Farm Report 05/06/06

The baby chickens are getting used to their new home in the coop; they spend a lot of time passing in and out of the door to their run...


It's life in the fast lane here at Robin's Wood!

I remember when we were moving from San Francisco to rural Oregon, some people in the city were shocked. They couldn't imagine why anyone would WANT to do that. A typical response would be:

"But what are you going to DO? Watch the FARM Report?"

I found that funny, because that is exactly the sort of place we WANTED to move to; a place where something called "The Farm Report" would matter. Most of the things in the cities that people seem to find so appealing had lost their appeal to us long ago.

So here we are now. Do I watch the "Farm Report"? I am not aware that there is one to watch; there is only one local TV station, that shows old reruns and about 15 minutes of local news. So I get my weather information on the internet (from our local TV station) and I write my own Farm Report. Because it's a small farm, there isn't a lot to write. And that is probably a good thing, because what work that there is to do keeps me pretty busy.

The two ducklings have moved from their small cage in the spare room to their new spacious luxury condo on the back porch:



To call them ducklings anymore seems ridiculous; their feathers are coming in fast, most of their down is falling off, and they are growing fast. I guess they are still baby ducks - six weeks? But they seem to get a little bigger every day.



The chicks are also growing into young hens quickly. The Barred Rock chicks seem to be a bit larger than the others, I don't know if that is because the breed is slightly larger, or if perhaps these chicks were slightly older than the others when we got them. They were all supposed to be the same age, but who knows for sure? Cecil, the Rhode Island Red Rooster, watches them all with great interest...


The chicks are now living in the nursery part of the coop full time now. They have a heat lamp over them inside at night, because the nights are still quite cold.


Meanwhile, the Three Stooges, the Barred Rock un-sexed chicks given to us by our neighbors that I had mentioned in last weeks report, are assimilating. They are getting bigger than the adult Bantam hens they are living with...


The Bantams still harrass them, but not quite as much. The above picture is of the grey Bantam, "Misty", with one of the three stooges.


Here is one of the stooges standing on top the nesting box. Below in one of the compartments, sits Turandot, the Chinese Coachen-Bantam. She is sitting on a clutch of 18 Bantam eggs. If anyone can hatch them, she can.

End of Farm Report!



UPDATE 05/08/06:
A Blessed Event

Sunday night, I heard some peeping from Turandot's nest box. She has been successfu! It's now Monday morning, and we have seen the first chick: