Comings and Goings

Comings

Several weeks ago another Aylesbury duck, Diana, was traded for some excess Barred Rock roosters.  The Aylesbury trio - Charles, Camilla and now Diana -  live with 7 Mallards and 3 Pekins in the duck run.  Unlike the chickens who return to their roost every night on their own, the Aylesbury ducks have to be wrangled into their hut at night and they make quite a fuss about it.  The Mallards and Pekins will eventually go into the hut on their own once it is dark.

Charles, Diana and Camilla in the "Royal Spa"

Several litters of baby rabbits have been born over the last couple of weeks.  All of the other kits were sold during the Easter period.  The plan for the current crop is to place them in a tractor once weaned and periodically move them around the garden.  This will provide a natural diet and allow them to be raised outside. 

Trudy, the American Guinea Hog sow finally farrowed her piglets.  It was an intense experience, to say the least.  Looking very pregnant with her belly touching the floor she went into labor last Saturday.  We discovered the first piglet already running around in the barn.  Trudy was having a difficult time with the second and after an hour or so we ended up having to do some impromptu pigwifery.  This second piglet died during the labor.  It was much larger than the first.  The third piglet was born fairly quickly after the second unassisted and was alive.  The fourth was a breech and another exceptionally large piglet.  After another difficult labor requiring assistance, it too was stillborn.  We were not sure if there were more piglets but that was it.  The vet’s advice on the phone was simple – Let nature take its course.  We believe the problems were due to the rich diet and only four piglets resulting in some really large piglets that got stuck in the birth canal.  These were approximately twice the size expected.  The next time the diet of any of the AGH pregnant sows will be better managed.

The face only a mother could love!

Is all this for me?

Trudy was in labor for approx 6 hours and then went to sleep.  The next morning she trotted out for food as normal.  The two live piglets are still doing fine.  These AGH are amazingly docile.  During the labor the boar came into the stable and laid down next to us and fell asleep.  I would not sit down in the stable with the commercial feeder pigs.  Even though Thing 2 is now essentially free-ranged since she escapes the paddock everyday whenever she pleases and then runs up to you when she sees you coming, I still would not trust this pig.  To this pig everything is food including the cats and the Canada geese.

Thing 2 on the loose.

The chicken population is about as dynamic as the population of a border town in South Texas.  In the minus column, excess roosters were traded and then the dog attack reported earlier removed a dozen or so.  In the plus column, two “waves” of chicks are currently running about the place.  The earlier wave was our first hatching and consisted of a number of Buff Orpingtons and Buff crosses.  The Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns (I say, I say, boy….) are now out with the mixed flock in the orchard (behind more of a sturdy fence) and the chicks of the second hatching of Buffs are now out in the Buff coop.   A small corner was fenced off for them during the day but these little shape shifters somehow manage to fit through the fencing and escape out of their corner and out of the run itself.  

Doesn't take long for them to find the tomatoes!

Thirty guinea fowl arrived a couple of weeks ago from the hatchery.  These are known for their ability to eat ticks and other bugs while leaving your plants alone.  With the mild winter the bugs are terrible so a flock guinea fowl makes a lot of sense.  At 6:45 AM the post office called the house and insisted I come and pick up a package.  When I arrived at the post office it was still early and quiet.  I could hear these fowl chirping from outside the building.  They were loud.  When I knocked on the door the post master asked who I was then opened the door and thrust the box into my hands without checking my ID.  She said, They are as happy to see you as we are to get rid of them.  They are definitely loud!

Goings

Two of the second hatch of Buff chicks succumbed to what we believe was a snake while out in the brood coop.  One was missing and one was found dead.  Similarly, a rat snake got into one of the rabbit cages and killed one of the kits and ate another.  I was startled to say the least when I opened up the cage tonight and saw a large coiled snake staring back at me.  The doe was in the cage and the snake kept trying to bite her every time she came near it.  Having recovered from the shock I noticed this was a rat snake.  Not poisonous but gives a painful bite.  These are useful to have around for rodent control (particularly since the cats appear to be taking the summer off from mousing) and I have typically left these alone.  This one was actually in the rabbit cage and could not get out due to the bulge of a recently ingested baby rabbit.  I tried to skewer it with a sharp stick but this only made it mad.  I opened the door of the cage and it slid out towards me only to get hacked to pieces by the trusty tomahawk (Warning:  Gruesome pics).

Rat snake in the rabbit cage.

This pic shows the dead baby rabbit along with a partially-digested baby rabbit inside the snake. 

Circle of Life

After a short business trip last week I was amazed at how much the garden had grown and how the animals, particularly the ducklings, had grown in the few days I was away.  While growth abounds, death is never far away.  As much as we have tried to protect our animals some have died.  Some from predation, some from natural causes, and some intentionally slaughtered.  On the farm, new life and death are a natural part of it all.  In many ways our modern life is sanitized from this natural order yet for every generation of humans with the exception of the last few in parts of the West, this is normal.  This circle of life made the 238 lbs of pork I brought back from the butchers today extra special knowing that just a few days ago this was Spot and Hambone.

Barn Yard Happenings

When I was a boy I had a hamster or two, the odd gerbil, a couple of ferrets, a canary and a tortoise that ran off.  My Grandma used to complain that the house was like a ménage à trois.  I think she meant a menagerie (a collection of wild or unusual animals)!  This leads me to the post today - more animals at the farm.  

New members to Hereward Farm this week include Charles and Camilla, a pair of Aylesbury ducks.  This breed originated from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire just north of London.  By the 18^th century raising white ducks in Aylesbury had become popular due to the demand for white feathers as a filler for quilts.  Over the 19^th century selective breeding led to the Aylesbury duck.  The ducks were bred on farms in the surrounding countryside and local residents would obtain fertilized eggs and raise the ducks in their home as a source of extra income.  In 1873 the Pekin duck (the “Aflac duck”) was introduced to England and this marked the decline of the Aylesbury.  Even though the Pekin was thought to have a poorer flavor than the Aylesbury, the Pekin was hardier and cheaper to raise.

The Aylesbury was one of the first domestic ducks introduced into America from Europe.  It is considered a superior meat breed.  It has a white skin where most other ducks have yellow skin.  Hens lay 35-125 white or tinted green eggs annually.  The Aylesbury is considered “slow moving and exceptionally tame”.   The Pekin duck did the same for the Aylesbury in the United States as it did in England.  Like our American Guinea Hogs, the Aylesbury is listed as “Critical” by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC).  In 2000 the ALBC census of domestic waterfowl found only two primary breeding flocks with 50 or more breeding birds existed. 

Cats - Lazy or Smart?                                  

Believing that the cats are being over-fed their feed ration has been reduced.  The hope was they would take the initiative and kill more rodents.  Unfortunately, the cats are either smarter or lazier than they were given credit for (or both).  The cats now simply walk into the pig pen and help themselves to the pigs’ feed.

This pig can't be that hungry - only two feet in the trough!

If there is one place I would not want to find myself it's standing between a hog and it's feed.  This cat has perhaps found an even less desirable position.  Brave or stupid?  The pigs don't seem to mind them being in their paddock but they will chase them away from their food.
 

Baby Rabbits

The amazingly fast growth of the baby rabbits is captured in the following photos.  After only two weeks the babies are almost as big as those being sold at the feed store. These are New Zealand / Californian crosses.

Approx. 1 day old

1 week old

2 weeks old

The Spring Equinox and Easter are Fast Approaching

Today is the first day of March and the winter is quickly coming to an end.  Soon it will be spring and then Easter.  The Christian festival of Easter has its roots in pagan traditions.  For the tribes of Scandinavia Eostre was the goddess of dawn.  Her name derived from the word “East” which is the direction of the rising sun.  Eostre’s special festival was the spring equinox – the dawn of the sun’s reign in the northern hemisphere.  A human victim was selected as the “Year King” and was sacrificed as winter turned into spring.  His body was buried in the fields which would come to life again with the rising grain.  By eating the bread made from the grain, everyone would share in the miracle of the rebirth.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, this year spring begins in the northern hemisphere on March 20th at 1:14 A.M. (EDT).  This is a time of longer days, warmer temperatures, and rebirth.  As spring and Easter approach, here are some photos of Hereward farm emerging from the long but mild winter.

Baby rabbits in the nest box.  The doe  pulled out her own fur to add to the shredded newspaper to make a warm nest for her kits.  Unlike other animals, rabbits do not sit on the nest in the wild.  Compared to a conspicuous doe sitting atop a nest, leaving the kits to burrow down and hide in relative comfort avoids drawing unwanted attention.  An earlier litter was kindled on a cold night. With no heat from the mother they sadly all died.  With this litter the nest box has been brought inside on the few cold nights since they were kindled.  The doe does not seem to mind and feeds her kits in the morning.  The kits in this photo are just a day or two old and already growing fur (and reading the Financial Times).

Modern icons of Easter - eggs and chicks.  Just hatched Buff Orpington chicks in the incubator and then a few hours later.

Even though it is only the first day of March, the plum trees are already flowering.

The beavers emerge from winter and begin to eat the cambium of living trees.

When regular just won't do - Super-Size!  When this tree falls it will definitely make a sound in the forest.

Even the cats appear to be casting off their winter depression.  This is the first actual evidence that one of the cats has actually caught a live mouse.  Of course, there is the story about a blind squirrel finding nuts occasionally.

An Interesting Weekend...

During a business meeting in Cyprus many years ago, I noticed a large number of houses on the Island had rebar sticking out of the roof.  I could think of no rational reason that could explain this and out of curiosity asked one of the locals.  What I was told made perfect sense.  Apparently, once you have finished building your house the property tax increases significantly.  So, leaving rebar sticking out the top of the house means technically that the house is still under construction and therefore you pay less tax.   

In much the same, when I was a sales rep driving around the rural southeast I was struck by how many people constructed out-buildings out of old tin and blue tarp.  Why anyone would deliberately make their property resemble a shanty-town was beyond me.  Maybe there was some similar hidden advantage known to the practitioners much like the folks in Cyprus with rebar sticking out of the top of their house.  This weekend I was initiated into the tin and tarp crowd (although I had the decency to choose more earthy colors).

No, this picture is not from an Occupy Wall Street squat but of the meat rabbit operation constructed (using the term loosely) this weekend on the lean-to at the end of the workshop.  Before discussing the merits of the construction technique (or lack of technique), it may be worth discussing why raise rabbits for meat in the first place.  Rabbits provide a high quality meat that is low in cholesterol, require little space, are easy to breed (in fact, they breed like rabbits), easy to process (no plucking), easy to feed, make little or no noise (unlike roosters, cows, etc.), no special equipment needed, and their manure can be used directly on the garden without composting.   A slam dunk in my opinion.  

Rather than use the barn, we decided to start out near the house and use the lean-to at the end of the workshop.  Given the four-hole wire cages offer no protection from the elements the lean-to needed covering.  Thinking this may be a temporary affair, it offered the perfect opportunity to practice with tin and tarp rather than something more permanent.  It was relatively easy to cover the cages with some tin (and the required concrete block) and then cover the lean-to with tarp and 4 mil plastic sheeting.  The rabbits seem to be fine.  An operation as small as this (3 New Zealand does and 1 Californian buck) could feed a family of four and can be run in even a small backyard where livestock may not be allowed.

 

The Californian Buck

One of the New Zealand Does

The next picture shows the utility of tarp and something else I thought I would never do.  I built a chute under the cages to automatically collect the rabbit droppings into a container.  Yes, I am really excited by how much droppings these rabbits produce and how this “poop chute” actually works.  One best practice I learned from this experience – build the chute before you put the rabbits in the cages and that way you won’t be working beneath creatures that appear to be able to crap their own body weight daily.

The Poop Chute - Unlike blue tarp, note how the more aesthetically pleasing silver tarp matches the galvanized metal wall and the j-feeder.

Onto the pigs… We finally herded the pigs from their temporary pen on the top field all the way down to the barn.   This was a very unpleasant experience for all concerned.  First of all, getting a rope on a pig was more difficult than expected.  The pigs protested by resisting and squealing all the way down.  One of the pigs escaped by standing on the loose end of the rope (my bad) and it was a devil to recapture.  They made it relatively no worse for wear and it did not take them long to settle in to their new accommodation.  This is much bigger and offers more protection from the elements.  Just have to run some hot wires around the paddock and they have all this area to roam in.  The paddock also has a livestock loading shoot to make loading the pigs on their final journey a smoother process.

The learning from this experience besides tying a better knot - better planning, particularly with large livestock.  If we had planned more effectively we could have placed the pigs in the barn in the first place.

One of the pigs resisting... You'd think she was being led to the butcher's or something. 

The Destination

 Finally made it!  Rabbits are definitely easier to move!