Friday, April 28, 2017

Goat Kids Love to Play

Welcome Back!

You know that baby goats are called kids. Do you know why human children are called kids?

Because you like to run and play just like goat kids!





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We have new babies on the farm! They aren't ducklings. These babies were a surprise!


There were 11 turkey chicks that hatched.


The mama hen turkey hid her nest under the truck.
We had no idea she was there!
We thought a dog or other animal had eaten her.

 I moved them all into the barn so they would be safe in the stall. Turkey chicks aren't very smart. They wander around everywhere. They don't know how to follow their mama hen around so she can keep them safe and warm.
Quin and Xander love to hold chicks!

This chick looks like he's yelling!
Xander was really gentle, there's no need for the little chick to worry.

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Here's an interesting egg! One of our chickens laid an egg with no shell.




If you soak an egg in vinegar you can take the shell off the egg so it looks the same as Quin's egg.

See how squishy it is?
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Here is my egg count for this week:

  • On Friday April 21 I collected 12 brown eggs, 9 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
  • On Saturday April 22 I collected 4 brown eggs, 7 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
  • On Sunday April 23 I collected 9 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
  • On Monday April 24 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
  • On Tuesday April 25 I collected 9 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
  • On Wednesday April 26 I collected 8 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
  • On Thursday April 27 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and no duck eggs.



I think the ducks are done laying eggs.

Here is the way I keep track of how many eggs I collect each day.



Some years I collect for more weeks. Here's a link to a few years ago.

How many dozen chicken eggs did I collect over 2 weeks? I'll post the answer below.

Here's my graph, does it look different from yours?


The answer to my question about how many dozen chicken eggs I collected is:
17 1/2 dozen eggs.

It's important for us to keep track of how many eggs the chickens lay, and how much food they eat so we can see how much it costs us for eggs.

A bag of chicken feed is about $20 depending on where we buy it, and if it's on sale.

$20 ÷ by 17 1/2 dozen eggs = $1.14 per dozen.

We don't get many eggs in the winter, and we have to feed the chickens more. We get a lot of eggs in the summer and hardly have to feed the chickens much because they love to eat bugs and grass. We think it all evens out over the year. This year our eggs cost us about $1.14 a dozen.

Sometimes eggs in the store cost more, sometimes they cost less. Chicken farmers have to count things like their cost for electricity, repairs on the barn and coops, equipment like feeders and waterers, cost of new chicks and raising them, how much they have to pay workers, and how much they pay for feed and water. They also have to pay for egg cartons, and to truck their eggs to the store. They have more costs to count than I do.

Math is really important for farmers. We have a lot of costs to keep track of, we need to know how much it costs us to have all these animals! 
We need to know how much to feed them, and what to feed them. 
We need to be able to figure out how much milk a baby goat needs if we bottle feed them. (If we feed them too much then they die! If we don't feed them enough they die!)

I hope you are working hard on your math, too. I don't know any adults that don't use math. 

I'll answer lots of questions next Friday! 

Have a great week!

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