We've added four goats, a bevy of quail, and ducks to add to our farm. This year we did a combination of incubation and allowing mamas to set their clutches. This was only successful with the ducks. The turkeys have two mamas setting BUT they've only hatched one singular poult and I found it dead in the middle of the pen, looking like it had just hatched. Otherwise, they have set for 3 1/2 months so far. Out of all the turkey eggs we've incubated we've hatched three but two didin't make it. The one that did is thriving with a bunch of pheasants that hatched around the same time.
We've discovered:
You can't brood ducklings with other fowl as they will likely drown them or trample them.
We already knew you can't brood poults with chickens, but you can brood them with smaller fowl like pheasant and quail successfully.... but not ducklings.
Chickens will stop eating if they get too hot and will essentially starve themselves if the heat gets really bad. So we have to put fans on the brooders as they are more enclosed than the coops, thus stay a bit warmer. At least the mystery "illness" that was killing off our chicks has been solved. I feel guilty of negligent homicide.
Ducks will not acknowledge or take care of ducklings that did not hatch under them. Out of 18 ducklings only 6 are acknowledged and cared for by the mama ducks. They left two in the nest (due to timing they were at least in the middle of hatching when they came out) plus some that were pipping AND two that were one and two weeks respectively away from hatching. However, they will resignedly share coop space with them after showing them who is boss.
Goats get up multiple times in the middle of the night to play and eat.
Bees will make a home in a less than perfect (read here, full of holes) hive in spite of what many beekeepers will try to tell you.
Plants can and will thrive in seed trays that are left in the garden plot too long ... and produce a bunch of yummy green beans, too.
You can't just cook up a butchered chicken or it's way too tough unless it is really young. Letting it sit for a day before freezing doesn't help either. In our experience, SO FAR (as there is one way we haven't tried yet) pressure cooking or pressure canning is the way to get super tender, juicy, delicious fresh butchered chicken. Have I mentioned before how much I love pressure canning meat??
So, what else has changed?
My dad has come to live with us after a bout with pancreatic cancer AND an adrenal tumor. He's all better now but we're keeping him here with us.
My cousin moved on to our property in her portable house.
Bean 3 is serving overseas.
Bean 4 got married to SILBean4.
Bean5 got married to SILBean5.
Bean6 started college and moved into a house with 3 other people.
Bean7 got a job, got his driver's licence, was in a car accident, and did Dual Enrollment part time.
Bean8 decided she wanted to homeschool for her high school career.
Grandbean4 decided a hospital stay - complete with oxygen tubes - would be cool.
I became a life member of the Women Marines Association. I am the Toys for Tots Liaison for our local chapter, which only makes sense since I'm the area Toys for Tots Volunteer Coordinator.
The beginning of 2018 pretty much stunk - we lost so many people we loved and cared about and several that were a part of our lives but not that we were close to, including: My best friend #2 (complications from surgery on a congenital heart defect that they had recently discovered), my grandfather (COPD), MrBean's uncle (complications of a sudden stroke - like there's any other kind), and my little cousin (took his own life). Others include, my former father-in-law, MrBean's cousin, my cousin's close childhood friend, my daughter-in-law's grandmother, 2 friends, and her best friend's mother. Only two were outside of an 8 week span of time. Talk about emotionally taxing.
The last thing we did together - and she doesn't even like football but she went with me anyway.
However, life continues on and we always remember those that have reposed.
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