Happy Chicken Feet :)

[Necie]

Chickens are doing the happy dance. It has been sooo wet here and their pen has been just awful muddy. I told DH we should toss the manure and bedding from cleaning out the kid pen into their fence to build it up a bit, give them something to scratch around in and speed up the compost process. BOY!--are they HAPPY! Scratchin' and cluckin' and peckin'. We want to expand the garden a bit this year, so this should make some nice compost even by April/May.

 

Gonna finish cleaning out the kid pen and get it sprayed down with bleach and *hopefully* get half the doe pen cleaned out today. They're calling for snow on Thursday, so that only leaves me today and tomarrow to get things done. Better go busy.

 

 

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL day!

 

and

[themartianchick]

I love recycling in all of its forms!

[Dee]

My girls, only 2 left, have given up on their job of laying eggs so they've just kind of been "put out to pasture" to live out their lives in ease and luxury. They do like it when we throw grass clippings, leaves, etc. in their building but this time of year they pretty much are just given a little hay to scratch and delight in now and then.

 

I keep telling myself I should get chicks this spring but DH isn't impressed. Just because I've gotten too lazy to go out to take care of them during the winter is a poor reason to not want more, don't cha think???

 

We have 1 bred nanny due to kid in March. I'm debating on milking her once a day and letting DGC learn how to milk and make cheese but time will tell. It's soooooooooo much easier just letting her feed her kids instead of bottle feeding and milking. As I say, I've become lazy in my old age!!!

[themartianchick]

There is nothing wrong with being lazy! Just by having the goat and knowing how to milk makes you self-sufficient. If you ever need the milk, it is there. I love the idea of low maintenance livestock.

[Necie]

Goal met for the day. FOUR trailer loads later....I am POOPED!! More tomarrow before it rains/snows. Should only be a couple trailer loads left.

 

Dee--we are getting some new chicks this year. Ours are all at least 3-4 yrs old, most being 5+ years. DH is only getting 8-10 eggs a day out of about 25 chickens. He wants 10-12 new ones, and I'm thinking of getting a few extra to sell at the monthly summer livetock meet//swap.

 

I always go to once a day milking as soon as we do Linear Appraisal (ADGA program), but this year I'm hoping to do DHIR (milk test), so twice a day for 305 days. Hoping to get a bottle Hereford/Angus from my uncle as a bottle calf to raise for meat with the extra milk. YUM!