2nd Annual Bath Tub Chick Days!

 Yep you heard me, I've once again got chicks in the bath tub. After a predator got my three fancy silky trio (two hens and a rooster) I was very very upset and in my upset ness I ordered 35 Silky chicks off the internet. The internet can be very dangerous that way so watch out. Twenty-five is typically the minimum order so I may have gotten carried away by ordering 35 chicks.

They even arrived a day early. Bonnie the cat is most disgusted with newest arrivals. Typically it means I sit in the recliner less so she the Queen of Lap Cats doesn't have a warm lap.  Oh well, I am getting the chicks settled in. It has been a bit more difficult finding a sutible brooder box for them to live in (in the bathtub). This is a good thing as it means we have gone through and gotten rid of most of the large boxes we moved in with.  (YAY) So I had to use a empty clear plastic tote, just means more cleaning and no more switching to a clean cardboard box. I sure get better pictures without the extra brown/yellow reflection from the cardboard. 

Cute and Fluffy

I do believe that raising chicks in the fall will be a Wienhold tradition. Someday perhaps they won't all end up in the bath tub but knowing me a few always will. Fall chicks do have their place. As my hens started last fall grew up all winter and started laying eggs right away in the spring. Spring is an excellent time for the hens to be starting to lay. But if you get chicks in the spring then they do all their growing in the summer and don't start laying until fall. Fall typically is when the chicken slows down egg production (decreasing in daylight). My hens have been laying eggs steady all summer and are now slowing down, meaning I get fewer eggs now then in July when I got a record of 26 eggs in one day. Now I get about 15 a day.

Before I lost my fancy Silkies and made a internet order for chicks, I was planning on borrowing an incubator from my neighbor to try and hatch out my own chicken eggs. Save me some money and get more hens for the summer and roosters for the freezer. So I did, I gathered a couple days worth of eggs layed by my hens, that are hopefully fertilized by one of the two roosters. And put them in the incubator on Saturday September 15th. It should take aprox 21 days for the eggs to hatch. Out of the 37 eggs I put in the incubator I am hoping a couple hatch out, any more will be a bonus.

Straw and Paint

In the last post we were quite disappointed to have to purchase straw bales but thanks to my uncle, he's one of those guys who starts his morning at the local cafe talking to everyone, we got to bale our own straw too! Some days I don't mind my family connections. Below you can see the square baler we used and a nice shot of our pickup that my Father kindly sold to us way under value. Thanks Dad. We baled about a 100 small square straw bales. Then the last few days after work we load up the pickup truck stacking high as we dare (missed the picture sorry) about 35 bales and brought them home to stack next to the barn.  I'll try to get a picture of the straw all stacked by the barn. The chickens love climbing all over and pecking the little bits of grain mixed in with the straw.

 

The 'paint fairy' was smiling on me last weekend when I went to Menards. I've wanted to paint the chicken coop since we built it, however like most things it has gotten pushed back. On a whim I went and checked the 'MissTinted Paint' section in Menards. Side note: most paint places have a section like this you might have to ask, it is where paint that gets mixed isn't quite right color and is often sold at a fraction of the regular cost. I got very lucky finding two gallon jugs of premium exterior paint in two different bold colors. The best I usually hope for is a couple different shades of brown. The first can was a great terracotta orange/red and the other can was dark green. The next day I got to painting.

Here is the coop completely unpainted

I really love this orange color

Here is with mostly complete. It was getting cold and very windy. Another nice day and I'll get the last details finished.

Meet the farm's newest addition!

IT was Labor Day and we both had the day off. Thank you National Holidays, they seem to be the only time we both get to be home together. We got a late start but went at it hard. First the small square baler needed a new tire and inter tube - we had scrounged all week finding the replacement, turns out old implement tires aren't stocked often. Richard ended up finding a very old but better than the one on the baler in our rock pile, then couldn't find a inter tube but did manage to find one a half size bigger. Yay we have a tire and tube. Next came the fight to put the new tire and tube on.

When in doubt use a hammer.

Sadly all our work was for not, as the straw we were to bale didnt amount to enough to bale. Basically the farmer left the spreader off his combine but the wheat wasn't tall enough to leave much straw after he baled. 

Then it was time to get hay for the goats. Their pasture is pretty dry and dead not much grazing. My uncle and cousin baled us some mini round bales, using their large round baler. They stopped the baler before it was full and made a smaller bale. We still have to move these bales with the tractor or they can be pushed by  a person. Richard thought rolling the closest one to the barn was too much work. He suggested using our trusty garden cart. I was skeptical but look it worked!

On a whim we decided to search our favorite online classifieds site (Bismanonline.com) during our lunch hour. We have been looking for a pony, small square straw bales, a puppy and other farm additions. This time we were in luck. "wagon pony for sale" I made the phone calls, Richard hitched up the trailer. We were off to look at a pony. We both agree that we didn't have to bring this pony home, if he wasn't right/safe we would turn around and come home with an empty trailer. It would be a 2 1/2 hour drive just to look. Boy was it worth every minute. The owners were friendly and honest, the horse was just as they told us. They hitched him up to the cart and we went for a spin. Then we talked price and shook hands. 

'Wow we just bought a pony' kept running through my head the whole trip home.  

Meet Bernie. Sounds like Barney, right?, hopefully it will stick, I really cant stand the name Barney. Images of purple dinosaurs come to mind. Anyway Bernie is a 10 year old gelding, who has only been driven. A big thing with ponies is their feet they often have hoof issues, we got lucky and Bernie has strong black feet with out any signs of issues. (such as founder) His hooves are little long and need a trim but we can handle that. 

Today I brushed Bernie until he shone then got him harnessed up for our first drive. Sure I'd driven him at his old place but here he was mine. I called the neighbor (friend, cousin and horse owner) down the road to see if I could drive him down there for a second opinion. What fun, a little pony to go places with.