Happy Harvest Blog
More chicks!
Ursa Minor's looking smug (it's funny how they always look smug or proud when they get their chicks, but it is an achievement that cost endurance and attention). Four chicks! How exciting, she got all of hers. There's one! There's another one. These two new moms got transferred out of their broody kennels into boxes and chickeries today, so I could clean the kennels for the next tenants. Daisy finally got her suite upgrade. This one (tentatively "Wolverina" is still so fierce! She only has two chicks hatched, which isn't good, but she's sticking to her eggs.
Window protection saves wild bird
I had a bird finally test the bird protection window screens I'm so proud of. I happened to be inside to see a bird fly straight into the window. I'm quite sure it was a young robin. There are two being attended by frazzled moms right in the vicinity of the house, and one overactive and very friendly baby woodpecker that's always on top of us - very cute. But this wasn't the woodpecker, it was a substantial dark bird, so I'm sure a robin.
Rain relief
The heat wavefinally expired in a thunderstorm, as they often do. After so many days sticky and gross, I decided to go out in the downpour in near swimwear and plastic shoes and just get drenched with the rest of the hot thirsty world. I had to move lots of water, as I always do when it rains, to make sure not to waste a drop that the roofs are catching, and shuttling water in a rubber suit to stay "dry" underneath was not appealing. It was as glorious as I imagined!
A nightmare of mosquitoes
That's the right collective noun, isn't it? Or is it insanity of mosquitoes? It's too many mosquitoes, that's for sure. I'm not sure if it's the heatwave, but they all came out at once. One night, I heard a roar, and it was a cloud of them. Then my friend commented on the "choir" of mosquitoes at my place, which sounds more romantic. Like "I heard the Mermaids singing", only ominous. This is part of the army waiting on the screen door. If only we had bats.
PIGS FIRST MOVE
(David Attenborough voice) After the new enclosure has been prepared for these lucky piglets, the fence is parted, allowing access to the abundant unspoiled greenery this species thrives upon. But how long will it take them to discover their new freedom? Their attendant retrieves the food bowls they are familiar with and places them in plain view just beyond the fence opening, filling them with fresh food. The young pigs observe these proceedings with interest but from a distance.
All you need in a heat wave is a pine tree
Because of the crazy (now four) days of heat, I've been releasing all the birds, so that they can manage their own needs, and won't ever possibly be trapped without water. The Silkies move no more than 4 feet, piling up under the pine tree they're under anyway. Some of them are panting, and some hold their feet wide and wings out flat like airplanes for a draft under their wings, but they've been just fine. There's a stiff breeze, and under the pine tree, it's quite cool. All they need is for the drinks to keep coming.
Meet the broodies
I've got three little broody Silkie hens, installed in the covered wagons in the greenhouse. Amazingly, they are all from the new set of chickens. Which is great, that means that they have learned how to chicken enough to go broody. Impressive. All of them are sitting on full-sized eggs that I gave them. Four each - I'm hoping for 100% germination, and the hens are petite. In the past, I've always given a Silkie 5-6 big eggs, but they never all seem to hatch. These girls are all excellent sitters.
The wheels on the coop go round and round
Silkieland, the new coop, has optional wheels now. I'd been moving it along laterally to give them fresh turf every couple days. I could scoot it sideways by running back and forth, back and forth, end to end, shifting it a few inches at a time. Moving it longways was out of the question - it is not drag-able. I just ran out of room to move it sideways, moving it from one tree barrier to another. Just in time, a treasured friend swooped in,
Release day for Perchick etc
Slow-release...First I propped up the side of the chickery with a rock; the chicks started leaking out immediately. They could also get out over the top. There she goes - Perchick over the top. But wait -a holdout. Chickens as they were meant to be. Oh, here comes another hen, investigating. They figured out what food pans are for. And met the guinea. This one's very independent, often apart. Probably a rooster. Chick heaven.
Definitely a dirt bath day
It's a dirt bath lineup. They're lovin' it. They get really satisfying results from their pint-sized scratching practice in the fine mulch of the greenhouse. The dirt flies! She's panting because she's hot, so within a few minutes, they were back out on the grass. The heatwave wasted no time arriving. We got the rain overnight, and early, and then the sun came out again, and wow, it's already hot, and muggy, and the bugs are terrible!! The mosquitoes are awful, lying in wait in big clouds, and the noseeums are eating me alive, right now.
Waiting for rain
The guinea got into the greenhouse adjunct garden and while I was helping him find his way out, I came across this little fellow burrowed in. Almost, but not quite, completely hidden. I hope he's not responsible for eating my lettuce heads. There's 20 missing. We have rain on the way, followed by a heatwave. I've finished the course of antibiotics for Lyme disease. On the whole, I feel better than I did before I got bit, except for the sudden powerful episodes of fatigue that put me to sleep in the middle of otherwise productive days,
Teenage chicken
The tomatoes are all strung up now, in the greenhouse. They're looking good, despite our wack weather. There's a fair number of green tomatoes. The cucumbers on the other hand have just decided to get off the couch and grow. The orphan chicks learned how to let themselves today, squeezing through the orange mesh of the doors. Happily, they let themselves back in, too, and we're ready to go to bed. Two more days in for this bunch. I want they controlled for the rain coming on Friday, so I can keep them dry in the GH.
Chicken family updates
I've got a few garlic scapes. All the chicken families are doing well: Perchick, etc, almost, but not quite, ready for bed. Apples and cohort, very active. The orphans. They're settling down. They like to sit on and run over those covered wagons like rolling hills. It's a raised vantage point. The hens inside are near due. At night they crawl under the loose canvas on the left, and I let them into that left kennel with the resigned hen.
Orphans
Speaking of things to feel sick about, Brown Bonnet is gone. I found her three chicks toddling around cheeping under the coop, and she just was gone. Eventually, I found a few feathers, but no evidence of what got her. Raccoons usually leave calling cards. This is only the second midsummer murder and second hen to be taken ever. The first was Cream Puff and Perchick's mother when they were small chicks. Fall is the season for high alert; in the summer there hasn't been a risk. Now two, in four years.
Not what you expect when you open a hive
This hive....*head shake*... I knew right away it was going to be trouble. In the nuc box, they were already busy attaching the frames to the box. At first opening, they had burr comb and bridges everywhere - I figured they were going to be sculptors. Overactive wax glands. Plus about a dozen queen cells that time. I carefully scraped off all that unauthorized comb, but not even two weeks later, they've attached a sail to their feeder bottle. Not sustainable! Full of honey too.
Viva les chipmunks!
After the last rain, I found a chipmunk floating dead in a water bucket, unable to swim any longer. I was sick about it all day. There is plenty of tragedy out here. Not life eats life, which we call "that's life", but preventable death or pain, especially due to human (my) activity. Animal death for the sake of human convenience, because a sophisticated and specialized animal hasn't evolved fast enough to cope with human experiments like plastics and cars, that's tragic, and it's a tragic drama of global scale. Everywhere we look there is destruction of animals deliberately, accidentally, and indirectly.
Cream Puff the Fierce and the free chicks
Cream Puff was a misnomer. Well, the Puff part was accurate, she spends most of her time puffed up in a rage these days, with her tail flared out. But the cream is all gone. She used to be jumpy, anxious, shy, the first to run shrieking out of the coop when you lift the lid. Now, she moves like a tank, grumbling. Ok, I'll move, but I think you should move first. She was the one initially completely freaked out by her own broodiness. Now there are two parties that get admission to the greenhouse in the evening:
Freebirds
The crippled chick is doing very well. She's using her foot but not bearing weight on it, and it very active, but still rests a lot. Very active. I don't know how she got out, but I think she went over the top. Apples feel like perching today. Cream Puff released herself today. A little early, but the chicks are managing just fine. I don't even know how she got out; there was a chicken wire lid on her, but all of a sudden, she was prowling around in her turkey pose, outside the chickery.
Bee waterer
The bees have decided where they want to drink. The purple chicken waterer. Now it's a bee waterer because the chickens won't use it anymore. They know better. They know what bees do. This happened last year too. The bees co-opted a waterer. I prefer them to use the top of the blue barrels; that's nice and safe, and closer, but they do what they want. What I'm excited about is fixing the bee drowning problem. They manage to drown themselves even in that little waterer. The answer is corks! Lots of bee life rafts.
Auntie Apples- the end of the house chicken era
The little crippled chick was feeling much better today. She started the day with some demanding chirps, so I tucked her in with HW, which always makes chicks happy. After a cozy nap, she got restless and I put her back in her box. I desperately needed more sleep. We had a big driving day and it's not good waking up feeling nauseously sleep deprived. But she wasn't having the box. Cheep! Cheep! CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEPCHEEPCHEEPCHEEPCHEEPCHEEP! Chicks are loud. Arrgh. I shuffled downstairs, wrapped her in my t-shirt, and tried to go back to sleep with her tucked in against me.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
