Farm News

Okay, I know it has been a while since my last update but I finally got my third cast off my arm, hopefully for good. Typing is still a painful challenge. Yes once again I was my ever graceful self and broke my wrist while attempting to impersonate "Stupor Woman". Only half the company (my day job) watched me fly through the air in our café only to smack to the floor because of a wayward ice cube. My first cast lasted two weeks, second one made it five days, finally is was given the option of a water resistant material for the third cast. The third one only had to last for eight days, obviously gortex, fiberglass and farm work can really "ripen" a cast. There is so much going on at our farm I almost don't know where to begin. How about everyone has gone broody, that’s when a girl bird must sit on a nest of eggs. Whether it is a chicken on a clutch of duck eggs or a duck and a guinea on a bunch of chicken eggs or a chicken, duck and guinea trying to sit in one box on every egg they can steel. It is absolute mayhem. Not to mention the turkeys, oh those poor girls have a nest in our old dog house. It’s a free for all in there, every girl just hops in and drops an egg and leaves it for the poor turkeys to sit on. Luckily Clover and Whisky are very tame turkey girls, I can check under them every day, take out the extra eggs deposited. I'm not so lucky with the Guinea hens; they are determined to remove flesh if you try to take their eggs away. For a while I could block them with my casted arm and quickly pick eggs with my other hand. Now it's just bare flesh and their beaks. Those crazy things make a hissing noise, while jabbing their beaks to rip flesh at blinding speed. The hissing noise ads real drama to the whole deal; I keep thinking of the scene in Jurassic Park where that big bird spits in the guys eyes while hissing and then eats him. I'm sure eventually that would be my destiny if the guinea hens had it their way.Any minute all of those broody birds' eggs should be hatching out, that’s when the real fun begins. Oh I have been hatching eggs for two months using incubators and Elvira. There are chicks, ducklings, goslings, turkey poults and Elvira with her brood of chicks running wild all over the place. El is a Silky hen with a wild chicken feather do, who is a great mother hen. There is nothing like having the birds do what they love to do, hatch and raise their brood. It is amazing to watch the hens giving calls, clucks or whispers to their little guys, teaching them the ins and outs of the farm; stay away from that big goose, it will bite you, watch out for that little orange dog, she will sniff your butt or look that’s the person who gives out good treats, run to her. Pretty soon there will be babies swarming everywhere.Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, our darling orange, snorting, butt sniffing, face licking, bird poop eating, precious dog. She is always my faithful alert, assistant, as you can see in the attached picture. Pumpkin watches over her feathery domain, never missing an opportunity to butt check a bird. Bird butt checking is a very delicate process. First Pumpkin waits until the birds are very, very distracted by something, like say mating. Yes nothing is sacred in our yard; she scopes out who is mating with whom, the window of opportunity is always open. Pumpkin scores a butt check, the birds just score. Okey dokey, onto the next subject; Meat birds, Finally we have a small supply of frozen chicken in the freezer again. It was pretty rough for three or four weeks this spring without our chicken, now we are flying along smoothly. After this coming weekend we will have more fresh chicken if anyone has a hankering. The Quail are coming along slowly, very slowly. They should be ready in about 5 weeks for eggs and meat. Their eggs and the pickling of them will be the bane of my existence. Who knew pickled eggs would be such a hot item? Those tiny, little eggs that take for ever to peal have turned out to be one of our best selling items.