Life on the Farm

My flock of chickens.

 I'm so sorry that I have not blogged recently, and I hope to catch all you viewers up on what I've been doing. One of the activities that keeps me occupied the most would be taking care of all my animals.
Recently, raccoons have been raiding my cages to eat quail. My Dad and I set a trap for the raccoon and we caught him two nights later. After this incident I thought my problems were over. Three days ago six of my quail were dead.  For my poultry to be safe, I brought my quail, bantam and chicks inside our building. Again my Dad helped me set a trap. The next night, we caught the raccoon in the trap only after catching a cat. This morning when I went to feed the rabbits, their cage door was open. Upon further investigation I saw fur and blood on the ground. I also saw that one of the rabbits foot was hurt. Dad was trying to go to sleep, ( he was working night shift ) so I woke him up and told him about the problem. Two of the rabbits had to put them down so Dad handled them. I took the one that was the best and brought in to the building. Once again my Dad helped me set a trap for the culprit.

In other news our garden is doing good.The radish seeds have come up and we have our first green tomato. In our orchard we have small green peaches on the trees. Three of our cats had litters which you will see in the next post.

Quail

Snake Suprise

July 11 started as a regular day. I ate breakfast and went to do the pets. I had just finished feeding Tuffy. (That's Andrew's pet Dominique chicken, who fell in the dog pen yesterday. It's okay though.) When I went to open my quail pen to  feed them; I noticed a snake curled around the waterer, and there was  only one quail still alive. I had six quail in the pen and the snake had killed all the hen quail in that pen; two were just laying there dead. There was also a dead Buff Orpington pullet dead on the ground. I ran inside and called Dad at work. He said to try to shoot it or wait until he came home and he would kill it. Naturally, not wanting to put my other poultry at risk, I took my bb gun and fired 15 bbs . I was determined that no snake would steal by poultry without paying for it. Five of them hit him in the head and six went unto his back. When I saw blood leaking out of his head, I went inside the house to wait until the undertaker (dad) to come home from work to remove the dead. Dad said that he was at least seven feet long. Dad hung the snake from a tree and we got a anatomy lesson did you know that snakes only have one lung due to the design of their body?

What is a good way to keep snakes away that won't harm poultry?  

My quail inside of the snake.

My incubator

My quail chick.

For my birthday I received a circulated air incubator and an egg turner that fits in the incubator. A little later in the day we set the incubator up and we put thirteen duck eggs, three Buff Orpington eggs, two Old English bantam eggs and fourteen Coturnix quail eggs in the incubator. All of the eggs we got from our farm. Yesterday my first quail chick hatched! He is doing well. Right now as I type, another chick is trying to hatch from its egg. It is a slow process as he chips away at the shell.
 These chick's parents are the ones that won Reserve Champion at the fair.I hope to be able to show their chicks at the next fair. All of my quail eggs will have hatched  by the fourteenth of this month.
It's really neat to see the quail hatch and it's a great
reminder of how amazing God is.

Quail's eggs

Duck's eggs

Chick and Garden Update

I'm writing this post since I promised to keep my blog updated with the chicks and garden growth. My Quail have grown up and have started laying eggs. They have laid almost forty eggs in nine days. I'm hoping to get a incubator and try to hatch some of their eggs.  The broilers are fat and lazy, they have grown a lot. Dad has been butchering some of them and we've been eating them. The Buff Orpington chicks have gotten bigger and have became free range. Our garden is over grown with weeds and has lots of grasshoppers. We've been getting LOTS of squash, a few zucchinis, one cucumber, lots of okra, and about twenty tomatoes. I love having a garden, the produce you get from a garden has lots more flavor than the kind at the store. I would really recommend 
having a garden. 

Broilers 

Cucumbers 

Henderson County Livestock Show

    April ninth to the fourteenth has been the Henderson County Livestock show. Here at the Livestock show I showed several of my animals and projects which I've been working most of the year on. April tenth we brought all of the animals we were showing (we didn't bring the broilers as they came another day). After we got all of the animals in their pens with food, water, and bedding we went to look at the other chickens, goats, and lambs. 

The next day when we were done with taking care of the animals my sister and I along with our friends showed goats. I got DEAD last with Houdini (because he didn't weigh enough). But I got fourth place in my class with Rusty. My sister did pretty good with her goat Hearts also. Then we went to look at the rabbits we ended up taking two of the Grand champion wining rabbit’s babies’ home. That night we got to see the results of how our projects did. I got two red ribbons, nine blue ribbons, four best of selection ribbons, and two best of show ribbons.

The next day after taking care of our animals, we showed our broilers. I made the second cut but then I lost. There were tons of broilers this year. Soon as the broilers judging was over, the poultry judge started his judging. Then, we looked at the rabbits again and bought two more rabbits. After that we ran and brought all of the projects home that we weren't selling. Next, we went back and saw how I did with my chickens. I got Reserve Grand Champion for my breeding poultry, Reserve Grand Champion for my quail, first place with my bantam rooster, and third & fifth with my bantam hens. Lastly, I got second place with my large hen. 

Then, after everything we went to help get the projects that people were selling ready for the auction. After hours of waiting, (we were on one of the last pages) my sister and I auctioned of our items. I ended up selling my cactus planter to a man who owns one of the feed stores that we use for three hundred and  seventy-five dollars. I sold my cross mosaic picture for thirty-five dollars. Then after feeding the animals we went home.

The following day, after feeding the animals their breakfast we had to sadly take Houdini and Hearts to the floor which means I had to sell him to a meat processor it was extremely sad. Then I sold my quail to a man who said he was going to release them. After that, we met some of Andrews’s friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Next, we showed them around and when the tour was over we ate lunch. To end the day I sold my goat rusty for six hundred dollars plus add-ons. Lastly, we took our animals that we have left home. 

                                         

4-H Project show

A buff laying hen,

My siblings an I have been working on our Project show entries. The 4-H Project show is where you can show animals and you can enter something you made like a food, model, collections,and other cool items. This year I'm showing goats , broilers , Quail Bantams, buff laying hen, and 13 projects. Rabbits you show in 4-H fall into two categories, market and breeder. Last year my sister and I showed Castor Mini Rex breeder rabbits. This year I had to get rid of our rabbits. So I was hoping to get some market rabbits because if you win you can sell. them. The rabbits sell pretty high so I could cover all my cost with all the animals I'm showing.  Sadly, I wasn't able to get any to show.  But there is always next year.  My 4-H chicks have been growing a lot. These are some pictures of how they've grown. We got some more chicks that we will raise for eggs. They are Buff Orpingtons too.   

My black bantam hen.

Buff chicks.