Month: June 2021

Season’s Firsts

First Sunflower, a bird planted volunteer. None of the ones I planted have sprouted, I will try again.

First blueberries and peas. There will be many more to come.

First fawn spotted, this doe had a single and they were in the yard behind the house. By the time I got my camera phone ready, the very wary Mom had urged her little spotted one into taller forage.

Still waiting for the first egg from the pullets. A couple look like they are close with red combs instead of pale undeveloped ones. They will be 18 weeks old on Tuesday, so most any time now for some of the breeds, the Marans take longer to lay their first, so another 3 to 6 weeks for them.

And we are seeing the tail end of the asparagus. I have dug as many crowns from the old bed as I could for Son 1’s garden. I will thoroughly weed what is left and heavily mulch it. I can’t get the rest of them up, so there may be more in that bed next year.

A Day in the Life

There was no aggression in the pullet pen with the two mature hens. It didn’t appear that any was going on in the Palace either, though they were left locked in today. I caught the right two Oliver Eggers last night and got two green eggs in the coop today and two brown eggs in the Palace. Still low production from 8 hens.

Today’s walk between early morning rain and late afternoon rain took us along the river and the wildflowers were gorgeous, but my cell phone photos washed out all of the blues and purples of the Virginia Dayflowers and Cornflowers.

I think the tall yellow one is called tickseed.

Evening visitors include the over abundance of rabbits this year and does, still not seen with their fawns yet.

When she walked through the hayfield on her way over to browse the edge, all you could see were the tips of her ears.

More rain expected tomorrow, then a clear off and heat back up next week.

Shuffling after Dark

This Olive Egger discovered his voice last weekend and he is too randy for the much smaller pullets. The other Oliver Egger may also be a young roo who has not yet found his voice. Both are half again larger and are picking on the others. Tonight after it was dark, we went out with a flashlight, only to discover one of the small Buff Orpingtons has been hiding at lock up time and was on the ramp unhappy. I decided to move two of the older Oliver eggers to the coop, they are calm and laying so they will set an example for the pullets who are getting close, and the roo and maybe roo moved to the Palace with the older hens. I don’t know how it will go, but I am hopeful that it will work out. As it was dark, they were easy to catch, but the roo and maybe roo were most unhappy at being grabbed. The two older hens just took it in stride. I’m sure there will be some dominance behaviors demonstrated, but hopefully nothing serious.