Eggs

44 for this week, one of our big hens went broody.  Its too bad we don't have a decent rooster.

Copper Bolused the Goat

Well what I thought was worms is most likely a copper deficiency in Elfin.  I have been much better about making sure she has had access to her minerals and she is perking up nicely and her appetite is improving.

We gave her a copper bolus today.  We were trying to give her 2 2-gram(not sure on the measurement) pills, we only got one in her, but we got one.  We put some probiotic paste on the gun too. Next time I think I may chase it with the paste and see if that works better.  Chasing everything with water did help her swallow.  Brian learned to aim for the corner of the mouth instead of the front.

Eggs

48 eggs for last week, but by the end of the week we were down to 8 hens laying instead of 10.  The two cochins went broody.

Wormy goat

I am pretty sure Elfin has worms.  She is anemic, I can tell this by looking at her eyelids.  She also seems to have lost some weight, significantly more than I expected when she stopped stealing Red's grain, and she lost some of her appetite.  I have dewormer, and a drencher ordered and coming.  In the meantime I have upped her grain, have put her out to graze as much as possible, she will turn her nose up at grain, but has been willing to graze, and have been giving her some molasses.  The combination has been helping and she seems to have more energy today.

I think she had some when she came because all goats have worms, but then I read that the worms can go into like a hibernation state over the winter so their eggs don't get laid into the snow.  It also said that nutritional deficiencies can trigger a worm population boost.  I wasn't great about putting her minerals out for her.  I have been better about that lately too.  Hopefully the upswing continues.

Broody Hens and chicks out

The two cochin hens went broody. One went broody in the hay shed.  We have been trying to move her unsuccessfully to the coop.  The other one is in the coop.  We don't know if we have any fertilized eggs because the only roosters we have are cochins and they are much smaller than the big hens and they can't get their job done well, if the hens even let them try.  So we will see what happens with the broody hens.  Fortunately it looks like two of our Jersey Giant chicks are roosters, so they will be the replacement roosters.

We let the chicks out today, they are pretty brave and wandering all over.  The white hen isn't too attached to them, but has shown them where the water, and the compost are.  She also defended them against the cochin roosters.  I think she has been a pretty good adaptive mom.  The chicks look much better, they still have bald spots, but they aren't getting bigger or spreading, so the baldness must have been from them pecking each other.

First Tick of the Season

Today I picked the first tick off of Miriam.  Fortunately it wasn't attached to her yet.

Eggs

The hens laid 57 eggs last week.  I am not going to lie, I think it would be awesome to hit 60 eggs, but that is probably unrealistic considering there are only 10 hens laying. 

Stuff in the ground

This week it has been warmish and raining almost every day, so it seemed like a good time to get the stuff into the garden including the seedlings I started.  So over the course of the week I moved the cauliflower, broccoli, peas, lettuce, and spinach to the garden.  I also planted the other packed of peas and cauliflower straight into the garden to see if there is a difference. I also planted some carrots.  I found some old wire that I put over the plants to protect them from the chickens.  The wire seems to be working so far, time will tell how the transplants go.