A Very Late March 14th Post!

March 14th

Poop, eat, poop, drink and then poop some more. I must admit this is exactly what it feels like when you have 22 baby birds in the house. I spend an excessive amount of time cleaning after them and making sure they have food, water and are warm enough. Most importantly, I have to make sure that Lucky & Zoe don't mistake them for tapas. Lucky noticed right away they make the perfect bite size snack. He even tried to pop one in his mouth. 

Today I put some water in the tub and let the ducklings have a play in the water. I received a work call and had to make a bunch of reservations... I could hear them splashing about and having a nice time. Next thing I know they let out an alarm call. Lucky had wandered into the bathroom to watch them and I'm sure it was too much of a temtation so I had to firmly discourage him from plucking them out of the water for lunch. Bad Lucky!!!!

Three days ago another hawk came for a visit and killed my Bantam Buff Brahma hen. I find it so odd that only the Buff Brahmas were killed. Out of my bantams they are the largest and blend into the background far more than my teeney white bantams. It seems they stand out so much more and since they are smaller would be a more desirable target. It could be more to do with the natural pairing up of the hens with the roosters. For example the head rooster is Fergus. He also happens to be the oldest. I can't imagine a better example of a rooster than my little Fergus. He is very protective over his two girls, the white banty hens. He stays with them even when they are laying an egg. When they are bent over in the fields eating he is on high alert looking for predators.

Jonesey is the largest of the roosters but he is also the youngest. Five of the 6 Red Devils hang out in his harem. He does keep a watchful eye but the problem is that his hens have a huge independant streek. They will go where they please without giving him any notice. They also have no problems wandering around the farm on their own. That I find very odd considering they have seen of their flock "murdered" before their very eyes! Some women are too strong willed for their own good!
 

There are wild Jonquils that are cropping up all over the fields and they are finally starting to bloom. They are just lovely. They make me think of my mother. Yesterday was her birthday and she always loved the Jonquils and Daffodils. They are the flowers of spring, a sign that the long hard winter is finally over. I miss her so very much and I always will.
 

We had the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Mt. Nebo on Saturday. I was really surprised at how many people were there. I decided to take Zoe with me to the end of the driveway to watch the big excitement. I think next year I will have to participate in the parade with travel banners on the side of the truck or something. I'll think on it...

So far I have 4 Black Sex Link hens, 4 White Leghorn hens, 4 Ameraucanas, 4 Production Red hens, 3 Silver Wyandotte. The shipment of the 2 Ameraucana hens, 2 Welsummer hens, 2 Ancona hens, 1 Black Copper Maran rooster & Speckled Sussex Rooster will arrive this week. I can't wait for the end of the summer when the new hens start laying eggs. Did I really just say I wanted to rush summer? Smack my hands!!!

Lions lying down with lambs.

March 5, 2011



Well.... not exactly lions or lambs for that matter but more like chickens and ducklings. Day three with the babies has come to a close. I am really surprised that the chickens and ducklings are quite content to cuddle together in one large pile. At this stage they even sort of look alike with their coloring, the black and yellow combination. However I as I've watched them I'm sure I can see little quote bubbles form over individuals heads at times. For example one of the chicks was watching, transfixed as the ducks were doing their very messy ritual with their food and water.

To the untrained eye it looks like they are just crazy messy fowl going back and forth between their water dish and food dish. They are also very noisy while doing this. They first go to the water and rapidly run their beaks back and forth like they are eating the water. Then they turn to the food dish where I'm sure they drop buckets full of water (really only a drop or two) into the feed. They make their own sort of mash mix. when all three of the ducklings are doing it at once it is something to behold!

Why ducks? To be honest, I just really miss Edgar. He had such an amazing personality. I wouldn't want to replace him even if I could. It just seems a nice fit since the farm does have 3 ponds on it. They aren't sexed so I've no idea if they are all boys or girls or a mix. We could never figure out how to sex Edgar for that matter. We did try once. Edgar was very put out with us over the attempt. It required him to be in a very undignified, un-goose like pose. He was very firm in his expressing how much he disliked what we did we just never bothered to try again. It didn't really matter in the end if he was a boy or girl, Edgar was "his" name, end of.

The goslings were quite taken aback when I stuck my hand in the cage and one of the chicks flapped it's tiny wings and flew up to a perch. They all stopped at once and stared at the little chick up on the perch. You really can see the gears turning.

There really are a couple of different things that I missed without realizing... I miss the peeps and squeeks that Edgar made his whole life with us. For months after I would be walking or driving and I could swear I heard his soft little peeps calling me. Once he became an adult he did realize that his mom and dad slept inside the house while he slept outside with the dog. He would do this thing when he couldn't see us for a period of time, he would let out a call. It was just a couple of honk, honk sounds. I would answer back, "honk, honk" and he knew we were still close by. Aside from the odd proper honk it was always these constant, soft peeps and squeeks.

One of the other sweet things the ducks do that I adore is turn their head sideways to look at you. They do this mostly so they can just get a good look at you since their eyes are really on the sides of their heads. I prefer to not think of it as a thing they must do to see me well but would prefer to think of it as curiosity and understanding of what I am communicating to them. Hey... you live in your world, and I'll live in mine!

I forget how rapidly the chickens wings develop. It was just Wednesday they were little fuzzy nubs. Now they have proper feathers. It's amazing really. You can see them if you look close at some of the pictures.

Though I did not actually forget how much their little poopies smell I can say I did block it out of my mind. When I walked into the house yesterday afternoon I could swear I smelled sour milk. Nope... it was the wood shavings mixed with the water the ducks splashed and the feed and poop. That was the end of the wood shavings in the tray. I thought the pine shavings would have a nice smell. I was wrong. I did fold up a puppy pad and place it in the back. The cage I have them in is wire and I worry about them having to stand on it all day. I wonder if it hurts their ity-bity feet.

I'm sure I will continue to fuss over them for the next few weeks. I hope I can place these four chicks with the rest of the flock in the next couple of weeks so that I will have plenty of space for the arrival of the 8 chicks that I ordered. Plus..... I hope to have success finally with the fertilized eggs I have collected in their new incubator. Note... while I was willing to hand turn the eggs originally I realized it wasn't practical for me to stop whatever project I was working on outside to run in the house to turn the eggs. The automatic turners do it for me and I don't constantly lower the temperature by opening and closing the lid to the incubator. Automatic egg turner is as essential as the incubator itself.

It's 530am and I think I can drift off for a little nap. The sound of the water dripping in the living room is finally manageable. I'm sure that among the other constant projects that need doing, we will need to build an ark for all the rain we have received. The roof needs to have the new aluminium panels installed and that is something I just don't know how to do. Plus I think it actually needs to stop raining for a bit so that Paul can climb up on the roof and start installing them.

Oh... did I mention that I had a revelation in bed last night? Yep... I sure did. I rolled over, cuddled my husband and whispered.... "I don't think the coop you built is big enough now". Please keep in mind the coop was built in January. Never mind... there is plenty of room inside the barn to expand it as we need to. I feel like hwy 62 in Minneapolis... obsolete before construction even began.