It's Worth It

Life at the Cottage isn't always cute sundresses, fun photoshoots, cuddling adorable animals, flower beds full of flowers and bountiful harvests. It's not always smiles, and bare feet. Or quiet evenings on the porch. It's not always sunshine and rainbows. It's not always perfect, in fact, most of the time it isn't.

Most of the time it looks like overalls, dirty hands, broken nails, blistered fingers, chipped polish, sore shoulders, tired feet, scratches, scrapes and sunburned skin. It's tired, so tired all you want to do is drop in bed.

It's late nights and early mornings. Sometimes it's a lot of tears and feeling like a failure, somedays it's hard to keep all of the balls in the air and some days it feels a whole lot like failure. It's loss and heartache and fighting losing battles.

 It's falling in bed swearing your done, only to get up in the morning and start all over. Why? Because it's worth it. It's hard work, and sweat, and laughter between tears.

It's carefully raising plants and nursing sick animals back to health. It's early mornings treks to the chicken coop and quiet moments listening to the ducks play in their water bowls. It's peaceful moments tending the garden and whispering heartfelt prayers.

Related Article: Beginnings Of The Cottage 

It's good days and bad. Some days you win and others you don't, plants die, animals get hurt, and critters destroy what you worked so hard to make grow and protect. Predators break-in and hurt the babies you raised and laughed at their antics. Projects don't turn out how you wanted them too.

Some days you feel defeated, some days you feel like you are on top of the world, and some days people point out your weeds instead of seeing the beauty and hard work that has been put in- and sometimes that person is you.

But every moment is worth it because you grow and change with the very things you raised and planted. Yes, it's hard. Yes. somedays we want to quit. It can be discouraging. Somedays it's downright heartbreaking...

Related Article: Our Raised Bed Garden

But it is also amazing adventures, laughter, and endless lessons in faith and perseverance. It's learning new things, its simple moments that turn to beautiful memories. It's learning to pray about everything, and notice the little things. And it is totally worth it...

Ducklings For Beginners

Last week Mr. Cottage and I stopped by our local feed store (a very dangerous thing in the spring) to get some stuff for the raised beds we've been working on- and ended up coming home with 3 ducks. I regret absolutely nothing and Mr. Cottage has sworn off taking me to the feed store (just kidding, he's as bad as I am). I admit it, I can't resist their adorable little faces! I just love them. So here we are the proud owners of three baby ducks, two Pekin one Welsh Harlequin.

Ducks have a bit of a bad rap, people accuse them of being messy, loud and smelly, which is true they are all three of those things- but they are so much more too. They also have the most personality of all the birds I've had, their probably my favorite too (shh don't tell the chickens). They are more disease resistant than chickens. They are great foragers and help to cut down on mosquitoes. They are reliable layers, depending on the breed they can lay between 100-300 eggs a year. Their eggs are higher in protein they chicken eggs, and only slightly higher in cholesterol and fat. They are hysterical to watch and super easy to care for.

Ducklings eat the same food as chicks but make sure you buy the nonmedicated feed because ducklings eat WAY more than chicks and they can overdose on the medications. You'll want to find a food that is high in protein to support their fast growth. At around 3 weeks they really begin to grow and you'll want to switch their feed to a lower protein feed (16 -18%) if you can't find a lower protein feed mix in raw oats to replace 25% of the food. Ducklings can't climb so keep their food and water low to the ground.

Related Article: Raising Chicks

Ducklings require a deeper water dish than chicks, they should be able to dip their entire heads under the water. This allows them to clean their bills, eyes, and nostrils. Ducklings can actually get eye infections without the ability to wash out their eyes. They also need the water to properly digest their food.

Ducklings need 2-3 times the amount of niacin than chickens if they are deficient it can cause bowed legs and joint issues. You can supplement their feed with small amounts of brewers yeast, liver, sardines, or salmon.

Duckings don't require heat as long as chickens, start the brooder off at 90 degrees F using a heat lamp or Brinsea EcoGlow Brooder. Decrease the temperature 1 degree a day. By the end of the first week aim for the temperature to be around 83 degrees F. By the end of week two aim for the temperature to be around 76 degrees F. By the end of week three the temperature should be around 69. If you are raising your ducklings inside you are eventually going to reach the temperature of your house, when this happens you can simply turn off the heat light. They will let you know if they get cold when that happens just turn the light back on.

We use a plastic tote as a brooder, or you can get something like this and cover the bottom with shavings.

Ducklings can technically swim at about a week old, swim time should be short 10-15 minutes of supervised time. You can use a painters tray filled with water or a bathtub slightly filled. Our upstairs tub is a shower tub combo with a nice egress that allows them to "swim" but easily take a rest. When their swim time is up, remove them from the water, gently dry them off and return them to the warmth of the brooder. After week 5 they should be ok to swim for longer. Domestic ducks are not great swimmers, unlike their wild counterparts.

By week 3 you can begin introducing them to the great outdoors on warm days (at least 65 degrees F) Make sure they are in a secure pen so no predators can attack them. They can be moved outside permanently anytime after week 4.

This article contains affiliate links, affiliate links cost you nothing extra but help support us so we can bring you more great articles.

Hatching Chickens

Spring is in the air, which means chicks are on our mind! What are two of my very favorite things about spring? The farm stores have tubs full of adorable fluffy chicks, and its time to pull out the incubator!  

Start with a clean incubator,  plug in and let sit for about 24 hours (in a forced air incubator the temperature should be 99-99.5 F. In a still air incubator the temperature should be 101-102 F) and follow the instruction that came with it on filling the tray with water.

You can see the chick beginning to form in this picture.

I like to use a hygrometer in my to make sure the humidity is right.  For day one through eighteen, you want the humidity between forty-five and fifty percent.

 (Chick beginning to peck its way from its shell)

Select clean, large eggs that are not malformed. DO NOT WASH THE EGGS. You can stockpile eggs in a room temperature place for several days (after the first 10 days eggs hatchability drops). If you had eggs shipped eggs to you they should be allowed to rest for 24 hours before putting them into the incubator (place shipped eggs upright, with the fat end of the egg up, in an egg carton to allow the contents to settle)

Get a colored pencil and mark an "X" on one side of each egg and an "O" on the other. This will help you keep track of which eggs have been turned later.

Put the eggs in the incubator and close the lid. Mark a calendar for twenty-one days. Twice a day flip/roll the eggs back and forth between "X" and "O". On day 18 stop flipping eggs and increase humidity to sixty-five percent. Do not open the incubator again unless absolutely necessary. Resist the urge to help them from there shells, I know it's super hard but you must. Even if you help them the chances are they will not survive. This is a fight they must have on their own.

After 24 hours the chicks should be dried out and fluffy and you can remove chicks to a brooder.  If chicks do not hatch on day twenty-one give them a few more days. Don't freak out if all the eggs do not hatch. I usually wait twenty-four hours after the last chick is free and removed from the incubator before I turn it off and remove the eggs just to make sure there are no more stragglers. Check out our post HERE on raising chicks.

This post contains affiliate links.

A Day At The Rodeo - Bold Enough Challenge

We spent Saturday night at a the Bold Enough Challenge Rodeo in Gallatin. We had such a good time, so I thought I would share some of the photos with you. 

Cowboy in the clouds.

Caring For Chicks

If it isn't evident by now, I love my birds... Actually, at some point (I have absolutely no memory of this) I told my mom that 'Birds were my life'... ok so I may have been just a touch of dramatic there but I do love birds. 

So here is what you need to get you started with chickens.

• A Chicken Waterer (You can pick these up at your local CO-OP of Tractor Supply store. You could also check places like Craigslist for them but if you do choose to bring home a used one make sure you wash it really well so that it doesn't carry any nasty things to your birds.) 
• A chicken feeder (These also can be bought at the CO-OP or Tractor Supply. Same with this one if you decide to buy a used one make sure you wash it really well. Anything that is not bought new I spray down with GSE(Grapefruit Seed Extract) and water or a bleach and water mix.)
• Shavings (DO NOT USE CEDAR SHAVINGS the oils in the chips irritate their lungs) *you only need these if you use a box*
• Heat light or an Ecoglow brooder - The Ecoglow brooder is safer but you can use a light from the local feed store with either a regular light bulb or a heat bulb (I usually just use a normal bulb). You can get the Ecoglow Brooder HERE The Ecoglow is a much safer option. I know many stories of families having their barn burn because of the heat lights.
• Brooder or you can use a tall storage plastic bin with the lid off of it (The last one I use, because I like to keep the chicks close for at least the first week or so, that way they can hear us and be handled a lot. It just seems to make them more friendly than the ones I raised outside the whole time.
• Marbles (these will prevent the chicks from drowning in their water, they tend to be a little wobbly and slightly suicidal).
• And the best part Chicks! - You are going to want to do your homework on which breed of bird you want. Figure out if you want egg layers or meat birds. My favorite breeds are Bahrama, Black Australorp, and Buff Orpington.

To set up for the chicks you are going to want to find a place for your brooder or box (Put it in a place not drafty and where if you have other pets the can't get to them). If you use a box put the shavings in it. This helps their legs to not get injured and is also for the waste. You will need to change this often.


Related Article: Hatching Chickens

Fill your feeder with a chick starter feed and put it in the brooder in a place they can get all the way around it but it is out of the direct heat.

Related Article: Building A Chicken Tractor

Fill the water bottle and put in the box. (again put in a place where they can get all the way around it and where it is out of the direct heat and add the marbles. They need constant access to both food and water at all times.

If you are using a light you are going to want secure it (MAKE SURE IT IS NOT GOING TO FALL) Place it so that the entire box is NOT covered. You want shady parts. Place your little fluff balls into the box but keep an eye on them if they start panting you are going to need to move the light up. Or if they peep really loud you want to lower the light. For the first two weeks, the temperature at the bottom of the brooder should be between 95-100 degrees, then reduced by 5 degrees until the chicks are 1 month old.

If you decide to add more chicks to your flock in the brooder later make sure you do not just drop them into the general population. Introduce them slowly, put them in a place they can see each other but not touch for at least a day. When you do release them with the "cool kids" stick around and make sure they don't get picked on too much - some pecking is normal, resist being "mom" and coming to the rescue unless absolutely necessary, they must figure out where they are in the pecking order.