A Rough Week

  A rough week here at the farm. We lost our Lamancha buckling who was going to be a herd stud this fall. The temperatures were in the hundreds for three days and then dropped down to seventy. I don't now if he suffered from heat stroke but he died all of the sudden. He may have eaten something poisonous but we have never had any problems with the pasture he has been in and he wasn't out of that pasture. The three other kids are fine. The pasture is heavily shaded mostly woods.

The same night we lost the buck, something managed to break into our chicken coop and carried off seven chickens. We had been losing the occasional chicken; some during the day we had thought it was a stray dog but now I am leaning towards a fox. Seeing how all that was left were feathers, the chickens were all carried off.

Okay on a more positive note our Narragansett turkey hatched seven poults. She is doing a great job taking care of them leading them around the yard. They are Narragansett/Blue Slate cross. So enjoy the pics

LIL Turkey

Dad

Mom

Lil Peeper

Mom sitting on eggs

   We had some turkey eggs in the incubator from our Narragansett hen and our Blue Slate tom. Only one of them hatched but the hen is sitting on fifteen more eggs so hopefully most of those hatch. We raised Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys one year and hatched them. They weren't too bright; liked to sit in the road and eat anything including sockets from a socket set. These Heritage breed turkeys are a joy to have around they are friendly and smart and can forage for a good part of there diet.

The First Shearing

As some of you may know, I shear sheep kind of as a side job my dad has been shearing sheep since I have three. I had gone with him since than. Starting by trimming hooves when I was about 11 and shearing my first sheep when I was 14. The one time I got a chance to shear as many as I could in a day I did 32 which is far from what the real pros do. I can usually shear a sheep in about seven minutes. I did my first job of the year last as usual I was sore the day after even though it was just two sheep. .I hopefully will be shearing twice this coming week

It was a very busy week here at the farm. We have a new Lamancha buckling from great lines. We drove 4 hours today round trip to pick up three female heritage breed turkeys pictures to come as I get them.

Tis Chick Season

       My Americana hen's chicks have hatched Light Brahma/Americana and Delaware/Light Brahma. So far she has three but a couple more are pecking. There was some question as to whether the Americana cock we had fathered the chicks but they all have feathers on there legs, so I guess not.The Sumatra/Barred Rock chicks are growing very fast. I think most of them are probably purebred Sumatras. They are from a top show line. On a upsetting note something killed my female turkey last night so the search is on for another female heritage breed turkey

 Sumatra chick foraging

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