The first snow!

These are pictures from yesterday, of the snow that is no longer there:

Chickens in the snow:

and our Christmas tree being cut down, it's now in our living room: 

Peanut Butter Pie,Yummy....

Coop Repairs and apparent new damage....

That is the repairs that will hopefully get me through winter and the new damage I just found:

Don't harm the farms!

What does the government have against small/family farms? While the big factory farms get tax breaks and government funding, small farms are abused and raided:
Small Farm Raids and Unfair Treatment
The first question your probably asking is why are big farms so bad? To answer that question I recommend reading: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and anything by Joel Salantin (who is a bit weird but a good read).
Also watch:
Battery Hens
Factory Farms
and if you have a strong stomach you might want to watch:
Earthlings Part 1 -Total there is about 11 parts
 
I'm not saying that all large farms are this way, but their out there and should be stopped not clean small farms. So why not stop FDA tyranny against dairy farms and family farms?

Also Raw Milk for Sale
More info on Real Food

Poll

I set up a poll for what to add to my blog please answer there or leave a comment here!

2nd Rut

Rutting Season is a bad season as far as deer and cars. Bucks  following does don't pay attention to where they are going, so they run out full speed and get hit by cars.

But it is very sad, like on Monday when going to get my allergy shots someone had hit a gorgeous buck. He was big and about a 8 point. We slowed down because he was on the middle of the road and we thought died. Then he got up, from the look of it both back legs/spine were broken. But as we went past the people pulled over (probably the ones who hit him) where getting out with their gun to put him down. I'm glad he did not suffer long at least.

Bees?

Both BYC and my online Collage course have been talking about bees and CCD, which makes me think at sometime in the future I should establish a hive.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/introduction/38/
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=419112
http://thegardenhive.com/?gclid=CIDYuviqnqUCFTRa7AodJVLSFw

But currently only bees around here are bumblebees and the hive of wild bees that live in the empty house on our property, they tend to swarm once or twice a year, here are two different years of swarming :

Graphic pictures of Raccoon Attack

The CM is not died, but I lost a BA last night

The missing CM showed up she just has feathers missing. But one of my two BAs was killed last night. Goodbye baby.

.I let the 3 extra roosters out, figuring if this raccoon is killing them, I would rather have their last days be happy. I just finished  a lot of patching up of the coop which should hopefully keep the coon out though. I'll post pictures of the ugly (but hopefully good) repairs later.

Caramel and a CM are died.....

It appears the raccoon is back, RIP babies.

Interesting.....

United States                                             29 South Korea                                              12 Japan                                                        10 United Arab Emirates                                  5 Finland                                                      1 Mexico                                                      1 Portugal   1    Above is the blog's stats for viewers...

Jack'O Lanterns

I have been meaning to post this since Halloween, but finally here they are.

Deer and feed thieves

Well yesterday did not go well while driving my Jeep to my dad's I hit a buck. My windshield, one front headlight, and my hood need replaced. The buck appeared to have both back legs broken (and an antler), we called and got a cop out for an accident report and to shot the buck if it was still alive. I'll post picture when I get them from my dad or stepmother.

But the thieves are two opossums that are breaking into the coop for feed, their not harming anything but the walls. But I'm guessing the raccoon died or was killed, because there has been no more deaths, even with the opossums breaking in every night.

Anyone Know this book's name? Fould it!

This book is about a Werewolf/vampire offspring, it was a romance in some ways, had a red cover, was part of a series and she was "dating" a vampire. I'm currently looking for it because I read it once and want to reread it.

 I found it!!!
Full Moon Rising:

Books......What to read next?

I read a lot, from really bad romance novels to YA fiction to Adult fiction to just about anything that catches my interest. For a school reading thing I've read A child called It, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith. I've just reread the Twilight series, Silence of the Lambs , Hannibal, and the 7th Harry Potter book. I'm also reading some books from one of the local libraries, In my Hands, Soul of a Dog, and All my Patients have Tales.But afterwords I'm back to rereading, but I'm putting together my Christmas list with lots of books and after Christmas I'm buying my self some more. Any ideas people?

Chicken Story- Broody Hens

So a couple weeks after the chicks where hatched one the CM hens went broody. Then several others went broody and then a BA. So it was the summer of the broodies,  a couple of CMs gave up during around this time. So I decided to let them hatch some eggs 4 white and 8 green, I gave them to one of the CMs.

But then we went on vacation leaving them under the care of a neighbor. I came back to extra eggs under her and all the pencil marks rubbed off the eggs, so I had no idea which was which on green and white eggs. But I removed all the brown and put them in the fridge thinking they had been under her only a day or two. The next day I went to cook them up for the cats (which is what I do if I think eggs are left out to long) and cracked one open to find a chick at about day 9 in development. So I threw the rest into the woods.

But then 10 of the eggs hatched on 7/29/09:

Then a day or so later #11 (I was labeling by hatch number) and I helped it to soon. And it had not helped absorbed the yoke completely and passed away. On about 8/8/09 numbers 12 and 13 hatched and went out with a the broody BA and the two hens (a CM and a BA) were raising the 12 chicks together. Then one of the eggs (a green one) exploded. Then number 14 hatched:

But #14 and the last egg where with a hen I call B#tch, she is a mean hen. So I took B and #14 outside to get a drink and when ever #14 went more then an inch away from B she grabbed her and dragged her back by her wing, leg, basically anything she could grab and was hurting her. So I grabbed her and the last egg and they moved inside with me.

#14 and the last egg

Helping me type

The egg ended up being a dud, but #14 loved me and would call out to get me to hold and pet her. At one point I tried to move her out with the broody hens and it failed. An she moved from the 10 gallon tank to a bird cage I have. 

At about 4wks

But it moved outside with the others, but never really fit in. She would hid from the others and then come running out to me and jump up to he held. But at 11-12wks she disappeared never to be seen again.

I'll continue the chickens story soon......