Happy Harvest Blog
Guinea was here
The snow is almost all gone now, but when it was still here, it didn't stop the guineas. They tramped up and down and all around and made a fantastic constellation of footprints. They were so pleased to be out, they put up with little cold feet. Who says we're jungle birds? We're Canada birds now. I found them at the end of their footprints!
overnight guest
I went to fling some seeds in the feeder this morning, and! It was already occupied! He/she just looked at me. Clearly she'd been there all night. Not the worst place to stay. All fluffed up and rolling a seed around in his beak. He was snoring a bit, which is very worrying. I wonder if he's got the finch's disease:(After, he flew out and into a tree.
Out on the range.
The birds are all out free-ranging again. They're so excited!! Mostly out. They are free to come and go, for the last week or two since the snow has been going. They are so happy! All the young ones (1-2 yrs) and the guineas spend all day out, pouring out of the greenhouse when I open the doors, popping back in when they get cold or thirsty, then back out for another shift of foraging. Inside, the older chickens are less adventurous and content to have the dust baths to themselves.
tap tap tap
The sap is running! Last year we were largely robbed of the sugar season when winter ended a month early (just kidding! Catastrophic frost in June!). I completely failed to get taps in the trees on time last year. This year, the sugar season is right on time, precisely timing the sugar moon. I've got one tree tapped, the sap is flowing, and I'm even boiling it down!
sprouts!
The year's first shoots are always exciting. Reliable, pedestrian kale races out of the gate, germinating in three days and fully unfolding cotyledons in <24 hours (pictured at two days old). More exciting is licorice: Before too long every windowsill will be full of seedling flats, and I'll be grumbling at how fast the tyrannical little shoots are pressuring me to pot them up. I flaked all of February, the early planting, but I'm back on track now with my planting schedule (easier every year as most things are just a straight copy of last year's schedule).
miracle on banana box st.
Cheeks has been doing very well. She still lives in the house, as she has for months, continuing to be low maintenance (except for a predilection for beak-sweeping her food); and self regulating, staying in her banana box or on her Rubbermaid (her proscribed territory) and moving between the two on her own. She has been doing better than ever, although the swelling on the top of her foot continues to grow. It's a bubble that looks about to drain every day.
Escape escapades
Little Nosey, being herself. I'm teasing her with a litter grabber. She's like Why. Why are you pointing a robot arm at me? The guineas had a big adventure, escaping in the morning. Good day for it. They came yelling down the trail, went grazing in the woods, but around lunchtime they were wanting back in. It's cold. We would like to be back with the food. They found this challenging. I propped the fence open, away from the corner of the greenhouse.
Party on the new bird feeder
I was very surprised. It took *hours* for the chickadees to discover the new bird feeder. And then, it was only one, who hogged that knowledge and had exclusive access for days. Finally the grosbeaks made the discovery, and brought their drama to the squirrel-proof swivel bird feeder. There was a great deal of open beaking at each other, hustling the prime perch on the arms, and squatting inside in the feed pile.
Jacket chicken visit
It was a COLD morning, and husband noticed this little hen shivering up on a perch, so he grabbed her (Get your hands off me! Put me down, you big brute!) and stuck her in his coat (Oh. OH. Ok. This is good.)Then he took her for a walk. When they went outside in the cold cold air she sucked her head all the way inside the jacket like a turtle.
When all the snow melts and you're the wrong colour
I feel conspicuous. Low profile, low profileI'll just make a run for it. The weasel has on his snow-white suit and is caught out in the melt. The house chicken was the first to spot him through the window. Laser-focused. High alert! He's very prominent, dashing around, but is as perky and bouncy as ever. It's hard to keep a weasel down. He was bounding between piles of sticks, under the house, into the woodshed. Weasels are super cute until they have the blood of your chickens dripping from their fangs.
Spring break for the bees
It's just SO weird to put on a bee suit in January. However, it was a warm day, so my bees came out to poop, and I was able to feed them. By warm I mean that in 24 hours the temp shot up from -10Ā°C to the opposite, plus 10Ā°C, wiping out all the snow, and exposing all the gross wet wood and dirt (now the mercury is rapidly falling again). It's the February melt look; it can hardly look worse. Everything is hideous.
Next I would like to try poached
Cheeks' condition is about the same. She seems quite well, other than her foot, which she only sometimes uses. HW is starting to accuse her of just milking it. Cheeks gets a fried egg.
I'm back
I survived my mini-collapse, and have been digging my routines back out for the past few days. I hope it was worth it. Iām all sugar free now (again), so I hope that transition was worth a weekās lost productivity. All is well. Cheeks persist, and is gunning for permanent house chicken status, like a pet parrot; the ten untimely chicks are all well and growing their feathers; all the birds are fine but getting cranky about the GH confinement, and my hives are all still alive.
I'm fine; day 3
Not fine, exactly. I fell off a cliff of sorts. (Now I want to draw a picture of a cliff of sorts. Lots of sorts.). Yes, I broke my daily blogging streak shortly after one straight year. I just couldnāt truly convince myself that I had anything worth saying for a whole 24 hrs. Turns out when I do that, people pipe up āHey, is something wrong? You skipped a day!ā (Thanks:) Thatās sweet). I havenāt been doing much but flopping around.
New dimension
There was a death in the family yesterday. One of the red layer hens died in the coop. They do that. They go in the coop (not the nest box), hunch up, pull in their feet and their heads, close their eyes, and go to "sleep"- really a pre-death trance. Their combs go pale, and they depart slowly. The whole transition seems very peaceful, and like a death happens by degrees. You can look at them in the last hours, and they aren't dead yet, but they aren't all there either.
Not a bath day
There's Nosey, pecking at my pants. She's growing!It was a nice sunny day, so I figured it would be a big bath day, with the pool overflowing with Pigpen chickens, but I went out with my camera and only three Silkies were in that mood.This guy found he had the pool all to himself, and seemed kind of pleased about it, but was only thinking about having a bath:
Operation Cheeks
Cheeks is well. She needed her afflicted foot addressed, and redressed.HW likes to hold her up sitting on her tail, and that it makes her look like a little person. She is surprisingly very ok with this. Whatever you do, don't put these pictures on the internet! From this upright position, she is very involved in the whole operation. Quiet and still, but watching it all up close. I had to flush her wound and try to squeeze out any pus.
chicken cuddling
While Iāve been gone over the holidays, my husband has been grabbing chickens. He spends quite a bit of time holding Cheeks the house chicken, who seems determined to remain designated house chicken indefinitely, Iām no trouble. No trouble at all! but also grabbing āwild chickensā in the greenhouse, to cuddle them against their will.
I'm back!
I was sneaky; I was posting chicken pictures while I was away. But Iām back home and everyone is fine, including the 10 little unseasonal chicks. Theyāre bigger than they were. Also, Iāve started producing new content experimentally at steempeak. So far the platform is so easy to use that itās like finally getting a drink when youāre thirsty. Iām so ready to say goodbye to WordPress. When I make the switch, the web link happyharvest.ca will just point over to the new site, so that little will be affected.
closeups of nosey
OMG! I just noticed she seems to have a bit of a crossed bill! I hope that doesnāt get too far. I like Nosey. Donāt worry, Nosey. Sheās about half grown up now so will probably not have an advanced crossed beak. I havenāt had any crossbills before, only hens from the store that had clipped, aka mutilated beaks. So sad.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
