What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

Yes, the scent of those is so sweet miView attachment 3585479ss all the tropical flowers. This is what we have here. Made this for my sweet 95 year old lady friend who was in the hospital.
Oh, what a good mama! The chicks are quite big already.

Did you arrange those? They're just lovely!
My grandad used to grow spectacular dahlias and crysanthemums. Happy memories.

 

[Shetland lover]

No maintenance, carefree incubators. Lucky you?

I definitely think so! Pru will not be budged from the nest while she's brooding and is such a gentle, attentive mom. She also is generous enough to share the chicks (and the care of them!) with me from day one, so they learn to trust me straight away. Another huge benefit to her raising them is no potentially tough integrations with the rest of the flock later on.
I've never used an incubator. Never needed to.

 

[Shetland lover]

I don't like ants, I try to stay clear of the ant piles in my yard!

Ants fascinate me! We have loads on our allotment, black and red wood ants. I'm sure the red ants have formed a super-colony. I once spent an entertaining half hour watching them dismantle a corner of puff pastry and carry it off.
I might feel a bit different if it was fire ants or bullet ants I had to deal with!

 

[Shetland lover]

Funnily I don't have any hens that do that...but I have one peahen and a goose that do. The peahens very polite about it... she just squats and looks confused when I walk by and ignore her. Goosebumps on the other hand gets mad if I don't put my hand on her back and give her a shake. If I give her a shake shes happy and goes back to her tortoise to bill his back and make soft sounds...if I don't she follows after me, bills my leg, shivers her neck at me, and honks as loud as she can.

Gladys won't get in the coop at bedtime unless I give her back a shake and her floofly butt a pat. DH was mortified when he put them to bed once when I was too ill. He didn't believe me and thought he wouldn't need to. An hour and a half later he gave in and gave he what she wanted. He said he felt dirty afterwards...

 

[Shetland lover]

Busy couple of days for me.

After searching for Mochi high and low all morning, noon and night, I startled awake from a dream of a cat meowing at almost 12 straight up. I jumped out of bed and went outside in the dark forest and started calling for Mochi again... and he responded ♡♡♡♡ I then made my way to him and scooped him up. He spent the day napping after much to eat that early morning.View attachment 3585889
Last eve I rode down the hill as I was scheduled to do some trapping for KCCP. I made my dh a nice big pot of pretty yummy spaghetti and then took off to do my thing. I spent about 2-3 hours trapping at nice man's house. I was only allowed 4 spots for spay and neuter last night. I got 4, was thinking one kitten may be too young so set a few traps near my house and caught the tom I have been wanting to get and fixed forever. He just went in for surgery about an hour ago. Sooooo happy ♡♡♡

Also, nice man's cat colony is really sick so KCCP was able to diagnose, medicate and will provide me with the antibiotics and flea drops to treat the whole colony. I just gotta ride down the hill everyday for the next 5 days to do it. hehehe. Ok 🏍

Chickens?View attachment 3585891
Well, my rooftop layer seems to be putting them in the nest boxes again, yippee. And even though girls have slowed laying, I still have another 6 dozen to take down the hill.

I did not freerange the gang today because they have basically been being bad and just hanging out tramping the garden instead of wandering and chomping till their hearts delight. Kind of defeats the whole freerange thing and I don't want to spend the whole 1-3 hours shooing them so they don't flatten and kill everytlivinggreenthing in the front garden. Plus needed catch up nap.

Tonights trapping got canceled due to vets not able to get to all 50+ cats today and mine being delayed. So. That is ok. Next time right? Happy to just hang up here with all of my sweeties.

I'm so happy Mochi is o.k.
And great work with the other kitties too. So good that you are able to help make their lives safer and better.

 

[Nomadicus]

If I don't get to sleep soon my girls are going to be late seeing me. It's a good thing they have their feeders and water fountains full. They have spacious coops so if I'm a couple of hours late it only means they have to use the right nest boxes.

 

[Shetland lover]

It has rained solidly for 48 hours! I went outside at about 10a.m. to check on everyone and saw Stan outside the run, looking more like a drowned rat than a chicken. My first thought was that Ferdy had sent him to the naughty step again. I then went into the run. The girls were bone dry. Ferdy, however, was as soaked as Stan. Scooped them both up and put them straight in a warm bath, then towelled off and blow dried. When i watched my security camera footage, it appeared they had been taking turns to patrol the garden after the falcon returned and took a young starling. So proud of them for working together!

This is what they looked like:

And post bath:

Stanley did really well for his first bath and blow dry. Just a bit of anxious moaning while he was getting a pedicure.
Ferdy is an old hand with it, of course. I might as well be bathing a stuffed toy! Think he might have been a calming influence on Stan. Stan's nearly 9 moths now but no where near as chilled as his dad.

 

[Nomadicus]

It has rained solidly for 48 hours! I went outside at about 10a.m. to check on everyone and saw Stan outside the run, looking more like a drowned rat than a chicken. My first thought was that Ferdy had sent him to the naughty step again. I then went into the run. The girls were bone dry. Ferdy, however, was as soaked as Stan. Scooped them both up and put them straight in a warm bath, then towelled off and blow dried. When i watched my security camera footage, it appeared they had been taking turns to patrol the garden after the falcon returned and took a young starling. So proud of them for working together!

This is what they looked like:View attachment 3586010View attachment 3586015

And post bath:View attachment 3586012View attachment 3586013View attachment 3586014

Stanley did really well for his first bath and blow dry. Just a bit of anxious moaning while he was getting a pedicure.
Ferdy is an old hand with it, of course. I might as well be bathing a stuffed toy! Think he might have been a calming influence on Stan. Stan's nearly 9 moths now but no where near as chilled as his dad.

Two handsome and very well mannered and loyal boys.

 

[Nomadicus]

They have been taken care of for the first half of the day. About 2pm they get another feed and water check. They will have a much more pleasant temp today and so will I.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

With all the rain, heat and humidity the grass (weeds) are knee deep to a tall dog. Cut the crew loose and it didn't take them long to fall in behind the mower. Bugs, bugs and zoomies. They're a happy busy bunch for the rest of the day, protein, protein and protein. Gotta love it.