Its been a busy week around here so I thought I would just share a few pictures from around the farm and what we have been up to.
We started building the chicken coop as the brooder is getting overcrowded at this point. It is always an adventure in building when you have so many helping hands. I am so excited to get the coop done and be able to at least move the ducklings out to the coop, then the laying hens and 4H breeds in a few more weeks. They will have so much more space and when Mr. Incidental isn't training bird dogs they will be free ranging on the farm.
We started building the chicken coop as the brooder is getting overcrowded at this point. It is always an adventure in building when you have so many helping hands. I am so excited to get the coop done and be able to at least move the ducklings out to the coop, then the laying hens and 4H breeds in a few more weeks. They will have so much more space and when Mr. Incidental isn't training bird dogs they will be free ranging on the farm.
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The meat chickens are getting SOOOO big and were in need of some fresh air, grass and bugs to eat so they took a trip out to the chicken tractor on a few of the sunny warm days this week. This makes for a two-fold benefit. The chickens are getting fresh forage and they are also fertilizing my lawn as we move the chicken tractor around, not to mention less mess for me to clean up!
 |  Here's where the funny factor comes in... we move them from the brooder in the barn to the outdoors in a bucket, KFC- we can do a bucket of chicken too!!! |
The ducklings are getting sooo big. We had a bit of a tragedy this week as our Mallard rescue decided it was time to leave. I think she just knew she was meant to be wild and she took off, we gave a little chase but decided that she was old enough to fend for herself and needed to be wild. The other three ducklings were ones we purchased from a hatchery when we got our chickens, I think we are going to call them Huey, Duey and Louie. They are all doing well and are definitely more tame than the rescue we were helping. Right now their favorite thing is playtime in the outdoors with a swim in the pan.
Our back field was getting very out of control, without the horse to eat the grass down it grows up VERY quickly. Mr. Incidental was having trouble seeing the dogs he trains for the long grass and the boys were playing lots of lion hunting games, but were also coming back with ticks and chigger bites. So out came the bush hog to make short work of the tall grasses.
We also took time for a homeschool field trip to a Robotics Manufacturing company. This was a really cool experience for all the kids as we witnessed automation and STEM learning at its finest. The company we visited did a fantastic job providing detailed information and allowing the kids some hands on experiences as well
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One of the coolest parts about the field trip was meeting a young robotics engineer who also was homeschooled and couldn't say enough positive and encouraging things to our students!
We got the garden tilled, attended an end of year homeschool ice cream party, opened the pool and still managed to keep the chaos to a minimum...bring on the holiday weekend!
