Chickens, meet snow!

Apparently, chickens hate snow! Who knew....They always make me laugh, and really, they are funnier than you would think they are! I couldn't imagine our lives without these silly girls that's for sure! Here they are, seeing their first real snow fall! They had seen a light dusting back on halloween that quickly melted, but today, they got real snow! Watch the video to see how they reacted! I made it into a short 2 minute video of all their fun reactions!

Thanks for watching! ~The Vela Homestead

The goats stall in the barn!

Today I just wanted to share the goat's stall with you! My husband built it inside the old pole barn with some help from my brother! I'm so happy with how it turned out. It seemed so much smaller before we brought the girls home because they were just so tiny in it! I keep them in here at night but during the day all the animals come in and out as they please to get out of the wind and this cold weather!

Building the floor! 

After he added the door! 

Then he built a fun jungle gym for them inside so they had lots of room to climb and play and sleep! He added chicken wire behind it so they couldn't jump our or hurt themselves! 

Their hay is in that plastic bin with holes so they can get it without making a big mess. They really don't waste that much of it. I have 2 bowls under it on the crate so what does fall out goes in there to easily clean up. Then their mineral block, and more minerals and baking soda in the black section. A pail of water and a chair for me to sit in when I visit and play with them! Although they use the chair more than I do! 

He had this great idea to create a sliding door to let them in and out of. I still need to paint it! The only hassle is that hay, mud, poop and all that gets stuck in the track and I have to clean it out to close it all the way. But it's easy to let them in and out of! 

There it is! The goats room and play area inside the barn! Next time I'll be sharing what the outside pen looks like and what they all have out their to play on! It's changed a few times as we adjust to having our herd living together! 

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead

Welcoming home Brooklyn and Bailey! Twin nigerian dwarf goat doelings!

Hi ya'll! I'm so excited to be writing this blog today! Well, I'm always excited to write new blogs about my little ladies, but today, I get to talk about our twin Nigerian Dwarf Goat doelings! Brooklyn and Bailey! They are just the sweetest little girls! I thought I was nervous getting chickens, but goats have taken things to a whole other level! Rumens, bloat, bottles! There is so much to know and to look out for. Once again I joined every goat group on Facebook that I could find, bought tons of books and visited countless websites searching and reading for hours on what to do, and what not to do, and just like with the chickens there was so much conflicting information out there it made my head spin! After researching it was time to look for our new goaties! Wethers, doelings, bucklings? Kids or adult? After searching some sale sites I found the perfect little pair for our family! I didn't want to start with newborns and bottle babies. I wanted them to stay with mom first. Which is what we did. Out girls were born on July 1st 2017 and were just as cute as ever! I really wanted girls with blue eyes, and because they were twins they were born together and could always be together! I thought that would also make the transition to our farm a little easier because they would stay together. Anyway, at 1 week old we got to meet the girls for the first time! I couldn't believe how teeny tiny they were!

Bailey!

Brooklyn!

 Aren't they so tiny? 

 I loved them the moment I laid eyes on them!

They didn't come home until they were 8 weeks old! Here are some photos from their first day with us! They explored everything! 

Isn't she the cutest? Brooklyn is always photo ready these days!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our girls! I will be sharing more of their past few months here with us in some future blogs but didn't want to post too many pictures today! Do you have goats? What's your favorite thing about them?

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead

Chickens, Chickens, Chickens!

So yesterday I shared our chicken pen and coop with all of you and now for today I'm going to talk about our chickens!! I don't know why, but I was so nervous to get our chickens. They were our first farm animal and I had no idea what to expect. I read so many books, joined a bunch of Facebook groups, and found so many useful blogs before I jumped all in! We heard that most of the time, when you order pullets, you'll almost always end up with a few roosters, and a few that wouldn't make it. I had wanted 6 chickens, so I was settled on getting 8, just in case. When we walked into tractor supply they had a sale. Buy 6, get 6 free. My husband quickly (and surprisingly) Said yes to 12 even before I could ask him, and so we learned that day all about chicken math!  We brought our little chicks home and that started our journey into chicken ownership! They have so much more personality than I had expected! They are so much fun to be around!

Follow along with the photo progression to see how they grew! These are Production Reds! They can be a mix of Rhode Island reds, red sex links and/or New Hampshires breeds! Ours ended up being pretty large birds and they sure lay a lot! We are into December and still average 8-12 eggs a day! I've really had to up my egg recipe skills with this many eggs, and all our friends and family have a steady supply of free farm fresh eggs!

5 day old! So fully, yellow and wide eyed!

6 day old with the cutest little tail feathers. Tell me how adorable those little fluffy chick butts are? I cannot get over how cute this little picture was of the girls! 

6 days old. Are you a rooster or a hen? I don't know, Let me check! LOL!

 13 days old and they have grown so much already!

 2 weeks old. Look at all those feathers!

 3 weeks old. It's crazy how fast they grow is't it?!

 1 month old and they are so silly looking! That awkward teenage stage I called it!

 Here they are at 1.5 months and living in their coop full time! They had gotten too big to stay inside! Look at all these feathers!

Here is a 3 month old girl roosting! 

 Here they are at 4 months old. They love exploring and trying new treats. Here they were checking out a dandelion my daughter picked just for them! 

Here they are at 5 months old. They loved getting to dig in the pen, eat grass and bugs, and practice their flying!

Here is one of our hens at just 7 months old! We let them free range with us sometimes when we are outside with them so they can explore and eat stuff!

In October, a friend of my husband was told he had to re-home his 5 chickens. 3 are Australorps and 2 are Isa Browns! They are a year older than my hens! (Born Spring 2016) The Isa Browns are so small next to our Production reds! The black ones are so shiny and metallic and such gorgeous birds!

Here is one of our girls at 8 months old digging in the fresh straw. One of their favorite things to do!

And here they are now at just 8.5 months old. fThey are surrounding their new heated water bucket filled with fresh warm water. They were really excited and all came right over to check it out! 

And there they all are! Our 17 hens! We ended up with all 12 of our original chickens as hens! No roosters! They are all healthy and thriving! Add in our 5 new ones and we have a large happy flock! I will be sharing some photos of our queen hen, appropriately named Queenie next time, and then onto our sweet goats!

I hope you have enjoyed getting to see our girls growing up! <3 

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead

All about our little Turkey pets!

I told myself when I started this blog that I would be sure to post consistently, but as we grew our little farm this summer, I found myself too busy to do just that! Here I am going to start again and share all these adorable little additions we've made and our new adventures as homesteaders!

First up are our two little Turkeys! We bought a bronze breasted poulet and a white breasted poulet. They are 5.5 months old now and are so big! I'm going to share some photos of how they have grown in the short time we've had them!

Here are the girls at just 2 weeks old! 

Here they are at 6 weeks old! 

Meeting the chickens for the first time. These chickens had no idea just how big these tiny turkeys would get! 

Here they are now, 5.5 months old Our big girls with our whole flock! They are so big!

And lastly, I wanted to share a photo of where I've been finding them roosting to sleep. Inside the barn on the goats pen boards! They sure love it up there! 

Turkeys have been a lot of fun to have around! They love to roost high on the enclosure and sleep in our barn. They get along with all our chickens (We're up to 17 chickens!) and love to groom our Nigerian Dwarf goats! Yes goats! We got 2 sweet twin duelings this August as well and they deserve a post of their own too so they will be up next! 

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our sweet girls!

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead