Christmas is Approaching

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We just finished up buying for the kids and what a relief it is to have it done. There's still a lot to do before Christmas is here though.

Our Thanksgiving was great. We spent most of the day at my parent's house. We then spent the evening at Stevie's family gathering. It was a great day. We all had way too much to eat and had a blast. Matthew did have a little oops moment at Grandma and Grandpa's. He went head first off the deck and landed on the small concrete sidewalk. Luckily their deck is only a foot off the ground. He did manage to find the only pebble and cut his head a little. He had forgotten about it in less than a minute and was back to playing. Other than that it was a great day.

Our herd reduction is complete. We sold quite a few animals. The herd is so much nicer. We have also bred nearly everyone we had planned to breed this fall. Blessing was bred to Larkspur before he was sold. Minuet to Cruiser as well as Meg too. She will have our first Mini-Mancha kids. Anna, Fuchsia and Cha-Cha are bred to Revelation. Hallelujah, Faith, Secrets and Olympia are bred to River. I need to breed Birdie soon to one of the boys. Probably will be Revelation.

We have really taken off with chickens lately. We have been hatching lots of chicks. I do have some birds for sale right now to make room for hatchlings and to manage better for the winter. We're under construction with the chicken barn.

Well that about recaps what's happening here. Blessing has been naughty lately getting in the backyard repeatidly. Guess I need to go fix that. More updates coming soon!

Mottled Cochin & Goat Herd Reduction

Well didn't I just luck out! Look at the oh so handsome new Mottled Cochin rooster we brought home with us over the weekend. Yes I was thrilled. Wish he'd had some hens to go with him though. Oh well. He's a good start to our Mottled lines. Since I don't have any Cochins laying or close to laying age yet, I've decided to pen him with the Easter Egger/Silkie cross pullet. Too pretty a roo not to have a girl!

New Mottled Cochin rooster!

We also ordered more chicks. This time I ordered 8 Gold Laced Cochin bantams. I received my 8 Cochins but also 9 Barred Rock or Black Sex-Link roosters too! What will I do with them? LOL At the same time my second clutch of eggs has started hatching. All 8 of my eggs (4 green, 1 blue, 2 EE/RIR & 1 Blue hen eggs) have hatched. The 5 bantam eggs left from 18 are still quiet. One has pipped. They're due tomorrow. I hope they hatch!

I'm doing a MASSIVE herd reduction. I've listed 2 bred does, 1 open doe, 2 mature bucks, 1 buckling and several doelings for sale. See my sales page at www.sweetgumminis.com/sales.html for prices, photos and pedigrees. I need to downsize. I've even listed for trades considering I need hay, building materials for coops and hay storage, fencing, etc. Just ask. Well that's about it for now. Wish us luck on our last clutch of eggs. I set a dozen last week and only 2 appear to be developing. :-(

Homemade Incubator a Success!!!

Our first batch of eggs have made it to the hatcher and we have our first hatchlings! Here is our Hovabator Genesis with egg turner. This is what we incubate the eggs in till day 18 when we move them to the hatcher (our homemade incubator).

Hovabator Genesis 1588!

This is our second clutch of eggs due next weekend!

I couldn't be more pleased with our homemad hatcher! We used an old transport chest to prevent spills of chemicals. My husband had gotten it while working for a pool company. It has sat in the building for a long time so we found a use for it! We took a wafer thermastat we'd purchased for a different homemade wood bator a few years ago. Put a light bulb (25w) and wire cage in the incubator. Here it is from the outside.

Homemade Hatcher Incubator

We set our first clutch of eggs. Started with 17 but with poor firtility we wound up with 7 to set to hatch. We had 6 of the 7 hatch from Thursday through Friday! I am so happy with the hatcher's success in hatching our first eggs! We have more due next weekend so it'll get yet another round of testing.

Inside the homemade incubator with our first hatch.

Here is our new chicks! I hatched a couple from my Blue hens x our Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster. We got a black chick and a yellow with some colors mixed in. I think the yellow will be laced! We also got two yellow Seramas and 2 black Silkies.

Our new chicks!

Hope we have more chicks to report next weekend as well as another success story for the hatcher! I have plans to set more of my Blue hen eggs this weekend in order to work towards my project of creating a Blue-Laced-Red mutt.

Eggs!

Eggs, eggs and more eggs! No seriously we should be getting a lot more than what we are but I am thrilled they've started laying! Here's a photo of some of the eggs we're getting.

Eggs last week. Beautiful blue and green from Amreaucanas, back row brown/pink are the Blue hen's eggs and the front brown is the RIR in the chicken tractor with Ameraucanas.

My incubator is full of eggs now too. We have Silkies, Seramas, some of my own cross eggs, Ameraucanas, and some purebred bantams as well. I can't wait! Won't be long now!

Here are the eggs we've collect this week. The darker brown are RIRs as well as the tiny brown. The paler brown are the Blue hen's and the green are the Buff Ameraucana's.

Here is Revelation. Isn't he looking absolutely fabulous!?!?!

SGM S Faith's Revelation at 6 months old. He'll be servicing does soon!

I will be posting more about our chicks and chickens soon. The weather is cooling and the chicks are nearly fully feathered so its almost time to move outside. They've been hanging out in small pens during the day outside. They love it!

Back Online

We were offline for a while due to changing from AT&T to cable. Had no idea it would take so long to get it installed. Still don't have a phone yet, but at least the nets back up and running.

The new Ameraucana rooster. I'm calling him Roger so far.

We've received the incubator and egg turner! They're working beautifully. No eggs though to incubate. My newest hens are Blue Andalusian/RIR crosses and I do get an egg a day from them (there are 3 hens and a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster). But that's not a lot to report. No eggs still from the RIRs and they're now 19 weeks old. Nor from the Silver Sebrights or Ameraucanas. They all are just waiting for something. I don't know what.

One of the new Blue Andalusian/RIR cross hens.

Chicks are shooting up like weeds! The Cochins are almost all feathered. The bantam assortment is 22 clean legs and 14 feather footed. The feather footed looks like 3 White Frizzle Cochins, 3 Mille Fleur D'Uccles, 2 Buff Cochins, 3 White Cochins and 3 White D'Uccles. The Clean legged group has 2 Gold Sebrights, 6 Ameraucanas, 4 White Laced Red Cornish, a Self Blue Japanese I think, an unknown white with black spots chick, some White OE and some White Japanese, 3 black chicks which I'm not sure what they are.

The big group of goats left last weekend. That was a chore, but glad its over. Its remarkable how different the herd is with 5 less does and 1 less buck. I'm glad the herd is a bit smaller. Still have 3 more kids to leave and 2 bucks. Then we'll be set.

Well that's a sum up of the happenings so far. I'll get more photos of the chickens and updates again soon.

Chicken Tractor

We purchased 3 Ameraucana/Easter Egger chickens at the flea market over the weekend. I am excited. I can't wait to see if we get blue or green eggs. We believe 2 are hens and one is a rooster. They told us all 3 were hens but we'll see soon enough.

They've in a cage right now so we decided they needed something bigger. So we started a chicken tractor yesterday. We drew out plans first for an 5'L x 4'W x 2'H tractor with a coop that adjoins. The coop is 3'D x 4'W x 4'H with a sloped roof reduced to 2' in the back. We purchased 12 2'x105", 3 pieces of OSB, 4 hinges, 2 hook latches and got busy! Here it is in the rough, bottom and the top done.

Here is the base and run top together. The back is the coop in the works.

This is the coop started. We will put a small chicken door in the front.

Enclosing the coop. We were going to put a hinged roof on and a hinged door on the back for egg collection. However the back seemed a bit low for a door so we opted to use the roof instead. But the whole roof seemd a bit big just for egg collection so we decided to make half the roof as a door.

This is where we stopped Sunday. 3 1/2 hours and we were wore out. Its been pouring all day today so we haven't had a chance to continue. We're going to paint it with exterior paint when we're done too.

We're downsizing the goat herd more. I put up 3 more goats for sale. Julie, Bushfire and SunShine. I'm trying to get under 20 does right now. No fun downsizing though.

Chicks will be hatching Wednesday. I do hope they arrive again on Thursday. That would be ideal. Ha! That's the hatchery we ordered from. We picked up another brooder today and are going to get busy prepping that on Wednesday for the chicks arrival. I need to set-up a new space for them too.

That about does it for us today. Always lots of fun going on on a mini-farm!

More Chicks Ordered & Goat Update!

The chicks are doing very well! I put them in their brooder yesterday but by the end of the day we upgraded to a bigger one. The one splash chick I was worried about has really become active overnight. I'm so glad!

Buttin'Heads Tachauna, our herd matriarch

I ordered more chicks. This time since they had a special, I ordered 35 Assorted Bantams. I'm anxious to get them and see what's in the mix. I do hope I get some Wyandottes and of course Cochins won't hurt my feelings any! There could be many different breeds and colors in the assortment. They should be shipped out next Wednesday and hopefully they'll arrive Thursday like this shipment did. I can't wait!

SGM AZ Danse The Cha-Cha, Contredanse's 2008 doeling that we retained to our herd.

We have decided to sell Potsie and Contredanse. I have a few others up for sale. I am thinking of reducing the herd to around 18 Nigerian does and with my 2 Lamancha does we'll have 20 does to go into the winter with. That seems like a good number. We're down to 4 bucks with Ace and Rue being sold. If I retain Civil's buckling we'll be back up to 5. He won't be big enough to do an breedings till well into the winter I would think. So I'm still on the fence about whether or not to keep him.

Better Blues Good 'N Plenty, beautiful blue-eyed doe who is for sale!

It took so long to build up our herd that it is just heartbreaking and downright hard to let them go. I'm fighting the temptation to keep them all though. And I am proud of myself for doing so. I just really feel that the herd has grown too large and as a result it hasn't been as much fun to have them when there's so many. So its best to reduce to around 20 does. That's a much nicer, easy to manage size for our family.

I've had quite a few people interested in Plenty especially and some interested in Hera too, but so far they're both still available. I really like these two too.

I'm waiting on the does to start going in heat so I can chart them and even breed a couple. The heat I guess is keeping them from cycling. I have tried walking a buck around the doe pasture and letting them smell and letting him blubber at the does some but still no signs of heat yet. I can't wait to see what our junior bucks can do! I am so excited to see the kid crop next year! I kept 10 doelings this year and 1 buckling. I hope I can refrain from retaining that many next year. Haha

Chicks are Here!!!!

This morning while we waited for Hannah's bus to arrive I got a call from the post office that our new baby chicks had arrived! After I saw her off to school I came in, prepped a tub for a brooder and headed to the post office. When I got home I proceeded to mix up some grogel and add that to the brooder with some warm water as well.


I could hear the sweet little chickies chirping from inside their box. They were ready for some warmth and some food! So I cut the strap.

I took the top off to inspect the new babies and make sure they all made it through their journey alive. Yay! They did! They were huddled together but had faired the trip rather well. I dipped each chicks beak in the water and set it in the brooder. All 20 are doing really great! We had only one weakish chick and it has really perked up throughout the day. I'm thrilled! Already planning another order!

I am so far very happy with my cute little Cochins. There are 10 Birchen and 10 Blue. Looks like 7-8 Blue and 2-3 Splash. More pictures as they grow.

1st Day of School in 1st Grade!

(Left: Hannah starting Kindergarden 2007.)

This morning I rose early to await the bus that will start picking Hannah up for school tomorrow. I waited for a long time, about 20 minutes before coming in and waking Steve to get Hannah ready for school. I stayed out till almost 20 after waiting on the bus and gave up. Steve went out instead while I helped Hannah get ready for school. Wouldn't you know it? The bus came only a couple minutes after he went out. I'd been out there almost 40 minutes! Uh! So aggrivating. Anyway, all to tell them she would start riding tomorrow, but we were taking her today so she could find her class and teacher.

When we were loaded in the car, set and ready to go I turned and looked at Hannah and asked her, "Are you excited?" She looked at me so seriously and said, "Yeah" all matter-of-fact like and then pointed to her face and said, "can't you see my face?" I about lost it. That was so cute and hilarious! ROFL

(Right: Matthew 2007)

I waited outside for her afternoon bus and she got off and we went in the house. (Rather hot outside.) I asked her what she thought of school. She said she liked and then stopped, turned to me and said, "I LOVE riding the bus!" She had wanted so badly to ride last year but she was just a in Kindergarden so we felt it was best that we took her and picked her up. Well this year it wasn't so easy to pick her up so with her enthusiasm to ride the bus and our limitations for pick-up we decided to let her ride the bus. I'm so glad she likes school and so far likes riding the bus. I hope this continues.

She did very well for her first day. Even had homework! She's growing up so fast!

Here's a photo of Hannah starting Kindergarden last year. We didn't get any pictures this year. Here's also Matthew that same day.

Building or Buying?

Steve and I are discussing whether or not to buy or build our own incubator. We use to own 3 different incubators, a floor model cabinet style, a brand new Hovabator and an old round Hovabator. We sold them all when we got out of chickens. So now that we're interested in hatching eggs again we've decided it would be good to not only try with bantams, but with an incubator again. The bantams are going to take months just to lay and then a while to go broody. This will just speed up our opportunity to hatch eggs.

We've looked around at several homemade incubators online and have actually made 2 of our own in the past. Neither seemed as successful as the store bought incubators though. So Steve has collected a few materials and will be starting a homemade bator soon. I have already located one at a store to purchase in a week or so. We may just do both.

Next we'll be on the hunt for some eggs to hatch! Our Rhode Island Reds and Sebrights are not quite laying yet. The RIRs are 15 weeks old so it won't be too much longer. The Guineas also are 15 weeks but I believe it'll be next spring before they lay. The Sebrights are suppose to molt and then she'll start laying. As it turns out, the Sebright rooster isn't a purebred. He has the hackle feathering more like and Old English bantam would have. Purebred Sebrights are hen feathered so he is not purebred. That's ok, he'll be used for mutts and eggs to hatch in the meantime.

Hannah starts school tomorrow! Can you believe it? First grade already. She's so excited. I can't wait to see her settle back in at school. I think it would do her good to get around more kids again. She did very well in Kindergarden last year.

We're also discussing whether or not to attend the fall dairy goat shows. We were definitely planning to go to the South Carolina State Fair. Maybe the Gwinnett, GA state fair and the Fletcher, NC state fair. So who knows. We may yet.

Well that's about it for today. Not a lot of fascinating things going on. But that's our life.

Civil Kidded!!!

Civil kidded Friday after much anticipation and work! We watched her all day Thursday for signs that she was ready. She started contracting into the night so I figured she'd kid during the night. Well at 1am Friday morning I decided to go to bed. At 1:40am I couldn't sleep so I got up. I stayed up till Steve got home from work and we both sat up watching Civil. We both figured she'd kid any minute.

Steve decided to go to bed around 5am and slept till around 7am when I woke him and figured it was time to go down and feed the goats and check Civil. I washed up, lubed up and went inside her and felt that she was dialated just not progressing. Luckily the act of me going inside her stimulated her to push and before we knew it there were very very BIG feet presented. I felt in with a finger and could feel a nose too. So we waited till the feet were coming out and I gripped them and pulled. She pushed and pushed and I pulled and pulled. Finally we got the huge baby out. A HUGE cream/white buckling with blue-eyes!

We both bounced Civil and only felt belly. I went back inside her to see if there was another kid in there and did not feel one. She passed the placenta and that was that. Shew! We both got some rest after we were done with the birth.

Here he is...

Look at those blue-eyes! One more photo... We haven't decided yet if he's going to be retained or not. His dam's udder is very nice.

Ordered Baby Chicks!

I just ordered some chicks from Ideal Poultry again. Last time I ordered was in 2006 and I ordered 2 different batches of chicks. I was very pleased with their service and the quality of the chicks I ordered. I can't wait to get my new chicks in. I ordered 10 Birchen Cochin bantams and 10 Blue Cochin bantams.

I am awaiting baby goats! Civil's udder has grown huge and her ligaments are gone. Not sure she's going to kid today though, she's in no hurry. I'm ready to see what she's got in store for us!

Took a few pictures of our Rhode Island Reds and Guineas. Getting about time to separate them as they'll be laying soon.


I'll get photos when the new chicks arrive next week.

Welcome & Introduction

I must admit, I've never created a blog before. I wasn't really familiar with them, but saw a friend's and thought what the heck. My name is Ashley, I am married to a wonderful man named Stevie and we had two children. Hannah is at the wonderful age of 6 and going into 1st grade this year. She's creative, entergetic and a typical kid of her age. Matthew is in his own world and 3. He has really made strides in his social, physical and speech therapy. We are so happy with his progress.



I am 28 years old and an animal fanatic which you will learn by reading any of my posts. My husband Stevie is 35 and along for the ride. He wasn't really into or against animals, but has learned that living with me means a lot of critters around. He has adapted and even learned to love some of them. We were married November 30th, 2001. I can't believe its almost been 7 years already. Seems like just yesterday.



I grew up here in South Carolina, but was born in Medina, Ohio. Stevie was born and raised here in Easley, South Carolina. We have a nice home and are happy.



About our critters. Well I have been involved with animal rescue and fostering through two organizations. One was Greyhounds & Love in Anderson, SC. There we fostered 5 hounds and ended up chipping with Ace our 5th foster. So we stopped fostering since we're softies. We also volunteered and fostered for the Kitten Action Team in Fountin Inn, SC. We also wound up keeping foster cats and kittens so we have learned fostering doesn't work well for us. LOL Our pets right now are Ace (getting ready to turn 8 years old) He is a retired racing Greyhound. We have 7 indoor cats. Chloe is the oldest being over 10 though we are not positive her age. She was 2-3 estimated by our vet in 2000. Wendy we found in the Wendy's parking lot here in town in 2000. Felix and Lily were foster kittens back in 2003. Itty Bit found us in 2005. The two little ones are kittens from family. And we also have a few gerbils (use to be a breeder).



We raise Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats. We just added two Lamancha doelings to the herd this year so we'll likely have Mini-Manchas here next spring. We currently have 23 does and 5 bucks. Expecting kids to be born this week too! More on the goats later. We also have 8 RIRs, a pair of Silver Sebrights and 4 noisey Guineas.



I will post more information as I get familiar with posting and blogging. Thanks for reading! Ashley