We have raised several batches of chicks now, but so far have not got one to the table, mostly because by the time they got to table age they have either been hens (therefore kept for eggs) or bantam roosters (not worth plucking!). Although we do currently have a grow out pen of 8 or so roosters waiting to get to table weight, the Australorpe is now a year old and only just loosing his “bag of feathers” physique, and a couple of others got set back after a bout of cocci over winter – the rest are 6months+ and still need a bit more weight (and three are pekins so hardly a meal for five people). Clearly raising chickens for the table is a time consuming – and given the amount of food they consume – also an expensive exercise. You simply cannot rear a purebred chicken to table weight in the same period of time as a commercial meat chick, and when time = money…its cheaper to buy from the supermarket. Even the bantam Indian Game (if they ever start laying again) take five months to reach table weight.
So I’ve decided to raise a batch of Meat Chicks (12) as an experiment to see if its worth doing on a regular basis (or at least until breeding of the Indian Game is in full swing). I was lucky enough to get two week old chicks instead of day olds – $3.00 each instead of $2.50, which means two weeks less of being in the brooder with heating 24/7 saving on electricity, plus hopefully two week olds will be a bit healthier and robust than day olds. If they have food available around the clock, they will be ready for processing (2kg+) at 6-8 weeks!
That is an amazing growth rate that would be excellent to get into the bloodlines in my chookpen. Unfortunately the downside of these commercial Meat Chicks is that they won’t live much past that age as their legs snap or dislocate due to their excessive weight. Some people have managed to keep them alive longer by placing them in larger pens, reducing food intake and increasing activity and this is something that I might try to do with one rooster – hopefully it would be old enough to breed with the bantam IG hens this season to get the first generation of chicks on the ground (with the idea of breeding them back to the IG bantams to make a faster growing offspring, at least in theory – I did say it was an experiment!
Meat Chicks
Meat Chicks
Tags: meat chickens
The growcover is doing a reasonable job of protecting the vegies, although there are a few holes being munched in the cauli’s and brocolli’s and the two carrots that survived the chook attack, are no longer. The bitter disgusting kale is growing prolifically, lucky the chooks like it as none of us do!
Nearly all of the beetroots that I thinned and transplanted have recovered and are growing well (much to my surprise). I’ve been presuming that the beetroots growing in the first garden bed are so much larger and healthier looking than the patch in the second bed (all planted the same day) purely because the first bed had GrowCover from day 1 and I was using clear plastic sheeting to protect the ones in the second bed, but on checking my notes, the firt bed is planted with Early Wonder and the second with Detroits, so that is most likely the reason for the difference (and confirms the importance of taking notes!).
My potatoes are growing beautifully, or at least the ones in the garden bed and the green bag – the ones planted in the wire cage have been munched on badly and look like they will be going to plant heaven soon. Using the ‘cage’ method but with the plastic garden bag is definitely the easiest way of growing them – at least its easier to keep adding the straw to the bag than it is to the raised garden bed, it will be interesting to see the difference in the harvest between the two methods.
I’ve planted the first lot of tomato seedlings in the garden, some Roma’s and one Mortgage Lifter. Another seedling tray is growing little Amish Pastes, but the two other seed trays got flooded out with unexpected rain that we had, so I lost all those seeds and seedlings that had already sprouted. Definitely glad that I planted twice as many seeds as I wanted, but I still need to start quite a few more (should have done this a couple of weeks ago, but there is never enough time for everything that needs doing).
Yesterday I moved the fence to make the vegie garden area bigger and finally planted the sweetcorn seedlings that were getting very cramped and root bound in their seed pots. Hopefully they will be able to overcome that quickly, but just in case I will be planted a few more from seed – and hopefully plant a new lot of seeds every three weeks to get an ongoing harvest for a longer period. I’ll be planting some watermelon in this area as well, some seedlings that I started and some straight from seeds. I’m not sure how the seedlings will go as they don’t always transplant that well. Live and learn I guess!
Garden bed 1 - kale, beetroot, onion, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower
Vegie garden bed 2 - potatoes, silverbeet, greenfeast peas, celery, cauliflower, beetroot
Potatoes
Mixed lettuce
Amish Paste Tomato seedlings
Early Wonder Beetroot
A huge amount of time, effort and money has gone into getting everything in the garden to this stage, fingers crossed that everything will keep going well so that we will actually be able to enjoy a good harvest over the coming months!
Tags: vegetable garden
Or bordering on insane, take your pick, either probably fits!
After struggling for two years to get Trinity to work for me (when she is most definitely G’s dog) and because it was the right time for B2 to get his own dog, we have added not one, but two Border Collie pups to the family (getting two at once is definitely not recommended for the feint of heart or those not dedicated to their pets 24/7!)
Meet Boylee Ryley (mine) and Boylee Freckles (B2′s), both pups are tri-colour, short coated working and trialing bred Border Collies. Both boys are bold as brass, and unbelievably switched on to stock already at only 8 weeks of age. I was expecting a few weeks grace before that happened, but it looks like the pups will be put on long lines outside to keep them safe from the calf and pony and to keep the chickens safe from them!
Boylee Freckles - Tri Colour Border Collie
Boylee Freckles - Tri Colour Border Collie
Freckles - 8 weeks old
Boylee Ryley - Tri-color working Border Collie
Ryley at 8 weeks
Ryley at 8 weeks
Tags: border collie, Boylee, puppies
I have been hand milking Charlotte for the past ten days and we have been doing OK for a pair of hand milking newbies. Actually the milking is the easy part – its a) getting her into the yard and then b) getting her into the crush that is the hard part! She seems to accept the trade off for giving me milk in exchange for her bucket of cow muesli and chaff, but she has not softened in her attitude at all and is definitely not as friendly as Matilda. However, fresh milk is worth it – it should be illegal to sell that white stuff as milk because real milk tastes nothing like it!
I’ve finally done the tail head blood draw (another first) on Matilda and sent it off for preg testing, I don’t think she is pregnant but will keep my fingers crossed anyway until I get the results. The blood draw was easier than I expected, after watching a youtube video half a dozen times I felt reasonably confident to try it. The needle went in very easy and she didn’t flinch which made my job much easier!
B1 and I have been very CWA baking chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies which were a real hit with everyone. Heres the recipe if anyone wants to try the Chocolate chip cookies.
Good ‘Ol Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/8 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350* Cream the butter and both sugars. Add the beaten egg and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda and salt and add tothe creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly and add chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 7-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown on the edges.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
After many weeks of looking like she was going to pop any moment, Charlotte finally had her calf this morning just after 10am. She had a fairly quick and easy birth and we were lucky enough to be able to watch, photograph and video the whole birth which was pretty exciting seeing as it was our first calf. I admit that I was a little concerned that I would have to intervene as Charlotte is nowhere near as tamed down as Matilda, so it was a relief that everything went like clockwork.
We were finally able to determine that the calf is a bull and because he will be going to Freezer Camp when he is older, his name is T-Bone. We were hoping that the heifer fairy would visit so that we could keep rather than eat our first calf, but the main thing is that mum and baby are doing fine…and the hand milking can begin shortly!
Charlotte- Early labour
Calf's feet appear in the sac
Charlotte down and calf coming out with Midwife Matilda standing by
Charlotte breaking the sac at the calf's mouth
Trying to stand
Faceplant!
Lean on Me
Finally stable on his legs
Baby T-Bone
Spring is finally here, the days are warming and the vegie garden is progressing, although slowly as we are still having frosts every night. In an attempt to get a headstart with some seedlings, I have started some seeds in a makeshift coldframe – white polystyrene vegie boxes covered with clear plastic. The inside temperature is quite warm and humid and the seeds are already doing well, but I will have to wait a few more weeks to plant them out or will definitely loose them to frost. I’ve also ordered a truck load of heirloom seeds from Eden Seeds and can’t wait to get them in the ground and growing.
DIY foam box Vegie seedling cold frame
Vegie seedlings
More seedlings
Potatoes in the raised bed
Panorama shot of the vegie garden
Charlotte is definitely in calf and we are now just waiting to see when she’ll freshen – officially it could be any time between September and November, but with the way she’s looking, I think she may explode if she is still pregnant at the end of September. Her udder is starting to swell, but looks like she still has a couple of weeks to go. I have put her through the cattle crush and have been working with her using a glove on a stick to get her used to being handled ready to milk, but she is so big that she can’t get through the head gate very easily, so further training will need to wait until she has freshened.
Charlotte is still a fiery redhead and while she will come when called (to get her hay) and will come over to say hello, she does not like being handled so the whole milking thing is going to be interesting to say the least.
Charlotte and her wide load
Not a very flattering angle!
Charlottes udder starting to swell
Matilda on the other hand is looking decidedly un-pregnant. Which is a shame as she is definitely tamer and friendlier than Charlotte and is definitely bribe able when it comes to food of any description. I finally found halters to fit them, so Matilda is currently wearing hers with a drag line to start the process of halter training her. The idea behind that (which is working) is that the cow learns to give their head to pressure when they step on the rope, so when it comes time to lead her, theoretically she should follow. Charlottes halter will have to wait until she can fit back in the cattle crush because there is no way she will let me get close enough to her head without being retrained.
Matilda
Matilda
Tags: dexter cows, halter training
I’m actually having to trawl back through old photos to record the progress of the vegie garden.
This was the garden area before we moved in back in 2009.
Almost a blank canvas
September 2010, with the chook pen fenced and gated and the first raised garden bed put in and growing a green manure crop of barley. The bed was lined with cardboard to help keep the weeds down, the soil was built up using topsoil from the paddock, barley straw, lucerne chaff (hay would normally be used but not available at the time) and dozens of wheelbarrows full of horse poo.
Slow Progress
Hooped and ready for the GrowCover
Drip line irrigation installed and lone coriander plant growing
Fence up around the vegie garden area and the orchard
Feb 2011 - two tomato plants growing like weeds
June 2011 - Building more vegie beds
The plan is to have two more beds in before Spring, and another larger area south of the chook pen prepared to be used for a corn patch as well as for some potatoes, watermelons and eventually a small extension to the orchard.
Tags: raised beds, vegetable garden
Today we fulfilled a very long term dream to have our own cows. After a considerable amount of research, we decided the Dexter breed was most suited to our needs for both milk and meat. Dexters are one of the smallest naturally occurring small breeds (as opposed to human directed miniature breeds), they are healthy, robust, have few of the problems that other dairy breeds have, can produce anywhere from 6 litres to 16 litres of milk per day depending on the individual as well as producing a very fine, low fat meat (something that is very important with G’s medical condition). Being smaller, Dexters also eat less and have less of a negative impact on the pasture than do larger breeds. Obviously they produce a smaller carcass weight, but in all honesty, who wants to keep more than 150kg of beef in the freezer at any one time?
Added to all those benefits, Dexters are also known to be a gentle and calm breed of cattle, ideal for first time cow owners. And as you can see from the photos, they are just so damn cute! Matilda is already happily eating apples and slobbering all over my hand, Charlotte is still more reserved and has not let me touch her yet, but I suspect that may have something to do with a little trauma getting her on the float (she just didn’t want to go first – Matilda walked into the horse float easily and Charlotte finally followed her but only after getting tangled in the fence panel, breaking the tail light in the float, escaping back to the other cows and then being pushed through the cattle yard maze). I have no doubt that bribery in the way of food will win her affections in no time;)
Both girls traveled extremely well for the hour long trip home, and reversed quietly and calmly off the float as if they had done it a thousand times before (we learnt from the first experience and let Matilda come off first – watching them in the paddock, it looks like she is boss cow).
Charlotte - Red Dexter Cow
Matilda - Black Dexter Cow
Charlotte and Matilda
Luckily we also have these, which will come in handy!
Cattle yards
We ended up with 11 chicks hatched from the first lot and seven from the second lot and they are all now happily growing up in a re-furbished broody box. From the second lot, none of the purchased Auracana eggs hatched, only one partially developed which was disappointing. All of the others were from our chickens and a large percentage are frizzles (only one from the first lot has frizzle feathers coming through).
Although I did get advice from several others using the same Janoel hexagon incubator that it was possible to run consecutive hatches, but I decided that having a second incubator as a back-up was a better idea, so have purchased a second one. And because our hens are a bit strange and have been laying really well all month (including the ones in the Indian Game pen), I have both incubators running with eggs. I do expect fertility to be down a bit due to the time of year, but have my fingers crossed that some of the very round eggs are from the first year bantam Indian Game pullets so that I can get my numbers up for them.
I am hoping to be able to obtain a Gold Laced Wyandotte Rooster and at least one more hen before spring, and an unrelated Rhode Island Red rooster (or pair) would be beneficial to add to the RRI pen as well.