Busy day for birds

We received our latest batch of broilers today.  I'm amazed each time we get baby chicks in as to how small they start out and how quickly they grow.  We'll have another butchering day about 8 weeks from now.

The chicks arrival also means it's time for the turkeys to come out of the brooder.  We clipped their wings so they can't fly as high - hopefully this will keep them on our property.  We opened the brooder and figured we would let them discover how to to get out on their own.  Several hours later, only a few figured it out.  If by tomorrow morning, they all aren't out, we'll give them a helping hand so we can clean up and move the chicks and the hover in.  Should make for a busy day.

MTD/YTD Egg Count

MTD egg count is 273.  YTD, that puts us at 892 eggs!

Re-breeding D2

D2 is our rabbit doe #2.  We bred her a month ago and patiently awaited bunnies, but none came.  So, we re-bred her in hopes that she'll take this time and isn't sterile.  Now we wait 30 days to see.

Egg count

The girls production is really starting to pick up!  23 large eggs and 61 smaller eggs = 84 this week! 

Bunnies - 1 week old

Here are the bunnies at one week old.  All 8 survived and seem to be growing nicely.  They like to sleep a lot and their eyes should start opening in a few days..

Here is a close up of one bunny sleeping.  As soon as I picked him up, Momma came over to inspect the others to see what I was doing!...

The ole swimmin' hole

Yesterday was blazing hot.  I checked on the pigs a few times and noticed they were intentionally splashing water out of their waterer and laying in it.  I suggested to Dan that we dig a hole and fill it with water for them to splash around in.  Last night he did just that and they seemed to enjoy themselves. 

Today the swimming hole was dry so I filled it up with water again.  The piglets came running when they saw what I was doing.  I lightened up the stream from the hose so it was more of a mist and the piggies loved it!  Picture kids running through a sprinkler in the summer.  All 5 pigs ran through the mist and once they were all to the other side, they ran back though again.  Over and over and over.  It was pretty darn cute!  Then they decided to check out the recently filled swimming hole and got themselves covered in mud!  The Chester White pigs, which started out mostly white, were two-toned white and brown by the end.  But they're happy and enjoyed their day and that's what matters.

Piglets

We finally located a livestock auction that sells feeder meat pigs.  I had no idea this would be so difficult in the area we live.  Growing up just 40 minutes south of where we currently live, everyone had pigs.  There were a few commercial pig farms too.  Now that we want some of our own, you'd think we were trying to purchase something illegal.

But lo and behold, we found them.  The auction house sell pigs on the 4th Tuesday of each month.  So in preparation for the bid day, Dan built a frame to go around his pickup bed to contain the pigs for the journey home.  Of all days, I had to go into the office on auction day, so Danny went with Dan to make the purchase.  They headed out around 9am to make the hour and fifteen minute trek south.  After getting setup with his number at the auction house, they proceeded in for the showing.  They watched a few sales trying to figure out how the process worked then they brought out a lot of 5 pigs - 4 gilts and 1 barrow.  The auction started and after a little bit of no bids the auctioneer lowered the price.  Again, no bids so the auctioneer lowered the price again.  Dan decided to bid.  Within seconds, the auctioneer deemed Dan the winner.  We had our pigs!  They drove to the back of the building, loaded up the pigs and started making their way back home. 

Dan and Danny arrived home around 1pm.  They setup the electric fencing, got feed and water setup and started unloading the piglets.  When Dan set them down they appeared to have never seen the green stuff they were on.  After a just a little bit they realized the green stuff (aka grass, weeds, etc) was edible.  We can only guess that the first few weeks of their lives were on a commercial farm and were fed from a feed lot.  It's such a good feeling knowing that we took them from that and brought them to an environment where they can run and play, eat greens and whatever else their snouts find.  They immediately seemed happy and very sociable.  They come up to us to be scratched, eat out of our hands and romp around us.

Here are a few picture shortly after their arrival...

And here is Dan watching the piglets and you can see the enclosure he made for the truck...