Big Island Chickens

 Cross Fencing So far, the most we have gotten done on Cross fencing the property is to get a rough idea on where the fence is going to go. I have the materials, but will need to jackhammer the post holes into the lava, and right now I have an injured hand. Banged it up trying to drive posts in for running some temporary fencing to get the sheep and goats out into  a small, but contained area that is larger than their pens alone. We will try to get the posts dugs ASAP, as my hand allows.  In the mean time, I was able to purchase a new Banana variety! It is a Red Tiger,  Musa sikkimensis Grows to about 15 feet in about 2 years and the fruit is said to be a deep, almost blood red. Fruiting occurs at 2-3 years. I prefer the dwarf varieties, but some that are dwarf can still grow over 10 feet.  I am saving my extra cash to buy a really cool variety, known here in the Islands as  A’ea’e.  In Hawaiian it means to climb up,  the leaves are vari...

 Settling in Coco and Vanna are selttling in nicely, though they do cry still right about dark. They are in a 10x10 converted kennel for now, while I finish the property fencing. I have done three of the four sides of our acre, and I am going to be cross fencing the back 1/3 for all the animals to graze eventually. We will allow the chicken, the goats and the sheep to graze, but I am on the fence still on the pigs we are scheduled to get in two months. So, speaking of pigs, we are scheduling getting them on the farm in two months. so pens need to built soon. I am thinking of doing a modified KNF -Korean Natural Farming method of piggery that results in a no smell pen. Yeah, I thought the same thing too. JoAnn and I went through the KNF certification process and when we got the opportunity to visit a piggery with 4 full sized 400 pound sows and found that there wasn't ANY smell other than the animals around them, we were sold. I will need to dig down a bit or find a puka to build a ...

 Big News on the Farm Today is goat baby day! We are heading out at lunch tiime to pick up our newest additions to the farm, Coco and Vanna, twin sister goats that are going to be the Matriarchs and the breeding anchors of our eagerly awaited goat herd.  We are going to be breeding these two to build a small heard of goats with the aim of keeping our freezer full and selling the overflow. Since they are twins, and come from a line that has proven multiple births, we feel pretty confident that we can keep our farm in goats and in the black with sales. Coco and Vanna are the two new additions and will join Mrs. Sheep, our hair sheep ewe, and Rambo, a young ram we found pilaging a neighbors lanscape. We will be holdong on to him until the rightful owner has been found, but we are needing another ewe for the sheep flock as of right now.    In the coming weeks, I will be building a pig pen for or two gilt piggery. And in bigger news, I found a person that not only has Min...