Rooster Hill Farm

Lazy Sunday

Sunday afternoons in the sun. A great time for a nap. And this little guy just fits in the grain dish.

Petal the pygora snoozes too.

Tucker lounges in his hay feeder.

But when it comes to scritches, everyone is awake and waits their turn - even Scurfy the turkey.

Humingbirds and Orioles arrived today, no doubt attracted by lovely blossoms like this apple tree has, and sweet poplar catkins.

Murphy patiently waits for me to take his picture. There ya go, Murph. I think he knows how handsome he is, don't you?

Freedom Rangers

These are Freedom Ranger chicks. They are a hybrid broiler known for great foraging abilities. I split an order with a woman I met on Craig's List (a wonderful resource - bookmark it now). Unfortunately half the chicks did not survive transit. Newly hatched chicks can survive 3 days without food and water because of the nutrients from the egg yolk they absorb before hatching. They do not survive cold very well. As it turns out, soon after this shipment arrived, the hatchery closed its doors. Many of its shipments this year had the same problems as this one.

If you have chicks this year - and based on conversations I have had with staff at Tractor Supply and Agway, a lot of you do - your biggest sign when you have a chilled chick is pasty butt. It is what it sounds like. The old poop has to be cleaned away from the chick's little vent, but be very gentle. If you use water, make sure you dry him off or he will remain chilled. A touch of vaseline around the area will help too but most importantly, get him warm.

These chicks are oblivious. They are too busy eating and peeping. They are voracious eaters. And cute. But what chick isn't?

Birds and Flowers (not always a good combination)

My forsythia has bloomed for the first time! The rabbits usually chew on it all winter so that by spring, it has no energy for flowers. This marans hen enjoys the blossoms too.

When quince bloom, the hummingbirds arrive. We haven't seen any here but folks in the next town have reported seeing some. Quince is one of my favorite bushes. The bright color is just amazing. The rabbits ate a lot of this bush too, and I had to prune many dead branches.

These double headed daffodils (the chicken head is extra) bloom later than the other daffodils.

Close-up of flower - no chicken!

The ducks left me one sad little tulip this year. The rest were chewed on as soon as they emerged from the ground. At least they spared one. Kind of.

The turkeys (Murphy is on your left) have been following me around this whole time, waiting patiently for their mug shot.

PODcast

Where POD means Poop On Demand. :D However, I have recently learned that goats will not POD no matter how much you beg and plead them to do so. Part of goat management this time of year includes monitoring their worm load, which requires a sample to be tested. It's best to know where your sample comes from - which is where that POD feature comes in handy. Much better than standing around in the field with baggies in your pockets waiting for the next fresh sample to arrive. Ask me how I know.

But when not being asked for POD, goats will leave a lot of manure around for the taking. Although rumor has it that goats will eat anything - including tin cans - they are actually very picky eaters. By winter's end, there is a lot of leftover hay they have scattered on the ground around their feeders. This hay has to be raked up and removed, or the grass underneath will not grow as fast. I rake up the hay and use it as bedding in the garden.

Today it was used on the onions. They hay keeps the moisture in, the weeds at bay, and has lots of built-in composted goat poop that makes great fertilizer.

I use simple wooden stakes and a Sharpie to mark my rows. These are Yellow Globe which will grow to be a medium sized onion.

These are Red Wethersfield, an heirloom type with pink flesh. Red onions are my favorite! Cornell has a great online guide to vegetable varieties I encourage you to check out. http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/
We have a bit of a cold spell coming up that includes a bit of a frost. Once that night is behind us, I will plant some peas and radish. The garden will be a bit smaller this year but I am experimenting with some different varieties and growing methods to allow us to offer our customers more choices.

Git along little doggy

Today it was time to move the little calf up with the rest.

It was also time to give the cows new balage. Even though the grass is coming on strong, they need to have lots to eat. Three of them will calf in July. They follow Gary on the tractor as he brings the bale in.

Once unwrapped and untied, the bale is ready to go inside its feeder. Meanwhile the cows have been eating it the whole time!

This is how a cow says "Thank you" to Gary!

Hank loves the cows.

He likes cow pies too. Mmmmm. Yeah, we think that's digusting too. :)

Down off the hill, away from the cows, Liddy runs around with Annie's kids.

The kids are playful and it's hard to get them to stay still for a picture.

But Murphy is always ready for the camera.

Daffodils

The guineas have an outdoor run. Because of their travelling nature, they have to be contained for a while until they know that this is home. They scratch the grass for bugs and shoots, and take dust baths in the sun.

Nearby, the daffodils are blooming.

Murphy likes them too.

eggs. are. everywhere!!

This time of year, the chickens are highly productive and lay lots of eggs. In another couple of weeks some of them will feel the urge to sit on their eggs for babies, but now they lay em and forget em, running around eating all the new grass that is popping up. As a result, I have lots of eggs in the fridge.

I recently changed my egg packaging. I had been using styrofoam but recently the prices of recycled paper cartons have come down to be the same as the foam. So I opted for the paper cartons this time. We will see how they do. I get my cartons from eggcartons.com and afix a label with our farm logo, and record the date, the size and the price.

I also have an incubator full of turkey eggs and bantam eggs. The bantam eggs will take 21 days to hatch, and the turkey eggs will take 28 days. Both of them are kept at a constant temp of 99.5 degrees. Here's hoping we have a good hatch (but I am not counting them yet!). ;)

Gimme Guineas

Growing up, Gary was always surprised by animals his dad would bring home. At one point, his dad had quite a flock of guineas at the house. They would roost in a particular tree each night. For the past couple springs, Gary has suggested that we keep some guinea hens, and this week in Country Folks, he found an ad for some 10 month old birds. So we took the trip to that farm today and brought home 4 birds: one male and three females.

I clipped their wings before placing them in the coop, but Gary thinks I should have clipped more than I did. Sure enough, none of them had any issues flying the 3 feet up to their roost. I will have to rethink their outside run before letting them outside. They need to understand this is home before I let them out, or I will never see them again.

Even though the guineas were very quiet (if you know guineas, you know this is unusual!) and their door was closed, everyone else knew something was up and came up to their coop to investigate. They'll find out soon enough!

New addition

A new trailer! We bought this a month or so ago, and ever since it has been parked in Gary's sister's driveway. Today, Gary brought it home.

It is a 12' Adams trailer. There is a divider that separates the interior into 2 sections. Unlike our other trailer whose doors open as a ramp, this trailer has barn doors. I think they may be easier in the long run, but it may prove hard to get some critters to step up. We will see!

We bought this from B&G Trailers in Groton, NY. They are really great to deal with and will work hard to get you what you need. If you are looking for a trailer, I suggest you look them up!

And thank you, Kathy, for letting us use your driveway this past month or so :)

Signs of Spring

The turkeys can go where ever they want. This can be a good and a bad thing :) I love how they come running when I call. But when Gary works on his truck, he could probably do without the extra help.

You will have to click this picture to get the whole effect. Everyone came out to help Gary change his oil. Another downside of letting turkeys free range this time of year is that it is also breeding season. When I was taking these pictures, I heard a wild tom on the hill behind us. It wasn't too long until one of my hens answered his call and made the trip up the hill herself. I saw her tom, and he was large and very handsome, but afraid of me. He ran and I led the hen back down the hill. I might have to rethink this free range thing.

Some flowers have started to bloom which I hope will attract the bees away from the grain. They still swarm our grains every afternoon, hungry things. These crocus should stick around until we get some really warm days, or until my birds discover them.

These snowdrops, or Galanthus, are in my rock garden, hopefully protected from most curious beaks around here.

Walk in the Woods

Twice a year we perform a pilgrimage, the great schlepping of seasonal stuff back and forth to "the land," a piece of property on the other side of our town. It's at the land where we get a lot of our firewood, Gary goes hunting, and we store a lot of stuff we don't need in day to day activities. Sunday was the day for the seasonal shuffle, and we took a truckload of things to the land.

It was a very nice day, 55 and sunny. We inspected the fields, and then we decided to take a walk in the woods.

Despite pockets of snow in the shady corners of the woods, spring is definitely planning its arrival.

Here is a fern, species yet undetermined but probably a cinnamon fern.

Club moss grows in a patch of icy snow.

Mare's tail moss, more icy snow.

Some sort of polypore. The color glows in the shadows of the trees.

We have several very large pine trees. Some are dying at their tops. Boards from these trees will make a nice barn! They are deep in the woods though and will be difficult to remove.

Woodpeckers have been quite busy this winter! The woods were pretty silent as far as bird song goes. I did hear a Carolina Wren down by the creek. Its "teakettle teakettle" call is very distinctive - and loud for such a small bird.

We walked back up the hill, out of the woods and into a field. Those hills in the distance surround Shindagin Hollow.

The field was absolutely filled with puff balls!

And we visited a pond. Millions of minnows took shelter in the canes of these cattails.

Bees' Knees

One sure sign of spring is BEES. Since nothing is blooming right now, they will take what they can get and usually swarm to chicken food, a great source of protein for them. Believe it or not it upsets the chickens and they will steer clear of a dish swarmed with bees.

Today we also got grain from a farm down the road. The bees swarmed that too. It gave the task of unloading the 20 bags off the truck a little excitement that it usually lacks :) Luckily for us the bees are more interested in the grains than defending their turf, so as long as we move slowly, no one gets stung.

They even swarm the empty bags. A local apiary has a number of boxes (hives) down at the bottom of our driveway that could account for the great numbers of bees. A beekeeper can set out food especially for his bees so they won't have to travel so far for food. But I bet by next weekend they will also have some flowers to visit. In the meantime, the chickens will have to share.

Annie's kids

Last Friday night, Annie had her kids. Two boys. After Liddy's adventure I was a little nervous. But everything was fine. Murphy was there for the whole birthing process, fanning his tail as he roosted on a stall wall. He has godfathered many many goat kids.

Annie. Is. Huge. After the first couple days, I will begin to milk her. When she was in labor I almost thought she was going to have triplets. The first kid was an effort to deliver, but kid #2 (the mostly white one) slid right out almost into my lap.

It took about a day for the boys to get a hang of it, but now they are old pros at this eating thing. They even nibble at grain at this young age!

Although it is a very nice day out, this is their first journey outside the barn, and they do not venture very far. Everyone, including this rooster, is very curious and wants to meet them.

Big Tom sticks around the barn too. That is where all the ladies have been hovering, playing in the hay and eating black oil sunflower seeds (their favorite treat).

Some muscovy ducks share a helping of black oil sunflower seeds with a turkey hen in the barn.

The turkeys started to lay their eggs this week. So far no one is showing signs of being broody.

Winter is receding here on the hill, and we are in the full stages of MUD SEASON. Some snow still remains up on the hill by the pig house, now boarded up.

The chickens are happy to have some grass to eat and scratch through.

Weekend activities

After a month of trying, Gary gets the trailer up the hill to the pig pen. We will deliver them to the butcher later today.

Time for Liddy's stitches to come out. Gary held her while I snipped.

When they were all out, I covered the incision with Zinc Oxide. Her coat is taking a longer time to grow back than it is taking for her incision to heal.

Murphy supervised from outside the stall.

Annie, who shares the stall with Liddy, watched from the corner. According to my notes, she is due to kid this week. At this point, her bag is much larger than her belly!

I spotted a duck checking out nest sites under a toolbench in the barn. I never found an egg, but this shows they will be laying soon.

Turkey hens play on our homemade critter carrier (it fits in the back of Gary's truck). They do stuff like this all day.

Hank sits on the hill and watches them all.

More Goats

Gary convinced me that we needed more dairy goats. The milk is also great for feeding to pigs, and I would like to make soap again. Mmmmm and cheese. And yogurt.

The girls won't stay still for a good picture though.

Here is Susan the saanen, the same breed as my Annie. She looks a lot like Annie except she has wattles under her chin.

And Apple the alpine. She is a little skittish like a gazelle, but once I start scratching her chin, she is putty in my hands.

And this attention-seeking goat is a Pygora. Her fleece is a little short, but very soft. She doesn't have a name yet.

Liddy update:

Liddy is well on her way to recovery. She is still living in the barn, but I let her outside a lot to run around. And run around she does!