Hey everyone! I thought I would stop by and say good morning and hope your summer is going well. It is flying by too fast as far as I'm concerned. I went home for three weeks so the weeks leading up to the trip were crazy busy as I prepared my veggie garden and animals to be tended by DS in my absence. And, since I've been back, its been almost three weeks of "catch up". DS tried to keep up with the weeds but with all the rain we had while I was gone, they got away from him so I've spent hours weeding the garden as well as doing "bug sweeps". My potatoes were infested with potato bugs, which it turns out chickens don't like. So I carry a peanut butter jar with water in it and remove every bug and drop it in the water to drown. Same with squash bugs on the zucchinis. Cabbage moths were fluttering around all my greens so I keep a butterfly net out there to catch those, and the cabbage worms that have emerged from the eggs they lay go into a dry peanut butter jar to be fed to the chickens when I'm done. They love seeing that jar coming!!! Every morning and evening I spend a couple of hours trying to rid the garden of the various bugs - YIKES. I think I'm winning the battle but I'm not completely out of the woods yet.
Meanwhile, the animals themselves have been keeping me busy. Several broody chickens gave it up while I was gone while others are STILL broody, taking up nest boxes and not laying. One barred rock hen finally hatched a single chick a few days before I got back. She and another BR hen were brooding together in the dog igloo that is in the chicken yard and unfortunately this egg is one that was laid by who-knows-which hen, so is a mutt I was trying to so hard NOT to hatch this year. It is a cute little thing though, and DS was so tickled when it hatched, sending me pics of it and regular updates. The hen who had not hatched it kept brooding but as of a few days ago, gave up on her eggs and is now co-parenting that one little chick so at least it has value as having broken two broody hens
Another chick has also broken two broody hens but in a totally different situation. This is a little BR chick that I gave to my blue cochin before I left. When I returned the chick was still with its mother and was about 4 weeks old. For the first few days I was back, the mother still cared for the chick but one day decided it was ready to be on its own, so she abandoned it and resumed laying. The chick, meanwhile, did NOT think it was ready to be on its own, so it glommed onto a broody hen who had a nest on the floor of the coop. At first she just slept under the hen at night. But I noticed she started acting kind of like a newborn chick - a little wobbly on her legs, very frail, clearly needing mothering. Eventually she convinced the broody hen to be her mother and it was heart-warming to see that hen emerge with her "newly hatched 5-week-old chick" and start clucking to it to show it how to eat. A week later, she and the chick are firmly bonded, and the hen is no longer broody. Yay!!!
A turkey went broody as soon as I left so a week after I got back, her poults hatched. The timing was perfect as I had turkey eggs in the incubator that hatched the same day so I gave her the ones from the incubator to raise. She had been sitting on a mixed nest of chicken, duck and turkey eggs so everything that didn't hatch went into the incubator.
A duck had started brooding before I left and I gave her quite a few eggs. The Thursday after I got back, she hatched THIRTEEN ducklings. I was thrilled because I haven't had a lot of luck with ducks hatching their own eggs in the past. The two duck eggs that were in the incubator, I had no idea how long they'd been incubated so it wasn't until 9 days after the ducklings hatched that the first duck egg in the incubator also hatched. A day and a half later, the second duckling in the incubator emerged. I really didn't want to raise ducklings myself but worried that 10 days age difference was too much to add them to the mother with thirteen ducklings. However I was able to successfully integrate the two new little ducklings into the established family and the mother is now caring for FIFTEEN!!!
After I got back and did a head count, I realized I was missing a duck. At first I thought she was away brooding somewhere but when 9 days went by without ever catching her out eating, I decided she must have been taken by a predator. The next evening I walked outside and there she was! I followed her back to her nest - under the front porch - and found she has built an enormous nest right under our front door. It is inaccessible to me, but I can see her sitting on what looks like a throne. Of course, I have no idea how long she's been there so its just a wait-and-see game as to when they start to hatch. Muscovies take 5 weeks and I've been back for almost three so even if she only started brooding the day I got back, she shouldn't have more than two weeks left.
So anyway, that's it for me. Between the outside and trying to get the inside of the house up to scratch again (think two guys left to their own devices for three weeks. 'Nuff said.) I seem to run all day long and collapse exhausted into bed at the end of the day. Its all good though. Hope all is well for my fellow Kansas peeps!
Sounds like y'all have been busy!
We've been working on getting the goose house up. For now they go into a stall in our garden shed at night. We picked about 50 lbs of sandhill plums. Already have ten jars of jelly and four and half gallons of juice left over. We've ran more cannerfuls of green beans, and picked lots of various types of peppers. Our pattypan squash is producing quite nicely, the tomato plants are loaded and we will begin pickling cucumbers next week.
The last batch of baby chicks graduated to the big chicken house and pen and are doing wonderful. I'm thinking we should have moved them two or three weeks ago. I've lost four of my Lavender babies, one of my Swedish Speckles, one of my Buff Laced Polish, and two of my Golden Polish. I've never lost so many chicks. Ever. But then I've never raised baby chicks this time of year when it's so warm. Two of the other chicks started acting droopy, including my last Golden Polish. But I decided to move them anyway. And I'm glad I did, Those that were droopy have made a complete turn around and are now bright eyed and bushy tailed again, all happily scratching and acting like their larger counterparts.
The geese have gotten huge and beautiful! I just adore them so much.
Oatbucket, I'm so sorry for your losses on the chicks. I have been finding that the sooner I can move them outside the better they do. I think sometimes we just take too good of care of them if you know what I mean. They can have illnesses come up while in the brooder that they wouldn't get outside, plus they develop a better immune system I think. While it's this warm outside I'm taking advantage of it & moving chicks out as soon as I feel they can handle it. I did lose 5 in a rain storm because I forgot to shut them in that night, but other than that they have done very well out there. I went out & checked on them this afternoon & they were all crowded into a spot that was sunny just enjoying the sun in the outside pen. I haven't been shutting them in at night unless I know it's going to rain overnight.
danz, I'm sorry about your damage, I'm glad you didn't lose more chicks in that.
I've been slowly integrating my young birds from the growout pen into their respective pens or into the main coop. Last night I moved all of my Welsummer pullets & young rooster & one Cinnamon Queen pullet I had kept. They all stayed in the coop & run all day today even though they could get out with the door open. Right at time to shut them all in for the night the smallest Welsummer pullet decided to make a run for it & came out of the run as I was shutting them all in. She took off towards the growout pen, I can't figure out how these birds know how to find where they had been but they seem to be able to even when they're young. I just went on about finishing up feeding & she came over to the growout pen door & I let her in. I guess she'll go out with the other two when I take them to the coop. Maybe she wasn't quite ready to go. I got such a kick out of my young BCM cockerel when I put the new birds in last night. He's at the teenage stage right now, just started crowing & acting like a rooster. He greeted the new birds & did his I'm the boss dance for them, it was really funny to watch. It was like he was telling them I'm the main man here. He's really turning out to be a pretty guy. Here is a pic of him, he wouldn't turn around.
Beautiful picture there Oatbucket! Speaking of sandhill plums, I used to have a coworker who makes fresh sandhill plum jelly with jalapeno peppers and it was to die for. Sadly she retired earlier this year so no jelly this year.
Thank you so much. I'm at your mercy. As of right now I don't have any real plans for the rest of the month. Maybe you can show me how to pluck, too, it would be a great skill to have.
