It’s snowing here today, with about an inch of mushy stuff
on the ground. It’s damp and gray and
cold, the kind of day to spend inside.
Looking through the window is pretty enough with the trees draped in
white fluff. I thought about going out
to take pictures but I have a hard time motivating myself this time of
year. My body says stay in, eat and
hibernate. Last night I made a banana
sour cream cake- delicious- but not what Steve and I need.
I went to the little store in town this morning to buy my
newspapers, the roads were slick and I thought about skipping the whole thing
but we need the newspapers for slopping up after Bugsy, our incontinent
dog. I also wanted to buy a lottery
ticket for the powerball game which is up to some fantastic amount. But it was a struggle to get my mind and body
in gear to make the trip.
The hose at the barn was froze this morning and all day
yesterday. Friday I filled two buckets
and left them in the barn and that was used up this morning so tonight I will
be carrying water unless some really bright sun comes out and warms us up,
which I doubt. I thought the chickens
would all stay inside but they and the cats came running to meet me when I came
out. I saw chicken tracks all around the
front yard in the snow so I guess their little bare feet were tolerating the snow.
Usually I shut up all the birds before the first sticking
snow but last year I regretted not letting them out more when it was nice. I kept thinking if I let them out someone
would get left out over night and freeze.
This year I haven’t closed up everyone yet- I have yet to find all the
turkeys and ducks roosting inside. All
the chickens come in each night but the others are more stubborn. Tonight though, I may go back out after it
gets good and dark and see if I can shut them in. That will guarantee we get a warm spell.
Something is eating eggs.
I don’t think its chickens, doesn’t look like their work and it started
in the frizzle pen. The eggs look like
they are being bitten open. I hate to
think it’s the cats because I can’t keep them out of the pens. I found the shell from an eaten one in the
big hens nest box this am and that bothers me because I don’t want to paying
this much for laying feed and not get eggs.
We do feed the cats cooked eggs
several times a week (and they always have dry cat food). I confess I have on occasion given them raw
eggs, usually after I find a cracked one.
It may be my fault if its cats doing it.
There has been a big black cat hiding in the barn
lately. He sneaks out to eat with the
other cats when he thinks I’m not looking.
You can tell he was once a pet, I think someone dropped him off so I don’t
think he would be any more likely to eat eggs than mine. I’m thinking maybe an opossum is eating them.
I do wish I had a night vision trail
camera out there- maybe one day.
Speaking of eggs, my crazy canary laid one this morning on
the cage floor. I took her nest out last
week because she has been sitting on it for weeks. There were eggs once but they never hatched. She got busy and tried to make a nest in a
seed cup, pushing all the seeds out and scavenging little pieces of paper and
feathers. Today when I found the egg,
which I broke trying to pick up, I took out the seed cup and replaced her nest
and gave her some moss and yarn to re-build which she has been happily doing. The male is still with her but I haven’t
noticed them mating.
I was getting ready to put the cage separators back in both
cages and let them be separated for a while.
I know male and female canaries should be separated but mine don’t fight
and seem happy and it does give them a lot more room with the cage dividers
out. I think I will put the one divider
back in the cage with the older male and switch the hen that he is next to,
since I got nothing out of that pair this year.
I have one poor little hen that has been in the bottom cage all year and
in the winter it doesn’t get a lot of light.
Its time for her to have a chance to attract the male, although he took
a big fancy to the hen he is with last spring.
Maybe he will get to like her because she will be “new”.
That’s news at the bird house. Here's a picture of the hen trying to nest in the seed cup.
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