Spring fever is in full force with farmer and farm critters alike jumping at the bit to relish in the new season. Here’s our week in review…
Spring Peepers!
One of those classic tell-tale signs that spring is here is the sound of spring peepers! These little frogs sing in chorus when the weather gets warm and welcome us all into a new season.
Eleanor
Eleanor hit a new milestone this week! She learned to drink water (may not sound too excited, but it was a proud goat-parent moment for me!). Eleanor still gets a bottle of milk twice a day, so she hasn’t been for lack of hydration for the first three months of her life. But with the warm weather now here, she took it upon herself to start drinking from a bucket. A very cute sight to watch her try to learn a whole new skill, as drinking from a bucket is a completely different action than sucking on a bottle.
And here’s a video of her eating hay too because I just find it so darn cute to watch her eat.
Cows on Parade
The cows have spring fever and took the opportunity to adventure when fallen tree took out part of their fencing. The took a very (unusually) docile jaunt around the farm to visit the other critters and then when back to their wood lot quite agreeably.
Although the snow has melted and the grass has just started to green up and grow again, we won’t put any of the animals back out on pasture for at least another month. The ground is too soft right now, and there’s the potential that they could do a lot of damage to the grass and soil integrity if we put them out too soon. So for the time being they are stuck staring at the grass that’s literally greener on the other side.
From the Hen House….
Perhaps you’re familiar with Betsy the injured chicken, but if you’re new here, let me fill you in. Over the past two weeks we’ve had a MAJOR raccoon problem. At night, a raccoon has been trying to nab chicken through the slatted coop floors. Every morning I would find at least one victim who was either dead, (or worse) nearly dead, or maimed. Betsy was the only one to survive… until Darla came along.
Betsy and Darla live together in the chicken infirmary until they’re strong enough to be reintegrated back into the flock. That may never happen if they don’t gain mobility back in their injured legs, at which point I’ll look for a forever home for them. But for now we give them all the TLC and time to heal that they need.
These two have become best buds, and are always side by side with each other in the hoop coop.
I found a shell-less egg in a nesting box this week, which is pretty rare. Typically if an egg does not have a hard outer shell, it bursts upon impact in the outside world. This one was still intact, which is always a fun find. And even better yet… it turned out to be a double-yolker!
Spreading Sh*t
Last fall I celebrated my 25th birthday, and the only thing on my wish list was a manure spreader! I found a used one for sale out in the Pioneer Valley, and splurge on it as a quarter-century milestone gift to myself! This week I finally got to put it to the test and life was good. We have a ginormous pile of composted poo that has accumulated over the years on our farm, and I am one happy farmer to finally be able to put all of those nutrients back onto our fields.
It’s the simple things in life! :-)
(I have no idea who Gonyo is and why this is his “honey wagon”….