Happy Harvest Blog
Second frost
Had a proper frost; ice crust on the water buckets. This is the right time for frost though, not September 24th! Overnight, one of the Five has become the spitting image of Philippe Petit. A petit Philippe. I don't want to believe he's 100% a rooster yet, but he's looking awfully leggy. So many roosters! The young roosters are refining their crows now. They don't have to go hide in order to practice. They're sounding pretty good. Silkieland and the Colonel on patrol.
Co-mamas
Brown Bonnet and Marsha (Marshmallow) are cute. They hang out together, their chicks spilling over into each other. Brown Bonnet is very maternal and relaxed, and all seven of the little Silkie chicks will sometimes be with her. Marsha's a bit nervous. At night sometimes they share a box, and they readily share patches of food without competition. Our kids are the same age (and size), we should be friends. This little one is already developing an extravagant hairdo.
pasture pigs
The wild birds are well fed. They've been cleaning out my crop of sunflowers. From full to this, all in four days. I grew them for them, but I hoped to ration them out a little better, and for my chickens to get some. Makes me want to grow a field of them, but then the ravens will come and really clean them out. The pigs are moved again, now in the "pasture", which is much easier to move the fence through. Of course, they are hiding.
Poultry powder room
It was a warm and humid day. Almost the whole family was piled in the dirt bath by the house, making chicken angels. The family is growing. Except for Speckles, who's having a party of one in a private dust bowl out by the pigs. Yeah, and you're interrupting it right now. Got snacks?! Oops, I roused them. The pitter patter of chicken feet behind me on the path is quite a stampede these days. I didn't even have a bucket.
Mini release
She's got four! Two and two. They're still ridiculously small, but in spite of being the size of golf balls, they are developmentally old enough to be bold adventurers. Time to prop open the chickeries so they could creep out and join the chicken greenhouse society. Here they come! Mom immediately dove into a sprawly dirt bath. Nothing celebrates freedom like throwing dirt over your head. Brown Bonnet was a bit more furtive.
Guineas going to bed
Now that there are chicks in the greenhouse, they like to come adventurously popping out when I open up for the guineas. Greetings, part-time residents. The keets are looking, and acting, quite grownup now. First, they all run by, seeing if the door is really open. Then they muster up somewhere and ... all surge in at once. Cheeks have developed a new trick. She watches and waits, and then gets right in the middle of the flock of keets and runs in with them.
No more Inky
Inky is gone. She wasn't in her tree and I searched, and found a half dozen black and iridescent green feathers. I'm heartbroken, and I've already been having a hard few weeks. I want to get out of chickens, because it hurts too much. I can't protect them 100% and let them range. It's captivity, or risk. It's not fair though, it's like they know which are my favorites, and get the special ones first.
Pas de roo
I was taking pictures of Chris and Cream Puff, the love chickens, hanging out together the way they do, but looking back at the pictures in series, it looks like they're dancing. He is SOOO much bigger than her! Oh, were you watching?
Then there were eight - nine
Last night when I yoohooed Galahad and crew in to the open greenhouse door, I was horrified. Only eight keets came with him! He did his doorway pause, and satisfied, he went in and they proceeded to shuttle up to their perch. But! You're missing two! Where are they?! A white and a grey one were missing. I came upon the grey one hunched in the weeds nearby. Immediately I knew he was hurt, and when I tried to coach him to the door, he demonstrated a limp on the right side, and more alarmingly,
Brown Bonnet's babies
A rare sighting of Brown Bonnet's surviving chicks. She's big, and really good at standing in front of them and hiding them. They're so tiny! They're smaller than her head. It's hard to believe a chicken can start out so tiny and get by. But then, there's hummingbirds. Apples' little one is four days older than the other two, and it shows. The greenhouse is full of small chickens, jumping around and climbing on everything they can. Foxy is out of a job.
The last chicks?
The last broody hen is hatching her eggs (well, there's one more broody in the coop, but she doesn't have any eggs and I'm not letting her have any. It's too late for that). They're having a hard time too. Shortly after Brown Bonnet hatched, I came in the morning to find the disgustingly distinctive smell of rotten egg. This one had an exploded egg under her (so gross, but it happens - instead of growing a chick, it rots, and they're keeping the eggs nice and hot...so boom!)
Tonello beans
SO pretty! And very far from cured, some. But very pretty purple when mature.
Guinea spa
I heard the musical little sounds of the guineas approaching the house (doesn't happen especially often), so I peeped out.They were going for the bath! There's a spot right by the trail where I was weeding out buckthorn, and the birds have decided that that's the optimum dust bathing locale. Now there's all divots and feathers. The guineas came in for the bath as purposefully as if they had little towels over their shoulders. It was their specific destination.
Bee drama
My house smells like a hive. I have all the removed frames, capped honey, and partial frames in here because it must all be perfectly dry before storing. I've also got all the unshucked beans and hanging dried herbs in here, so it's crowded. But it smells good. Not surprisingly, there's the odd bee in here, browsing. I have to keep the doors shut.I heard one, screaming, and it was intense enough I had to investigate. "Screaming" might sound hyperbolic, but it is, it's a high pitch buzz of panic and desperation.
Every morning I have an exploding box of chickens
Every morning I have an exploding box of chickens. Most have them have pushed out of the cardboard boxes they so tranquility spent the night in, and are jumping, and pooping, and scrapping all over the top of the boxes, frantic to get out. We're all cooped up! The broody kennels too (now night occupancy for the greenhouse chickens).They all come busting out, scratching and fluttering, and then vanish, absorbed into the jungle. They love a good hay bale. Brown Bonnet has three little chicks, including the chick that Apples hatched. This was a terrible hatch for her.
Bee day
I was reducing the hives to get ready for winter (taking supers off for their more efficient winter accommodation, which usually means taking honey off too. However, Sunflower is the hive that split, and they did not have as much honey as I hoped. I'm not entirely sure they have enough for themselves for the winter, and I debated bringing them down to one super, but I left them in two. Pansy, the new hive, had the tidiest little house. Just perfectly arranged, no burr comb.
Porch sitters
I've got a bunch of porch sitters. Other than Perchick, these are all this years chicks, all grown up (almost). This crowd is always together. There's Inky and Velvet and Speckles (all lovely), and Pepper trying and failing to look distinguished. They're very relaxed. Head under the wing relaxed. Another one down. He's almost rolling over, he's so asleep. And three. Ok, everybody hide their heads!
Frost casualties
The frost was surprisingly fierce. The tomatoes took a bigger hit than I thought. The watermelon was obliterated. Same with the basil. The greenhouse is full of little birds scampering around. She'll be coming through the peanuts when she comes. They're all sneaky and hidey in the pepper jungle.
Baby bird bath
One of Foxy's chicks (all independent now) was givin' 'er in the big dust vat, all by itself. Rub a dub dub. In the greenhouse - paaaartayyy! The chicks are all staying dry and having a fantastic time with the foliage and variety, thanks for asking. I got wings! Settling down with Feisty for the evening. Here come the guineas! Look how they're growing up.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
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