Happy Harvest Blog
Co-mamas
Brown Bonnet and Marsha (Marshmallow) are cute. They hang out together, their chicks spilling over into each other. Brown Bonnet is very maternal and relaxed, and all seven of the little Silkie chicks will sometimes be with her. Marsha's a bit nervous. At night sometimes they share a box, and they readily share patches of food without competition. Our kids are the same age (and size), we should be friends. This little one is already developing an extravagant hairdo.
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.
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.
Selfie with falcon
Apples was out with me for enrichment time, while I was building stuff by the house. I take her with me outside when I'm working in one area, so she can act like a real chicken for awhile. She doesn't much act like a real chicken though. Oh! A wild chicken encounter! Ohohohhh. Nervous:)Then I thought I should try and get a pic of our transportation arrangement. I pick her up and she squirms until she's happy with her grip, and then she rides. Will this work? Selfies: not so easy with an SLR. Worked, though!
Where there's life, there's cheeps.
This morning on chicken breakfast rounds, I discovered tragedy in the broody box. A chick! But it was spilled out in a corner of the box, belly up, wings and legs splayed out, eyes closed, beak open. Very bad. It was still alive, barely, and I stuffed it back under her, immediately. Its legs stuck out straight. A minute later, after tidying up, I rearranged the chick to tuck the legs in. Its eyes were still closed and beak open, gasping. This is usually the sign of imminent death.
Two down
Brown bonnet is broody, the second hen to go. That means it's time to renovate the covered wagon, since my original design proved to not hold up to chickens jumping all over it, and the "door" broke off from metal fatigue from all the bending. So it got a new wooden front, and a flapping door held on by twist ties. Back in the greenhouse, BB was waiting in the box she'd been put into so I could make renovations. She's not a nervous first-time mom. She calmly rolls with anything, even being put in a little box
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
