her thoughts | KW Homestead

Category: her thoughts (page 6 of 21)

Black Snake!

The other day, in broad daylight, Jason and I saw a black snake scaling the large oak tree in our front yard. He was about 3 feet long, and the way he moved up the tree was amazing!

Snake in a tree!

As we got closer, he started to hesitate about climbing higher, and decided to turn around and slither down into the wood pile.

Even though one of our chicks went missing a few days before, I just can’t be mad at such an amazing creature. We’ve often seen him hunting frogs in Heidi’s Hole (the little pond in the garden), and perhaps he ate our chick, but you never know. Maybe it was a hawk…

What a beautiful creature!

A vertical climb!

.:.

A Heritage Turkey Update: Greener Pastures!

July 6, 2015 / Emma / 1 Comment

It has been a while since we have updated the website, but we’re finally back in the swing of things here!

So much has happened in the last few months (so much that we just couldn’t find the time to post!). We thought that one of our more important updates is to share with you the status of the heritage turkeys...

About a month ago they took over the residence of our crazy, nervous Khaki Campbell ducks! This means that they now have a tractor to live in, which protects them from the elements and keeps them safe. The great thing about raising animals in a tractor is that they get new forage and grass every few days. This makes them much healthier animals because there is always fresh greenery and bugs to eat and because their mobility cuts down on disease. Talk about Thanksgiving deliciousness!

They have been in their grassy place for a day, and later will be moved to the green place to the right.

The brown spaces are places they were in the past. See how much they like grass?

The tractor provides shade (a tarp) although they usually like to bunch together in the sun!

We moved them to the outside tractor because they matured enough that they didn’t need their heat lamps any more and because we slaughtered the Khaki Campbell males that were living in the tractor. We’ve kept the females for laying eggs and integrated them into the larger, newer duck flock, but we decided it was time to finally taste some duck! Details about the slaughter and butchery to come…

You can see in the video below that the different breeds of turkey are becoming apparent. The white turkeys with the black striped feathers are Royal Palms and the pure white ones are Midget White, Giant White, or White Hollands (I guess we’ll find out as they mature). The majority of the turkeys are Bourbon Red Turkeys, with brown and reddish checker designs on their feathers. When this breed matures they will have solid brown and white patches.

Be sure to check out our Heritage Turkey page for information about ordering your Heritage Thanksgiving Turkey today!

.:.

Thanksgiving Turkey Update!

June 8, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

The turkeys are doing very well… And they will soon be moving out onto greener pastures.

Check out the video!

Jenny Wren Babies in Their Nest!

June 4, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

What a wonderful sight to see, when you come out of your front door… A little nest filled with little tiny babies!

This nest has been occupied for 3 years, same nest and same plant. The jenny wren love their home here!

.:.

Piglets at Play!

June 3, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

This video is a fun one, but it doesn’t even show half of the hilarious antics that our piglets engage in!

Both litters of piglets sped most of their day squeezing out of their pen (although a few are getting to fat to make it through) and exploring the world. They started close to their mother’s pen but have since started going all around the yard, fearlessly visiting ducks, Gandalf and the teenage pigs, and even exploring the blackberry bushes.

They usually run when we approach, and the sight of 7 little pig butts high-tailing it really is one of the best sights you can see out here.

Here is a video (although it is a bit shaky since I am chasing them) that shows you what I mean…

Amelia the Pig and Bolt the Dog!

May 27, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

Bolt loves to chase and hump Amelia the pig!

Jason and the animals spending some quality time together…

And a video of Bolt and Amelia!

What’s Happening in the Garden…

May 22, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

We planted some more today, and checked on a lot of our little plants. Here’s what’s growing around here…

Provider greenbeans (first planting of three so far)

Baby pepper plants: bell peppers, cayennes, jalapenos, and aji.

Jason harvesting some greens for the chicken soup!

Baby paste tomato plants and their friend, basil!

Oregano and thyme that came back strong from last year’s planting.

Spearmint… What a wonderful smelling intruder!

Beans round 2.

The tomatillos are looking great!

Zucchini!

Our little garden pond, beloved by fish, frogs, and our flowering comfrey plant.

This year we’re growing our Irish potatoes in straw instead of in the groind… Should be easier to harvest!

Our cilantro went to seed very early this year!

Thyme in a tire… What a perfect planter!

A bed of snow peas, green onions, and carrots.

Snow peas!

A beautiful, volunteer chia plant. What symmetry!

.:.

We Have More Chickens!

May 20, 2015 / Emma / 1 Comment

You might be thinking… “You got more animals?!”

But let me explain… We’ve actually had these new chickens for about a week now, without us realizing it. When our second round of turkeys were shipped to us, the hatchery sent us 12 chicks as a “thank you” for being patient since our order of 50 bourbon red turkeys was delayed by 3 weeks. Since opening the box of baby birds can be exciting and very feathery, it is always hard to count them!

We noticed that there were a few “weird” looking birds mixed in with the homogenous bourbon reds, but just thought that maybe there was a color variation within the breed.

As the days went by, we became more skeptical, and we are sure now that the extra birds are chicks!

As far as we can tell, they look like a mutt bunch of Ameraucanas, who should grow up to lay beautiful green eggs. How exciting!

You can see from the pictures below that the “weird,” chipmunk-striped chicks are certainly different than the rest!

Sleeping, you can really see how different the chick looks than the pair of turkeys!

Here’s to more exciting diversity in our flock!

.:.

Angry, Broody, Bantam Hens: Look Out!

May 15, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

‘Tis the season for hens to start getting broody, and since we have noticed that our bantam hens are naturally more interested in sitting on eggs, we weren’t surprised to find one of our favorites, Cleo, sitting on eggs. She is the most dedicated of the “sitters” and never gives up! The other hens often wait until you reach for them ,and then explode out of the nest box with murder on their mind! Not Cleo, who sits patiently and fusses at you, pecking at your hand.

The video below shows one such event… and is a great resource to help you tell if you have a broody hen. It is also important to keep in mind that being broody doesn’t necessarily mean they will be committed for the whole 21 days. To be sure, the hen should refuse to give up, even when you reach under her to snatch eggs. If you can also feel that she has no feathers on her chest, and it feels like bare skin down there, then she’s probably in it for the long haul. Hens pull out their own chest feathers to ensure that there is skin-to-egg contact during the incubation period.

Check out the video below to see an example of 2 broody hens… One feeling broody but not yet committed, and one ready for the real deal!

.:.

How To Remedy a Chicken’s Prolapsed Vent

May 13, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off

Bryn in solitary

One of our bantam hens, Bryn, was having some health issues a few weeks ago…

Her vent had prolapsed! For those of you don’t know, a chicken’s vent is where the eggs come from, as well as all the other things expelled from a chicken’s body! So having a prolapsed vent means that all of those things hang outside of the body and the chicken has trouble pooping and laying an egg becomes terrible.

A prolapsed vent… NOT pretty!

A couple reasons why this can happen…

Older hens lose muscle tone in this area
A particularly tough egg can do damage on its way out
Poor nutrition or lack of proper supplements or diet

A couple things that are important to do if this happens…

As soon as possible, separate the hen from the others so other hens don’t pick at the red, raw area.
Try to limit her light since the length of the day makes hens want to begin laying or continue laying.
Make sure she has access to proper food for healing.

Even if you do the above…

She might get an infection and die.
The vent might not retract on its own, which means you’ll need to help her out!

After doing some research, I learned that cleaning her vent area, applying witch hazel, and gently pushing her vent back inside is helpful and might work at getting her back in good health. I tried this 4 times and her vent stayed inside for a few minutes, but then popped back out. She wasn’t showing any signs of infection, was acting like herself, and hadn’t layed any eggs since being in solitary, so I didn’t want to give up her even though my tactics weren’t working!

Bryn getting her butt bathed…

Working on her vent…

I spoke with my dad and he reminded me about the medicinal magic of the plantago plant, which is great at fighting infection but also great at tightening and causing retraction. We thought it would work!

So this time I:

Washed her vent area really well with warm water
Chewed up a couple large plantain (plantago) leaves and spit the juice and the leaf peices around and onto her vent
Used my smallest finger to gently push her vent back inside her body and hold it there for a little while

Drying her off…

We kept her in the solitary cage for a few more days, and saw that in those days her vent continued to look better and had not popped back out again! She was reintroduced to the flock and has been fine ever since!

So if your chicken has a prolapsed vent, we recommend plantago!

.:.

KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013