This is going to make me sound ancient.
Friends, I have not posted because technology got the best of me. Last month, when I posted in mid-April, everything was as it had been in the past. I was able to import pictures from my phone and put them easily into the stories. Prior to that for three months, I would have to painstakingly send the pictures from my phone into email... then change them to JPEGS, (I never had to do that before) using a conversion utility, and to do one post would take me two hours.
Suddenly, last month, I sat down and was able to post normally. Then... a week later, I was back to the mess.
I gave up.
I finally realized that if I would just go out and take pictures as I used to ... with a camera, I could import them easier and use them on the blog. The picture utility I used the last six years or so, a Sony product, was discontinued in February, so it is not as easy as it used to be, but I can still do it.
So... bringing you up to date:
Here is my new goat, Archie, out cleaning the fenceline right now.
Yes, he has formidable horns.
Archie came here three weeks ago. He had been astray in Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties, going to people's doors and being run off. People kept posting him on Facebook, but no one was HELPING him. Finally, my good friend Tammy Potts called and said she knew where he was, and did I want to go get him?
HAHAHAHA. I took a dog lead. I have had goats, I don't know what I was thinking. I have a Buick Encore. I did not even put a dog crate in it.
We got to the people's house, and he was already gone, but the mother knew where he was... around the corner and up a hill a mile away, at the home of some people who kept longhorns. We got there, and the kind man and lady helped us for an hour to catch him, and frankly, the man did.
He hog tied him and put him in the back of my car, and Tammy and I prayed he would not die on the way home.
The sheep had just come the week before... but he survived the drive and slowly was accepted.
He was found on Archer Road, hence the name Archie.
I feed him right here in this corner of the pasture, next to the old hen house and near the yard where the Gigantes are kept. That's a lamb from the sheep flock snitching his hay. Remember, goats are browsers.
There is a goat with the sheep, Doodles, who was here last year. She does not appear to be interested in Archie, or he in her.
There are Doodles and some of the sheep watching me a few minutes ago, when I was taking these pictures.
The rest of the sheep are in the barn you can just barely see behind you, there are 24 sheep and Doodles.
I have a fan running in the hen house, and some of the Gigantes prefer to lay in front of the fan. Here are two on the ramp.
Here is one of the pullets outside just now. They are TALL. They have big feet!
One of the Rhode Island Red pullets... remember, I picked these out of a tub that said "Buff Orpingtons". I got four RIRs and ONE Buff Orp.
That one.
I had a 30 x 30 foot yard (more or less) put up by JP Welch Fence Company for these birds, where our first pen sat behind the old hen house. They did a great job for me, I wish I could afford to have them come back and do a pen adjacent to the brooder house. Maybe I'll win the lottery this summer....
Here is part of the "little flock" as I call them, in the brooder yard attached to their house.
This sits on the south side of my property, so you see my neighbor's cars behind it.
These are some of the smaller chicks, though the lavender Orpingtons will be moving out soon.
The black birds are LaFleche, and if you look at the bird in the middle, lower part... he is growing two little horns for his comb.
You can just see them there.
They look like little ravens.
I am so happy with the Orpington on the left, it appears to have some frizzle genes.
Here are two of the three Cuckoo Marans... Cuckoo is their coloring. They lay a very dark brown egg. (or will).
The Marans and the Orps in this brooder house will be moving to the little hen house in a week or ten days, I have a pen bought that will attach to the front of it, and they will get used to being in that house and then be allowed to free range, as the big chickens do. Right now, in that house, are only two hens and Doug, the Silkie rooster. There IS a cockerel with the Orpingtons... they were supposed to be pullets, but... things happen... so we will see what happens.
I want them to get a little bigger first, because a big snake is hunting over there. She can't find any eggs, I am lucky if I get one or two a day out of my mature hens, including the three Cochins I raised last summer for fun.
She can't swallow these chicks, but she could sure kill one if she wanted. I already rescued one Gigante from a snake... I would show you the picture if I could. Both snake and chick lived.
I had three Bielefelder chicks, but only two survived. I lost one at three weeks from pasty butt.
I bought these from a private breeder and had doubts when I got there. I'm glad the other two made it, they are good egg layers and pretty chickens. Those are La Fleche with the Bielefelder, they are all the same age.
They will stay in the brooder house as their permanent home, and I hope to build a pen alongside it so they have more room.
I have three fans running in there... it is the hottest little building you can imagine.
This is one of the Putih Ayam Cemanis. The Ayam Cemani is an all black bird from Indonesia, black skin, black comb, etc. etc... but the Putih is the white version of it. They look like little ghosts.
They are a stylish looking little bird.
The Putihs, the La Fleche, and the Bielefelders will all stay in the brooder house as their permanent home.
The seven Columbian Wyandottes moved over to the big hen house
three weeks ago. For almost two weeks, I carried them up and down the stairs... one by one... twice a day, putting them in with Rocket and Mary, the Mille Fleurs.
This pen runs across the back of the fully enclosed big hen yard.
After two weeks, the little girls began to fly up and over the ex pen walls of the smaller pen.
Two days ago, I said The Heck with This, and let them loose to go down into the yard.
They put themselves all to bed inside with the other birds.
However, last night, three were scared to go up the ramp (there are four steps or a ramp) and go in, and I literally waited an hour for the last to go in. I have not had to low crawl to get them yet, but I did have to go out frequently to check on them as dark was coming.
I took this picture a half hour ago, they were hiding from the sun where it was cool.
So were Shuler, Buddy, and one of the yellow hens across from them on the other side.
I decided, as I came out, to let everyone loose into the house side of the yard, and the older hens and Buddy are out there where I can see them, under the finch feeders. I have not let them out for a week.
I can see the front of the big hen house yard from here, and haven't seen any little ones come out, I really don't want them in this side yet.
They are the Group Two birds, the Gigantes/RIRs are Group One, and the Lavender Orps and Marans Group Three. They will move next in two weeks or so.
I am down to nine large hens, and of those, I am only getting one to two eggs a day.
I lost another hen yesterday, I have lost nine in about eight weeks. The one yesterday was fine on Saturday... she flew up to the roost for the night, and when I shut the door of the little hen house, she was on the roost and the other two in the rafters, and Doug in his nest box. Yesterday morning I found her dead directly under the roost, and it sure looked like a heart attack. She was in good flesh.
I talked to a pair of chicken friends and they both think heart attack, too.
Remember, all my big hens but the three Cochins from last year are aged birds.
Buddy is aged, too... so I guess it is lucky the little Orp rooster is coming along... and I suspect there is a cockerel with the Gigantes, too. I don't think the Gigantes and RIRs are going to run loose and free range... at least, that is not the plan right now. They have plenty of room in the fenced yard and their hen house.
Sammie the Salmon Faverolle is one of the big birds left.
This little guy, Chico, is still here, too. I was so lucky to get another dog that did not bother the chickens.
He has become a wonderful companion to me. He is over nine, but in pretty good health now that the bothersome teeth are gone.
The kitties are all still here, too.. here's Bullseye snoozing.
And Bob smelling the daffodils a month ago.
I am so blessed to have a view like this.
I hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day weekend... and the start of a good summer.
