Bottle babies, building, banding

Yesterday afternoon I took a few minutes to look on Craigslist. I typically narrow my searches to specific items but yesterday I just opened the farm portion of the sales site and cruised down the listings. In doing so I came across an ad for bottle baby calves. The prices seemed to be pretty good for what they were offering, so I took a picture of the posting, with the phone number listed and sent it to Mama. She got excited. She called Grandpa to confer. He got excited. When she solicited permission to call the advertiser, I told her it cannot hurt since we have been looking for bottle babies for several months now and we are finally close to ready to house and raise them. She called and got even more excited. The farm with the calves is about two hours away, so we will make the trip after work this afternoon. The original plan was to buy two heifer calves and one bull calf, but I think it would be more prudent to get only one of each. Three is a bit much to handle. The price of the two is more within our range. If what the seller told Mama is true, we can go back in the Spring and get another two heifers to raise. He does this year-round and assured Mama he will most always have a selection available.

If we do make the purchase, we will be bottle feeding the calves for about twelve weeks. The seller has calves ranging in age from two days to three weeks. Mama I set on getting the older calves, both to shorten the bottle-feeding process and to ensure the calves are healthy and established. I agree. We will see if that is possible when we get there to look over the selection he has available. Right now, the seller has fifty calves. We would wait until next week, but there is no way of knowing how quickly he will sell out. Mama and I are not going to take the leftovers of a picked over group again. We made that mistake with the sheep we bought last year. Although it worked out well enough, it was not the best purchase we have made.

With the potential of getting the calves, I worked on the enclosure I have been building for the calves. It is not nearly complete, but it is far enough along to contain the calves. It now has a very temporary roof and sides. Grandpa liked the location – behind the shop. I put lights outside the back door of the shop as I was building the shop. I did not foresee having stalls in that location, but it will work out well for early morning and late evening feedings. Tonight, when we get back home with the calves, I will put up some metal on the sides of the enclosure (right now the sides are only cattle panels) to block the wind from the calves until I can permanently install meal on the sides. But what we have in place will get us through the weekend. I am glad I did as much as I did last weekend to get this far along. I told Mama when I was working late on setting the posts for the enclosure, I felt like God was going to give us some bottle babies this week. I was even a little disappointed to not get a call from the stock sale barn here in Decatur on Monday; the day of the sale. But this is much better. Mama and I can pick out calves versus taking whatever is offered for about the same price. Plus, we can go back for more on our schedule. By the end of next week, I will have the shelter set up more permanently. Lord willing. I will prioritize that on the list of other winter projects I need to get finished.

Grandma and Grandpa came over last night to visit. Grandpa was looking to recover the slats from a bed Mama and I hauled to the farm a couple weeks ago. I looked high and low for the slats. I did not remember where I put them, but I was sure I had not used them for any of my projects. Unfortunately, Mama and Kim had used four of the six on projects they were creating. Only two were left, but I had one slat from an antique bed currently stored in the garage. We added to the mix giving Grandpa three of the six he needed to set up a bed Norman had brought to them. So, as Grandpa and Grandma went to Decatur to get three more boards, Mama and I went to the coop to band the oldest of our new flock of hens.

When we went to the coop, Mama and I each had on our flashlight headgear. She had a light that was on a band that she wore on her forehead. I had a light that clipped to the bill of my hat. It seemed a little goofy at first, but as we worked lifting the birds one by one from the roost to put the bands on their legs, it was very nice to have both hands free and still have a light pointing directly where we need it. We put the bands on the largest nineteen birds. This year’s birds will have yellow or green bands on their legs. There are thirteen young chickens to go, but they are too small for the bands to stay on their legs. It will be nice in a year to be able to differentiate one group from the other.

With me heading to Lawton tomorrow, it will be a busy weekend. But that is just the way things worked out.