We are raising Freedom Ranger chickens this year to sell to our friends and community.
The chicks are housed in a 4×4 tote that has been cut in half and filled with stove pellets to keep the ground clean. In the past, we have used heat lamps but due to us being off-grid and relying on our battery bank through the night we found the Brinsea Brooders use the least amount of energy. So far they have worked great and everyone is warm and active. I would not use them in a room that is super cold because I don’t think it has the capability to heat that much but at room temperature it works perfect.
I fell in love the the Lavender Orphingtons I have been seeing online and decided to order a couple dozen hatching eggs. Unfortunately, our hatch rate was horrible! I ended up with five chicks out of the 25 eggs that were sent. I have always had success in my Brinsea Incubator so I am left wondering what happened. I plan on ordering another set of eggs and trying it all over again.
This little one is getting his or her feathers in. I am really hopeful I have at least one rooster and one hen.
Not only are we raising little chickens we also have four Muscovy ducks in and out of the house. At night they get to go into a tote to stay nice and warm and during the day back outside. The nice thing about Muscovy ducks is you can tell the differences between males and females pretty quickly. The males get big fast and the little ladies stay petite. We probably won’t be keeping the males once they get to a certain weight because I have another chocolate and lavender male running around the ranch. The females will be here to provide us eggs and more ducklings down the road.
We have had some hard times with our goats this year. We lost my first Oberhasli doeling at 5 weeks. I took her down for a Necropsy and there was nothing to report. It was heartbreaking and a huge blow to our perfect kidding record. Then we had Emily’s first freshener doe kid two weeks early and we lost the two bucklings. It is hard to type and admit to the losses but I think it is better to let people know it happens and it hurts but farm life goes on.
Here are some happy times with some of our yearling Nigerian Dwarfs:
Jack loves to run into the pasture and find “his goat”… this is Emmy giving him a hug.
Emily loves to show me how strong she is and how she can still pick up the “babies”…this is Urban Acres SW Jit’RBug N’Jive.
Oh and my sweet Elizabeth. She too likes to “hug her goat”…this is poor Emmy. (No goats were harmed in the taking of these photos)
Next up to kid is A&W Farms CJ Valentine Olivia, she is due May 1st. Pleases keep us in your thoughts as we are hoping the troubles are behind us.
Quartz Ridge Ranch 
You and your family and critters will be in my prayers. It is always hard to loose animals. Ours become part of our family. Our grandsons have pigs for fair this year. The older ones try not to get close to them. So when auction time comes and its time to sell them hopefully it will be eaiser for them. I am worried about the 9 year old twins. Its there first year for show and selling. I hope all goes well for the younger one.
I said a prayer for your farm. May God bless your family and animals. I heard you on the Survival Podcast. I learned so much. Thank you for sharing about your fodder system. That knowledge will help many families become more self sufficient.
Thank you so much! I have decided it is a reset year for our planet. It seems like the goat world has seen a lot of losses and a lot of bucks. I hope that we get through the rest of our kidding season with healthy animals. It isn’t in my hands.