This is from my journal at the farm. Its probably a late entry. I may make several entries a day to try to keep up with the backlog of entries I have.

Happy Father's Day.  We didn't do anything to special today.  We started out with processing 10 broilers.  We only did roosters as those are suppose to grow faster then the hens.  Live weight on these fellas was 7.25-8 pounds at 8.5 weeks old.  Not bad I figure for pastured poultry with grain as well. 

I believe in naturally raised meat, so no medicated feed at all.  I also believe that chickens need to be out and about so they are inside a fence but have grass and bugs to eat as well as their feed.  They are now so big that they can't get inside the coop but they all sleep beneath it.  I'm so glad that Rich put the coop on blocks.

The Hudson rabbit ppl stopped by to pick up their mini lops this afternoon.  After a few questions, they were on their way.  I think those 2 bunnies are going to be very spoiled!

Carol

Today it was time for the broilers to move to the chicken box.  They really needed more space.  Rich got busy cleaning out the box/coop while I did the chores.  Well, some of the chores.  He got done way before I did so he went to finish chores while I set to get waterers and feeders ready to go before putting 70 chicks in.  Once everything was set, in went the birds.  They seemed very happy to have to room to roam.

Our goat, Jackie, is still pregnant and looking so terribly uncomfortable.  I hope that means she's carrying triplets.  No real signs of labor expect that her udder is definately fuller then yesterday.

That's about it for today.
Carol

My chickens made their big move this afternoon.  Rich completed the chicken coop/truck box today.     I insulated the east wall, which was the wall Rich replaced, with straw and chicken wire.  Rich said that was the way his grandparents insulated their chicken coop.  He still needs to do some caulking around the window which he plans to do tomorrow.

Here's the inside before the chicks moved in:

And here are the chicks enjoying the new facility:

I also placed my order for 70 cornish cross chicks at the local farm store.   I also sold 6 of our mini lop bunnies to the store.  So we will have a few less rabbits around here until our next litters are born in early May.

Does anyone have any experience with raising chickens and turkeys on the same farm site?  I keep reading about blackheads disease.  I had 2 "recue" turkeys for a year and they ran with my free range birds last year.  I didn't see any signs of disease with Wilma and Fred living with my layers.  In fact, Wilma helped Lulu (chicken mama) raised a brood of chicks.  So I'm curious as to how much one needs to worry.

Carol

I thought I'd update on Lucky, the chicken we found in the ditch.  She is doing well.  She jumps right out of the cage to eat.  Her growth is drying up and she has stopped picking at it.  I think we will be putting her out in the barn tomorrow and she if she can make friends with Clara (our americana hen).

Madison wanted to share this picture she took for Easter:

Madison wanted to have pancakes this am so we made them special by adding color to the batter and painting on the pancakes as they fried on the griddle:

They were delicious!

Carol

So, the kids are complaining because we have been out of "Mike's milk" for about a week and they say the store milk tastes bad.  We buy our raw organic milk from a local dairy farmer/friend.  So, over to Mike's farm we go to get milk today.   While there, Mike asked if I'd be interested in raising 25 broiler chickens for processing for him.  Oh my!  I wasn't ready for that but I'm excited about it just the same.  This is a goal of mine "to sell my processed farm raised birds" but I wasn't looking at it seriously until next year.  I guess I get to move it up the list to this year  !!  

Last year was my first year with chickens (layers) and my first year ever butchering.  Since I really didn't know what to get (or what I was getting myself into), I thought an assortment would be best for us to get our feet wet.  I had ordered a straight run of heavy dual purpose chickens.  Besides butchering our roosters and a few extra hens, I offered to butcher a bunch of Mike's older "stew" chickens for him in exchange for housing my chickens over the winter months.  We love to barter when we can.

Unfortunately today, Mike said that something has been slowly picking off the chickens so he wasn't sure how many of our chickens were left.  So I might need to order a few more birds, since our rooster, Benjamin (last year's flock sire), was at Mike's and without him... I can't build my layer flock.   Oh, well... that's farm life, I guess.

Ok... so we are on our way home and what do we see... a lone chicken running/hopping in the field/ditch.  So I make Rich stop the car and we catch ourselves a chicken.  She appears to be a White Crested Black Polish (Madison's favorite chicken).  I noticed, and so did Rich and Madison, that something was hanging from her leg.  When we got home, we fed and watered her.  She was very hungry.  Makes me wonder how long she has been fending for herself in our Minnesota weather.  She has only about half the feathers on top of her head.  We decided to call her Lucky.

After investigating a bit further, Lucky has a growth coming from her lower right breast area near her leg.  She wasn't hopping when we found her, she was limping.  She kept pecking at it, ripping it causing it to bleed.  We finally got the growth thingy to stop bleeding after over an hour of trying to figure out what exactly to do.  I finally wrapped the area and her leg.  That seemed to work.

She is very tame and we are assuming she was someone's pet and they dumped her.  How sad is that!?!  She is very sweet, loves to be held and carried around.  We'll see what tomorrow brings but for now Lucky has plenty of food, water and a warm home.

Carol

Sad news tonight, Madison lost one of her fair chicks this evening.  Despite her best efforts, it was just too weak to make it.  She takes death of her animals kind of hard when it first happens but is back to her normal self after 30 minutes or so.  The chick died in her hand which hasn't happened to her before with chickens so that was a tough one.  She even had her stethescope out "listening" for a heartbeat.  She is my little "vet-in-training."

Carol

Our chicks arrived safe and sound.  Madison was very excited and helped bring them home.

Each one gets its beak dipped in water after the long overnight trip from Iowa to Minnesota.

Here all 38 of them are in their temporary home for 3 days

Everything was going great.  About 2 hours later, Rich went to reset the light and found a chick "almost dead."  So... down I went to see what I could do.  A little Red Cochin Bantam was laying on its side, its eyes closed, jerking and with its little mouth open.  I gently grabbed the little chick and it was so cold.  I knew the first thing it needed was heat or it didn't have a chance.  Closed eyes on a cold baby chick are very bad signs.

So we set up a Chicken ICU using Madison's reading light and a cool whip container with a pink towel.  I couldnt find the heating pad so what we had would have to do.  I put Madison in charge of Chickie and hoped for the best.

Madison, the little animal doctor that she is, made sure that Chickie got a beak dip every 5 minutes for the next hour.  Soon, Madison was telling me that Chickie was standing, chirping away and kept jumping out of its bed.  Time to go back with the other chicks.

We lost a little black and yellow chick this am.  not sure what happened.  I found her dead then I changed the newspaper and watered and fed them.   They are all drinking and eating and pooping.  Only 3 pasted up butts which is pretty good.

Well I'm off to get Madison from Super Science Club.  Have a super day! Carol