~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[1muttsfan]

Sounds like a maternity ward in your yard - makes me nostalgic for spring, since fall has now settled in here for good.

 

[sherylreno]

Hey Linda - I just noticed your coffee cup from BYC! I drink coffee all day long and it's always in that cup too!

 

[gryeyes]

Hey Linda - I just noticed your coffee cup from BYC! I drink coffee all day long and it's always in that cup too!

Oh, yah!! It's my number one favorite coffee cup!

Sorry I haven't been on-line for a week or so, but lots of things have have been going on (at a slow, retired rate). I had taken quite a few photos of Gloria The Boy to share with y'all (and for assistance from folks in determining gender), but I found her dead last Friday morning and was quite depressed about it for a while. No evidence of predation, no feather loss, no blood, no sign of a broken neck, she was just "dead right there" near the patio where she liked to wait for me. Maybe she wasn't a "bantam" Orp after all, but a ..... handicapped chicken with a congenital heart defect or sumpin'. I dunno. It's still very sad for me. S/he always followed me like a puppy and was totally unafraid of Dooley's "get out of the house!" barking. S/he even let him sniff him/her when he realized that chicken wasn't afraid of his fierce warnings.


I let the Midget White turkey poults and their crew of 5 BCMilkies out of their "grow out" coop and planned to baby-sit for the integration, but it turned out I had to rescue both Mitch and Madge from the BBB turkeys! Both Edgar (formerly Edna) and Edmond (formerly Edith) viciously attacked them. Chased them down and pecked at their heads relentlessly for the 3 minutes it took for ME to yank 'em off the babies. Back into their safe coop went the kids. I waited about 3 days, let them out again, and the big turkeys didn't even blink an eye. "Oh, those little white things? Piffle - no threat to us. Oh look - we can get to their feeder and eat all their food now!"

Angus and Kate also stepped in to protect the new batch o' youngsters as if they were.... well..... just like the ducklings they shepherded. Both geese nibbled the turkey poults very gently without any aggression, like massaging the backs of their necks and between the wing-blades. Just adorable to watch. Integration successful!

The Momma hens are now squiring their babies around in the yard, except for the 3 fraidy-chicks which continue to stay behind in the large kitty litter nest box. Bernadette cannot get them to come out - yet! - but I keep a waterer and feed in there with them so they don't perish. As each of the 8 chicks hatched in that nest DO brave the jump(s) to get to the coop floor, I've remembered to look for and capture little ones who can't make it back up to the shelf and nest box (despite all the paint buckets, blocks of wood and suchlike placed to assist them) so they make it under a Momma hen at night. Beatrice and Sister 1 simply nest down in private spots on the floor with a chick or three; I guess they decided to leave the harder work of calling chicks up off the ground to Bernadette. Uhhhh... and my evening chick chasing efforts.

Here's Bernadette with TWO chicks yesterday, and THREE chicks today.
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I've got a hen with wry neck in the house so she doesn't have to compete for food and water (or be bothered by roosters). She doesn't complain much about the situation, just squawking every now and again if she's knocked all her feed out of its dish. I've kept her in a cage and now think it's time to set up the large brooder bin for her so she can have a bit more room and scratch in pine shavings. If she hops out of it to go on a surveillance trip, that shouldn't be too awful. I really need to learn how to treat wry neck, though!

One would think I butcher chickens all day long, every day, by the fantastic number of feathers everywhere. Of course, *I* don't butcher any at all; excess crowing roosters get sent to HH and FL's Freezer Camp. But it's Moulting Time here at the Olmstead Homestead. Really nice, large turkey and geese feathers (plus any curled rooster tail-feathers) are something I like to save. Don't ask me why - I don't do anything clever like crafts with 'em.

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Almost looks like Lizbeth is trying to see Where The Chicken Went, doesn't it????

****** Today was another scorcher, so I didn't spend much more than a few minutes outside at a time. I managed to get these shots of the Midget White turkey poults...... for posterity, I guess. Madge is the one looking directly into the camera lens. And that's Edmond following the pair of poults along the terrace edge just outside the garden fence.

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When I went out to the coop to top off the feeders and check on the fraidy-chicks in their nest box, I found Mitch's lifeless body inside the ducks' broody dog house. (No ducks brooding right now, it's empty. Chicks play in it right now.) I don't know why he died. It's exactly a week since I found Gloria dead. I am so saddened. So is Madge - she's been hooting for Mitch most of the evening. She followed me around while I refilled all the yard waterers. When I put her in the mini-coop with the BCMilkies, she came back down the ramp into the lower pen area to mournfully hoot some more. Her plucking at the hardware wire in attempts to get out just broke my heart. She finally hooted herself to sleep.

I had quite a few more photos to share but I'm just not up to it right now.

Oh, except for this adorable one of Dooley on the sofa. See the tail wagging blur?

 

[Glasshen]

So sorry to hear of your losses. It has to be hard, I know that each one is special and well loved, and will be remembered. There is a little voice in the back of my head saying you know, this is a subject you should prepare for...but I know that there is no way to prepare for the death of a loved one, and I will just have to grieve when it happens.

My original girls are starting to molt too. First time for me, but the feathers are going in the compost, for yummy vegetables next year.

Keep letting us hear about your flock, we love it!

 

[1muttsfan]

Sounds like your hens have a very flexible child rearing agreement. And your geese sound so sweet.

It is sad to loose our little friends. We can only console ourselves with the knowledge that while they were here they had a great, fulfilling, happy life.

 

[gryeyes]

After weeks of temperatures in the nineties, Autumn decided to saunter in this direction to deliver some blessedly cooler days. Just 3 days ago. I actually wore a light robe over my red nightshirt this morning whilst drinking coffee on the deck. Mid-fifties in the mornings, highs in the 70s. NICE!

HHandbasket won 15 chicks in Facebook contest with Meyer Hatchery: 3 pullet chicks each of the following breeds: Barred Rock, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, Blue Andalusian, and light Brown Leghorns. She was over the moon about it. When the chicks arrived early last week, she discovered she was "shorted" one Andalusian pullet but had four Black Australorps. I tell you this because she gave me a BA and a BO from her winnings; not much better way to cheer up than having babies chirping in their brooder in the house.

And sexed pullets! Given the Olmstead Homestead hatch ratio of cockerels to pullets, it's nice to know I might not have to send either of these chicks to HH's Freezer Camp.

Madge is very friendly, always searching me out to follow me, inspect whatever it is I'm doing, or to jump in my lap for a nap in the crook of my arm.

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She hopped right onto John's shoulder (he accused me of putting her there). I didn't catch the shoulder shot, but got this one right afterwards. His handling didn't faze her in the least once she was back on the ground.



Bernadette managed to get the rest of the dual-momma chicks out of the nest box and is now raising six of them herself. Beatrice is raising one, Sister 1 is raising two, and Rhoda actually managed to HATCH a chick from the jumble of eggs gathered in the roll-away next box! (I gave up removing the eggs and let them collect until there were a few backed up into the nest where Rhoda could incubate 'em.) Two three year old hens (Bernadette and Rhoda) going broody for the first time and successfully becoming mothers. Amazing.

Bernadette has always been a high-ranking hen, with roost rights on the top bar with Carl, Bernard and some other senior hens. She got five of those six chicks up that ladder roost to the one immediately below the Boss level. Her sixth chick was on the coop floor, frantic. I picked it up and set it next to Bernadette; she raised a wing for it to join the other five. The jostling caused two chicks to fall down - nice, thickly piled pine shavings, so no injury - and one of the two hopped right up those ladder rungs back to safety. The other was the one I'd "helped." Okay, so maybe one of the Mama Hens on the floor with their chicks would take it...... hey - look! Rhoda has a new chick in that roll-away nest! Maybe she'll take this one too...

Noop. She was really fierce about her solo chick - that one and NO others! So I put the twice-fallen chick back up next to Bernadette again. Success!

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Lessee, what else is new.... John painted the propane tank the same color as the house. See how it no longer sits there like a big tan Stupid Thing In The Yard? The change to green panels over the deck was also a great touch.

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Yes, that IS a chandelier hanging under the deck cover. There are two more of them hanging in the screened porch; they're battery operated on timers. I love the way they look illuminated at night.

The majority of the new garden fence has been completed. I'm only utilizing plastic garden fence material to close the gap between the back corner of the house and the back property fence; John and I will build that much shorter section tomorrow. There will be another, self-closing gate built there, too, so I don't have to walk all the way through the house off the deck to get out of the garden any more!

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The garden fence has constructed with conduit, lots of Ts and Ls and bolts and nuts, plus baling wire to secure the chicken wire to the frame. Far cheaper than galvanized "chain link" materials, and the chicken wire is only intended to keep the flock out of the garden.

The gate opens outward, so no pushy poultry can finagle it open. A spring pulls it closed. Slender, light bodied birds could possibly vault over the five foot fence, but it's a breeze to get them OUT of the garden now! Prop the gate open with a bucket and herd the birds out of the garden. I don't have to chase, corner, and lift chickens over the fence any more. The chicken wire nearly "disappears" so the garden area is visible as one approaches the house. I just have to re-arrange things, now that John has finished painting the house.

I don't think any of THESE flock members are gonna get over that five foot fence..

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But, until the last section is built, there is no "tunnel" along the fence "behind" the garden. The ducks are the most annoyed about that situation. Although I didn't get a shot of the entire Duck Contingent massing behind the house where that tunnel USED to be, I did catch this moment this afternoon to illustrate the issue. Imagine the whole group pictured in the next two photos stopped at that barrier - they had all trooped through the tunnel which used to be there.

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John finished painting the exterior coop wall and yes, it does look much better without the white "pinstripes." The house green top section and trim completes the look - plus it showcases the coop sign much better. Even a pair of praying mantis approves of the pinstripe removal.


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John also strung the solar-powered Chinese lanterns over the patio. The turkeys were not too sure about those colorful hanging things, though.

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Oh! My next door neighbors with chickens had a patio table with four chairs out in their yard for some time; I bought it from them for $30.00 - they even delivered it onto my patio for me! It's been moved closer to the driveway (first photo) but here's a view of the lanterns stretched across the patio when the table and chairs were first placed. The lanterns are really nifty looking at night.

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While the next picture is pretty lousy, it gives some sense of a little project I just loved creating: solar powered fairy lights INSIDE one of the fire pits; there's no burning - even in fire pits - this time of year, but I get the same cozy effect from the warm glow of the fairy lights.


And that's it for THIS post. It's getting too danged long to keep adding photos. More later - I promise!

 

[HenCrazyMom]

I love your posts and check daily for updates! Keep up the delightful sharing!!!!

 

[caspernc]

The change has been amazing!! Our BYC reality show. Love it.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I'm still following most of this thread and Linda you have got yourself a paradise there!

 

[Wisher1000]

Beautiful, Linda!