Taking Inventory - and what i do while i sit home all day.....

Someone (not my husband) once lost his tongue and asked me, "so, what do you do while you sit home all day?"

Well, i don't SIT so much as the question suggests i do.

I admit that i do take it upon myself to make executive decisions about what weeks will be busy weeks and what weeks will be not so busy weeks, but unlike some of these other people who don't SIT home all day - i also don't get any days off at my job.  I don't get to do nothing because it's Saturday or never get out of bed because it's Sunday; all the mouths around here have eat, no matter what day of the week it is, so i think we're even.

Today was inventory day.

I have begun to find it very important to keep a written record of who does and who does not live and eat around here - and when they were born or hatched or whelped or kindled, as the case may be.  If i don't, things will become chaos in my mind, and i won't feel like i'm doing a very efficient job at my job.

What is my job?  Well, mostly it's to feed every mouth on this little farm - and clean up after the body that's attached to it.

But also, we have breeding programs in mind - and slaughter dates to schedule - so i also need to keep track of everyone's ages, their genders (which are sometimes not for sure for a couple of months or longer), how they are helping with our efforts or if they are simply taking advantage of the free food.  Oh, and here's another very sad one:  it is very important that i keep up with whether anyone here takes to eating (or trying to eat) anyone else here - before their time comes.

When i'm not feeding someone - or trying to clean up after someone - i try to read as much as i can to educate myself on how to better care for all these mouths and bodies, and i try to keep up with our expenditures and profits, should we sell anything, like eggs.

The point was.................today was inventory day.  I thought i would share with you today's inventory.

Let's start at the top.

• Jelly, beautiful mutt chicken dog - turned one year old this week.  Happy Birthday, Jelly!  This week, Jelly has taken to bathing small chickens which has gotten her some very harsh corrections, which we think/hope she is taking to heart.  She has also started to learn that she doesn't have to bark obsessively at every passerby, for which the head alpha dog around here is supremely grateful.

• Bingo and Belle, Jelly's puppies, who reached eight weeks of age this past Friday (which is also Jelly's birthday).  Bingo and Belle are still nursing when Jelly will put up with it.  They have learned that chicks are not to wrestle with, and that lesson seems to be sticking - better than with their mother, i might add.  They are more active - and larger every day, and they love to be petted and talked to in high pitched voices.

• Stanley, my darling 1 1/2 year-old tuxedo kitty, has not been seen since this past Tuesday.  He has been harboring obvious feelings of intolerance toward the growing numbers around here - distracting from his coveted one-on-one attention.  I think he may have seen the bunnies arrive and given up all hope.  I hope he found a good home - or perhaps he is off on a Tomming mission.  I miss him.  

• Rocky, my number one head rooster, a Rhode Island Red (RIR), who is 35 weeks old tomorrow.  Rocky is still very unhappy with the introduction of Magnus, our new Buff Orpington (BO) roo, and there is a lot of crowing around here, but otherwise, Rocky is in great spirits and friendly as ever.

• Magnus, my treasured BO rooster, who arrived here on March 10 and joined the flock on the 29th, sleeps in the brooder so as not to be attacked by Rocky, but he is popular with the ladies, getting along especially well with the broody mamas, and is my favorite.  We don't know his exact age, but he is approximately the same age as Rocky.

• Nineteen 32-week-old pullets, including 9 Buff Orpingtons (BO), 6 Rhode Island Reds (RIR), and 5 Barred Rocks (BR).  Two of these, BOs Greta and Mathilde, are the brooding mothers of 3 week old chicks; one, a BR named Kuku, is the newly brooding mother of two chicks hatched just today; and another, a BO named Kyckling, is sitting on a clutch of 5 eggs, which are due to hatch April 25.  The rest of this age are laying well, and all appear healthy, hungry, and active.

• RIR Siblings, Superchick (pullet) and Goose (cockerel), are 30 weeks old this Wednesday.  Both are very slow developers, but if Superchick doesn't start laying eggs pretty soon, she will join Goose when he gets slaughtered or shipped off.  I know.....it's a hard life.

• Greta and Mathilde's chicks, 3 weeks old, one male black sexlink (i think), three RIR, and two rir/bo crosses.  Since the original hatch, two black sexlinks were lost to unknown factors, and one rir was lost to puppy predator.  Chicks were found to be infested badly with mites yesterday - and were thoroughly dusted, along with their moms.

• Kuku's two chicks, hatched today, one female black sexlink, and one rir/bo cross.

• Packing Peanuts, 6, 8-week-old, male, white leghorns, due for slaughter around May 12.

• Minimus and Zeb-not (originally Magnus and Zebu but found to be imposters), unknown crosses, about the same age as the Packing Peanuts.  It is looking like Minimus might be a female, which would be great!  Time will tell.

• The Ollies, Dolly, Molly, and Polly, the 7or 8 month-old New Zealand female rabbits.  We are still waiting to learn their actual birth date, and we are waiting until next week to find them a buck.  They seem to be getting along just fine, and they really really like it when i pick grass and weeds for them to eat, along with their boring rabbit pellets.

• My husband, 1800 or so weeks old, my very favorite mouth to feed.  That's all there is to say about that.

O.k., i think that's everyone.  Were you counting mouths?

Including me and my husband, that's forty-seven mouths.  

And let's not forget about the 47 bodies to clean up after.  

That's some of what i do while i sit home all day.

So there.

=D