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This weekend marked an entire year since moving to the new place. We haven't made any really massive changes yet, but we're hoping to have an architect come by at the end of the week to start getting some plans drawn up for a home addition.
We've added eight fruit trees... a couple sweet cherries, a peach tree, and the rest apples. There are already several fruit trees on the property, including some plums, peaches, a pear or two, and some poorly maintained apple trees. I also added a handful of red raspberry starts from a friend. There were already several black raspberry brambles and a couple of blackberry brambles. Again, poorly maintained. I probably need to cut them all back, but not sure when the right time to do that is. I'll mulch around them heavily when I do so the weeds to take over like they are now.
I brought about five bee colonies with, but this year have increased them up to about 10. Made a few splits, caught a swarm or two. I hope to make a little honey this fall. The goldenrod is just starting to open. It should be a good fall honey flow because we received almost 12 inches of rain in the month of July. About 4x the normal amount. Goldenrod loves good, deep moisture to make a good nectar crop. I'll put honey supers on the big colonies this week.
We also brought over 12 laying hens, mostly old. The oldest are 7 and the youngest ones were 2 or 3. I can't remember when we'd last bought a couple chicks. I had a couple bantam hens go broody, so we ended up getting four little chicks for them to raise a few months ago. They are... not... great mothers. I don't think I'll have them raise babies again. I have just fairly recently not had to manually round up the babies and get them into the coop every night. Part of the issue, I think, is the mesh floor of the mobile coop. But the mother hens will head to bed and the babies get confused thinking they can just jump up through the mess. Of course the moms don't care if they get the babies in the coop or not... they just leave them out there.
It got so bad that one of my buff orpingtons started mothering the chicks awhile back. It was actually "heartwarming". The bantams had the babies in the coop, but they had changed nest boxes. So the babies had ended up jumping down into the coop and one of the buffs fluffed up and covered the babies. Since then, she's taken an active roll in protecting and teaching the pullets. She shares food with them and they hang out with her as much as the "moms". But they're bigger than their bantam mothers now and are pretty independent.
In addition to the retirement village hens, we also purchased a bunch of Jubilee Orpington pullets. 15 pullets and 2 cockerels. We lost one pullet and one of the pullets ended up being a rooster. We also added three American Bresse which ended up being 2 pullets and one cockerel. I guess he's not a cockerel anymore... he's the head rooster and is actively mating hens. None of them have laid eggs yet, but they're 18-19 weeks. Several are getting close as evidenced by their combs and demeanor. I added a nest box to the run last week and it was hilarious watching everyone investigate the new fixture. Four roosters are too many, though, so one of the Jubilee Orpingtons is going to end up attending the small animal swap with us in a few weeks. I think he'll find a home. They're pretty birds.
With the new pullets, we also raised three goslings. I don't have a ton to say about them other than they're absolutely hilarious and I'm sad thinking that their tolerance and desire to be around me might wane as they get to breeding age next spring. But right now they "love" talking to me and biting everything on me. Pants, shoes, shirts, hats, fingers... anything. They also break up chicken scuffles. In fact, I can tell by the sounds the geese are making that the rooster is mounting a hen. It's pretty funny.
The last livestock addition was meat rabbits. We have three does and a buck. They're New Zealands and I don't know when you should think about breeding them. I guess we might wait until next spring. So right now they're just eating food, drinking water, and making waste. They're living in the "coop" with the chickens and geese. The chickens scratch deeply under the rabbits and spread their pee and poop around, mixing it into the bedding. It's remarkably neutral in odor because of that. This fall, my big project is going to be a fairly large winter hoophouse for the poultry and rabbits. I hope to be able to do this in the hoophouse as well. It will be well ventilated and some number of hens will live under the chickens year-round. Or at least that's the plan. Baby rabbits will go into pasture pens/tractors out on grass once they're weened and until they're butchered. I've already made one of these pens and we rotate the big rabbits through it. It gives them a little more space, lets them forage a bit, but still keeps them safe and contained.
Syrup:
Very interesting new piece of equipment for everyone to be curious about. Waffle, the goose with his head in it, bit every square inch of the laying box multiple times, just to make sure that it wasn't going to hurt anyone in the flock.
American Bresse Rooster named Marshmallow, he's a handsome fella, but his wattles and combs are so freaking big I expect they'll be an issue in the winter:
Waffle, these Roman geese have beautiful blue eyes. He's got a bit of plum skin on his beak:
We've added eight fruit trees... a couple sweet cherries, a peach tree, and the rest apples. There are already several fruit trees on the property, including some plums, peaches, a pear or two, and some poorly maintained apple trees. I also added a handful of red raspberry starts from a friend. There were already several black raspberry brambles and a couple of blackberry brambles. Again, poorly maintained. I probably need to cut them all back, but not sure when the right time to do that is. I'll mulch around them heavily when I do so the weeds to take over like they are now.
I brought about five bee colonies with, but this year have increased them up to about 10. Made a few splits, caught a swarm or two. I hope to make a little honey this fall. The goldenrod is just starting to open. It should be a good fall honey flow because we received almost 12 inches of rain in the month of July. About 4x the normal amount. Goldenrod loves good, deep moisture to make a good nectar crop. I'll put honey supers on the big colonies this week.
We also brought over 12 laying hens, mostly old. The oldest are 7 and the youngest ones were 2 or 3. I can't remember when we'd last bought a couple chicks. I had a couple bantam hens go broody, so we ended up getting four little chicks for them to raise a few months ago. They are... not... great mothers. I don't think I'll have them raise babies again. I have just fairly recently not had to manually round up the babies and get them into the coop every night. Part of the issue, I think, is the mesh floor of the mobile coop. But the mother hens will head to bed and the babies get confused thinking they can just jump up through the mess. Of course the moms don't care if they get the babies in the coop or not... they just leave them out there.
It got so bad that one of my buff orpingtons started mothering the chicks awhile back. It was actually "heartwarming". The bantams had the babies in the coop, but they had changed nest boxes. So the babies had ended up jumping down into the coop and one of the buffs fluffed up and covered the babies. Since then, she's taken an active roll in protecting and teaching the pullets. She shares food with them and they hang out with her as much as the "moms". But they're bigger than their bantam mothers now and are pretty independent.In addition to the retirement village hens, we also purchased a bunch of Jubilee Orpington pullets. 15 pullets and 2 cockerels. We lost one pullet and one of the pullets ended up being a rooster. We also added three American Bresse which ended up being 2 pullets and one cockerel. I guess he's not a cockerel anymore... he's the head rooster and is actively mating hens. None of them have laid eggs yet, but they're 18-19 weeks. Several are getting close as evidenced by their combs and demeanor. I added a nest box to the run last week and it was hilarious watching everyone investigate the new fixture. Four roosters are too many, though, so one of the Jubilee Orpingtons is going to end up attending the small animal swap with us in a few weeks. I think he'll find a home. They're pretty birds.
With the new pullets, we also raised three goslings. I don't have a ton to say about them other than they're absolutely hilarious and I'm sad thinking that their tolerance and desire to be around me might wane as they get to breeding age next spring. But right now they "love" talking to me and biting everything on me. Pants, shoes, shirts, hats, fingers... anything. They also break up chicken scuffles. In fact, I can tell by the sounds the geese are making that the rooster is mounting a hen. It's pretty funny.
The last livestock addition was meat rabbits. We have three does and a buck. They're New Zealands and I don't know when you should think about breeding them. I guess we might wait until next spring. So right now they're just eating food, drinking water, and making waste. They're living in the "coop" with the chickens and geese. The chickens scratch deeply under the rabbits and spread their pee and poop around, mixing it into the bedding. It's remarkably neutral in odor because of that. This fall, my big project is going to be a fairly large winter hoophouse for the poultry and rabbits. I hope to be able to do this in the hoophouse as well. It will be well ventilated and some number of hens will live under the chickens year-round. Or at least that's the plan. Baby rabbits will go into pasture pens/tractors out on grass once they're weened and until they're butchered. I've already made one of these pens and we rotate the big rabbits through it. It gives them a little more space, lets them forage a bit, but still keeps them safe and contained.
Syrup:
Very interesting new piece of equipment for everyone to be curious about. Waffle, the goose with his head in it, bit every square inch of the laying box multiple times, just to make sure that it wasn't going to hurt anyone in the flock.
American Bresse Rooster named Marshmallow, he's a handsome fella, but his wattles and combs are so freaking big I expect they'll be an issue in the winter:
Waffle, these Roman geese have beautiful blue eyes. He's got a bit of plum skin on his beak:
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