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Tyranny.

Terrapins, yo.

There was a brief little stint here on this humble blog that my Lone Reader (Hi Mom!) will remember as 'the age of the terrapin' (here here here. For starters). We have turtles GALORE. They are everywhere. There's a big log in our Big Pond that they all sunbathe on, and as you walk down the drive to go to the pond, you can hear the plop plop plop! as they all dive in when they here you coming.

And I just made our fist sighting of the year. Welcome back terrapins!

About 8 inches long.

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Overwintered Artichokes in zone 7. Booya!

Cheepy Video

This is the first time I put anything green in the chick's run. Last year's batch was wary and afraid of the first green thing I chucked in with them, at about the same age ( a very scary cabbage leaf). These (mostly) wyandottes are a whole different story! You can clearly see the difference in size between the batch I bought and the batch of RIR's given to me by my buddy, and I think it clearly showcases what a difference a week makes in the growth of a chick!


Guest appearances by (in order of said appearance): The Greenery, weeds pulled from the garden; Red, the rooster that was spared this past weekend by our lives being too busy; Henrietta, the prodigal hen that should need no introduction; and Zora, the ever-lanky guard German Shepherd.

Awkward!

Little baby chicks are the cutest thing ever. Seriously. They're tiny little cheep cheep cheeping balls of fluffy down. They have their little feet that stick out at a roguish angle, and they look at you with their teensy little faces....

And then they start putting on feathers. They double in size in about a week and a half, and their feathers come in in sheathes... so they look like they have weird colored needles sticking out of their bodies some places, with scraggly bits of down hanging on in others, and full feathers in yet other places. To sum up - they look awkward. They start CHEEP CHEEP CHEEPing, and zooming around while doing so. They start taking dust baths in their pine shavings, and pounce on anything that moves (sometimes their flockmates' heads).

And it's only gonna get worse before it gets better.... I LOVE MY CHICKENS!

Adding to the awkwardness is the excitement over what this mystery chick will turn out to look like!

Wyandottes, mystery chicks, Australorps & RIR's...

HEALTHY Rhode Island Red.  Yup.

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Sage, and new (empty!) beds

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*insert caption here*

RIP

(Grammy: You might want to skip this post. And quite possibly Kerri. I know there's no stopping George.)

The unavoidable-yet-I-wish-I-could-avoid-it thing has happened. We have had to put down (or "whack") one of our roosters, with another one slated for slaughter this weekend. The worst part of it is that it's really my fault. I let myself get overly attached to the roosters, and 3 is too many for 6 girls.

And the warning signs were there. The hens' backs (except for Waddly Wanda) are all torn up. Chicken saddles and blu-kote are necessary here. The manfriend and I walk around going "jeesh our hens look rough" a lot. Red (due to go under the knife this Saturday) charges the spawn and myself whenever he can.

It happened while I was at work, but before I left for work I couldn't find Itty Bitty (the teensiest of our hens, and a New Hampshire Red). The spawn's sister is in town (no. I do not have a blogname for her yet. Bear with me), and the two of us searched for her before I left to no avail. But the manfriend found her when he got home - being terrorized by Big Bunny and literally being ridden to death.

Anyone who has had chickens will tell you they are brutal. The will peck anything red as they LOVE meat, and if one of them is bleeding they'll attack it mercilessly - even if they had been besties 10 minutes before. Our chickens' favorite food (when they can get it)? Chicken. Seriously. They are kind of nasty in that regard.

Big Bunny was our first rooster and he had been through a lot. When we first got little puppy, he got a hold of Big Bunny and  tore all his back feathers out, and maimed his leg. He recovered. Big Bunny rushed the spawn one too many times, and when the spawn defended himself, Big Bunny ended up with a broken leg (in two places, I think) and a mangled foot. Most people would have put him down at that point, but we couldn't. (I told you this was all my fault!) He recovered, but was away from the flock (although visible to them through the brooder run which is right in the middle of where they roam most) for so long that he never really assimilated back into it. He was an outcast the last few weeks of his life, before he managed to catch Itty Bitty (my theory here, remember I wasn't home) and wouldn't let her up.

Itty Bitty *should* be OK - she is in the hutch with food, water with ACV, and a little nest thingy to sit in. Her back is completely bare, and her comb is a bit pecked out. She is COVERED in blu-kote, and if we can keep her from getting an infection, all should be well. We will pop her back in the coop at night so she can stay with the other chickens enough to (hopefully) not get ostracized, but she is absolutely not up to walking around or foraging for food. I hope she does make a full recovery - she is a great member of our flock.

Big Bunny did not suffer and again I am amazed and thankful that I have kids in my life that can be around life and death (as surely it is around us!) and for the opportunity to have a chance to educate them about life and death here on our 'farm'.

Big Bunny and Cindy as teenage sweethearts.

Sunbathing Big Bunny.

RIP Big Bunny.

Belated Epiphany

So... As you know, the clothesline is king around here. I am proud to admit that a) the manfriend brought a dryer when he moved in with me (whoopee!), b) it has never been used (or plugged in*), and c) I have solved the single most annoying laundry conundrum I have had my entire laundry doing life: the single sock issue.

Oh? You didn't want to read a blog post about single socks? Ptooey.

Contrary to popular belief, single socks do not have their own planet that they disappear to.** And crafty as I may be, I do not have a single sock hamper or any such nonsense. I don't have the time, space, or energy, frankly.

I had a sock related epiphany recently and am proud enough of it to share. Also I thought it'd be a nice break from a chicken blogpost :)

So what I do is... I hang up the socks on the clothesline in pairs. I don't bother rooting around in the hamper among the wet clothes for matches, I just hang up single socks on the line and match as I go. Then when I take in the clean clothes....wait for it....WAIT FOR IT....

I leave the unmatched singles outside on the line.

This way when I next do a load of laundry, any single sock in the hamper has a chance to meet its match up on the line. Oddly enough this has greatly reduced the number of single socks I have been stuck with. As in I now I have a single sock every other load or so. (I know. Mind blowing.) This is awesome as well as I have a 7 year old that has the habit of taking his socks off every- and any- where. While I know he owns maybe a gazillion pairs, this helps ensure that every lost sock he owns has a pair :)

Obviously this also means that I am OK with my socks staying out in a rain shower or two, but honestly I can only imagine that the sun and rain do nothing but help our assortment of sports socks that get some pretty heavy wear. 

Yet another upside to this method is that I do not spend copious amounts of time sitting on the floor surrounded by a pile of socks trying to match them while TV's, DS's, laptops, child, roosters, chickens, dogs and whatnot are blaring in the background on the equivalent of a Sunday night on the equivalent of no sleep.

It's the little things!

That little guy met his match in the next load.

* it lives in the barn as a storage vessel

** come ON! GET THE REFERENCE!

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Fruit is setting!

Happy Easter!

Chickens. Class of 2012.

Oh yeah. I have been a way for quite a while, but in that time a LOT has happened. Most notably (cue audible groan from those I work with and speak to regularly - they are so tired of this topic!), we got more chickens.

If you remember, or even if you don't, we weren't planning on getting chickens last year. We were going to wait until this past spring to get some, and then through a weird turn of events we got 8, and then yet another 8. We gained another one from a friend, and lost a few a long the way. To heat, to the new dog, and to the knife. But currently we are holding strong at 9 from last year's batch.

This year, so far, I have the 9 chickens from last year, and 26 new little ones. Bringing the grand fowl total to THIRTY-FUCKING-FIVE chickens. (I have become the crazy chicken lady). I bought 20 chicks, and 6 were from a friend who needed to re-home some itty bitty little red pullets.

The original 20

I bought:

15 Silver-laced Wyandottes

5 Australorps. (the same as our rooster Dexter)

 We had wanted to get some Americaunas and the store thought they still had some, but by the time we go there they thought they were out. I do have 2 chicks that are most certainly NOT silver-laced Wyandottes, and so maybe just maybe they're Americaunas. And even if they're not, it will be exciting to see what they end up being.

Look at those puffy (Americauna-esque?) bearded cheeks!

And definite brown coloring...

 

 

 They were inside for about a week, but then the rubbermaid got a bit small for all 26 of them so we moved them to the brooder. They are all running around zooming this way and about having a great day. They are already taking dust baths in the pine shavings, and stomping on each other's heads. 

Hesitant about taking that first foray into the outside world

Two seconds later they ZOOMED about.

Meanwhile, the original 9 are up to their usual antics:

Dustbaths in MY garden bed.

Their camouflage SUCKS.

We had hoped to add 6 -8 laying hens to our flock (taking into consideration the fact that we'd probably lose a few to heat, etc, and that we'd be planning on eating the cockerels out of the bunch), but we shall see what happens. Especially with the addition of the 6 pullets... Ah well, we shall see. The surprise is most of the fun!

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I love living somewhere with weather again!

Vacation

I know. I've been gone. But I had a good reason for it! I went to Vancouver for my Dad's 60th/my sister's wedding party/a family reunion. It was awesome. We had fun. We drank too much, ate too much, slept too little, all had bad colds, and family members that had never met got to meet. It had been a long time since I had been back on the west coast, and needless to say re-entry is proving kind of tough. I miss my family, the west coast, my family, being able to take vacations, and my family.

And now I'm back to the grind - trying to figure out how to make my family and farm here work around a work schedule and juggle every ball I seem to have in the air at the moment.

I have always had a soft spot for the Aquabus

Vancouver...so gray and shiny.

While it was in the mid-80's at home, it was in the 40's there. We had snow flurries... but the plum tree decided to bloom for us anyway.

I made my sister a Red Velvet wedding...hat. It was tasty.

Chicago. I got bored on the plane.

Terror from the Sky

So... this past Wednesday when I was attempting to play a bit of catch up and get all my veggie starts re-started, we had a bit of a scare. By we, I mean me and the chickens.

I spent just about all day outside. I tossed the dirty dishes and dirty clothes aside (half figuratively and half literally), and spent the day luxuriating in the sun, dirt, and the feeling of (finally!) getting something done.

Albout halfway through my day, I had to go inside to sort through my seed box and find the seeds I needed to plant. My seed box is a crammed to bursting CD storage box, btw. It's slightly bigger than a shoe box. While I was inside I hear the chickens sound their alarm call. I *thought* I had heard it before. I had not. I jumped up, threw my shoes on, and ran outside.

This is the first thing I saw:

cue panic attack.

I heard Zora barking and turned, just in time to see something escape from her grasp and fly up into the trees. I only saw its back, but jeesh it was big. My best guess is a Red-shouldered hawk - I saw it clearly as it went up into a loblolly tree... and while Red-tailed hawks are bigger, and are actually known to munch on free-range chicken, the coloring on the Red-shouldered hawks fits better. It was such a ruddy brown color that at first I thought it had got a chicken. (But it hadn't.) Zora had gotten to it in time, and pounced on it. (It made it up into the tree).

At this point I still didn't know if one of my chickens had been hurt, so I frantically called them (cheep cheep CHEEP!! If you must know) to no avail. Not a single one of them would come out from under the barn, although Wanda in her infinite curiosity peeped her little face out and stared at me as if to say "Are you effing kidding me?". I got some dog food out and scattered that on the ground. Dog food is like crack for chickens. There is nothing they won't do for it. Cindy will jump up into the air to grab it out of your hand. As will Henrietta. And a few others. I crawled around trying to see all the way under the barn to count them. I finally gave up and hovered nervously around until they relaxed enough to come out.

It took like 2 hours. It felt like an eternity. And I *hovered* for the duration.

Finally - FINALLY! - they came out from under the barn. And I counted all 8 (Big Bunny is still in the brooder/infirmary by his lonesome and was fine. Although he full-throatedly participated in the alarm call). Whew.

Many many chickens get snatched by hawks. Many many. So far we have been extremely lucky. I think most of it is probably due to the fact that the chickens' territory is deeply wooded and they are pretty well hidden from view from the sky. Ah well. There went that plan.

On the lookout. (the barn isn't but a foot behind her)

Zora continues to be my hero. And she continues to be on the lookout.

Lizard eyes. Don't be fooled. She can be 50ft away before you realize it.

Survivors

Remember all my griping about the season being early and me being later than normal? Resulting in my being about 2 months behind? Well. I was so excited to get a day off without rain so I could catch up...

So when I went out this morning I was super bummed to find that not only had my seed trays fallen over in the wind, but my row covers had floated up in some places, and the (damn) chickens destroyed all but a few of the green things.

Chard & Kale

Lettuces

I got myself together and decided that I could still get my plants in - even though my broccoli starts were about ready to go in (I TOLD you I was running late!), I will try sowing directly in the ground and see what happens. If I can get my act together and use shade cloth this year, I might be able to get a few heads in before the heat really sets in.

Assuming we can get the rainwater irrigation system in.

I DID manage to get all the current beds that aren't being occupied (about 5) hoed and weeded, and I put up the deer netting I saved from last year up around them. At 3' ft high, they won't do much against the chickens should they really want to get in,  but at the very least I get the satisfaction of a) having done something constructive, and b) the mental image of them running towards the greens, only to be thwarted by some invisible wall. A la Time Bandits. I love my chickens dearly, but they can be destructive as hell sometimes. And if it stays nice this weekend, I have Saturday open and allocated to figuring out a chicken barrier scheme...

But there were a few survivors... in my hacking away with the hoe, I came upon several carrots, 2 Anise Hyssop plants, and an Oregano plant (3 beds and 12ft away from where I planted seeds last year...). The carrots will be dinner this evening. For us, not the chickens. As for the herbs, I picked them up out of the detritus, popped them in some pots, and hopefully their luck will continue to hold out!

The chickens scratched the mulch up over this little guy... and he escaped the fowl play that got the others...

Whoohoo! There turned out to be about twice as many as this handful. The patch I planted for seed also escaped and overwintered fine. Hopefully we'll be planting our own seeds next fall.

Oregano, and Anise Hyssop x2

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Front: garden guard. Rear: garden raider.

Guest Post: Feather Frost

My mother wrote this and sent me the pictures. As an email. (I know. I'm sneaky like that) She has, if I may say so myself, quite a way with words and can sum things up quickly. She lives in Vancouver, BC, right on the edge of the UBC Endowment Lands Ecological Reserve and Pacific Spirit Regional Park. She runs the trails there, and I used to walk Zora there everyday (sometimes twice) when I visited. It's quite the gorgeous spot and all rainforesty in a way that only the pacific Northwest can be.

This is cool!  I don't know if you have seen this before--I felt like I hadn't, and I really love when it happens.  It's called "feather frost" and it happens when the weather has been warm-ish and wet, and then turns clear and cold overnight.  The moisture in the dead and fallen logs along the trails in the park at the end of our street squeezes out in these wonderful feathery shapes.  I saw it this morning and gave up on my run to come home, get my camera and finally take some pictures (I always mean to do that and never get around to it!).  So here they are.  The first picture gives you a sense of how it looks on a log on the ground.  The second two are some close-ups.  Gorgeous, eh?

Germinating on an Idea

So a little while ago, I had a thought. The Chicken Palace we built, while awesome and spacious, is not necessarily easy to clean. When we built it, we were concerned with security from (as of yet non-existent) predators and with speed as the little chikety-chicks were already cheep cheep cheeping their way through tinyhood in a Rubbermaid tub in the barn....with another batch in my bathtub. It had 12inches of chicken wire extended from the walls and tacked down on the ground. None of this is too big of an obstacle, except that in order or reinforce the walls and doorway, we have a 2x4 standing up on edge all along the foot print. Making it just a bit of a pain to muck anything up and out.

We also didn't put in enough litter for it to be really deep litter and therefore substantial enough to get it out. And the rain has a tendency to pour down the hill, make it in the palace, but doesn't really make it out...

And I'm kinda pressed for time/lazy.

A friend of mine also sent me a whole bunch of seeds.

And I thought it might be nice to suck up some of the nitrogen with seedlings and help break the chicken poop down while giving the chickens a snack in the spring (they're in a different coop over the winter). I'm not necessarily trying to get rid of the poop - that would take years and probably something more tenacious than mesclun mix and carrots, like fescue or something - but just something to help it break down into dirt faster. But chicken poop is really hot, and this was uncured chicken poop. The chickens had only been vacant from the palace for about 2 months? 3? Not nearly long enough for the poop to have cured and turned into something less hot.

But I figured that we had a crazy cold snap coming (it's been a super mild winter here...), and that I had nothing to lose really as I had seeds coming out of my ears. I was banking on the super cold snap protecting the seeds from getting burnt. (OK not the same, but work with me here). So I raked a few packets of various kinds of seeds into it and promptly forgot about it for a few weeks.

A nice variety. Just in case.

Success! If you look closely, you can see that the carrot seeds have come up, too.

That last photo was taken 2 weeks ago, and the seedlings are even bigger now. If nothing else, the chickens get a brief snack for 10 minutes worth of my time. Worth it to me!

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Good morning.