Hens & Wet Herbs
Hi!
It is rainy here on island
- it started yesterday unexpectedly since we
only had a 40% chance of showers - and has continued to rain an 1 3/4
with no end in sight. Even though I have pots and pots of rosemary
and
mints and sage to plant, it isn't going to happen until it dries out
a
little. But at least I don't have to go out twice a day and water
the
grass we planted in the chicken run and the new maple trees we planted
just outside the run are also probably happy. Just as well, I
suppose,
since my allergies seem to be turning into a cold/cough. I tried
to do
school today but left early because every time I tried to say something
it came out a cough.
The chicks are growing and
learning new tricks. Today a Dork figured
out how to fly directly into my lap without a preliminary stop on the
side of the cardboard coop. And both of the Silver Polish have
learned
to perch on my hand. That just leaves the beautiful but dumb
Mottled
Houdans (Glod and Gold) and the also beautiful and not quite as dumb
Gold Polish (Angua and Nobby) as the only ones who really can't fly
well
and don't know how/won't try to finger perch. It is day 23 for
the
chicks. The big coop is ready for them, but I'd like to keep
them
downstairs until late next week so that they don't get as chilled and
stressed in the big move. Tom is rigging a 12 volt battery and
motorcycle horn to a min/max thermometer that is in the coop so an
alarm
will sound downstairs in the basement if it gets too hot or cold in
the
coop. Attached is a pic of the Silver Polish, Varnish, perching
with a
Buttercup. The next is a photo of Glod and Nobby. In theory
everybody
is a hen who will by fall lay brown or white eggs (the hatchery was
all
out of the ones that lay tinted eggs). But a couple of the chicks
are
looking suspiciously roosterish. Doesn't Varnish look like he/she
is
ready to crow?
A five gallon bucket of
goldfish in need of a home right quick arrived
last week. They apparently had been living in an overcrowded
pond and
eating algae. I put them in one of the new fish pondlets we put
in and
they are doing OK, though floating fish food is still a new concept
to
some of them. The new pondlet doesn't have algae yet, so I've
been
trying to tempt them with a variety of fish food with mixed results,
at
least while I'm watching. I think they wait for me to leave before
eating. Lots of island ponds have had problems with ospreys who
have
discovered that goldfish are easy pickings. We are probably too
far
from the ocean to have ospreys, though I'd love to even if it meant
losing goldfish. Only a couple of the new fish are even remotely
big
enough to interest an osprey and all the rest are in the 1/2 inch to
3
inch range and too small to tempt birds, I think!
kcl
