Is This My Once a Year Update?

Howdy!

I actually found myself googling, "Do people still read blogs?" before I sat down to write this. And whether they do still read blogs or not, I found myself compelled to add another post... even if only for my own "story keeping." 

Yes, we are still YouTubing as well, but here's a quick update as to all things TwelveAcres.

With the CRAZY stuff going on in the world today, I'm withdrawing deeper and deeper into our little farm. We are making growing our own food a bigger priority this year than ever before. The fragile food system that is crumbling before our very eyes, has jolted a lot of people out of their slumber. 

The fresh meat sections at our local supermarket. 

Because of that, we've upped our game. 

The garden is a little bigger this year, our incubators are constantly running, the rabbits are perpetually kindling... you get the idea. 

 Our "pig venture" is still proceeding. Darla, our York/Blue Butt cross is pregnant and should be due in July. Frank, the Hereford boar, is still as sweet as ever, and even teaching Darla how to love being scratched. They are growing ever bigger and we hope to be able to expand their pens yet again this year. And I'm learning all I can about hog pregnancies and birth!

Handy Husband has seen some employment difficulties this year, so another new venture of ours is making home décor and furnishings from reclaimed wood and pallets. We've opened up an Etsy shop for the smaller items; if you get a minute, we'd love to have you take a look at what we offer. 

One of our handcrafted "noodle boards," aka stovetop covers.  

Some new critters on the farm this year, are (FINALLY) turkeys! We've been talking about getting turkeys for years now, and we finally bit the bullet! We have 12, 4 day old poults: six Narragansett, and six Bourbon Red. We plan on raising a few of these for the freezer, and the rest will be kept as breeders to hopefully keep us in turkey for years to come. 

 I can't think of anything else new. We are still recovering from the housefire, believe it or not. The siding is about 90% done, and we have still have to paint. We also have two massive piles of debris to remove from the property, but without a truck it's not that easy. One day at a time! We'll get there eventually.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. I may update more frequently as the mood hits. Take care everyone and I'll see you back here next time! 

Blog Update!

Good afternoon! I suppose it's time to update you all as to WHY I haven't posted on here much lately. We've decided to switch over to primarily doing YouTube. I try to post new videos at least once a week, but sometimes I upload as often as every couple of days! 

Here's the link, in case it is not visible elsewhere on the blog:

Twelve Acres Homestead on YouTube!

And here are a few links to some of our most recent videos:

Day 31: Siding and Window Replacement Project

Quail and Chicken Egg Incubation and Hatch - August 2019

Update on Goats + the Miraculous Recovery of Our Very Sick Buckling

I hope that you can all check it out, and thanks for stopping by here!

New Butchering Station **WARNING: GRAPHIC**

 Handy Husband put his skills to use once again and made this nifty butchering stand. It'll make processing rabbits so much easier! We tried it out last weekend, along with processing a few quail. 

Feathered Friends

 Here's a bit of all things feather/fowl... 

We moved the Coturnix quail into the currently unused greenhouse, and they really love it. Their old pen was just too soggy and wet. I've been hatching out a lot of these little guys lately. 

Speaking of quail, the Bobwhite are doing well, and just started laying eggs finally. I doubt I'll do anything with them, though. They're just more of a novelty bird for us. 

This young man has some new friends: Skye, Angel, and Mischief.

They love hanging out on his shoulder. 

Most of our original flock of chickens was annihilated by raccoons and opossums recently, but thankfully I had just started an incubator full of their eggs. They won't be the same, but hopefully I'll get some good layers out of them. It breaks my heart that I've had so many wonderful birds lose their lives in such a terrible way. 

The Ducks New Home

 

After moving the quail to the greenhouse, so they could have more sunshine, I thought their old pen would make the perfect duck pen. It's safe from predators, plenty big, and it becomes a huge mud-pit in the rain. Perfect for ducks!

Incubator Overview

Our incubator is Rite Farm Products' Model #3600 Complete Pro Digital Incubator Kit. It was just under $100 and has proved to be pretty reliable. I do use an additional thermometer and hygrometer to make sure my levels are just right.

One of our first bigger hatches was a combination hatch with quail, chicken, and duck eggs. We had decent results, but it was difficult to give the ducks as much moisture as they needed, without drowning the other eggs. Check out the video on that hatch:

Here lately though, I've been sticking to just uncubating quail, and I generally get

around a 70% hatch rate with them.

Our Quail Project

Our jumbo Coturnix quail project is sure doing well! These guys have grown up so fast and we're inundated with SO many eggs every day. The extra eggs make a great supplemental feed for the chickens!

The big indoor/outdoor pen is working out okay, though with them being on the ground, the eggs tend to get dirty if they're not gathered immediately.

We try to fill up the incubator at least once a month. Getting our numbers up to a comfortable level where we can regularly butcher the quail is our goal. So far it's working great!

Update on the Quail

Check out the latest update on the quail:

Quail Pen Complete

We finished the quail pen. The indoor part is about 10x10, while the outdoor area is around 8x8. It's fully enclosed with chicken wire, and we put a little "natural habitat" area for them to hide in. So far they've been too scared to come outside, but we're supposed to have some nice weather the next few days and I'm hoping they'll start to venture outside more.

The Quest for Quail

Handy Husband has a new hobby! In our desire to become more self sufficient and grow a large part of our food supply, we decided to add quail to the menagerie.

We found these little cuties on Craigslist. They are 3 week old Jumbo Coturnix quail. We're not sure how many are males/females yet, but they are all healthy and doing well. 

After moving Griffin in with the other goats, we started remodeling his temporary space to use for the quail. It will have a nice, fully enclosed outside pen attached to a room in our shop building. 

The outside portion of their pen isn't finished just yet, but the inside part, which is about 10x10 is nice and cozy. 

 

Above, the chickens seem to think the quail's new outdoor pen-in-progress is a fun place to hang out. Are they trying to tell me something?