Independent Chickens

[3 eggs this morning] + 8 = 11

This is how the chickens take off after I let them out of their coop in the morning. I used to think that chickens stayed in a flock and traveled around together. Maybe if they were all one breed? Some of my chickens do stay together, but others head out for their own favorite spots. You can see the Light Brahmas, and Wyandotte headed left and a Wyandotte and and Australorp headed right. I wonder if ducks stick together? Geese?

Kristine wants to get some geese. But what kind?

And if we get ducks we will get Muscovy ducks (info here.)

We have had them before when Kristine raised ducks

for a 4-H project.

Muscovies are a kick! We really enjoyed having them around.

They wag their tails, head bob and hiss not quack here.

Here is a video of some Muscovy ducks head bobbing and tail wagging.

The other ducks are quacking.

We had black and white ones, but I'll look into seeing if we can get

some brown or black ones so they can blend in with the leaves.

We got four of each breed of our chickens

and the Wyandottes are the only breed we still have four.

It is my supposition that they survived predator

attack because they are harder to spot in the leaves.

Maybe?

I don't know anything about geese except

that I know I want friendly ones.

My brother had some attack geese.

Well, back to the chickens...

It does upset Morgan when her chickens are spread

out and she can't see them all.

Sometimes she will just give up and go lay on the porch.

I checked on the fruit trees again

and at least the apricot and cherry tree are making leaves.

The fig tree isn't doing much at all.

Hope it is OK.

My paths are all messed up by the rain and snow melt.

This is a good thing because it gives me more opportunity

for exercise. And even when I get the paths all raked up again

the chickens will come along and move the leaves

back onto the paths. So, I have no excuse

for not raking leaves!

Smiles

P.S. I was just reading

If Life Gives You Scraps~Make Quilts here

and she mentioned her pollen

allergies. Maybe my migraines are

triggered by pollen? I got another one. Phooey!

I would really like to start sewing again.

P.S.S. I talked to Jean today and

she can get in and out of bed by herself!

And she can go home... except

she has to wait for a bed sore to heal.

How crummy is that!!!

Well, she will be home soon and then she can come up here for a picnic and we can go to the lake and she can even fish if she wants or have Kyle fish for her.

Someone Forgot to Lock the Gate!

One of my birthday cards had the saying, "Celebrate like someone forgot to lock the gate!" There was a picture of a little dog running across a field.

 That's how I felt today when I saw sun instead of rain and I could go outside.

First thing was to work in the chicken coop and clean up the area and refill the feeders. They really didn't make too much of a mess considering how long they were inside because of the

snow and rain.

I put the buckets of chicken stuff in my little flowerless garden. After I get the paths finished I will do some posts on me fixing up the garden.

The blue plastic circles are lids from large containers that we use to haul trash to the dumps.

Chickens are very messy and wasteful eaters.

They flick the feed around with their bills when they are

eating and a lot of it ends up on the ground.

I would like to feed them their feed in pellet form but they don't seem to want to eat it and I have always given up. Maybe I will try it again this summer.

After I finished with the chickens, I went out to walk some of the paths. I took the rake because I thought I would find small twigs and leaves to clean away. 

However, I was not surprised to find large limbs and trees down along the paths and in among the trees.

Here is a before and after photo of a limb that came down in the storms.

I moved the limb and...

now it is behaving itself as a border guard along the path.

Lining the downed trees and branches up along the paths is my solution to the debri removal problem. 

If the branches are too bushy, then we have to burn them or I can pile them up for the tree people to chip.

This is a tree that fell down.

I checked and saw that it had rotted away at the base where it had suffered what looked like burn damage from a long time ago?

It was getting late so I locked up the girls and...

went inside to relax and have a last piece of cake.

That was yummy cake!

Smiles