A chicken turned up dead earlier today. One of the hens we got from the neighbor who moved away last year. There was no obvious physical trauma, so I don't know the cause. It could have been stress of some sort. I actually don't even know how old she is, so it's possible her problems were age related. I apparently don't have too great of an ( Read more... )

I should have posted this nearly a month ago. Our broody hen successfully hatched three chicks, of the two we brought inside, one survived.

Flufkin, the Ameraucana/Silkie, born September 11th.


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On of C's hens has gone broody. She started about 4 days ago, so I expect if anything is to come of it we should know in 2 to 3 weeks.

I've read somewhere that the average homeowner doesn't stay in the home longer than five years. Funny thing averages. We've been here 11 years. Our three closest neighbors were here before we moved in and until last Friday they were all still here.

Unfortunately, for us, our favorite ones moved to be closer to the grandbaby. We had both a love of ( Read more... )

So the other night I went to check for eggs in the nesting box and found this instead.


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I found Flop, C's Rhode Island Red, dead this morning. She was roosting last night and hadn't been acting noticeably off lately, so this came as a very bad surprise. She was still in the protected enclosure area, and intact, so I don't think it was predators. Best guess is the heat got to her. She was our oldest chicken; the last from the batch ( Read more... )

Yesterday I was stir crazy enough to contemplate getting straight run ducks and an incubator. The only thing stopping me was the mask mandate.

S and I toyed with the idea together. The discussion of males ducks got us around to her rooster. She misses Mr. Scary Bird. We decided that if there were a particularly mean male duck, it would probably end ( Read more... )

I can't believe we are already more than 6 weeks into this whole mess. My nervous energy productivity has shifted into resigned to the new normal laziness. None the less, I still managed to unload three bales of hay and 10 bags of feed before S needed the truck to get to work this morning. I also dewormed the horses and scrubbed out and refilled ( Read more... )

Charlie is wonderful and we loves him.

Finger signing to help the girls study showed me how stiff my right hand can become.

C and I are trying to make a daily habbit of walking Pete.

H's future roomate came by to meet Charlie, so C gave her the chance to hold a chicken and pet a goose.

I love how friendly this latest batch of chickens has become. All I have to do is sit down in their yard and they'll come over to beg for treats, peck at my clothing hoping it's food, and generally hanging out nearby. Okay, so maybe their true motivation is their stomachs, but they do all this near us, so we can anthropomorphize accordingly.


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