The geese want you to know that they’ve come to that magical time of year when the bed gets emptied of straw and such, and becomes…
A POOL!
Splish…
Splash…
Aaaaahhhh!
Tag: poultry
Photo Friday: Polly’s first egg
WARNING: While I don’t find the following pictures too graphic, you may… that said I hope you enjoy seeing something you might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience.
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She began building a nest around Buddy’s chew bone, sat on it and tried it out for size, and then continued building.
Much later I heard a strangely familiar sound, but it wasn’t chickens…
It was Polly laying her first egg!
Molly watches like a good Midwife.
The rest of the flock seemed to be standing guard through the process.
Cheeky and Spot: “OK, show’s over! Time for a nap.”
It is never boring here on the Farmlet!
Can Spring be so far off?
The days warm to mid sixties and low seventies. I see the buds swelling on my berries and roses. The bulbs are awakening and pushing up everywhere in the lawns, along fencelines and around the house too! And the grass, though patchy, is slowly greening and this makes the Geese happy!
“GREENS!” They honk and proceed to push over the little green poultry fencing I had up to keep them in all winter. Bob shouts to me ” Hey! Your geese are out!” I round them up, put them back into the north quarter, and repair the fence line.
But what is this? What is Polly doing out there by the straw bales?
Picking up straw…
billful by billful…
and slowly she’s starting a pile.
A nest?
I hope!
The morning after
After all the excitement of the hawk incident, most of my girls were pretty anxious to get back to business as usual. So I was sorry to disappoint them yesterday by closing the gate in their face, but close it I did and left. I had other work to do! The Silkys on the other side of the yard were even more incensed as I did not let them out until I had made some sort of emergency makeshift run for them.
To accomplish this I put up a metal dog playpen and attached it to the chain link fence. Then I took my staple gun and stapled garden bird netting directly to the sides of their hutch. Next, I took a box of spring binder clips and attached the netting all the way around to top of the chain link and the dog playpen. It looks a ramshackle affair, but seems to be working! I can live with it for a couple of days till Bob and I can do something more permanent and less ghastly looking…
When finished I quickly ducked under, opened up their hutch, gave them their ladder and watched for them to come out. They didn’t. I waited, and waited! Oh-KAY-THEN. I went inside to watch from the window. It took the two adults about a half an hour to come out, but the three babies took till almost noon! Poor things.
Later in the evening I went out to lock up the hutches and collect any remaining eggs from the day. The egg count was understandably very low. This happens when the girls get stressed. However, the most curious thing I found wasn’t in the nesting boxes.
It was this…
and I found it in the leaf litter out in the run!
These are Tippy’s eggs. the one on the right is normal, and the one on the left is about the size of a medium jaw breaker!
I know it to be hers, because she is the only girl I have that lays white eggs. (blue tint is an anomaly of the photo) The little one is called a *Wind Egg, or as some crusty folk call it, a “Fart Egg.” When opened the inside will contain only the albumin or “white” of the egg. Quite irregular, but then I guess if you are throttled the day before by a hawk and he pulls out all your tail feathers, but you thankfully manage to get away, then you can be expected to be a little off the next day.
Poor baby!
*For more amazing and strange egg anomalies look here: http://www.poultryhelp.com/oddeggs.html
Life on the Farmlet 