September Egg & Milk Tally

Here it is October 3rd already and I'm just now getting around to this. Where does the time go? Anyway, here it is:

1. 14 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
2. 18 eggs, 6 cups milk
3. 16 eggs, 7 cups milk
4. 15 eggs, 6.5 cups milk
5. 16 eggs, 6 cups milk
6. 15 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
7. 12 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
8. 12 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
   
9. 13 eggs, 3.5 cups milk
10. 12 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
11. 17 eggs, 7.5 cups milk
12. 15 eggs, 6 cups milk
13. 17 eggs, 7 cups milk
14. 14 eggs, 6 cups milk
15. 10 eggs, 4 cups milk
16. 14 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
17. 8 eggs, 3 cups milk
18. 14 eggs, 5 cups milk
19. 4 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
20. 15 eggs, 6.5 cups milk
21. 8 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
22. 8 eggs, 8.5 cups milk
23. 16 eggs, 6 cups milk
24. 9 eggs, 6 cups milk
25. 22 eggs, 5.5 cups milk
26. 20 eggs, 6 cups milk
27. 15 eggs, 4.5 cups milk
28. 10 eggs, 6.5 cups milk
29. 17 eggs, 6 cups milk
30. 19 eggs, 4.5 cups milk

Total: 415 eggs (34 dozen + 7 eggs) and 169.5 cups milk (10 gallons + 9.5 cups milk)
Eggs sold: 11 dozen

Annabelle has certainly not been a stellar performer, but I completely acknowledge that it is my fault, not hers. Well, okay, I do think it is a little bit her fault. She is so stubborn. And, yes, we are continuing to put Burt on her for a few minutes every morning before we milk so that she'll let down. But, she still has an amazing ability to pull it back up when she realizes he is done.

Still, Don and I are not the world's best milkers and we usually quit when she starts giving us trouble. We could probably coax a bit more out, but once she stops flowing and starts dancing, we usually stop. After all, Burt will empty her out once we reunite them, so we don't have to worry about fully draining her at this point. Once he's weaned, we'll need to be more diligent, but for now, it works for us. We are getting enough to be satisfied. We have enough to drink. We don't have extra for butter, cheese or ice cream making, but then, of course, I'd have to come up with the time to do that!

Burt's days as a bull are numbered. As soon as we can arrange for some help, we'll be castrating the 'ole boy. We want to get that done before weaning because we understand that Annabelle should lick his wound and help keep it clean.

The laying hens have come back to the permanent coop for winter already. We would've left them out on the pasture for a while longer, but 2 things compelled us to move them early.

First, we started getting very few eggs again. When Don brought home 4 for the day, we knew something needed to be done. We are convinced that we had/have at least one egg-eater. We kept finding eggs in the nest covered with a slimy egg mess, as well as bits of shell. Since they've come home, we haven't been finding that. So either the egg-eater is reformed or is just too busy to hit the eggs before we can get them.

The other thing that made us bring them home was the restart of the windy/stormy season. We lost their roof for the final time. That roof ripped out the screws, flew through the air, and landed in a million pieces. It just couldn't be put back on this time. So, we anchored a tarp over the coop, hooked it to the back of the pickup, and drug it home. Don will need to do some serious rebuilding and remodeling to that coop before it'll be ready for spring. We are actually thinking of turning it into a duck house for next year and parking it at the pond, since Don picked up running gear (the metal, wheeled structure under a trailer) at an auction to build another coop on. Since this will be on wheels, it will be much easier to tote around out on the pasture next spring.

The great thing about having the chickens back home is that chores go much more quickly without a needed walk out to the pasture. And, since we have the garage doors on now, they can't roost (and poop) all over the garage. Once we get that last of the broilers processed, and the young rabbits butchered, we'll practically be living a life of ease!