Fun Friday Photo

I Shot a Possum, and Other Chicken Tales

My lack of posts due to the absence of interesting events was interrupted yesterday as Wednesday was highlighted by three dramatic episodes for the chickens and their keeper. The major development of the day was that the vermin that brought much pain, heartache and anxiety was apprehended. 

As I was heading outside after dinner to feed the chickens their daily treats, I noticed that the live trap next to their pen was closed and something furry was contained within. Upon closer examination the furry-something ended up a being a possum, most likely the one who dispatched of the Black Australorp back in mid-July. The trap had been set since mid-July. In fact, I had planned to give up and put it away last weekend, but was feeling lazy. One of the grossest things about the incident was that the bait (can of cat food) had been in the trap at least two weeks, which should tell you a lot about possums and their food preferences (and I guess that tells you something about my trap-keeping skills. Who says laziness can’t lead to success?) 

Don't be fooled--it's not dead in this picture. It's just playing possum.

Despite the vicious predator contained in a trap just outside their fence, the Originals seemed to sense it was no longer a threat.

 I immediately phoned the neighbor, picked up the cage with the musty, sour smelling critter and carried it to the row of pine trees that would serve as death row. My neighbor arrived with a rifle and Mr. Possum quickly met his maker. I had no qualms about shooting the little sucker square in the noggin, especially since he ate livestock that would have produced many eggs for eating. 

Possums carry diseases that can be fatal to horses so there was also an interest to keep Jubilee and Charlie healthy. (You may also recall that we had a possum problem back in May 2012 that was resolved in a similar manner).

Prior to the excitement of the possum incident, I arrived home from work and went about doing the daily chores, the first of which is walking through the barn to visit the vegetable garden. Upon entering the barn I found a very distraught Dominique who was standing on top of the chicken coop. She must have flown out of the pen, reentered the barn and was desperately trying to rejoin her buddies inside. After trying to coax her down, I gave up and went to the garden, where I contemplated my strategy to get her back where she belonged.

Brief side note: Dominique and Brownie had escaped not 10 days earlier using the same technique-they were discovered wandering in the barn aisle. Brownie was herded back into the outdoor pen after about 10 minutes. Dominique proved harder to catch since she isn’t used to being handled—I cornered her by the barn and electric netting (which had been turned off). In her urgency to get away from me, she ran into the netting, which allowed me to grab her. Despite her initial squawking, she settled right down and allowed me to carry her back to her buddies).

So, after picking quite a haul of green beans, squash, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers I returned to the barn determined to get the chicken down off the coop. She could be tempted with treats, but  would flee when I tried to pick her up (which was kind of hard to do standing on a step stool). Finally she got close enough to the edge of the coop’s wire ceiling that I was able to prod her to the ground using the handle of a pitchfork. She was quickly ushered into the coop where I found…

TWO EGGS! Woo hoo! One (or two) of the Originals is starting to lay. The eggs were right by the human entrance to the coop, so now the challenge is getting the chickens to lay in their nest boxes (stay tuned for updates). 

The eggs aren’t very big—I’d say one would be considered medium-size and the other is small. Obviously, I am really looking forward to breakfast tomorrow morning.

Bears!

Okay, truthfully (and thankfully) we've had no bear sightings on the farm. But, here's a fun live-video feed of Brooks Falls in Alaska where the brown bears fish for salmon.


Live streaming video by Ustream

Out in the Rain

A few weeks ago the horses were in their stalls eating their dinner of oats when it began to rain.

Charlie wasn't fazed by the rain, but Jubilee wouldn't tolerate the ping of the drops on the metal roof of the barn. She hightailed it out of her stall to the barnyard.

Farm rule: if you leave the barn during mealtime, you don't get to come back in.

 Charlie was content to wait out the storm in his stall. (Mostly he stayed inside because a certain human didn't want to go outside and take off his halter in the rain and mud puddles.)

The chickens wisely stayed inside with their dry coop.

Katydid

A couple of weeks ago a group of students from Japan visited the neighbor's farm where I work. The students had a lot of fun riding in the wagon pulled by the tractor, finding their way through the corn maze, shooting guns, and riding the four wheeler.

While we were waiting for the rest of the students to finish up their farm activities, this young lady was sitting quietly as a green katydid climbed up her arm. I was struck by her peacefulness and calmness, especially for a person who has spent most of her life living in the world's largest metropolitan area (of course, they may have lots of bush crickets in Tokyo, but I couldn't find that on Wikipedia).

A cell phone camera isn't ideal for evening photography, but I just love how serene this student and her new pal are.

 

Dusk

The Replacements

Looked what arrived in the mail:

Six adorable chicks! They shipped yesterday from Meyer Hatchery and arrived in town late this morning. The kind people at the post office called to let me know they had reached their destination. I took an early lunch break to pick them up, take them home, and get them settled into their new surroundings.

I ordered these six "replacements" after losing two chickens from the Original Six that were ordered in the spring. One of those chicks died when it was a couple of days old, and Blackie was a victim of a vermin attack last week. So why order six chicks to replace two? I had been debating about ordering a few more chickens for the last few weeks-- not only are chickens fun to watch, but maybe I can sell any extra eggs to earn some money to help cover the cost of the birds (although keeping chickens is pretty inexpensive once you have all the equipment and coop).

I was hoping to order another Australorp and Buff Orpington, but the hatchery didn't have any available to ship this week. So the Replacements consist of two Barred Rocks, two Light Brahmas, and two Golden Buffs.

The chicks are currently sharing the coop with the Original Six Four. The coop is divided in half with lattice (the original intention was to separate the meat chickens from the egg chickens, and one side is empty now that the meaties are in the deep freeze). Since the chicks are small enough to slip through the partition, they're in the old dog crate that was converted into a brooder. The Originals were very curious about their new flock mates, and Sassy even woke up from her nap to check out all the chirping.

Hopefully having them in the same area where they can see each other will make integrating the Replacements into the Originals a smooth process. That won't happen for several more weeks until the chicks get closer in size to the big girls.

I only had a few minutes to watch the new chicks after dunking their beaks in water and closing them up in their brooder. They all seemed active and a few made a beeline for the food. One even managed to hop out of the crate, but it didn't get too far before it was apprehended.

My vermin-trapping efforts have not been successful. Apparently vermin aren't attracted to pot roast or apply jelly. Tonight I'll bait the trap with some leftover cooked chicken.