Got my census today, stuck in between storm door and interior door. Long form one, it's a bloody book! Thick as my pinky! Asks all sorts of personal questions, blargh. I have no idea if my tenant got one or not, I'm dreading asking...he's an idiot. We inherited him when we took over the place. He does things like sends our mail back marked "address unknown" (we share the roadside mailbox) because our names were written in cursive and he couldn't recognize them. Or comes in MY house to let MY dogs outside because they are barking. Or lets my dogs IN because they are barking. He's been told multiple times that they have a job to do, There's almost ALWAYS someone here and if they're out, or in, there's a reason for it, and don't f**k with them. Well, a few days ago we all had to go to town so I brought the dogs in. I didn't lock the door, silly me. When I got home, dogs were outside, in the road. Why? He could hear one scratching on the door. I lost it and served him 2 months notice. So if I can't convince my mum to come live in the granny flat, I'll be looking for a new tenant, available July 1. I'm going out of my way to avoid the man because I'm still grumpy with him LOL, but I'm not sure he's smart enough to notify gov't if he didn't get his own census form, and I'm sure as hell not listing him on mine. On to brighter news...
latest hatch was 12/19, not bad but not great. All looked good at lockdown, first baby started hatch on time (May 1) but a couple were still hatching out today. I opened inc to scoop out thirsty chicks and candle remaining eggs, and there's an indescribably bad smell. One egg is still good, but the rest died sometime during lockdown, including a couple internal pips, and a couple had brown smelly liquid in them. Two chicks hatched wet, one died and one was so goopy it stuck to the shelf paper and now has to relearn to walk correctly. So, now I know not to add water for next hatch, unless we get a drought lol. I added water at lockdown because it's been so dry in here, and then of course the weather turned. At any rate, I'm giving the remaining egg until tomorrow afternoon to start hatching, then I'm pitching it and cleaning incubator for another round. And, boy does it need cleaning, OMG, the last batches weren't nearly so gross. The next round will be 40 eggs of various breeds and mixes, and today I thoroughly washed some of the eggs with warm water to see if it negatively affects development or hatching. Some of the eggs were muddy anyway. SO, if the washed eggs don't work out, at least I'll know not to do it in future.
Mama turkey is still sitting on 12 eggs, I forget when they're due to hatch (I think in about 5 days?) but I'm not checking the eggs to refresh my memory! She's stuck tight, and quite adamant that I not muck with her! One broody hen hatched 6 chicks yesterday, and another broody should be hatching today or tomorrow, there's 5 eggs under her. I might sneak the chicks I just artificially hatched under the two of them tonight. Another little girl was given 3 turkey eggs a while ago to cuddle, I forget when they're due as well, and I don't want to muck with her, mostly because she's in a difficult spot to access. AND, another hen just went down for the count, on a fake goose egg. I'll pick out some proper eggs for her tonight. A muscovy hen also managed to sneak eggs by me (I wasn't going to hatch muscovy this year) and I'll leave her to it since I'm unsure how long she's been there.
The two sows are going to pop some piglets very, very soon--both have bagged up about a week ago and are vajiggly
Baby goats are growing like weeds, and take great pleasure in hopping the snake rail fence, eating cardboard, and generally causing mischief. Young calves also growing like weeds, the oldest one is almost 6 months old, and already weighs about 400 lbs. Not sure if that's good or not, I've no experience to compare it to LOL, but to me, he's huge :) He's also a big sucky baby, very very easy to handle, and moooooos for chin scratches. He's never butted me, or even the other calves that I've ever seen. I hope he carries his pleasant personality over to bullhood, though it might be a moot point since I can't seem to find any suitable heifers within my price range! BTW, if you are thinking of maybe one day getting a cow, and you think chickens make a mess, DON'T get a cow. They're pretty disgusting right out of the gate. 50 chickens take 3 months to produce the amount of 
produced by one cow in a day. And, they pee their own weight in one go. Absolutely nothing scientific about either of those statements, it's just what it seems like to me LOL, especially when I'm peeling another ten pound turd off the bottom of my boot, or saying things like "DON'T CHEW THAT, YOU JUST SHAT ON IT YOU DISGUSTING CREATURE!!!"
Pet quality wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, welsummers, barred rocks, light brown leghorns; Projects on the go: rhodebars, welbars