First and foremost, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy and blessed Easter Sunday!  Enjoy time with family and/or friends on this glorious day!  Rejoice!!  He is Risen!!!

  • Last week there was a temporary furlough from “The Husky Report”.  Heather and I enjoyed a little get away to Amish Country, in Holmes County/Berlin, Ohio.  We were celebrating Heather’s 40th birthday!  I feel lucky to have this wonderful woman to share my life! 
  • Back to the farm…This week, our turkeys are now 3 weeks old, and are growing rapidly!  When we got them, they were the size of a small sparrow.  They have at least quadrupled in size.  They are now the size of a large pigeon.  We originally had 30, but lost one through the process.  One out of 30 is actually a very good ratio!  The process isn’t over yet, but the older they get the greater their chances of survival.  We anticipated 25 of the 30 surviving would be a good number.  As shown is the picture, they are out of their original heated bins, and now in a larger area.  Still heated, but the required temperature isn’t as high as it was.

  • For those who might be curious, or care at all, it costs about $1.68 per day in electricity to heat the bins.  That is about $50 extra per month on the electric bill!
  • Back to the dogs…(Since this is “The Husky Report”)…Ember finally started her first heat cycle.  Josie is just finishing hers up.  The last of the pups is Iris, and we anticipate hers to start soon.  Of course, this being their first, we will skip.  We figure the 3 of them to begin their litters this fall.
  • With the weather finally warming up, we’ve officially begun the coat blow.  As usual, some start sooner than others.  This year however, they all seem to be starting early. 
  • One project going on right now, that has been a thought for a long time is new metal food troughs.  In the past, we’ve used wooden troughs, plastic buckets, etc.  We designed custom, individual troughs that will hang on the walls.  They will be removable, and easily transferred from one stall to another.  At this point, we had a custom steel fabricator make one out of standard sheet steel for testing.  The dogs are taking to it very well!  After a few tweeks to the design, we will have more made, (likely 15 to start) out of stainless steel.  Stainless Steel with be rust proof, and hold up much better over time.
  • At this point, we are now 70% certain that Rose is pregnant.  Another week or two, that number would grow as we feel more confident.  At that point, we will make a more official announcement.
  • Phoenix is still lagging behind, but is probably a week or so behind Rose.  It is still a 50/50 wait and see on her.
  • The business and the art of Husky breeding, we’ve determined, is 90% science and 10% guesswork.  The 10% reared it’s ugly head this weekend.  Mylah, who had her second heat cycle back in early February, was put with Kallen.  We never witnessed any tie at any point, and actually saw that at no point, was Mylah receptive to the idea.  Some need a little longer, so we pulled her and decided to wait until her next cycle.  We figured we would still keep an eye on her just in case she and Kallen did tie at some point without us knowing.  They were only together for one day.  Well yesterday morning, she started behaving differently.  Like she was about to give birth.  We were puzzled, since she had not ballooned up like the female normally does.   She was a little larger, but with her wooly coat, nothing seemed abnormal.  We figured it was simple weight gain.  In the abdomen, where the obvious “ballooning” is, she was still feeling somewhat normal size-wise.  We figured we better set her up in the birthing stall just in case.  Within a couple hours, she gave birth!  Only one at that time, and then a few hours later a second came out.  As of this writing there are only two, but we feel another 1 or 2 is still possible.  It goes to show you that the Good Lord is the one in charge.  As said earlier, 90% science, 10% guesswork.