Welcome to our little hobby farm that my husband, Steve, and I enjoy. We hope you will grab a coffee and stay awhile…
This first blog will be long because I will have a section on each species of our animals. I expect to only write briefly on a daily basis after this. We have lots of new babies and animals promised over the next couple months, so I hope you will check back often. Right now we have Missouri Fox Trotter horses, Nigerian Dwarf goats, many chickens, California rabbits, bees, a farm dog, barn cats, and an inside African Grey parrot. Oh, and Koi fish. Over the next couple months we are expecting babies from our goats and bringing home young Alpacas, a Great Pyranese guardian puppy, and two more hives of bees.
It’s a beautiful warm day today on the farm today. Sunny, dry, and 70s. I’m sick inside which gives me the perfect excuse to sit at the computer and start this blog.
I guess I should mention a little about my husband and myself since this is my first post. We met on the lucky day of 7/7/07. At 7pm we were having our lucky dinner and talking about the future. We met in person that day (after an online introduction) at the Blue Lagoon in Huntsville for a scuba diving date. The following year we returned there to be married. We wore traditional 2nd wedding attire as did our wedding party made up of our kids. After we were pronounced married, a curtain dropped between us and our guests. We all took off our formal clothes because we had swimsuits on underneath. Then we donned scuba gear. The curtain opened back up. What the guests saw next was our entire wedding party in scuba gear and my tank said “Just” and my husband’s said “Married”. That was in 2008 and our hobby farm and all of the animals have come along after that (except Chaucer). Steve is a director of a department at the UT Medical Center in Houston and also moonlights on nights and weekends teaching Psychology and Statistics at Lone Star College in Tomball. I am a Realtor with my own Brokerage (House And Horses Real Estate) and specialize in horse farms and country homes. I always appreciate referrals. I have two grown and married daughters, Heather Graham (husband Geoff and kids Parker, Preston and Pryce) and Holly Madden (husband Chris and kids Austin, Devon, and Alexis). Steve has a married son, Damian Fath (wife Victoria and daughter Suri). He also has a daughter, Amity Fath, who works down the hall from him at UT Medical center and is engaged to Marshall. We are a very close family and we take our older grand kids on vacation every year. Holly’s family lives just a couple miles from me and I’m Blessed to see them every week and I go to every sporting event. Steve sees Amity almost daily at work. My other daughter and Steve’s son live with their families in Ohio. I am going there in a couple weeks and see Heather every few months one way or another. She even surprised me with a mother/daughter vacation for this Spring to a resort island.
HORSES-2
We have two Missouri Fox Trotter mares which we brought home from a ranch in Missouri. Blue is a blue roan about 8 years old and is the one I ride. Honey is a palomino about 7 who my husband rides. We haven’t had much time to ride lately. But we are taking our granddaughter, Austin, to Colorado this summer to ride horses among a buffalo herd and into sand dunes. So we do need to make time to get in shape riding again. Today the horses are on an acre that we lease from our neighbor. We rotate them between his property and our property.
GOATS – 2
Our two Nigerian dwarf goats have been ultrasounded and due to kid the end of April through the beginning on May. I worry a little about Crescent Moon because she was only showing a single kid which could pose a difficult first birth. They will be x-rayed later this month and hopefully we will find another one hiding. Sunshine showed two on the sonogram so I feel better about her. Doctor Romano at A & M large animal clinic advised me not to feed grain yet and then only a small amount from 30 days before and until kidding. So this morning I only gave them a handful as a treat, as I have been doing upon turning out to pasture and bedding down for the night. Their sweet bleats make me want to give them more, but I’m trying to be strong. Okay, I quit typing long enough to just now go outside and give them a couple carrots from my garden. I can watch them from my window and they are just so cute! We acquired Crescent Moon from Texas Skys Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We also leased the buck, Gambler, from them and he is the father of the unborn kids. We acquired Sunshine from Southern Drawl Nigerian Dwarf Goats.
RABBITS — 15
Roger is our buck from our original kit. We have two of his grown daughters and 7 of his grandbaby bunnies. In order to avoid inbreeding, we have recently purchased two more bucks and three does that are about 3 months old. We will breed the bucks to Roger’s daughter doe rabbits and grand baby bunnies and the newly acquired does to Roger when they are old enough. Steve is busy building more hutches for all of them. We have the babies in an outbuilding which was designed and built to be a little dairy barn. But I have rechristened it for the Alpaca’s coming soon. In any case, the bunnies need need new hutches. All of our rabbits and bunnies are California Whites. The first ones we bought from FFA and the last bunch from a private breeder, Vera, in Waller.
BARN CATS — Various
My favorite barn cat is a male named Spice, who is about a year old. He follows me everywhere and wants picked up and carried about. There is also a calico, a gray and white spotted one, and two buff colored kittens. The cats just show up and I give them water and feed them a little amount so they don’t starve. But they are left to their own devices to hunt for the rest. Other than Spice, the others don’t allow me to pick them up. They are ferrel cats which have either been dropped off or wandered in from somewhere. They come and go. Spice did have a buddy, Sugar, but he’s been gone now for awhile. I also haven’t seen the calico or one of the buffs for two days. I don’t mind having them here because the we never have any rodent problems in the barn with all the feed we keep as long as they hang out here. None were acquired by me. They all just informed me they wanted to hang out awhile until something better comes along. I suspect for the males, that would be a girlfriend somewhere.
DOG(S)
Our dog, Shades, was also an apparent drop off or born in the woods from another dog running wild. She came to us half grown and literally starving. We weren’t ready for a dog at the time and I tried really hard to find her home. She was running with a pack so I think she didn’t have one. Being a black dog living on a dark street, I was sure she would be hit by a car. So we allowed her to stay. Not that we had a choice because there was simply no running her off. She perched on our doorstep and refused to leave. So I got her all her shots, chipped her, spade her, and called her ours.
She a sweet dog and only wants to live outside. She does want in when it thunderstorms and we make her come it when it gets below freezing. Other than that she watches over our place from outside with the other animals. She wears a shock collar so that she doesn’t go out into the street because until we did that we were getting calls from friends that they almost hit her a few times. But she has a 180 foot diameter circle to run which conveniently is about the width of our long and narrow property. She is good about only barking for danger. But we don’t think she is capable of warding off other packs of dogs. This proved to be the case when a pack of dogs recently tore apart the vents in the goat barn in the middle of the night and got in and killed one of my does before my husband woke up and got outside and saved the other two.
For that reason, we are now getting a guardian dog, which is what almost all goat farms and Alpaca farms seem to have. It will be a Great Pyrenees puppy which was recently born and will be ready to come home to us in the beginning of April. It was born with goats and stays with goats. I will still need to be vigilant because it will be too little at first. I’m saying “it” because I am getting the last one of the litter so I don’t know if it will be a “he” or a “she”. More to come on this later.
BEES — 1 colony now and 2 more soon
So far we have one hive of bees. The colony is just under a year old. They have been really active for the past two days. Today I watched them bringing home yellow pollen and honey. Our orchard trees are all in bloom, so I’m hoping some is from that. Up until now I have been feeding the bees a simple syrup with Honey B Healthy organic additive with nutrition so that they wouldn’t starve as a new weak hive. I’m hoping to quit doing this as soon as I’m sure of a good nectar flow. The honey is not really good for human consumption, and certainly not for sale, when the bees are fed syrup. On April 11th, I will pick up two more colonies from R Weever. We already have the hives which are top bar and built by Dean Cook who does an excellent customized job. I especially enjoy the observation windows. Often I check on them twice a day through the window. I don’t need to open the hive to do that. This weekend I plan to paint the two new ones and decorate them. Knock on wood, I have not been stung yet. I swear they know me and come tell me when they are out of food. It’s the only time they visit me when I’m in other parts of our property.
FISH — Various
We have a very small pond of Koi fish, but it is really just a water spot for the bees. We put fish in it just to keep any mosquito or fly larvae at bay. The reason that they have this water source, along with lots of irrigation from our veggie beds, is because our good neighbor has a pool and I don’t want them going there for water. Someday we hope to put in a big pond in the front yard for real fish to eat. If any readers have referrals for a contractor for that, please leave me a message with the contact information. We’d like it to have some areas about 10 foot deep so the fish can cool off when it gets over 100 here. Also so the fish can get away from the Pekin ducks which we plan to have some day. The rest can be more shallow. And maybe 1/4 to 1/3 acre. Also, if any readers are from a Southern climate and have ideas about fish outside of catfish that would live in that size pond, please let me know.
PARROT — 1
Our Congo African Grey parrot is the only animal we have that is a permanent resident inside our house. I’ve had him for over 10 years and he is a great companion. We carry on conversations every morning. He tells me “Chaucer is a good boy” “Chaucer wants out” “What cha doin?” “Chaucer wants out” “Chaucer loves mommy” “Chaucer wants out”. And lots of other phrases. But my all time favorite is one time when our alarm went off and called the police when we were out of town. When I came home he told me all about it. He made siren sounds. Then said “Going up stairs” “10-4” “All clear upstairs” “10-4” When he was saying “10-4” he did it with a crackly voice like it was coming from a walkie talkie. BTW, if there was an intruder he/she was apparently scared off. More likely, we did not shut a door tight enough to latch and Shades jumped on it and opened it because it was storming outside and that’s what she does when it storms. The police found the door opened and the dog in the house.
ALPACAS — 2
Okay, I don’t technically have them yet. But I do have a deposit on them. I bought Theodore and Buckeye (who is from Ohio) from Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch. The owner, Laurence, is a wealth of information. We can’t wait to pick them up, probably on April 12th. They are so adorable. They will be the only farm animal not providing some type of food. Instead, they will contribute fiber for my knitting/crocheting addiction. That is after I learn spinning! I do have a wheel from WC Mercantile out of Navasota and took one lesson. At least Alpaca yarn does not need to be washed first!
If you are reading this without pictures, I will be posting pictures soon. Right now I’m just not well enough to do a good job taking them.
And now for my longish bit on chickens, if you are still with me:
CHICKENS – 55
Now we have 13 chickens roosting in our orchard coop. Five are Easter Eggers which lay colorful blue, green and pinkish eggs (Barbara, Betty, Rosalyn, Hillary, Laura). We also have a Speckled Sussex (Helen), White Crested Black Polish (Eleanor but Steve calls her Phyllis), Delaware (Bess), and a Penedesenca (Florence), Sumatra (Lou), Golden Campine (Jackie) in that coop. A little red hen also snuck in. And a Rhode Island Red cross rooster watches over all of them. Except for the Rhode Island Red hen and the rooster, these are from my original flock. They provide eggs for our family and friends. Just last week we also started selling eggs to help pay our feed bill. These birds free range over our three acres plus another neighboring acre that we lease.
In the far back of our property, we have a huge building to keep our other chickens safe. The top, sides and roof are all 1/2 inch hardware cloth. All of it is completely open to sun, rain and fresh air. It is all open air so that the birds inside can free range in a 24 feet by 48 foot area and 9 ft. high. My dad, Dave Luther, and his friend John, both in their 80’s built it for me. It has sliding double doors on all four sides. Grass, plants, and weeds grow throughout it on the dirt floor. Only the coops inside the enclosure have solid roofs, floors and walls for nighttime roosting. Inside the safety enclosure, we have small coops throughout for our Silkies. We gather their eggs, but when they are broody, we give the Silkies standard sized birds eggs to sit on, hatch, and raise. This is their joy in life –to be mommies. Since they are small bantams and we have birds of prey and our own cats, they stay in the 24′ x 48′ protected area to free ranch most of the time. We have 7 Silkie hens, a recently acquried Silkie rooster, and another bantam. The Silkie hens and bantam are from our original flock. The rooster came from a friend in a subdivision who had to give him up.
Also within the enclosure at this time we have our baby chicks being raised. The black Silkie, Margaret, is raising two chicks about 3 weeks old. Mamie, a blue Silkie, and Nancy, another black Silkie, have 6 chicks that they our raising together which are about a week old. Edith, a white Silkie, is sitting on eggs. Ellen, Lady Bird, Michelle and Grace are just enjoying the sunshine with their Rooster, Nougut. The 8 chicks will then grow up with their Silkie mommies until they are big enough for the juvenile coops and then either rehomed or moved to a breeder cage.
Also inside the large enclosure we have a large coop that houses Rhode Island Red and Barred Plymouth Rock hens. The birds within this coop have a chicken door to the outside where they exit in the morning to free range over our property during the day. We have 12 hens and my favorite BPR rooster in this coop. I say my favorite because he is protective yet gentle to his hens. But he is still very respectful to me. My experience has been that the RIR hens are so sweet, but the RIR roosters are mean and attack my family, friends and I. These are my breeder birds for meat. The best ones make it to this coop and are “safe”. These breeders are from my second flock plus more raised from eggs here.
Just outside and attached to the enclosure, we have four coops for our juvenile birds. The birds are separated by age groups to reduce fighting. These are birds came from eggs laid here, then raised by the Silkies size within the enclosure, but then deemed by the Silkies to be grown. These juveniles also free range over our 3 acres and the neighbors acre now that they are big enough. It is from this group that we select birds for our table. We take most of the rooters so that we keep only one rooster for a dozen or so hens. Any more roosters than that and they will fight with each other and also tear up the hens backs by repeated matings. As of today, we have 16 birds in the juvenile cages. About four of them are mature roosters which will be “rehomed” to the freezer soon. A few of the RIR hens will be moved to the breeder coop. The rest need to mature more in the juvenile coops before we decide.
Pictures to come later.
Sweet Bleats Farm 