Duchess had 8. One is a true runt, actually half the size of its siblings. I haven’t seen actual runts often. It’s got even odds for survival. But all of them were round-bellied squirmers, so she’s doing a fine job already. Mystique and Missy have pulled fur, but no kits yet. Mystique took 31 days… Continue reading Babies!
Fodder The Awkwardly Placed Fodder Tower is now at full production. It looks like each tray will provide 3.25 to 3.75 pounds of sprouted fodder, under the best yields I have gotten so far. Three trays yields about 10.5 pounds, which works out to 21 servings. Looks like this will be enough to satiate the… Continue reading Fodder & Frustrations
The French Black Copper Marans cockerels and F2 Easter Eggers have six new little fluff butted roommates now. We picked up three more Ameracauna pullets and three Black Astralorp pullets last night. I ran out of J-clips while working on a 30″x24″ cage with tray slot, and had to run out for those. I did… Continue reading Chicks
The last several days have been … busy. I’ve had just enough time to set up the day’s fodder batch and leave for work. Upon coming home, just enough time to feed everyone and go to bed, basically. This isn’t even our busy season! Blah. These are the stories of having a day job. 😛… Continue reading Fodder Woes
I will start off with the obligatory complaint about the weather: Who ordered more snow and cold? You suck. It’s not quite historic cold, but it’s not far off. I really don’t appreciate this. With that out of the way: Thursday, I took advantage of having a pack of freeze-dried butternut lasagna in my drawer… Continue reading Brrr
The Leaning Tower of Fodder is no more. Meet the Awkwardly Arranged Shelf of Fodder instead. I have a few more shelves to purchase for the unit, but I need more trays on a more critical basis. These are not the sturdiest of trays, and one of the “soaking” trays has a crack in the… Continue reading Busy Couple of Days
So one issue I have noticed already with the fodder is that there does seem to be substantial variability between each batch’s sprouting rate and growth rate. These last two have gotten about 4 pounds of fodder out of a pound of seeds. However, Saturday’s and tonight’s both had a substantial amount of seeds which… Continue reading Variability
I did not get anything but the most minimal work done for the animals — that is, feeding them. I did, however, made a chocolate chip cookie crust cheesecake. The cheesecake was based on the Instant Pot Cheesecake #17, but in the oven for size reasons. It was deemed “very rich,” and everyone approved. On… Continue reading 2/21/19
2/19/19 Updates: Batch Starting Weight Weight Day of Growth #2 1 lb 6 lb 3.9 oz 7 / fed #3 1 lb 3 lb 13.6 oz 6 #4 1 lb 3 lb 6.8 oz 5 #5 1 lb 2 lb 14.9 oz 4 #6 1 lb 2 lb 10 oz 3 #7 1 lb 2… Continue reading Couple of Days
I only have seven trays set up with drainage holes at this point, so this morning I moved Batch 1 into a non-draining tray, and gave it quite a bit of water to grow with. Set it on the ground in front of the soaking tray, where it would still get a good amount of… Continue reading First Fodder Feeding