Every day there is new life on the farm.
This day I discovered a set of twins shortly after their birth. They were still wet. One was a heifer (girl) and the other, a bull (boy).
I checked the records and since May 1 of this year we've had 26 sets of twins. Twelve sets of bulls, eight sets of heifers and the rest were bull/heifers. On June 10 we had two sets of twins.
When a heifer and a bull are born as twins they are called freemartins.
A freemartin or free-martin (sometimes martin heifer) is an infertile female mammal which has masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries. Genetically and externally the animal is female, but it is sterilized in the womb by hormones from a male twin, becoming an infertile partial intersex. Freemartinism is the normal outcome of mixed-sex twins in all cattle species that have been studied, and it also occurs occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs.
My next magical find was the Banty Chicken and chicks. Son #4 told me about them. They were just hatched the day before. I had so much fun watching them. When I first peeked into the barrel the chicks were scattered around. When mama heard and saw me she started clucking.
All the nine little peepers started to scoot under her wings.
One by one they slid under her wing plumping her up.
A hen can lay one egg a day. When she lays the egg she leaves the nest and lets the egg cool off. The egg can stay in the suspended mode for up to two weeks. When she has accumulated enough eggs she will start setting on the eggs and the embryos in the fertilized eggs will start to grow. It takes 21 days of setting on the eggs for them to hatch. They will all hatch within 48 hours.
Harvesting is in full swing. We will chop 300 - 400 acres of corn for silage (chopping the whole corn plant). We are filling several silos and ag bags which include four 20X60 (20 feet around and 60 feet high), one 18 X 55, two 20X80, one 24 X 70, one 25 X 90, one 25X110 silos and six 12X300 feet ag bags.
There have been several 15 hour days in a row. Today was rainy and a nice break for the guys.
Even though the hours are long, the work hard and the paychecks too small we get pockets of joy now and then. We are privileged to witness these everyday miracles.
