Maxed out, old hens, eating off the farm

Mama was very tired and very emotional last night. Max, the Mini Poodle pup we had gotten from our Chinese family, had worn her out. He is a very active little one and Mama was not in the mood to have to chase him down for whatever reason she needed to corral him before rushing out of the house to get to the feed store before they closed. But whatever the motive, she was done last night. It is not that he is a bad dog. He is very smart. He is just too active for us to contend with when we have three other dogs in the house.

In the short time he was with us, he got the idea of not jumping on us for attention and would respond to the command of “Down” when he got too excited and forgot. Mama wrestled with the idea of taking him when we picked him up Tuesday and she wrestled with the idea of taking him back when we made the trip last night. But Max was obviously happy to be home when we dropped him off. I was relieved not to have him in the house this morning when I got up to work through my normal morning routine. He was quite a distraction.

Before we loaded Max up with us, we loaded two chickens into a cage to take to the restaurant for the Alex and Lin to process. They like the older chickens. Lin is always saying, “Older is better.” (For Max’s part in the trip, we put him in the back seat of the truck and he laid there like he knew exactly what he was supposed to do.) When we got to the restaurant, Lin took the cage with the chickens to the back of the restaurant and compelled me and Mama to go inside and get something to eat. Neither of us was very hungry but we did sit down for a bit and got a small portion of food from the buffet. We visited with Alex and Lin off and on as we sat eating. Alex was happy to have Max back – he only gave him up because Cheyenne pretends to be scared of him. Lin was happy to have the chickens to eat.

In the future, Mama and I are going to cull the hens one by one. The Buff that went to the restaurant last night had been separated from the flock for a couple days and had not laid in that time. With that in mind, Mama and I are going to repeat the process every couple weeks to cull out the older hens that are not producing. Once discovered we will either eat them, or we will give them to Lin. It is something we need to do so we are not feeding so many unproductive birds. The Banty’s are lawing now. We are getting four to five little green or olive colored eggs every day. I actually prefer them to the larger eggs.

Speaking of eating, I will process the three remaining rabbits this weekend, possibly tonight. We are not enjoying having them and do not seem to be able to get them to reproduce, so it is time to limit the feed bill and process them for meat. That will allow me to clean up and sanitize the goat barn and set up two stalls on the south side of the barn. With that and the doors in place, it will better serve the purpose for which it was built. Right now, it is only a dry shed for the goats to come into when the weather is bad. That is not a bad thing because shelter is a basic need for the goats, but it is less than what I had in mind when I built the barn. My hope is that the building we build on the farm will be useful as built or easily repurposed for those who own the farm after Mama and I have moved on – whenever that may be.

Hopefully, I will be able to get a good bit done to the well house this weekend. Rain is in the forecast, so I need to have the power supply to the well protected by the time I put up my tools Saturday evening. Because of travel required by work, I will not get back to the project until Saturday next week.

It should be another busy weekend.