"Death from Above!" Video of Hens Roosting

At night, the ladies put themselves to bed in the highest point available to them, which happens to be the rafters of their coop. It is both really cute and a little creepy to walk in at dusk and look up to see them all staring down at you!

Also, it can be dangerous to your personal cleanliness. Thus far, I have avoided this nasty disagreeable situation. Sadly, Sean cannot say the same.

Sonja ♥

Rachel & Leah Video (May 12, 2012)

While Sean was working on getting more of the chicken coop roofed Saturday night, I settled myself onto the bale of hay to watch the goats enjoy their evening. The kids were running around, tustling with each other. Momma Ellie was busy nibbling green shoots of vegetation in the field. Pepper had her fill of the hay, took a drink of water and then settled for a nap by the gate. I thought that her leg was in an odd angle, but she must not have minded that, since she continued in that position for quite some time! Leah and Rachel were quite industriously munching on hay through the fence (as you can hear in the video). The snorting discernible toward the end of the video was of Jedi sniffing my ear and shoulder, deciding if I might be more tasty than the hay. Thankfully, he decided that I was unlikely to and he returned to eating the hay, too. I couldn't help snapping a few pictures!

He's such a goofball sometimes!

Chickens Enjoying a Dirt Bath: Video (May 13)

I couldn't help it. I had to take some footage of this.

The hens have dug out the corner of their yard, inconveniently in the way of the entrance gate. When the weather is dry, they pile into the hole, fluff up their feathers and wash themselves with the dry dirt. They never understand the concept of when the hole is full and often pile all together, squawking loudly as a hen occasionally gets dislodged from the best spot.

Buff Orpington has a magnificent red comb & wattle.

Since I was already attempting to video this, I thought to attempt to capture a good representative picture of each breed of chicken currently kept at our farm. Photographing chickens is not an easy task! They are clever, fast, and disinclined to sit still or remain looking at the camera for even a second!

Buff Orpington (back) Americauna (front)

Buffy had already enjoyed her dirt bath for the day and was busily preening her feathers into place when I caught this picture on Saturday.

Americauna Hen

Our Americauna named Jovi was the most difficult of the hens to photograph. She is extremely skittish of humans. Still fairly young at nearly 10 months old, we are hopeful that in time, she might settle and at least, tolerate human attention. At the moment, she prefers to be "hands off!" Besides the beautiful blue eggs she lays, I love her striking brown and black plumage. We have two of her eggs in the incubator just now. I sure hope they are fertile and hatch!

Black Sex Link or Black Rock

Black Sex Links or Black Rocks are a crossbred between two breeds of chicken, wherein you can tell the male chicks from the female chicks at hatching because of their difference in coloring. There are many, Many, MANY combinations that produce these useful hens. I think the black hen on the left with the lovely brownish-red feathers on her breast are quite lovely. She lays medium sized brown eggs nearly daily because as one of last year's chicks, she is still young. Sean wanted to name her, "Newt." but I was not convinced as that name did not resonate with me. Instead, I call her Penny.  

Australorp Hen

You can compare the Black Sex Link chicken above with the Black Australorp Hen on the right. In contrast to the multi colored feathers of the Sex Link, the Australorp is completely black. The comb, wattle, and red around the eyes also differ. The Australorp hens are very friendly. They will settle onto my lap or Sean's arms and allow themselves to be petted. In the sun, their feathers are so black that they appear an almost iridescent quality to them. These are some of my favorite hens.

Barred Rock Hen

The Barred Rock above is named Emma. She is a lovely, old fashioned type of breed, very gentle with the other hens and doesn't often get involved in any "pecking order" disputes, preferring to scratch the afternoon away looking for bugs. I love her variegated feathers. Emma lays smallish almost round eggs. She is a slightly older hen and doesn't lay each day, but no matter, she is a

beauty.

I still have yet to capture good pictures of a Rhode Island Red, a Lacey Wyandotte, and a Buff Cochin. I will continue to try and post them when I get some!

Have a great day!

Sonja ♥

Hurry Up... And Wait!

Hurry Up and Wait seems to be the name of the game for us today. The rain (finally!) cleared out to give us beautiful sunny skies. Even with the wind picking up, which disallowed us the possibility of the small bonfire I was hoping for, it promised to be a good day for working. We had an orderly list for this Saturday's work, with (maybe) some odds and ends to finish up on Sunday afternoon. It looked like this: 1) feed and water the animals. 2) feed ourselves. 3) pick up some peppers and new soil for the raised garden beds. 4) get the riding mower started. 5) Sonja mow and Sean roof the chicken coop 6) burn the things in the burn pile while these activities are taking place. 7) build some "A" frames for our peas 8) get the peppers, peas, onions, & carrots planted. Somewhere around item number 4, things fell apart. It is now 3:00 pm and so far, we have done a lot, but accomplished nearly nothing!

While Sean switched out tires to the "new" old riding lawn mower in the hopes that I could mow, at least, the back yard today, I cleared out the dead foliage from one of the large planters by the deck steps and replanted some pretty flowers in it. That accomplished, I walked the back yard for any items that needed moving before I could attempt to mow; among these were several 12 foot 2x6 lengths of wood, a few 12x12 landscaping tile pieces, and some metal clips which belong to the chain link fencing. These I put away in their respective homes. Once the tires were finished, we next needed to start the mower, which... did... not... work. Sean tried his battery charger and also to jump start the battery, but no success. It looks like we may need a new battery.

While Sean was valiantly trying his best to get the mower started to the taunting sound of one of our neighbors out mowing his lawn, I checked the incubator temperature and moisture content. I researched the logistics of moving the duckling eggs inside to finish our their hatching. I also brought the containers of patio tomatoes to our deck, along with six 6-packs of sweet and hot peppers and watered all of the tomatoes we are growing. We have ten 6-packs of these, all needing to be replanted, already! Visions of delicious homemade salsa, marinara sauce, and boursin stuffed grape tomatoes make me excited for  the day when the fruits of our labors are realized and the cooking and preserving begin! But, that will be a story for another day.

One of the things on our mind for this weekend, was to try to solve the problem of the duckling egg nest living inside the pig enclosure. We've been debating the "pros" and "cons" of waiting for the eggs to hatch to take the baby ducklings inside with us until they fledge versus leaving them in the nest to be cared for by their Momma. We are concerned about the possibility of the ducklings hatching and getting promptly eaten by Patches, Ebony, a field rat, or some other predator. Another problem of letting the eggs remain as they are, is that the baby ducklings will be small enough to roam outside the chain fencing, but Momma duck, isn't. Naturally raised ducklings will also, by nature, be less friendly to human contact and more difficult to catch, ducks being a rather skittish sort. We also discovered at least one egg that may have a dead duckling inside, already. (It strongly resembles one of the pictures posted online of an egg that began developing, and then, died. This particular egg is also slightly cracked on the surface.) In the "Pro" column of leaving the eggs with Momma Duck, we won't run the risk of the incubator malfunctioning and all the eggs not hatching properly. It would be just terrible for the baby ducklings to die inside their eggs, unable to hatch and that sad outcome IS a real possibility. Many people online seemed to agree that keeping ducks with the pigs would be disastrous to the ducklings. So, we are going to move them to the incubator, watch them, and HOPE we did the right thing!

As I write this, Sean has gone to Bucksport to bring the bags of soil we need to top off the raised beds in the front of the house. I declined to go along. I am watching the empty incubator's temperature and humidity level... and writing this. When Sean returns, we MUST pause on the lawn mower and START the roof for the chickens. Right now, it looks like planting will be saved for Sunday, after all.

It is now 6 pm. The lawn mower has a new battery living in it and has had it's belts checked, engine compartment opened, spark plug sanded, gas and oil levels checked, and various other things done to it. It wants to turn over, but the diagnosis is that the spark plug is bad and needs replacing. This late, the local store is closed, though. So, maybe tomorrow after the meeting and before our volunteer work begins. Sean is putting the machine back together and picking up his scattered tools from the ground around it.

Kristen and Meaghan just returned home from their Dad's house. Meaghan and I went to retrieve the duck eggs from Momma Duck to inspect the eggs and place any that seemed viable into the incubator. I guesss whether we are doing the right thing or not, is moot at this point. We discovered that since this morning, when we counted the eggs while Momma Duck was eating, something stole 5 eggs from the nest; 2 chicken eggs and 3 duck eggs! The only viable suspects to this horrible deed are the pigs or a rat. We left the lone chicken egg and the cracked duck egg in the nest. Momma seemed to appreciate it and settled back into sitting on them. We'll still watch the duck egg for any sign of hatching, but it seems unlikely.

I did get 2 of the 7 front raised garden beds weeded and fresh compost added and mixed into the beds in anticipation for some peppers to be planted therein. And, Sean is now ready for my help with his roofing of the chicken coop. Kristen and Meaghan ate at their father's house, but, at some point, lunch or dinner must be gotten for Sean and I, I think.

I hope you have all taken advantage of the day and its sunshine!
Sonja ♥

Candling the Duck Eggs with Meaghan: Video, May 5, 2012

Hello, friends. This is Meaghan, again. This time I am reporting about our duck's eggs.

Today, we candled one of the eggs in the Mallard nest. In the video, you see the outline of the duckling (or hatchling, as some people like to call it.)  It is the dark area inside the egg. The light area is the air sac. We think the eggs are about 18 days old as you can compare to the picture on the right.

Like before, my Mom and I took the egg into the bathroom, where it is the darkest. We shut off the lights and used a strong flashlight to see inside the egg. It was hard to take a video that you can see. It is hard to hold the camera still and hold the egg safely, too. I used the camera and Mom held the egg. We could definitely see lots of development compared to the last time we checked the eggs. (You can compare this video with our last pictures HERE.) Because the hatching should happen soon, between days 22-28, we will check the nest often so we can bring the duckling inside with us.

I think we are going to keep at least 3 of the new ducks, all females. The others will be sold to other people who want to raise ducks, too. I wish we could keep them all!

Thank you for reading my blog and watching my video!
Goodnight,
Meaghan Sanders

Also shared with The HomeAcre Hop! & Farm Girl Blog Fest #15 & Farm Girl Friday #91

The Wayward Mallards Decide Freedom is Horrible

It was uneventful when, a few days ago one of our two mutinous Mallard females returned home from her adventures in the stream near our house, after Sean's foiled attempts to capture them. (You can read about that adventure HERE.) One just reappeared with the rest of the flock. (You can reread that post HERE.)

Today's, return was slightly more dramatic and carried the additional benefit of, once more, soaking Sean -head to toe- this time in torrential down pours! (Poor, poor Sean) Sean was up and about this morning before I had dragged myself out of my warm bed. I heard him upstairs, but was disinclined to join him in this morning's chores since (1) I did not have to work today, (2) my plans for spending the morning in volunteer work had been rescheduled for tomorrow, and (3) it was RAINING outside, already. Better, I thought, to lounge in my warm, dry bed like a lazy lima bean this morning. At least, until I felt guilty enough to drag myself out of bed to face the day. Or, Sean required my assistance, which I thought to be unlikely.

I had just congratulated myself on this new plan of laziness when the bedroom door swung open to a hastily dressing and very animated Sean Michael. I caught the words; "Male... Mallards...Female...Chasing... Outside...Think...Wild... as he pulled on a shirt over his head, and then a clear, "Are you coming?" as he dashed back upstairs. What else was to be done? Of course, I was coming. I didn't quite understand what was happening, but it seemed too good to miss seeing for myself!

By the time I reached the upstairs, Sean was outside the fencing for the chickens and ducks, carefully stalking the two male Mallards who were chasing a decidedly uninterested female Mallard. The female was waddling away from her admirers as quickly as she could, while emitting various tones of warning quacks at them. Since a wild female, would have flown away, if she was not feeling inclined to receiving male attention, I thought it quite likely that she was the other of our missing flock. Sean's thoughts, clearly had ran along the same lines and reached the same conclusion. The other conclusion I reached was that only one of us needed to be drenched in this operation and since Sean was already in this state...

I knocked on the large picture window to get Sean's attention and signed to him my suggestion that he pause in his pursuit and feed the chickens and ducks in the enclosure some of their grain. Seeing where I was going with this, Sean entered the fencing and scooped out some grain into the bird feeders inside the coop. Then, he ran towards the Mallards who were on the other side of the coop. The males were startled and flew off. The female waddled away from Sean in the direction of the open fence gate. In seconds, she spied the other birds eating their breakfast. She slipped inside the gate and was reunited with her flock. Sean paused to perform a quick duck census and then, raised his arms in acknowledgement of his SUCCESS! Ready with my camera, I snapped a picture of the proud capturer of capricious critters and laughed with Sean in this happy moment. Then, I sent the happy hunter of to his work and I settled into my day's cleaning the inside of our home.

So, at the moment, all our livestock is accounted for and living where we want them to be. Even with the rain forecast for today, life is looking pretty good from here.

Have a great day, everyone!
Sonja ♥

You Don't Belong Here, Little Goat!

I caught Ashir standing on top of the round hay bale, outside of his fenced yard this evening when Sean and I went to check on the animals. He and Abigail can walk through the fencing and sometimes wander around near their Mother, but on the wrong side of the fence. They don't usually stray this far. Ashir has started to get more courageous and less interested about staying in his mother's sight lately. You know that saying, "... a boy let on the loose will be causing his mother shame." Proverbs 29:15 Well, I may not be his "mother", but I don't want this little guy wandering off and getting into mischief, especially mischief that would cause him bodily harm or me financial difficulties. That means, Sean and I will need to look into a better way to keep the kids where they are supposed to be this weekend! I will add that to our list of things "To Do".