“Do right because it is right, not because you are compelled to.” James Warren

I am a graduate of South Pittsburg High School, class of 1989 and EVERY morning we heard the above quote until Mr. Warren retired at end of the first semester of my senior year.  Well my neighbor just recently did just that as my dad offer to pay for the replacement chickens and turkey fresh food feast of Wishbone.  Here is what I purchased in the designed chicken category I lost a couple of frizzle bantams and replaced them with Japanese Black Tail Bantams.  We bought a rooster and a hen just under a year old and some chicks
along with a couple of Aracuna chicks, if they are hens they will lay green eggs.  I also purchased a young bronze turkey (3-4 months) about the same age as the one I lost. 
Incase you are wondering about Lilly; she has no signs of infection, no more maggots, and is eating and drinking normally and most importantly when I open her cage (still in isolation) she meets me with a squawk as she always has.  When he was in the worst shape she would not squawk when picked up which was really out of character for her.  She loves to be held and petted but is vocal.

How fresh should chicken be?

I have often heard it said that fresh food is the much better than processed food that has bee in a package for no telling how long.  Where now I raise the question of how fresh is too fresh?  If you travel up the road from me you will find a young lady, who likes fresh chicken…VERY fresh.  As a child I bet you were told to “clean your plate” and if you have children I bet you have also made that statement. 
This is a case where she did not “clean her plate” and the Jones’ household is so glad. 
The young lady I’m speaking of is Wishbone, a dog my dad rescued from the pound.  She did eat several chickens and a young turkey but she left Lilly severely injured. 
Lilly is a feather footed bantam, who has a great demeanor, you can pick her up and hold her, without being pecked.  She will patiently sit on eggs for the required 21 days and protect the new chicks until they are ready to live on their own. 
Having been an EMT, I have worked on a few people.  I have doctored on dogs and cats in my ALMOST 40 years, but since the establishment of Rosebriar Farm, I have had to learn to doctor on chickens.  I by no means consider myself an expert but if you have many animals a trip to the vet for everything is not affordable. 


Here are some picture of where Wishbone attacked Lilly and the areas where Brad and I, have had to try to keep Lilly from getting infections that could eventually kill her.  We must be doing ok because Lilly is getting better and I getting back to her friendly self. 

New on the Farm

Last August Jen posted [Just Look!] on Fiddle Dee Dee, where she shared with you about my father-in-law getting me a female Beagle, Sasha.

She has also posted  {Talkin' Turkey} where you can see the highlight of Winston’s (Jen’s male Beagle) day is chasing turkeys.  Well he obviously chased more than turkeys because last night Sasha checked into the Jones Labor and Delivery ward.

She was given a clean crate, clean towels, and a little classical (soothing) music, and the lights were turned down.  I will now share photos of her three little ones.

A1 but not the steak sauce

Every farmer needs and A1 farmhand, I would like to introduce you to mine.  I have made several posts about the girls doing various things around the farm but as Brad mentioned to me the other day, I have not posted about him much.  This is because while the girls do things like 4H, Brad does the routine work around the farm. 

Here is some of the items he routinely does:

• Opens the coop in the morning where the chickens can free range
• Closes the chickens and goats up in the coop at night
• Water
• Feed
• Get cages ready for new birds or ones that need to be isolated because they are broody, hurt or sick
• Help with moving growing birds to new cages
• Catching “Wishbone” and taking her back to the neighbor’s house before she eats chickens
• Checking on hurt chickens to determine if they can be saved or have to be put down

He recently learned to drive the tractor and today he took the tractor and cut a path to and from the barn when we used the tractor for some other work. 


Here are a few pictures of Brad hard at work....

 

 

Define a “farm”

Merriam-Webster defines a farm as “a tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes.”

BUT

I believe there is a little more to it; you have to actually raise something. It may be wheat, corn, beans, bovine, horses, chickens or something, but does this really do it. I thought so until Tuesday when I realized to be a true farm that raises animals you have to go one step farther. If all you do is buy animals and raise them you are well on your way to being a farm, but I really believe you have to go just a little farther. About 3 weeks ago Scarlett, a white silkie, whom I have written about before went “broody”; she was ready to sit eggs. She has done this a couple of times before but lost interest after just a few days. The second time I gave her baby chicks, I had purchased to raise; to which she was a fine foster parent. Well this time I decided I would let her try, I gave her one egg from Lilly , a cute little feather footed bantam.

AND

Now we have our first animal hatched on our farm.

Lilly (above) Scarlett (below)

Here is Scarlet and the day old chick.

I’m reaching through the back door, holding the chick after Scarlet stopped pecking me and let me hold it.

So to Rosebriar Farm, Scarlet and Bonnie Blue: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

One thing you must be able to do to be considered a farmer?

In order to truly be a farmer you do not have to have thousands of acres, you do not have to have hundreds of cattle, or many bales of cotton but you must be able to drive a tractor. You may be asking why I’m bringing this up, but this was a task I learned at a relatively early age. Granted, I had an unfair advantage as I learned to drive a vehicle, with an automatic transmission, before I could actually reach the pedals. I learned to drive a dump truck with a manual transmission, when I had to put both feet on the clutch to get it down far enough to get the truck to start. To learn to operate the tractor I spent many hours riding on the fender watching what daddy did and then when I thought I had it he let me try it. This all seems natural since I grew up with a grandmother that owned an auto parts junkyard. I could run a tow truck before I could ride a bicycle.

Any why do I feel I need to share this information? Well a couple of reasons while our hobby farm is really small as we have:

1 rabbit

1 pot belly pig

2 goats (a pygmy and a Nigerian dwarf)

2 turkeys (a bourbon red and a bronze)

11 quail

50 or so chickens of many varieties

and

3 kids (the people type not more baby goats).

I have been trying to get the kids more involved as Jen and I want them to enjoy farming or as she refers to it my mid-life crisis. So this week as i using the tractor I decided it was time for Kenzie-Grace to learn to drive the tractor. So with no more delay here are the photos of her learning to drive the same 1974 David Brown 885 (an English tractor made by Case) that I learned to drive roughly 30 years ago.

I have 2 girls in 4H

Kenzie-Grace and Maddie are in 4H and recently each had a project of building a bird house. I researched a few designs to give them some options where they would not have to turn in identical projects. I should have some pictures of the construction to share but Jen’s computer crashed and we lost the pics. Now that the projects have been judged and I have let them sit in their rooms for them to admire trip over as I procrastinated on hanging them for a month.

Here you go.

Maddie’s is a finch house; as you can see it does not have a typical hole. The bird goes into the triangle opening and drops down inside the house. The lag screws (silver dots) will be painted over with black paint, to keep from being an eye sore.

Kenzie-Grace chose to build a home for a woodpecker, black with large white polka dots. It hangs level however with the shape of the tree it appears to be tilted.

I did assist but the girls did their own measuring, marking, cutting nailing, drilling and painting. K-G received a second place ribbon and Maddie receive a participant ribbons but Jen and I were extremely proud because they did the work themselves. The hard work is now a part of our little farm.