all about! I am loving life, busy busy busy as it may be, up on Sunflower Hill!