Candling Day

Friday night we had candled all of our eggs. Candling means that we took one of the eggs into a dark room, and shined a really bright light into it so we could see what was going on inside the egg. We did this with ALL of the eggs in the incubator. One at a time, with the ducks first. Every time we would put a duck egg up to the light, the little forming duck inside would wiggle around and squirm. It was probably the second most awesome thing I've ever seen in my life, the first being seeing my own kids wiggle and squirm on an ultrasound. DS was there watching as well and he was just so excited to see these little "blobs" moving around inside the eggs. 

We've got just under 2 weeks left before we should have a bunch of tiny animals running around in tubs in the bathroom. I'm really hoping that we can get our new coop built soon because we're running out of roost space in the coop! We sure didn't think out the whole "what if we get more" (also known as Chicken Math) thing well. We're going to build a big 17'x10' coop soon. The coop itself will be 10'x10' and then we will have an area where we will be able to store feed, to put our processing equipment, our chicken/rabbit first aid kit, have a "sick bay", and possibly a brooder box for any eggs we hatch. HOPEFULLY we will get some broody hens and they will do it for us. I'm not holding my breath too much tho. ;-)

We will candle again right before we go into lock down, which is the last 3 days of incubation. By then we should be able to tell for sure which chicken eggs are going to hatch, and which ones we should just take out. We're very excited about out new "fluffy butts," even tho most of them will be for eating. It will be interesting to see what we get, that's for sure!

Update on Gregg and assorted other oddities.

So, Gregg was REALLY limping around badly outside, and he was getting chased all over the place, and I just felt horrible for him, so I bought him inside for a few days. He was fairly immobile in the chick brooder, tho it was big enough for him to turn around and move a bit, he preferred to stay rather still. Gregg spent a couple of days inside with us, getting extra love and treats, and today we checked to see how his leg was doing. The swelling is almost completely gone, and he can walk on it again. I decided that he needed to be with his Lily duck, so we put him out there. Lily and he reunited, and then Steve had to chase him around for a bit so he would remember that he's the "2nd in command" drake.

We also got our seeds today! I was so excited! Sixteen year old me would have NEVER thought that I would be so excited about chickens, incubating, and growing a garden in my 30s, but here I am! I'm LOVING it! I wish I had more space so I could have more ducks, chickens, and more garden, but this is what we have, and eventually, we will get a bigger place. As my mom always said "Ya gotta work with what ya got little one!" and she is completely right!

In other completely off the wall news! We are going to be remodeling a few things around here, FINALLY! Sam has okay'd some wood laminate for the laundry/dog room, the kitchen, and the dining room. I'm hoping that for around $2000 we will have a completely "new house!" I think the flooring will be the most expensive part. The most time consuming part will be mudding all the walls, patching any holes, and then sanding before we paint. Since we live in a modular, the walls all have this textured wall board. It's either mud over it, or find inexpensive wallpaper and wallpaper over it. I'll take my chances with the mud!

It was also a sad day on Ivy Hill. One of our friends is going to have to have bypass surgery, and had to sell off all of her birds. We went to Wilmington to pick them up and have distributed the majority of them to their new homes. One have one more person that is supposed to come tonight to pick up the remaining birds, and  they will all be gone. :-(

I'm going to be sure to hatch her some chickens and ducks when she gets better. I know they won't be her originals, but, at least she will have some babies to love! :-)

Day 8

Today is day 8 for our duck eggs, and day 1 for *some* of our chicken eggs. When our friend brought us the mallard duck eggs, she also brought some chicken eggs. They had already been under a broody chicken before she brought them, so, we figured "why not?!"

So, in 21 days, around 09 February, we are hoping that we will have some little ducklings and chicks! I'll be sure to post a lot of pictures!

In other news! We got a gift certificate to Seed Savers Exchange for Christmas from my Kris (my sister), and we finally got around to ordering seeds! We've got some new tomato seeds coming! I'm really excited about them. One of them is called the German Pink, and the fruit can be up to 2 pounds each!! The other tomato is called the Mexico Midget, and it says it produces "hundreds" of 1/2"-3/4" fruits all season! Kris wants some pictures of the garden, and of course I told her that I would send her some home grown, home canned goodness. :-) We got a few other seeds as well, and as soon as the potatoes are out, we will be ordering 5 pounds of seed potatoes to plant as well. We're very excited about this years garden. We've planned on putting a fence up, and making another 4'x4' spot for some herbs. This fall I planted close to 100 flower bulbs to help attract bees and beneficial insects. We have a friend that lives a couple streets over, and she said that she could put a honey bee hive in our yard, and pay us "rent" in honey. It would definitely give us experience in honeybees! I absolutely think that it needs to happen!

We've got to put about 2000lbs of sand into the duck and chicken run. Not only does it have NO grass in there, it gets super muddy when it rains, and there is a lot of holes starting. Two of our ducks have sprained their legs by falling in the holes. Of course, it doesn't really help that there are only 3 ducks for the 3 drakes. So, today we decided that we were going to get rid of the most aggressive one to one of our friends that lives WAY out in the country, has quite a few ducks, and a pond! After catching Gregg to make sure he was okay, his ankle was very swollen and warm. We're hoping that doesn't mean that he broke it. :-/

That's all we have for now! We should be updating again real soon tho! :-)

My Goodness!!!

So, it's been WAY too long since I've updated the blog!! Sorry about that!

A LOT has changed since June!!

It turned out that Phineas and Ferb were both drakes, and Candace and Stacy turned out to be Candace and Steve! So, we traded Phineas and Ferb for 2 female Pekin from a local guy. He said they were both female, so we named them Zoe and Midna. It turns out that Midna is a drake as well!

 We then inherited our neighbors Khaki Campbell, Lily, because they were getting rid of all of their ducks. Lily was DDs best friends favorite duck, so we said we would take her. It wasn't until after I said that we would take her that we learned that she had broken her leg, and they had never done anything about it, so we have Lame Lily Duck! Around Labor Day I gave a friend 6 duck eggs to try and hatch. I had no idea if they were fertile or not, and it turned out that all 6 were fertile!!

 Then there was a mishap and the table that the incubator was on was rocked and only one egg remained. It hatched, and we named it Lucky. Since she was the only one, another friend gave us a Muscovy duckling (that we're debating is either a runner, or a Runner Scovie cross) that was about a week and a half older than her. So we had Gretchen and Lucky. Unfortunately, just the other day, Lucky choked on some food and we put her down. So, Gretchen is the only one who remains. :-(

All of our chickens are doing really well!! We ended up getting Buckeyes on 18June to replace the chickens that were lost in transit from Meyer. They all showed up happy, healthy, and chirping!

Robbie is our only rooster, thank goodness!! He welcomes the dawn every morning with a crow! He's fairly silent during the day tho. That makes me happy. We got our chicken coop done about a week before they were ready to go outside. Since at the time DH was traveling for work, it was just me building it! I did have a friend come over and help me with the initial build, but, after that I was on my own!

(yes, I know it's a little crooked... LOL)

The back is showing on this picture. I made it into 2 doors on the back, one large and one big, and the bigger door also has a large window in it. I'm going to be getting some better wiring to put over the openings, but, for winter I want to put some plexiglass, or something similar over them.

They seem to really enjoy it out there! They all free range in the back yard during the day.

(That's our neighbors RIR. They were have a West Side Story moment I think)

Recently a friend was moving and she had to get rid of all her chickens. So, we brought home 3 more hens, Boots, Lunch and Dinner. (I could only remember one of their names... LOL)

Boots

Lunch

Dinner

They're already laying, tho Lunch has just started a molt. Bad timing Lunch, bad timing!

Remember that tiny puppy we brought home?? Well, she's mostly grown up these days!! Here's some pictures of the little Annie from the last month or so. 

Sam and Annie

Annie and Dusty

Annie dressed up with no place to go!

Bat-eared Annie!

Our garden was mostly a bust this year. It was SO hot by the time the sun came out that none of us dared venture out there for more than a couple of minutes at most. Then our mower broke and we couldn't mow any grass, so the grass overtook EVERYTHING! (This was before we got the chickens and ducks out there to free range, they would have taken care of it.. LOL) At one point there was a deer sleeping in my garden! I scared it out when I went to feed the ducks and chickens. I didn't even see it! It just jumped up and ran off down the street! Oops! When we finally got everything fixed, it was just too late for the garden. We did find some interesting things in the back yard tho. Like this fellow:

Yes... that is a dead copperhead. We found it in the back yard. DS was moving the mower and it slithered out. He jumped out of the way and came and got me. Then he ran and got the neighbor and we cut it's head off. If it would have been in the back yard when it was mowed, I would have simply relocated it, or left it to leave, but with the grass being so high, I couldn't take a chance of someone getting hurt back there. 

We've already got a few things planned for next year, and we have some things in the garden now, covered by hoop houses! Lets see if we can get those to grow in there over the winter! Lets hope for a mild one! 

Hopefully it won't take me almost  months to update again! Until then, everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Just some updates!

Well, things have been sorta eventful around these parts the last week or so. DH had been gone to Florida for work, so it was just the kids, the animals, and myself.

This past week seen another Tropical Storm. This one was pretty good! Still nothing major, but, it sure did leave lots of rain and plenty of wind! The ducks were LOVING it tho!

They sure have gotten big since we got them in March and early April!! Stacy is definitely a drake, and Candace is a hen. I'm also pretty sure that Phineas is a hen and Ferb is a drake. Woohoo! One of each! I'm excited about that!

We had been waiting for what seems like forever to get our chicks we ordered from Meyer. We originally didn't think that we were going to get them until mid July, but, it turns out that they had an over hatch and we were able to get them this week! Apparently it wasn't a very good week to get chicks via mail. When our 8 chicks arrived, only 3 were alive. The other 5 had gotten themselves outside of the matting and stuck between it and the box and were more than likely too cold and died. :( I called the hatchery as soon as I got home and they said that they would give me until Monday to make sure those 3 were going to make it, and they would replace them. Unfortunately, unless they have an over hatch, they may not have any chicks until August! I really don't want to wait until August to get the rest of my chicks! That would mean that I would need to give up my bathroom THREE times! LOL I think in about 3 weeks I'm going to get the chicks enclosure made up, and then they can go outside. It should be plenty warm enough that they don't need a heat lamp any more.

Here are the remaining 3 chicks tho!

From left to right we have Nugget, Bonnie, and Louise. I was going to name them Thelma and Louise, but DD had other plans. Of the ones that were gone when I opened the box, 2 were yellow, 1 was grey, and the other was chipmunk like Nugget and Bonnie. The other chick was a "meal maker" free chick and I'm pretty sure it was a black Australorp. I hope that when we get the new chicks that they're not all chipmunk. I'll update on Monday and let y'all know if I'll be getting chicks next week, or in a couple months. :/

Annie went to the vet this morning. She's getting SO big! She got her 12 week shots, and weighs 17 pounds.  She's gained almost 13 pounds since we got her. How crazy is that?!?! She's pretty much outgrown the crate that we have her in. We have a bolster bed in there, so if we took that out, she might still fit, but there's no tray to the bottom so I would feel bad about not having a nice squishy bed in there for her! Here's a picture of her in her favorite sleeping spot... under our table!

How could you ever be mad at that face? Even if she does have your $80 tennis shoe in her mouth! ;-) She's actually doing really well with the whole chewing thing. She mostly uses Lilly as her chew toy. Of course, lots of barking and hilarity begin about that time as well. :-)

Alberto

So... not much to report in on here at Ivy Hill. I've been pulling a steady handful+ of strawberries every day tho. Delicious ripe strawberries! YUM! The eggplant and peppers are starting to get the beginnings of flowers, and the tomatoes and beans HAVE flowers! Just thinking of sinking my teeth into a vine ripened tomato makes my mouth water with excitement!

The ducks are doing really well in their enclosure! They really like it out there! They seem to enjoy standing close to the fence when the dogs come out. The only one that really seems to get worked up any more is Dusty. She would stand there and bark at them for a good 5 minutes before giving up. Of course, when they get riled up and start running around their pen, all the dogs start to get riled up! Minus Annie of course. She doesn't really seem to give any thought to those ducks at all.

I think I might have made a big mistake when ordering our chicks. We ordered from Meyer Hatcheries. They had what was called a Meal Maker. I didn't really bother looking it up, because I thought it was just something that you put in their food or water when you get them. It was free, so I ordered one for each of the chicks... 7 in total. The other day I was checking on our order, just being curious, and I decided that I would look up what a meal maker was. IT'S A FREE CHICKEN! GAH! They say that they give these chickens away so that you can either donate the eggs, or slaughter the chicken and donate it to someone less fortunate or a soup kitchen or whatever. What am I going to do with 14 chickens?!?! We only wanted 7... we can't do 14! LOL Maybe I will give some to the neighbors. I don't know WHAT I'm going to do!

We did have Tropical Storm Alberto pushing in on us, but overnight he decided that he wanted to stay out to sea and not come visit. Thank GOODNESS! Tropical storms aren't too bad, just like a bad thunderstorm really. I'm just glad that we don't have to worry about it right now. Official hurricane season begins in June, so, we're just a bit early.

Anyways! That's all I got for now. :-)

Free Ducks!

We've moved! Find us HERE!

So, the past 2 days have been KILLER!!

I somehow managed to rope my friend Billy into coming to help me build this enclosure for the ducks. We THOUGHT it would only take the day of Saturday, and we would would have it done! Well... neither of us accounted for the fact that we are not the worlds best carpenters.

We got SLIGHTLY farther than this on Saturday. We managed to get all 4 walls completely up, the door in, and a support beam in the center. We then realized that it was going to start pouring down rain. We got all of the equipment inside about the time that the Heavens opened and the rain came down in buckets!

So, after church today, the kids and I went to our FAVORITE fast food place. It's called Cook-Out. You can get a main item, TWO side items, and a drink for less than $5. If you want a shake (which are some of the best in the universe might I add) it's $1 more. Today, I got the PB shake. It brought me back to Cincy where you can get the worlds BEST PB shake any corner UDF store. Haven't had one since then. It was DELISH! I may have a new addiction!

After lunch, we got back to work. We got the fencing on the outside, and the chicken wire on the top. I got most of it tied together, but the one section on the very outer edge isn't done. It overlaps quite a bit, and we don't really have many predators here, so I'm not super worried. 

The only things left to do are: Get support beams for between the 12' sections, build a ramp of some sort for the kiddie pool, a cinder block or something so they can get OUT of the pool, and putting the chicken wire on the bottom of the inside. 

 I thought this picture was really funny because Lilly was watching them hard core! Dusty is infatuated by them and every time she goes outside she walks around it about 209 times before I go out there and get her. LOL

We also ordered our chickens today. I believe we're going to have to build another enclosure for the chickens. It just doesn't look like there's going to be enough room for both the ducks and chickens in that enclosure. We won't get the chickens until July. Unfortunately, in all the mock order that I put in with that hatchery, I never noticed that they had an option to pay when the chicks were ready to ship. I could have had them by now. :-( Oh well. It's all for the best I think. :-)

**** Linking up with The Prairie Homestead

More ducks?!

So, apparently I must have a soft spot for the ducks.

Today I was sitting with Phineas and Ferb (the duckling) and all of a sudden I got this horrible feeling that they were lonely, so, we went to Tractor Supply to get 2 more Rouen ducklings. Unfortunately they didn't have any more, but they DID have Pekin ducklings, so, we now have 2 of those! Bug named them Stacy and Candace. I will try and get some pictures tomorrow.

We have 14 tomatoes in the ground, 15 cucumbers, 8 of which were sprouted volunteers from last years cukes. I also planted 2 hills of 2 watermelon. Tomorrow starts spring break for the kids, so Monk will plant his pumpkins. I'm going to plant some garlic in with them. Supposedly its supposed to help keep the squash vine borers away. We lost all of our pumpkins last year to them. The pest bugs are pretty bad already this year! I hope its not going to be a terrible year for bugs. I just want Monk to be able to harvest his pumpkins.

Maybe the ducks will help with the bugs some. I'm really trying to get them to imprint on me so I don't have to worry about them running off because the garden area isn't fenced. If we can get the ducks to help with keeping the bugs down, it would be a BIG help! I just hope that our ducks won't decide that the plants are better than the bugs!

We're still planning on getting Bug her chicks for her birthday. The ducks should be old enough to go out into an enclosure by he birthday, leaving the tub for the chicks. I just hope that when the chicks are old enough to go into the enclosure that the ducks aren't going to pick on the chicks. I'll have to figure out some way to put them in the enclosure without giving the ducks access to them until they get used to each other. I guess we will figure it out in time! We've got a while yet.

Spring Has Sprung!!

We've been pretty busy here at Ivy Hill trying to get things done! I planted those daffodils a few weeks ago, not expecting them to bloom this year, but apparently they decided that they wanted to make an appearance! We have plans to put a brick border around the beds around the porch. We also put more flowers around our crepe myrtle tree, and cleaned out around the mailbox and planted flowers there too. The mailman got a surprise when one of those flowers sprouted a little yellow daffodil as well! :-)

This picture of our pear tree was taken a couple of days ago. There are several more blooms on it now! Last year in April we had tornadoes and every single bloom, save 1, was blown off the tree! It was doing really well until the hurricane came and then we had to pull the 1 immature pear so it didn't fly off and go thru a window or anything. We're hoping that this year we have some pears to harvest! It's still a pretty young tree, so I'm pretty surprised that we are getting anything.

I did finally get the strawberry bed cleaned out! This was taken the other day as well, before I had gotten it completely cleaned out. This year, I'm not going to let them go hog wild like I did last year! Sheesh! What a mess that bed was! There are quite a few more flowers now and some of them already have the beginnings of strawberries on them!

Last year DH thought it would be a good idea to put our grapes on the fence because one of our other neighbors had done it that way. I TRIED to get him to just put up some lines for a small vineyard, but, he wouldn't cough up the dough for it. I guess it's just practice for our farm anyways, but now that I think about it... it's going to be difficult to keep the dogs off of the immature grapes! I noticed that this winter they chewed some of the vines that were on the inside of the fence. This same vine now has a few very small leaves. It's quite exciting!

We had gone to Tractor Supply and there were these ADORABLE little grey Easter Eggers! If DH would have had his way, we would have brought some home. I told him that we didn't have the set up for it right now and that if he would just be patient, then we could get a coop and get some chickens. We've decided that we're going to get some for DDs birthday. Since they will be her pets, they will all have names, and we will only use them for eggs. DH does want to get some rabbits for meat. I guess we will have to see how that goes. I'm not real keen on the idea because, while I love the taste of rabbit, they are just SO adorable!

This is DS holding one of our friends Easter Egger chicks. That little chick just attached itself to him and when anybody tried to pick it up it would cheep up a storm and as soon as you put it down, it would snuggle back into his lap and quiet right back down.

Elsewhere, we are watching our new tomatoes grow by the day! Most of them have their first set of true leaves now. Almost all of the other seeds didn't make it. We've got more that we planted. I'm seriously going to invest in the light for next year!! This is ridiculous! We put almost 2 months into those seedlings and they were just so leggy!!

Anyways, until the next time! I hope that everyone is able to get their hands in the dirt soon!