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Alohacayo said:
Hello, again!
It’s been a while, not even sure how long. It’s been busy around here. Some good, some sad, both in re the chickens and personal.

The chickens! Carla-the-mouth is doing fine. She’s a welsummer, 3yo. We had a blessed few months of silence this winter, but as soon as the eggs started up again in late January, her mouth found its groove again. She still refuses to lay an egg outside like a normal chicken and paces and hollers at the door of the run or the back door to be put into her private chicken condo in the garage. I’ve tried waiting her out…and she’s discovered a new volume she can ratchet up too.

Not-Carla, the cream legbar, also a 3yo, is her same happy go lucky little fool self. She’s still CTM’s sidekick, and she’s also back to laying.

Lucy, the gold laced polish, is not laying yet, but she stopped laying about 30 days later than the other two. She has been arguing with NC over the nest box, so I’m sure she’ll probably start up soon.

Weather-wise here in SoCal, we’ve been much cooler than normal and WAAAAAY above normal rainfall. Everything is soggy, with storms every few days giving 1/2-1” each time. Normal for the year is 12”. We hit that in December, and are at about 20” currently. Here in the desert, that is a lot of water. We will have a super bloom here as soon as it warms up, there hasn’t been one since 1989. Flowers will explode on our hills very soon.

Ethel, the silver laced polish, died in December. She was foraging with the others, and when I went outside to check on them, I found her down. She was completely limp and died before I could even set up a transport kennel for her. I suspected a snake bite (we are in rattlesnake territory), but it wasn’t really warm enough that day. Called the lab to schedule a drop off in case it was avian flu.

It was not avian flu. It was a rattlesnake, a small one, got her in the thigh.

For those that may remember some previous posts, I mentioned she never laid or crowed. Well, she had no development of an ovary. She was a female. She lived a happy life, I hope. She was about 30 months old.

So we are down to 3. Getting 8-11 eggs a week from the two that are laying. I’m debating getting 2 chicks or a pullet this year to freshen them up. I’m thinking speckled Sussex, Araucana (still trying for blue eggs!) or maybe more cream legbars or whiting true blues…. there’s so many pretty chickens!

I set up 5 raised garden beds this year and can’t wait to see how they preform with all the gorgeous compost I’ve gotten out of their run and bin that’s now 1+ years old. Last year our neighborhood had a desert rat infestation, and they destroyed quite a few gardens. The city finally convinced the neighbors to stop leaving out pet food, and several of them removed their giant overgrown palms that had nests in them. I passed all the inspections for the chooks, mostly bc their run is completely enclosed in 1/2” hardware cloth, and food is not left out at night. I still set traps every night, but now only catch an occasional rat instead of many each night. For a while, it wasn’t uncommon to nab 4-6 every single night. They ate all my nasturtiums and destroyed all of my tomato plants.

That’s about it for an update.

Cheers!
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Hello!
I am also in So Cal, High Desert area. This HAS been a crazy year weather wise, I sure miss the sunshine! We uncovered a baby rattlesnake a few months ago, he must have been in hibernation, thank God we found him before the hens, dogs or (especially)our grandson!
Hope all goes well for you and your flock!
May God bless and cover you,
Sara
 
In the mtns said:
Hello!
I am also in So Cal, High Desert area. This HAS been a crazy year weather wise, I sure miss the sunshine! We uncovered a baby rattlesnake a few months ago, he must have been in hibernation, thank God we found him before the hens, dogs or (especially)our grandson!
Hope all goes well for you and your flock!
May God bless and cover you,
Sara
Click to expand...
The baby ones are always spooky to find. Glad no one was hurt! It’s an adventure living out here.
 

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