Chicks!

 We’re having another rain day. Good thing, too, as I hadn’t read or responded to my emails for several days, and bills were due. The cats sat with me in the study while I worked. Banjo took a nap; Bingo stared pensively out the window at the rain.

Bingo gazing pensively at the rain.

I’ve gotten a couple of cute cat pics that show their different personalities. Banjo is more intellectual. He likes to help me with the crossword.

Bingo likes to help with the crossword, especially by chewing on the pencil eraser.

Bingo prefers to spend a lot of his day in “his” recliner, often with his head hanging off the edge so all the blood rushes to his brain, presumably. Silly boy.

Bingo lets the blood rush to his head

In our last episode, I reported that four box elder trees had broken in a Big Wind. Poor Terry. He went out with his chainsaw and started cleaning up. He cut up everything he could reach, but left stacking the pieces for another time when he was rested. Alas, another front came through midweek and blew a tree into the fire ring.

Tree down on the fire ring

It wasn’t a new break, however. A tree that broke in the Big Wind and got hung up on the trunk next to it broke loose and hit the ground. Sort of. The end was still stuck in the tree.

Broken box elder, last week

This week, branch down

View from the other side

We are at the height of asparagus harvest, picking about two pounds every other day. There must be a red-winged blackbird nest nearby. A male has been scolding me all week, and actually made contact with my back as I bent over to cut a stalk yesterday. I may have to resort to wearing my bike helmet. When a blackbird claws you in the head, you know you’ve been hit.

Yesterday's asparagus harvest

I picked the first ripe strawberry yesterday. Terry and I split it for lunch. I only see one other berry turning red at the moment, but experience suggests that they will soon mature all at once.

The first strawberry

When Jane and I were at Menard’s on Wednesday, we heard sandhill cranes calling nearby. We drove by the far edge of the parking lot, and there they were. We saw four adults first, then another adult with one, no two! chicks. Three of the adults flew off, leaving one (presumably the dad) guarding the (presumed) mom foraging with the two chicks. That was an unexpected bonus for the day!

Cranes, family of four

The chicks came Friday. Here they are in the shipping box. The numerous light brown ones are the meat chickens.

My first view of the chicks

I gave them each a drink and put them in the coop. A few of them gathered around the water cooler, getting hydrated after their long trip.

Hanging by the water cooler

I took a picture of one of the Ameraucanas because she was so cute.

Ameraucana chick when I took her from the shipping box

This morning, they were already showing wing feathers. Here’s that same chick today.

Two days later, already getting wing feathers

I also have two silver-laced Wyandottes (which look the same)

One of two black and white Wyandotte chicks

And three other Ameraucana (which all look different).

Dark brown Ameraucana

Tan Ameraucana

Not-so-dark brown Ameraucana

For the first three mornings, I have to do pasty butt inspections. I use a large plastic bin to separate the chicks I have checked from the ones I haven’t.

The Bin of Separation

Yesterday, I had no chicks with pasty butt, and I dared hope that this would be the first year that I didn’t have to open the Chick Spa. This morning, however, I had one customer for a butt wash and blow dry. It doesn’t even bother me anymore.

While the chicks were still in the bin, I pulled up the piddle pads and switched to wood chips, which you can do after the first day or two. If you go to bedding right off the bat, they can have digestive problems if they try to eat it.

What is this stuff? Food? Not food?

Here’s a little video showing the chicks trying to decide if wood chips are good to eat or not.

https://youtu.be/47DvuFEUwOw

As for the hens, they finally all laid an egg on the same day. I have been waiting for months. We’ve had lots of days with 6 eggs, which caused me to suspect that one was not laying anymore. Not that it matters. With no way to determine who it is, it isn’t like I can cull her. 

Seven eggs from seven hens in one day

I have to congratulate Silvia and Goldie, our two Ameraucanas for being the Egg Laying Champions. They both lay a blue egg nearly every day. The brown-egg layers are slackers. In any case, we got 5 brown eggs from five brown-egg-laying chickens yesterday, so they are still all producing. Terry suggested they were feeling the pressure of having their replacements on site now. They certainly don’t look concerned, but chickens never do. It’s one of the things I admire about them. Always in the moment.