Happy Harvest Blog
Early morning perching practice
The fuzznuggets have started perching. They all keep the same schedule; I’m so used to seeing moms raise their chicks now. First, there’s very close to home chickergarten, where scratching is strongly emphasized – Mom shows them vigorous scratching in loose material, clearly for practice. Good fling. Look at how well Daisy is kicking. Second, comes explorer time, where the moms take their chicks off, to some distance, for I don’t know what, world acclamation, and exposure to strange and unusual things.
A magnificent wasp house
I really wish I'd been taking a picture every day of this wasp nest. It would be an amazing timelapse. They build at least a layer on it every day. Their increasing wasp-power makes an accelerating build speed possible. This is the right corner of my woodshed. And I think this is great because, after this year, I'm not going to have to worry about any wasps in the vicinity (they'll probably build on the soffit of the house next year).
Bees in the goldenrod
I have a field full of goldenrod. Mowing and discing it a couple of years ago benefited the goldenrod more than anything else, and now there is less grass, clover, and diversity than before. I'm ok with that, for now. I have a bee forage field now, and it seems like the bees are coming from miles around for it. I barely saw any bumblebees all spring and summer; I was worried.
There may be no keets this year
Ugh, it’s always awful logging in and seeing how long it’s been since I last posted. Almost a whole month!!! I will try harder! It’s been an action-packed month though. Major personal changes, and a whole lot of dental work. The toothache I’ve been “toughing out” (not a recommended course of action) for months, outlasting the waiting period for my dental coverage, needed a root canal so that finally happened this week, sweet relief!! but there’s more to do.
My chickens are scaring me today
It's hot, and there are chickens littered around, tipped over. They're faking me out, because they can look very dead, unless they hold their heads up. Gah! Oh, phew. She's politely retracted her leg from the path. You shall not...oh, yeah, you can pass. New dirt bath.
Keet care share
The keets have been around more; they even got walked nearly to the house. I hear their cheeping like tiny bells (they will grow into klaxons). They already have dart-and freeze-in-the-grass skills, scratching, dozing, and following skills. Little beings the size and weight of ping pong balls, walking, eating, pooping, thinking. They're so cute I can hardly stand it. They are already surprisingly independent, with a noticeably larger radius of dispersion than two days ago, and the flock moves faster.
An extra puffy tail
The little (lone) Silkie chick has just had one extra puffy tail sprout out today, along with a tiny head crest and tiny feet feathers on those little black legs. Looks especially good with evening back-lighting. It's funny what a transformative difference a day makes - chicks grow so fast. Feathers just pop out here and there, and they go through some pretty funny stages. This poor little chick is now only one third the size of its nestmates, which are bigger than some of the other chicks get before their Moms move on.
It was very unpleasant
I got poison ivy on my face. As my friend asked, "Did you fall [face first] in it?"Well, nearly. We had a lost person search happen locally that eventually lasted days and involved teams from all over the province, but the first night, it was just a half dozen of us in the dark, and we built a fire, in the dark, while waiting for the go-ahead to launch our canoes.
OMG KEETS!!!
I went out to feed everyone lunch and got stopped in my tracks by a tumble of new keets! A whole new cast of characters. I think there's 13. They're hard to count. Little white ones and brown ones! The white guinea hen is back with a hugely successful brood! I've been seeing her at the food trays occasionally the last couple of weeks wolfing down food, at off-hours, so I've wondered.
The rain in Spain is totally insane
It has rained hard and steady for ten hours straight and isn't done. There is more standing water than dry land right now. The chickens were all wading over their ankles and the chicks in water up to their feather pants. The rain gauge was over 120mm when I last checked. That is insane! The chickens spent the day in their coops and rain house; I didn't even open them for eggs and risk letting the rain in.
Privacy Stalls
I finally got around to a simple fix to make higher walls on the nest boxes - just cardboard. Two of the nest boxes never got any use - too exposed. They all squabble over the corner office box and it gets vociferous. I hear them whining- complaining, indignant, offended, self-pitying, insulted, according to their chickenalities. I've been holding in an egg here for ages, and she just barged in here! Get off of me, I was already in here! Take a number!
box princess
There are three sets of chick/s running around at the moment, that I see have yet to be introduced, my bad...The other White Chocolate hen, sister to the loaner, has three chicks; the shirt chick was adopted; and this little Silkie hen has three- two Cheeklings and a Silkie chick (got rescued into the greenhouse on rain day). This particular hen's quirk (they all have at least one), is that she does not, ever, want to go to bed in the coop.
Excuse me, it's morning.
The little door has fallen off the viewing window in the side of the coop. Now there's just a little grill, and in the morning, a chicken can eyeball me through it, impatiently.I can see the sun is up. Let us out already.
The most beautiful time of year.
The apple tree blooms are past now (they were prodigious, and they was no terrible frost this year, so we have reason to expect plenty of apples!), but the hawthorn stays white a little later. This scrappy placeholder hawthorn tree by the house I allowed to live (until I replace it with a fruit tree), is happy to be becoming quite attractive. I've got my decorative birdhouses back out too.
Eggs, beautiful eggs
A pastel rainbow of eggs! The ladies are laying about 2 dozen a day now, so I have eggs for sale (locally)
chickens lounging in the sun
They do love a good sunny day. This one started it all (Cream Puff). Oh, that looks like a good idea. Whatcha doin'? Then the participants change. What's even happening here? (There are three hens)Then everyone's in on it. There's also a dust bowl a little ways from the sandbox. The guineas like to lie in the grass in the sun.
Floods
Today was a torrential downpour in the morning. When it rains I run around like a mad person trying to catch or use it all. I filled several barrels today. I'm expecting a long stretch of rainlessness this summer, and that every rain we get maybe the last for a long time, although it keeps coming and coming. All the birds rushed under cover when it came thundering down, except the little Silkie mama with three chicks.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
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