A Wet Friday

Here is what met me at the gate this morning as I was leaving:  

God's Cleanup Crew were taking care of a dead possum in our road the last two days.  There is nothing left of him now.  These birds fascinate me, instead of scaring me... they provide a very needed service to us, and are amazing to watch as they swoop and swirl in the air.  They waited patiently for me to leave.

On the way home, I saw these laying in the rain in the field down the road from us:

They were at the farm of the pond man, who tried to put our pond in for us last week.

And when I got here on the cold, wet evening, I saw this:

Aztec is back behind his mom and dad.  I hope they aren't telling us that we are going to have a late April snow!  They have not used the barn since really cold weather. It's in the low 40's right now, we have had crazy temperature fluctuations this week.

Linking to Farm Friend Friday and Farmgirl Friday at Verde Farm. If you haven't hopped over to Verde Farm to enjoy this on Fridays, you will be surprised at the number of folks just like us who are having fun in the country, and raising and preserving their own food, and enjoying their own animals.  Come on over and take a look and be amused and amazed!

Little Hens

Our little hens have kept us laughing this week. 

This one, Rosewitha, some of you may recall... was one of the three mamas that hatched out the last clutch, born in September in the little henhouse.  Once those babies were able to go outside and fend for themselves, Rosewitha went back to the big henhouse where she had lived all her life.

Why is she in the rafters? 

Because Tuesday night, after I hadn't seen her for a couple of days... I had Keith climb a ladder to look above this:

This is the last piece of ceiling hanging in the big henhouse on the feed room side.  In the previous picture, Rosewitha is about 3 feet from it in the rafters.

Tuesday night, Keith got on a short ladder, and looked above the tile.  There was Rosewitha, on five or six big chicken eggs.  She was NOT pleased that Keith found her.  He lifted the eggs down to me... and gently gave me Rosewitha.  I put her in the little henhouse so that she could help incubate the (now 17) eggs under the little hens in there. 

The next day, I couldn't see Rosewitha anywhere.  I kind of freaked out, as I lost her twin, Dovey, a few weeks ago.

Finally, I asked Keith to climb the ladder again (he is tall enough to see into the ceiling, and there was Rosewitha AGAIN. 

She had gone over this:

It's the door that separates the little henyard from the big, we don't allow the two flocks to mingle any more.

Obviously, it didn't keep Rosewitha in. 

Because that evening, I found her where you see her in the first picture, in the rafters. 

Tonight, Keith did chores.... we don't know WHERE she is, but there were two big beautiful brown eggs up on the ceiling tile. 

They keep us laughing!

Here are two more... this little pullet has not come into lay yet, she was in the September hatch:

Her daddy, Ratchett, is the frizzle cochin right behind her.  Then again, she is shaped more like one of the half-Japs we have.

Here, we think, is her mama:

This little cochin hen, Lady, is two, and carries the frizzle gene.

And here, last night, are part of the little flock:

I try to give them treats every other night - and as you can see, they LOVED the dog food leftovers and old sour cream they got last night!

I'm linking this to Farm Friend Friday!

Song of Spring

There are many songs of spring, and here is one around Calamity Acres today:

Be sure you turn up the sound! 

Linking to Farm Friend Friday, at Verde Farm! 

Thanks, Amy!

Seed Catalogs

Many years ago, I used to start getting seed catalogs at Christmas time, and considered them God's Christmas gift to me.  Right after Christmas, with a week off between Christmas and New Years, I would go into a very heavy schedule of working all day in an office, and then selling tickets, ushering, or taking tickets for an event staff group at the public buildings in Kansas City, Missouri.  I worked for 28 years doing this, and ended with managing a theater's public spaces for the symphony, the opera, and the ballet, but that's another story.  Back then, the shows would come hot and heavy... we would have the Metropolitan Flower, Lawn and Garden Show, which in those days was a huge affair.  It would be preceded by the Boat, Sports and Travel show, and followed by the Home Show, the Mobile Home show, etc. etc.etc.  As I sat in my little ticket booth on Saturdays and Sundays in January and early February, I would read my seed catalogs and plan my gardens.  I did this for many years. 

Many of these shows have gone by the wayside with the economy the way it is... and the flower show has been rolled into the home remodeling show, and is a very small entity indeed, in fact, we did not go to either this year, because of their disappointment last year.  However, Keith has ordered our vegetable seeds already, and I am getting myself in gear to order flower seeds this weekend.

These are the catalogs I'm using:

This is my fantasy order.  Usually every year I plan a big order, only to never send it in or go online.  I love their plants.  I am ordering ONE or TWO things this year, because our gardens deserve it!

This one, of course, has the cool vegetable seeds, and don't let the down-hominess of the Gettles fool you, they are on both coasts now, and heirloom seeds are a big business.  If you notice, I have quite a few pages marked, but as Keith has already ordered the vegetables, I'll pare this order down to a few things.

And this old standard got most of our order this year:

In fact, they sent a second catalog just this week with a different cover, as if to say "Hurry up, Mary Ann, Hurry up! "

I hope to have my orders ready by tomorrow sometime, and will let you all know what I ordered.

With lettuce by head at 1.88 each at Walmart last night, we have got to grow as much as we can.  Keith is itching to get his pea seeds in the ground within a week!

On a sadder note, Dovey did die today in the big henhouse.  Keith found her dead this afternoon, and saved her for me to see.  I knew this morning, so held her for a second and said goodbye.  She must have died shortly thereafter, because she was stiff by midafternoon.  We are hoping it was old age and infirmity and not anything catching, but are going to clean as much as we can this weekend.  It will take very good weather and the pressure washer to get the gunk from the starlings out, but we will do that soon.

Everyone enjoy Farm Friend Friday at Verde Farm!

Aging Chickens

In our henhouse, we have aging chickens, but it's also useful to be able to age chickens by looking at them. 

Some are obvious... they are old and infirm, in a chicken way...Dovey is one of these.  She is five this year, and she and her sister Rosewitha have raised many, many little chicks to chickenhood.  Now she has lost many of her toes, and can no longer roost.  In the good weather this week, she has jumped down from her nest box and gone outside to enjoy the sun with the others, though she must hop along.  She is still eating and drinking, though, and occaisionally I'll find an egg in her favorite two boxes, so she has a home here still.  Her face is bleached out, and her legs are pale white.

Next are two Wyandottes, the remnants of five beautiful Wyandotte hens we were given by our friends Paul and Nancy five years ago.  We have lost Pandora, Isis and Clea, but Sprocket and Lola live on.  They have not laid in probably three years, they are seven years old (we think) now.  They have had the color come back into their combs and faces and legs, it has been so long since they produced eggs.  They hang out together, and have always been the bullies of the henhouse.  If you could see their shanks, you would see they are yellow again, since they are no longer laying.  A hen in high production will bleach out all her color around her face, her eyes, and her legs.

Younger hens who are just coming into lay will begin to lose the coloring as they start producing eggs, to witness, are Libby and Rosemary, each laying a lovely brown egg daily:

I have another hen, Birdy, the last full size daughter of old Rambo, who is still laying... but Birdy was hatched by Helen the turkey, and survived a terrible snake attack... she has always been a wild thing and won't hold still to have her picture taken. She is three, and still laying about three to four eggs a week.

In the bighenhouse also are two very tiny white/blacktail Japanese hens who haven't laid in years, and a beautiful black frizzle cochin purebred bantam, who is not laying.  She has produced some gorgeous chicks, but I have not found an egg from her in a while.  I am hoping once we move the hens into their new house this summer, that she will begin laying again. There are also the Three Survivors, who will be coming into lay at any time now.

We are getting three to four eggs a day from the hens in the little henhouse, who are all young.  Led by Silka, one of the three mamas... who is about two... there are a trio of one year olds, and about six born in September.  We are hoping they all begin producing the nice off white eggs that we have gotten from the older hens in there.  Whoever thinks bantam eggs aren't good hasn't seen these, they are great eggs. 

This is a very small pullet, who is almost an exact copy of the cochin in the big henhouse.  The other colored chick (grey)  was a clone of Rosewitha and Dovey, who was killed by the opposum this week.

 You can see the silkie and jap influence in the roosters, who also have the very bright coloring in their combs.

(Not all the birds in this pictures are cockerels)

Now that I look at this picture closer, I see the cochin influence in their combs, too.

I will try to get some pictures this weekend to show the difference in the sizes of birds.  These are actually very small.  (And I think my estimate of five cockerels in there yesterday was on the low side!)

Come on over to "Farm Friend Friday" at Verde Farm and look at all the great farm blogs listed this week!