Loving Life On The Ponderosa

It has been a while since I blogged about the animals on the Ponderosa.

Our chickens have been going great guns with eggs, although now the season has become cooler, production has reduced.  We lost a few brown shavers over the season which is normal and we did not hatch any eggs over the summer which means we need to look at purchasing some pullets to bring up our numbers again.  We just have to figure out what breed.  Although the brown shavers are great egg producers, they are not very good eating so a little research is in need.

We did not have the greatest of seasons with our beef particularly after blogging how well our beef have been over previous seasons in FAREWELL TO OUR CALVES - PART 2.   We lost three bull calves at birth, two of which were twins then 6 months later we lost a heifer calf to bloat.  Given we had reduced our heifers from 8 to 5, we were down to only one calf for the season because we were convinced the remaining heifer was not going to calf.  Miraculously prior to Christmas, a bull calf was born.  If I am honest, I was devastated and worried that we had done something terribly wrong and that it would impact into this seasons calving.  Imagine my delight when the first of this season's calves were born and seeing the calf move as I was heading to check that it was alive.  Then being overjoyed to find a second calf had just been born to another heifer within minutes of me checking the first calf.  Two calves on the same day!!  Within three weeks, our third calf was born.  Bullet the bull has been busy!  Although we are still awaiting the results of the final two heifers.  As this season's calves have started, we have since sold the two calves from last season.  The price per head of beef is pretty good!

Our calf that came just before xmas

The sheep are doing fantastic!  After blogging about them in LAMBS ARE OUR NEXT VENTURE, we have acquired two more sheep.  Another ewe named Shawshank and a ram named Rollroaston.  Both of the new additions are wiltshire sheep, which means they self-shed their wool, are resistance to diseases and are prone to having twins or triplets.  The "sheepeez", are nicely pregnant and it's fair to say that I am very nervous about when they lamb.  Firstly, because we've never dealt with lambing before, and secondly because we've never had to deal with sheep having more than one lamb at a time.  Within the next few months, it'll hit us like a tonne of bricks.  We will have anything from two lambs to six lambs or possibly more.  Eeeek!  The plan for these lambs is to put them in the freezer, but you never know what else might come of it.  

The view from the chook run

 We have also acquire two more fox terriers.  Lexi and Sloan (I'm sure those that are into Greys Anatomy will get it).  They are such great companions for my husband while I'm away with study and have just learnt how to catch rabbits, mice and rats.  They are not too keen on the stray cat that comes around yet ... BUT it will only be a matter of time.

Lexi is on the left with her sister

Sloan

 
As a side note, we were offered a couple of kunekune pigs last week.  Under any other circumstance, we would've taken them in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, we had to say no.  Pigs are on the cards for the Ponderosa, however not just yet.

Happy living peeps!

Freshen The Chicken Coop

Sometimes the chicken coop can get a little on the funky side, particularly in the heat of the summer days, or when your sawdust is getting a little low and needs some swapping out.

I read somewhere that a good solution is to place fresh herbs in the sawdust to help eradicate bad bugs.  I've tried this out a couple of times, but with my herb garden still needing a little time to help boost it's yield, I haven't done it as much as I could.  That is until my rosemary hedge needed a good prune back.  Not only did I have enough to place in the sawdust, I also hung some in the coop.

The scent of the rosemary in the coop was wonderful, and proved a little funny one night when the girls went to clean the coop and check for eggs.  Not knowing it was there, they opened the door at dusk and got the shock of their lives.  :-)  A little story to laugh about with them in their older years

Happy living peeps!

New Chicks Get The Chop

Back in December we went down the track of raising chicks to see how they would work out compared to us purchasing grown chickens nearly ready to lay.  I blogged about this back in May - New Chicks On The Block. 

5 of these 8 chicks were roosters.

The process was relatively stress free and our broody hen took to the new chicks well, however .. the down side of this was we ended up with 5 roosters!!  Not a very productive turnover if we were aiming for more laying hens.

It was time to change the plan of attack.  We decided to keep the roosters until one of the hens became broody again which took until September.  Time to see if our eggs were fertile.  Success ... 2.5 chicks hatched!!  I say 2.5 because one of the chicks didn't quite make it out of the hatching process.  Then we lost another of the new chicks when it drowned in the small water container.  I was starting think raising chickens from fertile eggs is more hard work than I thought.

The roosters have proven to be more than a nuisance than anything else, and I wasn't keen to keep all five roosters considering they are quite agressive towards the hens.  So, given my mum wanted feathers for her korowai, we decided to enter the next stage - The Stock Pot.

My mum & husband plucking, while my siser watches on

The birds themselves were enormous and although going through the process of "putting them in the stock pot" wasn't something I looked forward to doing, it is part of the journey we have chosen to take on the Ponderosa.

We still have 2 roosters left and we plan to keep them until after christmas at least. It still doesn't resolve the issue of having more laying hens for next year, but that's for another blog I think.

Happy living people!!

New Chicks On The Block

It's been just over 2 years since we embarked on the journey of having chickens and blogging about it - Our New Chooks.  As I reflect back on that blog I can't help but giggle at the tone of excitement and the stress of what I put my husband through.  The goal was always simple.  To have fresh organic eggs, however to continue having a constant supply, we must ensure our chickens are up to scratch .. so to speak by replenishing to find that balance.

In December 2013, one of the older hens became very broody so we thought we would source some fertile eggs and see how it went.  My husband and his friend, did a deal with a supplier and 9 eggs came home with a plan that after x amount of days, they would hatch into little chicks and add to our whanau.  Well, we waited .. and waited .. and waited until early January 2014.  Still no baby chicks. 

We thought it could've been us, but knew we had made a huge effort every day to ensure we checked the broody hen was providing enough of her love.  Finally we recieved a phone call from our friend (who not only purchased some for them, but their neighbour as well).  Out of the 20 eggs that were sourced, only 2 had hatched.  Long story short, supplier said "that happens sometimes" and fair to say we won't be using them again.

After feeling extremely disappointed, we went to another supplier and recieved 8 new chicks as there was no time for new eggs - the broody hen was back on the lay.  These chicks were so cute and made themselves quite at home with the rest of the chooks.  It even made my daughters go up to the chicken run to feed the rest of the girls .. just so they could have a play.

The new chicks with the broody hen ... they are about 15 days old.



All our chooks in March 2014 scratching in their new chicken run

Not quite sure if the little egg is from the new chicks .. but it was interesting to find.

The new chicks are now 5 months old and coming along quite nicely.  The goal of having fresh organic eggs is still being achieved and although the volume of eggs we recieve during the warmer months is more than we can consume, I'm happy to say we supply my parents and grandmother with their daily supply.

Happy living people!

 

Meet The Cluckers

The gals have been serving us well over the past year, but since they arrived way back in April 2012 blog of Our New Chooks, we've lost three and as they age, the egg production has reduced.  So ... over the past few months we've been keeping an eye out for the best chook producers so that we can add to the chook collection and we've found a good supplier ... only 20 minutes from the Ponderosa.

We were looking to have at least 5 additions to the gals, but settled for 10 and we can't be more happy. They were originally very scared with their new free range environment, but once the ole gals got used to their new young sisters, they were scratching around in now time.

It will be about 3 more weeks before they start laying, but when they do, we'll be collecting eggs like crazy.  

So what did we do with the 3 that died?  The first suffered a mysterious death and we found what remained of her in the paddock.  The other two died of old age.  We didn't have the heart to cook them up ... at that stage, but can confirm some friends were delighted with how they tasted when we gave them away ..  

Oh yes, the feathers went to my mother who is an avid teacher of korowai :-)

Happy living people!!

The Chooks Get A Spring Clean

When I first entered into the idea of having chickens, the thought of cleaning their coop wasn't something I was too keen about.  So I set to finding out what's the best options to make both my life and the chickens life easier.  

Threw my conversations with family and friends who had chickens, I discovered most used hay to line the nesting boxes and coop and simply replaced it on a regular basis.

I learnt that some didn't line their coop at all and simply hosed it out on a regular basis.

Hell no, that seemed far too high maintenance for me.  I wanted something a lot easier than that, so when my husband's work colleague said sawdust was the answer, I thought let's look a little further into that.  It wasn't just the answer, it was more than I had ever expected, and the chickens just love it.

Not only does it keep the coop smelling nice, it keeps the chickens nice and insulated in the winter time. When it comes to cleaning up the chickens mess, I simply brush their bits into a dust pan and place it in the garden as fertiliser every day.  Takes less than a minute.

The best thing of all, I only need to spring clean the coop once a year :-)  I simply get a trailer load of sawdust from the local sawmill, line the the coop with the amount needed (with the help of my husband).  I top the coop up when the floor layer and nesting boxes gets a little thin, then when I run out completely, I empty the coop completely.  I then, spray the coop (walls, floors, nesting boxes, the whole coop) completely with white vinegar, air it out for the rest of the afternoon (because it is extremely strong), then put everything all back together with a fresh layer of new sawdust.  That's it .. and the best thing about it, is it's low .. low ... LOW maintenance!!

The coop after being swept out and sprayed with vinegar

The other side of the coop.  The blue brush is what I use to sweep the messy bits up everyday

The coop lined with fresh sawdust.  The black lining is to stop the bits and pieces being absorbed into the timber

The other side of the coop.  All insulated and ready for the gals to nest

Happy living people!!

Winter Has Come & Nearly Gone

Representative netball takes up my winter months which means four days a weeks from June through to August is taken up by either planning, managing, mentoring, organising, supporting, fixing, meeting, travelling, and everything in between for the Eastern Waikato Netball Centre.  Two of the four days is generally Saturday and Sunday which means I haven't spent alot of my weekends at home living the life of the Ponderosa.  I don't complain though, because netball provides me with an opportunity to help the community, particularly youth through the sport and work with some of the most amazing and caring people I have met.

In saying this, there has been much achieved over the winter months and with the fresh frosty mornings we experienced earlier in the season provided me a good opportunity to pot some tulips and plant daffodils on one side of the driveway.  

The tulips are just starting to show and the colour is absolutely spectacular.  Next season I hope to pot more tulips so that we can enjoy these elegant flowers throughout the entire spring months.

I managed to bake another birthday cake for my dear friend Dora.  This one being for her daughter Jaydes 18th birthday.  She is such a free spirit with a caring and loving nature and I was more than happy to oblige for her.  I experimented with the frosting to get the textured look and although the photo doesn't give the cake justice, it was eye catching.

The Sheilas aka One Direction, are having a ball frolicking in the paddocks and showing off to the neighbours cattle with all their feed.  Although it hasn't been all roses for them as the continuous rain we experienced later in the season meant the land became ALOT soggier than we would have liked.

On top of this they received a small surprise in winter.  Three more additions arrived to join the herd and although one has migrated well, the younger two are still finding their way.

All eight of them are growing well and I have found myself standing at the home gate gazing out into the paddock admiring just how beautiful they are.  

Oh yes, my husband named the new additions - roast, sirloin and scotchie.

The Sheilas ... one missing from the photo

The winter months hasn't seen alot of egg action from "the gals" aka chooks and on a sad note, we lost one of the gals.  Precious (the black one) wondered into one of the paddocks one day and it took us a week to find her.  We haven't quite figured out exactly what happened to her, but the local hawke found her quite appetising and once we found her there wasn't much left at all.  

At first we thought a stoat had gotten her and was very worried it would come back to clean up the rest, however that's not the case.  We also wondered whether the local magpies got to her as well.  We have between 4-6 magpies that hang around in the pine tress along the road and I've witnessed them chasing or attacking other birds around the property.  

I suppose we will never know, and although we are down to 8 chooks now and as the end of the season is winding up and the weather is getting warmer, they are starting to produce more eggs daily which is great.

The gals enjoying left over chocolate cake :-)

This is only some of the happenings on the Ponderosa during the winter months with alot more still to come.

Our New Chooks

The funniest thing happened.  On Monday I came home from work and told my husband I had purchased 9 new additions to the whanau (family) off Trademe and they were arriving on Thursday night.  Yes that's right, 9 laying chickens were arriving and I had just upped my husbands stress levels by giving him 3 days to design and build the chicken coop.  Seemed like a doable project, and after trolling through the internet that night to give him some idea of what I wanted, it was very clear I didn't just want a chicken coop, I wanted the Taj Mahal.

We decided the best place to put the chickens was in "The Pines" - an area in the back paddock under the mature pines trees.  We figured it would give the "gals" plenty of space to scratch around.

We searched the internet and books high and low to find out what essentials chickens needed in order to accommodate my spontaneous purchase.  Nesting boxes (but not one for each chicken as they tend to share the same boxes), roosting area (much higher than the nesting boxes), small door with ramp so they are able to come and go as they please from the coop, lots of fresh saw dust to keep the coop nice and toasty at night, plus it makes it easier for us to clean the coop which is an added bonus, a little light to assist in the egg laying process, feeding process, watering station ... and the list goes on.


Tuesday night the design came home for me to view and Wednesday the build project began.  The floor, and two sides were up that night but unfortunately we ran out of light to continue after the sun had gone down.  Thursday my husband took the day off work and finished the build while I took half a day off work running around get wire mesh, tin, sawdust and not forgeting the kids from school.


6.30 pm came about and the roof and run still wasn't finished so I left my husband to carry on while I made my 30 minute ride to Ohaupo to pick up "the gals" with my daughter.  On the way home a sense of excitment hit me.  We had our first farm animals - chickens.  Chickens for fresh eggs ... YAY!!!


We got home and placed them carefully on their roosting perches in the band new, rustic coop, then went into the house to reflect on the last few days activities.  

What I got wasn't anything like the pictures I had seen on the internet, but knowing my husband's logic and eye for practicality in my eyes it was 100 times better than the Taj Mahal. I do envisage plantings of some sort to soften the area and provide additional shelter from any wind but I am happy with the outcome of my outrageous purchase.  Fresh free range eggs was this projects main objective and I'm excited about the outcome.  Next time I'll try to give my husband a little more warning!! 

THE CHICKEN COOP - TAJ MAHAL

6 OF THE GALS

OUR VERY FIRST EGG