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.
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.
We rented a cherry picker and Son 1 came to work on staining the parts of our home that didn’t get done two years ago. The plan had been to finish last summer, then COVID happened. Hubby and I managed the garage doors just before he and the cherry picker arrived within an hour of each other, but neither of us can go up on the scaffolding or the cherry picker and paint higher than our shoulders. It was brutally hot up on the roof areas where he was working and I know he is exhausted. The house looks so much better. There is still some to do, but it can be done with ladders or scaffolding.
My main jobs are keeping him fed and hydrated and being a gofer, opening windows, gathering items he needs. I know he knows how much we appreciate his work, but I want it said out publicly.
He loves this area and helped build this house, doing all the stone work with stone from our farm, doing all the interior carpentry, laying floors, building cabinets, and all of the interior doors, grading and yard work, and started the area that now has my garden, and it is a much loved home.
Last night and tonight, we drove down to get ice cream after dinner and both nights we saw black bears. This is on top of having the bear damage to my bird feeders a couple of weeks ago. There must be a lot of them this year in the area.
Coming in from gathering eggs this afternoon, I spotted my first Day lily of the season.
My little anniversary rose bush from year before last has dozens of flowers and buds.
It is a miniature bush that was thimble sized when he gave it to me. The scent is light and I am saving petals in a bowl.
Well, it turns out that this Olive Egger isn’t a pullet. HE discovered his voice over the weekend. It is like an teenage boy with his changing voice, but I won’t keep a rooster here. That will leave me with 14 egg layers soon to be. Ms. Houdini continued to escape, but two more escape holes have been blocked and she stayed in today after spending last night out in the wild AWOL.
With Son here, I cut lettuce for salad and greens for dinner from the garden. There are lots of pea pods that will fill in and provide us with goodness. The greens were sauteed with a green garlic bulb from the garden as well.
