Now that the busy holidays are behind us (it was a very successful Christmas shopping season at my shop!), and my hubby is officially “semi”-retired (he’s still working at his job two days/week), it’s time to sit back and look at what’s ahead for the farm!
The Flocks
The winter so far has been a bit crazy. All our chickens stopped laying eggs completely, which has never happened to us before! It always slows down once they start their fall molt and the days get shorter, but since we’ve started raising them, we’ve never had to buy eggs at the store! That was not a happy thing, especially since eggs of equal quality to ours (free-range, organic) are not cheap! I think a lot of people don’t realize what a good deal they are getting when they buy our fresh eggs at only $4 or $5/dozen!
Normally we have enough first year girls to pick up the slack of the older girls molting and taking a break, but our 5 newbies just did not step up to the plate!
That went on for several weeks, then finally at the beginning of the new year, some of the girls started up again. We’re not getting a lot, but at least enough to say so! Hopefully as the days get longer, the numbers get higher; but the weather could be a factor too. We’ve got more frigid January weather in the forecast.
That’s the first step of the plan: adding to the flock! We’ll be buying our chicks this year (hatching our own didn’t go as well as we’d hoped). I already have a list going of the different breeds I’d like to get his year, and we’ll also add more of breeds we’ve had before that did better about laying in the winter! Our first group was quite good about that – Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, and Golden Comets. Losses from illness and predators have left us with just one RIR and one Buff now. The Golden Comets are especially good layers.
We still have Lemonade the rooster! He and Charlie get along fine, and he has not been overly aggressive with either us or the hens, so he has stayed. Hopefully he continues to do as well this spring when mating season ramps up.
While the guinea fowl aren’t real fans of winter, they get out and about on the warmer days more than the chickens do. They like to go up high and stay out of the snow though. They also get a bit crazy, often squawking and carrying on for no apparent reason. On two different evenings we had one guinea refusing to go into the coop at night. When they’ve made up their minds, there’s no convincing them otherwise (especially since they are usually up on the barn, garage, or in a tree). It’s concerning, especially with some big owls around, and it being so cold, but luckily both times they were fine. Now that it’s even colder, hopefully they won’t play that game anymore!
I’m excited by how many female guinea hens we now have. We’re not sure if our oldest one will continue to lay this year or not, she stopped rather early last fall. We’ve got at least 4, possibly 5 now. Guineas lay much more consistently than chickens during their season, so we hope for at least a dozen eggs/week from them, starting in late spring. I like their eggs for eating better than the chicken eggs, plus we will try selling them. I also think we might try hatching some guinea eggs this year, we seemed to have a little better luck with them when we were incubating them exclusively.
Farm Dog Luke
Luke is doing well, and we get out for walks whenever we can. Big snowstorms and frigid weather keep us inside at times, but overall, we’ve been getting out pretty regularly for daily walks, even if they are sometimes short. Now that Dad is retired, he can walk him more as well. He’ll have the luxury of being able to wait until it warms up outside, whereas I have to get out early before going to work, and sometimes it’s simply just too cold, or snowing (or raining and icy, we’ve been getting a lot of that this winter too).
I think Luke is thrilled to have Dad home with him more. Now he only has two days per week where we are both gone to work.
Luke really enjoyed Christmas. He is just thrilled with the opening of presents, even if they aren’t his own! The living room looked like a hurricane had hit once he was done! He completely destroyed a nice pillow I had gotten him, along with much of the wrapping, but at least he had fun doing it. One of the other toys is still intact at least!
Garden Plans
Hubby will be taking over most of the seed-starting and other garden chores this year. We have high hopes that the vegetable garden will be easier to take care of with the “raised row” method we are trying this year. Between the new method and him being home to tend to it more often, maybe the weeds won’t completely take over again this year.
We are still eating potatoes from last year’s garden though, so that’s pretty exciting! That was our one crop, along with peas, that did exceptionally well this last year.
The planning is one of the most fun parts of gardening, so soon we’ll be going through seeds to see what we have left from last year and deciding which things we’ll plant again. I want to try some winter squash for the first time too. Since I’ve been on a special diet for my migraines, I’ve learned a lot about the nutritional value of winter squashes (many are high in potassium), and I’m learning which varieties are best and are tasty too. My brother-in-law brought buttercup squash to Thanksgiving, and I loved it, so that’s going on the list.
The Blog
I never intended to neglect this blog, I just got too busy with my shop for the holidays and had no time for writing or taking photos. I do plan to keep it going, though my posting may be intermittent, I have a lot of plans and projects for the shop and that is my priority at this time, along with our health which means I need a lot of time for walking too. I’ll do my best to keep you all up-to-date with any farm news, and photos of our adorable boy Luke too!
Awe looks like everyone is doing so well and yay fur Dad being Semi Retired so more snuggles & walks fur Luke 🙂
We appreciate your kind words about Matt so much. We are missing him lots but nose he is so much happier being able to run at da bridge wif Angel Sisser Ginger.
Mama can totes relate to da migraines. She is going to PT again but they are coming at her occipital neuralgia and migraines at a different approach and it seems to be helping a bit more so I have my paws crossed her will be back to her old self soon.
xoxo,
Matilda
Luke is such a good [and industrious] boy! Love the “slackers” caption. Hahaha.
So glad to see all the great things going on at the farm, and fun plans!! Love seeing all about the chickens and guineas, even those slackers…and especially Luke and his family! Hoping for a good year for your farm for sure, enjoy the endeavors no matter the outcome! Hugs!
I am glad everyone is doing well except for the lack of eggs. That is great that the roosters get along. Also great that your store did so well at the holidays. Wishing you, your hubby and all your critters a happy and healthy new year! XO
Thank you, Ellen! ♥
So nice to see you and I’m glad all is going well up your way. Those guineas are just so darn cute…but Luke always is cute. We’ll be looking forward to your next update. Happy New Year from all of us!
Thank you, Brian!! ♥
Great to see an update from you and I am THRILLED that the shop is thriving! I have no shop and my blog is intermittent (a nice term for it in my case) lol at best!!!! Your LIFE is more important than blogging, at least that’s how I look at it! I am super busy with Levi each day, and other things and that’s just how it is. “To every thing there is a season”. I spent YEARS blogging religiously and now in my mind it has mostly run it’s course. I just blog when I feel like it and removing that pressure from myself was the BEST thing I ever did! So happy Luke is doing well and you are ALL doing well!
I’m so glad you have found a place where you are happy with your blog too, Caren. It’s really just not the same as it used to be, is it? So you are right that we should live our lives and only blog when we feel like it. I just never wanted to fade away, or disappear completely and leave everyone hanging (like some bloggers did), so I think this is the way to go. I think I’ve finally come to just accept that and am OK with it now.
So good to hear you guys are doing well. We’ve missed hearing about happening around the farm but understand how life sometimes gets in the way. Stay well, keep smiling and post when you can. We’ll be here. Hugs and tail wags.
Thank you for your understanding, Monika. We’ll give updates when we have anything interesting going on! 🙂
Many are doing spring planning. It’s time.
So good to see a post from you and seeing Luke is always a most welcomed treat. He made short work of that pillow. He looks a big guilty too.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. Big hug to you and a smooch to Luke. ♥
Glad to hear you had a successful Christmas season at the shop this year! That’s great!!
Sounds like you’ve got some fun planning to look forward to! It certainly helps the psyche!
As to the blog, I know how it goes! Write when you can; but don’t do it because you think you “should”. Do it because you want/like to. We will be here – like other readers – and with my current situation, I understand the intermittent part. I try to write blog posts; but it never fails: I get started on one and then hubby distracts me and I never finish it. 🙄
Glad to hear everyone is doing well and you had a successful holiday season at your store. Looking forward to hearing more about the farm and store this coming year. 🙂
you guinea hens look like me … I wait for spring too
Great little update. Hope everyone has a great new year.
Love visiting you ~ continuing wishes for all the best with your shop! Plantings, the chicks, hens and more … paw pets for Luke!
Thank you so much!! ♥
Good to see a post again. Those birds sure are a lot of work and they make working with stubborn dogs look super easy in comparison. Hope the new chicks work out better this year and you get lots of eggs from the others. Enjoy your planning time and say hi to Luke from us girls!
Sounds like you are enjoying your shop, and your birds! Maybe they all thought they needed a vacation, LOL!
I didn’t know you could eat Guinea Fowl eggs…I can get duck eggs at one of our local stores and they are quite large.
Benji & Dalton are woofing hello to Luke! Benji says hooray for the mess you made and the de-stuffing project! He destroyed two of the four Christmas toys they got…one of his and one of Dalton’s…not to mention the beds he tries to take apart, too…
Have fun planning out your next garden. I hope it will grow well.
The guinea eggs are interesting – they are smaller than a chicken egg, but the yolk is still the same size. Which means they are higher in protein and even better for you!
Luke says woof and hi back to the boys! It sounds like he Benji are two of a kind when it comes to toys!