Happy Harvest Blog

05/06/2019 05/06/2019

The first chick of the year

Let's try this again. I had a hen go broody. Try as we might to break her up, she was determined. Kick her out of whatever corner she was trying to warm eggs in and she'd march around in full turkey mode, every feather flared and growling until she could sneak back in another coop. Then Cheeks started making eggs again, and I could give this hen something to do. What does she do? Halfway through the process, she jumps up off the eggs, bursting out of the coop one morning and not returning.

Orphans

Speaking of things to feel sick about, Brown Bonnet is gone. I found her three chicks toddling around cheeping under the coop, and she just was gone. Eventually, I found a few feathers, but no evidence of what got her. Raccoons usually leave calling cards. This is only the second midsummer murder and second hen to be taken ever. The first was Cream Puff and Perchick's mother when they were small chicks. Fall is the season for high alert; in the summer there hasn't been a risk. Now two, in four years.

Instagram.

I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.

#HeatWave. It’s this kind of day. The #pigs are just going to sleep in the #wallow today.

#BlackBerkshires #pasturepigsarehappypigs #PasturedPigs #electricfence

Moved the #pigs deeper into the woods, including some dense balsam fir. I didn’t expect them to be excited about it, but that is one deeply asleep and well shaded pig in the densest of the firs.
#blackberkshire #pasturedpigs #pasturedpigsareha

The two mamas co-mothering nine chicks are just amazing. So adorable; I’ve never seen this before. The #chicks are so quiet, I almost never hear peeping, they’re so well cared for.

#MamaHen #FreeRangeChickens #DailyChicken #chickensofins

You know it’s hot when the chickens are hiding in the pine tree at nine in the morning.
#FreeRangeChickens #DailyChicken #ChickensOfInstagram #Heatwave #Shade #perchingbird

First plucking of chamomile flowers. Finally got some plants established, and lots of wild #chamomile as well, but those aren’t flowered yet. Later my bees will benefit from this.

#Herbs #Harvest #honeybees

The five. Cream puff’s five spring #chicks are all independent now, they’re always together and a little chick posse. The roosters are showing! They are the ones standing here. Already guardians.

#DailyChicken #ChickensOfInstagram #freer

I don’t know if I’d be into having my boyfriend stand over me like this when I was in the bath, but hey, chickens be different. Cleopatra having a dust bath while Shanti the rooster watches over her. Very, very closely.

#DailyChicken #Ch

It’s so hot!! I got these guys out of the hoop house in the nick of time, but even out in the breeze the beating sun is unbearable. I stretched a huge tarp as a sunshade today and it’s much nicer. I crawled under to test and it is cooler.

Coop move! Silkies are all “what?” over the grass. It’s so hot. Haaaawt.
#dailychicken #chickensofinstagram #chickentractor

Close. So close.
#DailyChicken #ChickenBedtime #FreeRange #Chicks #ChickenCoop #ChickensOfInstagram

Find the #Pig. Just a black pig having a lie down after breakfast and becoming invisible.

#PasturedPigs #BlackBerkshires #ElectricFence

The youngest chick on the go is at large in the big chicken world with mama (clearly no biological relation)

#DailyChicken #ChickensOfInstagram #Silkies #motherhentouring

Pine tree date! These two, perching in the pine tree.

#dailychicken #chickensofinstagram #freerangechickens #heritagechickenscanada

I love the tiny pearls of dew that decorate the edges of leaves in the morning

#windowbox

Mulch party! I laid down paper feed sacks with leaves and chips and wood on top, so that drew a crowd. They would scratch in it, and then look at the paper beneath like they were disappointed. That’s not what they usually get for scratching lea

It’s perching hour! The chickens like to cluster up after breakfast for a roost and a preen.
#dailychicken #ChickensOfInstagram #freerangechickensarehappychickens

These are both very sensitive hens so I didn’t move them out of the nest boxes when they went broody(same day) and all the other hens are livid, outraged, furious. “I’ve been laying eggs in THAT box for YEARS!” Daily indignant

Here come the chicks! Five little chicks of Cream Puff’s, and they’ve made the journey down the trail to the house, still a little uncomfortable to be so far from the familiar, but Mom’s coaching them.
#mamahen #dailychicken #chick

Drama in the hencoop today. Cheeks was pissed that the nest box was STILL occupied and there was much complaining. Hens have been laying in the corners of the coop. #adaptation

#dailychicken #layinghens #ameracuana #chickencoop #chickensofinstagram

Just chillin’ together under the coop... a little more alert now that I’m taking a picture.
#dailychicken #chickensofinstagram #freerangechickens

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