Goats
Adi and Barry continued munching on pasture. This month (October) I put them together for breeding. This should bring goat kids in March or April. Unfortunately it's been more difficult to estimate due dates when there is only one doe in my "herd". Last year I did the same thing, putting Barry and Adi together on October 1st. I was hoping for goat kids in March, and they were born April 1st. So we'll see what happens this year.
Another exciting thing that happened: the owners of our 2016 goat kids sent us a picture of Adi and Barry's "grandkids". That was pretty cool!
Chickens
Unfortunately we lost several chickens this month due to a neighbor's dog getting into their pasture. Of course this HAD to happen when I was "off duty" with the baby. We had noticed the dog in our yard several times a day for a few days, but didn't realize it was getting in with the chickens. I had no idea that there was a hole big enough in their fence to accommodate the dog, otherwise we would have contacted the owner sooner. Anyhow, I'm guessing we lost between 3-5 chickens. I'm crossing my fingers that the dog got our older hens and roosters (we know he got one rooster) instead of the young hens and still-laying chickens.
So obviously egg production continues to go down, not only due to the weather but also likely due to the fact that there are no longer as many chickens. We've been getting between 2-6 eggs per day- less if the chickens eat the eggs, which has been happening off and on. We have some crushed oyster shells to help with this, but as I mentioned before Hubs has been doing chores and he isn't familiar with the finer points of chicken husbandry. So hopefully now that I'm back "on duty" things won't be as chaotic in the chicken coop.
Garden & Strawberry Patch
The highlight of my gardening month was harvesting ornamental gourds. This was my first year doing them, and it was so fun to see the different varieties. I got at least five different kinds of gourds from the saved seed that I planted. I also harvested several small pumpkins that were grown from saved seed.
My mangel beets are HUGE!!! I think I'm going to store them in sand until I want to use them this winter.
The strawberry patch is looking a little weedy, as I haven't been out there in weeks. I'm hoping for a few nice days in October to do some garden work.
Profit & Loss
Income:
Books- $6.47
Eggs- $22.00
Total income: $28.47
Expenses:
Layer mash- $44.00
Corn- $22.00
Total expenses: $66.00
Net profit: ($37.53)
Year-to-date net profit: $90.23
So it looks like we are down to two figures in the hobby farm account. LOL... good thing it's a hobby farm and not a real farm. This month I stocked up again on chicken feed. The last time I bought feed was in July when we had more poultry AND I had ordered less feed than I did this time. I'm fairly certain that my two garbage cans of feed will last through the end of the year.
One expense that I'll still have this year is hay for the goats. $90.00 should be plenty for that.
Til next time,
-Bethany