The Lord graciously granted our next two chick hatchings of 2020, the 2nd and 3rd so far!
This mommy was in the barn loft, and so we grabbed her and her eggs and put her in the brooder barn (formerly known as the summer kitchen), and she hatched out a bunch of them! I think only a few eggs didn’t hatch, and all her hatchlings are still there, except for one…
At night, I put lanterns with the hens and chicks to give them at least a better shot at defending against small intruders, like snakes, which we’ve had a lot of problems with, in that, they get in there and eat or try to eat the chicks. Well, one night as I went in there to set them up for the night, one of the chicks already had a small snake attached to its head, and that snake had basically just suffocated it because I don’t believe it could have swallowed the chick. So, sadly, that’s the one chick we lost of the bunch, and there’s one less snake now too 🙂 , but we are thankful for the ones God has granted to continue:
And here’s group 3 I believe. Sadly here too, the day after I took these pictures and video below, one of the chicks was very sick, and died just a few hours later. And, there’s one chick that seems to have neurological or vision problems, but is able to maintain itself, so we’ll see how that little one fares in the end, and we pray the Lord might help it, and help it to be a productive member of the flock, if He might grant:
Finally, here’s the video of the two groups:
As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for these provisions, the eggs He grants from them, and the meat as well!
Just recently, Sue came briskly walking up to the house, which usually means something’s wrong on the homestead. I braced myself and went out to meet her and asked her what was wrong. But what ended up being “wrong”, or at least of some immediate attention, was that she discovered a chicken mommy in the barn loft with a whole batch of chicks with her! Near the edge of the loft too, which is probably 10 feet off the ground! Wow!
Here’s a picture of the stairs going up to the loft — she made her nest way in the back corner there by the buckets:
We went up there, and sure enough — a bunch of them! They had at least moved away from the edge, and so we grabbed mama and put her in a cage for the moment, and then gathered up her little ones into a pet carrier, and put them all into the brooder barn (formerly the summer kitchen).
And here they are now! We believe there are 15, and it appears the hen hatched out all the eggs that were under her. She must have just been dropping eggs into her nest herself, and then did the sitting. This mother is a good one too — very often broody:
And here’s their video:
We are very thankful to the Lord for this unexpected gift to start this 2020, and for the safe hatching, and that He had mama set on the nest in the barn! We pray they are used for His glory in some way, and the benefit of the homestead and others, as He wills!
When I was about to prepare to put together our 2019 goat breeding blog post, I realized I had sadly forgotten that I had not put out a blog post about our final little goat provision of the year the Lord had graciously granted! He was born much later than all of the others, so we had to wait to be able to sell him.
And here he is!
And here he is with mama, Hannah. Sue called him “HB” for “Hannah Boy”, and I think I added by calling him “Hannah Boy-berra” 😉 :
Sadly, he didn’t have much time around the other youngin’ goats, but he mixed it up with the best of them as he got older:
And here is his video on sell day. You can tell in it that he had a sweet disposition:
We are always thankful to God for Him granting these provisions out here, and we pray they are a blessing to the new owners, and always used as the Lord would have us use them!
Catching up on the 2019 chicks the Lord has graciously granted, here are the last hatchings of this 2019 — 7th, 8th, and 9th!
Here’s group 7, 5 hatched, 5 still alive!
And group 8, 6 hatched, and all 6 doing well!
And group 9, 3 hatched and 3 still going today! This group started in one of the barn horizontal purlins, and moved her and her eggs into this room in the brooder building:
And here’s the video of all 3 groups:
As always, we are very thankful to God for granting these provisions. May we remember these are gifts from Him for our use, not ownership, and that He is always Lord over all!
The Lord again graciously granted another set of chicks to be hatched out this 2019, 6th for the year — 10 from a very protective mommy hen! And all 10 are still going today.
Here are a couple of pictures:
And here’s their video, including mama attempting to send me packing after I had to collect one of her chicks from outside the cage area! 😀
As always, we thank God for these little gifts, and the continued provisions, and we pray for their continued health and safety, according to His will!
Those who follow our blog might notice the difference in the title. Usually for these types of blog posts about God providing perpetuation provisions, we include that exactly in the title. However, this situation sadly ended up a little different than normal…
Tasha, one of the offspring from the heritage breed Black Turkey that showed up on our homestead one day, and the Tom we got as her mate, got broody, sitting outside somewhere, and I was thankfully able to grab her and the eggs and get her into what has become our brooder building (formerly known as our summer kitchen…it’s just worked out that way 🙂 ).
And in due time, she hatched out 4 turkey chicks! (I call them “turklets”, like “chicklets” 😉 )
But, through experience, we have come to understand that these turklets are quite fragile, or they get eaten by a snake (I’ve done some filling of the wall gaps in the brooder building to try to help with that, and we put a lantern in there at night so the mommy can see and perhaps fight off the snake), and for any of them to make it seems something extraordinary. 2 indeed did die, but 2 continued to make it.
Here’s one early on. You can see how tiny they are:
And then both a little older with their mommy:
When they got to be about the size we usually let them out, it was time to do so. And we did, and they began their adventure in God’s creation, where they should be. And at night, we’d make sure they were in the barn for hopeful safety.
But that has sadly not always turned out to be the case (see the loss of Gigi our goose). A few days later, I went into the barn in the morning to let all the animals out, and I discovered one of the turklets was on the ground with its little head weaving back and forth across its back, which is a sign of something severely wrong; and the other turklet was nowhere to be found. I rushed the injured one into the brooder building, and tried to care for it as best I could, but indeed whatever happened to it was serious, and it died I believe by the next day. And we never found the body of the other turklet, although there was the smell of death near the front walk-in door (that’s real life on a farm), but after searching extensively, still never found anything.
We still don’t know what happened. But it was a shock, and very sad.
But here is the important point:
The God of all creation owns it all as such, and it is His for Him to disperse and dispense with as He wills. I would encouurage you to read all of Job 1, which some would say is the first book of the Bible actually written. Satan asks God’s permission to tempt Job (notice even the devil must take leave of God before acting), the Lord grants it with limitations, and almost everything Job had was taken from him — his animals, servants, and even his children. Not quite like losing a couple of turkey chicks, but with those much greater losses, what was Job’s response:
Job 1:20-22 – “20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.“
And there you go. He was sad, but submitted to God’s sovereign providences willingly, not murmuring, and even worshipping the Lord in it.
May this be our response to the hand of God in like situations. And may we recognize His mercies in these things too — He could have taken the whole flock but didn’t. And may the Lord grant us a true faith to trust Him in His perfect, wise, good, loving, and sovereign will under all circumstances.
And even though the little turklets aren’t with us anymore, I still wanted to share the 2 little gifts God granted for a while, which, since He is all wise and good, we pray He has graciously granted some good to our souls through the losses of them.
It’s always amazing to me how a little creature can be stuffed into that little egg-chamber (if you’ve ever seen them in there, they’re very scrunched up) and make it’s way out. And then to watch them grow…all these miracles of Providence along the way.
But without anything further, here they are on the day we let them out of the brooder building for the first time:
And then here’s their video:
Again, we thank the Lord for His many gifts, and thank Him for His graces and mercies in all things, especially to those He grants for our spiritual benefit, most of all the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, the greatest gifts ever!
The Lord graciously granted another set of chicks to be hatched out this 2019 — number 5 for the year!
This mama was hatched out herself late last year as part of a surprise set of chicks, and so was sitting what seems to be pretty early for her, but we’ll take it! 😀
She hatched out 10, and all 10 are still doing well today!
Here they are not long after entering the world:
And here’s their video:
We are always thankful to God for granting these provisions! It is our prayer that He guide us in the use of them, and in all things spiritual and temporal, for His glory and the benefit of others!
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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