Breeding in the Home Flock

Traditional Breeding Programs for the Home Flock

Rotational Line Breeding White Plymouth Rocks

Two very interesting articles on flock breeding, I highly recommend reading them.

We've decided to go with these traditional breeding programs for our flock. What we'd like to aim for is a large dual purpose bird, which is broody & good at raising chicks. One that is very cold tolerant but won't suffer in the heat either. Also one that lays dark brown eggs. What the actual birds look like I don't care as long as they are healthy and good egg producers.

So we're going to start with an out-and-out program (adding new birds) once we get something going that we really like we'll probably go to a rolling system. I'm very excited to see what our first little chicks grow into.

Even if you're just keeping a small flock for your family, breeding is something you should consider. Whether you want to purchase new stock to replace the old, and let others do the work so you always know what you're getting. If you want to breed your own replacement chicks, you may want to introduce new blood, buy from just one strain or breeder, or mix & match and see what you might get.

The good thing about chickens is that if the experiment doesn't go well you can always eat the results!

Yankey Banky Joins the Crew

 Or a lesson in why not to offer your 3 year old to let him name the animals...

Yankey is a 2 year old SaanenXPygmyXBoer (so: milk x small x meat goats) and she's been out with another pygymy for the summer so is hopefully pregnant (or just quite round!) and we could have kids as early as January.
 

Oops, someone needs a trim!

Like most hard-hooved animals goats & sheep need to be trimmed, usually at least twice a year, especially if they are kept indoors/on soft ground. Our guys are always running across the concrete in the barn, or jumping on and off rocks so they wear their feed down. I am expecting we'll need to do a quick trim on everyone in the spring (because of the snow covering the ground over winter) and we'll do that when Billy get his hair-cut. You can just use regular garden trimmers, they work quite well.

Quick trim all around, and welcome
to the farm Yankey!

Isn't she a cutie-pie!! Her former nickname was "Gazelle" because that is what she looks like.

Harry is very impressed!

Yankey immediately took leadership of the whole band, and has been bossing the boys all over the place (Billy too). Which I'm very happy about! That's just what they needed was a momma-goat to show them the ropes of being a goat.

I have to share this picture of a piggy from Yankey's farm. THAT is a pot belly pig!! That is the healthiest pot belly I have ever seen, I even had to ask & double check it was actually a pot belly! It actually looks like a piggy!! They are not supposed to look so wrinkly and fat they can't move or see well. I hope our guys look as nice when they are all grown up. 

Hatch #2

So out of 11 eggs, we have 3 chicks.

Our injured chicks died last night, which was too bad because he was starting to stand up & looking much stronger. I'm not surprised he was a premi and obviously not very healthy.

His buddy who had a bad start, but is much better now, is back out with mom. The little guy needs to learn his manners, he knows who mom is but is not sure how he's supposed to act so I have to keep a good eye on him.

We lost another little MarX last night, I didn't realize but the nest they are in had a cut-out front but it was too high for them to climb back in if they fell out. Probably would have lived if they were closer to the heat lamp.

Mom is still sitting on 4 eggs, but if they haven't hatched yet (and the first started on Saturday) I don't hold out any hope that they are going to.

So... this hatch didn't go so well, but we do have 3 very healthy little chicks; and CoCo is still sitting on her 6 eggs.

COOK Date Squares

After getting to 6:00pm yesterday and realizing I was really hungry, and then also realizing I hadn't eaten yet... maybe it's time for some "healthy" snacks in the fridge. Jerky is a great one, lots of protein, but we've got to wait for the beef to come back first. This is another family favourite, and definitely one of mine. It's also very easy to make. 

Ingredients:

• ½ pounds Chopped & Pitted Dates
• 1 cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 1-½ cup Brown Sugar, Divided
• ¾ cups Butter
• 1-½ cup Flour
• 1-¾ cup Rolled Oats
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda (dissolve In 2 Tbsp Hot Water)

Combine Dates, 1 cup Water, Vanilla & 1/2 cup Brown Sugar in a saucepan. Over low heat cook down until dates are soft and mixture is thick (about 10-20 minutes). Cool.

Cream butter; add 1 cup Brown Sugar, Flour, Oats, Salt and Baking Soda, mix.
Line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper (or butter & flour). Press half mixture firmly into bottom of baking pan. Add date filling. Spread other half of the mixture over top.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Cool before slicing. Keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Or you can freeze them for later. 


These are very filling and perfect for a mid-afternoon snack. The kids love them too.

Winter Sun Napping

Don't they look cosy?
Too bad they're napping IN the hay!

 

Even steak is having a nap with the ducks,
almost time for him to go back in with the
other animals.

Good thing I went out to take some pictures!
Goats are trouble!!!

Chip, Chip, Chip

EE#2s first little chick
Isn't He/She cute!?
MarranXDominique with lovely eye-liner

We had two chicks DomXMar chicks
born w yolk sacks outside their bodies
one already DNS, the other was brought
into the house because he's not doing
very well.

 We also had a cream egg hatch. Turns out the Buff Orp is the one laying the pink eggs, so I don't know who laid the cream ones at all!

This little guy and a 3rd DomXMar are in the house. The chick with the yolk-sack doesn't seem to be able to stand, but he's a spirited little guy, so he's getting cooked yolks in the hope he'll pull through. The other DomXMar is doing better, but still a little weak.

It appears these chicks hatched a day or two too early, and I'm really not sure why since they were hen-hatched.

Eat it or Love it?

The debate has been brought up again recently with ads like these:

Appearing in the TTC, what is the difference between eating a dog when we all eat pigs? (The creators of the ads are promoting vegan lifestyles).

May I offer this as an explanation?
Yes, the pot-bellies are very cute, now, while they are young. So were the tiny little meat chickens, very "cute". Human beings are not going to all switch over to a vegan diet tomorrow, so my argument is that in the mean time we need to push for better education of consumers and welfare for the animals we eat.

You want to live a vegan lifestyle go for it! But be aware that our omnivorous lifestyle may be far more environmentally sustainable. We produce our own organic foods, breed the animals here & slaughter locally. Do your research for yourself before climbing on your high-horse. You can't listen to the propaganda the big "animal welfare" groups are spitting out, because it is as bad as the propaganda from the big meat sellers.


So why should be eat pigs when we don't eat dogs? Because a dog isn't going to eat you if you knock yourself unconscious and fall in their pen.

A pig is a pig is a PIG. And while I don't actually like pork all that much, we still eat it on occasion. Is it better that it's coming from a huge factory farm kilometers away? Or from a small breeding group in our backyard?

While our two still don't have names, we aren't planning on eating them. Pot bellies do make good meat pigs because they are very lean, and easy to raise on small amounts of land.

http://www.windridgefarm.us/potbellypigs.htm

Has great info all about raising pot bellies for meat, and what the differences in the meat are.

I hope I never come off as being up on my high-horse, I really don't judge anyone who chooses to buy their meat at big grocery chains. We used to do it, and between supply still would. If you compare prices you may be very surprised that buying conventional farm-gate meat can be a lot cheaper then buying from the store.



I am very passionate about our farm, so I will talk your ear off about why I think all meat/production animals should be cared for with respect and under organic principals.