Egg Hunt

Sadly my chicken coop isn't finished yet. So, the chickens have no reason to lay in the nest boxes provided! I'm not sure how old they are, but it seemed like it was about time for me to be seeing some eggs. I went on an egg hunt this morning and found 2 nests (plus Giselle's, which looks almost ready!). One had 6 duck eggs in it and the other had 2 leghorn eggs. I have 8 hens, 2 turkeys and 2 ducks. I should have more eggs then that! But, I am happy that I figured out where they were starting to lay. I looked all over for any other hidden nests, but didn't find any. I'm excited to finally have my own eggs again!!!

It's been months...

.....since it rained last. It's been going all night and now, though letting up a bit and the clouds are breaking here and there, it's still drip-dropping. Love the smell, love the free water, love the sounds and especially the break from the blazing sun. Thank goodness; it's about time. I was starting to forget what weather was like.

Meet the herd

Nadeyus: 26 year old purebred Arabian, chestnut. Nariadni son. Prize winner, shown English hunt-seat, some Western....now retired to be our kid's horse, loving baths every week, slow trail rides and senior food.
























Nevada's Lucky Gamble: 5 year old bay arab/QH. Rescued from a feedlot in Nevada, brought to AZ and brought back to health. Started on groundwork at the rescue. After adopting her and building a friendship with her, we've started work under saddle and she's coming along so well. Has agility and power...hope to run gymkhana events with her in the future.


























Bentley: 15 year old APHA solid palmomino. Curious, powerful and a little lazy. Loves baths, treats, and walking slow. Loves the round pen and hauling kids around. Hadn't been worked much in recent years before we got him so we're refreshing him on just about everything. Not quite as bad as starting from scratch. Big friendly giant.

Harvest

So we picked our fill from the nearby corn field (donated by the farmer to our church for the use of the members). We got a wagon load, plus the equivelent of 5 bushel baskets. There was corn coming out our ears. ;) Ha ha, get it?....So, Mom and Friend came over to husk and prep it all, and we simply blanched, cooled, cut and bagged all those sweet golden kernels. I lost count of how many quart bags we filled, but it was A LOT. So nice; I've already used a ton of it in all kinds of recipies! It was super yummy in some spicy enchiladas; the combo of spicy and sweet was delish.

Make way for (more) ducklings!

Giselle decided to sit on another nest, after losing her other ducklings.  This time, she hatched 7, with 5 others that got about halfway out before dying.  Still, 7 is a big brood, and she is taking better care of them then she did her first babies.  I hope they make it!  I love watching them run and tumble all across the grass, and see them learning how to swim and eat.

Also, we've had 6 of these nasty guys so far this summer.  I bet there will be several more before the season is over.  Ick.

Chicken Pox

So, I'll tell you something you might not know.  Chickens can get an illness called 'avian pox'; literally, chicken pox!  About 2 years ago, a flock of young chicks we had here got it and we had 2 chicks die.  

Yesterday, I noticed a turkey of ours had a badly scabbed and bleeding beak and the others were really pecking at it, so I separated it out.  This morning, I saw that several other chicks had similar scabs around their faces, also

 getting pecked badly.  By this afternoon, all but 2 of the chicks had the scabby bleeding sores, and I knew it just wasn't a coincidence or bored bully chickens.  It looked too much like the pox I had dealt with previously.  

The turkeys were really bullying the smaller chickens so I separated them out so hopefully the chicks will be able to heal a bit.  One of the turkeys still looked fine last I checked, but two others were in sad shape; one was missing almost half of the top of his beak.  :(  It will grow back fine if he makes it, but it will really make it hard to eat until it does and so it will likely die.  

I am bummed; I hope we don't loose too many birds to this.  Last time the symptoms lasted almost a month so it will be a while before we know what the total damage will be.  I hope they pass it along to the pigeons that roost under my roof....

Why, hello, Peter!

So, I was out watering my little garden today and I saw a small hole under one of my raised boxes and there was something furry wiggling around, trying to hide.  Thinking it was a gopher, I took the hose and blasted a good long stream of water into the hole (inhumane?  maybe.....).  A minute later, I was surprised to see 3 baby bunnies pop out of that hole!  I have no idea how the mama got into the garden area in the first place, but it struck me as a little funny that she had made her home a foot away from my lettuce.