Happy Harvest Blog
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?
Frat house
Of course, I should have taken a pic or two while building it, and didn’t. I just got it in place in time for the night and the rain I wasn’t expecting until tomorrow. Coop building is becoming a standardized activity. I’ve got my pattern down. I have not yet landed on a design for making a freakin’ heavy box of chickens readily portable, though. The Silkie box with the axle works, but it’s still heavy. Not something you look forward to.
The loaners
Two hens are on loan to another family who needs some chicks. They are sitting on eggs and will return when their chicks are grown enough to not need their moms like Cream Puff did last year (with a boyfriend in tow). Broody hen rental service. The hens, one Silkie, and one standard got boxed and transported at night, installed in their brooding accommodations, and after a day to adjust, they have settled in extremely well. I visited.
Seriously. Not again!?
Pansy swarmed AGAIN. This time I got pictures. I heard the roaring sound again and looked out. Pansy?!! What's it been, five days? Since a giant contingent of the bees just departed from Pansy, I had a hard time even believing what I was seeing, although, a swarm is pretty unmistakable. Not possible. There aren't enough bees left to split again. There were. I was completely expecting Violet to swarm. The Violet hive is huge and strong.
A thorough bee day
I had a big bee day, doing all things bee. Building frames and parts, hive inspection, expansion, and more. They needed all kinds of things, including a yard cleanup. I doubt I would have lost that swarm if I was on this a few days earlier, but what's flown is flown. Now all the hives are set on concrete pads, all the wood scraps are cleaned up, and the bee yard looks more classy bee apartment structures, less bee shantytown.
Rain risk vs worm reward
The pig house (pig-less this year) is repurposed as a chicken rain shelter, and they LOVE it. When it's pelting down, almost the whole flock crowds in there, and the guineas come running in too. The hens rock the rain pretty hard, but when it gets too heavy they jog for shelter. Rain makes the worms come up, but they don't like to get too wet either. It's a chicken risk/reward analysis. Adding the laundry rack was one of my finer brain waves.
A nice nest
One doesn't think of chickens as being nest builders per se, but they definitely do nest construction. Guineas, ground nesters like chickens, craft quite beautifully careful nests, if extremely minimal ones, out of a few blades of grass. It's more of a saucer than a bowl - a slight bank to keep the eggs from rolling out, I suppose. When I set the Silkies on eggs, I think I form a perfect nest in advance, but no.
Well they're gone
I had a hive swarm yesterday (What is that roaring sound? Oh.) They went up in a big pine tree, and while they landed on a nice 3″ branch that could be sawed off, they were 40’+ up, and very much out of my reach this time. I quickly prepared a bait box (inviting new home, move-in ready), with that new hive smell (lemongrass, honey, and old comb). They ignored it. I prepared a second one, too, in another location.
The first chick of the year
Let's try this again. I had a hen go broody. Try as we might to break her up, she was determined. Kick her out of whatever corner she was trying to warm eggs in and she'd march around in full turkey mode, every feather flared and growling until she could sneak back in another coop. Then Cheeks started making eggs again, and I could give this hen something to do. What does she do? Halfway through the process, she jumps up off the eggs, bursting out of the coop one morning and not returning.
Knock knock?
Cheeks progressed to spending all day outside. She started eating from the trough with the other hens, then started laying her eggs in the nest box of the coop! I hardly saw her from the morning post-yelling eviction until the evening. She would still come to the door of the house at bedtime, or if it rained heavily. Hello. I still live here. And I'd put her back in her banana box for the night. I can't reach the handle. Ah!
Tomatoes in
It’s that time of year. The tomatoes are installed in the greenhouse (today), and now I have to scrupulously keep the chickens out (lest this happens again), let the guineas in at night but not so soon that there are marauding chickens still about, keep an eye on closed/open doors for air and heat circulation, and watch the forecast like a hawk for frost temperature dips. It’s a nervous time, while the tomatoes are still baby plants. I swear planting is getting faster and more efficient every year though.
How is Cheeks?
Cheeks is great! Her brief supervised outings and chaperoned dates quickly turned into twice a day solo forays that got longer and longer. At first she would come in wiped out, eat (or skip eating), drop into her banana box and sleep for hours. You could see her building strength though, and she could stay out longer and longer before wanting to come in. She was more of a solo chicken at first, as the other chickens still lived in the greenhouse and gravitated towards their food dishes over there, while she stayed very near the house.
Nosy guineas
I was sitting on the sill of my open front door, a convenient place I've found for potting upstarts, my dirt and trays arrayed in front of me, when the guineas wandered up. They arrived quite suddenly, maintaining their constant twittering conversation about everything, and they came right up on the deck to see what I was doing. Whatrya doing? I was so glad I was in arms-reach of my camera. I thought they were after the green stuff, but they didn't make a move for it.
Saturation point
It's been raining for almost ten days straight. It's just unbelievable. No more water can be absorbed. It's just puddles and standing water everywhere. The ground is so soft you can unexpectedly plunge in the ground over your ankle walking along. then it tries to pull your boot off. The chickens have had their coops outside for several days, but when the rain come hammering down, they run into the greenhouse, which remains empty, to shelter.
The return of winter
Winter was back for a few days. The wild birds descended in clouds for something to eat, including a few new birds. There was a purple finch. This is sad because it's the first purple finch sighting of the year, when normally there would be many of them all winter. Here's a sad robin. I don't eat seeds. Now that the rain has come and washed away the snow, she's eating well, if she survived her three day fast. There was a red-breasted nuthatch, tiny and adorable in a little badger mask.
Chicken play date
Cheeks has been having chaperoned outings. I carry her out with me and set her down near where I'm working, in the field or the garden, and she moseys around, scratching and eating. She loves it. What I expected, was that after a couple of hours, she'd be tired, and willing and ready to be scooped up and carried home for a drink. I've handled her daily for months. She's as tame as a chicken could possibly be.No. Oh, no no no. No! Not yet!
Rain day
What a day. Buckets of water coming down, starting out with slush on the ground, and wind, blowing the cold rain into your face and coat. All the chickens opted to stay in the greenhouse most of the day, only making brief forays out when the rain abated. The guineas took one step out in the morning before jumping back in, the chickens got several steps out before pulling their necks back, wheeling around and running back in. It's gross out there! I found it the perfect day for a nap, and that was glorious. Never enough sleep!
All growth does not take place in sunlight
The best pillow. I had an epic sewing day, catching up possibly as much as two years of mending and hemming, which put a lot of clothes back into my wearable circulation. I also made this wonderful piece of embroidery into a pillow (case? sham? cover? cover.) -- pillow cover, complete with buttons to get it off the pillow for washing, done with the buttonholer!!
I WENT TO THE LIBRARY AND CAME HOME WITH A CHICKEN
I went to the library bus and while I was in the parking lot, the manager of the liquor store popped outside and waved me down, asking me to come to the store before I left. What in the world, I wondered, could I be required in the liquor store for? Who knows, though, really. It's a small town. Well. It turned out to be about a chicken. There was a hen that had appeared some days ago and was living in the snowbank and brambles behind the liquor store.
Flyday
T.G.I. Flyday here today. All my hives are alive, and many, many bees were out flying today in the warmth. I got to feed them, and replace some straw in the top of their hives; I was happy to find that the wet mouldy straw was only around the top and outside edge - where it was nearest the roof and corners. Nested around the bottle of syrup and the opening in the center the straw was dry and golden, bees dry. Bees were everywhere, all over the paths, in the chicken bucket, and all over.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
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