Lovely. I have Lyme disease.

I’ve missed a couple posts, but I’ve got excuses.   And Lyme disease.

It’s been an epic week, getting pigs, and bees, cut off from posting images, and exposed to poison ivy, plus some community group stuff I’m involved in.

Saturday a bite by my knee that had been unusually itchy and inflamed since I was bitten a week earlier hinted at forming a “sun dog” in the morning, and by afternoon was the unmistakable bull’s eye rash.

I’m lucky; it’s a 50-50 chance that Lyme manifests in the unambiguous target rash.  It was really a matter of time; with the degree of exposure to ticks I have around here, Lyme was statistically practically an inevitability.  But all’s well – I’ve started the antibiotics and had  a pint of Ben and Jerry’s (Chocolate Therapy).  I feel normal.  It’s all about catching it early, before the headaches, and fever, …. and nervous system destruction, set in.

This tick, if it even was a tick (I suspect a spider), was definitely not on me for 24 hours, like “they say”.  It wasn’t on me for eight.  I woke up with the bite in the morning, and if it wasn’t a spider – the usual bite-in-the-night culprits – then I scratched the tick off in my sleep and never saw it again.

—–

In other news, I’m down to one guinea.  I was hoping that the disappearance of the second last (a hen), meant she had gone to sit on eggs.  But I found her body tonight:(  One left standing.  And I had them down to four peaceful, quiet guineas. Why are they dropping like flies?

The pigs are still with us, and after sleeping almost the entirety of their first day here, prefer to root over eating their food, and loooove the hay.  They bury themselves in it in all kinds of ways.

The old chicks are all feathered in, the size and approximate capability of sparrows, and have liberated themselves from the chickery.  Then their mom was getting too much abuse from the loose roosters, so I put the family into the controlled environment of Silkieland, and they mostly stay in there but come and go under the fence too.

The new chicks are peppy and cute, two Ameracaunas and two little Oreos again.  Little tuxedos.  I hope they are Cleopatra’s (Oreo hen as an adult), but one is much smaller than the others, and I suspect it’s a Silkie cross.  I can’t imagine Cleopatra letting that happen (?!), but I’ve never seen a chicken runt either.  We shall see.

Piglets and chicks. Right now, without photos

It’s like the old days of blogging, when images were rare.

We got the pigs!  Three little piglets.  They are very pink, but they are supposed to be sired by a full black Berkshire.  It seems they take after their mother.

We’ve finally sorted out our pig transport, after trying dog crates and the back of the car.  That extra chickery I made came in, secured with a pallet, and covered with a piece of canvas (becoming as useful and ubiquitous around here as baling twine and wire), so the piglets don’t get a sunburn or heatstroke.  Our first piglets came in with sunburn and possibly heatstroke, but recovered.  Although, after wrestling with them, sometimes you wish they had heatstroke.

We carried them from truck to pigland over the shoulder.  “Easy”.  HW gave me the small pig, and she was a crazy squealer, who screamed the whole trip, and absolutely pummeled my lower back stomping with her sharp little hooves.  Wow.  That hurt a lot.

HW had it worse though.  Both of our pigs pooped en route, and then HW says “Oh no!   Warm and wet – I think I’m getting peed on!”  So I was better off with the stomping pig.

Then HW moved the third pig and immediately had them all run right through the fence, making us completely 0 for 4 on piglet retention.  This time, the pigs were small enough to fit through the bottom squares of the electric fence, and they did.  He got them back in though, and they fell to rooting like they were born to do it.

In the middle of the night, discussing the piglets pouring through the fence, I said “You know, the right thing to do is to take the other electric fence, with the smaller holes on the bottom, and wrap that around outside the fence already there, and do it tonight while they’re asleep. ” And he started getting out of bed!  So we did that together at midnight, and the pigs are thoroughly trapped.

They weren’t asleep, but they were moving slow, watching us from the shadows.  And they are SO happy!  Face deep in the dirt, day one.

This morning, four new chicks!  All of them a bit damp, brown and black with black legs, and bright white egg teeth on their black beaks- SO cute.  There are two from Cleopatra (copper maran Xs), and two from Cheeks or Puffcheeks (Ameracauna Xs).  Proud mama!

The two “old” chicks have integrated into gen. pop.  They integrated themselves, as they do.  Just before running out for pigs and doing a henyard check, I found one chick outside of the chickery.  After fruitlessly chasing her around the box a few times, I tipped it up so she could slip back under a corner.  She was looking.  It almost worked.  Then the other chick darted out, and then it was on.  Those two started to run away from home together, mama flipped out, so I just let her out.  She was set upon by the roosters, and ran into the flock of hens, and the babies crouched in the grass (it only takes a couple of blades for them to disappear), but after the dust settled, they flew (flew like sparrows!) back to her, and that was that.  Now they are part of the flock.  They slept in the box last night, but this morning Mom was coaching them on how to use the coop ramp (although they were having none of it).

Pictures when I have more storage.  I’ve been researching – seems like the next level plan is inevitable.

 

Stand by

The chicks are bouncy, and still mom-sitters.  Both of them.  But the yellow one more than the other.

Cream Puff has relaxed into her broodiness and is now a feather pancake with a beak and a baleful stare.

And the piglets are coming today.

But I can’t post pictures!

I’ve hit a technological barrier.  My blog has hit its media capacity of 13G of images.  That’s what 9 years of blogging will do!

In spite of deleting dozens and compressing new photos, I can’t add more than one picture today.  While I figure out how to overcome that (laborious deleting?  purchasing the unlimited package?), there is a pause on my posts.  Hopefully only for today!  Because those piglets will be cute!

Baby bunny season

There are baby bunnies out!  They are shy and careful.  They’re also grown up enough to be out on their own – no longer really babies.  Juveniles.A ground nest, one of the odd long billed birds with a body shape that looks like it should be flightless.  But isn’t.The chicks have their little wings already.  Scampering around.  The Silkies have established a favorite sitting vantage point at the top of the ramp.  There’s always someone there, overlooking.

Birdhouse factory

I allowed myself to have a part of a day where I just did something that I just wanted to do, instead of needed to be done (like solar re-wiring, or boundary maintenance).  And it was even more glorious than imagined.  I made three flower boxes, and seven birdhouses, although I didn’t get to any decorative ones, just the robust functional ones the birds actually use.

With the participation of Apples the house chicken

They’re headed for the garden fence posts, etc.  Probably too late for this year’s nesters, but who knows. Spring birdhouse maintenance is going to become a day project.

All done

I saw a tree swallow!  The first I’ve seen here!  Exciting.  She was swooping over the hens, eating on the wing.  Spent the day.  I hope she’s nesting!  Possibly in a snag, in an old woodpecker hole maybe.  Perhaps in one of the first run of birdhouses that’s still up, all over.

I want to make another birdhouse tree like this.

Guineas passing through!

I have the tree in mind:)

I want to let my art out, and I’m looking forward to having some of the basic life support systems finished and dialed enough to do some purely decorative things.  There’s a paucity of room for artistic expression around here, when there’s an old shed to take apart, an invasive species that needs constant battling, and irrigating the greenhouse means carrying water when it rains.  Priorities, you know.  But a good day of fun stuff is surprisingly “filling”.For instance, the windows are past due for some attention (caulking, painting), while I’m accessorizing them with flower boxes.  One of these days, we’ll paint, and finish the siding.

First day in the new coop!

Moment of truth!  The grand opening.I dropped the ramp and the birds on the threshold stared, taken aback.  Oh, there’s the Colonel pushing his way through.  Coming through, coming through.  I’ll show you how it’s done.

And he did.   

Then the birds started pouring right out. 

Something to crow about

The rapidity may have had something to do with the angle of descent.  I wasn’t sure about the steepness of the ramp, if they could handle it,  but it turns out, they handle it.  They accelerate! – they’re running by the bottom third, but they can hop and fly the runout, so they all did just fine.What’s happening inside?  Ah, there are a few that can’t figure out the corners.  Where’d everyone go?  Predictable.

So, everyone out with no drama, and…..!  Ahhhhh, a big sigh of relief, as the sound of silence and peace settles over birdland.  No one outcompeted or offended by the big birds.  No rooster sneak attacks.  It’s even better than I expected!  If I could have done this any sooner, I would have.  Everyone has all they can eat and plenty of time to do it, and they have three egg laying stalls all their own.

I felt like I was taking their freedom away, reluctant to put them back in a cage, even though I’ve long observed that A:  Silkies only use a very small area, quite unlike the big hens  B: They’re much safer confined, and C: Confinement for no more hunger or harassment is a good trade for them.  They like to just hang out in a peaceful little pile.Later I added a sun shade.

But will they find their way back in at night? It’s not looking good.They all did!  All of them, even the rooster I missed in the the night move and had to pop over the fence in the morning.  Wow, what good chickens.  The Colonel is such an amazing rooster.  He waits until all the hens are in before he retires.  Helping them if they need some demonstration.  The other roosters are on their own though, even if they are youngsters.An egg!  They love it.  They love it:)

New coop for the Silkies

The chickens really come out of the woodwork whenever there’s woodworking.  They always have.  All up in the middle of the jobsite, every time.  They don’t turn out with such interest for, say, shoveling gravel.

I finally finished the coop I imagined.  I started it a few weeks ago, it seems, and I don’t know why I always think Enh, this’ll take a couple of hours.  It takes ages!  It takes, like, 6 hours.  And there’s still more to tune up.  You think it’s a box, but no, there’s a hinged lid to work out, the ramp, floor mesh; there’s indoor partitions and perches and latches and hardware cloth all over.  It takes time.  So it did not get done, not even close, on the day I thought I was going to “just build a coop after supper”.  But it’s done now.

Here come the Silkies now to have a look

And I had lots of company doing it.  They have no grasp, I’m sure, of the risk of falling boards/screws/tools.  They just sit.  Don’t mind the noise either.  Dozing through hammering.  I have to step over them to work. They just have to have the front row seats when the wood and tools come out.Yeah.  I could live here. Traction control needs improvement though.

I designed this one differently, with a few features thought up from observation: roof sheds water away from, not into their run (duh); ramp folds into the wall, not the bottom of the coop; there’s a wall to turn the corner around when they come inside so it’s darker in sleep area; coop lower to the ground, smaller, and nest boxes still at opening side; Typar, less drafty;  perches precisely the same height so there’s no competition over who’s the more elevated rooster; egg laying stalls with tall walls to keep out the light, and the birds can go around the corner and not be seen from the doorway.  More privacy, in other words. I think they’ll like it.  I thought a lot about it.Easier to see floor plan with the hay in.

I’m intending wheels on the light end, to be able to tractor it around.   Handles on the coop end, likely, although now it’s the right height for grabbing the edge.

Well, late at night I pulled all the approved Silkies out of the crowded big coop (they decided they lived there, not me), and popped them into their new digs.  Exciting!

It’s still crowded; the whole Silkie flock in a smaller coop.  I originally planned to make two coops the same, and separate the flock into the sets of hens and roosters I want to have mating.  But then the reality of how long it takes to build one set in, and I revised my expectations.  Because other things are pressing more than manipulating chicken sexual access.  For now, the “good Silkies” – all the hens, and the few roos that get along and respect the Colonel – are going in, and the roosters that disturb the shit and harass are out.  Not wanted on the voyage.  Just to give everyone more peace.

The rowdy roosters happen to be improving.  They have discovered dirt bathing, close on the heels of food clucking.  They may redeem themselves yet.  But for the foreseeable future, no girls for them!

 

Selfie with falcon

Apples was out with me for enrichment time, while I was building stuff by the house.  I take her with me outside when I’m working in one area, so she can act like a real chicken for awhile.  She doesn’t much act like a real chicken though.Oh!  A wild chicken encounter! Ohohohhh.  Nervous:)

Then I thought I should try and get a pic of our transportation arrangement.  I pick her up and she squirms until she’s happy with her grip, and then she rides. Will this work?  Selfies: not so easy with an SLR.  Worked, though! She’s turned around on my arm.  Did you see that?  I did a 180.  I’m practically ready for the circus.When she goes back in to her box, every time, she eats ravenously and quickly and then takes a big nap.  Wow, the stimulation!  I need to sleep it off.  This time she hardly made it all the way back into her box, and zzzz.  The little princess.

Broodies and brooderies

First order of business: a broody box for Perchick (smaller than a chickery, but big enough for a big hen mom – wow!  I have broody layer hens!)

While I was making a broodery, I made another chickery, because I’m sure I’m going to need one real soon.

Note helper chicken, Apples, stage left.

Cream Puff is still freakin’ out!  She’s being good, diligently staying on her eggs, but she’s on high alert and looks very concerned, like she thinks she’s losing her mind, and no one told her this could happen.  What’s happening to me?!  I’m feverish!   I have a compulsion to snuggle with eggs.  I can’t Google these symptoms because I don’t have thumbs!

If I crack the door to her box to reach her food she flips out! and makes a wild flapping break for the door.  Then gets back on her eggs a minute later like nothing happened.

It’s nice that it’s easy to peek in at her.  Her guard is never down though.  No matter how quietly I sneak up to peek, she’s looking right at me through the gap.

Perchick made a smooth morning transition to her broodery though.  With the help of a cloaking device.

She seemed to like to be covered.  She pancaked right out while I sorted eggs and stuffed them under her.   I figure the disruption of being moved is nothing compared to being hassled by the other hens trying to lay an egg on top of her.  Puffcheeks is a real squaller.

Traffic jam in the nest box

I set her up in the greenhouse, and am just committed now to that being the last end of a row I get to plant.There’s a kennel vacancy.  The broody Silkie was faking it.  Well, probably not, but for whatever reason she was broken up and frustrated this morning, Why am I in a translucent mailbox?!  so I put her back into gen pop.  She was a new hen, so I’m surprised she even went broody.  I figure those hens are still calming down and learning to chicken, not ready to level up.

Last frost tonight.  Says me!  The forecast says not even, so it may have been overkill for me to run around in the dark for an hour, to cover everything and bring in the seedlings, etc etc, but it smells like winter this evening, and I’m not taking chances.  I am definitely ready for that aspect to be done – the frost shuttling and the frost blanketing of the plants already in.   I was excited for tonight to be the last night of that. So are the guineas.  They do not like the row cover.   Or someone keeping them up when they’re ready for bed.

*It did frost

The little chicks change every day.  The brown one is getting browner!

morning sunbeamThe other is still a mom sitter.

Big day

It was one of those days, where I get up for the hens, but am not ready to commit to being awake, so I bargain with myself, Well, I’ll just wear my sweat pants to do the chickens.  It’s like, bringing the comfort of bed with you.

Then the next thing, I stop for “lunch”, and turns out it’s 5pm, and I’m still wearing my sweat pants.  And of course I’m full of ticks, because I haven’t been dressed appropriately.  All day.  Those are good days, though.

I see this is how I come to be found wearing pajamas and rubber boots so often too – the early morning “I’m not really getting up this early, I’m just going to do the chickens and then I’ll make tea” rationalization.  What really happens is HW catches me in the middle of the day and I get a “wrath of god” bossy lecture:  “Little Nibbler, operating power tools in your pajamas is NOT appropriate!  Go get some work pants on, and some real shoes!”  And I can’t really argue with him, at all.  “But I’m just-I only have four more cuts! -Ok fine“.

First thing- chicks on grass!  First day outside for the cheeps.  Mom is beside herself to be on grass. She’s not waiting for the box to be opened.  She was out of her mind excited, cropping grass as fast as she could between clucks.  I haven’t had a salad in weeks!   The little brown one thinks it’s cold on the feet.  She jumped back in.They’ve got her surrounded.  I don’t know if chicks are as interesting to them as birth is to people, or just that they haven’t seen her for awhile.  They all have to stare.

I cleaned a bunch of junk out of the greenhouse and  put in the irrigation, working “with” my sidekick pet chicken Apples.  I’m working.

She still “lives in the house“, but I take her with me outside pretty frequently.  She rides along on my wrist like a falcon, her wings slightly out like she might have to throw them open for balance.  But she doesn’t seem ready to jump off when we walk through chicken land.

She’s a different little bird.   Just watches the others, while they watch her.  What the…?   Is that chicken riding the human?  She moves around the greenhouse pretty comfortably, getting some food variety and real dust baths.

All assembled, and as an added bonus, it actually works.   The lines charged, and it seems to drip evenly.  I wasn’t sure if the passive pressure from the stock tank that catches the water off the GH would be enough.  An experiment.

It’s not.  Half the tank emptied, but it took all day to happen.  The tank fills much faster than that in a good rain, so the drip will never keep up.   I was expecting as much.  I need a little submersible pump to push water.  That’s ok;  I needed one anyway to move water from where I catch it off our roof to the greenhouse where it needs to end up, the part I’ve been doing manually for years.  So done with that.  First I need to measure the head, and I haven’t managed that yet.

Then near the end of a full day I go to just do a couple repairs on the old coops that keep going and going, and discover … four broody hens! Now I have to make broody accommodations in a hurry!  One express broody kennel.  I can make them in less than an hour now.

line up the covered wagons

One hen will go to a friend, one goes in this broody kennel, and the other two – are full size!!

This is new!  I’ve never had a layer hen go broody before.  That’s what the Silkies do.  This is a new world!  I don’t know why I didn’t expect it – Chanticleers are heritage birds; it’s reasonable.   Perchick and Cream Puff, full sisters, broody the same day, different coops.  Perchick is serene, but Cream Puff is all fluffed out, and looks both surprised and irritable, which seems about right.

What to do with them?  A broody kennel is not big enough for them.

I evicted the rooster that was baching it, staying alone in the “temporarily” converted chickery-to-coop, and moved Cream Puff in.  I elevated him to the big coop, making his wildest dreams come true.  He’s been trying to figure out how to get in there for days, and every night after making a hundred circles around the ramp gives up and goes to bed in the wall tent.

I put Cream Puff in the “temporary” coop at dusk.  It’s the perfect size.  I tried to carefully gather her and move her, with her eggs.  Yeah right.  Big flapping drama, chase scenes.  I should have waited another hour.  She’s such a nervous nelly, always jumpy, of course it would go badly.  I should have waited until pitch dark.

I locked her in with her eggs and hoped.  I could watch  her through the gap in the canvas, pacing around, trying to escape.  I’m in a box!  I must get out!  Must.  Get out.  Oh, eggs!….eggs….I’m in a box!  Must get out! 

It’s like a switch flipping in her brain.  From agenda, to egg trance.  Must get out!  Oh, there’s some eggs….eggggggs…..Must get out!  Egggggs…..  Luckily, she settled on the eggs finally.  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.  I hope all the action didn’t break her up.

She’s in there, but fully alert

The Silkies moved effortlessly, of course.

Perchick must wait until tomorrow for me to build her an eggery.  She’s hoarding all the eggs in B coop.

 

All aboard!

Another guinea down.  This morning she was sitting in the greenhouse like she wasn’t ready to leave yet, and I looked at her twice, and had a feeling, from her posture.  When she let me pick her up I knew it was bad.  I tucked her in this corner, gave her food and water, which I’m sure she didn’t touch, and the other two stayed by her, doting.  She just seemed to be breathing a bit hard.  An hour later, gone.  Such a pretty bird.  The feathers around her neck are lilac coloured.   If this is some weird bird illness going through the “flock” (2 of 4 in a week), then I’m going to be out of guineas just like that.   That would be so strange, they spend all day out in the wild buffet, how could they be healthier? All hope rides on the remaining hen. In the chickery, the yellow chick is part duckling.  She spends all her free time on Mom.  Every couple minutes she’s jumping up there.  Usually a chick barely stays up on Mom long enough to get a picture. Mom shrugs her off by bringing her head down low and tipping up her wings, so the chick falls off.  It’s funny, obviously a deliberate dump off.  That’s enough. It’s time for a grass recognition lesson.They are all bouncing around, and they have little wingtip feathers already, but I caught them back in the box hiding from the sun.Thinking about jumping up again. Very attentive students.  Back up!   It’s time for a little doze.It’s out of focus, but it’s just too cute!

Chickens in trees

And otherwise being funny:I’d like to call this meeting to order…. They sure love their pine tree.

Yesterday was rainy.  A good soaking, the kind where the water table seems to rise to the surface of the earth.  My GH eavestrough is working (first rain test), and the tank was filling faster than the tap was running inside.  The Silkies had hairdos, the way they get when their heads get wet.  Most were huddled grumpily under their rain tents, but there were a few brave ones wandering about.  The wet chicken gets the worm.

The guinea solution

I’m so pleased to have sorted out the guineas.

I’ve tried so much.  Building them a sky coop…

well come to think of it that’s about it.  And giving them roosting apparatuses, like the laundry rack.

They’ve tried lots of things.  Roosting on the sky coop, roosting on top of the greenhouse, roosting in the trees, and roosting on my apparatuses, like the laundry rack.  They are choosy, and illogical, and stubborn.

But I’ve got it.  They are accustomed now to living in the greenhouse all winter, and they have their stick swings where they sleep.  So I’m letting them continue to use the GH in the summer.

In a reversal of form, at night when the chickens get locked up for their safety, the guineas get let into the greenhouse.  The GH which is off limits to all unrestrained chickens, because they would unleash devastation in minutes.  And have.

Not so the guineas.  They’re different.  They don’t do the so entertaining but v. destructive chicken scratch dance.   And they have different tastes.  I wasn’t 100% sure about the guineas around the baby tomato and cucumber plants, but I thought maybe I could just trust them, and cautiously tested my theory.

The guineas use a chicken door that I open at night just as I close the chickens.  The chickens all go to bed before the guineas do.  The guineas hop in, file down the aisle, and fly up to their roost.  They’re very content about it.  I leave the door open and they let themselves out in the morning before I come out for the hens.  It’s working!

The big test was the pepper plants.  I was out early the first morning, crouched watching them secretly through the opposite chicken door.  They flew down from their roost, milled around, gave the peppers a thorough visual inspection (Something new here!), and left, following the leader out their door.  Success!  Awesome.  Before long, the starts will be too big to harm anyway,

This should reduce their mortality rate this summer.  Guineas have a way of kicking the bucket in frequent, creative ways.  They make up for this tendency by producing vast clutches of keets when they reproduce.  It evens out.

I only have three birds now.  I gave half my guineas away some weeks ago, and then a few days ago, I came home late for the magic moment to let them inside.  Finding their door shut, they had resorted to flying up on top of the greenhouse.  It was cute when they did this last year, until the owls discovered the buffet.

I had to throw my hat at them until they flew down and scampered inside.  Oh, door’s open now!  But there were only three.   Was the third lost, bedded down in the field, in some brush?  The light was very dim, and I’m looking around the field, and I see it, like a grey rock as usual, but it’s still… stone dead.  And cold, dead in the afternoon.  No injury.  Another mystery death.  It was one of the cocks.  The remaining three seem perfectly content together.  Any day the hens will fail to show up at bedtime and there will be just the male coming home to roost for a few weeks.

I really threw them for a loop last night.  We got a frost, and anticipating same, I covered the four rows planted in sensitive stuff with row cover.

Wow, the guineas could hardly get down the aisle for staring, tiptoeing along, heads low and necks at full extension, suspicious of the strange white stuff.  And more, they needed herding out in the morning, they were so freaked out by it, not wanting to step on it and flying back and forth across the greenhouse, afraid to land.  Happily for their nerves, the long term forecast is saying a week til the next frost, if that forecast holds.

The chicks are ready to play, but mama is not giving up on her eggs quite yet.  They all came out periodically to eat and scratch, but she went back on her eggs.  There was almost a third chick, but it didn’t make it through hatching.  At least these two will have a friend I love it when they do this.

Broody?  Or laying an egg?: (It was B.  Laying an egg.)

Where there’s life, there’s cheeps.

This morning on chicken breakfast rounds, I discovered tragedy in the broody box.

A chick!  But it was spilled out in a corner of the box, belly up, wings and legs splayed out, eyes closed, beak open.  Very bad.  It was still alive, barely, and I stuffed it back under her, immediately.  Its legs stuck out straight.  A minute later, after tidying up, I rearranged the chick to tuck the legs in.  Its eyes were still closed and beak open, gasping.  This is usually the sign of imminent death.

But an hour later when I checked, lifting up momma’s front to see underneath, the chick was all life, jumping around tap-dancing on the other eggs. Cheep cheep cheep! Yay!  Recovery, due to the magical properties of momma hen heat.  I found her in time.

At lunchtime, there were two!This one was wobbly and still damp. It just kind of sunk, flattened, into the hay, falling asleep, and momma settled onto her.   This is good.You can still see a closed eye.By evening, the two were nimbly bopping about.   Momma jumped out to recon when we rearranged her living situation – now in a chickery – but went right back on the eggs. The remaining four eggs show no signs of pipping, unfortunately, but two healthy chicks are better than one or none.

One  is a blue egg, Puffcheeks or Cheeks’ offspring, and one brown- total unknown.  Hatching eggs from my layer flock is a mystery gift bag.  Almost all of them will be crosses of one kind or another.

Bloom

The quince is a blaze of hot pink.I have one little tiny magnolia bloom starting to open.  Cute.  I’m pleased that it survived the winter.  It’s covered with little green buds.Outside, the chickens are doing very well at large.    Even the wretched roosters are acting less like weirdos, finally.  The Colonel keeps them at bay from the hens, but they are part of the general flock now, and have even been observed food clucking (which the hens totally ignore).  I got something good!  I really do!  Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?

Actually, there’s been a surprising usurpation! One of the new crew of roosters has unseated the Deputy.  It’s the one that immediately left the others when they first arrived, started lurking around my fenced off Silkie flock, and wouldn’t sleep in the coop, making me think he was different.  I’m not with them.  I’m meant for something better. I referred to him as the one with a brain, and let him sleep where he wanted to in the greenhouse (next to the big coop where all the ladies lived).

He has become number two (with hard work and struggle no doubt), and the Colonel tolerates him up in the middle of the hens with him.   He looks very, very pleased with himself.  The (former) deputy has switched to trying to boss layers around.

The hens perch up in the pine tree, which is adorable.  A few will get up in the branches when the flock is all hanging out under there.

 

Apples in the greenhouse

I took Apples on a field day.  I needed to spend some time broadforking the greenhouse, and thought she could do with some enrichment.  Even the world’s meekest chicken needs a little time out of the box.

I carried her out and set her down in the middle of the greenhouse, and turned around to shut the big doors because it was windy.  I look back – no chicken!  I go to the other end to shut those doors, all the while looking for her. I can’t see her anywhere.  I get back inside and start looking behind the things still piled around.  Nothing.  I start panicking a bit – I turned around for two seconds!

Then I found her.   It seems she’s a little bit agoraphobic.

I sat with her on my lap for a bit, savouring being able to really hug a chicken (they mostly do not prefer it), then cuddled her next to me on the hay bale, then got up and went to work, and she started to poke around.

She didn’t go far.  She found a little corner behind the hay bale to scritch around, looking out at me, or through the plastic at the action outside.

She rapidly garnered herself a suitor.Hey baby.  I ain’t never seen feathered feet like that!

He bobbed and strutted back and forth, thoroughly frustrated.  She settled down to wait for her ride back to her box, where she ate like she’d just done a workout.  I hope she’s a little more exploratory tomorrow.

Sunny bird times

I have a guinea who’s been taking an interest in the former skycoop, now grounded.  I don’t know if she’s the mother who raised a brood in it, or if she was one of the brood.  I was born here.

However, she’s been spending time in this little coop every day, very much making herself at home, like she’s rocking on her front porch watching the world pass by.      And sometimes she has company.  The others hang around near her.Then there’s the Silkies.  They love a good pine tree.  They’re like a pile of pompoms, little fluffies lounging and snuggling in the dappled sun.

The shuttle

Every night there’s a risk of frost I bring in the seedlings from the tomato safe.  Now most of the tomatoes are planted in the GH, so there’s only one wheelbarrow load, plus two flats of peppers etc.

Since the big Benadryl freeze fiasco (well, and before), I carefully check the weather and if it’s dipping, it’s shuttle time.  There’s also a pile of flats occupying the windowsills in the house, and they get set out on the deck during the day, which is a short commute.The more mature tomatoes that have already been put in the ground get tucked in to a cozy frost blanket, just in case.  I think the last frost has passed (May 10), but watching the long term forecast just in case.Hard to believe these little babies will be 8 ft+ tall in just a few months.

Early gardening…In the outside garden, the garlic is off to a proud start; the perennials are wide awake; half of it is planted but it’s still mostly brown.

Sweeping a thick blanket of mulch off of a bed, making worms dive out of sight, and directly planting into moist dark soil, is infinitely satisfying.  No-till is working out exceptionally well.

evening snacking

Evening is a peaceful time.  Chicken peace ebbs and flows.  Early morning is not peaceful at all.  Afternoon  is a long siesta, usually broken by a period of ruckus, and then late evening is time for some mellow scrounging before bed.A cooptime snack. Here come the guineas.  They get right in there.  So different, yet so accustomed to living with chickens. At this time, the Silkies are all mostly in bed. The guineas are so cute, grazing in the lumpy field in their pair bonds, looking like rocks.

Oh no!  I took a pile of pictures of Silkies, feathers glowing backlit by the evening sun, and expecting to post them, I find none of them are there!  Some error.  :(  It was a sunny day and the the birds were fuzzy and adorable hopping around in the grass.

Still potting up some small starts, and little Apples gets excited. Every time the dirt comes out, so does she.  She likes to knock over a pot and kick it around (I give her one to play with).  She has developed some extravagantly feathered feet.Little chamomiles

Final notice eviction

Today was transplant day in the greenhouse, so the chickens were officially OUT.  They took it pretty well.  I expected sad puppy at the door behaviour, but they have spent enough time in transition that they were pretty content outdoors.

However, the forecasted 1mm of rain was a bit more than that, and earlier, so just like last year, transplant/eviction day was a big rain day (complete with  thunder).

So I spent the morning running around hastily throwing up rain and wind shelters for these birds that haven’t seen the elements in months to hide under.   The big birds are all just fine in rain, but Silkies don’t fare so well when they get wet, the little hair chickens. After this hasty contriving I got the three fowl weather hen tents out of mothball and repaired them and put them back in action too.  They are quite effective.  Just as attractive.  Nailed that tent city esthetic. I even put the converted chickery in the mix, and they loved investigating that (finally! we get to see inside!), but didn’t shelter in it.  The stock tank hay bale cave was a hit.

The rain came and went, and as it let up, the hens would disperse into the grass and surroundings, and then the rain would start drumming down again and all at once, you’d see them on the run, (even the guineas) legging it back to get under some kind of roof, where they’d crowd together, with no necks, quietly waiting.

After that, I brought my camera into the greenhouse for transplanting, (57 tomatoes – cue Heinz jokes) and completely failed to take any pictures at all!  Next round.   There’s more to plant.

Ready for rain

Tomorrow is greenhouse planting day, so today I reinstalled the famous greenhouse gutter (ok, it’s not famous, I’m just smug about inventing it).  Or at least, the framing for the gutter.  That’s the part that requires walking around inside, that needed to get done before the plants go in.  I put it off after moving the greenhouse.  The gutter will just clip on afterwards.It went very well.  Smooth, just took time.  All sealed up, chicken tight.  I’ll be happy to not have to remove it again for a couple of years.These lazy birds will have a rude surprise tomorrow when they’re finally shut out.  I will have to put a couple of hay bales outside for standing on.  Guaranteed they’ll be staring in the door at us all day.  And just like last year, it’s supposed to rain, but not very much.  So no sympathy this time!

The walnut tree is leafing out.

Two down

Brown bonnet is broody, the second hen to go.  That means it’s time to renovate the covered wagon, since my original design proved to not hold up to chickens jumping all over it, and the “door” broke off from metal fatigue from all the bending. So it got a new wooden front, and a flapping door held on by twist ties.

Back in the greenhouse, BB was waiting in the box she’d been put into so I could make renovations.   She’s not a nervous first time mom.  She calmly rolls with anything, even being put in a little box.

I’m in a box

She just barely even fits in this box.I made the best nest I could in the kennel.  Looks inviting to me. Then put her in it.  Again, calm under scrutiny.And then draped her with canvas.  The lighting is really nice in the kennel.  A dim glow.  Bright enough to see by, but just.  Gotta see what you’re eating.  As soon and she got her broody snack bar, a bowl of water and food, she was most pleased, and tucked right in.The looky-lous want some.

I can see you eating in there!

Outside looking in

The five outcast roosters are spending their days gazing through the plastic wall, or fence, at all the fun the others are having, and the hens prancing around.Their coop is in the edge of the woods, but they have gravitated, in a group, to the side of the greenhouse.   They haven’t investigated too far.  Not far enough to find the end of the fence.  It’s only one section now, to deter them from getting at the rest of the flock (it doesn’t take much).  There are enough roos in the mix, and I don’t want any of these guys’ genes. They’re just dumb, aggressive galoots; they spend all day scrapping with each other.  Not even pure Silkies.  Maybe not their fault they aren’t good for anything, but still.  What do I do with them?!

I can’t even caption them.  All I get is Duhhhhh.  Hen.  HEN.  Fight!  Duhhhh.

On the inside a couple of the new roos have shown that they have a brain, and some gumption, and have essentially self-selected for inclusion in the main flock (for now, until I make some arranged marriages).  Oddly, it’s only the black roosters that have distinguished themselves.  In my flock, the white roosters are the clever, trustworthy ones (the Colonel is a hero among roosters).

The insects are back

First bumblebee window rescue of the year.  There will be many more.    The mosquitoes are back, but they aren’t at plague proportions yet.  The blackflies are back, with their horrible parasitic bite, like they are drilling into your skin with their head, which is what it feels like.   The ticks are back, but are either just beginning, or my guineas are shielding me from the full horror show.  The bittern is gallunking; the peepers are singing.  It is almost time for the screen doors, the window screens, and the secondary line of defense- the mosquito bed tent.

But for now, it’s still just cool enough and just not buggy enough, to have doors and windows wide open with the air rolling through, which means bees might bumble through too. The chickens are still fully utilizing the greenhouse.Especially the Silkies.  They are quick to learn where they go to bed, though.  That’s good.Outside, I have to get a fence around my new garden (old greenhouse site), before the hens clean up all the resident worms.  They’ve been assiduously working at it, churning and breaking up my mulch quite nicely, but I want to keep my worms, thank you.

serene afternoons

The chickens are getting used to living both in and out of the greenhouse.  That’s good.  You’re supposed to implement change slowly with chickens, let them get used to one thing at a time.  I was transitioning the GH today, hanging the screen doors (this year with orange snow fence to better help pollinators find the doors, cleaning out all the winter chicken crap- all the ugly snow fence and sticks, and the greenhouse looks bright and spacious again.  Just hay, the composting coop cleanouts in the feed sacks (not sure what garden they’ll go to), and the tomato safe.

And of course the chicken hangers-on.  All of them crammed in the one shadow in the room, when they could be out in the breeze.They are intentionally or not keeping the broody hen company.  She’s in that box in the tomato safe.

Yeah, I’m with you.

One of these things is not like the other.Feisty little Annie Smith Peck hangs with the big girls.  She’s so funny!  She’s been different from day 1.

The breeds get along so well, now that the greenhouse is without borders.  They mix right up, and are so cute lounging together.  But when the food comes out, the layer hens become greedy ravening animals, so the Silkies need to be segregated in order for them to get a fair chance at the food.  I don’t want to keep them cooped up, but they have to be separate, to survive.   They’re slowly drifting outside. 

We’ll take shade wherever we can get it

See those bags in the corner?

I found a chicken butt jammed in here at night, too.

Roos of the woods

Eviction is in progress.  We lifted the coops out of the greenhouse, and I’m “encouraging” the birds to all transition to living outside now. You’d think they’d be all gung-ho to spend all their hours out of doors and get their vitamin D.  But no, they are resistant to being encouraged.  They all find their way back into the hot house by the afternoon.The GH is at its worst these days. It’s (past) time for it to assume its primary function, sheltering growing food, so high time to move all the chicken related detritus out. 

Creative egg laying. There’s no coop anymore!

Outside, the wretched roosters have taken over Charlie coop.  They’ve adjusted pretty readily to outdoor living, but they decided not to stay in their adapted chickery coop.  Charlie coop, the former skycoop, was occupied by one lone (homegrown) rooster, the others having all graduated up.  And then, the wretched roosters decided to move in.  All at once.Out you go, guys. The world awaits.

 

Unexpected visitors

I was shifting recycling at the house door when there was suddenly a great flapping of wings.  And then 20′ away on the our path, there was a young duck couple!So cute!  She’s so very well disguised. They were obviously young, obviously a couple, and so confused, wonking away.  wonk.  wonk?  wonk! 

Why did they land right here?  I know the paths are just big long puddles these day.  They pattered back and forth, following each other around, and then, woosh! They burst back into the air.

Bunch’a house sitters

The chickens like to stand around all afternoon on top of their houses.  All of the houses are fair game.And a bale sitter.  I love this hen.  The little silver adventurer.  She’s the best.  She needs a name. Cream Puff.

They are just, just about to get evicted from the greenhouse.  And those old dusty poopy houses will get a good rinsing in the next rain.  And then the birds can’t sit around all afternoon indoors.  They’ll have to play outside.  Right now they wander around outside for a few hours, and then, like they’re slacking off work, they wander back into the GH and flop around.  Off duty. Time to scratch, ladies, it’s spring!

2018 calendars

Zazzle calendars are on sale right now!  If you’re familiar with my photographer brother’s landscape photography (occasionally featured here) and amazing calendars, now is a great time to order one!  They’re 60% off today through tomorrow at https://www.zazzle.com/derekkind.  If you’re not familiar… don’t miss out any longer:  DerekKind.com

Aprés maintenant, le deluge

It’s been a hard summer, and my blog posting habits have suffered.  I have a big backlog of photos I intended to post and chick pics too cute not to, plus an unexpected opportunity to do some catch up posting, so…here comes a series of posts that should have gone up earlier in the summer!