Wow – what a weekend! We accomplished quite a bit around the homestead, and have the aches and scrapes to prove it! It was exhausting, and we definitely worked our butts off, but it’s satisfying, all the same. There is still much to be done in preparation for the growing season, and we will be working on some of those tasks this week. But in looking back at what we have done so far, there is definitely much progress being made.
The coop yard now holds much more appeal to the chickens since my husband rototilled on Saturday. They were still a bit…chicken…about going outside, but I persuaded them (an old tennis racket to help shoo them out the coop door helps) and they walked around with some trepidation:
I brought a grub that had been turned up by the rototiller over to them, and one of my Buff Orp hens pecked at it, but did not eat it. They are still learning. The Welsummer hens seem to have a better innate grasp of what to do, because one of those girls found a tasty bug on her own and gobbled it up! Speaking of Welsummers, look at our roo. He’s just a gorgeous little guy, and quite docile around me to boot – he was content to let me hold and pet him yesterday. I can’t wait for his green tail feathers to come in – no wonder Kellogg’s chose one of his ancestors as the model for their Corn Flakes mascot!
In case you were wondering, yes, Handi-Hen joined the rest of the flock outside. She gets around quite well, too!
For all of the trouble the birds gave me in getting outside, they were worse when it came to going back into the coop yesterday evening! I got quite a workout chasing them around their yard. I swear I heard one of them clucking, “FREEDOM!” as she raced around the yard, with me in hot pursuit.
Our little Winter girl went to her new home on Saturday. I have mixed emotions about this – I’m really very grateful that she is going to such a great home – but I also feel like I let her down as “mama,” too. But I know she will be much better off in more experienced hands. Her new owners adore her, and they seem wonderful. As an added bonus, their farm is only ten minutes away from us! So, we can visit her, and we know some more goat people nearby!
Heidi and Gidget are doing great – Heidi has definitely assumed the role of alpha, but she’s not belligerent about it. It is simply the way of things. They went on several walks with us around the property and found lots of tasty leaves to much on (a favorite goat snack). Getting goats to hold still for photos is particularly challenging. Mostly, this is where they want to be:
(right underfoot)
But here they cooperated long enough to show them enjoying their snacks:
During the work on the chicken yard, the rototiller had a breakdown. George had some eager helpers trying to assist him in diagnosing the problem:
It turned out that one of the V-belts had shredded, for the record. It’s now replaced and running like a champ again. In fact, George used it to help level out part of our driveway yesterday.
Our little fuzzbutts are doing well, and they moved to the larger brooder cage out in the garage. Here they are running from the paparazzi:
The ISA Brown breed was created as a very efficient layer – about 300 eggs annually. Compare that to Buff Orpingtons, which lay about 130 per year, on average. These girls will be keeping us, and many others, full up on eggs when they start laying!
That’s all for now; there are hungry goat girls waiting for me in the barn!
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