I am so sorry, I realize I have been seriously lacking in the blog posts. I came home on Wednesday from an EXHAUSTING 10 day stint in Chattanooga, and I leave today for a short 4-5 days in Durham, NC. I’ll be home on the 20th, and my mom, stepdad, brother, and stepbrother arrive for the holidays on the 21st. To say that I am stressed is an understatement. We have SO much to do before everyone arrives. The house is a mess, we have a zillion animals to care for, it’s been raining non-stop so we basically have a mud farm, etc. etc. etc.
So, what’s new? Short answer, a LOT. Longer answer…
…we now have ducks again! Our friends over at Eggdrasil Farms are preparing for a move, so we made a trade and I ended up with 6 gorgeous new Muscovy hens. Hopefully they’ll start laying eggs in the near future. I am really enjoying them. They’re beautiful and SO QUIET! The chickens aren’t bothering them much, however the geese are being typical bullies so introduction has been slow.
We have SO MANY rabbits. It’s insane. I just counted 40 rabbits, and that’s after I butchered 5 growouts this past weekend. We only have 8 breeders, the rest of the numbers are made up of kits in the nest and growouts. Right now we have 5 remaining growouts from our first 2 litters (Dallan x Queenie & Pirate x Sookie). We then have all of the kits from the Yoda x Maggie, Dallan x Hymn, & Pirate x Faith litters. All of those are doing well. Maggie’s 5 kits are MASSIVE compared to the others. Then we have 4 in the nest right around 3 weeks from Yoda x Sookie, and the newborn litter of 7 from Dallan x Faith. The Dallan & Faith litter is a repeat breeding of the litter that produced the 2018 ARBA Convention Best Opposite Sex blue silver fox. Looking forward to see how those kits grow. I’ll be evaluating and starting to cull after Christmas, so that should lower the feed bill again. We are also expecting Yoda x Queenie kits around Christmas and Leon (friend’s buck) x Maggie kits around the New Year.
I haven’t made a post about Esther, the hen who was injured that we’ve been nursing back to health. Justus came home one day and called me, he had found Pepper (our roo) flogging Esther, one of our black copper marans. I’m not sure what caused him to do this, but he had completely ripped out all of her head feathers and caused her to limp pretty severely. We cleaned her head (it was bleeding) and put her in isolation in the garage. She has been steadily improving, and now we leave her isolation cage open so she can come and go as she pleases. Her feathers have started to grow back and she no-longer limps, but she is still gaining her strength. She has become friends with Justus’ coon dog, Memphis. I often open the garage door and see them ‘snuggling,’ Esther just outside of Memphis’ cage. They have become friends, it’s very cute.
What else? I’m sure there’s a lot that I’m forgetting, but I don’t have time to write any longer, have to pack and get ready to head to NC. Hopefully I’ll have time to write again soon, but if not, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! <3