Happy Harvest Blog
Perfect Day
I forget how wonderful the first day of having the coops outside is. It’s a threshold day, the anchor of the seasons, when the chickens come out and the purpose of the greenhouse is transformed from winter housing (Poultry Palace) to growing food. The coop roofs, dusty and pooped on, will be washed in the next rain. It’s the real beginning of the growing season.
Coops Out!
So tired... but I had to bring the coops out of greenhouse in order to plant in there (only three weeks late). It has to be done.
The coops in and coops out days are benchmarks of the season. The beginning of summer, and the beginning of winter. Important, marker days. Like spring cleaning, the GH gets everything pulled out of it and then transformed, in purpose and appearance.
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.
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.
Escape escapades
Little Nosey, being herself. I'm teasing her with a litter grabber. She's like Why. Why are you pointing a robot arm at me? The guineas had a big adventure, escaping in the morning. Good day for it. They came yelling down the trail, went grazing in the woods, but around lunchtime they were wanting back in. It's cold. We would like to be back with the food. They found this challenging. I propped the fence open, away from the corner of the greenhouse.
Not a bath day
There's Nosey, pecking at my pants. She's growing!It was a nice sunny day, so I figured it would be a big bath day, with the pool overflowing with Pigpen chickens, but I went out with my camera and only three Silkies were in that mood.This guy found he had the pool all to himself, and seemed kind of pleased about it, but was only thinking about having a bath:
I can't enjoy my bath when you're standing over me like that
This guy’s really into standing on the edge of the bath. Now in a new location! Must inspect!
back to our regularly scheduled chicken programming
The chickens are having a ball with their dust baths. There’s quite a bit of spillover. First dirt spillover out of the bag or box. Then spillover of chickens bathing in the surrounding area. Cleopatra is hogging one of the bins, but there’s plenty of bathing outside of the bin. Cleopatra can spend all day in there. She regularly chooses to stay in come lunchtime, putting off eating. Eh, I can eat later.
Hangin' out
Afternoons are for perching. The Silkies have their dirt baths refilled, and they are all looking very fresh. Whiter than white. Sidewinder in her tattered coat, and Sidekick. Still a duo. Now way I’m going outside, but I will sample some snow.
Best day ever
The girls have found their dirt bath. It’s bean awfully quiet in the GH. I came in and everywhere, filthy chickens. Chickens walking around with dirt all over their backs, that had clearly just got out of the pool, and of course, a half dozen chickens in the pool. The Silkies have already emptied out one of their baths (seats four). Even Chris is in there, the big rooster. There’s Jacket girl, pecking snow off my boots. She’s got her jacket perfectly in place, but she’s also full of dirt.
New things! New things! - Greenhouse Rearrangement
I got some more work done in the greenhouse. Specifically, I untied all the strings crossing the top third, that suspend tomatoes in the summer. You can just see the strings in this pic. So I’m taking them down and crochet looping them up to decommission them until next year. The guineas will be able to fly around in the upper third of the GH again. This festooning makes sense to me. Then the irrigation came out, and the pool went in, and coops were shifted – oh my!
Oh great, it's time to move blog platforms again
I’ve been blogging here at WordPress for nine and half years, and I was perfectly delighted with it for eight and a half. I’ve never had so many problems as I did this year. Coincidentally, this year is also the first time I’ve paid for the top tier account, for extra storage (nine years of images, yo), and to keep my blog free of annoying ads. To hell with that.
Guinea grazing
We have snow, everywhere but in these pictures where the sun shone. A light crunchy layer of snow. It was very nippy today and I thought the guineas weren't going to even come out for their graze. They've taken to climbing up the pile of sticks during their recess. No grass up there. Maybe they just want to look around. This little one is the most successful greenhouse escapee. She darts out right in the middle of the guinea pack so I cant' turn her back.
Let the chips fly where they may
We brought in a quantity of wood shavings today (free for the pickup at a local sawmill). The chips arrive: What is it? Oh, we’re watching. We’re watching intently. Here they come. A cautious approach. Here comes everyone. First, the investigatory pecks – Is it edible? They were underwhelmed that it was not. Then the whole crowd sort of circled around the mound. Later, they were up on top of it.
Escapee
One of the guineas escaped from my carefully constructed bird shield. It flapped and scramble-ran up the plastic, therefore slipping under the edge of the mesh and out into the clear air.I actually saw it in progress, yet was unable to stop it from happening. It had just enough foot friction, I supposeI'm up here. Now what? Looked neat from inside. I left her up there to figure it out.Later... how's that guinea doing? Well, it's on the wrong side of the mesh, and now suspended, like it's in a mesh bag.
Everyone out!
Everyone found the chicken doors yesterday. I finished tying down the mesh around the fence, so it should be guinea tight.It's kind of dead and slim pickin's, but it's outdoors. They also noticed right away that it's quite cold outside, so most of them had a look around, and then went back in to warm up. Spoiled bunch. They seem to much prefer being in the corn stalk strip. In the open they act nervous, exposed. Heard some of the most pathetic, unsure, low-volume crowing out of the roosters, too.
What do I do when I haven't taken any pictures all day?
Take pictures in the fading light at guinea hour. There's the guineas grazing in colour-coded groups. There's the chicks that slipped out today, quite proud of themselves. Nosey on the left. They're pretty good about following the guineas back in, when they call it a night. The little barred rock again. I'm with you, right? I'm the right colour! Oooh, can I come out?! The small chickens are so cute. They're cute right up until they're suddenly big burly roosters swaggering around.
Sun day
The sun came out and dried up all the rain. Not all - there was a lot of rain. And more wind. This morning, the pig house was upside down. No pigs. That's never happened before (the pig house flipped, certainly not absent pigs). I can picture them bolting out of there as their house lifted off of them. Pigs are easygoing, pleasant, optimistic creatures though, so they had no worries about settling back in after breakfast. I had a good time in the greenhouse, cleaning up, untying strings.
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.
Instagram.
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