The snow and ice have ceased for this year and spring has moved in! The hundreds of daffodils are in bloom, the ground is covered in this beautiful purple flower and the red buds are showing their appreciation for the sun. Spring has certainly sprung! With the beautiful weather and budding plants also comes babies on the farm.
While Chris and I were on vacation the first weekend in April, my mom was watching the farm and when we came home we had a brood of 7 (out of 8, not bad!) chicks hatch from coop 3. There are 2 yellows, 4 blacks and 1 turken in that batch. This group of peeps also has, two hens over it. They did not incubate together, one of the hens sat on these babies ever so carefully, when they hatched the second hen must of had that motherly feeling and decided to help her out. Not a bad idea, since there are 7 of them and they all seem to go in different directions!
my mom holding the turken peep
This weekend we also had the eggs in coop 2 start hatching. We started with six eggs, but are down to five. So far one BIG black turken/cochin cross has hatched and we are anxiously awaiting the other 4 eggs to come and join us. I will be candling them tonight if they do not pip by this evening.
the black turken/cochin peep
The goats are finding the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, so they have taken to jumping through and over to see what trouble they can cause while out. Here is Sable, being a bad little goat!
Not everyone is causing trouble this spring! Here Daisy May just needed a nice relaxing belly rub from dad as she laid down and enjoyed the beautiful spring sunshine!
With nicer weather means we are out more working on projects. We are still working on the new girls barn, progress has been made and there were over 300 bales of hay stored there this winter, pictures to come soon! Here is a smaller project that we did, we got a new goat hay feeder since the wooden one in the picture has finally rotted out! This new metal bunk feeder is great, much less waste (at the moment). I also constructed a PVC hay shelter to keep the hay (and goats) dry. Don't worry, the posts are set with 5' rebar in hopes that it will not blow away!
Naturally it is kidding time again, in case you forgot, last Easter weekend we had a CRAZY amount of goat births! Currently we are expecting two! Coco first and then Stella. Coco is not due until April 21, but is already showing signs of being ready now, and with her, typically giving birth a week early, the timing would be perfect! I will keep you posted!
Have a great spring day!
