Changes

 It’s the end of June and long-awaited changes have begun. The meat chickens are nearly as grown as we want them. I’ll miss watching their antics, but I’m ready to have just one coop to take care of. The roosters are getting belligerent. Every morning when I let them out, they run around challenging each other. You may have heard the expression “get your hackles up” and not known its origin. Hackles are the feathers on the back of a chicken’s neck. In a chicken fight, the individuals involved do, in fact, put their hackles up.

Chickens with their hackles up

Here are raised hackles from the back. I’m sure our experience of having the hair on the back of our neck stand up in stressful situations is evolutionarily linked to hackle raising. It makes the chicken look terrifying, right?

Raised hackles from the back (front left)

After the fights are over, it is as if the roosters say to each other, “Let’s go get a drink.”

When the fights are over, everyone adjourns to the local pub

In what I imagine is a long-awaited moment for cardinal parents, the cardinal chicks are fledging. This one was cheeping and shaking its wings, trying to get a parent to feed it. Too bad, buddy—time to forage on your own!

Cardinal fledgling shakes its wings in vain

Construction on the deck replacement started on June 23 with demolition of the old, rotten wood.

Deck demolition

The next day, the damaged boards underneath the deck were replaced. I could have sworn I took a picture, but it seems that was a false memory. The Trex decking (maintenance-free composite of waste plastic and sawdust) was delivered Monday by a semi and a skid-steer loader. When the guys left on Tuesday, the surface was covered

Deck covered

And one set of stairs was built.

Stairs with steps, left; risers for new stairs, right.

Yesterday, they started on the railing, which is in progress today.

The beginning of the railing

“They have more tools than you can believe,” Terry said. “You should take a picture for your blog.”

Some of the tools along the chick fence.

Here’s the whole scene.

Tools everywhere

Sadly, Jane’s cat, Skip took ill a few weeks ago. We weren’t awaiting this change, although we knew it would come sooner or later. He stopped eating, and the vet discovered a massive tumor. He took the Big Cat Nap on June 10.  He was Jane’s only cat, and Jane had never in her whole life been cat-less. She kept checking various websites of animal shelters, finally finding two adorable gray and white siblings, a boy and a girl. They are not yet three months old. After much deliberation, she named them Gracie and JJ.

Gracie and JJ

She has to keep collars on them to tell them apart, although she seems to think that she will be able to recognize them as individuals when she knows them better. What we know so far is that Gracie is the boss, and JJ is somewhat shy and retiring.

Trying to keep the cats still for a picture

Jane has gotten nothing done since the kittens came home. If she’s not busy watching their adorable antics, they are sleeping on her lap. Everyone knows that you can’t get up when you have a cat on you.

Jane and her cats (Gracie has the red collar)

The last phase of renovation will be starting soon. We have a pre-construction meeting with the kitchen people next week. I’ll be glad when everything is done and the cash hemorrhage is over!

 

 

 

First day of summer

It’s another scorcher today. I went out early to weed the corn before it became dangerously hot. The hens do well in the orchard, hanging out in the shade of the apple trees. I have mentioned before that the chicks sit in front of the fan. Here is my attempt at getting a picture of it. There is an observer effect here, as some of the chicks flee as soon as I walk into the coop.

Chicks in front of the fan (which is behind a screen)

The chicks are spending more time outside during the heat when there is shade. These times include the morning before the sun comes around to the west side of the coop and later in the afternoon when the sun is low enough that there is shade under the canvas lean-tos I put in the run for that purpose (you can see on in the background of the kennel picture below). Here’s the puzzlement, though—if you are going to the shade to cool off, wouldn’t you space out instead of piling all on top of each other?

Spread out, for heaven's sake!

The chicks have learned to get on top of the kennel. It is not unusual for the pullets (chicks that will become laying hens) to get up there. Often the meat chickens (shown below) are too heavy to fly up that far.

A particularly agile meat chicken on top of the kennel

These meat chickens also roost with the pullets at night, which is something I have not observed in meat chicks before this year. 

Roosting for the night. The pullets are, from left, in positions 1, 3, 6, and 8

They can climb up the ladder rather than flying, which helps. One morning after most everyone ran outside, I heard alarm cries from the coop. There was a meat chicken pacing back and forth on the roost as if he could not figure out how to get down. He came up with a plan quickly as soon as I tried to pick him up. He squawked and fluttered his wings as he jumped to the floor and sprinted for the door. They can move quickly when motivated.

The new bloom for this week is penstemon. I have it by the garage and the fifth oak. This is the bunch by the fifth oak, obviously.

Penstemon and the fifth oak

Here is a close up. I am disappointed that the color doesn’t show. They are a lovely pale lavender in real life.

Close up

We are battling fruit flies again, and I’m damned if I can figure out where they are breeding. The last time this happened, it was a rotten onion. I have checked (and thrown out most of) the onions again and again. Then I thought of the potatoes, sprouting and wrinkling in the root cellar. Yesterday, I found a moment to go through them. One potato was rotting, but had no fruit flies on it. So the fruit fly mystery is unsolved.

However, potatoes are amazing things. The part we eat is not a root, but a tuber, an underground stem complete with buds or “eyes.” The Caribou Russets did something I had not previously seen by actually sprouting tiny potatoes not only on the sprouts but also right out of the tuber itself. Amazing. If Hilda were here, she would probably want to fry them up and eat them. I was worried they were full of toxins, just like the stems would be.

Baby potatoes forming not only on the sprouts but also directly on the tubers

I have always been amazed at the length of the sprouts that can come from a potato without benefit of any additional water or energy. These two small potatoes produced shoots over a foot long!

How can these weenie potatoes have enough resources to produce such prodigious spouts?

The sprouts, presumably those destined to be roots, also have a remarkable ability to seek out darkness. Here is an example of one that grew right into the corrugations of the cardboard box it was in. It expanded after getting in there, too. I could not pull it out.

Putative root growing into cardboard

The peas in the high tunnel are ready to harvest. I did the first picking on Sunday. It looked like a lot in the pink tray and took 30 minutes to shell them. And then we ate every last one for supper. If they weren’t so darned good, it would seem like a lot of effort for not much yield. I have learned, however, that even if I just freeze a handful at a time, I can accumulate a gallon bag of peas for the winter. So much better than store bought!

First pea harvest

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to me! I like to think of it not as one year older, but as only two more years to Medicare. Not everyone could make it to the potluck. No matter when you schedule an event, the date won’t be good for everyone. Jane had the presence of mind to take pictures (Thanks, Jane!)

Here I am with Nancy.

Nancy with my birthday card

And Kate,

Another in a series (according to Kate) of Bev and Kate pictures that all look alike

And Terry.

With my dear Mr. Schmidt

Here’s everyone playing Mexican train. Kathy and Chuck are between Kate and Terry. I hadn’t seen them since before COVID. I’m not exactly who the old lady on the far left is with the gray hair and the double chin. How did she get my T-shirt??

Mexican train

Jane made chocolate cake. She found some extra cute candles for the top. Jane and Nancy had a heck of a time getting them lit without burning their fingers as the matches burned down.

Lighting the candles

They finally accomplished their goal.

Candles lit

Everyone seemed to think I should blow the candles out, and I complied even though I think it’s rather unsanitary. It was good to see everyone. We had delicious food and good conversation. I have such nice friends.

Blowing out the candles

After a few weeks of perfect June weather—cool mornings and 70-ish afternoons, it got hot this week. Really hot. Record-breaking hot. Upper 90’s hot. Insufferably hot. I could go on. The hens can hang out under the apple trees. Poor chicks. I have shade shelters for them, but they prefer to stay in the coop mostly. The first time I turned the fan on high, they were all scared. They got over it quickly, however, and were soon sitting in front of it. One of them was standing in the breeze with his wings outstretched. I never have my camera for the good shots.

As soon as the sun gets low, everyone wants to be out on the lawn. At this time of year, that’s 8:30, and I would like to be getting ready for bed. Kids will be kids. Can’t we stay up just 30 minutes more?

Bedtime, or not

This group seemed to want to perch outside for the night. So not allowed! Too dangerous.

Settled in for the night--definitely NOT!

Hilda used to get a walking stick and try to shoo them in. I prefer and Zen approach of patience, at least until most of them have gone in on their own. Neither strategy is very effective. Three nights ago, I was preparing to shoo in the last two when 5 more ran out. I got to thinking that maybe it was too dark in the coop and they were scared to go in/stay in. I put up the cool red light, since obviously the heat lamp was not required. The next night was better. I got fancy and put the light on the time so it would be on from 7:00 to 9:00. After several chicks ran out again just as I was about to shut the door, I realized 9:00 was not late enough. I set it for 9:30. Last night, they all went in on their own! Victory! The only problem was that one of the meat chicks was sticking his head out of the door. I started closing the door, thinking he would go in, but of course, he went out. Not famous for brains, chickens. I opened the door again, and a second chick went out. I got the walking stick, and soon everyone was locked down, and I could finally go to bed.

One of the Wyandottes started getting white feathers seemingly overnight. The other one is still mostly black.

A Wyandotte suddenly turning white

Our Big Red Broilers are not the same color as they have been in the past and are not the same color as each other. The females were always a lighter brown, but in past years the males have been solidly rufous, similar to the color of a robin’s breast (which, contrary to the song, is not really red). The one on the end here has a fair amount of gray or black. I’m interested to see what he will look like in two weeks.

Variation in broiler color

I’m also anxious to see what our gray Americauna will look like when she’s mature . I’ve named her Doriann Grey.

Doriann Grey

I finally got beans planted in the high tunnel. We are still battling some mysterious herbivore. We’ve had a rabbit problem, which could be what ate the tops off two of my beans.

Golden limas

The beets are an enduring mystery. They put out their first two leaves, and then one day they were got. I did not despair because it seemed like the shoot apical meristem (as we say in the business) was intact. Indeed, the beets began to sprout their true leaves. And then they were gone, removed with a surgical precision that I do not associate with rabbits. Slugs?

Terry alerted me to the grape flowers blooming. All these years, and I’d never seen it before, likely because they have no petals. Each grape ovary (girl part) is surrounded by 5 stamens (boy parts).

Grape flowers

Linnaeus referred to this as a wife with 5 husbands, which scandalized his 18^th century peers. The stamen has two parts: a white, string-like filament ending in a pollen- producing knob the anther. Seems like a lot of work to have one flower for each grape, doesn’t it?

I’m seeing red-winged blackbird fledglings around.

Blackbird fledgling

Yesterday I saw a female Baltimore oriole with a caterpillar in her mouth. She’s got babies!

 

 

Chicks are outside!

The chicks have enough feathers that I can discontinue the supplemental heat and let them out into the run. It’s a process, as is everything. First, Terry and I had to put up the chick fence. In spite of buying what I thought was a lifetime supply of metal fence posts a few years ago, we ended up short. An emergency run to Tractor Supply was needed. Like everything, the price had gone up substantially, or so it seemed to my vague memory of paying about a dollar per post. They are now in excess of $5, but I must disclaim that there was no time to shop around for a better price.

I put the feeder and a larger waterer out in the run, hoping to entice them out of their first cozy home. I opened the door at 11:00 a.m. A Wyandotte and a meat chick stuck out their heads and sampled the grass.

Sampling the grass

The Wyandotte hopped out, turned tail and went right back in.

Brief foray outside

The meat chicken went next.

Out....

And back in. 

...And back in

An hour later, many of the chicks were out, following their jungle fowl instincts and sticking to the shaded areas.

Lots of chicks outside, but few will brave full sun, even for food

By 4:30, they were all over the place, exploring, pecking at the grass, digging a dust bath by the door, and having a grand time. In the background of this photo you can see a chick trying out its wings. 

Chicks, wild and free

It’s the funniest thing to watch. A chick will be minding his/her own business, when suddenly zoom, it takes off running and flapping across the turf with all the speed it can muster. It gets to another chick and stops dead. They stare at each other for a moment, and then calmly resume scratching and pecking. What was that about?

The difference between male and female meat chicks is starting to manifest. In this photo, the chick on the left is a female, as evidenced by her smaller comb and no wattle. The one on the right has a larger comb and wattle under his chin. Chickens don’t really seem to have chins, but you know what I mean.

A female meat chicken (brown) on the left with small comb and no wattle next to male (right) with developing comb and wattle. The black chick is a Wyandotte.

We are poised to have a great apple year. Lots of fruit has set on the trees. It looks so lovely and perfect now, before the apple maggots, wasps, and any number of other insects, fungi, etc. have their way with it. Still, there will be apple sauce, apple butter, apple juice, and dried apples aplenty for the winter.

Developing apples

With the fruit trees done blooming, the bees don’t have enough nectar around. I have to feed them a 1:2 sugar:water solution using a bee feeder. There’s not much to it. A quart jar with a tight-fitting lid sits in a frame with a slot just big enough for bees. The lid has pinholes that let the sugar water out one drop at a time. They empty the quart jar every day. Through trial and error, I have discovered that 3 cups of water and 1.5 cups of sugar makes just enough volume for the jar. Ten pounds of sugar doesn’t last long at this rate.

Bee feeder

We’ve had a bit of rain and could use more. Putting in an order does not seem to help. We also know to be careful what we wish for. “The trouble with June,” Terry remarked the other day, “is that 4 inches of rain can come in one day.” In any case, the soil moisture under the patio was just right for the ants to build some elaborate volcano structures instead of the usual mounds.

Ant volcanoes

The columbine are blooming.

Columbine

I have planted more poppies as most of them got crowded out by dandelions. A few survived along the margins of the garden. The first one bloomed yesterday. It is the usual size, with the flower 2 or 3 inches across. Also note the prodigious mass of leaves and stem below the flower.

Full size poppy on large plant at the edge of the garden

I found this one this morning, poor little thing. It is so cute, less than an inch in diameter, and has one spindly little stalk supporting it. Here’s the fascinating part—it came from the same genetic material as the full sized one. It is either a mutant or has been miniaturized by its environment (or some combination). Wow!

Mini-poppy on a single thin stalk, struggling among the grasses and weeds

The first tomatoes have set in the high tunnel. There’s so much growth going on around me that I just can’t keep up with it all! I do love summer!

The first New Girl tomatoes