Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Fodder results



I know this post is late.......I've been busy. Anyway the results of the fodder were pretty good. After about 8 days. I fed it to the animals. The chickens loved it the most. The goats not at all and the bunnies kinda liked it. I've decided since it's finally Spring and mowing/weeding season that I will only grow fodder in the Winter. I will give the chickens grass from mowing and weeds from the garden. It will be a lot easier and less time consuming since we have to do those chores anyway and we all know how busy this season is. So less time on one thing means more time for gardening :)

We butchered four of our roosters. My hens are still bald and missing feathers on their backs. I have four roosters left. I'm contemplating getting rid of all of them since I have several young cockerel babies. I might keep one rooster, I would miss the crowing :)

We finally butchered our first rabbits. They were 13 weeks old. I don't think I will wait that long again. The feed bill was getting up there. It was very emotional for me. I'm pretty sure the hubs didn't know what to do or say when I'm asking him to dispatch a bun and bawling the whole time. The second one was a little less emotional. I'm hoping with time that it will get easier. I'm learning to tan the hides. The first one was an utter disaster and now looks like holey road kill. I found a better way to do the second one. I'm hoping it's a success. I want to make a purse, it's weird I know but I love making purses that no one else could ever have :)

My goat Mrs. Lady is due in one week. Starting Friday I will be doing middle of the night checks just in case she goes a little early. This year having a due date was such a relief. My anxiety last year was unreal plus I didn't know what to expect when your goat is expecting so every little burp, fart, or stretch was labor, lol!

I've been harvesting asparagus like crazy. Love that stuff but hate the way it makes my pee smell. My strawberry patch has beautiful blossoms all in it. Now that (fingers crossed) our last freeze has passed I'm going to get to work on the big garden :)

I've been gathering dandelions to make some wine. I've wanted to make this wine for a couple of years and I'm finally going to do it :) I still have wonderberries frozen from last years harvest to make a red wine. The berries were nutty so I bet with a little age that will be tasty.

I went to a bee club dinner last week (I keep crashing these events, lol) and they said I should get my traps up ASAP so I did. So far the wasps like them :/ My lemon balm is the only herb to survive the Winter and is back in full force so I'm going to put a couple leaves inside of the traps today. While gathering dandelions I was surrounded by bees. I tried to tell them to check my traps out but they didn't listen, lol. Monday I missed the bee club meeting. I really need to go next month. It seems the more I show up to these events the more willing the people are to give me some bee's :)

The little one is doing great playing softball. I had no idea how much time a sport takes up. It makes life a little crazy!

Have a great week ya'll!

10 comments:

  1. Just learned that you can feed chickens grass and weeds.... I can hear the giggles all the way over here- Seriously, I thought all they ate was chicken feed, grains and such.....

    Thank you for sharing that...now I when for when I start up my little coop

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    1. I supplement their feed in the Summer with grass and weeds. I keep them penned up so they don't destroy my gardens and they don't get killed by predators. The grass keeps the egg yolks nice and orange. If the chicken doesn't eat grass it's eggs will have a yellow yolk, not as pale as grocery store eggs but not a beautiful orange. My daughter noticed her friends parents bought organic cage free eggs. She said the yolks were yellow. Those chickens might not live in a cage and they may be fed organic feed but they don't eat greens :)

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    2. Alot of people don't know that chickens can eat meat...but think about it...they eat bugs...bugs are meat...LOL

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    3. One of my hens was carrying around a mouse! It got away but it was hilarious!!!!

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    4. I catch mice in traps in the house and give them to the chickens and they spend an hour chasing each other around and ripping it up eventually.

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  2. Hey Kelly...what kind of roosters do you have? I am looking for some more color to add to my flock...I have all black roosters...I will be up you way the 3rd of May delivering a puppy I sold and would possibly take a couple off your hands...email me and let me know... thehomesteadlady@hotmail.com

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  3. Well I'm not a fan of roosters.
    The fodder looks great!
    Ahhh bunnies! We have some, haven't harvested any. Don't have any to harvest, but thinking soon we will breed our doe and buck, and see what we get. Should be interesting.

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  4. It's so much fun to read of ALL the homestead-y things you are not only interested in but are actually doing! (Takes a lot of time, doesn't it?) But every little thing we learn to do to improve our animal's or our own nutrition is well worth it. And having the old-time skills (like tanning skins) is a real plus as far as I'm concerned. We all need to re-learn some of those basic skills.

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