What did the fox say?

Apparently... NOM! NOM!

We started the Spring with 24 chickens. Not including our incubated balls of fluff. That number has dwindled down to 10. Granted 1 was eaten by a revenge-filled cat, 1 natural causes, and a possible raccoon snagged 1 or 2. The rest have been taken by foxes.

As beautiful as these creatures and the others are it makes us pretty upset. Mr. Awesome has some plans to get the remaining flock enclosed. In the meantime, when we don't let the dog out to roam the property we put a radio on. I read somewhere that one trick is to leave it on because it sounds like humans are out and about.

This is our fault of course. If we had a run perhaps we could have saved them or at least some of them. :(

In other news, our garden is in full swing. I haven't used it to its maximum potential. This year I'm

blaming it on my healing knee. Remember "The great knee incident" last December? Oh don't get me wrong I'm healing awesome. I am just a bit impatient in the process.

Mr. Awesome built raised beds for me that are working out splendidly. It has helped out well since squatting is not really something I'm doing a lot of right now.

We hatched out another set of chicks and included ducks! Out of 6 chicks and 6 ducklings, we now have 5 chicks and 2 ducklings. :)

These cute balls of fluff are not going out to range for a while. There is a hawk that has been roaming from time to time. That hawk made a meal of a newer chick.


My bees are not thriving. I had my nose in the hive several times but I am not seeing progress. I haven't talked to the bee people down the road but hope to do so to find out the magic they are using to keep the hives alive. I have been doing research on this and it still sounds as though it is due to the spraying of pesticides on farms. Since we are surrounded by farmland then it is a BIG problem for us. I'm scratching my head as to how to keep bees and keep them alive.

In other news, I was honored to be invited to be interviewed on The Bill & Kail Show about my story of abuse. I have been doing a series of videos about abuse, writing, and find us here-  Our YouTube channel. There is more but I'll be sharing that on my other blog later today- Hope When There Was None.

I hope your week is going great!

God bless and much love to you!

BIG HUGS,
Mel

Tales from the farm

Where has the time gone?! I can not believe it has gone by so fast! I remember not too long ago just moving into this dusty, airy, rambling home that I have come to love.

Home improvement projects have taken a bit of a slow down. Mr. Awesome found a job! That job was a second shift job of picking orders. He and I felt like "Strangers in the night" due to our hours.
I would go to my gig as a Breakfast Attendant at a local hotel from 5 am to 10 am or so. We would spend a few hours together and than he would be off until the wee hours of the morning. I felt blessed to have this time, some couples don't have that luxury.

In his 3rd week there, a posting for and IT position was available, so he applied. He interviewed and did get the position. I feel there was a higher purpose involved as no one else put in an application. Seriously! He is getting his bearings and enjoying the work.

Where did that put me in flinging coffee and eggs? I was able to quit that position to take care of Mini Man and get rest for myself. My Lyme cooties is still having a party in my body. I remain optimistic that I will be healed and this means I still need to make peace with my past. A major blessing has been to reunite with my eldest Son! This has been a big prayer since I left my ex- See my story here- Hope when there was none He has grown into a handsome man. We are catching up and trying to mend what was lost. His Fiance is beautiful Woman that is strong and he needs that.

Our baby Duck has kicked the awkward teen years to the curb and is female. So, Frank is now Frankie. She is adorable but still not allowed to mingle with the other 4 Ducks. I'm hoping they will give her an in. She looks at them longingly to belong to the group.

Yes, even in the barnyard there are cliques. It can be rather alarming when you first see this in action. Feathers flying everywhere, as a Chicken or Duck literally show who's the boss. This is where "The pecking order" comes from.

How long does this last? A few weeks to months. There are times of danger that brings the flock together.

That beautiful Hawk, adorable Raccoon, majestic Fox, Coyote, Skunk, Cat or Possum can spell trouble for our flock. It doesn't take long for one of these to whittle down our group in a matter or a day or days.

This year we kicked the flock out of the hen house into the Abbey and the Bat brooder. In doing so, many of our Hens went rogue, opting instead to find a spot randomly here and there. We found a bunch in the Yucca plants by our cars! But, once we found this spot, it was as though they banded together to find another hiding spot that we have yet to find.

The Ducks will just randomly squeeze out an egg and if we don't cut the grass for awhile you may hear or feel the crush of it under foot. Of course our Dog has found a majority of these eggs, though her coat now looks marvelous, this isn't what she was supposed to do.

There seems to be a romanticized view of a farm or having animals. Though, the charm has not been lost to me.

The Hen house is dusty, smelly and buggy. I don't care how many glamorous looking pictures you see on Pinterest or other social media. I does not stay pristine. I do look on these with great "Oh's and Ah's".

They do take some work.

Which brings me to the Bees! I enjoy looking at the beehive. I open the top and stare in awe at these
busy bees. They are so fascinating to watch. To see their back legs with multi-colored pants of pollen. Blue, Purple, Orange, Yellow and Red. It is amazing to see the change in the honey through the year. From light color, scent, and taste of Clovers to a richer color this Fall and a much hardier taste.

I admit I didn't check the whole hive as much as I should have. Perhaps it was nerves. Mind you, I wanted to get over my fear of Bees by raising Bees. My two lower Super boxes remained untouched this year. YIKES! I know! Bad Beekeeper! I also had a hard time lifting them. Oh, I recently attempted to wrangle and wiggle them apart to check to make sure all was well but, I couldn't get them apart. I did manage to lift bother of them simultaneously, with dismay to the Bees. A good group of them started to attack my suit. I felt horrible and tried to sing to them. As though this would calm them down. I tried to talk gently to them that I was doing these for their own good.

Nope didn't work. I didn't want my 7 year old to laugh at me if I ran away, flailing my body every which way to get the angry bees runaway screaming hysterically. I maintained my composure, rambling to try to calm the Bees down. I managed to check what I could and closed it back up. I called a few Beekeepers in the area that came highly recommended to mentor or help me out for tips but I didn't get calls back. YouTube has become a great friend to me but it would be nicer to have a buddy in person.

Our view from the top has improved! The barn that was next door was burnt down. It was sad and a big relief. Many of our troubles from varmints came from them shacking up there. We can see a lot further down the road.

The Butterflies were beautiful! I don't recall so many last year. Monarchs, Swallow tails and more, danced and fluttered all around us. It was so beautiful! I can not wait until next year.

We do have to hit the Thistles and Prickly lettuce around the house. The farmer that plants in the fields around us mentioned this is not good. He offered to give us something to help. I'm not sure abut that. I want to be as organic or natural as possible. Of course, after you get "bit" by one of these spiny green plants, your mind does have second thoughts.

There is so much more I need to catch up on but it is almost time for church. Later, Peanut and I will be heading to volunteer at a local farm for harvesting wild flower seeds. She has to volunteer for so many hours but I really am loving this so though she may decline on attending, I may continue to.

I have decided to take a break from my small business. I don't know exactly what direction to go. I posted on my page on FB Legacy Antiques & Estate Sales that I was unsure. I have so many ideas! My main thought is that I do need to just rest. Let my body heal and pray for wisdom. Now, if I wasn't so impatient this would be fine.

I hope your day and upcoming week are wonderful! Don't forget to check out our YouTube channel. I do need to throw on some newer videos. And learn how to edit them. Someday...


BIG HUGS!
Mel

Ultimate fails on a Homestead

I don't always show the failures of this sustainable lifestyle. I admit I am still learning bunches about this.

Here's a bit of my garden experience:

I was trained as a Master Gardener what seems like years ago. I had a small grass cutting company I managed and ran. I wanted customers to have a better experience so I took the class out of U of I and loved it!

I was able to provide weed identification, applied fertilizers, potted plants and gave a few basic ideas for landscaping. But I didn't focus at that time on how valuable it was to feed the earth.

Fast forward to present, I can truly see how much more I could have given to my clients if I had seen the Permaculture/Sustainable/Biodiverse community at that time. I always had a heart for homesteading but didn't really know what it was until I met my 2nd Husband, Terry too had a interest in learning to live off the land someday.

We made the leap into homesteading after being apartment dwellers in 2011. We were blessed to rent a HUGE old hunt lodge that was off the Kankakee river- see some of those goings on here-Redrum hotel .

Now to get off track a little here is some info on Terry (A.K.A- Mr. Awesome) has a background with Radio/TV and as recent as a few year ago as an IT Specialist for FEMA. He was gone at least 8 months out of the year and I missed him. At the time of the change from the apartment to the hunt lodge he was gone. I did as much as I could by myself and when he could come home on the weekends, he would become a weekend warrior. But that was really heard on him and our relationship.

I missed him and made a deal that I would work so he could stay home. They money was definitely not anywhere what he was making but he was home.

During this time we started to make plans to open a B n B with antique shop inside. We were already hosting Barn sales that were building steam! We had people knocking on our door to ask when the next one would be.

We also toyed with the idea to have a small cafe that would serve tea, coffee, soups, sandwiches, and desserts. We were approached by the park service to host "Wild game dinners" this would be held a few times a year and cooked by the employees.

I wanted to host classes that covered: Hunting, Fishing, Cast iron cooking, Foraging in the backyard, Canning, Survival skills and First aid in emergency situations. Of course crafty type of classes featuring old and new skills. I had asked a small group of friends that are amazing with these skills to help us learn, connect us with others so we could make almost a fest out of it.

We were so EXCITED!  These plans came to a screeching halt when there were some changes to our handshake agreement with our rental company. Everything fell through.

We managed to be blessed a second time to find our forever home. Here we could raise the animals, garden as much we want, run naked if we wanted to. (Scary thought I know!)

So what does all this have to do with our fails and why share them?

This is kind of a "Do as I say not as I do" type of thing.

I don't think I was as prepared as I thought I would be to start raising animals, the garden took more time then I hoped, and I was battling exhaustion. (My teen helpers weren't always very helpful)

Canning had several mishaps. We lost dozens of jars due to someone who shall remain nameless
popping the caps on my jars before they were done. This person liked the sound it made while cooling. Some of my canning was mushy despite following directions. I have learned some things about that since then!

There are the bugs that infested our tomatoes so I lost almost the whole lot. The chickens that flew in and ate my herbs to nubs after being in the garden the whole day. Or the rows and rows of veggies that didn't come up or were damaged due to the weather. My water person didn't water for long enough or often enough and many plants died.

Living in old homes has it's charm but when it rains it could pour literally! There were some mold issues in our old place so bad the kids and I were miserable. Also that is the 2nd time I was infected with Lyme. Deer are pretty normal to see in the country, since living off the river it was a water source for Deer so ticks were all over. So were mosquitoes! We couldn't go out at times when they were too thick to make a run just to go to the car. And by the way it was either a mosquito or spider that infected me with Lyme.

We did fogging, DIY fan units, sprays, essential oils, keeping the lawn short, cutting down any old wood, dumping standing water and bug zappers. They were too intense.

Our new home also has some water issues, not as bad as our rental thank goodness. I have pots and containers strategically placed in our attic to collect water. The roof is a job that is not readily affordable at this time.

We knew the house was a challenge when we purchased it! We hope to barter, trade and work out some sort of agreement to help with repairs that may be a bit too large or not in Mr. Awesome expertise.

There are always cooking fails! The old joke when the smoke detector goes off food is done. I am notorious at forgetting (Brain fog darn you Lyme!) to put things in my recipes. Eggs or Butter are on my forgetful list. So you may have a brick for banana bread or the cookies just are a bit off. And we did splurge for a new oven that we realized later has to be leveled. Cakes usually come out lopsided.

We had the animal fails. I embarrassed and sad to say it was our error in many cases.

As an example, a friend had sexed a rabbit we had gotten from a animal auction. Our friend said it wasa Doe.

We should have double checked. But several weeks later much to our sad dismay Fluffy (an Angora rabbit) had babies. Unbeknownst to us at a time when we were taking apart the rabbit hutch so they were in a dog crate for temporary use on the ground.

Needless to say some of the babies wiggled out and ended up being food for hungry chickens. I felt awful! I heard a wee voice screaming and didn't know until too late what it was. We tried to save a remaining injured baby but it succumbed a few days later. 2 others did survive! They stayed by Momma and were safe and sound. (Pictured above) We no longer have them. We had planned to go across the country in a renovated School bus but ended up finding our forever home as well as becoming Grandparents for the first time. A few months later we found out we were going to be Grandparents a second time too!

There was time we ran an errand into town and left our dogs outside, chained to a in ground stake, while our chickens were ranging. Now I did ask Mr. Awesome to put the dogs in. But he figured we wouldn't be gone that long.

We came home quickly to a view of white puffy looking clouds on the grass. It looked like snow piles here and there in the grass. We jumped out of the car, quickly realizing the dogs were gone and something was horribly wrong with those piles!

Up bounded one of the dogs, Blue, with a white hen mustache in her mouth.

We had a flock of 12. Key word there is "had".

It appeared the Rooster, Combs, put up quite a fight. He seemed to die doing exactly what Roosters are supposed to do. Protect the Hens.

We were angry, sad and upset with each other and the dog. It took a lot of restraint for Terry not to take care of the dog with his pistol.

Of course the dog was just doing what part of her breed does. Hunt. They are part Lab/Australian Shepard.

We did find a good home for Blue as soon as we could and kept Vi. 

Vi has more of a Shepard in her and seems to herd our animals. Not that given the chance she won't eat wee one We closely monitor her whereabouts and never leave her alone with chicks or ducklings.

There is the great beehive disaster! Mr. Awesome built a really cool hive for our first set of bees. We made it through the Spring, Summer and Fall without injury. Buttoned up the hive for the winter and thought all was well. We had some freezing, warm and then freezing again with a sprinkle of icy rain. This lead to the wood on the hive expanding and cold rain getting into the hive. Which ultimately caused them to die. In case your wondering Mr. Awesome didn't think the hive needed the dovetails, which would have been more secure, maybe there would have been no lose of the hive. We did have about 5 lbs of wax and several jars of honey. 

We lost our Mason bees the placement was not the best at our new digs. They area had too much rain and wind. They re homed themselves.

We have lost Chickens, Ducks, Guinea Fowl, Quail, and Rabbits to:

Coyotes

Owls

Den of Foxes

Some large fish that devoured one of our 2 year old Ducks at our old house while she was swimming a week after a flood near the house.

Hawks

We have also lost these to other Chickens, Guinea Fowl, and Rabbits.How?!

Remember the pecking order? It is not uncommon for a flock to peck at a younger group brought in. They seem to know the weaker ones even if we don't. Chicks may climb all over a chick that is down, eventually killing it.

They may keep the odd one away from food and water. They may fight to the death. A momma Rabbit may not feed her litter. She may eat them, step on them, push them out of the nest and they freeze if they get too cold (if it's the Fall or Winter). Finding a half eaten baby is not something you will see me post on social media. But it's nature, it happens.

Even with our efforts to rescue these babies, it isn't always pretty or a happy ending.

A chick can end up with Splayed legs, notice down below. Even after binding this wee one up after this picture was taken. It was weak and died. I thought for a few days it was on the mend but I was wrong.

Then there were deaths that happened and we had no idea why they died. We found them in the cage/coop in the morning.

Now many of these things we could have prevented. Some things you can't. I have heard stories from other homesteaders/farmers that have dealt with larger animals deaths.

Sows that rolled on their babies, killing them.
Mother animals that walk away from their babies leaving them to fend for themselves.
Animals that die during birthing.
A group of people  bought a pregnant cow and though the cow was considered healthy she and the baby died overnight.
Animals that chocked on something too big for it.
Whole crops gone in an instant due to flood, tornado or fire.
Crops gone to severe insect infestations

While we have those moments of stupidity, anger or sadness; it is still beautiful to celebrate life, something green that we grew, and feeling grateful for a job well done. 

We have learned many valuable lessons that comes for caring for our animals. We have a roof over our head, food in the fridge, cars that run, love and support from friends and family.

So you want to raise Ducklings?

There is something that just gets my heart going when it comes to Chickens and especially Ducks!

I had purchased our first set of ducklings without learning a few special things.

The 2 most important things-
Ducks and Ducklings are MESSY! You can clean up there area and literally within minutes you will have a mess again.

Like my chick post they will need similar items to start:

Brooder- Check out Pinterest
Heat lamp- Please remember to keep away from cardboard, plastic, anything flammable and too close to the chicks.
Thermometer- Temps need to be at 90 degrees and lowered down 5 to 7 degrees each week.
Food/Water dish
Rubber backed shelf liner- They need a non-slip surface or they could have splay legs.
Brewers Yeast or Niacin
Un-medicated feed- Chick starter 20% Protein or Gamebird starter 20%
Pine shavings or whatever your choice. No cedar or long straw.

Health- 

When you are looking at chicks at your feed store or have them shipped to you make sure you check to make sure they have:

Clear eyes
Curious
Energetic
Good legs
Bill has no discharge

We also make sure to wash our hands after handling our chicks, ducklings and grown flock.

Food and water-

Let me define into greater detail; you will food, poop and especially water. As for poop, they really stink. Worse then chicken poop, seriously. We have raised chicks and ducklings together. The issue with that is ducklings need a higher protein starter feed at least 20%, I used game bird feed for about 10 weeks and then I was able to put them on chick starter.

With my first ducklings I also used Brewers yeast and Niacin to help with bone development. Otherwise you could end up with pigeon toed ducks or they may look bow legged.

If you get day old from the mail, like chicks they don't need to eat right away, 3 days should be fine You will have to teach them how to drink, by dipping their bill into the water dish.

Make sure your using a chick sized water dish! Ducks are curious and will try to get in your dish if it's too big. 2 things on this:

1) Waterproofing doesn't come into play for 4 weeks. In the wild Momma helps with this.

2) Wee ducklings can catch a chill or tire easily if paddling in the water and could drown. Or if the water dish is too big they could also drown.

Ducks do need to have water available to drink along with their food. Ducklings can drink more water then chicks. Be forewarned they can drink up to a 1/2 gallon a day by the time they are 6 to 8 weeks old. Brewers yeast can be added to feed, 3 cups to 10 lbs of food.

Ducks do need to keep their nostrils moist so a small flat bottom bowl as they grow will be great! Water helps get rid of food and bits they have in them. Did I say already they make a mess with water? If I hadn't said it enough, here I go again reminding you.

Treats-

We give our ducks herbs, weeds, cut up fruit (though they love watermelon!), scrambled eggs, and spaghetti. These are sparingly. We treat our ducks to herbs in water, greens in their water dish and our chickens love this too!

Coops-

Like chickens a decision about coops and free ranging needs to be made. When the ducklings get better they don't "Need" a pond or kids pool but they will love you for it!

You will need to do the "Math" on how much space you need in your coop. I found this great blog and almost feel silly writing this with so much great stuff in it! Find it here-Raising Ducklings to ducks

We also don't use artificial lighting or heating in our Abbey for the ducks. They will adjust to the climate. They seem to run hotter then the chickens and withstand the colder temps more so.

Will you be free ranging, closed run, or mobile run?

Which ever you choose except for free ranging, think about space for these guys. They can go out sooner then chicks as they're feathers come in about 7 weeks and they love to stay outside as long as it doesn't get colder then 50 degrees out.

You do have to worry about predators! Despite being bigger then chicks, these babies can still make a tasty meal for Raccoons, Owls, Hawks, Coyotes, and so on.

In the run make sure you use a good hardcloth for run/coop. Raccoons and some other animals can reach through the holes in the wire and grab the neck of the bird. It's a pretty gruesome sight to see the wee one after the massacre.

Also a reminder ducks don't need to roost like chickens do! So that space isn't needed. But hardcloth or some sort of floor is needed in order to keep them safe.

How can I tell if I have a male duck?

In our experience, we have noticed males have a softer voice that seems like someone is holding a hand across their mouth to muffle them. They may also have a curl on their tail!

Do I need a male to get duck eggs?

No male is needed in order to get eggs!







When will my ducks start laying?


She will start laying starting around 16 weeks or so. Depending on the breed, stress, weather conditions and health.

Duck eggs are considerably larger then chicken eggs. I'll be sharing a YouTube on the differences soon so you can get a visual.

Duck eggs have a harder smoother shell and the white is a lot thicker then chicken eggs. If used for eating, it is better to bake with them. It is said they do make loftier baked goods.

Pond or pool-

We have been using a kiddie pool for years for our ducks. Depending on your pool or pond size you may have to consider how many are in your flock. Water in pools are needed every couple days. Stagnant water can lead to sickness, mosquito infected water and just plain yucky stuff. We have 4 and hope to add more but our kiddie pool is a mess after 10 mins after changing it.

A few other things-

Ducks can live for 10 years! Depending on what your needs are of course!

Consider the breed of duck before you buy. Muscovies are supposed to have class which could be worrisome with those with kids. Mallards will migrate and may not come back next year.

This was a crash course in Ducklings and Ducks! I hope that helps. If you have any suggestions or comments please leave them below.

Duck poop is great for your garden! Like chicken poop it has to be composted for severl months before putting it on and around your plants. We have our flock in the garden right now, tilling leftover weeds and plants. We will be taking them out soon. The weather is handling the neutralization of the poop so we can plant in May.

If this helped you please share!