We have some new friends here at Calamity Acres...
the hens from the Ag Hall have come home for a few weeks
until their pen can be repaired.
Here is a blurry picture of two of them up on the roost in the old henhouse. This is really kind of funny, because they did not use the roosts at the Ag.
(for those of you who don't remember, the marks on the wall are what starlings use to do in the winter time, they would come in through the popholes and poop all over everything!)
Last night, I went in, and five of the six were on the roost.
The other six ladies are in the Hen Spa with the main flock.
(except for one black hen who was out and on the road this morning,
according to my neighbor!)
They are all enjoying being on grass for the first time.
There is a raccoon getting my poor white hen.
He came down from on top, the sides are all still intact.
I know now the red hen found last week, and the black hen found two weeks ago
were all raccoon kills... you see, I am unable to close the pophole there at night,
it would mean a second trip down there every day (ten miles one way) to close it.
In three years, this is the first time a raccoon has figured out a way in. I later saw
him in this sequence coming across the top.
I am worried about taking hens back, but the volunteer maintenance men will
do the best they can to close the gaps.
This is my new feral cat feeder being installed last week.
It prohibits raccoons from jumping inside.
Here he has the flashing on the bottom. The red box on the
right is to give them a lift off, and also hold a bowl of water.
Here is Petey eating in it.
They learn fast. I have both wet and dry food in there,
and I sprinkle a little dry around the base for the ground animals.
I was going through 3 to 4 bags of dry food every week, I
still have part of 1 left this week.
I also put a bowl out in front of the old hen house, AND...
I opened the little red hen house back up so the ferals can go in and out of it,
I am not going to use it again for birds.
I saw this on the camera last night, you will have to click to enlargen... it is a
possum mama with babies clinging to her back.
Remember, they will also eat the bird seed mixture, and I am sure she was coming from there, as the
cats and raccoons had emptied this bowl.
Eric, who made the cat feeder, also did this for me:
He brought his skid steer, and leveled and fixed the drainage in my
driveway, so that it drains to the pasture side now, and filled in all the deep holes left
by the septic tank replacement four years ago. They were so bad the car bucked ... I
filled in the worst with bags of gravel brought little by little, but now the whole
thing is repaired and driveable.
No more holes or dips. YAYYYY.
Eric is also coming back to paint the big barn, the hay barn, and
the garage.
I thought you might enjoy seeing this unique
planter at Valley Feed in Bonner Springs, it
is a metal device that was filled and planted with annuals.
I think it is so attractive, and will try to find out what
it is and where it came from. It is like a bucket from some old
mechanical device.
I heart this ewe, just so you know.
The Black Star pullets in the little hen house are looking SO GOOD.
So are the cochin babies, see her blue socks?
I took this short video of the Gold Comet babies and the
Cayuga ducklings this morning... as they started to pile, I stopped....
but you see they have graduated to a bigger feeder, and a larger water fountain.
It is so hot now I don't keep a light on them during the day, but I do turn a
150 bulb on them at night when it gets to the sixties... for probably another few days.
Mulberries will be here soon!
