SA Farm's journal

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I'll leave up the bird house for a bit to see what happens. I guess that I will need to scare away the barn swallows from the front porch if I want the hummingbirds to return. I was hoping the two species could peaceably coexist as the house flies can get bad at times and I understand barn swallows eat flies.

 

[SA Farm]

So the chicks from my Monday hatch are going to their new home today. The poults will be going this Monday or Tuesday, I think. One of them is having a difficult time getting up once down, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to find it gone one of these days. I doubt it’ll make it to Monday and I wouldn’t feel right selling it now even if it does.
Locked down my next hatch today. Got 11 turkey and 10 chicken eggs in. One chicken egg doesn’t look hopeful, but we’ll see how it goes. I locked it down anyway, but marked that it wasn’t hopeful so it doesn’t mess up my hatch rates.
Older chicks are nearly 7 weeks old. I’d usually have them out full time by now, but we’re experiencing a polar vortex and had some snow and hail today, so they still get to come in at night.
Obviously I haven’t been able to plant my garden yet, and I’m getting beyond antsy to get what were supposed to be seedlings and are now full blown plants outside.
They may be kinda big at this point lol

I like starting my tomatoes and peppers early, but they can usually be out by May. Not still sitting in my window waiting for it to warm up!
Yesterday, Missy (Turkey) spent most of the day crammed into the nest box with the two other broodies, so DH and I are going to move Consort and all eggs to her own personal digs tonight. If Princess stays broody, I might wrangle her up some eggs and set her up someplace else, but I’m seriously running out of extra spots.
Since the geese failed their broody mission, I pulled their nest box out. Arwen is still trying to sit on air, but I’m going to just keep kicking her outside. Hopefully the cold snap will help dissuade her

 

[CntryBoy777]

We are on the other end of the "spetrum"....took this, this morin'...it is Joyce by the maters....she is 5'9".....

 

[thistlebloom]

Tomato envy! Yours too SA! I killed mine. There are a few still clinging to life, but it's not going to give me any head start on a short already season.
Boo to Polar Vortex' delivering snow! You have my sympathy. We are supposed to reach 70 tomorrow. About time too.

 

[Bruce]

I understand barn swallows eat flies

Yep, they devour flying insects. There must be some way to build a small area somewhere else on the house to attract them??? Do you have any overhangs where you could mount a shelf or nest cup about 8" below the overhang? Birds do protect their nest sites, even against things that wouldn't be at all interested in their babies like the hummers.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I saw on YouTube recently how to make a barn swallow nest. I may make one and then make an overhang for the nest and place them on a pole away from the house and see if that attracts them.

 

[SA Farm]

Happy Mother’s Day! (Belated) Had a nice dinner with DH’s mom, then bought an ice cream cake to have for dessert with my mom. I can’t believe how close I am to becoming a mom, myself. I’m so nervous and excited about it!

So, I ended up losing a poult the other day, but not for the reason I was expecting.
I usually hatch my poults with a batch of chicks. I don’t need to, but I tend to start hatching with chicks and since I hatch weekly, they’re combined. I just make sure I don’t have too many hatching at once. Done this for years without having any real issues. I’ve sold poults and chicks no problem.
This week, I sell the chicks and the next day the poults are alarm crying. I check and all is well. They have food, water, temp is fine. They’re still crying hours later, so I move the heat lamp around just in case.
They cry and cry.
Following morning one has passed and I’m thinking it was the weak one. Just couldn’t survive the stress of the constant crying. I think maybe they’re just freaking out because they miss their chick friends, but I have nothing their age. My youngest chicks are at least 3 weeks old and my next hatch isn’t going to happen in time.
The poults are starting to look “off” and I worry I’m going to lose them to stress, so I don’t know what else to do. I grab a chick and toss it in with them. They cry a bit longer, but slowly settle down.
My poults now have an emotional support chick 🤦‍♀️ And all is right in their world lol

 

[thistlebloom]

That's really something. Who would have thought they would bond like that?
Glad they are happier now and that you were able to figure out the problem.

 

[SA Farm]

Consort moved with what was left of her eggs. She’s got 7 and two of them might be goners, but I’ll leave them for now. They’re due next weekend. If none hatch, I have eggs in the bator I might give her instead.

I’m not sure if Nutmeg is going broody or if I just caught her getting ready to lay and she wasn’t inclined to move. I suppose I’ll find out later on if the broody bug has continued to spread or not

Yesterday was gorgeous, so I managed to get quite a bit of work done. A good thing since I’ve been feeling like a slacker lately with getting tired so easily.
Finally starting to put topsoil on the garden so I can get planting. Got my older chicks moved out now that we aren’t supposed to get anymore freezing temps — they can now handle it if we do, but still! And so on.
The guy who was supposed to pick up some poults never showed, so I have to advertise them. I have an all turkey hatch happening this weekend and I’m picking up my new ram tomorrow. After my big turkey hatch, I’ll be down to one incubator and 2 smaller remaining hatches. Good time to quit, I think.
One of the pics I took while taking a break yesterday 😊

 

[Baymule]

You must have either a large incubator or a bunch of smaller ones! You do a lot of hatching. That’s so funny about the poults missing their emotional support chicks! Who knew?