Lawn Mowing Delay

So I haven't mowed the lawn yet this spring.  It's entirely too long so I decided I needed to get the job done.  (In my defense, the young pullets in the chicken tractors are really enjoying eating all the long grass and weeds in the yard.)  I went out to the garage to get the mower and this is what I found!

Needless to say, I didn't get the lawn mowed.  I guess I'll wait a couple of days to see if the rest of her eggs hatch.        

It's alive!

Last fall I had a bit of an incidence.  I was putting out round bales with the big tractor.  I had just opened up the gate so I could drive the tractor into the pasture with a big hay bale.  Before I had a chance to scoot through, the cows had stampeded the gate and got into the yard.  The yard with all the baby fruit trees!  My poor apple tree didn't fair so well.  Before I could get out of the tractor, a cow had chomped on some branches and then commenced to rub on the tree until it snapped.  Before she was done with it, it was laying flat on the ground.  I had spent so much time and effort to make sure my apple trees were happy that I was heart broke that the cow had destroyed it.  When I investigated a bit further I could see that the tree wasn't 100% broke off.  There was still about 1/4 of the tree trunk that was still intact.  I thought there was a tiny chance I could save my tree so after I was done chasing cows back into the pasture and feeding hay I grabbed my roll of duct tape.  I jammed the tree trunk back together as best as I could and then duct taped around the wound.  Mark later drove a t-post and bungied the tree to it for further support.  I got online and googled my predicament.  Asked for advice on Facebook too.  After consulting and research I figured I handled my tree situation the best I could.  

Jump forward to this spring.  My tree never shriveled up last fall and it greened up beautifully this spring.  I recently took off the duct tape I had put on last fall and it's healed!  It's a bit rough looking and I'm sure I will have to continue to baby along this tree but at least I'm not buying a new one. 

Cheep, Cheep, Quack

All the poultry have gone broody!  We're having fun seeing what hatches and stuffing eggs under anyone who will set on them.  

A day ago, two hens and a turkey hatched a whole bunch of baby chicks.  The turkey hen had been laying her eggs in the egg boxes in the coop.  We kept on picking her eggs with the other chicken eggs.  I didn't think the turkey would go broody so I didn't keep her eggs.  When she did go broody I put a whole bunch of hen eggs under her.  She seems to be happy with her odd brood.       

I have four more hens setting on eggs.  They should be hatching around the first weekend in June.  I also have another turkey hen that I stuffed a bunch of hen eggs under.  I even found a peacock egg and put that under her as well!  This second turkey had hatched some turkey poults but since she was fighting over a nest with a little banty hen they goofed up the eggs and got a bad hatch.  Out of a big clutch of turkey eggs, five hatched. Three out of the five died from different reasons.  I grabbed the last two and put them in the brooder with the meat chicks.  The turkey hen still wanted to set on a nest so that is why I put the hen and peacock eggs under her.

A few weeks ago we went to our first swap meet.  We couldn't pass up these pretty little girls.  These are Indian Runner ducks.  They are an upright standing duck.  They have the special privilege of being lawn ornaments because they make us smile.

The dark spot in the middle of the plants.  Mamma duck is brooding a clutch of eggs!  Hopefully we'll get a good batch of baby Cayuga ducks.  

We Have Hogs Ready For Processing

We have 2 groups of hogs ready to go to the processor.  Check out this link for details.  

 

 

 

What Comes Naturally

Since it is the slow season here on the farm I was having fun perusing the internet.  I came across this article on the use of gestation crates.  I would like know.  Who looked at a tiny metal cage and thought it would be a good idea to lock a pregnant pig in it?  Who thought that this pig would produce better and be healthier never seeing the light of day?  I would like to know, how did this person become so removed from what comes naturally?

Sometimes I get caught up in my own little world and forget what's going on about me.  This was just one of those things that jolted me back to reality.  Luckily it's not my reality!