Saturday, April 30, 2011

Telling the gender of chicks and other things

Earlier in April, I hatched out 36 chicks and bought ten more pullets from Runnings.
Since people are always wondering if their favorite chick will be a hen or rooster, I decided to make a post about it. These pictures were all taken before the storm.
One way to find a cockerel is to look at combs, like on this chick. (His comb is unusually large, even for a cockerel.) Pullets don't start getting much for combs until they're much older.


Here's a more normal looking cockerel. One way to tell he's a cockerel is because of his comb. He was also clucking for the young pullets whenever he found something to eat.

Another good way to tell is how their bodies develop. Some cockerels end up getting bigger than pullets but they have fewer feathers like this one does. (Note the normally feathered chicks in the background.)

Overall, it is a lot easier to tell what is a pullet and what is a cockerel if all the chicks are the same breed. With all my mix breeds, some tend to mature slower and that makes it harder to tell what gender they are.

Here's a picture of the chicks when they were younger and cuter.


The geese are also nesting. Here's a picture of a nest I found. The nest is two feet above the water.

We had a power outage on Saturday and Dad had to hook the generator up to the chicken coop to keep the chicks warm. DJ will post more details on that.

Jessi

Blizzard

Yeah, that is the title and it is the 30th of April.

It was raining yesterday and at seven we had about an inch of rain in the rain gauge. During the night we got a bit of snow and a lot of wind.

The pictures kind of tell the story.


You can see the snow is stuck to everything.


There is a horrible wind making it hard to see. The shop is about a hundred yards away and is hard to see. It was worse than this at times.


The snow stuck to the door.


There was an inch and a half in the rain gauge this morning. I'm not sure how much was rain and how much was snow. I hope the calves are okay.

DJ

Friday, April 29, 2011

Just a picture...

Here is a picture Mom took of us yesterday after we had brought in some of the yearling heifers. The horses weren't behaving very well as you can tell. I just figured I should post something.

DJ, Comet, Danny, Dundee, Jessi, and Smoky.


DJ

Friday, April 22, 2011

Wednesday

Wednesday we brought some of our cows in and sorted them so we could split them into smaller groups. It was about fifty degrees and was really wet.

We had to haul some of the cows out. Once we loaded a bunch of cows in the trailer we couldn't get enough traction to get out so Dad had to pull the pickup out.


Luckily we were able to make it to the pasture (barely) and let the cows out.


Here are a couple of pictures I took of the Blue Mountain.



And here is a picture of Sam.

Today it is in the thirties and raining. It is supposed to warm up soon though.

DJ

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Steer pictures

Yesterday morning we gathered some steers and bulls out of the trap, brought them in, and loaded them in the trailer. Then Dad, Mom, and I took them to the river. The road to the river was pretty bad. In one place we drove right next to a four foot washout. Once we unloaded our stock we drove up to where the rest of the steers were and took some pictures.

A steer,

Steers are very curious animals,

A few pictures of the steers,

A close-up of the steers,

A few more steers and a bull,


DJ

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Another Day on the Ranch

Yesterday Dave and I (Bobbie) rode to the neighbors' land on Cottonwood Creek to gather some stray cows--ours--that had left the herd sometime last fall. It was our first opportunity to get to them because of the snow (and now the mud).

Bobbie on Patch

After too many miles, we found the cow and 2 calves. Guess what happened to the other cow.

Not a soul in sight.

This is pretty close to the middle of nowhere.

Letting the cattle rest at another neighbor's reservoir.

And finally, a picture of Dave and Sunny. The camera stopped working after this.


It was a beautiful day. We rode for four hours, didn't see people, cars, roads, or houses. It was "quality time".

Bobbie

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Introducing...








The title says it all. Click on the picture to go to my new blog and check out the progress of my airplane.

Monday, April 11, 2011

A few pictures

This morning we brought our heifer calves in and sorted the ones we were going to keep off from the ones we were going to sell. Then in the afternoon we had the vet come out and Bangs vaccinate them. After we got that done we hauled our replacement heifers out to a different pasture.

Here are a couple pictures of some of the heifers in their new pasture.


Here is a picture I took in the yard. The grass is getting pretty green.


DJ

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Winter pictures

I was getting some pictures off the camera today and found some pictures I had taken earlier this year.

The following pictures were taken in late January.
A picture of the calves.


Dad cleaning the snow out of the haystack.


Dad plowing a trail.

A picture of the snowdrift in front of the shop.

Dad also brought the Cat home from the river and used it to push snow.




















A very bright sun-dog


















The next four pictures were taken in early March when the snow had already started melting.













































Thankfully the snow has pretty much melted off. These pictures were taken today.






















DJ

Friday, April 8, 2011

Spring Ranch Work

Sorry no pictures today; I'll have to write instead. Other than a few drifts, the snow is pretty much melted off. We have been seeing temperatures in the fifties. Yesterday it was 55. It is really wet and the grass is starting to green up.
Last Friday we brought our younger cows home from the river. We had to ride from Buck's because of the mud, so it was a good twelve-mile ride.
On Tuesday, we gathered the yearlings and brought them in. We then sorted the heifers off from the steers. After that was done, we put the heifers out in their pasture and put the steers in the trap (small pasture) for the night. We combined the herd bulls with the steers as well.
Wednesday we gathered the bulls and the steers out of the trap and took them to the river. It was another long ride (over twelve miles), but it went well and it was warm.

I've been messing around with the design of the blog. I think I'm happy with the design now, but I need to get a new header for it. The one that is up now must be over three years old. I also added a 'Follow by Email' gadget on the top right of the page. Type in your email and push 'Submit' and you should receive email notices whenever we update the blog.

DJ