True love

My canaries came from two sources; let’s call them source A and B.  I have males and females from both sources.  My plan was to set up the male from source A with a female from source B and vice versa.  I wanted to start breeding with a good outcross.

 But birds are strange creatures when it comes to love.    Petey my oldest canary is a source A bird but he would have nothing to do with the pretty little hen from source B who I put on the other side of his divided cage.    Instead he spent a lot of time on the floor in one corner of his cage cocking his head toward a hen from source A who was in a cage below and to the right of him.  They called back and forth to each other frequently.

 Sunny the young male from source B was equally unhappy with the pretty red factor hen from source A.  He spent his day hanging on the back side of his cage talking to the hen who was in supposed to be Peteys girl.  Their cages came pretty close together at one corner and they spent their days there kissing through the bars when Sunny wasn’t challenging Petey with vigorous song.

 Finally I gave up trying to force my choices on the birds and switched the males.  The red factor hen is now the reserve hen with no male for her.  And within an hour of the move both males were kissing and talking to their chosen mates through the cage dividers.  I except the girls will spend more time actually building a nest now and not playing with the nesting materials.  Hopefully in a week or so I will be able to remove the dividers.

 Petey in particular seems ecstatically happy with his chosen girl, a little green and yellow variegated hen. He is bringing her pieces of paper and string for her nest already.  She was the hen without a mate but she had a nest in her cage and was more interested in it than the girls who did have mates.  The hen which I originally set Petey up with was a variegated hen too, almost identical to the other hen, but to Petey there must have been a difference, maybe because that one seemed to prefer Sunny. 

 Although the birds are now with mates that came from the same sources they aren’t sisters and brothers so the breeding should go ok.  They must have been able to recognize some family trait that made them prefer that mate.  Its been just a couple hours since the move and everyone seems much happier.

Poultry, for the most part are not so picky about their mates.   They are flock breeders rather than pair breeders.  But roosters do sometimes favor one hen over others, although they don’t totally ignore the others.  Ducks also tend to have a favorite, although domestic ducks don’t seem to really pair off like some wild ducks do. 

Last weekend something got in the barn one night and ate all the eggs that were on the floor, including those of the Muscovy duck that were just about to hatch.  I suspect an opossum, because a coon would have killed something, especially with my young Frizzle chicks in there.  But everyone has returned to laying and there seems to be no return yet of the predator.  The turkeys are laying and there are now three duck nests.   One of the Frizzle mommas is now sitting eggs again while the other is watching the half grown chicks.

Tomorrow is the first day of March and I had it in my head that I would open up the barn and let the birds out to free range for the rest of the season.  But we are having a mess of rain and snow mix, with some ice expected so tomorrow probably won’t be the day.  I think I will concentrate this weekend on trimming some wings so that when I do open the doors I won’t have turkeys and ducks all over the front yard.  Hurry Spring!

Lifes little problems

On Saturday I had a garden event to host and Steve was left to care for the farm.    On the way home all I was looking forward to was handing him the salad and lasagna I was bringing home from lunch for him to have for dinner and getting into my chair where I could put up my swollen, aching feet.

Instead I walked into a minor disaster.  When Steve went out to do the evening feeding he heard one of our old dogs, Bugsy throwing a fit inside the box that protects our doggie dog from the direct outside air.  It looks like a giant doghouse, the doggie door opens into it from the house, and then the dogs go through the box to the outside.

 Bugsy is having difficulty walking in his old age and Steve realized he had probably fallen in some way where he couldn’t get up inside the box.  That meant that Steve in his wheelchair would have to go around through the yard to get to the outside of the box.   He tried looking from inside the house and couldn’t see why Bugsy seemed caught and couldn’t get him to come close enough to grab and pull him through the door.

 
When he went back out to go around the house and into the yard to save Bugsy he was in a hurry and didn’t check to see who was at his wheels and Ginger got out of the house and ran right for the barn.  So Steve had to hurry there because Ginger is our worse chicken killer. 

 The barn door was closed but as Steve chased Ginger around in his wheel chair trying to catch her she kept circling back and trying to get through the door and she finally squeezed through the bottom and got inside.  Steve heard the noise - she was going after Frizzle and the black hen I had turned loose in the front of the barn because she was being picked on. 

 When he got the door open and started inside Ginger ran by carrying Frizzle by the neck.  He chased after her, she let Frizzle go once but Steve’s wheelchair got stuck in the slush and he couldn’t get there before she grabbed him again.  She had him on the ground pulling out clumps of feathers when Steve managed to grab her.   He thought Frizzle was dead but when he came back around the house after putting Ginger away Frizzle was gone.

 Bugsy was still howling and crying all this time so poor Steve had to hurry around the house, through the yard to get to him.  He had to get out of his chair and lay on the wet ground to reach Bugsy inside the box.  He had caught a toenail on a metal grate on the ground inside the box and had twisted his leg trying to get loose.  He was hurt and scared and bit at Steve several times as he freed him.    Poor Steve. 

 When I got home Steve had just got back inside and could barely talk because he was out of breath.  Bugsy was inside and seemed fine.  Steve was more upset than him.  He told me he had looked in the barn for Frizzle but he wasn’t there and thought he might still be alive outside somewhere.  Steve was in tears from his exertion and the pain it caused and went off to lay down.

 So even though my legs were ready to fall off I got my boots on and went out to look for Frizzle before it got dark.   We had about 3 inches of snow the night before so I was looking for tracks but the yard was a mess from Steve’s wheelchair.  I was about to give up when I saw Frizzles head sticking up out of the snow and weeds way down by the roadside ditch.  

 Frizzle managed to hop away from me until he was up by our front porch where I managed to catch him, screaming his head off.  I saw he had lots of feathers missing, but strangely enough I didn’t see any blood or holes.  He was limping pretty badly though, hopping on one leg. 

 I carried him back to the barn and settled him on his favorite perch -  high on the hay stack.  He settled down right away.  I looked around for the black hen but couldn’t see her anywhere.  Steve had said he didn’t see Ginger get her but didn’t know where she went.

 The next morning I almost expected to see Frizzle dead but there he was still high on the hay.  I helped him off and he ate and drank even though he was hopping around still.  This is the third time he survived a dog attack.  He sleeps with the cats; maybe some of their nine lives have transferred to him. 

 I found the black hen hiding under the steps to the loft later in the day.  She seemed fine when I shooed her out and when Frizzle saw her he felt good enough to jump her so I guess the old bird is going to make it.   He managed to make his own way back up on the hay last night and down off it this morning, although he is limping badly.

 Life is just too exciting around here sometimes

Back to winter

We had snow over the weekend, about 4 inches, and some very cold temperatures.  It’s hard to get used to winter again.    Today is a bit warmer and sunny and it’s looking better the next few days.  Hopefully winter will go away again.

I had to take one of my 2 year old hens out of the coop and turn her loose in the barn with Frizzle, the barn rooster.    She kept loosing feathers and was looking quite bare and pathetic.  I finally found out why- the guinea hens were picking off her feathers! I watched them picking at her.  She tried to fight back but they followed her around pulling feathers.  They seem to be quite fixated on this behavior- they have picked all the bottom plastic off the greenhouse annex in the coop.  I had to replace it with fiberboard.

Black hen was turned loose in the outer part of the barn where she is making Frizzle the rooster quite happy as he hasn’t had a mate in a while.  For a few days she spent most of her time just sitting on the feed table, now she is exploring the floor and hay stack.    At first I had to watch that she didn’t run back inside the coop when I fed, it was still home to her.  Now she seems to understand she actually has a good thing. 

 I am worried that the bugger birds have turned to picking at a buff orpington hen. Her feathers seem a little thin on her back.  I don’t know whether these Guineas are worth the hassle, what with the noise and the bullying behavior.    I really have no good way to separate them from the rest of the birds.  I’m trying to find some squash or a pumpkin to throw in the coop that they can eat and destroy. Hopefully warmer weather will show up again soon and they can go back outside. 

 Birds have returned to my feeder in some number.  Maybe it’s because the cold weather keeps the cat away.  I still am not seeing a lot of larger birds like doves, rose breasted grosbeaks, blue jays and the like.   I see a few cardinals now.  Lots of chick a dees,  titmice, goldfinches and downy woodpeckers.  No bigger woodpeckers or the starlings I used to get either.  My suet lasts a long time.  Used to be it hardly lasted 2 days.

 I read  there are a lot of bald eagles over wintering in the thumb this winter too as well as the snowy owls.  If they are eating the birds I can handle that.   I am thinking about driving to Bay City where the eagles are said to be hanging out around the marina.

 My wedding anniversary is tomorrow but I have to work and it’s supposed to snow a bit.  Maybe Wednesday would be a good day for a little anniversary jaunt to see Lake Huron and the eagles in the winter if Steve agrees.  Hope I can get pictures.

Spring in February

It’s February 4 and the sun is shining and its about 40 degrees here in Michigan.  There is no snow.  This has been a weird winter but I like it.  We have had the hose to the barn run every week at least one day and many weeks every day, at least in the afternoon.  I love it when I don’t have to carry buckets of water.  On warm days I just fill several large buckets and it lasts me through most days when the hose doesn’t run.

 Today I opened up the coop door and let everyone have a day outside.  I am hoping that all will return home to roost and I am not trying to get turkeys out of the trees tonight.  All the birds were so restless, fighting and running around in the coop that I just let them out.  The guineas were the first out followed by a couple hens then the ducks.  Not all of them ventured out right away but I think they will.  The sun should be good for them all and they may even find a few green shoots here and there.

I put some nest boxes in big enough for turkeys in the coop last week.  The turkey hens have been trying to get in the chicken nests.  It looks like I have 3 tom turkeys and 3 hens.  At least 3 of them were doing a strut and circle dance in the coop.  I think I messed up with choosing the dark turkeys and left a tom instead of the old hen which I really, really regret.  It makes me sick thinking that she may be in the freezer. She was such a great mom.  They looked so much alike last fall.  I stared at them every day trying to sort them out.  But when you go to catching them things get confusing.  There is one dark hen so I am hoping the smaller one that I thought was a young hen just got bigger and was actually a tom.  Time will tell.

I have a duck sitting on eggs I can’t reach very well so I’m letting her sit.  Didn’t want babies until April but at least it will be March.  The other hen ducks are very interested in finding nests too.  The only bad part of letting the birds out right now is that they will roam all over looking for places to hide nests and this isn’t good outside nesting weather.  At least there aren’t many good hiding spots right now. 

 I have been trying to tell what sex the little wild kittens are- they are nearly cats now.  I hope they all aren’t female or we will have a population explosion. (They always find a tom somewhere.)  They won’t let me pick them up and look.  I haven’t seen any acting like they are in heat, that’s a good thing.  Steve keeps cooking eggs for them, they are spoiled little things.

The horses have been frisky and Chance is rubbing his winter coat off.  I wonder if he knows winter is going to be mild the rest of the season.  The groundhog did not see his shadow here so maybe this good weather will continue.   It’s just if the animals and plants get too many signals that winter is over and then we get a surprise clobber snowstorm or real cold weather it really hurts them.  And it’s so likely to happen.   But everyday I don’t have to carry water is a blessing and its one more day closer to true spring.

Later in the evening footnote.

I went outside around 5 pm to get all the birds back in the coop.  Most had came inside already.  However one turkey had flown into the dog kennel.  I was able to rescue him with just his tail feathers lost.  The guineas were all making their horrible noise outside because one of the flock had went over the fence by the pond and couldn't figure out how to get back.  Since I would have to climb down a slippery bank and back up on the other side of a fence to get to it, I waited a bit but he was still there after the others finally marched off to bed.   So down I went and back up, working carefully so I wouldn't fall into the icy pond.  When I appeared on the other side he suddanly remembered he could fly.  He went over the fence and was in the barn way before me.  Guineas are pretty stupid.

February 5- the birds stayed in the coop.  Maybe they'll get another outside playdate soon.