End of April and other things

This last week of April has been full!  I started out bring in the butcher to dispatch two of our male goats, Snowshoe and Stewie.  A friend of ours wanted a buck of hers butchered but didn't want it done at her place so she brought her goat over last Saturday to stay at our place until the butcher arrived.  Being he has never been tested for the dreaded goat disease CAE, we put EV (Extreme Vision) in with our girls - just in case.  EV is our pure bred Boer goat.  He and Snowshoe were born last spring and EV probably is 40 lbs heavier; I can understand why people like the Boer goats for meat.

Snowshoe looking over our friends goat Tank

When the butcher arrived I first led our friends goat out.  He didn't like the experience much and made a lot of noise.  Our goats seemed to understand that it was their destiny, walking gently to the butcher and never made a sound.  It was really awesome.

EV, our Boer goat, made the cut and gets to stay on our farm

 Alure, the mother of our little kids, continues to have problems.  She doesn't like to eat grain, and she needs grain to produce milk.  A couple of weeks ago her morning milk supply fell from an average of 3.5 lbs to 1 lb.  I took her to our vet and she checked out ok.  We did stool samples and drew blood, checked her teeth, had her milk tested...The blood sample came back with a liver problem on one of the tests.  The vet doesn't know what that means, so he sent the information to Washington State University and had one of the professors look at it.  He doesn't know what it means either.

Trying creative ways to get Alure to eat grain - her new thing is to eat directly out of the can

Nettle is due to birth within the next three days.  She is huge, and her utter has filled up (called "bagging up").  Last night we cleaned out her birthing room and have isolated her in there by herself.  She seems to be doing fine.

Pam cleaning Nettle's birthing room last night

Our bees are doing well.  Their hives are all set up and the bees are very busy.  Today I'll do the first mite treatment.  I found a new product just approved in Washington State, called Mite Away Quick Strips.  My bee guy said this is about as close to being organic as you can get, the product consisting of Formic acid.  Formic acid is naturally occurring in honey.  Two strips are added per hive three times per year: now, early September and late December.  Sunday I have enrolled in a beekeeping class put on by Washington State University Extension Service for Island County.  That should be interesting.

EV asking for more grain

April weather on the farm here in Greenbank has been close to normal, except much cooler.  Our rainfall for the month is at 2.1 inches, with some more projected for Monday, but then dry.  This morning we have no clouds and all sun, with highs expected to be in the upper 60's, maybe 70 for Sunday.  Nice!

The three kids waiting to be let out in the morning

Spring has Arrived!

Saturday sure felt like spring has finally arrived.  Near 70 degrees, blue skies, bees buzzing and trees in bloom.  Pam and I worked outside until 7:30 pm, cleaning the barn and doing other chores.  The new bees are working hard, building new comb and out exploring their new territory.  How fun!

The Chicken Coop with its metal roof almost completed

I just about finished the roof of the new chicken coop.  I shorted myself one piece of trim and won't have that until later this week but it's now totally rain proof.  I need to fix the window so I can open it and let in fresh air when it's warm out but not let the chicks jump out.  I'll cover the opening with hardware cloth - metal wire with 1/4" square holes.

View of our chicken and duck area from the roof of the chicken house

Sunday was Easter and we invited the family over for a roast chicken dinner.  Not everyone could attend due to colds and other family commitments, but we had six adults and three grandchildren.  It's fun watching the little ones interact with our farm animals.  Olive, the oldest granddaughter (almost three) loves the goats (her favorite animal) and loves to gather chicken eggs.

Granddaughter Olive playing with Windy

Chicks Arrived

I received a call from the Greenbank post office yesterday morning at 7 am that they had our box of 67 two day old chicks.  I finished the chicken brooder the night before so was all ready for them.  Off to the post office I went.  Of the 67 we ordered, one chick died.  It was a sex-linked layer chick - we order 15 of them but after I released them all and counted, I still had 17 live ones.  The hatchery must have shipped an extra three.

The Greenbank Post Office with my new chicks insde

The yellow chicks are our new meat birds, Red Rocks, the black our our new layers, Black Sex-Linked

The chicks in their new home

On Tuesday afternoon I opened the bee hives to get all of the new bees out of their boxes and get the queens ready to be released.  I put on my bee suit and had work gloves on but didn't smoke them before starting to work.  Two mistakes!  The bees were not happy with me and I got stung three or four times through my cloth backed gloves.  I put everything down, went to the house and got my heavy rubber gloves and then fired up the smoker.  I started again, first smoking the bees and it was so much better.

Per Wikpedia: "Smoke is the beekeeper's third line of defense (what are the first two?). Most beekeepers use a "smoker" — a device designed to generate smoke from the incomplete combustion of various fuels. Smoke calms bees; it initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. Smoke also masks alarm pheromones released by guard bees or when bees are squashed in an inspection. The ensuing confusion creates an opportunity for the beekeeper to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction. In addition, when a bee consumes honey the bee's abdomen distends, supposedly making it difficult to make the necessary flexes to sting, though this has not been tested scientifically."

 The queen is in a little wood tube.  I removed the cork and inserted a stale marshmallow in its place.  In two days or so the queen will eat her way out and then mate with a drone and begin laying eggs to build up the hive.  I just signed up for a beekeeping 101 class being put on by WSU Extension Service and taught by Timothy Lawrence, one of the nations leading bee experts.

Progress

I had a busy week here.  Just about finished the part of the new chicken house in time for the arrival of our 65 new chicks.  We ordered them from Dunlap Hatchery in Idaho.  Today is the shipping day so I'll be receiving a phone call about 8:15 am from the Greenbank post office.  I just have some finishing touches to make, hang the heat lamps and set up the water and food stations.  I'll use wood shavings on the floor.

The new chick coop with the brooding section almost completed

I built the floor about 2 feet up off the ground.  I have found through experience that rats love to live below chicken and duck coops and they will chew through 3/4 inch floor boards.  By raising it at least 12 inches off the ground stops them from nesting there.  I was thinking of using a concrete slab as a floor as it would be easy to disinfect, but a friend told me that he has rats living under his.  I measured the height of our garden cart and thought if the floor was a few inches higher than the cart, it would make cleaning the coop easier.  Just push the material into the cart rather than lifting, so I built it two feet high.

About three years ago when I sold the property across the street (a real estate listing of mine), I arraigned to have a contractor put in a curtain drain in that property.  I thought while they were out I would have them trench three feet deep from our barn to the area where I was planning on building this chicken coop.  I ran a power line and water line from the barn to this area and yesterday connected power to the new coop.  I hooked up a 20 amp circuit breaker (a GFCI breaker) - no more extension cords!  I now have an outlet in the brooding area and can connect the heat lamp directly.

The box of new bees - about 5 lbs

Sunday morning we received two boxes of new bees from a local bee keeper.  I partially took apart the box they came in and put a box in each hive.  Today I'll remove the boxes and take the cork out of the queen's cage.  I'll put a small marsh-mellow in the tube and in a day or so she'll eat her way out of it - then fly to mate with a drone.  Our old hive (the swarm that moved in) died over the winter - which is not unusual for a new swarm.

Gary getting ready to put the box of new bees in the hive

 The bees we received were New World Carniolans.  The New World Carniolan was originally established in 1982 by Susan Cobey and Tim Lawrence in California.  Tim Lawrence is now the Island County Extension Director.  New World Carniolans are a cross between Old World Caniolans (from Germany or Czechoslovakia) and Italians selected for specific traits of gentleness and hardiness.  They are relatively gentle bees and will fly on cooler days than pure bred Italians and winter over in small clusters, which means that they need a smaller amount of honey to get through the winter months.

Alure

Alure is a very interesting goat, and not an easy one to manage.  She gave birth to three kids March 13th and rejected her little girl, Windy.  I milked her every two hours to feed the little girl but after a week she didn't have enough milk for all three, so we put Windy on goat formula.  Windy thrived on the bottle and follows me around like a lost puppy.  Four weeks later we started locking the kids in their special room at night so they can't feed during the evening and early morning - I began milking Alure in the morning before letting the kids out.

Alure with her two new boys and her daughter from last year

Windy being fed this morning

For the first three days I would leave 2/3rds of the milk in Alure and within a week reached her peak milking of about 3.5 lbs (about 8.2 lbs in a gallon) - which is good for Alure.  I'm not milking her dry in the morning as she "holds back" some of the milk and won't release it, saved for her boys morning nursing.  Four days of this and then one morning she had no milk.  The next day I only got 1 lb, and then back to normal.  I don't know what happened, but I do know she does not eat much grain anymore.  I've checked for lice and found none, so we wormed her and the next morning she ate a little better.  Today I'm going to set up an appointment for her to visit her vet and have him check her teeth.  Maybe it hurts her to chew.  At this point I don't know.

Little Windy, our bottle fed doeling

At our South Whidbey Tilth board meeting last night one of the members asked if we would loan her a buckling for the summer/fall - they would feed him all year and after breeding return him to us.  A good deal for us as we won't be butchering him until he is at least one year old.

The new chicken coop is coming along

The chicken coop is coming along with the baby chicks due next Wednesday.  I'm taking the day off real estate to work on it.  The goal today is to get the roof completed and the new brooding room weather tight.  I'll spend most of the weekend working on it.

Emery Adair Ingram - born 4-8-11

By the way, we have a new granddaughter, born last Friday, April 8th - 8 1/2 lbs, Emery Adair.  How cool is that!  We now have five granddaughters all less than 3 years old.

Beginnings of a Chicken Palace

I've began construction of our new Chicken Palace.  I need it weather proof by April 19th when the new chicks arrive.  I will do it!

My construction experience is limited to the barn and house and some miscellaneous out buildings and already I have made some mistakes that will cost me time and materials.  Oh well, what can I say.

The beginnings of the new Chicken Palace

The old chicken coop is in the background

The goat kids are doing well.  I am locking the kids in a separate room at night so they can't feed on their mother's milk and milk Alure in the morning before letting out her kids.  I don't milk her dry but leave a little for the young ones.  16 ounces goes in a bottle for Windy, the rest to the refer for us (and her evening feeding).  I got a little over one quart from Alure this morning - she is probably producing about three quarts per day.

Alure's four kids - Alder Rose is one of her girls from last year, Windy is the little girl with white on her side

The idea of limiting their milk is to get them to start eating grain and hay, which develops their rumen.  I noticed Windy "chewing her cud" which tells me she is eating between milking.  Sometimes I wonder...

Nettle is due to kid the beginning of May and she is really starting to show.  Very good news for us as Nettle is a very good milker though a terrible mother.  I may need to bottle feed her kids this year as she killed one of hers last year.  We were thinking of culling her out - I changed her name at one point last year to Sausage, but being such a good milker it went back to Nettle.