2015 has officially ended. Let’s look back at how our farm and gardening endeavors played out this past year. We had a fairly steady year with good food being grown and plenty of animals to keep us busy.

CHICKENS

We dabble in a variety of things related to farming and gardening, but chickens will always be a main stay for us. That being said, this year we did take a slight step back. We didn’t incubate eggs, we didn’t attend any shows or swaps, and Farm Kid2 decided not to continue with poultry in 4H. But, that doesn’t mean we’re short on chickens.

We chose not to incubate eggs this year. We did, though, have 3 broody hens hatch small clutches. Click here to read about the first hatch and click here to read about the second.

The majority of our birds are Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers. But, we still have two golden polish hens that are nearly 4 years old. They lay a fairly small egg and are such a great looking bird.

Mo, our Easter Egger rooster, has been demoted. For a number of years he was our top rooster. However, some young, cocky boys have moved up and taken his spot in the pecking order.

Three of our handsome fellas.

We were given this Old English Game bantam. I think he’s beautiful. He’s meant to be a show bird, but at the moment nobody in our family is showing poultry.

This wasn’t an outstanding egg year. One day, though, Farm Girl decided to count how many eggs we had.

We raised 10 birds for meat. Usually we roast the whole chicken, but one night Farmer John made chicken strips. They were delicious!

Four white leghorns, one buff orpington, one barred rock and one black australorp were added to our laying flock this year.

DUCKS

The ducks have given us a bit of excitement by each hen hatching eggs this year. That’s a first for us.

Our two Welsh Harlequin ducks.

Sally, our male Muscovy. The left photos are from January and February of this year. The right was taken in September. His looks changed significantly.

Both ladies sat on eggs this year, which was a fun experience for us. To read about the first hatch click here. And click here to read about the second hatch.

I’ve enjoyed watching how the Welsh Harlequin/Muscovy cross ducklings change as they mature.

Unfortunately, we lost Sally and one of the Welsh Harlequins to predators in the fall.

GOATS

The goats are cute as can be doing goat type things. You can read more about them here.

PIGS

We’ve had two sets of hogs this year. The first round Farm Kid1 raised 2 and sold them to earn money for a computer.

The second round was to fill our freezer, as well as to sell. The pigs were a Hampshire/Berkshire cross.

OLIVER & LOIS

A couple weeks ago we acquired a pot bellied pig named Oliver, and his friend Lois, a pygmy goat. My hope was we could be their forever home and they would live happily ever after with Sven and Olaf. Unfortunately, things aren’t working out as well as I had hoped. So, we are in the process of finding them a new home.

FLOWER BEDS

There wasn’t a lot of action this year in our flower beds. But, the same ol’ trusty trees, shrubs and perennials put on a pretty show mainly in the spring and summer months.

The ducks, unfortunately, are not great for the plants. They step on them. They sleep on them. They poop on them.

The deer also make flower gardening a challenge. Apparently some of our plants are quite tasty.

The only new additions to our flower beds were 10 lavender ‘grosso’ plants. They’re in an area that I’ve struggled with for years. I finally decided lavender was the thing to spruce it up.

PONDS

We have two small ponds that I love. Our farm critters as well as wild critters love them, too.

GARDENING FOR FOOD

Another thing we didn’t spend as much time on as in years past, was the garden. It is incredibly time consuming keeping up with the weeds and by the end of summer it had gotten a bit out of hand. We did harvest some produce, though. We got onions, potatoes, a few eggplant and squash, cherry tomatoes & herbs.

We tried the three sisters method in one area of the garden. Corn, beans and squash all growing together. It worked kind of . Everything grew. But, we tend to have trouble with corn and it didn’t grow fast enough before the beans grew tall. The squash (pumpkins & gourds) grew well, though.

Many of our seeds didn’t germinate this year. I think the birds got to them. Darn it. I should have had a fabulous showing of tall sunflowers mixed with viney cucumbers growing underneath. What I got was one sunflower. One.

This was not a great year for tomatoes. We only picked a handful of big, juicy red ones. It was so hot this summer, I actually think we didn’t water them enough. We did, however, get renegade yellow cherry tomatoes. They reseeded from last year and were a pleasant surprise.

Fruit. My favorite items to pick from the garden is the fruit. Our grape vines are finally producing well, we got a couple apples, lots of plums and lots of raspberries.

NEW PATIO

Our only big project of the year was pouring a much needed back patio. We decided to do stamped concrete, which was a lot of work. But, I’m so happy to finally have a patio. The ducks, too, are quite happy with the patio. It is one of their favorite places to hang out and poop.

AQUAPONICS

This was our first full year experimenting with aquaponics. We have three grow beds, one fish tank and a sump tank.

A good sized pump cycles the water and aquarium heaters keep it warm. Depending on the time of year we keep the water between 70 and 80 degrees.

We have a fan for circulation in the greenhouse.

Grown in the garden beds were/are peppers, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatoes, eggplant, mixed greens and okra. This growing method works very well.

I also started nasturtiums right in the garden bed and overwintered geraniums that loved the greenhouse.

We grow tilapia in the fish tank part of the aquaponics system. The fish aren’t growing as quickly as we thought they would. But, at the beginning of December we did finally catch a couple fish and have them for dinner. I was hoping they’d be good, and they were.

Whew! There were no major plant or animal changes this year. But, just keeping up kept us plenty busy. It’s so much work living this way, but so rewarding. I can’t wait to see what 2016 will bring.

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We have 10 new additions to our farm thanks to a broody Welsh Harlequin and a male Muscovy that’s good at male duck activities.

BROODY DUCK

All spring and into summer both Welsh Harlequin ducks have been broody and waddling around like crazy. Last month one of the ducks hatched ducklings. Not long after, the other duck began sitting on eggs in almost exactly the same spot.

THEY HATCHED

One afternoon Farmer John heard a duckling and spotted it near its mama. The next day mama and her 10 babies ventured out for a swim.

DEAR OLD DAD

Daddy is our muscovy duck, Sally.

Muscovies are an odd duck. Since they are slightly different than other ducks, these babies will be sterile. Which is fine with me. We don’t need a bunch of breeding ducks.

NINE DAYS OLD

We left for vacation the day after the ducklings hatched. We came back home to all 10 ducklings appearing to be healthy as can be.

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The newest additions to our farm are 5 ducklings hatched on site. This is a first for us.

I’m going to be honest, we haven’t had a lot of success with ducks. So this is a huge milestone.

NEWBIES TO OUR POULTRY PARK

I was in the garden when Farm Girl came running over hollering, “We have ducklings! Mom, we have baby ducks!!!”
Sure enough, we did.

Our two Welsh Harlequins have been taking turns being broody this spring. I had suspicions that our Muscovy was a male, but wasn’t sure. So, I didn’t know if the eggs they were sitting on were even fertile. Eventually, though, all the needed elements came together and a clutch of eggs produced babies.

DADDY DUCK

Back at the Fall Poultry Swap Farm Kid2 picked out a duck. He bought it straight run, not knowing if it was male or female. I was hoping for female, but either was fine. Since then I’ve been watching to see if I could tell if it was boy or girl. But, I’ve never had a muscovy duck, so I didn’t really know what to look for. And, even just a few months ago it was hard to tell. However, this caruncled face and the fact that our other two ducks are ladies pretty much answers the question. This duck’s a dude.

GOING FOR A SWIM

So, so cute!
I love watching mama taking her babies for a swim.

I try to focus on how cute it is, as opposed to thinking about 5 little poopers in my pond.

TIME TO REST

When they were done with their swim mama let them know it was time to go. And, off they went to their secret hiding place.

Sharing this post with the Homesteading Hippie and their From the Farm Hop

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I got ducks!!! I’ve been wanting ducks. But when our chicken population continues to grow & grow, the last thing we need are more feathered friends simply because I want them. The other day Farmer John mentioned how he would like to get a duck that eats slugs. We have Mr. Duck, but he’s not much of a slug eater. The next day I went & found us some ducks… before the hubby changed his mind. They are 4-5 week old Welsh Harlequins & I love them already.

I tried getting an Easter themed photo of the ducks. However, they thought running around quacking was better than standing/sitting still for a pic. Thankfully, I caught this shot mid quack.

It is such a warm, fuzzy feeling watching the little ducks play in our pond.

They just keep playing, swimming, drinking & cleaning themselves. Happy, happy ducks!

Occasionally they would come out of the pond, but not for long. They kept going back for more. Eventually, I had to tell them play time was over.

This poor little guy must have been the runt. He’s smaller than the other two & has wonky legs. They should not be turned in so he’s stepping on his own foot. Supposedly swimming is good exercise for his legs & will hopefully improve the wonky-ness.

I him, wonky legs & all.

Chicks hatching & bringing home ducklings says Spring really is here! Happy First Day of Spring 2013!

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