Now here is something I did not know until this afternoon. Inside the chicken, eggs are always soft shelled. In fact, although there are nutritional and health problems which can cause an egg to remain soft after it is laid, all chicken eggs come out of the chicken in a soft state. It is the sudden temperature change and contact with atmosphere which cause the shell to become hard. Watch the following video, note how flexible the egg is as it is laid, how shinny it is, and how the color shifts within just a few seconds. Mother Nature is AMAZING!
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Ever since our chocolate lab became pregnant she has been an attention hog. When she is out and about, the goats and sheep still follow me around the fields but the jealousy is thick in the air. The only kisses I get are from the dog anymore. I want my unsolicited goat kisses back.
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Muscovy Business with a 13 Year Old
I just had one of the most pleasant business exchanges. So much so, that I had to ask the person I was doing business with just how old she was. The answer surprised me. She is 13 years old, raises ducks, chickens, and other critters. Of course I asked, do you milk goats? Why would I ask such a thing? Well, there’s more on our farm that needs tending to than just our two children. Finding a baby sitting isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
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I have candled eggs before, but never have managed to have the right timing or angle to see what I did today. Maybe its because previously I had mainly candled brown chicken eggs and today it was a batch of bluish white Indian Runner ducks. Whatever the reason, I saw a living, beating heart no larger than the head of a pen. Although it did not promote the emotions of seeing my child’s 3D ultrasound, it promoted a sense of amazement much greater than I had before experienced. Within the womb, a human child seems so very much a part of the mother that witnessing movement is not nearly as amazing. But an egg without the mother wrapped around it is something kin to what one might expect to see in a science fiction movie. The other difference being that a 3D ultrasound is something you watch on a screen. A heart beating within an egg is right there before your eyes.
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Video – We put a camera on the ground between the pond and the pen. Each night before sun set or when a storm darkens the clouds, our flock of ducks heads to their night time home. The pond is maybe 100 yards away from the garage. The flock seems to know that predators come out more at night. That or they’ve figured out we put the vegetable and fruit scraps in there after a long day of canning. So, usually without any prompting, they come waddling home… quack quack waddle waddle quack quack
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In our links / other places section, you’ll see a link to Rose Creek Creations and Rose Creek Cattle Company. One of the owners (Angela) and I met on Craigs List. She was asking for help with a ceramic kiln. I gave what advice I could. Now a days, she gives me a lot more advice than I have to offer in exchange. Yesterday’s advice saves money and buys the Styrofoam incubator at Tractor Supply. She also suggested purchasing the automatic egg turner. I was skeptical at first, but her flocks seem to be health, happy, and growing; so I figured like her other advice it was sound. I just unpacked the Little Giant Air Incubator ($41.99) and the optional automatic egg turner (another $41.99). Read more…
Video – When we started free ranging our critters, we knew they would raid the garden occasionally. With the acceptation of the four-legged critters, they are more than welcome to do so. After all, the ducks and chickens might take a bit of our produce now and then, but they more than make up for it in pest control. What we didn’t expect was that the different critters would conduct cross species raids.
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The Herd of Cats – Part I – The Progenitors
If I told you we had more than a dozen cats (I lost count), you might think our house stinks like the crazy cat lady that most urban neighborhoods have. Not so. Well, other than the room that just had a kitten explosion and when those kittens are old enough they are out of here. So let me tell you the story of the Bad Attitude Cat Ranch. We would like to think of our activities with cats as a rescue effort. The thing is, it is more of a population control effort.
Trudy – Our first neighborhood cat
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Our farm has three types of cats. Pets, Barn Cats and Free Kittens. Pets and Barn Cats are “keepers”. The herd now helps us insure that new cats don’t just wander in. This one is a keeper. She is too small to be much of a Barn Cat (predator control), but the circumstances by which she arrived were such that we figure she was somehow intended to be a part of our family.
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Now this was a surprise. Our box turtle’s have left us a couple of eggs. Well, we hope the work was both theirs. Actually, although we are going to guard them and keep them warm, we do not have a great amount of hope that they will hatch. From what we read, it is incredibly unlikely and even if they do hatch the survival rate is tiny. Still, we do hold some hope and now that we know they are fertile the work on the pond area has increased. In fact, additional plans have been added now that we’ve looked into optimum conditions for their off spring to survive.
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