Beatrice’s Bounty (2 photos)

A couple of days ago Beatrice hatched 17 out of 19 eggs. By the next day the ducklings were raring to go, running around the yard and exploring everything. I think Beatrice enjoyed being out and about but she has a busy time ahead of her.

Boris’s Bevy of Beauties

Boris has a couple of new companions, Betty and Beulah, to keep him company while Beatrice continues to sit on her 19 eggs. He is looking much happier and the new girls settled in very well.

Boris Feeling Blue

Boris the Duck is in the dumps because his partner Beatrice just started sitting on a clutch of eggs and won’t have anything do with him.  It’s going to be a long month.

Retirement and the Mini Cooper

We just got four new  Araucana chickens so Kate and Anna, the resident chickens, have gone into semi-retirement. They have moved from the big chicken coop to the Mini Cooper that is in our orchard. They will spend the remainder of their lives enjoying the grass and the fruit trees.  Meanwhile our new quartet is settling in well and we’re looking forward to their blue eggs.

The Four Araucanas

Kate enjoying the view from the new Mini Cooper

 

Goldfish

Cat-alogued

Mocha on my fabulous Lee Valley Tool catalogue

Catio – near completion (4 photos)

Mocha on the Perch

Leaping Cats

The Catwalk – naturally

 

The Cat Door – it had a bit of a learning curve to it but Mocha has now mastered it -we are no longer her servant

 

Mocha the Birthday Cat

A new cat for my birthday!
A four year old female shelter cat

 

Fart Eggs and Other Chicken News

The new chickens, Kate and Anna, are settling in well although there have been a couple of surprises. The other day I went out because Kate was doing a lot of squawking and complaining.

Kate the Rhode Island Red/Blue Sumatra Chicken

Kate is a much different chicken than our old Beulah. Beulah was a talker and I had many back and forth conversations with her. Kate is an orator. Loves to hear her own voice and it is pretty much a one sided conversation with her. She reminds me of the American election campaign where there is a lot of noise but not much substance.

Anyway, I went out to see what her problem was – apparently nothing – and reminded her that she hadn’t laid her egg yet. A couple hours later I checked the nest and found a very small egg in it.

Kate’s regular egg and the small egg

I thought that was pretty weird and headed straight for Google. I found out that it isn’t too unusual for young chickens to produce these eggs although it was the first that I have seen. These small eggs have several names – wind eggs, fairy eggs, witch eggs and fart eggs. They are all part of a young chicken adjusting to her new egg laying routine. After playing her little joke Kate is back to producing her large brown eggs.

In the meantime Anna has turned broody and spends most of her time on the nest trying to hatch her eggs even though I remove them each day and, because we don’t have a rooster, they are infertile.

Anna the Blue Sumatra/Rhode Island Red Chicken

Hopefully she will give up soon and enjoy the last of the Summer days.  Anna reminds me of the days when we had Banties running free in the yard. Every so often one would disappear and 21 days later come out of the bush with a clutch of chicks. They were always wonderful, protective mothers and fun to have around. Now that we are seeing so many more predatory animals around a chicken wouldn’t last long running free.

To give the girls a bit of variation I have created a Chicken Chariot. This wheeled cage rolls up to their coop,

The Chicken Chariot

I open the sliding doors and they hop in and I close the door. I can then roll it around the yard so they can dig in fresh grass or soil for the day. I still need to paint the racing stripes on it.

 

 

The New Girls on the Block

A couple of months back our old hen Beulah died of old age. It was hard to replace a good and faithful chicken like her right away so we waited until a couple of days ago to purchase two new hens. Our neighbour breeds chickens so we picked up a Rhode Island Red crossed with a bit of Sumatra Blue (Kate) and a Sumatra Blue mixed with a bit of Rhode Island Red (Anna).

They are named after Kate and Anna McGarrigle – two well known Canadian folk singers. Haven’t heard many pleasant tunes from our hens yet but we’re getting two eggs a day so all is well.

Anna

Kate