They call this retirement?!

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month!  I have been busier than I ever was when I was working at a job.  But I guess it is much lower stress and that is what makes it fun.
The last time I wrote about our escapades was when the turkey was hatched.  Well, he didn't make it and the Iowa Blues didn't fare so well either.  I have two of them left out of about 10 that hatched, but that was my fault.  I think the heat lamp was too close to them. : (
On the brighter side, we went to bird auctions in Avoca, Winterset and West Point (NE) this last month and bought more rabbits and chickens and a baby llama, named Billy Bob.  Did I say brighter?  Billy Bob is so cute but is a real challenge to bottle feed.  He was only 2 weeks old when we got him on April 21 and being bottle fed three times a day.  He has to be forced to take the bottle every time and then sometimes just refuses it.  He is eating a little grain now so maybe things are looking up.

 His hair is so soft and he cuddles sometimes, but it is true that they spit!
I will need to find some clippers to shear him, because you can already tell he gets very warm with that coat on.
I moved some chicks from the house to a pen outside, but I think our cats attacked and killed seven the night after I moved them.  They are in the main chicken area now with the bigger chickens.  Keeping an eye on the cats!
         

A new member of the family!

Thursday morning we woke up to find this little turkey egg well on its way to hatching.  It had pipped a line around the large end of the egg and was working at pushing it away.  It finally made its appearance sometime during the night on Friday.  No sign of anything from the other eight yet.

It is really hard to get a good picture through the top of the incubator.  I can't take him out until he is good and dry.  I'm not sure what breed he is yet either, since the eggs were mixed breeds.

April 3, I have 13 Iowa Blue chicks due to hatch, then April 6, we are going to Avoca to their bird and small animal sale.
The live chicks I had coming in the mail from Meyer Hatchery in Ohio, arrived at the post office in less than live condition.  Meyer's immediately refunded my money.

Below is our newest doeling.  Her twin didn't make it.

What a week-Part two!

I forgot to mention that we must have had a "senior moment" and bought 4 bottle calves!  We picked them up in Osceola, after they had been brought from Minnesota the same day.  Two of them still had fresh cords!     We got them home and feed them milk replacer and, of course, one of them wouldn't eat.  After trying repeatedly without any success, we had to tube feed him!   We are really getting good at that.  I never dreamed our nurses training would help so much with our retirement projects!  They are having diarrhea so we had to give them a shot of antibiotic and add an egg to each bottle of milk so increase their protein.  Our daughter is going in half on the calves so she is helping feed them when she can, and I have been  glad because my "better half" has a bad cold and needs his rest.  Today I did all the chores and she helped with the evening feeding.  They are all eating like crazy!
Okay that was Wednesday! Today is Thursday and one of them wouldn't get up and wouldn't eat so we tube fed again and gave another round of antibiotics.  Tonight I said lets try something else I read on Backyard Herds.  We gave them a half bottle (1 quart) of electrolyte solution with 15cc of Kaopectate, them an hour later their regular bottle of milk with the egg in it.  Sounded reasonable to me, but I guess time will tell.

What a week!

We have 2 new kids, born last Sat. and both are doing good.  One wouldn't leave the sweater on so it must have been warm enough.  Still have a few left to kid and had some bad luck with 2 of the yearlings but they will do better next year.
We picked up our Cornish Cross chicks, 30 of them, at Orscheln's today.  We are always amazed at how fast they grow-and how much they eat!  We usually make it a family day when we dress them for the freezer party.
I will be glad when this snow is gone and the grass starts turning green.  My pussy willow bush has opened up a lot so Spring can't be far away.

I worked yesterday and when I got home at 11pm, I heard a baby-like scream coming from the barn.  I ran in the house and put the groceries down and went straight to the barn.  I found two kids which had been born in the last 10 minutes lying on the straw under a bench.  The mother was looking at them and making a low grunt.  She is a first year mom and knew she was supposed to be doing something, but what?  I let her lick them a little and then took them in the house and we put them in a tub of warm water and blow dried them to warm them up.  Neither one of them could stand up.  We took them out to the mother again and put them all in the chicken house with a heat lamp.  They didn't have the strength to nurse, so my hubby milked out some colostrum and I fed some to them with a syringe.  I put the rest in the freezer for future problems.  Today the doeling is strong enough to nurse and is doing well, but the buckling is too weak to stand and has lost a lot of body temperature.  I tube fed him this evening and have it laying on a heat pad.  If he makes it through the night, I will be surprised.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

We went to the bird and small animal sale in Gardner, Kansas Saturday and had a good but chilly time.  There were more birds than I had ever seen in one place, over 1000 cages of birds and rabbits just in the one building.  In the other building which was heated, were the small bird, like parakeets, chicks, Guinea pigs, and hatching eggs.  We came home with 6 Silver Phoenix chicks, 6 Mille Fleur chicks, and 2 New Zealand, pregnant, doe rabbits.

The Main Auction

The Does

The Chicks

Spring is just around the corner!

My tulips a peeking through!
Today was so nice because it wasn't windy.  We are on a hill and we have many more windy days than calm ones.  We checked on our Boer does a few more times today because they were due two days ago.  One of them was acting a little strange but no real symptoms.  She just stood by the fence by herself instead of moving around with the others and this was at feeding time.  I guess they will kid when it is their time.
I received 15 Iowa Blue chicken  hatching eggs and 3 Sebastopol goose hatching eggs today.  They are warming up before I put them in the incubator.  I have 4 more goose eggs coming next month.  I candled my turkey egg a few minutes ago and I think I might have more good ones than I thought.  I saw another one moving around in the egg.  I still have about 4 out of the 13 that are pretty clear, so they probably aren't developing.  I set the Iowas Blues tonight and will put the goose eggs in tomorrow.  I am really enjoying this!

Busy, Busy

Friday I was called in to work so didn't get much done that day.  Saturday we went to Palmyra, Nebraska to the Exotic Bird Auction. I was up a 7:30 am and you all know I don't do mornings, but I survived.  There were lots of chickens, guineas, rabbits, ducks and geese.  We just watched to see what different breeds were selling for.  I was surprised how much the pairs of quail brought-$18-30.  They must be a popular item.  We brought home some shelled feed corn, some cages, two pair of insulated bib overalls, four small containers of blueberries, and a waterer.  They sold some Emu eggs, but I'm not ready for birds that big!   It was raining when we left home, but when we arrived at the auction it was dry.  Windy and in the low 50's was a good day considering what it has been.
We have six Boer does that will be kidding any day now, so watching them closely.  Of course, it is going to rain and snow tomorrow so that will be when they start!  They don't always know they should go inside the barn to deliver their babies, so when we find them out in the lot we move the family inside to a private pen.  And to think, goats used to do all this by themselves!
I candled my turkey eggs yesterday evening and was kind of disappointed.  I think only about half of them are developing embryos.  That was the risk I took by buying eggs instead of paying more for chicks.  It is like going to the casino, I guess.  When I get some adult pairs and have my own eggs the odd will be better!
Sounds like after this snow storm we are going to have some real Spring weather.  The Spring flowers will start popping up.  Can't wait!