Getting Creative About Bedtime

Well, at nine feet off the ground and thickly surrounded by spruce branches, at least it is a relatively safe choice of sleeping quarters--unlike their bedtime decision the other evening.

(photo taken in the dark, before picking the chicks of the the branches and locking them away for the night.)

Bedtime for Babies

 I moved their cage 10 feet today while they were out playing so they could have fresh grass tomorrow while I am at work. For the first time since they have been out, they couldn't find the cage come bedtime and cuddled up under the daylilies instead. (No, they didn't get to stay there for the night!)

Exploring the Wide Wide World

Our new flock of California White pullets got to spend the day outside exploring the jungle of grass and weeds and learning about the delights of  bugs and worms and wood sorrel.



Nine days old.

All under my watchful eye, of course---as I weeded the blueberries, potted up tomato plants and power washed the picket fence that encloses the front flower garden---because our number one egg thief and wanna be baby snatcher was prowling around the coop and yard in broad daylight this afternoon.



The neighborhood leucistic raccoon.



   (Of which I need to get a better photo.)

One Day Old

Two of the newest additions to our flock of laying hens.

Linked to Macro Monday.

Spring Work on 13 Acres

Our little flock of chickens gathers to watch and follow behind us as we dig out invasive weeds from our woods--garlic mustard, box alders, mulitflora roses, and autumn olives. The fight to create a beautiful, healthy woods seems to never end. The chickens don't mind, though. To them the sound of digging means only one thing--easy to find bugs and worms!

I decided to expand the garden this spring (as if I need more work to do)! Actually we decided to plow up an additional patch of ground specifically as a pumpkin patch. I don't feel obligated to keep the pumpkin patch weeded once the plants start vining. A separate patch will free up already prepared ground for more vegetables and flowers (and hopefully keep the main garden looking less weedy).

(Breaking ground for the pumpkin patch.)

The work on our little farmstead never ends. I am just grateful for two days off in the middle of this week, and the cooler weather we have right now that has slowed down the growth of weeds and invasive plants.

A New Nursing Job

Chickens in the barnyard. Photo taken 12/4/11.

(This week I've been calling my husband morning and evening to remind him to let the chickens out of the coop in the morning and then lock them up for the night. And to tell him I love him, of course. :)

I started a new nursing job on Monday. This wasn't a planned change. At the end of October the home health care company I was working for made the unexpected announcement they were closing most of their Michigan offices, including the one I worked out of. That left all their employees scrambling to look for new employment. Thankfully for most of us, this turned out to be less difficult than we had initially expected.

The company I now work for was looking specifically for a home care nurse to cover the area between my corner of the county I live in and the the medium size town about 25 miles away. When we moved out to the country two and a half years ago, I had resigned myself to the idea that I would be driving a good distance to any workplace and as long as I am in home care, I would be driving hundreds of miles a week. That is the price of living far out in the country and since I love doing home care, I just put a smile on my face and gas in the car. Then I soaked in the beauty of long drives on country roads and enjoyed spending time getting to know patients who often lived far out in the country in crumbling old farm houses. It was not unusual for me to drive over 1,000 miles a week in my previous job.

With this new job, I am hopeful that I can still enjoy the beauty of country roads and visiting with elderly farmers and country folks---but it sounds like I will be able to do it in a smaller driving radius, which means less driving, more time to finish charting on the job, and maybe getting home earlier and spending less time finishing charting in the evening. One can always hope and once again try to be more organized and efficient!

The next several months will tell. In the meantime I am spending this week in a hotel about 85 miles from my home in a classroom setting, learning the ins and outs of the new company. Next week I will be back in my own part of the country seeing patients. While this was not a change that I was looking for or desired, it certainly does appear to be a change for the good. I am looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

(Snow covered teasels--photo taken this morning at the edge of my hotel parking lot.)

Rooster Dilemma

Sometimes I wish I had paid more attention to our flock of chickens when I was growing up. They were just part of life--I remember chasing them out the garden, collecting eggs, lots of chicken droppings in inconvenient places, and eating them when they got old. I don't remember much about dynamics in the chicken coop.

(The rooster with his hens.)

As a result, I'm completely at loss when the sweet black australorp rooster that I hand picked to keep out of seven roosters, suddenly decided to grow up and  misbehave. I'm sure he is just being a rooster, but my gosh, he couldn't be more obnoxious! (Yes, seven of these 12 chicks turned out to be roosters--I was hoping for six hens, but ended up with five.)

 In addition to the five little hens that were part of the dozen chicks I bought this spring, I have three older hens, who I raised from chicks 3 years ago. This rooster has no interest what so ever in the young hens. Given the opportunity, he spends all day chasing and mating with the older hens. The older hens hate this and act like they are deathly afraid of him, and it it is also tearing out their back feathers and bloodying their combs. With winter approaching, it is important that the hens be in the best health possible so they can overwinter well.

(My california whites--these were my illegal back yard hens when I still lived in the city.)

I leave the laying hens in the coop until after they have laid their eggs for the day. When the hens are cooped up, the rooster literally spends hours pacing back and forth in front of the coop, trying to get in. He is clearly upset by not being able to get at the older hens.

(Waiting for the older hens to be let out of the coop.)

The last few days I have been grabbing the rooster when I let the young hens out of the coop in the morning and locking him up in solitary confinement. I hate locking a chicken up. It is so against the nature of a chicken to be in a cage. They are made to hunt for bugs, take dust bathes, and to run around in the sunshine and fresh air. It seems positively cruel to keep one locked up most of the day. The older hens do go to  bed about an hour earlier than that the young hens, so I am able to let him out for a little while at the end of the day.

Interestingly, the younger hens all hang around the cage with rooster when they are out. This is actually a good thing. The australorps are diggers unlike the California whites and can quickly do a lot of damage in the garden...so confining the rooster seems to limit how far his flock of hens goes.

(Locked up in solitary confinement for multiple counts of rape.)

I'm linking this post to the Barn Hop over at Homestead Revival. For those of you who have a flock of hens with a rooster, what is your experience? I have read that you really need six hens to one rooster.  I have 9 hens all together. Once the 5 young ones are mature (they should start laying in October) will this rooster be less obnoxious  toward the older hens?  Other than this one problem, he seems to be a pretty decent rooster. I don't want to give him away if I don't have too, but at the same time, I want to make sure my flock of hens stay strong and healthy.

I'm wondering if a banty rooster would be the way to go...(thinking ahead for next spring.)?

Butterflies

 One of the surprising benefits of having chickens is that butterflies are attracted to the droppings...as strange as that sounds. They seem to like chicken poop as much as they like flowers. This blue and black butterfly is one of our most abundant butterflies this year and I can always find a few hanging around the chicken coop. It is called a red spotted purple. (The red spots are on the underside of the wings.)

Does anyone know the name of this butterfly?  Here it is pausing for a moment on the purple silk of Spring Treat sweet corn.

Has anyone else noticed that chicken droppings attract butterflies?

This post is part of the barn hop at Homestead Revival.

Not who you think it is....

I came home from work the other day and found the hostas along the side of the house looking like this:

Oh, no! Deer have finally found their way into my flower beds! We see them grazing in the meadows surrounding our home, but I've never seen one directly in our living areas close to the house.

Then I came home from work last night and this is what I found....

....a dozen half grown chickens enthusiastically chowing down on a hosta plant. They make it look like it is the most delicious thing they have ever eaten. Funny the adults have never even looked twice at hosta plants, but these babies are tearing them right up.  Guess it wasn't the deer after all!

Rainy Day Hideout

Rainbow of Eggs

Yesterday I bought some eggs---even though the last thing I need right now is more eggs. Two other volunteers and I did a photo monitoring shoot on one of the privately owned protected lands for Michigan's Legacy Land Conservancy. The parcel of land we did did the photo monitoring shoot on is a 20 acre woodlot that is part of an 80 acre working farm that was established in 1840.  It was a beautiful woodlot with a floor that is carpeted with spring beauties and trillium. (Neither which were blooming yet, but oh, you could see the hundreds of thousands of plants that were were getting ready to burst into bloom. We made a note to do the next years photo monitoring shoot the first week of May when the flowers will be at their peak.) This is where I saw the almost opened hepatica flower I posted yesterday.

Anyway, the farmer's little daughter had her own flock of hens and sold eggs. For a dollar a dozen who could resist a carton of pretty eggs, even if I have more eggs than I need at home right now? (The eggs from my chickens are white and pale brown.)

Black Australorps

Last Thursday I picked up a dozen black australorp chicks. This a case of "don't count your chickens before they are grown up" though. They are straight run, and I am hoping for at least six hens and one nice rooster out of the batch. Now we just have to keep these chicks safe and healthy so they can grow up.

I was really happy to find them at Tractor Supply, since black australorp was the breed I really wanted when I first got chickens --in fact the first chicks I got in the spring of 2008 where black australorps (I only had them for about a week. We had them in a cage in the garage--a raccoon got its filthy little hands through the wires and pulled each little chick out and ate them all--there was nothing left but beaks and feet.) I was living in town at the time, and this breed seemed like they would make the perfect city chicken. They are gentle, calm, and quiet, and do well in smaller spaces.

They are also cold hardy and excellent egg layers, routinely laying through the the winter. The hens do tend to go broody, though, and make good mothers. They are large birds, with the hens weighing seven to eight pounds. (Compare that to my California white hens who weigh about four pounds.)

 The roosters are supposed to be gentle giants. Their spurs are short and blunt instead of long and sharp, like a lot of roosters.  From what I have read they will protect the hens like they are suppose to, but won't go hunting humans down and don't go out of their way to attack unless they feel their hens are in danger. (I just gave away my two Silver laced wyandotte roosters last week. They were stunningly beautiful birds, but it was getting to the point where I was putting on goggles and felt like I needed a suit of armor to collect the eggs. I was able to find someone who raises silver laced wyandottes who was looking for roosters to go with his flock of hens. I am really happy that they went to a good home, where they will be useful, instead of being turned into stew.) Australorp roosters are pretty plain looking--solid black and stocky. But that is better than being attacked multiple times a day!

A few of my favorite things

(frost crystals on a a crocus flower)

A few of my favorite things that are right outside my door--

frost on spring flowers,

birdsong in the early morning,

starlit skies on a dark country night,

spring peepers peeping in the pond down the road,

vegetable seedlings sprouting on my window sill,

fluffy new baby chicks....

these are a few of my favorite things.
(What can I say, it is the little country things that make my heart sing.)

(black australorp chicks--2 days old--the newest addition to our flock)

This post is part of five minute Fridays over at gypsy mama.

On the Rocks

Hiding in the Daylilies

These are two of the daylilies that I transplanted last summer from the house we sold. When I was taking the photos of the flowers, I startled the two little Wyandotte hens who were dust bathing in the cool shade of the thick daylily leaves.

Silver Laced Wyandottes

One of my patients' bought 4 little chicks in early April, thinking he would build a coop in his back yard and have fresh eggs all summer long. It turned out the project was just a little too ambitious for his current state of health and one day last week the chicks ended up in my SUV and came home to live with my California Whites. They are about 9 weeks old and in theory we are suppose to have four hens, but I'm thinking I see two roosters and two hens. See how the combs and coloring on the heads are different on the two in the center? It will be another couple of months before they start laying large brown eggs. These chickens get quite large. The hens are up to 6 lbs and the roosters up to 8 lbs, so they still  have a lot of growing to do as well.

Raccoon In the Chicken Coop

It is a scary thing being one little raccoon locked up overnight in a coop full of big hens. At least that is what this raccoon seemed to think. She was huddled in the corner looking pathetic while the chickens went about their business looking as if they did not have a care in the world. She stayed there for a good few hours and didn't move even after I opened the door and the chickens went out.

(And note to self--lock the chickens up while it is still light out. Next time the raccoon may not be so little or scared!)

Fallen

(The fallen phoebe nest, woven of soft horse hair and pine needles and covered with green moss.)

We had strong winds and pounding rains on this weekend. Sadly the wind blew down the phoebe nest in the little barn and the 4 babies died of exposure before I found them.

On top of that, a raccoon strong armed his way into the upstairs of the chicken coop Saturday night and decapitated every one the Ameracauna chicks. Very disappointing and an upsetting way to start Sunday morning. Terry and I are both kicking ourselves because we were confident the coop was secure. We have had it for for two years and this has been the first problem with it. It looked like the coon actually pried on the door until the plywood snapped then wedged his way in, leaving plenty of fur on the wood. We are fortunate that we had blocked off the opening to the downstairs, to give the Ameracuanas some privacy, otherwise the adult chickens might all be dead too. Normally the adult chickens would roost up there at night.


Terry really liked these chicks and I was looking forward to pretty colored eggs. We may try to get some more. The worst part is they were from someone Terry works with and he is raising the other half of the batch as pets.

(Right now I really hate raccoons--someone remind me what purpose they serve other then to eat Nemo's food and kill our chickens?)

At the rate I loose chicks, I should start some kind of chicken memorial. In 2008 I lost 4 three week old Black Astrolourps to a raccoon. In 2009 it was 5 Buckeyes between one day old to 6 weeks old to natural and unknown causes. This year it is the Ameracauanas at 4 weeks old to another raccoon. In fact, the only chicks that have survived into adulthood are the California whites.

In all Seriousness

The Ameraucanas seem to be very well adjusted chicks. We have them separated from the big chickens in the upper part of the coop (I blocked off the opening from the inside so the California whites couldn't get upstairs). When I get home from work I let both flocks of chickens out to free range. The first thing the little chicks do is go take over the lower portion of the coop--eating the grownups' food, and generally acting like they own the place. I was expecting a lot more pecking and meanness from the big hens, since they are usually not at all pleased to have strangers in the coop, but they have been taking the invasion pretty much in stride.

Easter Eggers

The newest additions to our family--three week old Ameraucana chicks. (The chickens that lay pretty colored eggs.)