Special Mini Farm

05/04/2023

Our special mini farm has been disbanded due to personal reasons. Most of the animals found new homes, but we lost quite a few of loved animals in all of this. The kids and I are hoping to find another piece of property to start another little homestead for us. Kids and I moved back into the city, and my ex has moved wherever.🤷‍♀️ our animals had to be rescued by neighbors because they weren't being taken care of. We lost 2 dogs in the mix, 1 bull calf, the other was rescued by the neighbor, 13 chickens lost.. neighbor rescued all the ducks, guineas and 3 geese. We almost lost our big tripawd dog but a friend took him in and is nursing him back to health until I can find a place that will allow us to have him back. I was able to take the 2 cats with us. We are super super sad we lost so much. We also lost our property and 90% of our belongings because we were kicked out by my ex. We know the remaining animals are doing amazing and we are thankful for the ones who stepped in and rescued the animals that were still alive.

15/06/2020

Meet Pinky!!!!

14/06/2020

We have New life on the Special Mini farm!!!! Tippy the goat had a baby. 💜💜💜💜

06/03/2020

It's been 7 months since I last updated, since then i have been diagnosed with a crazy condition called chiari malformation, and Ehler's Danlos Syndrome. The chiari took over my life. It required me to have brain surgery and a craniotomy. I'm now 2 months post op, still taking life kinda slow, I'm also waiting to have knee surgery, because when it rains, sometimes it pours 🤣🤣 I dislocated my knee cap and the ligaments aren't strong and are deteriorating a bit, so they have to go in and try to fix it. That will be april 2nd. But animal updates!!!! We are playing the waiting game, Mr. Toby may be a dad soon. Tippy may be pregnant. We should start really seeing signs of pregnancy soon. Chickens are doing good, not many predators these days, papa bear took out a bobcat that had been getting our chickens. But everyone is doing well and thriving, we are super stoked its spring time already again!!

17/06/2019

Guineas.... they laid a few eggs in a pen... then we thought they were done. We have found 1 nest with 14 eggs (currently in the incubator) and 31 under a guinea hen... once they all start hatching we will round up keets and put them in a brooder. I'm one excited momma!!!!!! Our chicken numbers greatly decreased. We had a bobcat or 2, coyotes, and neighbor dogs taking out chickens, breaking into pens etc. So we are down to close to 50 chickens. 😳😳 bobcat is no longer a threat, but coyotes are coming out in broad daylight. No more casualties for a while now. Let's hope we are done with all of that.

14/05/2019

So we had 300+ chickens last year. We are down to about 30 free rangers... if that. We killed the bobcat tearing up our pens snatching chickens and guineas out. That's why I haven't posted in so long. We have been dealing with predators. Last year we had the bear attack that took out quite a few chickens, neighbors dogs, then the bobcat.. we were losing several a night. Black copper marans rooster, spitzhaubens, bantam cochins... today I couldn't get to the gun quick enough and a coyote in broad daylight got my last Delaware hen. They have gotten all of my light brahmas, I have 1 dark brahma.. 3 full size cochins. I have them all in reinforced pens for their safety.

20/04/2019

I finally have a minute to update😁😁 we are finally hatching some babies. Guinea eggs go in the incubator in just a few days. YIPPEE!!!!

12/03/2019

So with the super busy schedule we have, Mondays are softball, Tuesdays are t-ball and baseball practice, Wednesdays and Fridays are for hubby's appointments Thursdays are for softball and baseball practice...

So we came home from softball practice and holy moly big pig was out. She had been terrorizing the neighborhood and scaring neighbors. We discovered the place where she had gotten out and holy cow!!! She tore the fence UP!!! So with a heavy heart, we put her down.. she was 5 years old and her breedabilitity starts going down. But she has had a good life here. So we decided with everything going on in our lives, it was best to put her down. Keeps her from getting out, fills my freezer, and keeps her from hurting anyone else.

18/02/2019

I'm late LOL. But here are 2 pics of Toby and some of tippy. He has the blue eyes and she has golden.

11/02/2019

17 Easter eggers/americauna eggs and 1 Marian egg in the incubator!!! We are ready!!!

28/01/2019

Toby have finally made it to weaning time!!!!! Woo hoo!!!! I will post pics of him and all of his growth and new horns. He enjoys his goat pebbles and hay, buuuuut, the next 24 hours will be interesting... Sink or swim kiddo!!! He has to drink water now on his own. We have offered it before but he had no intentions of drinking it. So here we go!!! As soon as we have him drinking water it will be smooth sailing. Then we have 3 chickens in the house. Herc and henrietta went back out, now HAHA, gripy chicken and Roxy needed attention. LOL HAHA is the turken rooster and he was way too cold. Gripy chicken cut herself up pretty good, but pretty sure she can go back out soon her wounds have healed. And Roxy... Well I just kinda wanted her inside. She's my last polish girl. I don't want her to get cold.

09/01/2019

Hi everyone!!!! So we have made it through the holidays! All has been rather quiet. We are still missing our little Grinley 😭😭 but on the farm there's so much to do we stay busy. Today while out adding chicken pecking block, I found my speckled girl stuck. ChickOstick got her self hung under a feeder board. She probably was trying to invent the newest laying spot when she got stuck. When I got her out I did a once over to make sure she was ok, and she went limping off. I had to double check her and found she had ripped/gashed her side open. Got her in cleaned her up, packed her with clove and frankincense essential oils mixed with a tsp of natural hen healer mix, wrapped it up to keep her from picking. Now she's doing ok hanging out under the lamp.

So why use clove oil?? Well clove oil is known for it's natural pain relieving properties, so this and frankincense, which is awesome for helping the body heal, and is truly an amazing oil(that's why the wise men brought it to Jesus). We use mainly essential oils for our farm animals. If we have a chicken with upper respiratory issues, we use Thieves oil in the water and with defuser. Understanding chickens air sacs are far different than our lungs, this seems to work great.

03/01/2019

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I write this, today we lost our Grinley. 😭😭 We have tried so hard to keep chicken feed and dog food out of his reach, and he always ate so fast, he inhaled his food. He could clear a big 10qt pan of dog food in under 5 minutes. Our poor guy ended up bloating. We were treating him accordingly. We had him up walking and drinking water and keeping him hydrated, but it just didn't help him. Upon preforming a necropsy, we immediately noticed how bloated and distended his stomach and intestines were. The last time he broke in to the chicken pen he gobbled all their feed PLUS some. 3 big scoops of chicken feed and corn, and goat feed that had spilled out of the building. We didn't realize it would cause this big of an issue. We of course immediately fixed the chicken pens only to have him destroy it again to get even more feed. He always ate like he was starved and hadn't eaten in ages. We tried increasing his feed to try and curb his enthusiasm for other feed. Offered more treats like fruit, Cheerios, more veggie treats... But to no avail. Our poor Grinley will be greatly missed. We are so heartbroken. Please say a prayer for us if you don't mind. Grinley was family, not just a family pet.

28/12/2018

Toby is growing sooooo fast!!! His horns have already almost pushed through... He has been an absolute joy... He is a bit milk drunk and I'm a whole lotta tired. It's been a super busy day. Grinley discovered chicken feed INSIDE the chicken pen. He broken in like a bandit. So we have spent part of the cold evening making repairs. Most of the day digging a long trench to keep 3 pens dryer from the rain. I think everyone else on the farm is asleep except mom and dad.. now it's our turn. We have an equally as busy day tomorrow. More fixing of the chick pen. No biggie. We did get a temporary fix for the night (I was too cold!!) So tomorrow we will finish.

25/12/2018

So all is quiet on the little farm. Egg production has picked up quite a bit. We have downsized in roosters recently. Everyone is happy and healthy!! That's all we could ask for. 😍😍💙💙

15/12/2018

Toby is officially 2 weeks old today!!!! He eats a 5 oz bottle 3-4 times a day now. And he is thriving.

09/12/2018

Toby update:
He is doing perfect!! He is eating perfectly!! His body temp is staying normal. He has started bouncing around and playing. We are so excited he is doing so awesomely!!!

08/12/2018

Just a quick update on Toby:
This morning, I thought he was a goner. I cried hard, like ugly cried. I gave him an emergency dose of coffee and Karo syrup.. it didn't appear to be working.. I sat him next to me and awaited his final breaths... Then all at once about 39 minutes later he pops his head up outta nowhere and stands up. He was completely limp, couldn't hold his head up much less his eyes open.. I was devastated... Then all at once life was breathed back into this little guy. He was up moving around. He didn't care for milk replacer, so off to the store we went with Toby. We got his whole milk, butter milk and evaporated milk, then came home mixed them up, and added an egg. This kiddo is finally eating. Like searching out for the ni**le to eat. He is able to potty. He is a happy kid. Happy 1 week birthday buddy. Let's keep fighting!!!

07/12/2018

Sweet progress!!! Toby has drank an ounce and seems to be bouncing back. He gets his boppy and blanket to sleep in my bed. 😊😊😊

07/12/2018

So... After a year and a half having tippy, we decided it was time to get her a friend. Goats are herd animals, she's been going after guineas lately, so she needs a friend. My birthday is just a week and some change away... So... We got a bottle baby goat. He is Nigerian dwarf just like Tip and is blue eyed. His name is Toby. His 2 brother's died from the cold, so we went to pick him up since he wasn't doing so great himself. We made the mad dash 2½ hours away to try to help save this guy. Then mad dash back home. He peed on me on the way home... Shocker since all the animals seem to use me as a toilet in the car... 😂😂😂 He was destined to be mine. so little Toby still needs prayers because he still isn't out of the woods yet.he has eaten a little bit, but not too much. So we are working with him. Offering a little here and a little there to try and get the electrolytes back up real quick. I may give him an electrolyte supplement if I can't get him to eat much more. He will stay inside until he is at least weaned. That way it might not be as cold outside and he will be stronger and bigger. 🐐 🐐

WELCOME HOME LITTLE TOBY!!!

01/12/2018

Mr. Grinley and kiddo. They are truly best friends. Hubby originally got Grinley for me... Well... Grinley prefers Kiddo. So... They are 2 peas in a pod. 💙💙💙

27/11/2018

Grinley out oinking around while it's nice.

22/11/2018

This is why we are picky about our piggies. Too many times this happens. People want a mini pig and end up with a big pig. Our Pig Pig was already a big pig when we got her, but to me she was just a sweet little pig. Until something changed. She was supposed to have been bred when we got her. Then she just had an overnight change. We don't know if her body absorbed the piglets or what, but even her sweet personality changed. I can still get in her pen every now and then for belly scratches but she's just hostile most of the time... Maybe it's because she's bigger than me and knows it... Lol but I still love our big pig like she was our little Grinley. We plan on expanding to get another big pig. He right now is about Grinley's size. He is a American guinea hog. So Grinley will have a little piggy friend to play with. 💓

16/11/2018

The story of Jenny Guinea.
Jenny and her 3 other friends are white guineas, and when we let them out of the pen, the other guineas attacked. The other guineas are darker (French pearl, Royal purple and lavender) chased them off to the neighbors place. The neighbor brought back Jenny who was injured. Her leg at the knee was broken or so it appeared to be, and had a decent laceration, I treated her with essential oils to control infection. I didn't think she would ever be able to use the leg again. It was bad!!! The nearest avian vet is over 2 hours, so.... We tend to treat everyone naturally at home, and especially with well over 200 birds, even check ups for everyone would cost an arm and leg. So anyways I used frankincense and lavender in a coconut oil base and slathered her leg every day for a week. The laceration healed leaving her knee joint looking HUGE. so I figured it might be a slipped tendon or it was just broken. I checked the tendon and it was still in place, so it had to be the joint itself. I was prepared, again, for her to not be able to use her leg. Here we are 2 moths later, Jenny has been with her little chicken friends for a little while. She wasn't so much able to use it when I put her out with the new friends, but surprisingly she is walking fine and is able to engage in chicken/guinea rugby, she is walking on the gimped leg. Knee joint is still pretty big but she shows no signs of slowing down now. So while at the farm store last week, I seen 1 little lonely white guinea in with the bantams... They sold it to me as a bantam, but that meant I had to buy 5 more chicks... So I got a mille fleur D'uccle, porcelain D'uccle, white D'uccle, BBS bantam Cochin, and a partridge silkie. So now Jenny will have a white friend and they will both end up with a big pen all to themselves. 💙💙💙

16/11/2018

Getting off to a great start to the day. 4 sicklings in the house.. 6 new babies.. I wasn't going to get any more babies, however Jenny Guinea needed a friend of the same color to hang out with.

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02/11/2018

I have been really sad our egg production came to a halt. I have been telling everyone how we went from 2 dozen almost a day to literally 1 every so often once the cold hit. My girls I guess finally heard my pleas!!! My created cream legbar laid her first egg yesterday and between the barred chicken (including barred rocks and cuckoo marans) and the wyandotte girls we ended up with almost a full dozen yesterday.we also had 1 little bantam egg...

14/10/2018

We got 14 eggs so far for today's count. Day isn't over yet.. we are super excited!! Black copper maran finally started laying!!!! So we have all kinds of colors of eggs. New girls laying daily!!!

09/10/2018

We got our 1st blue eggs. Ethyl in the box is a blue egg layer. The cuckoo marans, barred rocks, a few speckled sussex, and a bantam are new at laying this week. Ethyl though is the sweetest. Current bird count is 205 chickens 7 ducks, 21 guineas.. now just gotta figure out Hawk stopper... 🤔🤔🤔 Grinley has become MY piggy. He doesn't care too much for anyone else. That's ok by me though he's my sweet piggy. Foghorn the white leghorn.. well he ended up being a she.. so we get 1 white egg a day from her. PJ the buff orpington, well we are still waiting for an egg or a crow. I've been fooled before my my buff orpington Sharon. Sharon crowed...😫 So we should be rolling in eggs soon!!!! Blue, dark brown, light brown, pinkish, white, and maybe even olive!!!

28/09/2018

Starting the morning off right!! Serenading the farm during breakfast time this morning. Gotta get moving after 1 more cup of coffee. Replacing wood chips in chicken pens. Grinley is loving the cooler weather, hey!! I think we are all LOVING the fall weather. Chickens are more active and not too hot... We have been SUPER busy getting everything winter ready!!!

23/09/2018

There are none of these kinds of birds here... Maybe down the road a little ways though...

14/09/2018

Mr. & Mrs. Bean they are in a temporary pen for the day. I will be building them their honeymoon house shortly :) btw in case anyone is wondering, they are black Japanese bantams. Mrs. Bean is so short her belly drags the ground. She's so tiny!!

14/09/2018

So I kinda did a thing... Here's 27 baby bantams. So far we have D'uccles, seabrights, buff brahma bantam, a few chickmunk looking ones who might be silver duckwings.... Who knows we shall see.

12/09/2018

It is with great sadness that I report, we have lost our beloved brown peacock 😭😭😭😭 I was out doing morning inspection of everyone when he didn't come over to greet me the way he always does... I found him on the other side of their perch... 😭😭😭

11/09/2018

Grinley went "pig down" with his belly scratches this morning. 💙💙💙💙

10/09/2018

Morning scratches before school 😁😁😁 I think the folks on the school bus we're a bit surprised to see him waiting with the kids today.😂😂😂 They are used to the dogs trying to get on the bus, but not Grinley.

07/09/2018

Life on the farm has been UBER busy. Getting chicken pens "bear proof". Everyone is enjoying cooler weather though :) dogs got a bath today.

On a positive note Mr. Gridley has settled in rather nicely. He enjoys his blueberry mini piggy treats, watermelon, tomatoes and cucumber from the garden. His biting has completely stopped. He loves hanging out with the chickens and guineas, I'm gonna have to be a ninja to get those pics because as soon as they all see me again they run towards me, cuz mom is the keeper of the treats :) 😂😂😂 Grinley is a bit harder to sneak up on than the chickens... I think he smells the treats from a mile away!! He is such a sweet guy. He also likes lettuce!! We keep the dog food put up until Grinley's bed time so we don't have any dogs food mishaps... But overall our little farm is thriving :) ♥