Happy Harvest Blog
It's a sitting in a tree kind of day
The girls have been hanging out in the pine tree like they did when they were chicks. They remember.The weather is beautiful. Sunny, and it’s warming up – any day the bugs will come out of nowhere and the fun will be all over.
Another Only chick!
So glad. They have different mamas but will grow up together. This little chick got off to a tough start. I found her in the middle of the Silkie greenhouse after breakfast, peeping at the top of her lungs (which is quite loud). I popped open the coop and nudged all the sitting hens, to see who would accept this chick. Apples did, and the chick burrowed right in. Phew, crisis averted. Then I moved them out together to a box and chickery to start chickergarten together.
Greenhouse living and the drama of the popcorn string
This has been a good winter to be a chicken around here. The winter was mild, and I don't think there was ever a time that the birds were truly locked in for more than a week due to snow. Any time there was bare ground, they got released for at least some hours of foraging entertainment. And of course, they had their side yard always accessible, although all the birds tend to stay in when there's snow. So morale was good this winter, not much cabin fever.
An Only chick
Only one baby hatched:( I think it's just too early for chicks; too tough for them to survive and egg cooling happens too rapidly this early in the spring. I thought only chicks were super sad, growing up alone, but they do get intense one-on-one attention. Little Mama gave the other eggs a couple of days, then strutted out all Alright kiddo, time to learn to scratch! I moved her abandoned eggs down the line, to the six Silkies currently broody in the Silkie coop.
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.
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!
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.
chicken drill bit
The Silkies have picked a spot to dig a hole, and are digging the hole with their bodies, removing the dirt in their feathers and shaking it out elsewhere. Slow and steady. They take turns, and now they have the hole twice as deep as this so that they are fully below ground level. Odd little birds. Sidewinder unwinding in the pool. I haven’t bought them a bag of the pro-mix outside of the greenhouse before because, in the greenhouse, they are doing the work of distributing it for me to amend the soil I will grow in, but hey.
Cheeps at the door
I hear them coming around, the cheeps. They never stop chatting at this age. I’m glad that the moms are starting to gravitate to the house and beehives – the safe zones instead of the adventure safaris. This is where you’ll spend your time when you grow up, kids. Mooching. The two of them are too adorable to me. Inseparable, yin and yang chickens, not very alike other than that they (were) both loners.
Velvet and Ghost
The co-mamas.These are the first hens to successfully hatch babies in the large coop. Right through the heatwave, they sat on eggs, and I brought them water. They would even switch eggs, so it makes sense that they're one family now. They only spent two days in the chickeries, maybe three, before release and integration. Nosey visitor, They still had unhatched eggs, one each (they did not hatch late, they gave up on them), so the hatched chicks had a nice slow transition).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Out on the range.
The birds are all out free-ranging again. They're so excited!! Mostly out. They are free to come and go, for the last week or two since the snow has been going. They are so happy! All the young ones (1-2 yrs) and the guineas spend all day out, pouring out of the greenhouse when I open the doors, popping back in when they get cold or thirsty, then back out for another shift of foraging. Inside, the older chickens are less adventurous and content to have the dust baths to themselves.
House chicken 2018
Cheeks is in "intensive" box care in the house. At the end of October, she somehow got the end of one of her toes torn or bitten off, pretty cleanly. I was horrified but it can't be reattached, so what can you do? She's been spending her days in a chickery safe from harassment but still with the other hens in the GH. I figured she needed safe time to heal and the wound would close and she'd make a recovery. Appetite, check, using the foot, check, lots of time resting but normal behaviour.
The killer has pointy ears
I came face to face with Inky's killer today. I saw the rounded brown form lope into the brush as I came by the greenhouse to check on the pigs. I thought it was a raccoon because it was slow and lazy getting out of sight. To be sure, I snuck up for a closer look. It moved. I moved. It wasn't in much of a hurry. I found it, camouflaged in the underbrush. A bobcat. Sitting front feet together like a cultured cat, head forward, round face a little sad looking, like wild cats' faces look.
All in!
What a load off my mind! Everyone is in. I thought it might all be too crowded for the numbers I have now, but it's ok. It's sloppy and slapdash right now, but it will work out. There's plenty of room for the coops, and a pool, and more. The guineas are being very tolerant about this mass invasion. They very much like to sit up on top of Silkieland. Perhaps we'll poop on you. I think they're so cute. They treat the chickens more like pets they're fond of, than equals.
Two coops in
2.5 coops. Chris and Cream Puff are in too, in their personal size coop. It's a big mess, the coops are just barely in the door, but I'm going to reorganize a bit, and there are a lot of strings to come down. Oh, the birds are in heaven. The scritching, the tomatoes, the dust baths! They've been wanting into the greenhouse all summer. It's warm, and they were so happy all day bathing and lounging.No matter how big they are. HW deadpans "Yeah, that'll last until about lunchtime.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
