Happy Harvest Blog
Saturday shirking
It’s sunny, it’s Saturday. The house is a mess, the woods are a mess, I have so much to do but will probably do less. 2/3 through that I thought I should make it rhyme. In celebration of shirking, here’s a chicken in the act of discovering me lying on my back in the weeds.
Profile: Nosey
All chickens have their own unique chickenalities, but some chickens distinguish themselves more than others. Nosey has been her own bird from a young chicken, and unlike everyone else, it is rather tame. She got her name from always being excessively interested in my business, and always really into being near me. She’d be the first at the door, have her beak up in whatever I was doing, sit on my shoulder, and generally tag along or be underfoot.
Cheeps at the door
I hear them coming around, the cheeps. They never stop chatting at this age. I’m glad that the moms are starting to gravitate to the house and beehives – the safe zones instead of the adventure safaris. This is where you’ll spend your time when you grow up, kids. Mooching. The two of them are too adorable to me. Inseparable, yin and yang chickens, not very alike other than that they (were) both loners.
Pincushion chickens
Hurricane’s over. The three are back to trying to sleep in the tree. SO stubborn. It’s cooling off at nights, so it’s a good time for the hens to grow their feathers back. It’s such a relief when they start to refeather, because they go naked for what seems like terribly long, and it looks so uncomfortable I worry, and then one day, they come out in little spikes all over that unroll into feathers.
Velvet and Ghost
The co-mamas.These are the first hens to successfully hatch babies in the large coop. Right through the heatwave, they sat on eggs, and I brought them water. They would even switch eggs, so it makes sense that they're one family now. They only spent two days in the chickeries, maybe three, before release and integration. Nosey visitor, They still had unhatched eggs, one each (they did not hatch late, they gave up on them), so the hatched chicks had a nice slow transition).
Well, I left the bag of dirt on the porch.
What? Nothing to see here. I’m brown. I almost didn’t see her at first; she was holding still. Set down a basket for two seconds and it draws a crowd…and a fancy caterpillar.
We have different cultural ideas about how we should look after a bath.
We had rain! (Blessed rain!) Dust baths are closed, mud baths now available. I was pretty surprised to find this little enthusiast digging in. Really digging in. Naturally, onlookers.Because when you’ve planned to go to the spa, you go to the spa.What? Some people pay good money for this. The Colonel included for dirtiness comparison. Yes, the Colonel is still the big boss, my v first rooster from my v first collection of chickens.
Early morning perching practice
The fuzznuggets have started perching. They all keep the same schedule; I’m so used to seeing moms raise their chicks now. First, there’s very close to home chickergarten, where scratching is strongly emphasized – Mom shows them vigorous scratching in loose material, clearly for practice. Good fling. Look at how well Daisy is kicking. Second, comes explorer time, where the moms take their chicks off, to some distance, for I don’t know what, world acclamation, and exposure to strange and unusual things.
My chickens are scaring me today
It's hot, and there are chickens littered around, tipped over. They're faking me out, because they can look very dead, unless they hold their heads up. Gah! Oh, phew. She's politely retracted her leg from the path. You shall not...oh, yeah, you can pass. New dirt bath.
An extra puffy tail
The little (lone) Silkie chick has just had one extra puffy tail sprout out today, along with a tiny head crest and tiny feet feathers on those little black legs. Looks especially good with evening back-lighting. It's funny what a transformative difference a day makes - chicks grow so fast. Feathers just pop out here and there, and they go through some pretty funny stages. This poor little chick is now only one third the size of its nestmates, which are bigger than some of the other chicks get before their Moms move on.
The rain in Spain is totally insane
It has rained hard and steady for ten hours straight and isn't done. There is more standing water than dry land right now. The chickens were all wading over their ankles and the chicks in water up to their feather pants. The rain gauge was over 120mm when I last checked. That is insane! The chickens spent the day in their coops and rain house; I didn't even open them for eggs and risk letting the rain in.
Privacy Stalls
I finally got around to a simple fix to make higher walls on the nest boxes - just cardboard. Two of the nest boxes never got any use - too exposed. They all squabble over the corner office box and it gets vociferous. I hear them whining- complaining, indignant, offended, self-pitying, insulted, according to their chickenalities. I've been holding in an egg here for ages, and she just barged in here! Get off of me, I was already in here! Take a number!
box princess
There are three sets of chick/s running around at the moment, that I see have yet to be introduced, my bad...The other White Chocolate hen, sister to the loaner, has three chicks; the shirt chick was adopted; and this little Silkie hen has three- two Cheeklings and a Silkie chick (got rescued into the greenhouse on rain day). This particular hen's quirk (they all have at least one), is that she does not, ever, want to go to bed in the coop.
Excuse me, it's morning.
The little door has fallen off the viewing window in the side of the coop. Now there's just a little grill, and in the morning, a chicken can eyeball me through it, impatiently.I can see the sun is up. Let us out already.
Eggs, beautiful eggs
A pastel rainbow of eggs! The ladies are laying about 2 dozen a day now, so I have eggs for sale (locally)
chickens lounging in the sun
They do love a good sunny day. This one started it all (Cream Puff). Oh, that looks like a good idea. Whatcha doin'? Then the participants change. What's even happening here? (There are three hens)Then everyone's in on it. There's also a dust bowl a little ways from the sandbox. The guineas like to lie in the grass in the sun.
Floods
Today was a torrential downpour in the morning. When it rains I run around like a mad person trying to catch or use it all. I filled several barrels today. I'm expecting a long stretch of rainlessness this summer, and that every rain we get maybe the last for a long time, although it keeps coming and coming. All the birds rushed under cover when it came thundering down, except the little Silkie mama with three chicks.
Phi kappa peck
The boys came trundling out of their new house in the morning to start a long day marching up and down along the fence separating them from the girls like they were picketing Jericho. The girls are inside the orange fence, the roosters are inside the white fence. All-day, back and forth. In one day they tamped down a groove in the dirt along that fence. They took breaks for shade, and food, but barely. On the girls' side, it was all How's the serenity?
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
