Hello from Hat Trick!

Fall is here, trees are changing and pumpkins are turning orange... Including ours! So far we've had eleven pumpkins (there's more on the vine)two of which we've made into delicious pies! 

Our squash is also growing like crazy as is our carrots and sunflowers! Our watermelon didn't have much success but we are still learning. 

Beef is going to be on the market soon and our list is getting longer.

 Thank you for your support.


Hat Trick Farm.

A farm surprise...from a kid's perspective!

     Every child has read or heard a story like the following:

        "Momma! Momma! Henny's gone! I can't find her anywhere." Penny came running into the house with a shocked look on her face, tears welling in her eyes. "I'm sure your speckled hen will come back," her mother said, trying to soothe her young daughter. To no avail Penny started crying even harder. "Penny stop crying. We will go and look for her," her mother persuaded, trying a different angle. After hours of searching it started to get dark and it was time for bed. The next day Henny was waiting for them at the coop. Everyday Henny would disappear and they could not figure out where Henny was going.  After a while it was a normal occurrence for Henny to leave and then to  return in the morning. Finally one day when Penny went to check on Henny, she had followers. Chicks-a bunch of them... THAT's were she was disappearing off to. Penny ran into the house and explained what happened to Henny.  All was well because now Penny had 8 'Henny's'. 

This happened to me.

I've done a lot of fun things on this farm but this was the most surprising! Here's how it happened:

      My sister and her friend went to give our chickens some corn. As they were throwing corn, the friend asked to go see the eggs in the house. They started walking into the chicken coop when friend stopped and asked if she could see the chicks. Chicks?! We don't have any chicks! However, when the girls peeked into the pasture, they see peepers everywhere. The girls started raising the alarm that there were chicks. As we went outside one by one, the surprised looks around our farm started adding up. Yes, chicks! Seven fluffy seeming to be day-old chicks!! 

      I have always wanted to see a mother hen with chicks and I guess now's my chance.

With Spring comes Babies!

Spring is upon us here at the farm.  We are starting to see buds on the trees, grass in the fields and calves running through the pasture.  The weather has been so nice lately that we haven't had to don boots, hats and mittens before leaving the house.  Tennis shoes and a sweatshirt suffices most days.

As of this writing, we have 8 calves that have been born in the last 3 weeks.  Last year, we lost 2 calves, due in part to overfeeding resulting in larger than normal calves and to inexperience on our part. We were heartbroken to lose those two calves last year and thought that was the worst. However, this year, we experienced something harder.

One of our original girls, Little Spot, developed a prolapsed uterus on delivery.  This occurs when the uterus is delivered with the calf.  The 'cure' is to push the uterus back in and sew up the opening so the uterus can't come out again.  We read that cows that have this problem can go on to have more calves in the future.  We were hopeful that this would be the case with Little Spot. Unfortunately, she didn't make it, leaving us with her beautiful heifer calf to raise.  Below is a picture of Brooke (the calf) having some fun in the yard with the littlest.

If you have been following along with past posts, you will recall that last year, we had a calf that was orphaned by its mother.  This calf, Annie, was successfully 'adopted' by our milk cow, Eleanor.  Annie is doing well and stays pretty close to Eleanor most of the time.  We have noticed that Eleanor still lets Annie nurse!  We were hoping to give Brooke to Eleanor to feed so we wouldn't have to but Annie and Eleanor still have a strong bond.  We will have to separate the two for the summer to initiate the weaning process.

That is what has been happening on the farm this month.  I'll post more next week on other things that are happening on the farm.  Until then, we are getting out and enjoying as much of the warm weather as is possible.

Update

Winter has started again on Hat Trick Farms, and a wacky start it is too.

First, it snowed about 12 inches in October, warmed back to about 50-60 degrees then snowed again back to a balmy -4 degrees at 9:30 on Dec 31.

Second, we had to start feeding the cows early, however it seems we will make it to March or April.  

On the happy side, my dad fixed the automatic chicken door so we do not have to go out in the morning. It is set on a timer, so we can decide when the chicken door comes open and closes.
The timer is also connected to a light because the chickens lay more eggs in when it is light, or if they are out side when it gets dark, instinct tells them that they should go to shelter so they go hide under the pine tree. If the light is on then they can see where the door is and they will go inside. As well we have the light so when we go to feed them and gather the eggs we can actually see.

Last is an update on Little orphan Annie, who really isn't an orphan anymore. First of all the next day my dad was woken up early because heard a lot of ruckus. He got up and checked on the cows to see what was wrong. He opened the curtains and saw Farlow (the surrogate) trying to kill Annie. She probably realized that Annie was not her calf so she chose the stronger one which was Henry. As the story plays out when we moved the bulls down from the back separation pasture and the girls dow the road to summer grazing they knocked our shed down and Eleanor injured three of her ankles. When we moved the bulls and since then made steers in with the cows and calves we moved Annie in as a pasture buddy for Eleanor. Annie soon figured out that Eleanor could not get away very well or at all because of her ankles so she kept her persistence and succeeded in nursing off of Eleanor. One day when we went out to milk we did not get a drop so from then on Annie is now our little fatted calf. SOOO.... when life gives us a calf with no mother and a mother with no calf (who's story will be in the next post) we put them together for a match made in heaven.

Chick's Hatched

It's a girl and another girl oh, and a boy one more girl!!!! It is so hard to keep track and I don't know what genders we are having (I wish). We had 27 hatch but 1 chick did not make it. Since we have the incubator and the eggs we decided to hatch more, and they will hatch on the 30 and 31of May.  These chicks in the picture are younger then they are now.  The other chicks hatched today.