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.
Phi kappa peck
The boys came trundling out of their new house in the morning to start a long day marching up and down along the fence separating them from the girls like they were picketing Jericho. The girls are inside the orange fence, the roosters are inside the white fence. All-day, back and forth. In one day they tamped down a groove in the dirt along that fence. They took breaks for shade, and food, but barely. On the girls' side, it was all How's the serenity?
New hen boxes
The hens with chicks got an apartment reno. It was time to retire those battered old boxes. So I set up a new condo system, each with a little bed of hay. But will they use them? All the other chickens came and inspected of course. Well, I left the most popular box, double occupancy in a pinch. Oh! A promising amount of attention.Look, Mom, we found a new place!They approved. 2/3 were occupied, and it was much nicer to transport these boxes with closed lids
So it's come to this
I knew it was a thing. I didn't know it was an industry. (Totally worth the click). I missed my calling as chicken seamstress. I have a couple of hens who would be really into that tutu (I'm thinking of you, Cheeks). I believe hens have enough self-awareness to have a sense of pride in appearance, and it would feel like an extra nice tail. I remember clothing changing the demeanor and status of Jean Jacket.
Chicken family updates
I've got a few garlic scapes. All the chicken families are doing well: Perchick, etc, almost, but not quite, ready for bed. Apples and cohort, very active. The orphans. They're settling down. They like to sit on and run over those covered wagons like rolling hills. It's a raised vantage point. The hens inside are near due. At night they crawl under the loose canvas on the left, and I let them into that left kennel with the resigned hen.
Oreo update
Mom and the Oreos are rather wild these days. Hard to catch on camera. I get distance sightings.So far so good.They´re often off on their own, in the pasture, roaming rather farther than the other hens tend to.Once I found the Oreos inside the pig zone, Mom running up and down on the outside of the electric fence.
The sprinting chicken
Every morning when we open the layer coop, one hen is waiting in the blocks. There´s some jostling for pole position. If she´s on form, she´ll be the first down the ramp.Then the human coop-opener heads for the Silkie coop at the other end of the greenhouse. Inevitably, this hen passes us, legging it in the same direction at a flat out run. Racetrack chicken.
Additions to the farmily
I wanted to even out the numbers some by adding a couple of hens. That would make three hens and two cocks; a better ratio. They arrived this evening.I carried the sacked birds to the greenhouse in my arms, their little feet holding on to my hands through the bag.I set them down in the greenhouse.
Bedtime is nigh
Days went by. Weeks. Then one night, there were only two hens. One hen had figured it out! She turned out to be the precocious one of the three. More days passed, turning into two weeks.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
