Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I forgot to post this apparently, but Dandelion laid an egg on Friday with no issue! She'll move back outside tomorrow as it's supposed to be pretty warm, and hopefully she can integrate back in with Zinni, Myrtle, and Gus over the next few weeks without too much of a problem.


I've been looking at how I'm going to rearrange things this spring and getting things planned for when it actually warms up for good. We're still in that rollercoaster warm and cold cycle of late winter, so I don't think I can do much for a while yet, but I'm excited to get birds moved around for spring hatches. Since HPAI has me hesitant to order many more birds or eggs from other farms this year, I'll have to rely on my own birds for my chick fix this year.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I spent most of yesterday outside in the warmth and sunshine setting up a space in the chicken yard for the girls to spread out more. The ground is still frozen enough that I couldn't get any fence posts out of the ground, or back into the ground for that matter, so I had to adjust my plan a bit and make it a smaller area than I initially wanted to, but it's better than nothing and should last through the rest of the cold we're supposed to have over the next couple weeks. No pictures, of course, because I was busy busting my butt getting it all set up. And, naturally, when I opened the coop to that space after all that work, only half a dozen birds actually came out. The ingrates!

I had planned to do some soaping today, but man, I am aching from yesterday. We'll see how the day goes. I got some peppermint oil to make mint soap with, but there were two different kinds so I got both to see which I preferred and I planned to do a mini-batch of both to compare. Just mixing it with the kaolin yesterday, I'm pretty sure I know which I'm going to prefer (it smells sweeter and more candy-cane-like as opposed to the more bitter minty smell of the other one that more closely resembles the actual plant's smell), but I've got the oil anyway so I may as well use it, right?

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I spent most of yesterday outside in the warmth and sunshine setting up a space in the chicken yard for the girls to spread out more. The ground is still frozen enough that I couldn't get any fence posts out of the ground, or back into the ground for that matter, so I had to adjust my plan a bit and make it a smaller area than I initially wanted to, but it's better than nothing and should last through the rest of the cold we're supposed to have over the next couple weeks. No pictures, of course, because I was busy busting my butt getting it all set up. And, naturally, when I opened the coop to that space after all that work, only half a dozen birds actually came out. The ingrates!

I had planned to do some soaping today, but man, I am aching from yesterday. We'll see how the day goes. I got some peppermint oil to make mint soap with, but there were two different kinds so I got both to see which I preferred and I planned to do a mini-batch of both to compare. Just mixing it with the kaolin yesterday, I'm pretty sure I know which I'm going to prefer (it smells sweeter and more candy-cane-like as opposed to the more bitter minty smell of the other one that more closely resembles the actual plant's smell), but I've got the oil anyway so I may as well use it, right?

Nice. I couldn't take advantage of any weather here. The ground is frozen plus a flood zone. I thought about letting the ducks out, but was afraid they would jump from one new "puddle" to another and end up miles away.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's definitely been weather for the ducks, hasn't it? My poor feather-footed chickens are not pleased at all! We're at the top of a hill for the most part, so no flooding, but it still gets muddy and sloppy here. I ended up covered in mud by the time I was done, so I didn't come out entirely unscathed! There was just enough of the ground thawed that it churned into mud as I was walking back and forth through it. A waterfowl paradise for sure!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I finally got my peppermint egg soap done! Phew! I did it in two separate mini-batches to make sure I knew which one had which peppermint oil in it. Then I patterned the top based on the peppermint; straight lines for 1st distill peppermint oil:

And squiggly lines for 2nd distill peppermint oil:

They're both pretty potent and I don't know if my nose was just overloaded with peppermint by the time I was through, but there doesn't seem to be much of a difference now that it's all mixed together. Guess we'll see once they've cured!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Peppermint oil is very strong. Looks good, I can smell it from here.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It is. The whole house smells minty now! I probably used too much, but I was going off of my experience with other fragrances that don't anchor well and went with a stronger (but still skin safe) 'dose' of it in the recipe. That may not have been my wisest choice. But that's hindsight now, I would not have known before.

I do notice as of this morning that the first distill is much stronger than the second distill in the actual soap. Second being much more concentrated, you can't use very much of it in your soap. Both still smell about the same other than the strength of the scent, interestingly enough, so I guess that whole 'one is fresher and one is sweeter' thing may not be the whole truth

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Four days in and the second distill at last has come into its own! I feel like it's the winner as far as my preference for the fragrance goes. It definitely has a sweeter peppermint smell that I like more.


Also I got a full dozen eggs yesterday! Or, at least I would have except for one was broken. Oh, well! I guess we're ramping up for the spring, regardless. That means I can start hatching relatively soon!

One of those eggs was from either Sumi or Vega inside, and of course it was laid at the back corner of their cage so I had to crawl in to get it. Vega decided while I had my hand in there that she wanted to use me as her perch for the night. She looked pretty pleased with herself, too!

We have above-freezing temps in the forecast at least during the day for the foreseeable future, so it shouldn't be much longer before the Old English can go back outside where they belong. Starting to feel like spring is finally coming, here! Man, I love when the world comes back to life after the winter!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I love it too! I want to rip my tarps down, but I'm afraid we could get more snow. I might do it anyway. They will live.
I've got 3 girls laying (plus 3 ducks) - my australorps and one of my EEs. I'm pretty sure its ZuZu as much noise as she was making while going in and out of the nest box. She's not the prettiest nor does she have the best vocals.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Haha, aww, she's trying her best! I have a couple like that, too.

I'm with you on tearing the tarps down! I've been thinking about removing at least part of my wall coverings for more than a week now. Good thing I didn't because we did get snow again in that time, but the temptation is there for sure! I might go ahead now that we seem to be most of the way out of the snow danger zone. Every year, I cover the two most windward walls of the 'deck' part of the coop that's all wire walls with a roof and floor, and every year we inevitably get a snowstorm that comes from the opposite direction so I have to hang feed bags on that wall as well while trying to maintain enough ventilation. If anything, I'll just pull the feed bags down to start.