Happy Harvest Blog
Drama in the high winds and an injury
HW brought in a chick in the morning with a lower-body injury. It didn't have the use of its left leg, although I couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong. I wrapped it up while HW held it (a little chicken cast), and then it stretched out and fell asleep. Even with its head hanging off. Later on, discolouration and swelling let me know it was a broken foot/ankle, and I put a proper splint on it. Hopefully, in a tiny soft boned chick, it will fully heal, even if I don't have it lined up exactly right.
Circus chickens
What's happening here? I know it might be hard to tell. That would be the notoriously mom-surfing chick, the yellow one, sitting on her mom. Not only that, mom is perching on the swing. With other chickens. The swing is swingy. I rarely see them use it at all. Obviously, she is far too large for mom-sitting at the best of times, but like one of those huge dogs that still thinks it's a lap-sized puppy, she doesn't realize she's outgrown it. And while perching on a swing might not be the best of times.
Too cute for chick school
Perchick is very watchful. She mostly trusts me around her chicks, though. She has chicks poking out. Cream Puff does not trust me, and wow, a full size henpeck is more meaningful than a Silkie peck. No chicks poking out here. The one "old chick" looks much like a tiny, brown bald eagle. Like a yellow chick wearing a brown cape. And this brood, well, they're not grown up enough to be above a good wing pit warming.18 chicks: I'm going to need a lot of names.
Furtive forest piglets
Three little pigs. They are not tame at all. They are wild animals, free and independent. They observe from a distance. It's quite nice to not be leaned on and snouted every time you go in their fence, but it will also be nice to play with them and scratch them, someday. They are curious. They approach, sniffing. But then one snorts and they all stampede off! Runaway!
Spring chicks
The chicks are all alive, even the little half-size yellow chick, but there have been no late hatchings. That's a pretty poor hatch rate - 12 live chicks out of 23 eggs under two hens. The 13th was unlucky. But that is a dozen bright new little lives, which is wonderful. Maybe not all the eggs were fertile, or the late frosts we got made it too cold for them.I'm coming in there. The other chicks are still in the chickery. Usually, they start to break out, which lets me know it's time for them to be at large,
Piles of chicks!
In the wall tent, Cream Puff has chicks! Five of them!Three little tuxedos and two yellows (there was another dead). She's still covering four eggs. And then, in the other broodery, what's this? Perchick has chicks. Sisters to the day, going broody, and hatching. Fine mothers. These two just went to the top of my valued chickens "list" (there's no list). She has seven, in three colours. She likes to keep a close eye on me. The newest hatched is like Hey, I'm still damp, I just want to be under someone! She's still covering her remaining eggs too.
Garden chicken
I have accidentally domesticated a chicken. Well, she's a very unusually wired, different chicken, to start with, and since I am a softie, she is now a pet chicken, and I carry her around between work sites. Apples my companion chicken and I have been making garden rounds. I'm hammering all the remaining warm weather seeds in now that I really believe the frost is over (June 10!). My hands are sore and I got the backs of my hands painfully sunburned. That's a new one. In the greenhouse, five rows of six are in.
snakes in the greenhouse
I've got a bunch of snakes in the GH. Three, anyway. Can you see all three? They like the corner with the figs. They're cool. Relaxed. But they watch very intently. Track me around. I think snakes are very cute. This one is coiled up in a coconut husk in the fig tree pot that, amazingly enough, I put in there in case a snake would enjoy it. Wow! It was just round and reminded me of a snake basket, but I was still very surprised to see it utilized for exactly that. A vacated snakeskin.
It's take your pet chicken to the garden day
First I carried my companion chicken (Apples) to the first garden for a while, but not too long, on account of the bugs. She strode right off across the garden and found a shady spot to scratch in the path. I was expecting slightly more reaction since I've never carried her so far from home, but she's just relaxed about everything. Then I carried her back, we did some potting up, then finished the day at the second garden, where I was transplanting lettuces. It was perfect, giving her a little socialization, without stress.
Water off a chick's back
Butterfly party by the GH door. There's a bit of mud there, and it drew a butterfly crowd (why?) Mama hen and her chick duo slip in and out of Silkieland, but stick close by to it. They seem comfortable over there, rather than the far side of the greenhouse. All the chickens could come and go from Silkieland, it's not a secure facility, but most stay. They're a little too crowded for my taste but they show every sign of contentment, so - good enough for now. When I make the next one space will be doubled.
Three little pigs
As usual, the new piglets are super shy. She threw me over her shoulder, and I won't forget. I peed on him, hee hee. They snort and dash away to the farthest part of their yard when you even get close. This is kind of a nice stage when you can stay clean going in to feed them. In a month or two they'll be nosing my pant legs and jostling me at the trough. They've been working, though. They were here for minutes before they had their faces in the dirt, and dug up an impressive swath of it in their first hour.
Move-in day for the bees
Time for the new bees to go from their nuc boxes (temporary housing) to their forever homes. Sheltered from the rain with a hive lid. These bees were also midnight bees. They came from a great distance, and with the aid of caffeine and chatting on the phone, I did very well on the drive back, until I was 10km from home and the black dogs struck. At midnight there was no one else on the road so I crept, 40kph the last few klicks. My theory was if I fall asleep and go in the ditch, I'll go in slow.
June frost
The frost looks like lavender. According to my "research" (and I forget my source), in the last eight years, it's only frosted once in June, and that was the 1st. Here we are in the first week, and we got a doozy. It's going to throw off all my planning numbers (this year I planned for a May 20 last frost). I got to try out the Almanzo Wilder splash the plant with water before the sun hits it thing. The potatoes were just poking up, and a few of the squashes were frozen in spite of covering
Fixing up the place
Blog is sorted out. I'm working on "optimizations" to make it load faster - I know it's so image-heavy. And now I have a donate button. I've already had a donation! If any of you are moved to contribute to the feeding of the beaks around here (many of them are past-egg-laying freeloaders), and keeping the blog lights on, said beaks and me will much appreciate it!I'm not really myself right now. Either the antibiotics, or the Lyme, or the war they are waging between my cells, are making me a little off.
Busted!
I found a little trail of chicken feed on the floor in the middle of the house, and HW told me he'd left it there as an exhibit. He'd come in and found a chipmunk in the middle of the room. It had been robbing chicken feed from the bucket (we bring it inside to add scraps during the day). Busted! The chipmunk froze, its mouth literally fell open with shock and terror, and then the feed stuffed in its cheeks came pouring out as it raced for the door (it had to pass HW - the drawbacks of raiding a joint with only one exit).
Lovely. I have Lyme disease.
I've missed a couple of 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.
Piglets and chicks.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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. I saw a tree swallow!
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
