Birthdays, farm animals

September is the month of the year when we have a high concentration of birthdays. If I have all of the month’s birthdays listed correctly on my calendar, there are eight birthdays in our family in this month. In order, they are Bridgette, Kathryn, Cori (today), me, Rebekah, Nate, Mama and Chase. Mama sent out packages for the first two. There will be packages going out to those available for mailed items as the month progresses. When everyone was home, September was a fun and expensive month with birthday parties, presents and birthday dinners. I miss that.

Coal was successfully dropped off at the meat market yesterday. He weighed 110#. I told Mama that exact weight as Victoria and I were loading him into the truck. Just a lucky guess. Having him out of the paddock with the little bucks made things a lot calmer. He outweighed the bucks by about twenty-five to thirty pounds – and he knew it. He was forever pushing them around. The only one who could stand up to him was Scamper; because he has horns. When he got mad at Coal, he let he have it with those horns. That generally ended the challenge quickly. At which point Coal would start back in on Champ or Midas. More often that not, on Midas. Now that Coal is gone, Midas and Scamper are battling it out. Other than the horns (which Scamper has) they are about equally matched. The ongoing fight for dominance will prepare them for mating season next year nut it still bothers Mama to watch.

Mama and I went out late last night to close up the chickens. It is a nightly task I usually do alone, but Mama wanted to count her hens to see how many she actually has. The total was 34. That is a lot of hens for the dozen eggs we get daily. Hopefully, we can cull out the non-layers and concentrate on those that actually produce eggs for us. With the chicks we know the count. Twenty-three growing up to be layers. Ten growing up to be meals. Three broods. The oldest of which is three to four weeks ahead of the youngest. The size difference is remarkable. In addition to all the chicks we have bought, we have a Bantam hen sitting on a brood of fifteen or so eggs in the goat barn. What may hatch from that is yet to be seen. Generally, those hatchlings are half roosters, half hens. But Mama and I have let her alone.

We suspected that a hen was brooding somewhere because our egg count went down for a week or so, but we did not discover her until she had at least twenty eggs under her. Some have since been rejected from the nest and have been carefully discarded. The rest should hatch by the end of next week. It will be exciting to see how many we get from that brooding. We have not allowed any of our other hens to sit – although five or so are very broody. The two roosters we have allowed to live are keeping our hens happy. They seem quite happy themselves. I am toying with the idea of repairing the kennel so it can be used for the meat chickens, but I have not settled on that yet. We will need a separate place for them because of special feeding requirements. We will work something out. Even as chicks, the meat chickens are at least double the weight of the layer chicks.

Our nanny goats are not due to kid until the first part of October. Perfect timing as far as the heat is concerned. Two, which were obviously bred early, are bagging up heavily. That lets Mama and I know the time is near. They are at least two weeks out at this point. The other two are a month out. All in all, we should have between eight and ten kids – if all goes well. We are a little concerned about our oldest nanny, Millie. She lost all three of her kids last year. We will see what this year brings. October should be a fun month.

Mama and I have not been able to get any bottle baby calves yet, but we are still looking. This weekend I will start on a shelter for bottle babies. The stalls I will build will be useful for many other animals when needed, but the primary function will be for the calves we want to raise. The winter projects are starting to pile up.

Mama and I love life on the farm.