Farm Friday: I'm a Baby Killer!

Ohhhh, what has become of me? **gnashes teeth**

Who am I? **drops to knees and pulls hair**

I killed babies today.

They were baby rats, but nevertheless, they were babies, and I killed them!

Well, truth be told, I didn't actually do the killing. I had my hit man, girl, rat terrier do it.

See, Julie and I were doing some work in the barn, and we moved this big honkin' metal thing that weighed a ton if it weighed an ounce, and out scurried this big ol' (ewwww) rat. Cindy (the rat terrier) gave chase and, well, I'd rather not say how it ended for said rat.

Then she ran back over to the big honkin' metal thing and quick as a jack rabbit, out she came with this tiny little thing in her jaws. It was a baby rat, probably not more than a few days old. Dead, of course. And I actually felt sad. These barn rats are the scourge of my existence, but I'm so screwed up I felt SAD that this widdle biddy baby was killed.

But before I could generate any tears, off Cindy ran back behind The Thing again, and I went over and looked and there was a whole nest of them. Probably close to a dozen. Did I call her off and place them all in a shoebox with some cotton wadding?



Image source

(I didn't take this picture, but this is pretty much what they looked like)



I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind.

But for once in my life I did the smart, responsible thing when it came to animals.

I sicced my dog on them.

I figured, one crunch to the head and they're gone, pretty quick.

I didn't know what else to do.

I mean, I certainly couldn't facilitate baby rats growing up into adult rats to be killed by me or one of my kids another day.

And left to their own devices with no mother they would die anyway, only it would take a lot longer.

But I killed babies, oh my GOD!



Anyway, I will have to find a way to live on. 

One foot in front of the other, as they say.



And I do have some LIVE babies on the farm that I am not killing.

And they are extremely cute.

I will show you a picture when my phone camera and my computer decide they can talk to one another again.


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Farm Friday: Allergic?

The chicks and ducklings continue to grow.

The chicks and ducklings continue to be adorable.

I can't hardly stand it.


Here is a picture of the chicks that I promised you from last week.

The goldish ones are the Buff Orpingtons, the whiter ones are the Cornish Rocks.

Don't get too used to those Rocks, they'll only be with us another six or seven weeks.

Well, they'll still be with us, but in the freezer or on the table, not in the barn.





And here is a picture of the ducklings. See the one on the right with the afro? That's the crested runner I was telling you about that I got by accident.

I love her.




Her days might be numbered, though. This morning I put them in the kiddie pool for the first time.

I no sooner put her in then she started flopping all around, twisting and writing like she was possessed.

I think she confused exercise with exorcise.

So I immediately picked her up, and her head continued to spin around.

I put her back in her hutch and she started flopping and twisting and spinning in her bedding.

But I turned my attention to another duckling that had gotten out of the pool and wedged into a little impossible to reach space, and by the time I got her squared away, the crested was upright and looking pretty OK.

I think maybe she had an anaphylactic reaction to water.

I have a duck that's allergic to water.

Figures.



Here are the other three ducklings acting like normal ducklings do when they are placed in water.





This one saw her sister freaking out and just said,

"Really?"

It came out sounding more like a little quack, but I knew what she meant.













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If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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Farm Friday: Preparing the Nursery

The feeders and waterers were scrubbed and shiny.





The duckling room was prepared.




The chick room was prepared.







And they're here!!!!

I say ducklings, you say cute.

Ducklings
CUTE!

Ducklings
CUTE!














I got two White Pekins and two Fawn Runners.
Runners are funny things. Bowling pins.
And it looks like they sent me one Crested Runner by accident. She's adorable. She looks like she's sportin' an afro.

These ducklings are just hilarious. Hilarious I tell you.
And cute. SO cute.

Pippin's dubious. He says, "They're no cuter than I am."

Yes, Pippin.
Yes they are....






I have chicks, too, and they are almost as cute as the ducklings, but the pictures didn't come out.
Poop.

Did I hear someone else ask what types of chicks I got?

I got 18 Cornish Rocks (meat birds). 12 for me and 6 for my friend Theresa.
And I got 5 more Buff Orpingtons to supplement my older layers.

Buff Orpingtons are awesome sauce.

They're nice.
They're good layers.
They're hardy.

Did I hear someone ask what possessed me to get ducklings?

Well, I heard it told that ducks will lay all winter, where hens (over the age of about two) will slow down in production significantly. Mine certainly did this past winter. Lazy good-for-nothins.
I also heard it told that while duck eggs may not be as good for eating breakfast-style, they're perfectly fine for using in recipes.



I got the call from the post office that my chicks were in.

This was 7:30 Thursday morning as I was on my way to Lancaster to get my Summer Son Obrin to his bus to take him back to New York.

So I called my friend Theresa and asked her if she would schlepp two towns over at 7:30 in the morning to pick up my poultry (truth be told, some of the order was hers).

And she did.

Everyone should have a Theresa in their lives.




************

My blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Moms With Big Families - 2013 list on Circle of Moms!
If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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And don't forget Top Mommy Blogs! You know the drill by now. Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!

Farm Friday: Never the Write Time.

Long day yesterday.

Longer still when I looked at my list of posts to see what I had cued up for today, and realized with an accomplanying gasp of horror,
nothing!

So I traipsed on over to my old blog, went through my posts tagged "farm", and voila, there was one I had written up a couple years ago, all ready for me to steal breathe new life onto it.

It was written at a time when my hens were just wee chicks, all cute and full of promise, instead of the non-egg-laying freeloaders I have in my barn now.

Funny thing is, the post is all about how I was super busy and never made time for writing.

Same problem, different details...


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I let the day get away from me without writing.

I could blame it on my *%#@! computer, which taunts me with its connectivity one minute and then whips it out from under my feet the next.

Jezebel.

I could blame it on having to clean out the chicks' water dish 3 times today b/c they keep clogging it with wood chips that soak up all the water and then they stare at me with their little beady chickie eyes. Pleading silently for water, water ....

I could blame it on possibly finding the solution to that problem by placing 2 bricks under the water dish so it sits up higher out of the bedding.

Or on the fact that while I was in the barn to fetch the bricks I got distracted and before I knew it I had built a little hutch within their room as well as a small table for their food and water dishes for when I move the chicks out of the tub and into the Chick Shack.

Or if I want to sound more like a good mother and less like a grungy farmhand, I could blame it on making some homemade Play Doh with the kids, using a neat recipe I found that uses Kool Aid packs to flavor and scent the dough. We played with it (myself + all the kids but the oldest) for like an hour. Some of our sculptures included a foot, a beanie-sportin' snowman sticking his tongue out, severed fingers, hearts proclaiming undying fidelity to the one and only Justin Bieber, and a newly-hatched-still-in-the-shell chick.

Oh well. As pathetic as it sounds, it's 9:45 and this good-mother/grungy farmhand is heading to bed.


Better luck tomorrow.



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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Come join the fun!

*************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.

Farm Friday: Time To Say Goodbye

Well, it's time, I cannot put it off.

My meat chicks are seven weeks old, so I need to pack them up and take them to be processed.

Processed is such a nice word, isn't it? Rolls off the tongue so much easier than "killed and plucked and eviscerated."

I'll be taking them later today or this weekend.

Nature genetic modification has made my decision a whole lot easier. If I chickened out
you'll excuse the pun, I trust?
and decided to keep them as "pets", their health would take a dramatic, steep decline and they would live only a few more miserable days or weeks before dying painfully and uncomfortably.

So this is a mercy killing.

I am the Dr. Kavorkian of chickens.

Aren't I the kind and compassionate soul?

Here are a few pictures of them. One of those death montages like they play at the Academy Awards every year where you say to your partner "I thought he died like five years ago."

Cutest things EVER!

Here are the Cornish Rocks and their brothers of fate, the packing peanuts cockarels, at about one to two weeks old.

Cutelittlechickensay WHAT?

Time to say goodbye to nursery school and start mixing in with the big girls.

And here they are today with their Big Girl Panties on. See how much faster they've grown than the peanuts? They share the same birthday.

The peanuts have a couple more months to live before they go under the knife.
Eat, chickies, eat! You need some more meat on your bones.

Literally.

That was some chicken humor in bad taste, is what that was.

And you can only get that right here, folks.


Anyway, goodbye little chickies. Hope you enjoyed your short little lives, and that I was a good caretaker. Thanks for feeding me and my family. May your souls rest in peace.


Yes, I'm dramatic, I know all about it.

You can blame my mother.



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(Follow my blog by adding yourself as a follower with Google Friends Connect in my sidebar!)


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Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a vote on Top Mommy Blogs. You know the drill by now, don't you? Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!



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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras, Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday, Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop, and Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party.

Since today is Friday, that means I'm linking up today's post with Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, and Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday; "Re-Using Dry Erase Boards" with Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday; "Daylight Savings" with @Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos.

Come join the fun!




****************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.