Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Picture time!

I was trying to get a nice picture of Freia in the sun because she was partway through her molt and had some dark chocolate and some milk chocolate feathering going on, but it didn't really show up well here. Anyway, she's a pretty lady either way

Flint the gremlin queen being nosy

Vega up to roost the other night.

Chicha

Sumi and Vega were following me around one free-range afternoon

...Until I crouched down and Fifi had to be in my business instead

Flint again, this time doing her best Muppet impression

A close-up of Tash. I just realized the other day how pretty her eyes are!

Big man Birch keeping an eye on his girls

And another shot of Chicha catching the light of the sunset in her glossy feathers the other evening. Goodness, she's such a gorgeous bird!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

So, happy Friday, y'all!

I'm not sure how much my daily life matters here--feel free to skip this post if it doesn't interest you!--but as far as my schoolwork goes, I've officially passed all of my competencies for this semester as of last week! I also absolutely aced the test I had this week on Wednesday, 100% plus both bonus points, so we're doing good in medical emergencies I guess! I have a test in radiology on Monday that I'm sweating a bit over, but a light load of homework for the weekend otherwise at least.

I did find out, entirely thanks to the blood pressure competency I had to do, that I actually have high blood pressure at the moment. For the competency, we took each others' blood pressure manually and then our professor took it and compared numbers with us. My BP was very high that day, scary high, but by the time I had gotten home it was much lower, and by the next day it was only a little elevated over the normal range. So I suspect that it's mostly stress causing it, but I definitely need to talk things over with my doctor and see what we need to do. I'd really prefer not to stroke out from stress this semester! View attachment 4247510

I thiiiink we're at 6 more weeks to go in the semester? Wish me luck!

Congrats on passing your tests. Stress can definitely interfere with blood pressure.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Next, the chickens!

It's been largely routine with them these days. I go to class, come home in the late afternoon/early evening and let them free-range, close them up at sunset, rinse and repeat the next day. DST ending really messed things up because now I'm in class later and don't get home until an hour or so before sunset some days, and the girls aren't terribly pleased, but tolerating it thanks to my carefully timed offerings of pumpkins and other snacks for them to work on while I'm away.

Anyway, during free-range, the corn crib pullets have recently discovered that they can fly up and land on the feed shed, and then walk out of their free-range space and get into shenanigans. Flint seems to be the ringleader in these shenanigans. This week, she let half of the pullets out of bounds and then ran around like a possessed gremlin in the driveway while I struggled to catch her while the other pullets watched from atop the feed shed. So, I've been forced to take one of my little gates that I used to separate broodies and babies in the spring and summer, and put it on the feed shed to keep those crazy pullets where they belong. The whole woods at their disposal for ranging and they want to be in the barren driveway.

Other than that, nothing much exciting has been going on. I do suspect that I may lose both Augusta and Amaretto fairly soon, as both of them haven't been quite right for different reasons lately. I'm keeping a close eye on Caz as well, poor old gal, because she's been a touch dusky and has had some issues with droppings getting caught in her fluffy britches. But everyone else seems healthy, active, and content despite the recently chilly weather.

Next post will be pictures from this week! It should (hopefully?) start us on the next page so my computer can stop making death rattles at me from being on this page

I'm not wishing it, but thinking if the winter is as harsh as they say it will be, I might lose a few as well. They are all doing ok at the moment, but with some of the ages and having dealt with weird issues all summer, I won't be surprised if it happens.

Almost forgot - guess which one is broody?