New Life!- In the BATHROOM??

Life on a farm always seems to come full circle. One minute we are suffering from the loss of a beloved animal, the next minute we are enjoying the sights and sounds of new life!

We have 4 new sets of eyes looking at us around the farm. 3 sets outside in the barn in the form of new pigs (which I will talk about some other time), the other set looking at us from in our bathroom. Yes, I did say BATHROOM. lol!

About a month ago my daughter received an early birthday present, (Super early given her b-day isn't until December!!) an egg incubator. From a parental standpoint, I have been putting off the idea of spending almost a hundred dollars on a STYROFOAM box. (but, I'm wishing that I came up with this overpriced box idea, that's quite the money making racket they have going!)

Anyway, since that day we have been diligently collecting our show chicken's eggs, dating them, writing the breed on them, and we have been putting them in the incubator.

That incubator is a real fickle thing! We have to constantly monitor the temperature to help it maintain a constant 99.5*. Why can't it just be 99.*? or an even 100*? What's with the .5*? ?? It wouldn't be as tough if it was digital, but it's not. It has a little old fashioned thermometer inside the box and a little stick poking out of the top of the box that you can turn to the left or to the right to increase or decrease the temperature. It would be so much easier if it was digital!

All the eggs have been cooking along just fine. I have been candling them periodically and marking which ones are fertilized and growing nicely. So far, I only had one that was considered a "yolker" (non developer- not fertilized). I have a couple I'm on the fence about. I see a large blood ring around the inside of those eggs. But this blood ring doesn't look like any of the blood rings I have seen on the Internet. So we will just have to wait and see.

Our bathroom has become a "scientific" chicken rearing facility. Complete with incubator, automatic egg turner, and separate brooding box. It gives going potty a whole new meaning! And to think some people just have boring magazines or newspapers for their enjoyment! Heck, we can sit on the throne and watch the miracle of life! It's hard not to feel self conscious though when you have baby chicks looking up at you while your sitting on the crapper, making a deposit. The cool part though, it really helps with toddler potty training! I cannot count how many times I have heard "see chicks??" "potty!!" this morning! Hey! Now there's a market for me... All I have to do is convince every mother that she needs to hatch out eggs next to her toilet. Maybe I could make an infomercial! (checks idea to back of mind for further use... LOL)

I cannot believe how everyone has been involved in this process- Even my animal hating husband spent this past evening outside in the garage building a brooding box. Our brooding box is a 24"x24" plywood box w/ an 18"x 24" plexi glass hinged lid. This box also has a light bulb "poking" through the back to provide heat for the chicks. It's a beautiful contraption! But, it is more fickle than the dang incubator! Talk about a new learning curve! So far our hatch rate isn't that impressive. Technically, you are supposed to leave the eggs in the incubator until they hatch and are dry... Then move them to the brooding box. Sure, in a perfect world that sounds pretty simple right?? Well, if we leave them in the incubator- Yes, they hatch... Then manage to get their floppy little heads stuck in the automatic egg turner. So, we moved some of the eggs that had "pip" holes (the first hole a baby chick pecks into it's shell) into the brooder- that way they can hatch and not get jammed up in the machine. But- Even with a thermometer in the brooder it's hard to figure out where to put the eggs in the box. Next to the light is way to close (fried 2) and too far away from the light they get too cold in their shell and die. On a side note, it kind of makes you appreciate buying day old chicks- way less work involved!

OK, folks- Gotta run, I'm loosing my thought train because I have to quit writing every few minutes to get the boy out of the bathroom. I think I'm going to make a run this morning for one of those safety devices that go over a door knob so a toddler cannot open the door!

"It's Always Something..." Part 1 million and 6

*sigh*
Here we go again...

Back to my famous quote "It's always something"...

Let's see??? How to start this one??? My daughter, the absolute CHICKEN FANATIC! Loves her chickens to death. She makes fancy set-ups for her "special" chickens, she hand picks them "special salad" (aka: grass, clover, apple pieces, garden crops, etc...) and hand feeds them to those "special" birds.

Those birds consisted of (notice the PAST TENSE here) 2 call ducks: 1 snowy (looks like a miniature Mallard), 1 white one, 1 Cochin pullet (a type of young female show chicken), 1 Mille Fluer (another fancy rare chicken), 2 Black Rosecombs- male/female, and my hubby's turkey pullet (young female). Not to mention the 4 youngin's that were given to us from a family that hatched out some of our eggs.

Everyone was doing wonderfully fine- Until.....

My daughter got up early Sunday morning to find darn near the entire lot of them DEAD. She was mortified. Long story short... A Raccoon ripped open the wire on the chicken run and had its way with them. 6 dead, two severely wounded. Luckily, she had the Mille Fluer and the turkey already up in the barn in cages. But the rest of them were not so lucky...

I feel so sad for her. It was just the day before when she took pictures of them for her 4H record book, and now the next day... Taking pictures of their dead bodies for her record book.

As a conversational segway, MAN 4H / Farming is a Hard Life Lesson for kids!! It is unreal what these kids learn about life and death. Granted, with all the things that happen around here, she is pretty used to it. But just the thought of it- here one day, gone the next.. Whether it would be an animal raised for market, or her pet chickens- The kids sure do learn how to "get over it" fast.

Anywho,
Back to the chickens....
The two survivors: her white call duck, and the black rosecomb pullet both have suffered severe bites on the head and neck. My daughter naturally started tending to the wounds. At first I didn't give it much thought when it hit me... What about RABIES?? Now, I do consider myself a somewhat intelligent person- But I was CLUELESS when it came to the transmission of rabies. (??)

So, on the informational super highway I went. I wanted to know what percentage of Raccoons were carriers. Back in the day (1970's) it was around 50% of animals studied. In the early 2000's it had dropped to around 30% of animals studied. And I learned that there has only been 1 case of a "human" recovery from Raccoon Rabies- it was in 2004, a girl from Wisconsin.

Then I started to get a little nervous... Young girl trying to be helpful by treating her chickens wounds... Yikes! Then the paranoid mother kicked in! What if she gets the Raccoon's saliva from the chicken's wound into her bloodstream via a cut on her hands, or even an opening though a hangnail. (??)

So I caved and called an "Expert" (term used loosely) the WI D.N.R. I wanted to know if I should cull these birds instead of treating them due to a possible risk. Very valid question I thought. But the "expert" thought my call was rather humorous because it was a "Chicken" we were talking about. Sure, from a non parent stand point- The thought of a "rabid" chicken is kind of funny. Just envisioning it foaming at the beak while having a neurological breakdown all while trying to EAT a person... Yep! That could be funny. But this IS my own kid I was concerned about. I would hate to have a whoops! I guess we were wrong incident.

The only information he gave to me was that the incubation period for Rabies is 2 months (duh- He must have read the same website I did) and said *he* would just let it ride and see how it goes, stating the risk should be pretty slim to none.

So now we have chickens in isolation. I swear, as much weird stuff that happens here- We could open our own 1-800 # and answer questions regarding death / disease of animals! lol.

This is my second night of playing "Annie! Get you're gun!". I stayed up til midnight last night watching.... waiting.... Man I love to shoot things if it is justified! Hell! After watching all this unfold I would rather give this coon a nice slow painful death by blunt spoon than by quick bullet. I even have a live trap set in the chicken run (now empty of course) baited with my hubby's nasty smelling catfish bait. Sure, I'm certain he will be PIST when he learns I have sacrificed his pride and joy stink bait for the greater of mankind, but he'll survive!

Serves him right for making me strap on my big set of balls again. lol.

The Fair is over!! But here is a re-cap!

Hard to believe it has already come and gone!
Here are this year's highlights:

Swine:
Our gilt "pink" remained in great health so she was able to go to the fair (because the fair is a one way market- Charlotte didn't go to the fair, she is still at home). She weighed in at a whoppin 305lbs! She looked nice! All clean and shaven, had great length to her...
She placed a 3rd in the market animal class. Not too shabby given we have never raised a hog as a show animal before. And we raised her as natural as possible- didn't have her all "paylean'd" out. (a hog muscle growth hormone) You should see some of the pigs at the show! They have muscles where I didn't even know pigs HAD muscles!

My daughter also did a showmanship class with her. She placed 3rd. I was so proud of her, she tried so hard to keep her swine under control. Pink always did have a natural tendency to run so I was kind of worried about how she would act in the show ring. But my daughter did her best to keep her in the Judge's eye and out of the corners!

At the market sale, a company purchased her gilt for $2.10lb.

Sheep:
This year we took 3 sheep to the fair (OK, really 5 - two of them were market lambs we had raised for other 4h kids) My daughter showed a yearling ewe in a colored fleece (black wool) class and took a 1st place. She also showed one of our mature ewes in a breeding stock class. This ewe did have some age on her, she is around 7 years old! The judge liked her, but placed her as a third because the judge wanted to see more muscling on her. No problem! We only brought her for the fun of it. We just pulled her off the pasture, cleaned her up and brought her to the show.
As for her market lamb, it placed a 4th. The judge wanted more length of body to him. Oh well, that's nothing we could have "fixed"- unless we stretched him on a RACK of course! lol. kiddin.

The other two market lambs that were born here- one placed 2nd, and the other a 4th.

BUT- the best news with the market lamb was the night of the market animal sale! The business that bought our lamb last year, was desperately asking people who knew us as to if we were having another lamb in the sale. And if we fed him the same way we did last year. Come to find out, they just LOVED the taste of the meat last year (it was the first time ever they had bought any form of "lamb") and wanted to purchase another one from us this year! Long story short, they got into a bidding war with another company over my daughter's lamb and it sold for $2.70lb (he weighed in at 125lbs). And to top it off, they ended up purchasing another one of our lambs - one of our farm born ones shown by another girl from our club. I did talk to them afterwards explaining to them that what we raise is more of a production type lamb (meant for eating) over looking all muscle bound (good for placing well in the show ring) lamb. I explained how my daughter's lamb will have a larger leg of lamb than the other, and the other lamb will have a larger loin. They are thrilled to be having our lambs again for their freezer!

Chickens/Bantams:

My daughter rocked it with her chickens this year! She took 7 birds (I think??) to the fair. Each bird received a 1st place. Just for fun, I have her enter the egg judging class (I do it each year) I I (through her :) ) entered 6 colored eggs to be judged. They too took a 1st place!

As for showmanship, she didn't take the trophy this year like she had for the 2 past years. She made a crucial mistake. She took a Japanese bantam up to the table for the one on one w/ the judge. And long behold, the judge wanted to know specifics about this breed, and she didn't know it! So she took a 2nd place this year. I felt bad for her- she has all kinds of rarer breeds that she knows inside and out and here she takes the one bird ripped from our pasture- and doesn't know squat about it! ugh! But on the other hand, I keep telling her to study for showmanship (it's all question / answer with the judge) and she basically gives me the one finger wave (so to speak) and tells me about how she won the top honors 2 years in a row w/out studying. So when she placed second, I was glad to see her humbled back down to reality!

Dairy Goats:
This was our 2nd year bringing "Rosie" our Alpine yearling doe (non milker-never been bred). She placed a second place 1st (if you can follow that one!) in her dairy class.

As for showmanship, my daughter did better than last year and pulled off a blue ribbon. She placed second last year.

Meat Goats:
This was our very first attempt with a Boer goat. We only decided to do the project to help promote it with our county. It was our county's first year for the meat class. The goat, "Cracker head" (yes, he was a bastard of a little goat!) placed super well! He took a second place blue ribbon. He was a big contender for Grand Champion, but didn't get it. Our friends / family would have gotten a big kick out of it- if he did win Grand, because everyone KNOWS how much of a "challenge" he is! lol. He is all muscled out, um... not because of a great exercise program set by us, it is because he is IMPOSSIBLE to catch and can run like the dickens! 5 people in an enclosed paddock couldn't catch this little bugger!

Anyway,
My daughter scratched the showmanship portion of the show. The goat was just tooooooooooo much to handle. And sometimes the judge will make the kids switch goats to see how they handle another goat other than their own- Well, we would have been FINE but the poor kid that got Cracker Head would have been screwed. Plus chasing that little bastard all over the fair grounds after that poor kid let him go, would not have been cool. I could see it now... some little kid in a stroller seeing a baby goat come flying past: "mommy! look at the goat!" and then "BLAM!!!" as I shot it dead in front of them because the two hour chase around the fair was grating at my nerves! LOL!

Other projects my daughter did:

A saddle pad she had sewn took a 1st place and an Award of Merit (higher than a 1st place)! It was show cased in the glass case for all to see.

She also sewed a helmet bag for her riding helmet, that took a 1st place blue.

And lastly, she made 2 posters. One horse poster and one swine poster- each took a 2nd place.

We had a blast all week at the fair! This was our first year that we reserved a campsite and stayed there. We had showing everyday from Thursday through Sunday. It was a very heavy load, but well worth it! Can't wait for next year!!!!