From the Garden

From the Garden (yeah, there's lot of weeds, every week same thing, lol): Lettuce & Peppers I pick this am, Bean Towers, Peas, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Pumpkins (Connecticut, Sugar Pie, Little Max, Green Striped), Winter Squash (Buttercup, Butternut, Acorn), Cucumbers (Picklers, Lemon, Straight Eight), Melons (Canteloupe, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Green Honeydew), Zucchini (Black Beauty, Round), Yellow Summer Squash, Potatoes.

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Sweet Potato Grill Pack

Did a little experiment tonight, I've been making Grill Packs for Potatoes with onions & bell pepper and Corn on the Cob ones. Tonight I decided to try a Sweet Potato Grill Pack and it turned out very yummy.

Garden is Producing :)

Me & Wylie took to the garden today. He stayed by my side all day. I pulled weeds like a crazy woman today (it rained while we were in PA and they came up like crazy) and picked peas (4 gallons), green beans (3 gallons), cucumbers, peppers and summer squash. I picked lettuce for the chickens, gave the weeds to the goats & turkeys. Jill gave me 1/2 gallon of milk this am and I need to go milk her again. Life goes on.................

Goodbye Dear Friend

It is with gut wrenching sadness that we say goodbye to our baby, Auzzie, today. You will be deeply missed by the whole family, but most of all by your boys. You brought so much happiness into Jamie & John's lives. You were much more than their companion dog, you were their friend. Fly with the Angels, Hoover! We  you more than words can say. Rest in Peace, Auzzie 2004-2014. Please keep the boys in your prayers.

Minnie & Babies

When I discovered the egg were hatching.

Minnie & Babies in Nest Box

Minnie Moo Moo is one of our original hen that we raised from day old when we first bought the farm. She is the only Barred Plymouth Rock of the original 5 that is still living. Minnie is the most gentle hen I have. Minnie went broody about 4 1/2 weeks ago and I decided to go ahead and let her try and hatch a batch of eggs. She started with a dozen eggs ended up trying to sit on 22 eggs, lol.  On 6/27 the eggs started hatching and we got 8 live chicks. (Only 1 of the chicks is Minnie's and the rest are her hen mates, since they lay in a community nest.)

Minnie & Babies in Brooder

Minnie decided to try and bring the chicks out into the chicken yard when the babies were less than 24 hours old and being that we have predators ( Foxes, Coyotes, Bears, Skunks, Fisher-cats (weasel family) , Racoons and more, not to mention the other 50+ older chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys we have.   I decided to move them to a contained brooder, where they would be safe until they were a little older.

Yesterday, the chicks were 10 days old and big enough to get out of the brooder with Momma.  They are so cute and such fun to watch!  We have spent a lot of time just watching the Minnie and the babies explore the front yard!  It's been such a great experience to see the natural bond between Mother and chicks,  I don't think I will be to using my incubator again very soon!

New Farm Babies

Well, the past month has brought us a lot of new life, here on the farm.  On January 31, Gretel had her babies between 10am & 1pm, she was 6 days overdue and I feel bad that I wasn't there when they were born.  She had quadruplets but sadly one little doe was born dead. We still got 2 little does and a buck! Doesn't get much better than that. The babies names are Jack Junior, Karie & Katie. The girls are Sable & White and Jr. is Black & White. 

Karie & Katie sporting their sweaters

Junior in his sweater

The weather turned very cold with temps getting into the negative digits, the day after the babies were born.  We had to fashion sweaters for the babies out of my old sweater sleeves.  They looked so cute and kept the babies warm.   

The 2nd week of February brought new chicks and ducklings to the farm.  We got 50 Jumbo Cornish Cross Meat Chickens, 25 mixed Plymouth Barred Rock and Buff Orpington pullets and 16 mixed breed ducklings.  For having arrived about 4 hours before a blizzard, the chicks and ducklings did pretty good.  The ducklings have proved to be the messy residents with all their wild pool parties in the waterer.  

Soon after the chicks and ducklings arrival we got a huge snowstorm that left us with 3-5 foot drifts in places.  It was very exhausting just feeding and watering the outside animals and trying to make sure they all stayed in the shelters and warm.  The babies all did fine, but were confined to the goat house for a total of 3 weeks!!!  Gretel was so happy to finally get out of her stall when the warmer temps came and lasted all of 2 days before dipping again into frigid temps.

At one month of age the goat babies are outside and learning their roles in the herd.  In three days, they will be 6 weeks old and tomorrow I will start weaning them from Momma.  I'm going to separate them for 6 hours tomorrow and see how that goes and milk her by hand at the 3 and 6 hour points.  Then, will add 3 hours more away from the babies every day till they are completely weaned.  




The chickens and ducklings have now been successfully moved to the garage into the bigger brooder, they are enjoying their roomier quarters and we are enjoying less smell in the basement.  I'm glad I can just open the garage doors and air the place out a couple of times a day and cleaning the pens is easier too.  

Well, that about covers the last 6 busy weeks here at Twin Haven.  I'll write more soon.  Teresa

Apology

I just want to say how sorry I am for not keeping up with the blog.  Since we have had the facebook page, I've not written in here as much as I should have.

Chicken Feeding & Watering in Winter

The Chicken and Turkey Yards, here at Twin Haven Farm.

The girls out for a stroll after the first blizzard we had this winter.
Wylie, our English Springer Spaniel is keep watch over them.

Our poor chickens and rooster are sick of the snow already, the temperatures this past week have been nice and I noticed some grass showing through on the paths we have made in the yard with the 4 wheelers.  I will let them out of the chicken yard for a little while tomorrow.  We have more snow on the way, yay!!!

In winter, when the temperatures get so cold that the chickens won't leave their coop to even go into the run and snow covers the chicken yard and pasture, our free range chickens must be fed and watered by hand.

In the summer we let our flock free range for most of the day, but in winter when they aren't able to scratch we must supply them with food. We give our hens poultry layer feed, free choice, and we also sprinkle some scratch on the snow in the run for them.  They like to get out of the coop and exercise in the run when there isn't too much snow on the ground for them.  We also get them chicken feed blocks to keep them busy.

My hens are pretty tame and hubby says they are probably the most spoiled in the county.  They come when called and like to follow me all over the farm.

Rice with eggs, eggshells and peas.

I take the chickens scraps all year long and in the winter, I will make them salads.  Their favorite treat by far is cherry tomatoes.  I grow them for them in the summer and will occasionally buy them for them in the winter.  When the temperatures gets down into the single digits, I make the flock warm cranberry oatmeal or rice with eggs, shells included and peas. They love this treat.

Pumpkins & Butternut Squash that I grew last summer.

RicIn the summer time I grow winter squash and pumpkins for us and the chickens.  Pumpkins & Squash are Boredom Busters and have tons of nutritional value.  They also are natural dewormers.  Medical studies have shown that pumpkin & winter squash seeds act as a natural wormer.  They also s are rich in cucurbitacin. Cucurbitacin paralyzes the worms in the chickens digestive system, like tapeworms and round worms and they are passed through in the chicken poop.

Our rooster, Elmer Fudd, getting a drink from Heated Waterer.

Hauling water to the animals is the one job in winter that I hate.  I've tried most winter poultry waterers on the market.   I have found that the ones that work the best for us, are the 3 gallon heated plastic poultry fountains.  I keep 2 units in the chicken yard, one in the coop and one outside the coops.    These units plug in and you flip them over and fill them from the bottom, I prefer the ones with the screw in plug as opposed to the rubber stopper ones.  Be careful not to bang the waterers as they will break and make sure you do not unscrew the base from the waterer when flipping it over!  The water will go everywhere and in negative temps, this is NOT a good thing!!!

*Another good tip is if you have cats, save the kitty litter jugs and use them to haul water to your poultry, they are 3 gallons and easier to haul than the huge 5 gallon water jugs.  Well, that about does it for feeding and watering in the winter.  I'll be back with more fun winter stuff from here at Twin Haven Farm.