On the Farm

Today on the farm, we have one pig, nine cows, six turkeys, 21-23 hens, 40 baby chickens, two dogs, three cats, and four hives of bees (which makes for over 200,000 bees, I think).  Thirty of the chicks are Cornish Crosses for eating and 10 are Rhode Island Reds for eggs next summer.  Why we need more chickens for eggs... the egg situation around here is pretty desperate!  We get 18-20 eggs a day.  I have over 100 eggs in my refrigerator.  They are beautiful brown, fresh, farm eggs.  We can not possibly use 18- 20 eggs a day.  Ludicrous!  So, we get more chickens to lay more eggs, go figure.  Jerry says, he plans to send some of the hens to freezer camp soon and because of their age, they will slow down on egg production next Spring.  So, we have new egg layers getting ready to do their job.  We chose a different breed just for fun.  The different kinds of chickens available is absolutely astonishing.  The hens we have now are Buff Orppingtons.  The are beautiful, calm and lay brown eggs. We do have one chicken that lays green eggs.  We don't know what kind she is though.  We will see what the Rhode Island Reds are like. 
Bees are very interesting, I think we have fed them over 500 pounds of sugar since July when we first got them.  That is a lot of sugar.
One pig has gone to freezer camp.  The other one was not quite big enough, he will go next month.  We are also contemplating taking a steer or two to freezer camp soon.  The turkeys will soon find they are attending freezer camp.  This is sad.  I love to watch the turkeys.  They fan their tails and prance around turning their tails first one way and then the other.  They are very interesting creatures.  Their head is ugly, but the rest of them is very beautiful indeed.
The autumn colors are beautiful, red, yellow, orange, burgundy, and many shades of green.  God is a fantastic painter.  The clouds have been fascinating.  I enjoy watching the sky. The fog in the morning has been extremely attention getting.  Funny, how when you start noticing things and point them out to your children, they in turn notice and point them out to you.
For the time being, I am focusing on housekeeping chores, creative projects, and dreaming of the garden for the Spring.