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!
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!
DH flat out told me he only did minimum to get by and survive until I get home. I've been doing laundry non-stop since I got back. The washer got a real work out and the clothes lines were full for 2 straight days. I managed to buy some stainless steel clothespins while I was visiting family so I get to use them to see if they are any good. Once I get the house cleaned, I'll focus on getting the coop, waterers and duck pool cleaned.
