The Little Red Hen's blended family

The little red frizzle was ecstatic when her egg finally hatched, it seemed as though she had been sitting for months instead of weeks and actually she was. I had to give her kudos for tenacity. A tiny little yellow Serama made his/her debut on Saturday.

Since the new baby was so tiny, I wondered if it would be a good idea to give her the other four chicks but felt it would be worth it to try.

The new baby was stashed away under her mother's feathers when I introduced her foster chicks, the little red hen seemed a bit bewildered.

What the hey?"

"One, two, three, four......?"

The chicks took to her right away and soon the new baby came out to see what all the commotion was about.

The little red hen was very gentle with all the chicks...

....when they were near her head, she'd nibble on them.

"I didn't really bargain on this big of a family!"

I kept busy checking on the family all afternoon and by nightfall, they were all cozy in bed.

I had to make one more bed check after dark to make sure none were sleeping in the cold.

"Do you mind, we're trying to get some sleep here!"

"Uh, sorry."

Long live the Queen(s)

It was hot this afternoon when I went to the pond to release the queens from their gilded cages, actually it was just screen but it should be gilded because without them, there would be no bees. There was great excitement around the hives, bees zipping in and out and when I pried up the staple that held the little metal strip, I couldn't see the cage for the bees. 

They were not too happy when I gently bonked them off. I did remember to hold the queen cage down inside the hive as I dug the cork out that held her inside, then laid the entire cage on the floor of the hive so she could come out  when she pleased.

When I left the bands had begun and the kegs were being tapped, let the party begin!!

Adventures in bee keeping, take 2

It's hard to believe that just one year ago I was installing packages of bees into my newly built bee hives, I had such high hopes. My hopes where crushed this fall when I discovered the bees had few honey stores, they would never survive the winter on what they had. So Bruce and I brought them home, I made several recipes of fondant to try to give them winter food and covered the hives for warmth. Unfortunately I was not successful and lost both hives.

But I was not alone and if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. I found a supplier for package bees and ponied up the $$$ with a promise they would be here about May 1. This morning Bruce and I went on a road trip to SC and brought home two packages of bees. I boned up on my bee installation, donned my bee protection and gave the bees a new home. Here is the video.

The bees have a head start this year using the comb from last years bees, I also will be more diligent on their health, monitoring for the varroa mites that are causing such havoc among the beekeepers.

Wish me luck and loads of honey!

A conundrum....

Long before Spring actually arrived, the little red frizzle hen was broody. She sits in the nest box on an absconded egg for 23.99 hours a day, the other .1 hour is spend dashing outside to eat, deposit a big, smelly pooh, getting a quick drink then back on the nest in case some other hen might get the same idea.

Then I come along and rudely yank the egg right out from under her, and she would patrol the nest boxes for another egg that needed to be kept warm.

Last year she successfully raised three foster chicks for my sister and was very happy.

Every year I get 3 or 4 new pullets to replace the hens I inevitably lose through the year and to keep eggs flowing into the winter months. I wanted more Blue Wyandott's to replace my beautiful Blue who died unexpectedly this winter.

I was going to be in Sioux City on April 12 so thought I would go to my niece, Carri's, Bomgaars because they always have a great selection of chicks but first I had to see if I could move the little red hen and not have her lose her broodyness. I put the red cat carrier in the blue jay cage, bedded it, put food and water, it was ready. The little red hen screeched and squawked as I removed her from the current egg she was keeping warm and plunked her down inside the carrier. Before I was out of the gate, she was down the ramp and heading for the door. I fought her off and got out of the gate alone. All day she paced the fence, voicing her displeasure at the turn of events, she was one unhappy little hen. I decided to give her an egg to see if that would calm her down because it was only going to be a few days before she would have her own family. I thought I gave her a big egg because I knew it wouldn't be fertile, the little roosters and the big hens plumbing don't match up.

I fought her off again as I went in the gate, she was bound and determined to go back to the chicken coop, there were eggs that needed sitting on! I put the egg in her nest, then caught the little red hen, she screeched and squawked and carried on as though I was taking her to her death. I gently placed her in the carrier where she could see the egg and she calmed down immediately. She fluffed out her ruffled skirts and slowly lowered herself over the egg, tucking straw and moving it around until she was satisfied.

"FINALLY!!"

Sunday morning she was still firmly planted over her 'baby' so I went off to SC, sure that I would bring home a family for her. I was so disappointed to find Bomgaars had very few cute chicks and no Wyandott's and wouldn't be getting any for a couple of weeks. The next week I called around to all the Bomgaars within decent driving distance but heard the same story. I finally called our local Bomgaars and found they were to get both Silver and Gold Wyandott's the week of April 20 so I put in a hold on 4, 2 each. No one were getting any of the blue variety. Such is life.

The little red hen was sitting on an 'infertile' egg anyway so it didn't matter if we had to wait, and wait we did, the chicks didn't come in till April 24, to cold and rainy weather. They went into the chick crib in the basement by the corn stove to stay warm.


(It was a zoo trying to get this photo by myself, they do not sit still! One immediately tried to 'dust' herself on the towel.)

Back to my story, two weeks had gone by since I gave the 'infertile' egg to the little red hen, the day was sunny and warm and it was time to introduce her to her new family. She will certainly be surprised then that one egg produces quadruplets!

With much cursing and scolding, on her part, I removed the egg from under her to discover it was a Serama egg, YIKES! It could very well be fertile so I took a bright flashlight to a dark corner of the basement and verified that there was a chick growing inside that egg, it should hatch in another week.

It wasn't really a conundrum, there was no way I could discard that egg, that would be like an abortion and I couldn't do that to the little red hen after her diligence of the last few weeks. So the chicks stayed in the basement by the corn stove and I check on the egg every other day. Today she was cursing and scolding me when I removed the egg and looked for signs of pipping. Then I held it to my ear and the chick was talking back!!

It should hatch this weekend so stay tuned for updates on the little red hen, her chick and four foster chicks. Will it be tough blending the family? Will she be partial to her own chick over the foster chicks or will she think it's a miracle, 5 chicks out of one egg??

To be continued.....

A gang of calves

Every evening when we feed the cows, their calves go crazy and tear around the yards.

Their mothers are bellied up to the bunk and there is all this free space to run.

It's a proven fact that if you put your tail in the air, you run faster.

There is a lot of testosterone flying around as each competes with the other.

"Zoom, zoom!"

Suddenly a gang of five, the others are off camera left, zeroed in on an innocent bystander who dared to cross their turf. One brave soul confronted the trespasser.

Yup, it was Morris.

Who was not going to take this intervention lightly!

"Scram Punk!"

After some negotiations, the pair decided to call a truce, even though Morris still wasn't too happy.

Meanwhile, back in the barn is our escape artist I call 'Houdini.'

He slipped through this small opening in the fence, that is no long there and was hanging out with the hay bales while his mother was going nuts in the yard.

She told on him and also showed me exactly where he got out. When I drove in the yard she came running over to the fence toward me, bellowing her head off, then ran to this gap in the fence and stuck her nose in it. After that she turned and ran back through the yard, around the corner and into the barn, bellowing. I found her with her head over the gate, looking at her wayward child, Busted!

She did not need to speak the English language for me to understand, she showed me everything I needed to know, and some say cows are dumb.

The kids also need to realize that their mothers, too, have eyes in the back of their heads, rather in the sides of their heads. 

Whatever it is, they always know what the little rascals are up to.

Something I have to get off my chest.

One night Suzanne Somers was on the O'Reilly factor and doing what so many people do who think they know it all. She was telling Bill what we should and shouldn't eat. The first thing was wheat, because it contains gluten. I know that anyone who has celiac disease or a gluten intolerance needs to stay away from it, but for the normal person, avoiding gluten has little health benefits. I have no problem with anyone getting on their soap box and saying, "This is what worked for me." But to follow blindly an actress from Hollywood, who has no credentials behind her name to show that she has studied nutrition, not so much. If you do your research, you will find facts from people who actually so know what they are talking about.

"For most other people, a gluten-free diet won't provide a benefit, said Katherine Tallmadge, a dietitian and the author of "Diet Simple." What's more, people who unnecessarily shun gluten may do so at the expense of their health, Tallmadge said.

That's because whole grains, which contain gluten, are a good source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, Tallmadge said. Gluten-free products are often made with refined grains, and are low in nutrients.
If you embrace such a diet, you'll end up "eating a lot of foods that are stripped of nutrients," Tallmadge said. Studies show gluten-free diets can be deficient in fiber, iron, folate, niacin, thiamine, calcium, vitamin B12, phosphorus and zinc, she said."

But what really got my knickers in a twist was when Ms. Somers told Bill he should only eat grass fed beef. "Cattle can't digest corn so they get sick and have to be fed antibiotics!" BULL!!! I'd like to know where she gets her information, obviously she has not talked to anyone who raises beef cattle. I don't know of any cattleman and woman who, while feeding morning rations says this, "Ground corn - check, silage - check, antibiotics - check, mix well and feed cattle."

Do these fat cattle look sick to you?

We did just have to treat a steer for pneumonia, what anyone would do for a family member who was ill, called the vet, well, I realize you would call a doctor, he came out, took the steer's temperature, listened to his lungs and gave him an IV dose of antibiotics and the steer is recovering nicely. There is a withdrawal period when we have to wait so long before sending him to market. We adhere to these rules because we want our food to be safe to consume, after all, we eat too. Sometimes in the fall, after we wean the calves, they will get sick and coughing from the stress and Bruce will feed some Aureomycin but he does so responsibly and only if they need it.

This idea that we use antibiotics casually is a crock, Ms. Somers! (Like she is reading this!) 

This is another blogger who is a self proclaimed 'food expert', The Food Babe. But The Science Babe, scibabe.com, herself a B.S. in chemistry, and an MSc in forensic science is hot on the Food Babe, debunking her 'facts.' One of the FB's criteria for acceptable food is if a third grader can pronounce the ingredients. As SB says, "Do you really want to base your food intake on an 8 year old?" I highly recommend SB for the facts with an apology for her language, I think she could get her point across without so much profanity.

As long as I'm on a beef, so to speak, I want to address the so called 'Humane Society of the United States' here after refered to as HSUS. I say so called because in no sense of the word are they your local Humane Society, who takes in displaced, abandoned and abused animals. They are simply a money machine, playing on your heart strings through their TV commercials. If you are sending them 'only $19 a month to help these animals' let me be the one to tell you that less than 1% of that money is going to help any animal. The rest of the 99% of that $19 a month is spent on CEO Wayne Pacelle's, and the rest of the employee's lavish salaries and inflated retirement accounts. It also pays for a bank of lawyers to handle all the lawsuits they are constantly filing. Donor dollars are paying for a lawsuit to Ringling Brothers circus they just lost along with racketeering charges to the tune of $16.75 MILLION that is not covered by insurance after Mr. Pacelle stated it would be! Donor dollars are used against us, livestock producers who take care of our animals the best way we can while we are entrusted with their care. I could go on and on but all you have to do is go to HumaneWatch.org for your information. Please don't confuse HSUS with your local humane society, the one in Sioux City does a fantastic job with the animals that come into their shelter, they have one of the highest adoption rates around.

I don't care if you are a vegetarian, gluten free, refuse to eat anything white, think organic is the only way to go or that GMO's are bad for you, I do care if you don't find the facts first. And watch for those food labels that suck you in, such as on a can of Cling Peaches in the store the label said, "GMO FREE!!" Well, DUH! There are no GMO peaches!! Same for gluten, things that have never had gluten, the food manufactures are jumping on the band wagon and declaring their food is gluten free!

Now that I have all that off my chest, I will return to my regular blogging, more calves, baby geese....always something going on at the farm.

Calves, calves and more calves!!

I Love, Love, LOVE calving season, even when it results in a lot more laundry, every new baby on the ground is a treasure. Most mornings my wake up call is from Bruce to come help move a calf that was born in the wee hours. Since we always seem to have a new mother and baby in the maternity pen, it mean we have to first shuffle them around to make room.

This little sweetheart had a real bear for a mother, they spent a few days in the north stall of the barn because the weather was cold and rainy. Now wouldn't you think that old Crabby Butt would have enjoyed having such amenities? Fresh bedding, room service delivering food and water so all she had to do was tend to her baby?

N-O-O-O-O!

Just a peak over the gate brought her snorting and shaking her head, threatening to do bodily harm if we step inside. I held Morris up to see the baby and she really didn't like that. We needed to move them out of the barn to make room for others but he had to be tagged first. The dogs were there with me and Bruce thought we should use one of them for a diversion, Mollie was the one who came in the barn. Guess she was it! She was busy snuffling for rats when Bruce opened the gate, Old Crabby Butt took one look at her and charged. Mollie was oblivious, still looking for rats, I yelled, she looked up and saw 1800# of mad cow bearing down on her, turned left but that faced into the cattle yard with lots of other protective cows watching, did a quick about face, fell down, but jumped back on her feet and shot out of the barn to the west and got in the gator. She was ready to go home.

While all that was going on, Bruce quickly shut himself in with the baby, leaving me out in the barn, holding the tagger. When Old Crabby Butt realized Mollie got away, she ran back to where she had left her baby and found she was shut out. That did not improve her temper one bit and she looked around for someone to take it out on. That was me, YIKES!! Bruce couldn't tag the calf until I gave him the tagger, I couldn't get to the pen because of Old Crabby Butt. I was dancing around, trying to get Bruce the tagger, while staying out of the cow's way and finally just threw it over the fence at him.

Little #78 was then turned out with his mother, who promptly took him outside to meet the other calves, actually she was just wanting to fill her belly with the silage she knew would be waiting. The poor baby was completely discombobulated and befuddled, there were so many cows out there, how would he EVER find his mother again?? He ran all around, zeroing in on me several times, "Are you my mother??" bawling constantly. So Old Crabby Butt was right behind him and not at all happy to see me out there. Finally the pair made their way into the lean-to and the baby could settle down while we went to empty the maternity pen by the road. 

You think this little guy has an attitude?? Every time I turned around, he was in my face.

Down by the road is #17 with her baby....

....who we loaded into the tractor crate and moved to the barn and put in the lean-to yard with Old Crabby Butt and her baby, then shut the gate to give the two pairs more time alone before being turned out with the rest of the herd.

Because, back by the road, #79 had a brand new baby in the east yard.....

.....we loaded her up in the tractor crate and moved them both into the maternity pen, a new ear tag later....

...and Bruce gently pushes her out the gate into the private quarters.

Every day we get a calf or two, this morning #5, a second year heifer had a bouncing baby boy. The mother was extremely nervous, running about and mooing, while the baby was very calm. Bruce was on the tractor and I was the calf catcher, I'm not that comfortable when a cow is acting like that but I stood my ground and guided the calf into the crate, hoping I didn't get run over. After they were both in a newly cleaned maternity pen, Bruce told me he was proud of me for my 'extreme bravery' while handling the calf.

I expect a gold star for my sweatshirt.

Just as I finish this, Zoe comes in and hacks up a hairball beside my chair, geezz Louise!!

Now I want two gold stars.