Make that...."The new 22!"

Sometimes it pays to follow that little nagging voice in the back of my head.  I left the incubator on after taking out the 21 chicks yesterday, even though the 4 "maybe" half-hatched eggs looked as if they had already died in their shells.  But by last night, there was a small peeping sound coming from the basement and sure enough, one had hatched on the expected "hatch" date instead of 2 days early.  This one is an Ameraucana, like the tan one with the fuzzy cheeks, but the newbie is slate gray, with dark gray feet and beady black eyes.  Very cute.  He's in a small box inside the box with the 21 chicks.  They immediately started pecking at his eyes and toes, because he didn't "belong".  I'm hoping that as they hear and see him but can't pester him, they'll start to accept that he's one of the flock. A new friend came out this morning to help around the farm and to learn how to milk Bessie.  I felt like I didn't have much for her to do, but we chatted all morning, she helped me move the older 9 chicks back into the house (even with a powerful heat lamp, the chicks were huddled in in the barn in their box, with the thermometer registering only 58 degrees--just too cold for 4 week old chicks) Lynn WANTED to shovel manure, which I was glad to let her do.....!  ;)  And I was in the process of making ricotta in the Crock-Pot, so we drained the curds together and then ended the morning with fresh warm ricotta, fresh milk, Italian bread and honey, and watched a hilarious You-tube video of a rabbit trying to herd sheep (sent by my friend Jane).  Shadow and Rocky absolutely LOVE Lynn now, because she had pocketfuls of treats that were slipped to them through the course of the morning.   I'm off to Marengo to bring the milk samples to the vet.  I'll let everyone know when the results are back, and when we know how to treat (or not treat) sweet Bess. Laura.

Introducing the new 21

Hi all. Apparently I've caused a little bit of stress over the fate of the chicks.....  (I'm teasing one person in particular!)  ;) I'm so happy to report that we have 21 little fuzzy, healthy chicks, and I can't even begin to guess which one looked like it would be crippled.  That makes for a much more pleasant morning.  They are all zipping around, sampling the chick feed, sipping from the waterer like they know exactly what they're doing.  There are 4 "maybes" still in the incubator, but even though they had pecked through the shell, there is no movement.  I just need to leave them the possibility to hatch for one more day, just in case. Here are some pictures.  Little chicks are always cute, but SO cute their first day.  Most of them are Earl's babies, unless the new "Earl" persuaded some of Earl's hens to rendezvous with him before Earl's early demise.  It happens..... One or two hatched from our blue eggs, the Ameraucanas.   The newest little one still has half of his egg shell stuck to his wing--you can just see it in the one picture.   And the 9 that are headed to the barn today are in the last 3 photos.  You can see the difference in comb size between the young rooster and the young hen.  It's interesting to me that at 4 weeks, it's so obvious already. Enjoy!  No stress!  All the chicks are OK. Laura.

Chicks

"In the middle of the night, Miss Clavelle turned on the light, and said "Something is not right!"  (from Madeleine). There were 19 fluffy little brown chicks hatched by last night at 10:30, with one more trying to hatch.  When the humidity gets below about 60% in the incubator (or under the hen, for that matter), it's hard for the chicks to hatch because the white membrane inside the egg shell starts to dry out and gets too tough as they're hatching.  I checked on them, and had pity on the little one that might not hatch because of the humidity level.  I used a straw to add about 1/4 cup of warm water through the hole in the lid so that he had a chance to hatch during the night. About midnight, I woke up and realized that the usual cheerful cheeping wasn't coming up from the basement, and threw on my robe to go check on the problem.  The humidity was WAY too high, although the late bloomer had hatched.  All the chicks were as wet as if they had just hatched.  That had never happened before (because I never added more water before!), and I panicked, just a little.  I know that they can drown in their shells as they're hatching with too much humidity, but now I was worried that, although they were already out of the shells, they might get chilled and die because they were so wet. I popped the small vent on the lid, to let some humidity out, and thought I could go back to sleep.  No way---I was just tossing and turning, trying to figure out if they'd be OK and listening for the smallest cheep of alarm.  So I got back up, took a closer look, and saw that they weren't quite as wet as I'd thought, and that the humidity was just slightly lower.  I had to revise my hatching notes anyway, so I stayed up for an hour to make sure that the chicks were drying off again and not needing any emergency care....... They are fine this morning, even the little late one.   There is one who never got up on his feet, though, partly because his wing stuck to some gunk on another egg.  A whole hatch can be ruined if the lid is opened and the humidity and temperature changes suddenly, so I couldn't do anything to find out why he was on his back all day yesterday.  Last night I did pop the lid just enough to find his little wing stuck fast to an unhatched egg, and got it free, but his muscles must not have been able to adjust after being stuck for that first day.  He won't make it, whether I end things now for him or let nature take care of it.  It's hard--his little face is just perfect, his body is formed right, but his circumstances at hatching time crippled him.  I'll have to decide what to do today when I move the hatched chicks from the incubator to their warm box.  The other chicks will be merciless, pecking him and trampling all over him...they even pile on top of a smaller or hurt chick and can smother it...just sad, but a part of life on the farm, too. From the first batch that will transition today from the warmth in the bathtub (inside a big moving box) to the barn under a heat lamp, there are two beautiful little pullets (the name for a young hen) and 7 young cockerels (roosters).  Their combs are too prominent even at 4 weeks old to mistake those 7 for hens.  Another hard thing about living the farm life:  the males are destined to be dinner, either ours or someone else's, which is why we are hatching chicks in the dead of winter in the first place.  It gets a little easier with each batch, and now the Jeremy says "I love chickens, they're delicious" without batting an eye, but the bigger implications are much more difficult....Jeremy asking "Mom, are we going to have to eat Bessie" and "What happens to Lucy after she gets old and can't give milk anymore".  :( Well, for now there are 9 healthy chicks that need to get moved to the barn, and 19 healthy and very adorable chicks that need to be set free from that stifling incubator.  That's the fun part of living here instead of in suburbia! Laura.

Jeremy and Lucy

Picasa Album Here are some photos from this weekend.  You can see in some of them just how close Lucy is letting Jeremy get to her.  Then in a few others, you see Bessie pushing her way in for the choicest bits of alfalfa..... There are also a few photos of the new "Earl" (needing to be named--any suggestions?) with his ladies.  He's doing a good job of being on the alert for anything flying overhead, and for checking out every speck on the ground.  When he finds something really delicious, he makes a chortling little noise and then stands back proudly as all the hens rush over and devour whatever speck it might be.  There's a bit of chivalry there, with all the roosters, that is fun to watch. The chicks in the incubator started hatching yesterday, with 8 being hatched by bedtime.  Now there are 19.  They weren't due until tomorrow, so it was a nice surprise to see them all hatching healthy and strong.  Jeremy and I have been calling up the stairs to each other all weekend "Hey, another one is ready to hatch!!!  Come down!"  We've been able to watch quite a few break out of their shells this time around.  It never ceases to be amazing to watch new life happening. We have two 1st grade teachers at Immanuel who will start incubating some of our eggs by the end of this week.  2 incubators, one in each classroom, and 3 dozen eggs in each one.  All the chicks that hatch will find their way back here before Easter Break.  I'm hoping that their hatches are just as good as this last one was for us, because the joy and excitement on the kids' faces is just priceless!  Some of the kids still talk about watching baby chicks or ducks hatch at their 8th grade banquet or at graduation.  ;) Prayer request updates: Bess' back quarter seems to be less clumpy, and maybe not as large (it was never grotesquely swollen, but just enough for concern to my untrained eye).  Milk samples will be sent to the lab this week.  Thanks--I know a lot of you are praying for her infection to heal and/or to not be staph.  Every day as the milk comes out a little less clumpy from that quarter, I just want to sing!  I actually did, the other night.  The radio in the barn was playing "These are the Days of Jehovah" and I couldn't help myself.  The radio is always on, supposedly to keep raccoons out because of the noise, but I love hearing the Christian interviews and songs when I'm out there working. And for the carpal tunnel syndrome:  I ordered 2 night braces for my wrists, to keep them in a healing position.  I tend to sleep with my wrists flexed or curled, and that seems to aggravate the symptoms rather than letting it heal during the night.  I've been consciously changing my sleep position when the tingling in my hands starts, so that my wrists aren't curled towards me, but are laying relaxed across my stomach instead.  Two mornings in a row the numbness and almost unbearable tingling has been either much less or not there at all.  Thanks again for all your prayers on my behalf! I counted the months until Bess' calf is due, and realized that I'd better do some research to find out where the calf is in development.  She's due in June, so she's past the half-way point!  It will be interesting if I can find some kind of drawings or illustrations to see how the calf is growing inside her over these next few months.  Of course, I'll share if I find some good descriptions. Enjoy the photos in the Picasa link below.  Watch for Jeremy's joyful little smile as he feeds Lu and pets her head. Time for one more baby-chick-check downstairs and then off to bed.   Laura.

Bess in the Barn

Hi all.   Was just thinking about the progress that's been made here with Bessie and Lou in the last 3 weeks, because even after the little escapade that Bess pulled last night, there WAS progress in that I didn't break down in tears or become completely rooted to the spot in fear as Bess did her own thing.......   Last night Bessie decided to be a little difficult.  I'd been careless that morning, and had left the door open to the main part of the barn when I went in with her alfalfa.  The grain bucket was sitting right inside the doorway, waiting for me to come back for it, so of course Bessie helped herself.  It's just common sense, right?  A bucket of grain is sitting there, and the cow will go to eat it.  In the cow's mind, there's no reasoning that has to be done there. I maneuvered through the standard-sized doorway around her big body , got the handle of the grain bucket, and managed to get her to follow me (after she had cleaned up the sizable spill of grain on the floor--she wasn't moving until every last bit was hers!).  She settled into the stanchion after that with no problem.   Well, that started an ornery streak, because that night, Bess totally ignored me as I went in with the alfalfa.  I was feeling pretty successful, having put the grain where she couldn't smell it or get it and not needing the stick to fend her off from the alfalfa, but I turned around and she was just disappearing up the 18 inch high step, through the doorway, and into the barn.  (Funny, I had been worried enough before we got them about whether they could go up a 6 inch step that I sent an e-mail about it to Farmer Bob!  He must have either had a good chuckle about that, or else wondered if he was crazy to sell one of his beloved cows to a totally ignorant farmer-wanna-be!).   Bess found the bale of alfalfa, which I had moved around the back of a cement wall, for the sole purpose of keeping her large body from blocking the doorway as she munched alfalfa straight from the bale a week ago.  Did I mention that I'm still learning by trial and error? I had the stanchion all set up for her milking pleasure--the nice alfalfa hay was in the spot she likes it so that she can strew it all over as she munches, the grain, kelp, and salt was in her feed-bowl, and there she was, fully inside the barn with no intention of moving. Time for the stick.  It would have worried me a week or two ago.  I just tapped her on the haunches with the stick until she started moving.  She had other ideas, though....she couldn't just simply go back where she belonged.  She started deeper into the barn, through the flock of chickens, checking out the chickens' pelleted food, sniffing at the empty feed trough where her extra milk is given to the chickens.  We did a ring-around-the-rosie around the whole center of the barn, past old pallets, past the 75 bales of new hay, Bessie moving slowly and sedately, me tapping her bony hips with the stick in an effort to keep her moving.   By then I was getting just a little worried, because the whites of her eyes were starting to show as she realized that she didn't know where she was.  The double doors to the south of the barn were straight ahead of her, through the other flock of chickens with only a small flimsy welded-wire piece of fencing between her and freedom.  I imagined the rooster fights that would take place inside the barn if she took out that small fence, while I would be trying to chase Bessie down outside the barn if she made an escape. She finally got sight of the open doorway back to her area, and went right through.  Didn't go straight to the carefully-laid-out feast in the stanchion, because of course she was still thinking on her own.  She couldn't resist rushing over and butting Lucy out of the way so that she (Bessie) could eat Lucy's very small portion of grain.  Then, and only in her own good time, did she settle in where she belonged.   Jeremy came out just then to feed Lucy, and that's when I was really glad that Bessie had moved to where she needed to be.  She is still wary of Jeremy, and I make sure to watch that she doesn't get spooked when he is hand-feeding Lu.  For big Bess to be lumbering haphazardly around in the barn and for Jeremy to suddenly be there in front of her.....that would NOT have been good!  Neither one of them would have known quite what to do at that point.  There's still progress to work towards in that department.  She wouldn't ever set out to hurt him, but she WOULD see him feeding Lucy and he could end up in the way as she rushed over to butt Lucy away from the good stuff Jeremy is thrilled enough about taming Lucy that he spent most of yesterday finding information and putting together a Power Point presentation about Dutch Belted cows.  I thought I'd done a really thorough search a few months ago for all the info I could find, but he found even more.  If we can attach the presentation to an e-mail or even send it in a link, Jeremy is very thrilled at the idea that his voluntary project might be shared with all of you.  ;) Laura.

Progress with Lucy

Last night I tried something while Bess was still munching on her alfalfa and grain (she again gave a LOT of milk, and that infected quarter seems a bit better.  At least milk is still flowing out of it and it isn't hot and feverish.) So, Bess was munching and preoccupied, and Lucy had started to tentatively creep towards me while I was packing up the buckets, used paper towels, bag balm, all that stuff.  I had my knit hat on, so I stooped over to be on eye level with her.  She licked my hat again, then sniffed my eyebrows.  I slowly reached up and scratched her under the chin.  As long as I stayed down on eye-level, she was still shy but OK with being touched.  When I stood up to take everything back into the barn, she shied away and went out the door.  Jeremy was a bit jealous that I'd figured out his secret when I told him at dinner. Today we did the same thing, but Bess was a bit more restless and Lucy left the scene much more quickly. The chicks in the incubator should hatch on Monday!  ;)  Most of them should be Earl's little babies, so I'm hoping for a good hatch.  My sister Paula mentioned the "Circle of Life" song from the Lion King, and that's what keeps going through my head, now, too. Laura.

Making Butter

The dogs made butter today.   I was outside for 4 hours, and they were finding reasons to run like crazy.  When Shadow deigns to run with Rocky and actually "play" with him, they usually end up running around and around the 12 foot diameter fire pit that we put together in the center of that back acre.  When Rocky finally gets obnoxious enough after Shadow stops playing, Shadow takes off after him at full speed and they run the whole acre, back and forth, under trees, skidding in the mud, everything.  She will always be faster and more agile than he is, but I have to say, he's making some spin-on-a-dime turns these days and can almost out-run her when he gets up to full speed. There is a huge blue spruce, with just enough dead branches underneath that the dogs can skim under and run low to the ground.  Rocky really looks like a whipped pup when he gets to the point of trying to hide under there and Shadow still won't let him forget how annoyed she is with him.  At top speed, he throws his furry body under the tree and they run circles until he gives up and tries to shake her off in some other way. I always think of the story of Little Black Sambo when they are under that tree or tearing up a mud path around the fire pit.  (People of a certain age will remember that story, back before it would have been seen as politically incorrect).  I don't remember much about the book except that Sambo was dealing with tigers, and somehow he got the tigers to chase each other around the base of a tree, around and around until there was nothing left but butter.  (And something about it being the best butter ever).   Well, the dogs made a lot of mud, and really no butter, but that children's story is always what comes to mind as Shadow chases Rocky at top speed and Rocky tucks his tail and tries to lose her under that tree.  She always outsmarts him, and he will eventually "fall" over his own feet as he's running and grovel on the ground while she growls over him and  sounds like a raging lunatic.  It was so nice and warm again today, and the mud was so inspiring, that I decided to try to pound some T-posts to enlarge the little cow pen that Bessie and Lucy are in.  The ground was soggy enough that I could even pull OUT the posts that I wanted to move, and they came out with a squelchy, muddy sound and almost no effort on my part.  Not at all what I should be able to do in February, but 4 hours later, the posts were all moved and pounded into place, the fence was stretched tight and secured, and the cows were out exploring their new area.  They have about twice the space now, so I won't feel bad for them when winter actually comes to stay for a while and I don't let them out into the bigger fenced area.  This gives little Lu a bit more room to get away from Bessie when she tries the "Shadow" treatment and comes at Lucy to teach her a lesson.  The T-posts are set up for 2 strands of electric wire, for whenever we decide to use the welded wire fencing for something else.  For now, Bess and Lu are respecting the visible fence, and not needing an electric shock to stay where I want them to be. Jeremy has been telling people that Lucy likes him because he's the same size as she is.  He comes out when I'm milking Bess and feeds Lucy grain and alfalfa by hand.  And I found out today that he's right about why she doesn't like ME.  I'm bigger than she is and my eyes aren't on her level!  Lucy tried to lick my face and kiss my hat yesterday as I was bending over to shovel manure, but I didn't think much of it.  She quickly backed off when I stood up with the lovely shovelful of cow-pie.  Today, while I was crouched down to secure the fence to one of the posts, she trotted over and licked me through the fence.  I had watched her earlier as she sniffed noses with Rocky, and let him lick her nose through the fence (kind of gross, though, because she had sneezed and he gladly licked her nose clean when she came close enough!).    Anyway, as long as I stayed crouched down, she watched me--eye to eye, sniffed my gloves, let me touch her nose, and grazed right beside me.  She didn't sneeze on me, thank goodness!  I think a llama did that once to me at the zoo......  As soon as I stood up, she did a little rodeo kick, stomped the ground and jumped away.  Bess is letting me come up to her whenever I want, pat her on the side, scratch under her collar, and just in general acting very calm.  She only tosses her head when I bring out the alfalfa first, and she wants the GRAIN first!  ;)  I have only brushed her on the left side, because that's the side that is facing out from the wall when I milk her.  Today she let me brush her right side, although I didn't take a risk and get in between her and the wall.   So, progress.  I didn't have to bring the stick in today to shove her out of the way so that I could get through, either. The vet stopped by on Monday night and left some little sample baggies for me.  I'm supposed to milk the first few drops from each cow teat into the bags (separately), so that the state lab can test to see which (if any!) might have staph-caused mastitis.  I took the first samples this morning, stuck them in the freezer, and will take the 2nd set of samples on Friday morning.  But Bess didn't quite know what to make of it all.  Usually the milk gets going and it's actually being collected by me as her milk let-down is happening.  Today, (from her point of view at least) I kept messing around, not getting down to business, closing up little bags, starting other teats flowing, then not following through.....milk was being wasted in the straw while I fooled with those little baggies.  She eventually let me milk a big bucket full of milk, but she looked back at me while I was "collecting" as if to say "Well, what's all the fuss about?  Let's get on with the usual routine!) Sure is a nice winter for our first winter on the farm.  But I'm wondering how bad the flu will be without cold weather to knock it out, and how bad the mosquitos will be in the summer.  One mosquito actually flew out of the silo yesterday, and I was too surprised to smack it.  We could be in for a really hot and buggy summer! 5 new chickens from the feed store joined the flock yesterday.  They are typical scrawny white Leghorns, the laying machines.  I just needed a few more white-egg-layers.  So far they are just hanging out together in a little corner away from the other chickens. Have a good day.  Welcome, Myles, to the growing e-mail group.  ;)  I should make some REAL butter before heading out to pick up Jeremy and then Michael. Laura.