Happy Harvest Blog
A chick!
The first chick of 2020 has hatched! These eggs had a rough go. I had a barred rock hen broody, which was exciting - those two are the sweetest birds. But she got off of them! She's done it before; it's like she's got a calendar in her head and when she's sat too long, it's over, instead of being connected to the life in the egg. So I put the abandoned eggs under this little lady, who I'm between calling Little Mama
The tulips are up!
So exciting to have tulips again! I haven’t had since I lived in B.C, and my mom sent me a big box of bulbs last fall. Yesterday they appeared and now they are poking their spear-like rolled leaves above the ground. Different tulips, different coloured leaves. I planted them by colour scheme, but I don”t remember which colours where, so it will be a surprise. I did wonder if the chickens would cause problems.
Well that's a vast improvement
What a relief for the eyes to have the beehives undressed for the year. This is the view out my front window. Such a visual improvement! The before picture. Good God, what a trash heap. Extraneous stuff wrapped around the bottom is to deter the chickens from pecking at the styrofoam. Nosey's a big styrofoam-eating culprit, and me running outside at her shouting does nothing. What? Crunchy! I like Nosey. I don't want her to die by extruded polystyrene
Sow it begins
This is the beginning of the growing year. Then there will be two trays, then five, and eight...Soon every windowsill is be filled, and the shelves will come out until all the available glass real estate in the house is occupied by trays in early April. I have calculated the current maximum seed tray load of the house is 14, unless I evict the aloes from the other picture window, and then I could bump it up again. I hope it doesn't come to that. I need some limits.
The bird breakfast buffet
It’s the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend, this weekend. Right now. You can watch the map pinging with bird checklists being submitted. I had something cool happen. I was using the eBird lists to see if I could identify this one bird that’s around almost every day, only ever one by itself, and I glanced out and it was here! I feel like it can only be a pine warbler, although he looks much more orangey than yellow. Not a pine grosbeak, though, bc he has the delicate beak.
Highest winds ever, worse than Dorian
Friday night we had a heck of a storm. It was strange that it was all over so fast, from onset to back to complete calm in 12 hours, with the storm blast lasting about four hours long. However, it was the highest winds we’ve ever experienced here, stronger gusts than Hurricane Dorian brought not too long ago. I know, because it blew over a beehive, and that’s never happened before.
Nosey wishes everyone a Merry Christmas today
And wonders if perhaps it would be cozier with a fire... Actually she sees her reflection. Nosey took to letting herself into the house this fall whenever the door was left open. She wouldn't stay very long, just do a lap, walking casually all around, checking for crumbs, and then pop back out the door and leave. I just had to know what was going on.
Autumn
A quick catch-up – the birds are all sleeping in the greenhouse now, so if I need to leave I can secure them in there and take off with my mind at ease. I’m drunk on the new freedom and am doing that quite a bit. When I’m home, they are released and I watch over them (there have been no losses since I went full sentinel), but they gravitate back into the warm greenhouse. They LOOOOVE the greenhouse for about two months, or half of winter. Then they start to get bored and demanding.
Chicken sitting, and an accidental week off.
I had no intention of taking a week off blogging, but I had a real week from hell. A book deadline, two books released, other time-sensitive obligations, and a side serving of serious stress which led to far too many nights working past midnight, so I'm just coming up for air now and seeing what else really needs to be done. The bees got reduced on time, they're happy. The chickens, though, are under siege.
Beehive reduction
It’s that time, time to reduce the size of the beehive stacks in preparation for winter, and steal their honey. I hate it. I don’t like taking their honey, and I don’t like the degree of disruption it causes, nor the death. In the process of taking the hives all apart, robber bees come from the other hives and there are disputes and battles to the death. Bees are very good at killing each other and the bee bodies pile up. I don’t know how to mitigate this yet.
They grow up so fast
I've lost track of all the sets of chicks. There are around five that are almost indistinguishable from grownup chickens, the "big chicks".Overnight, they are all legs and big bodies. If I don't look twice, they look full grown. These have all graduated to living in the "big coop", although I'm still plucking at least one out of the tree every night. No, not the coop! They aren't nice to me there! Hello, I'm a Cheeks junior!
The Brahmas are joining Team Mooch
The Brahmas are joining the chicken clique that hangs out around the house, which is really nice. It’s the safest place for the chickens, and the most social. Naturally, the most vulnerable chickens, moms, chicks, and adolescents, range the farthest, giving me palpitations, while the old girls homesick. They’re always together. The Brahmas are so sweet, they’re the big feather pillows of the chicken world. One of them is in a half-molt state.
Turns out the bag of dirt on the deck seats two.
Turns out the bag of dirt on the deck seats two. But not three.
The bees are working like they've had coffee
After the frost, we’ve had a warm spell, and the bees are going so hard. It’s their last charge to get their stores in. I feel bad now taking their honey, but they have more than enough, at least the big hives Pansy and Violet do. The other pollinators in the giant wasp nest have made their home bigger than ever. I’m terrified of them, although they’ve only stung me once, for banging on the wall, and I am looking forward to a long wasp-free future.
Profile: Athena
Athena is back at home. She was loaned out this summer to raise some babies. Athena and her sister were hatched last year and raised by a Silkie hen (they were the White Chocolates). They turned out to be not quite leghorns- white, quite differently shaped from leghorns, but a little jumpy and high-strung like leghorns are. Early this summer, both of them went broody, but not at the same time. Athena’s sister (Aphrodite?) raised a mixed set of five.
First Frost
Got a serious frost last night, and a warning frost the night before.There was ice crusted on the water in the stock tank, and the sweet potato vines were finished off. The squashes themselves took damage, which is very disappointing. Not the worst thing to have to can pumpkin, but I like to have squashes and pumpkins throughout the winter for the chickens. Bummer!Also today; world climate strike. I hope the message is deafening because the increased storms and fluctuating temperatures and melting ice caps haven't been loud enough, apparently.
The latest chicks
I had a whole passel of Silkies go broody this summer. Some of them give up, two more go broody. The usual, in other words. I’m not letting them reproduce this year- I have so many Silkies. I did give them five of Cheeks’ eggs between them though. Drama central! If any of them stood up to adjust themselves, another one would rob an egg. Every morning most of them would go out for breakfast, and then there would be lamentations when they came back and their eggs had been swiped by another hen.
Greenhouse goings-on
Earlier this year in the greenhouse. Now it’s a little wilder. Even at this point, though, the guineas were getting lost. The “aisles” have kind of disappeared. I went to open the far doors, and there was a white guinea in the melons. Chirp chirp. Her boyfriend came back in for her, bushwhacking towards her to lead her out. I have a theory that the guineas have kept down the beetles this year. I don’t have a problem this year, although I saw eggs on the leaves earlier.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
