This is my first post and any comments are welcome - I hope you have a smile and chuckle at my expense and if you learn something at the same time well that’s a bonus since I know didily squat about farming.
I wanted farm animals. I mean, what’s the point of a hobby farm without animals. It’s like Fish & Chips, Torvil & Dean, Hale & Pace. The two just go together so well. So as we get more animals I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
We already had a dog before we moved out here so she doesn’t count, so we currently have 28 chickens, 1 rooster, no eggs, mean old barn cat, 2 new barn kittens, a hamster (if you were to ask my daughter what animals we had), and high ambitions to get more (if you were to ask me - no more if you ask my wife).
My daughter keeps changing her mind between wanting ponies (note the plural) or ATV’s. Supposedly all 12 year old kids have ATV’s and I’m just not with it these days.
My wife threatens divorce on a regular basis as I mention new possible additions. She just doesn’t seem to like the idea of self sufficiency the way I do - early days still… she wasn‘t to keen on some of my habits when we were first married either. While I‘m at it do you notice that as you spend more time in a marriage the more you realise that each partner wouldn’t dream of acting like they do now before marriage - I keep finding out (so my wife tells me) that I never did lots of things like I do now (before we were married). I’m rambling again. Hobby farm blog….I don’t see anything wrong with a couple cows for meat, I mean you just pick them up at auction cheap (bull calves are not wanted so I heard) and wean them on to grass, fatten them up and presto …..a deli meat counter in your freezer.
I was also thinking that those weird goats that stiffen up if they are scared would be kind of neat to have around - they could keep the weeds down and it would be fun tell visitors they owe us $75 for the goat they just scared stiff & killed.
I saw a couple of pot bellied pigs for sale on Kijiji and thought they would be another unique animal for our hobby farm. Did I mention divorce earlier…..
What I was able to get though was an order of 30 day old chicks agreed with my wife before we moved onto the farm. My parents, who we bought the farm from, were ok to keep them for a month or two until we moved out. So, with hatchery catalog in one hand and my daughter in the other, we went down to the closest farm feed store and ordered 15 Colombian Rock X Red and 15 Barred Plymouth Rock day old chicks and about 1.5 months later we were proud owners of a large peeping shoe box with holes. I’ll insert a few pictures here so you can see how cute they are but BEWARE.
Life of Riley Rooster!
Cute and little and low cost!
The dam things grow real fast and to date (18 weeks old and I can’t think they can get any bigger) they have eaten about 1 years worth of eggs - oh, did I forget to mention my money making idea of fresh organic farm eggs…. this hobby farm is meant to pay! I have been told to expect eggs any day now and having just spent another Saturday morning getting 2x25 kg sacks of layer feed - I am on first name terms with the feed store staff I go in so often - I come back and start calling them by name…. Sunday Roast, Hot Wings, Drum Stick, you get the picture.
The dam things grow real fast and to date (18 weeks old and I can’t think they can get any bigger) they have eaten about 1 years worth of eggs - oh, did I forget to mention my money making idea of fresh organic farm eggs…. this hobby farm is meant to pay! I have been told to expect eggs any day now and having just spent another Saturday morning getting 2x25 kg sacks of layer feed - I am on first name terms with the feed store staff I go in so often - I come back and start calling them by name…. Sunday Roast, Hot Wings, Drum Stick, you get the picture.
So, if I had to score how well we have done so far (3 months into the farm) I’d honestly have to say, farm animals 1, farmer nil.
