Farm Report

[trystinn]

Had a lovely surprise today, the Rhodies gave me the gift of two small, perfect brown eggs. Hurraiyah! For the non-poultry folks: getting chickens to lay in the winter, especially after the double-whammy of molting and a coop move, is a bloody miracle. You can spoil them rotten, give them extra nummies and adoration, but at the end of the day it's pure alchemy at work. Those darling gals! I had a feeling Scarlett might be going broody and I'd been keeping an eye out for egg binding (i.e. egg stuck in the track). She was walking about this morning, squacking discontentedly when I woke up. When I went out to feed them some scratch, she made a great show of repeatedly squatting down quickly then shrieking at me while avoiding any attempts to pick her up. Wowsa, talk about cranky! The Marans are doing wonderfully, darting around and hopping about exploring the coop - I'm so relieved the cold isn't negatively affecting them.

The ducks are slightly off their laying schedule, not terribly unusual for this time of year given the low night temperature is hanging about freezing. I gave them a lovely treat today, 20 feeder goldfish. Great fun watching them scramble about to get their fair share. They make the coolest slurping noise as they snatching the wiggling fish off the gravel, then snorkled them down their throats while grunting happily.

Libby has been out killing varmints, after I tossed her out the door for eating a few of the ducks' goldfish. Frost makes for good tracking and she's been very efficient. I've moved the dogs to indoor feeding, since I usually feed them after everyone else and I'm just too cold by then to do it!

The bunnies are adorably grumpy, I've been giving them extra pellet and hay to cheer them up. Their bottles were frosty this morning, so I'll likely have to switch them out first and last thing. Sunday will be the big freeze (30F) and I'm ready.

Comments

[keastree.livejournal.com]

You increase to 20%? If so, that most likely did it.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Yep, but only a few days ago! I've also been giving them duck egg shells with lots of white stuck to them from making deviled eggs for over a week, so that likely helped, too.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

Why does the hen remind me of you?

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Aw, heck, really? I thought I was more like Ruby, snoozing in past wake up snug in the coop. :)