The month of February is already over. It was not as productive of a month for us at Pure Water Hollow as January was, but there were 3 fewer days and some uncooperative weather.
CHICKENS:
Our egg production was down from last month (a record number of 165 eggs in Jan). But we were pleased that we still collected 121 eggs, given all the freezing temperatures and cloudy, yucky days. I don’t think they lay as well during foul weather.
There are still 21 hens in the coop and 9 more hens that we need to move into the coop.
We harvested four more roosters in February for about 14 pounds of finished meat in the freezer. We still have 4 to go.
The expense for keeping these chickens was, again, about a bag and a half of cracked corn, which was $9.80 for a 100-pound bag. (They have since raised it to $10.10, but I bought extra at $9.80) So we fed them about $15 worth of corn in February. Not too bad for 14 pounds of meat and 10 dozen eggs.
We cleaned out the coop on the 22nd and put fresh straw in the nests. It was easier cleaning the coop this time because there was so much straw in there for litter. Apparently, the more litter there is, the easier it is to clean out the droppings. We used our wood mulch for litter this time, instead of straw, since it was free.
The flock seems to be very healthy, now. None died this month or are acting sickly.
PIGS:
All four have continued to grow and prosper during February.
We fixed the trough so that one part of it comes out of the lot and we have it slanted slightly so we can feed them without having them knock the bucket out of our hands. I’ll try to show pictures of it sometime so you can see what I mean. We have continued to pick up old milk for free from the distributors and mix it with corn feed meal. We have usually mixed two gallons of milk with the corn meal to fill up a 5-gallon bucket to 2/3 full. We have increased from 2 of these buckets to 3 of them per feeding. Some days they only got this once, and other days they got the wet food twice, depending on if we were around or not.
I have also put in a self feeder with the nutritionally mixed dry “pig chow”, so they have access to that all the time. They have not been using it much, however. I may have it up too high, or maybe they won’t mess with it as long as we are feeding them the slop regularly. It was a $60 investment, so I hope that it will be an asset to us.
The feeding costs were more for the pigs in February, as they are eating more like hogs now than little pigs! We went through 4 – 100 lb. bags of cornmeal, and almost 2entire 100 lb. bags of the pig chow. The corn meal was $8.75 each and the pig chow was $14.oo each for a monthly total of $63.00. Las month was about $40.
We used another 3 bales of straw to help them keep warm through a very cold February. The bales of straw still cost $4.75 a piece, so we have used $14.25 of straw for the pigs again in February.
We had noticed some bugs on the pigs so I put some Insectrin dust on them January 24th. I followed up with two more dustings in February and now they seem to be completely rid of the itching and bugs. There is still plenty medicine left in the bottle. (The chickens might benefit from it a little later this spring.)
Most of February we had freezing temperatures, so my self waterer would not have been very useful. It is all clean and ready to install. I just need a good afternoon to try and get it in their pen. We continue to carry water from the pond for them almost every day.
Matthew and Christina think they witnessed a successful mating attempt between Rufus and Sally on February 26th. If it took we can expect piglets around June 21!
GOATS:
We bought a little wether on Feb. 2nd at a charity auction. He is the first goat we have owned. We decided not to bring him home right away because of the severe cold weather we were having, but we did bring him home on the 15th.
We have been working on getting a small area fenced up on our kudzu hill. The fence is now complete, except for a gate. It turns out that we have used 4 – 50 feet rolls of fence. Each roll was almost $30 so, including tax, the fence expense so far has been $126.60. This was much more than I was planning for and I had to split up the fence purchasing into two times to soften the impact on the pocketbook. It will cost a fortune to fence the entire kudzu hill like I am planning. We need to budget in buying a roll or two of fence every couple of weeks and working up to the entire amount we need gradually. Hopefully, this small area we have fenced will be OK for Little Joe in the meantime.
I bought a 100 lb. bag of horse mix for him for $12.75. This should last for the next couple of months because he does not eat much of it at a time.
We still need to complete a small shed for him up in the fenced lot. I have the materials and we have made some of the cuts, but I need to get time to put it all together.
GARDEN:
Not much happened with all the freezing and snow we had. We did order 12 blueberry plants, 12 cherry bushes and some hanging strawberry plants.
I have yet to prune the fruit trees and grape vines.
WEATHER:
We finally had winter! February saw many single digit nights at Pure Water Hollow. For the first 18 days of February the temperatures only got above freezing by a few degrees on a couple of days. We had two three-inch snows and several dustings of snow, along with some freezing rain. During that time the local school system was only in session for four days and our church had to cancel 4 of 5 services. (Two Sundays and two Wednesdays).
The last week and a half of February was nicer but cloudy. We had .2 inches of rain and 9 of 10 days above 50 degrees. The 22nd was 65 degrees and the 25th was 70 degrees!
MISC:
We got a new Great Pyrenees dog and two black Pyr-Lab puppieson the 22nd. We took them to the vets on the 27th for their shots and because one of the puppies was acting sick. The expense so far has been $147.24 to the vet! This was also more than we wanted to spend, but we want the dogs to be healthy. The two puppies ended the month needing to stay at the vets. If we chose to not go this course, they would have almost surely died soon. It turns out they had Parvo when we got them and they are currently fighting for their little lives. The vet is doing the IV treatment and keeping a close eye on them. (Please pray for them, that the Lord’s will be done.)
March looks to be another wonderful month at Pure Water Hollow. We are excited to see how the Lord will bless!
11 comments
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LittleHouse March 1, 2007 at 2:02 pm
We have been praying for your little puppies since we heard they were sick. Please keep us up to date with how they are doing.
How is Lisa doing? Is her back any better?
Glad to hear about all the Blessings God has done this month:)
Many Blessings,
Ma
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sheryl March 1, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I really like your idea of keeping track of how much feed you use and what you spend a month. We really don`t keep track but since this is a new month. I think I will start and see what we do spend. I love the end of the month review. You do such a great job with you posts. I know dh puts all the receipts in a bag in the safe for taxes. I guess I really should be writing it down.
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geoff March 1, 2007 at 8:12 pm
This is great. Thanks for posting all of this. I really appreciate actual figures. We just started raising goats. We have 3 Does and 4 kids. What kind of Fencing did you get? I think we paid over $211.00 for a 300 ft roll of Goat Fencing. It is really good and is supposed to take a lot of abuse from goats but with all the electric fencing that we have on it the goats don't even touch it.
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geoff March 1, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I just read the post you made when you got the goat. You said that you used a fence with 2×4 squares, that sounds like a good plan.
Again, I really appreciate your blog. Thanks!
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Heritage Hill Homestead March 2, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Hi, I just came across your blog and enjoyed your monthly report, what a great idea!Marilyn at Heritage Hill Homestead
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Mom March 2, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Spring is just around the corner and Springtime in Kentucky is wonderful. Southeastern Kentucky is my favorite place to be. maa's mom
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littlehouse March 5, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hi, I found this neat web-site about "free chicken feed" Thought you might want to check it out
http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/11/free-chicken-feed.html.
Many Blessings,
Ma
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farmerswife March 5, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blog! You have some good ideas! Take care and God bless!
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Chas March 7, 2007 at 8:43 am
Hey, great blog. I really enjoyed reading this entry and I am going to try and keep track as well as you have about our expenditures each month on our animals (when we get them ). Thanks for the great advice!Blessings,Chas
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Geoff March 7, 2007 at 11:44 am
That was an excellent comment From Littlehouse about the site: thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2006/11/free-chicken-feed.html. I am going to try hanging pales of… well… all over the place.
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mom2ahousefull March 8, 2007 at 9:18 am
Thought you might find it funny that Luke recognized your barn. He walked by the computer and said "What are you doing with a picture of Lisa and Eric's barn?"
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