Happy Harvest Blog
We lounge hard
Chickens do an awful lot of lounging. They lounge under trees, in the sun, lots of time on the paths, and in dust baths. Their favorite seems to be dappled shade. Big group lounge under a secondary pine tree. Early post-breakfast perching is common. Big dust bath near the house. Barred & Brahma lounging. The birds have this odd tendency to sort themselves out by colours, like laundry. The darks.The lights/colours. There's some big boys emerging out of the tweens. It's adorable how much they cuddle.
when we're dancin' beak to beak
I think we have our Oscar and Orlando! Baby beefin'. They freeze, staring at each other. It's quite aggressive, considering it's motionless. You can feel the tension. Then they pretend to go about their business for about a second and a half, then - Freeze! Beak to beak. Big yellow feet:)
Definitely a dirt bath day
It's a dirt bath lineup. They're lovin' it. They get really satisfying results from their pint-sized scratching practice in the fine mulch of the greenhouse. The dirt flies! She's panting because she's hot, so within a few minutes, they were back out on the grass. The heatwave wasted no time arriving. We got the rain overnight, and early, and then the sun came out again, and wow, it's already hot, and muggy, and the bugs are terrible!! The mosquitoes are awful, lying in wait in big clouds, and the noseeums are eating me alive, right now.
Cream Puff the Fierce and the free chicks
Cream Puff was a misnomer. Well, the Puff part was accurate, she spends most of her time puffed up in a rage these days, with her tail flared out. But the cream is all gone. She used to be jumpy, anxious, shy, the first to run shrieking out of the coop when you lift the lid. Now, she moves like a tank, grumbling. Ok, I'll move, but I think you should move first. She was the one initially completely freaked out by her own broodiness. Now there are two parties that get admission to the greenhouse in the evening:
Too cute for chick school
Perchick is very watchful. She mostly trusts me around her chicks, though. She has chicks poking out. Cream Puff does not trust me, and wow, a full size henpeck is more meaningful than a Silkie peck. No chicks poking out here. The one "old chick" looks much like a tiny, brown bald eagle. Like a yellow chick wearing a brown cape. And this brood, well, they're not grown up enough to be above a good wing pit warming.18 chicks: I'm going to need a lot of names.
Big day
It was one of those days, where I get up for the hens, but am not ready to commit to being awake, so I bargain with myself, Well, I'll just wear my sweat pants to do the chickens. It's like, bringing the comfort of the bed with you. Then the next thing, I stop for "lunch", and it turns out it's 5 pm, and I'm still wearing my sweat pants. And of course, I'm full of ticks because I haven't been dressed appropriately. All-day. Those are good days, though.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
