Little chickies, have no fear - your Mommy is here!
How many mothers do you know who would let their kids sleep on top of their back? At first I thought this was a fluke, but it's a nightly occurence.
You might think she was uncomfortable, or unable to sleep, but she seems to made for it; she's in her element. She's certainly filling a need.
It seems they just can't get enough of her. Turandot the "Mommy" bird is proving to be immensly popular with the bantam fledglings.
Our black singing chicken, Maria Callis-Von Trapp, still retains the admiration of the eight oldest fledglings. It's even been verified that she has taught two of them to sing. But the majority of the rest of the fledglings prefer Mama.
If only she had more room under those wings! No doubt she would have them all under there if she could.
As Momma-in-charge, she also acts as referee. When the little roosters get carried away in their play fighting, she will step in and smack them around till they stop. She seems to enjoy this role. It no doubt makes the littlest ones feel safe, as they follow her around, and hang our wherever she chooses to be.
Such photos as this might make you believe that life in the coop is domestic bliss, but it just isn't so. After all, these ARE chickens we are talking about.
Hen Pecking Party Gone Wild
There was a major altercation a few days ago, apparently a bitch-fight over a nesting box. It was three against one, the Gabor sisters vs Goldie Hawn. Goldie got the worst of it. I will spare you photos of the bloody mess. For the details of the sordid story, you can read the post on Pat's blog:
Goldie Hawn's comb ripped from her head.
Thank goodness it wasn't quite ripped of entirely, but it was a bloody mess.
The Duckie's New Digs
At last, the duck house has been completed:
It has a house with a window light, air vents near the roof, and two doors, one leading into an enclosed pen, and another larger door leading outside.
The larger door is for cleaning out the inside. We also leave it open durning the day so the ducks can go outside, into the open top pen we have built for them.
With the swimming pool in the yard, it's a Duckie dream home. O.K., I don't doubt that they would probably rather have a pond, but this isn't "Duckie Lifestyles of the Rich and Feathered".
Flower Power
I could do a whole report on just the plant life we have here on the farm. But here is a peak at a few of the more dramatic flowers that are blooming right now. This is a flower called "Tigridia". It's very dramatic, but can you believe it, it only blooms for ONE DAY.
I think it comes from Mexico. We have several of them, and it's a treat each time one blooms. You have to watch for them though, it's here today, gone tommorow.
More stable but still dramatic is one of my favorites, a South African Native whose common name is "Fairy Wand". I forget the botanical name. It's not only beautiful, but there is something very soothing about watching them gently sway and bob in the breeze, it's almost magical.
Promiscuous Tramp Aborts Five.
The last farm report reffered to our promiscuous tramp, our siamese cat "Smudgie".
She was knocked up by none other than our grey barnyard tabby, "Swanky". They are both quite youg, and his attempts at coupling with her were so clumsy, that we thought nothing would come of it, but we were wrong.
The litter was aborted about two weeks before it was due. It would have been 4 kittens that looked like her, and one that looked like him (The vet's assistant pickled the one that looked like Swanky, for a science project she was working on. You can be glad that I resisted the temptation to get a photo of it for the Farm Report! I think that's what's called "too much information").
It would have been tempting to let her have them, but she would have gone into heat again right after popping them out, and it just would have been too irresponsible; the local SPCA is full of unwanted kittens, even siamese ones, you see them at the local mall every time you visit. So while it would have been fun to have kittens around, what would have become of them?
So she had her wheels removed, and is adapting just fine. When she's not lounging around with Swanky, she is killing mice, sniffing flowers or teasing the dogs.
End of Farm Report.
7 comments:
Loved the farm report. Thank God for mother hens and for bloggers with a sense of decorum, re: dead kittens.
Say, do you guys have Japanese Beetles. If so, have you ever tried Milky Spore? I'm putting it down now and hoping for success.
We have large black beetles with small heads. I don't know what kind they are, there are so many different kinds of insects here that I could probably do several farm reports just about them.
What is Milky Spore?
"So she had her wheels removed" That's a new one by me...
Always like the farm reports. Maybe someday I'll live on one and I can learn the ins and outs form you guys
Milky spore is a bacteria that you spray on the soil. It reduces grub populations to almost nothing in a few years, and lasts for a decade or so.
Good stuff!
BTW, I'm looking for another duck. Our drake is just too randy for one female to handle. Just thought I'd network a little.
Milk spore sounds like a handy substance to have. I don't know if we have a grub problem yet - we haven't really started a proper vegetable garden yet, and I don't know what our large black beetles, do. That goes for most of the insects around here; we're going to have to learn more about them.
The slugs do a lot of damage, but fortunately the ducks love to eat them.
Drakes, like Roosters, can be a handful. I've read that it's good to have two or three females per drake. We've just got the pair right now, they get on pretty well, but he's a toe biter, I have to wear shoes when he's loose.
This is a wonderful post. What a breath of fresh air! You certainly have quite a setup there. "This isn't 'Duckie Lifestyles of the Rich and Feathered.'" Too funny! If I were a duck I think that would be a pretty good place to be. They may not have a lake, but they are protected and cared for.
Gayle,
I put the wading pool in there so I wouldn't have to let them out in the yard every day. But they STILL want to go out in the yard at least once every day, to forage on the lawn and at the base of the fruit trees when I'm watering them.
They enjoy running across the lawn, and poking their beaks into any kind of yard work I'm doing. When they are loose, the female likes to practice her limited flying skills, and the drake takes great pleasure at the opportunity to terrorize the cats and dogs. They sure are comical - the clowns of the bird world.
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