An update

Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Yeshua concerning you.
Quench not the Spirit.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-19





January is a very slow month.  The cold weather prevents us from doing much beyond feeding animals, breaking ice in troughs, and cleaning stalls.  During the warm spell and thaw at the end of December, we managed to dig power to our chicken coop deluxe and actually finish the rooster pen!  We also had to adjust our nesting boxes, as the hens were roosting on them overnight and messing in their nests.

All of our chicken coop material is reclaimed lumber and scrap stuff.  My husband is very talented in "inventing" ways to reuse throw away stuff.  We don't turn anything down but our shirt collars!  Others' garbage has become our treasure.  I don't know, but re-using old stuff kind of adds character,  Don't you think?

We have separated our roosters until egg production kicks back into full gear (they are only producing about 2-3 eggs a day now).  Most of our hens are new birds from spring 2017.  We raised several red sex link hens, black sex links, a few Buff Orpingtons, and a couple Black Australorps (my personal favorites).  Our previous hens were old and no longer producing as much, so I gifted them to some local friends and started over.  They were mainly ornamental breeds.  I've had all sorts of breeds over the years, but this is my first year with the sex links, and I am really not a fan.  I notice they are somewhat aggressive to the other birds, and a little "bloodthirsty".  I think it's the Rhode Island Red in them.  I've always had problems with RIR.  They always ended up being egg peckers and cannibals.  Many other old time chicken breeders I've talked with around this area have said the same thing.  I also was given several blue Cuckoo Maran hens, and they are somewhat aggressive too- so I don't know how I'll end up liking them. Time will tell.

My plan with the chickens this year is to hatch out a few purebreds and special crossbreeds sometime between March-May.  I have blue Cuckoo Marans that I'll be hatching, Buff Orpingtons and Olive eggers (Ameraucana crossed with Welsummer) in my incubator.  This will bring me more hens that produce a variety of colored eggs.  I currently have about 20 hens and 5 roosters.

This is Princess Charming, a bantam/silkie cross hen.  She is 4 years old and has the sweetest personality.  She is very broody and just finished raising an Ameraucana rooster for us.  He was 4 days old and she adopted him as her own even though she didn't hatch him.  She was hatched out of an incubator by my neighbor and given to me.  I will breed her to my neighbors Japanese bantam and incubate the eggs.  Hopefully I will end up with more hens like her.  She is very friendly and easy to catch and handle.  She also "talks" to us a lot.

I love her pom pom on her head

We also cleaned our little goat barn and got the stalls ready for use.  We put diatomaceous earth down and then the straw.  Only 30 days or less before kids! We start individually stalling the nannies at night when they get about 2 weeks from kidding.  They also get heat lamps in the corners as we don't have electricity to our barn.  We have to take kerosene lanterns out there when we kid or check on them.

This is the loafing stall- where they go when it's rainy or snowy.  It has an opening out into a small mini pasture.  They like to go to bed here at night when the weather is not good.  During the summer months and also when the weather is good during the others, they stay out in a large 3 acre pasture and sleep under the stars.

Daisy approves of her clean stall

We also separated our billy- The Sultan- from the nannies last weekend.  He will stay by himself until next September when breeding season begins again.  He's not too happy about it.  

Our "cow pony" Jubilee

Patches

We raise bottle calves off our goats' milk (the extra we don't consume).  They do awesome on it.  These calves are last years' batches.  We raise between 3-5 at a time, depending on how much milk we're getting from the goats.  This year, I'm milking 6 does, so we should be able to do around 5 calves at a time.  We bottle feed them for 10 weeks, wean, and get another batch.  We get about 3 batches a year this way.  We have excellent health among our calves, and usually only have to give probiotics to keep scours at bay.  This is because we give thanks to Father through Christ Jesus and pray daily for the health of our animals.

Super Nova

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.  Psalm 103:8



Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.  
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.  Psalm 100