Reaallly reaalllly cold, again, still, some more...

Four below. Wind chill around 15 below. The rabbit water freezes within ten minutes of me taking it outside. And I take them hot water.
But, Gloria has two-week-old live babies in the nest and I think she's wonderful. I scored some bales of marsh hay and have crammed the cages full of hay. I took the last of my money and bought feed for the critters and we've got enough food for ourselves for probably four more days. And I've sent bills to folks who owe me money. And the woodstove is stoked and I've got a hot rum toddy in front of me... and things could be worse. And they probably will get worse. But for now... I'm just happy to be warm. Inside and out. :-)
Tomorrow night will be even colder, but then things are supposed to warm up. Supposedly.
Of course, with climate change they just don't seem to be able to predict the weather accurately, at all. Ever. But even if it's wrong, it's wrong in a way that I want to believe in. So I'll cling to it until it's proven.
And, miracle of miracles, the hens have been laying eggs. The old hens. Or at least a few of them have; we're getting three or four eggs a day. Enough for us, mostly. Still needing to buy eggs to meet the demand for bakery though. Luckily, this whole backyard chicken craze just keeps growing and eggs are easily available. I found someone who's charging only $2 a dozen. Compare that to the $3.50 that everyone else is charging. Compare that to the $1.85 that I'd have to pay for creepy grocery store eggs. I feel lucky.

The older black doe, Gloria, kindled last night. She made the most beautiful nest I've ever seen. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow and post it here.  She and Tut Jr. continue to produce well. The other two does who were bred at the same time have yet to even pull fur. If they don't kindle this time, I'm going to have to reconsider feeding them for the winter.
Luckily it's a bit warmer than it's been... highs in the 40s and 30s, with lows in the high 20s. The water for the animals barely freezes. And if the does kindle on the wire, I'll have a better chance of saving them. But this will be a third chance for both of them. I don't have high hopes. 
After weeks without eggs, I got two eggs from the older hens today. But I'm still going to make soup out of them.
I took down the wire that separated the old hens from the new hens last night, and the new hens still stay huddled in their part of the coop. Very funny.

Cold. Cold. Cold.

Really really cold. Zero last night. Trying hard to keep the animals in water... Need hay. Short on cash. Not good.
At least it's warming up a bit. Last night was probably the worst. I can probably get a few bales to tide us through. Farm market sales yesterday were ... disappointing.

I was going to post on Facebook just a silly little thing about how I was "going to call for a ban on the rampant over-use of the word 'absolutely,' but it seemed too 'absolute.' So I decided to ask for a little more moderate use of the word." And it got me to thinking about how so much of the discourse today is in absolutes. "I'm absolutely right. You're absolutely wrong." I'm so bone-tired of absolutes. It's easy to be righteous when you don't listen to anyone. There's little sense of community, disrespect for society, and an awful lot of righteous indignation. There's greed and plenty of it, and fear ...
What can you do with a people who will buy bullets before they'll learn how to feed themselves?

When I was a teenager, my dad taped a cartoon to my door... something about the meek inheriting the earth and "what did they do to deserve that?" When I asked him why he did that, and he just sort of ducked into himself and mumbled something about how it reminded him of me.

I'm such an idiot sometimes. I didn't get it then. Now it tells me a lot about how he thought of me, and it makes me miss him so much. And I hope that he was right. Because I feel like, when push comes to shove, and all those people with bullets get hungry, I'm going to get shot.

I thought about going the bullet route. But I just can't do it. Guess I'll just have to rely on my good looks. Hah!

Time to hunker down for winter

Snowed last night. Just a quarter of an inch or so. It'll all melt today. It's predicted to get into the mid 30s F, and it's clear and sunny. It's very pretty right now.
Moved most of the does the other day. Did I post that already? Moved 'em under the cedars, on the east side of the privacy fence. Out of the wind, out of the sight of prying eyes. Little neighbor boy would love to get his hands on them. Still have to move the bucks and the communal cage.
At least two of the bred does are looking like they'll kindle on time. I have to make another nest box this weekend. It's supposed to be very cold this weekend. Very cold.  5 degrees F.
Baking today for the farmers market. Could be a good day tomorrow.

November 18, 2013

Yesterday we butchered some of the old hens (roughly a third of the flock). They haven't laid a single egg in over two weeks. And of all the hens I cleaned yesterday, only one of them had an egg inside. It was time.
I'd been dreading it. But then I decided that I was just overthinking it. I knew it was time. Past time, actually, and that it was part of the deal. They aren't pets, they're here to feed us. They've had a good life, and it was time for them to feed us in a different way.
And it was okay.
Next time we'll do all the rest of them.
(Practical note: Last time we did old hens I skinned them because I'd heard that they're hard to pluck. This time I plucked them and it was waaaay easy. Much much easier than skinning.)
Windy and cold today. Lows tonight in the 20s. Saw a few random snowflakes. Ground still isn't frozen though.

Last week, overnight, most of the leaves dropped from the apple tree.
It's raining. There's a full moon, but we won't see it.

Update: New chickens are on their way!

The first batch of chickens, the Wyandottes. From spring of 2009.

I just filled out the order form for a new batch of chickens. The layers are getting to be, well, not so layer-ish. They're more cranky old biddy-ish. Not all of them, of course, and I'm really fond of some of them. But, collectively, they're still not laying that many eggs.

The oldest hens, the Wyandottes, are four years old already. Hard to believe. The rest of them are three years old. Right now the Javas are broody. (Have I mentioned how much I've grown to appreciate the Javas? They're great great great foragers, good layers, and not too noisy. I really like them.) The white jersey giants could be soup anytime. There's a buff something or another that's a real pain in the ass. The little buff cochins are pretty sweet. The Salmon faverolle is beautiful but I bet she hasn't laid an egg in a month. In my top ten list would be the Favas, the Wyandottes, the Black Australorp, the Buff Orpingtons, the Red Chantecler and the Cochins. I'm so tough, there's only six on my top ten list.


I also have acknowledged that I can't kill them. Unless I kill them all. And I don't want to kill them all. And the reason that it's an all or nothing deal is that chickens are way smarter than I originally gave them credit for. Chickens remember. And when you chase them around and they scream bloody murder, the rest of the chickens treat you differently forever. So now, because we ate some of the hens last winter, the rest of the hens run from me. I carry the guilt. They remind me of my guilt -- in their world -- every day. It's a heavy burden.

On the other hand, feeding a bunch of hens that aren't producing anything is a burden too. I've been going back and forth on this all summer. Eat them? Or not? I finally punted and just ordered new birds. I'm still not sure what's going to happen to the old ones. I know what should happen, but I don't know what's going to happen.

I'm getting the super-assorted bunch of 25 chickens from Sandhill Preservation. Figuring half hens, I'll have a dozen decent layers by January plus whatever is left of the oldsters. And we'll have a dozen roosters in the freezer. All heritage birds. Not bad for $20.

I almost ordered ducks instead. But I'm going to wait until spring for that. I want specific breeds (Ancona, Buff, Golden Cascades, Saxons), and can't afford that right now.

The rabbits are great. I've got ten does, some very nice blue and white lines are running, and I'm experimenting with a communal pen for either the does, or the grow-outs. I'm selling three breeding trios this summer, and I'm selling my first dead rabbit tomorrow. Eight dollars a pound. (!!)
And I was gifted with a Silver Fox a few weeks ago. I and a young couple down the road who are just starting with Silver Foxes are going to work together on our herds. I'll borrow their buck, give them pick of the litter in exchange, and then buy a buck from them when they have one. Silver Fox are an excellent meat breed.

I also was given a Flemish Giant doe, which I'll breed a few times and then probably get rid of. She's kind of nasty. We'll see. Maybe she'll straighten out.

The really big news on the rabbit front is that I've hooked up with someone who has great connections with restaurants in the cities. She thinks she can sell ten rabbits a week. That's $200 a week. My cost is about $8 a rabbit, and I can get $20 for them... I'm working on cutting my cost to $2.5 with hay, fodder, and growing my own feed. But that's going to take a while. At any rate, it's extra money and I'm going for it.