Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.
Once again, one of our hens got broody this 2021, and after tucking her away in the brooder barn, she hatched out a bunch — not even sure how many…maybe at least 9, and I believe they all have made it so far!
Here are a couple of pictures of them all:
And here’s their video:
We once again thank the Lord for His gracious provisions in granting this next set of 2021 chicks! We are thankful the eggs can go to help others!
— David
That time of year rolled around again this 2021, hens getting broody, and some of ours don’t always get broody in the barn or chicken tractor…
One of our hens didn’t come back to roost one night. I think it was the next evening, I thought I’d go see if I could somehow find her out in the woods somewhere, which is where I hoped she was vs. having been eated by a predator. I circled around the back side and west areas behind our house. I headed down one direction, and saw what I thought was a plastic bag in a thicket of weeds with no leaves because it was still winter-ish, and I thought, no way was that the hen. But, lo and behold, it surely ended up being her! An amazing gift from God to find her back there, somewhere I would not usually look!
When we tried to get her, she ran off, but we were able to track her down, and so we took her and her eggs and put them in the brooder barn, and God graciously granted I believe it was 5 chicks, and all 5 are still going today, although sadly, it appears one is having a problem with its foot — she’s walking on it crimped backwards…don’t know if it’s an injury or a disorder. But, we pray the Lord might grant it healing.
Here are a couple of pictures of them all:
And here’s their video:
As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for these new provisions, and we pray they benefit His people in some way!
— David
We are very thankful to the Lord for granting our 8th chick hatching of 2020!
We found this mommy in the barn on a bunch of eggs, and moved her into the brooder barn, and by God’s granting she did her job, and hatched out quite a few! I’m not sure exactly how many there are, although we did lose one a couple of days after it was hatched, but the rest are still going strong!
And here’s their video. Watching the new life here reminds me of this verse:
John 11:25 – “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:“
Once again, we thank God for His provisions of these new chicks, and we pray they’re used for His glory and the benefit of others!
— David
The Lord in His graces and mercies granted another two chicken chick hatchings this 2020 — the 6th and 7th!
Here’s group 6. No interesting stories, just a broody mama and her 9 new youngin’s!
And group 7. This hen has been around a while, and I believe this is her first, hatching 8 new little ones!
And here’s their video. Watching them here reminds me of this verse:
Matt 23:37 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!“
May we gather as the saints of God in praise to Father, Son, and Spirit, and especially for the Lord Christ Jesus, who He is as well as what He has done!
As always, we are very thankful to God for the new chicks, and the miracle of new life; and we ask Him for continued health and safety for them, and perhaps for them to be a benefit to the farm and others some day, according to His will!
— David
The Lord has graciously granted our 4th and 5th chick hatchings of 2020! Both have some interesting stories…
This first mommy I believe was hatched last year, and when older last year was attacked by a hawk! I was able to get out there quickly to scare it off, but she was lying on the ground looking dead. When I picked her up, I realized she wasn’t, and took her into our brooder barn to a place of hopeful recovery. Well, she recovered from the initial shock, but couldn’t walk very well. But over the next few days, God granted she continue to recover, and by His graces she did fully! From all this, I called her “Hawk Girl”. 🙂
And so, when she got broody this year, I thought it’d be great if after all that, she hatched out some chicks, and again by God’s graces she did! She hatched out 6 initially, but one didn’t make it past a couple of days, but the other 5 are still going strong today! I call her “Hawk Mommy” now. 🙂
And here she is with her chicks:
Now, one day, Sue walked into our camper and down the stairs under the desk, there was a mama chicken and 2 chicks! What? And then we found the nest — up the stairs of the 5th wheel, into the bedroom, in a nook next to the bed. We think she got spooked by a cat, and that’s why she was down stairs. I still want to know how she and 2 little tiny chicks made it down the stairs! 🙂
Anyway, there were quite a few eggs left, and one was starting to hatch, so we gathered her up and the eggs and put them all in the brooder barn to see if she needed to finish. In monitoring the chick process, the one wasn’t continuing to hatch, and another was also hatching but didn’t seem to be making progress, so I decided to go ahead and help, even though apparently it’s supposed to weaken the chicks we’ve heard, but also, if you don’t get them out of the shell, they won’t make it. I got them mostly hatched, and put them back in the nest, and we waited to see what happened.
Well, those 2 ended up making it ok, and another hatched after! And so, she ended up with 5 as well! What a nice special gift from God!
And here they are:
And this is a video of each group, including when we found camper mommy initially, and a catchup addendum to them all as of today:
We are very grateful to the Lord for granting these chicks, for sparing Hawk Mommy last year, and to bring her this year to perpetuating the flock, for the special camper chicks gift, and for their continued health and safety!
— David
Back in November of last year, it came time for our annual goat breeding season — when we put the females with their respective males — in hopes the Lord grants goat kids in the Spring!
Well, indeed God graciously did, and here’s a little update…
First, over the Winter we lost one of our favorite does, Hannah. She succumbed to something pretty quickly over a day and a half or so. She was one of a kind — sometimes we called her Houdini, because she would be hooked up to the fence line or in a shed, and Sue would turn around to do something, and then Hannah would walk up behind her. And so, Sue would hook her up again, and turn around, and not long after, again, Hannah would walk up! 🙂 She was also our most LaMancha breed of the females we had, and I had wanted to keep one of her female offspring, but the Lord in His perfect wisdom and goodness had other plans. But, we are thankful for the time He granted her to be with us, and the offspring and milk from her over the years. We miss her! This is she with her kid from last year. Bye Hannah-bo-banna…
But, continuing on, we try to time it in November so the kids are born when it’s past the cold, but we had later cold this year, so it was goat coat time! 😀
Here are two of the bucklings in a barn stall with their mommy Nellie:
And Annie with her triplets, two bucklings and a doeling. With this one, the first kid started trying to come out back (not back end, but back) first! So, Midwife Sue got in there, spun the kid around to get hooves heading out, and then Annie was able to deliver that kid, and then kids two and three came out shortly after (we show just after kid three was born in the video below). Wow! Thanks to the Lord for helping Sue and for granting the safe deliveries!
And Adeline with her two bucklings:
Finally, Lucy brought up the rear this year, although sadly she gave birth to two underdeveloped, stillborn kids (last year, she aborted all her kids prematurely). And the little doeling that was born was pretty feeble, so Sue syringe-fed her mama’s colostrum for a couple of days. But the Lord saw fit to keep the little one going and get stronger, and she ended up doing just fine, thanks to God!
Here are a few more pics:
To start to replenish the herd, we decided to keep the two doelings, so they are officially part off the group now, Hassie and Lilly (you can see more of them in the video below)!
Lastly, here’s the video of them all for this year (BTW, in the video, one of the females we’re keeping isn’t “Haddie”, it’s “Hassie” 🙂 ) :
We are very grateful to God for these continued provisions; the milk He grants from them (which is why we raise goats); again, the safe deliveries for the moms and youngin’s, and His guidance for Sue as “midwife”; and for granting continued perpetuation of the herd!
— David
Well, it was that time of year again, where our heritage turkey hens get broody. Tasha, our star mommy, got broody in a little nook in a pile of “stuff” in our barn. So, I decided to move her and the eggs into our brooder barn (formerly the summer kitchen), with a nice nest, and private, but after a couple of days, she wouldn’t sit on them. So, back went the eggs into the nook nest, and her free, and lo and behold, she started sitting on them again. Then, the strategy became, let her hatch them out, and hopefully we can gather her and the chicks and put them in the brooder barn.
Well, 28 days or so later, sure enough, little turkey chicks (I call them “turklets”, like “chicklets” 😉 ) started showing. We wanted to let her finish hatching, but didn’t want to wait long because of our cats potentially getting them. But then, we came home one day, and things were in some chaos, so something had happened, and so we tried to round up the chicks and her, and get them in the brooder barn. It went ok, although I believe we lost one in the process. Still, she had been sitting on quite a few eggs, and we were able to get her and five live turklets inside.
These chicks have always seemed fragile over the years, and so we had no idea what to expect. In fact, another turkey hen or ours, Olivia, recently started sitting, and they started to hatch out, all three or four were basically out of the shell, but dead when I found them. Always so sad. But, by God’s graces, Tasha’s grew, and continued to.
Here they are fairly young, maybe a couple of weeks after hatching:
And then perched with mommy for the night. She’s very protective, so any resupplying of water and food had to be done at night, or she might go crazy and try to fly out the window, which she has done 🙂 :
Last year, after shortly letting out Tasha and her two turkets, something happened one night in the barn, and then next morning, one had disappeared, and the other was terminally injured, so we lost both of them. They weren’t tiny when we let them out, but I wondered if perhaps that was part of the cause of their loss. And so, this year, I wanted to keep them in the brooder barn longer.
And here is their video, from when they were younger, to the perch night, to freedom day, and a little beyond! (I do mention these are the only ones she hatched out, but that wasn’t correct, as noted above.)
And finally here they are recently hanging out up in the tree:
We are grateful to the Lord for these new provisions, and we pray they continue in health, in accordance with His perfectly wise and good will!
— David
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