Out Around the Barn

I surely love this time of year.  Everything is green, there is a freshness in the air, there is new birth in every direction that you look; in the trees, on the ground, in the pastures and in the barns.  I tend to get real excited waiting for the birthing season to begin.  I just cannot wait to hold the new chicks and kids (baby goats) and see all the new calves running in the pastures.

In my last post I mentioned how many little ones we had so far, well, we are now finished birthing and our total count is 23 baby calves, 13 kids (only lost 1 this year), and we ended up with 57 baby chicks.  My total count on chickens now is 105.  Thursday, my mom and I dressed 5 Broilers and in a few weeks we’ll have 18 more to do.  It is sure an all day job but worth it to have meat in the freezer for winter.

I am beginning to enjoy my chickens more and have a few that really enjoy being played with.  I only had three types of chickens, White Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, and Bathams; oh, and a couple of California Dots.  Now I still have all of these plus Americanas, Rhode Island Reds, and Sexlinks.  When I first had to get them all on a schedule, it became a round the clock job because I first had to have them in the garage until they could handle the cool weather.  Thank goodness they all have a home in the coup now. 

I was so upset with them the other day; I let them out of the coup during the day if the weather is decent, and they found their way to my strawberry patch and ate all the tops of them.  I did not even think about them doing that, I just wanted them in my compost to stir it up for me.  I had just got my first picking off my strawberries and then I find this.

I am now in the process of raising my garden in my greenhouse since it is so wet here.  I am hoping it will dry up soon so I can get my plants in the ground.  I am afraid we are in for another hectic summer.