Meet the Chiclets...

Our Mama hen finally brought the wee ones outside today, and Mike was able to get some pictures of them. They're quite energetic, and follow their mom diligently as she scratches up goodies for them.
The black one is a Dominique chick, and the other two are from what our friend calls her "mystery red hen" with a Dominique rooster. So, we'll have to see what they grow up to look like!








The rest of the critters are doing well, Lily's litter is growing and has taken over her age, and Cocoa's litter is putting on weight quite nicely. Next weekend we'll weigh the three that we aren't keeping for breeding stock, and see how they look.

We got to harvest some turnips from the garden today, as well as peas, and a cucumber. We've radishes and lettuce ready as well, and will go pick some of those when we get a little closer to dinner time.

Other than that, our week has been occupied with worrying about my grandmother, who passed peacefully last night. She will be greatly missed.

An update from the barnyard...

Well, this past weekend was a busy one. Our broody hen suceeded in hatching her eggs, though only three of them were viable eggs. So, we've two little fluffy yellow ones, and one black one. She's pretty protective of the little peepers, so no pictures of them as of yet.

The garden is truly beginning to come on strong now. Mike picked some peas today, and there are blossoms on nearly all of the plants - tomatoes, peppers, squashes, beans, peas. The first spaghetti squash has set on the vines, as well as the first cucumber. We pulled a handful of turnips and radishes out, and picked two heads of lettuce.

We got the growout cages completed yesterday and hung up in the barn. Poor Cocoa was cramped beyond belief, and everyone seems to be quiet happy with the new living arrangements. Fricasse, Hershey and Otter are in one of the new cages now, while Amber and Hassenpfeffer are staying with Cocoa for the time being, while they wait for me to pick up another feeder to outfit the other cage. Cocoa's due to kindle in a little under three weeks, so we'll make sure they're out in the next week or so, leaving her some time to chill.

Lily's doing really well, and her temperment seems to be improving a bit with motherhood. The babies have all abandoned the nesting box, and it's rather amusing to see Lily hanging out IN the box trying to avoid her kits.

A Box O' Bunnies

So, that's the goings on here-abouts. Working on the garden, taking care of the critters, and trying not to overheat as summer continues. Hope all's going well everywhere else, and I'll try to post more pics of everything sometime in the next couple of days.

The garden's growing...

Well, finally remembered to take the camera out to snap some shots of the garden. Now that we're finally warming up here and getting some sun it's starting to come on strong.
We're definitely experiencing a learning curve, though, and hopefully will find it much more successful next year.

We're growing: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, beets, turnips, mangels(which is a livestock beet), radishes, cucumbers, a few different lettuces, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, delicata, pumpkin, cannelini beans, hutterite beans(a soup bean), peas, pole beans, tomatoes(4 different varieties), and peppers(a bell pepper, a frying pepper, and jalepeno).

Here are some shots of the garden...

Barely handfuls and more than...

Well, Lily's litter is a week old today, and I can't help but find myself amazed once more at how quickly the kits are growing. Their fur is in now, and the final tally is four solid black kits, and two castors(I think...we won't know exactly what shade - castor/lynx - until their fur is in more). Lily's proving to be a very attentive and protective mom, though she's still showing quite the attitude, though more with me, than with Mike. I meant to weigh the litter today and forgot, so I'll try to do that tomorrow, and add it to our records. I would weigh them individually, but unfortunately there's really no way to tell them apart, aside from separating the black from the castors, and no way to mark them, (the way most meat breeders mark is to dab a color on the back of the head - but those rabbits are white) since food coloring or something like that wouldn't show up on those colors.

As for Cocoa's litter, we'll be weighing them tomorrow as well, to get their six week weights recorded. They seem to be growing quite well, and three of the five(Fricasse, Hassenpfeffer, and Hershey) will move out of Cocoa's cage and into a grow-out cage tomorrow, all things going the way we have them planned. Amber and Otter will stay with Cocoa until she's closer to kindling, then will move into another doe cage(Otter's fate being up in the air at the time being).

We bred Cocoa to Buck Wednesday evening, so we should see another litter from her around August 10th. We're hoping for a better litter size from her this time, though still hoping to see the nice range of colors that she gave us the first time around. Definitely looking forward to the outcome there!

Population Explosion!

In the course of two days, the population of our little farm has gone from 21 to 32!! Lily had her litter some time between 6 and 9pm last night - six baby bunnies!

So...for all of you who are wondering what makes up that number....

Mike & Jen

Willow & Idgy(the indoor cats)

Pollux and DJ(Our lab mix and tabby outdoor cat)

DJ's litter of 5 kittens-shortterm residents, there ;)

Seven laying hens(one of whom is sitting on a nest of 11 eggs...more residents are imminent!)

Cocoa, Lily, and Buck(our rabbit breeding trio)

Cocoa's litter of 5(one of whom will be staying on a permanent basis)

Lily's litter of 6

Enjoying the long weekend....

Mother Nature has decided to grace us with some sun, finally, and everything on the property is enjoying it! The garden has started a burst of growth, and all of our berries and trees are thriving.

We checked the bees today, and they're doing really well. I managed to get the first bar up enough to see that it's full and capped, and they've just started building comb on the 5th bar from the back(there's a total of 17 bars in the hive). So, in about two weeks we'll check and see what kind of progress they've made on that bar, and depending on that, we may harvest in about a month. We'll store the honey back on the off chance it's needed to help them through the winter, but hopefully we'll find come spring that we're free to enjoy!!

Lily's due to kindle this weekend, and just looks very put upon by her pregnancy. She's due today or tomorrow, and Mike and I are checking regularly. She has a decent little nest built, but hasn't started pulling fur yet. I'll post pics of the babies when they arrive!

Cocoa's litter is growing amazingly well, and they're a trip! They'll be five weeks old tomorrow. The first is of the chocolate otter...all of the bunnies used to love to sleep under their feeder, but they've grown to the point that they don't fit anymore...so Otter's shoved her head underneath - she's camera shy!!

And it was bath time when we visited this afternoon...

And, last, but not least, here's the latest additions to our farm. DJ managed to sneak a heat past us and a tomcat found her...sooo, yesterday five little kittens arrived to take up residence in a box in our garage. There are three white ones, a black one, and a grey tabby. I took these pictures today. We won't be keeping any of them, but I'm going to make certain I tame them so we can find all five good homes :)