God has graciously granted yet another two sets of chicks to be hatched out in the 2015!
Here is the seventh group in the mini-chicken tractor:
She hatched out five chicks, but one was something of a runt and took much more time to grow, and usually they don’t make it. You can see the little one in this video. It actually went along several weeks, seemingly getting stronger. However, one day, for some reason its little head started to twist and want to stay that way, and it just could not keep it upright anymore; and so, I made the personally tough decision to euthanize it, figuring it was now in a bad way and just wasn’t going to be able to sustain itself. 🙁
And here they are before that time. The other four are still healthy and doing well!
And this is group eight! I believe she hatched out at least eight, maybe nine, and there are seven still going strong; and thankfully they haven’t had the little sickness that has run through some of the other groups:
And here’s their video:
We are very grateful to the Lord for the continued health and safety of the hatchlings, and His continued provisions in this way!
God has continued to grant us chicken hatchings, this time they are the fifth and sixth groups!
This mommy Sue found broody up in a goat shed, and so we brought her into the summer kitchen, put some eggs under her, and she hatched out 10 I believe! I believe one ended up not making it, and we also had the same sickness problem run through several of them like with the fourth group, but we kept giving them Angstrom ionic silver, and by God’s graces all nine are still going today!
Here is their video:
This next batch was a surprise group — one day, the mommy just showed up in the middle of the barn with some chicks in tow! Wow, thankfully a cat or otherwise didn’t get them! So, we hustled them into the summer kitchen as well, and here they are, all five still alive!
And here is their video too:
As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions of the new chicks, and for the continued health and safety of those to which He sovereignly chooses to grant those!
The Lord graciously granted our fifth and final calf to be born in 2015! This time, a little heifer calf, born to our cow Casi Blanca!
And here she is:
When I went to video her, all of the cattle were there…except for Casi. Strange, and worrisome. So, Robert and I headed on out to look for her. We drove down one road, and suddenly two of what looked like owls flew away from the trees above, and then we saw turkey vultures flying above, and then one over to the left….and that’s when we saw Casi. We got out of the vehicle and walked up to her, and she was quite dead, on her side, very bloated. Sigh. She didn’t appear to be stuck in the fence, nor did I see any trauma to her:
But, these are God’s decisions, and His cattle, quite frankly.
From A.W. Pink, “Our Attitude Toward God’s Sovereignty”:
A true recognition of God’s Sovereignty will exclude all murmuring. This is self-evident, yet the thought deserves to be dwelt upon.
It is natural to murmur against afflictions and losses. It is natural to complain when we are deprived of those things upon which we had set our hearts.
We are apt to regard our possessions as ours unconditionally. We feel that when we have prosecuted our plans with prudence and diligence that we are entitled to success; that when by dint of hard work we have accumulated a ‘competence,’ we deserve to keep and enjoy it; that when we are surrounded by a happy family, no power may lawfully enter the charmed circle and strike down a loved one; and if in any of these cases disappointment, bankruptcy, death, actually comes, the perverted instinct of the human heart is to cry out against God.
But in the one who, by grace, has recognized God’s sovereignty, such murmuring is silenced, and instead, there is a bowing to the Divine will, and an acknowledgment that He has not afflicted us as sorely as we deserve.”
We are thankful for the provisions He has granted from Casi; and we decided to call her calf Casilita, in memory of her mother.
The little one appears to continue to be doing well, and it’s been told to us that her granddam Amistosa is letting her suckle off of her. That’s a gracious gift from God if so!
Here is Casilita’s video, and just to warn you, I did include the video of when we found Casi:
We are once again very grateful to the Lord for granting this new little provision of cattle!
The Lord has graciously kept a-coming the little chicks to be hatched out! In this post, I’m including both groups 3 and 4.
Here is group 3, in the barn stall. I don’t remember well, but I think she hatched out six, and they’re all still going today!
And here’s their video:
Group 4 ended up, and still is, quite interesting. We had this mama in our summer kitchen pantry, with 12 eggs under her, and I think for the first time, we got 100% hatched out! Neat! Thanks to God!
One day though a few weeks into it, I noticed some of the chicks started getting that sick chicken look, where their head starts to rest back on their neck, and they start standing around not doing “chicken things,” and with their wings partially pointed down. With that, we usually start an ionic 600 ppm silver regimen of about 1/4 CC 3-4 times a day; and if they’re not eating, I mix in 1 1/4 CC egg yoke and 1 1/2 CC goat milk. Well, before I could really get things going, two died within a day, and probably half or more of the ones left were showing signs of sickness. Uh oh. We’ve never had a disease sweep through a hatching of chicks before like this, that I can recall.
I figured something in their environment was causing the issue, so we moved group 2 out of the barn into our pen area with group 1 that we had already moved, and moved this group 4 into the barn, and started the silver (and yoke/milk regimen where needed) on all of the sickies, plus silver even for the healthy ones morning and night.
Thankfully, by God’s graces, after over a week now, it appears the “bleeding” has stopped. We’ve lost no more, and most appear to have turned the corner. The “worst” chicken baton has been passed around a few times to different chicks, and there is one holding it now, but thankfully it’s only one, and Lord willing, this one will pull out of it too. As of today, I’m trying to back off the regimen to giving silver for all of them in the evening, and morning and afternoon for only the sick looking ones. Thankfully too, the mommy chicken doesn’t seem to be affected with sickness.
I plan to clean out the pantry of the summer kitchen really well and probably spray down the concrete with white vinegar or something before putting any more chickens in their for brooding.
Never a dull moment around here! But the Lord was merciful in allowing us to keep the ten currently alive! And here they are about a month ago when all were still going:
And their video too:
As always, we are grateful to God for His continued provisions, and Him granting the healing He has on most of the ailing chicks!
This time of year has come to mean many things to us: Dave finally taking off his coveralls from wearing and sleeping in them allll winter long (we call it his “onesey”); new life in terms of crops, gardens and…….. BABY GOATS!! We have been raising goats for almost ten years now, and the Lord has been most gracious to us through our learning curve so far. We are always in awe of His mercies towards us. With that, I will take you on a mini pictorial tour of this years young-ens:
May I introduce to you Abe. He looks the most like his daddy, Rocky, out of this year’s kid crop. His sister, Abby, is sitting next to him:
And here is their mama, Adeline, with Abby at her feet:
Next is our orphan Annie from a few years ago, the mama of new l’il Abner here. He takes the prize for looking the most like *his* daddy, Shatner:
This is Nellie, the sister of Adeline in the pic above:
Nellie was blessed to have triplets this year: Artie, Gueney, and Lance: (Gueney with the long ears is the runt but, BOY, does she make up for it in moxie!):
Here is Marie, the daughter of Betsy that died a couple of years ago. She is pure Nubian, and she, also, was blessed with triplets this year. Soon after they were born, I started to notice a swelling under her jaw and into the neck area. After doing some research, it appeared she maybe had some form of bottlejaw, which apparently can be caused by worms or protein deficiency. And perhaps the strain of giving birth to triplets made her weaker and zapped her resources. One site said to slow down before running out and getting a chemical de-wormer, and one site recommended apple cider vinegar as a potential remedy. Well, I started giving her about 20 CCs of raw apple cider vinegar diluted with water for the first couple of days, gave her protein cubes with food-grade diatomaceous earth on it for any worms, and made sure she had extra grazing time, and thankfully to God, it went away! I really believe it helped too, because I started to back off the regimen, and the swelling came back, and when I started it up again daily in a smaller amount (5 CCs apple cider vinegar/5CCs lacto-fermented juice/water combination daily), it went away again! The lacto-fermented vegetable liquid is for good bacteria to help her rumen function well. We will probably continue with it while trying to slowly ween her off of it, and we are thankful to God for allowing us to find something to help:
And here they are! Farrah, Kate and Jack. Their daddy is pure Nubian, as well:
Next stop: Pammy! She has been about the sweetest goat one could hope for. Little Sammy (long ears) and Tammy are hanging on her apron strings here:
And here is Gracie, one of Pammy’s oldest kids. She was also blessed with triplets this year, but God saw fit to take them away within a couple days of birth. (This is explained on the video). She and I have bonded pretty closely since then because I started milking her right away. She takes after her mama with her very sweet temperament:
Here is our little video so you can see them live doing goat kid “stuff”:
Marie’s triplets were born in April when it was still kind of chilly on some mornings. I had seen my neighbor do this when her kids were born in the winter time. I took the sleeve of an old sweatshirt, cut two armholes in it and stuck her head through the end of the sleeve. Voila! It was that easy to make a quick kid coat. Here is our model, Kate:
I improvised a coat for Kate’s brother, Jack. His “plumbing” requires different covering techniques. I used a hood from a sweatshirt and secured it with a make-shift belt. It worked well!
Even though we have learned that this time of year can bring the heartache of loss as well as the elation of lots of new life, we are so very thankful for God’s provision and mercy and pray for Him to continue to make us good and wise stewards of His gifts.
Here come the second batch of chicks! Again, God graciously granted another set to hatch! This mama we set up in our first barn stall. At this point, I’m not sure how many she hatched out. In the video I say maybe ten, but I sort of remember only eight when I finally started counting, but now she’s down to six. I know I found two out one time and put them back, and I know I found one that had died in the cage area, but I’m not sure what happened to others if there were any. If so, I’m thinking maybe they got out and then maybe something got to them.
But, we are thankful for these six, and here they are:
And their video:
Again, we are grateful to the Lord for granting this next batch of chicks!
Apparently, God’s Spring-season “Broody Time!” memo went out, because He has begun to graciously grant the chicks to start a hatching!
This is round number one, which we usually start in the mini-chicken tractor. It’s an Australorp mama that hatched out six chicks, all of which are still going strong!
Here they are at just a few days old! It’s amazing to me how they can be all squashed up in a little egg like that, and peck their way out — more of God’s miracle ways!
Here’s a video of them:
We are always very grateful to the Lord for Him perpetuating His animal provisions!
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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