From Enabler to Problem Solver

 If you haven't already read my post about Houdini chicken, you may want to go back and do that, in order for this to make sense.

So... the top of the chicken run is now completely secure, no gaps, no parts that need a piece of chicken wire patched in, seams sown together with thin wire. Done. All done.

Yes, for two days, I enabled my insane chicken. I was outside at the time that she was pacing back and forth inside the run, looking for a method of escape (or maybe I planned to be there at that time?). And yes, I opened the gate for her and she left to go in her perennial bed to lay her little egg. On the second day, she heard me approach the coop when she was done and she emerged from the perennial bed and waited at the gate for me to open it, like a cat or a dog ready to be let in. 

I recognize that this is insane behaviour on my part. I recognize that I will most certainly have become a slave to an approximately 8 pound animal. I became an enabler. And I know all about enablers! So, here are the further lengths that I went to. I dug up some daylilies (because anyone with daylilies knows you can always divide them and still have plenty) and quickly "potted" them in some leftover plastic pots from hanging plants. I put them in the front corner, inside the run (at the end of her pacing lane). Why did I not plant them right in the ground? Because any loose soil is met with absolutely joy by a flock of chickens who continue to scratch it up and excavate yet another dust bath for themselves. 

Today I decided to keep busy and away from the back yard for a few hours (i.e. show some tough love to Houdini and exert a little strength on my part). And here is the result.

Here are the hastily potted day lilies (notice the leaves that have already been "snipped" off by inquisitive beaks).

And, when I had a look, drum roll please...

Ta da!! 

I know, I need better hobbies.

Anyway, here is a picture of the completed run.

What's that atop the gate, you ask?

Well, that would be the official supervisor, master of all domains, pool cat Murphy. He thinks the wooden strapping was put there for him, little pathways so he can walk all over the run and end up on the roof of the coop.

Just so you know I do something other than agonize over poultry, here is a tiny sample of current garden harvest. 

The alien looking things are rutabagas that I planted from seed. I've never grown them before and I was curious about what they are like (I'm well acquainted with turnips from my German heritage mother and Scottish heritage father). They were good, but obviously need a bit more growing time. The beets were lovely. 

I was cleaning up the front perennial bed and felt so sorry for the delphiniums that were beaten down by a couple of rains, so I cut some and then grabbed some other flowers and stuck them in a vase. I am NOT a flower arranger by any means, but I like the colour.

I will leave you with these gorgeous, although somewhat invasive, crocosmia. I think they are Lucifer. The hummingbirds love them and they look so tropical! Have a great day, everyone!

Little Bandits

 The roof of the chicken run is closed in with chicken wire. This is a good thing because the four red tailed hawks are swooping and calling and having a grand old time overhead and in the general area. 

However, the back corner of the run still has a bit of finishing to do (wooden pieces need to be trimmed off, chicken wire needs to be stapled, and a piece of chicken wire has to be "sewn" in where there will still be a gap. 

This means that local raccoons can still get into the run at night, which they do. Don't worry, the chickens are locked up tight in their coop by me in the evening. This also means that we had to get out the live animal trap again. For anyone who has a similar problem, the bait of choice is marshmallows, ripped open to reveal their temping aroma. Also, one must block off the sides and the back of the live trap (I used concrete blocks and patio stones) because raccoons can and will reach in with their nimble fingers and extract the bait without going into the trap. As well, a deep container is a good idea (tall yogurt container) to put the bait into which is then wired into place in the back of the trap so they really have to work at getting their marshmallows.

Meet bandit #1:

Meet bandit #2:

The second bandit actually ripped the yogurt container right off the wire. 

Don't let those sad little expressions fool you. They are destructive little darlings who would also kill a chicken if given the chance.  These two were caught within three days.

For each raccoon, we drove them out to a very secluded seasonal road (meaning it does not get maintained in the winter time) which leads into the woods and is not close to someone else's property and released them (both in the same spot, just in case they were siblings). 

I think there is a large mother raccoon still to be caught, but she may be more savvy than her youngsters. We shall see. Either way, a new bait container must be created and wired into place and perhaps three marshmallows with a dab of peanut butter (I'd actually eat that!) might be in order. 

Have you ever had raccoon problems? We've had them in the past a few times, and here is the most recent, if you wish to read about it. Please share your stories. 

Houdini Chicken and a Construction Project

 I spent a lot of time on Amazon.ca looking at netting. The good kind that I wanted, that I knew would last and the size I needed was, of course, sold out and unknown when more would be in. Why was I looking at netting? Two reasons, well actually the first reason is more like four reasons. We have a resident family of red tailed hawks. Mom and the three juveniles fly over our property, calling out, throughout the day. They sit on top of our neighbour's roof. They sit on the rail fence that borders our property and stare at the chicken run. Mother hawk (I think) took a swoop down at Murphy! (He subsequently leapt up into the air and tried to get her).

The other reason I was looking at netting was a hen I have named "Houdini chicken". In all the years that I have had chickens, I have never had a problem with chickens flying out of our run. The fence around their run is four feet tall. The only one who ever flew out was a nasty little piece of work Banty rooster named Rusty (yes, Friendly Giant reference for my Canadian friends). 

However, one of the "new" hens, a lavender Orpington, has taken to jumping up on a fence post and then jumping down onto the lawn. We corralled her back into the run several times. I worried about her escaping into the acres of weedy brush to the west of us, or being eaten by a predator if she didn't return quickly enough, so I watched some videos on how to clip wing feathers. It doesn't hurt the bird and it makes them somewhat unbalanced in their flight attempts and keeps them more grounded. After one of her escapes, husband and I caught her and I clipped her flight feathers of her right wing (you only do one side). 

Then, a couple of days ago, husband felt generous with his time and energy and began to build a structure over the chicken run in order to enclose it with a chicken wire roof (better than netting). I helped as much as I could.

Here's a progress pic so far. He had previously built (and refurbished) the chicken coop for me as well. 

Much more work has been done since I took this shot a couple of days ago. You can see the hens eating and scratching around. Please note the one whitish/grey chicken farthest to the right, facing outward. She will feature prominently in the rest of the post.

Let me introduce you to Houdini chicken. Here she is frantically pacing back and forth along the fence line. On this particular construction day, she was acting positively neurotic. Her beak was open (no, it wasn't too hot, no she wasn't lacking water), she frequently pushed her head through the openings in the wire fence, and regardless of wing clipping, she was able to do this:

Yup, with some upward estimating and some good knee flexing, she flapped her way up to the top of the fence post. MANY TIMES. I would turn her around and she would jump back down into the run with the other chickens. After jumping up to the fence post maybe four or five times, I actually held her , stroking her little chicken head, feeling her heart beating out of her chest, and asked her what the issue was. She had a good life here, everything she could want, was it because the grass was literally greener on the other side of the fence? 

Anyway, chicken neuroses aside, husband continued to build and I continued to help, and at one point we were on the other side of the run and Houdini chicken jumped up and out AGAIN and I was just too damn tired of her foolishness to go get her, so we finished up whatever we were doing and after a minute, husband asked where she was. I didn't see her but figured she couldn't have gotten far. We started to look for her and in true Houdini style, she had disappeared. 

I have a couple of perennial beds that are parallel to each other and form a pseudo walkway of grass between them toward the chicken coop. I started parting plants and looking to see if maybe she was hiding in there. And eventually, look what I found:

There she was, tucked under a day lily, contentedly "purring" and not bothered by the fact that I had discovered her. Then upon closer inspection, I saw some broken egg shell under the same flowers. This was actually her nest! She laid an egg in there, popped out of the perennial bed and went straight back toward the fence, whereby husband opened the gate for her and she went right back in as happy as could be. There were, in fact, three other broken egg shells in there. Unbeknownst to us, she had been "flying the coop" regularly, laying her egg, and flying back in. (I'm not sure why the eggs before this were broken, either something had discovered them and eaten the contents, or her first few attempts at eggs had brittle shells).

Alas, for those of you forward thinkers, we realize that the chicken run will very soon be enclosed from the top with sturdy chicken wire. I am already anxious about Houdini chicken's future stress levels. (Yes, I know I have a problem). If I am home and in the yard and I see her pacing, I will just open the gate for her, let her out to do her thing, and then let her back in. Others have also suggested I transplant some daylilies in the run for her to lay her eggs in there, but for anyone who has ever had chickens, we know that chickens love nothing better than to scratch, dig dust bath holes and generally decimate all plant material in their runs. Eventually, I suppose, she will just have to suck it up and use a nesting box in the coop like everyone else, but it would seem she has some pretty strong "wild chicken instinct", escaping and finding a protected little hidey hold in which to lay her eggs. Ahhh, my life.

And on a different note, yesterday was my birthday and here is the cake that daughter and boyfriend arranged to me:

Isn't that a hoot! It was delicious! (carrot cake). 

Do share your own neurotic animal stories and the lengths to which you have gone for your own furry or feathered friends. (So I know I'm not alone).

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

 It's July the 5th and it feels like summer and I love it. As I've said before, you will not hear me complain about the heat. I have very distinct memories of sub zero wind whipping snow into my face and the cost of heating this old house during those long winter months. 

They are definitely hazy days of summer, with the humidity and some lingering smoke now and again from the fires (many caused by arsonist humans by the way). However, they are not lazy. Husband has a list as long as his arm and every day he is doing something by way of fixing, building, improving, investigating... Currently, he is trying to figure out where the last little leak is happening in the pool situation. He's already done a bunch of work on the skimmer. Ahhh, pools. They are fun, and the "fun never ends", there's always something that needs doing.

Our resident pool boy, Murphy, thinks that the pool area is his own personal oasis. He has been supervising all the work that husband has done. 

As well, he continues to insist upon his almost daily floatie ride. Yes, he's the one who wants it. He will come to the edge of the pool and meow, or if the floatie is on the deck, he stands on it and meows. He is an anomaly of a cat.

On the other hand (paw), this is about as close to water as Scooter is going to get. He rarely comes onto the pool deck, and if he does, he hurries briskly to disappear through the fence. 

My new hens are keeping me busy. They are very, very slowly figuring out the place. Night time is a process where almost all of them go into the coop by 9:00 p.m., but there is still one silly girl who sits just at the bottom of the ramp to go into their little chicken door and I literally have to pick her up and stick her inside. 

Here is some of the flock. The very dark hens are laying, although still sometimes on the floor of the coop instead of in a nesting box and one almost always lays a brittle shelled egg ON THE RAMP inside the coop, where by it rolls down the ramp and breaks. (Yes, they have oyster shell for added calcium). One of the grey with darker head hens is also laying, but I don't know which one.

It is somewhat hard to tell, but the lighter egg is much smaller than the others. New layers often start out laying smaller eggs, or sometimes double yolked eggs, which we've already experienced.

My vegetable garden is growing well, with rutabagas being a real winner. 

They were an experiment this year, so who knew! I have a resident rabbit (or rabbits, because quite frankly they all look the same, so I might be seeing a different one every time) who is being a bit of a pest and the garden covers that husband made for me years ago have come in handy to cover young plants. In fact, I could use a lot more. 

The cover in the above picture is over top of beets. I have other beets that weren't covered and when I chased Peter Rabbit out of the garden, he honestly had a beet leaf still in his mouth! 

The monstrosity covered up in the same picture by row covering is a couple of zucchini plants. I have been so disappointed in the past few years with zucchini, cucumbers and pumpkins being decimated by squash beetles (little yellow striped demons) that I swore I was never going to plant them again. Then I purchased some row covering from Amazon and bought some zucchini plants. I've kept them covered, watering as needed, and even pulling back the cover to perform pollination (getting quite good at it and have a few close to harvest size). I now realize I should have cut a larger size of row covering and may bring out the large piece I have left over and switch it up. 

I know that I have the dastardly beetles because in my "compost garden" (where plants just grow from things that have been thrown into the compost and I let them thrive there), they are attacking the cucumbers that are crawling their way around the compost bin. I shall let that happen as a diversion in the hopes that they never discover a sneaky way to get under the cover on the zucchinis. 

So far, I have harvested different kinds of lettuce, arugula, and spinach for salads. With this heat (currently 28 degrees, feels like 33) and the sprinkler put on late in the day, the garden should continue to explode over the next few days!

We've also had some fun, with the kids at the pool and camp fires in the evening. This picture only captures three of us. 

It's hard to get good camp fire pictures. If there was "scratch and sniff" with blog photos, this picture would smell like wood smoke and bug spray!

To finish, here is a close up of some spiderwort and spirea Antony Waterer which are both blooming right now. The bees are loving it.

I’m Attractive

 … to mosquitoes. I just went outside in the smoke filled air thick with humidity. The rain stopped long enough for me to go out and take my first picking of spinach from my vegetable garden and even though I had earlier spritzed myself with bug repellent, I was swarmed and attacked. 

I have a constant supply of no- name benedryl ( the little pink ones). The itching and swelling I get from mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies is unbelievable and unbearable. 

We had a good day of rain yesterday and again on and off today. Weeding will be a big part of my life in the next few days. 

My new hens are still very skittish. I think only one kind of chicken is laying so far but unfortunately the eggs have very brittle shells so many of them are unusable. New layers sometimes lay eggs with imperfect shells and I really hope this improves. They receive layer feed which has appropriate levels of calcium in it, so that shouldn’t be the problem. Also, the silly girls sit at the top of a ramp and lay their eggs, thus causing them to roll down the ramp and sometimes break. Ugghhh, can’t wait until they’ve figured out the laying boxes.

Anyway, I am most likely all done teaching for this school year. The final day is this Thursday with Friday being a PD day with teachers in school but no students. 

I’m looking forward to the next two months of gardening, preserving my harvest, reading ( check out my “ reading list” pages), and spending time at the pool. Oh, and collecting eggs, too!

New Additions

 For those of you who enjoy my chicken posts, you'll like this one. 

A while ago, I had phoned a hatchery to see if I could order "ready to lay" hens. This means they are about eighteen weeks old. Yes, I could order some, but they were sold out of the special breeds that I was interested in. I was put on a waiting list, just in case some people backed out of their initial orders. Instead, I ordered four Sasso chickens in the silver colour. They are a dual purpose breed, meaning they are fine for egg laying or for eating. Nobody gets eaten here, however. 

About a week ago, I got a call from the hatchery reminding me of my pick up date, and also letting me know that the waiting list paid off and was I still interested in the other breeds: Lavender Orpington and Noiran (a Maran cross for those chicken ladies out there). Well, yes I was, but I hadn't intended to buy that total amount, as I didn't think I had proper room for fourteen new birds. I currently only have two old girls, one of whom does not lay at all, and the other occasionally lays a soft-shelled egg. (Remember, nobody gets eaten here).

In the end, I decided I would still get the four Silver Sasso hens, as well as three Lavender Orpingtons and three Noirans. Yesterday was the day to pick them up. I had two cages ready and husband and I took a road trip an hour and a half away to pick up the new girls.

Here are the four Silver Sasso hens. 

In the larger cage were the Lavender Orpingtons (the light grey) and the Noirans (black with copper coloured heads).

When we got home, they were put inside the coop without the two older ones so they could acclimatize and understand that the coop was "home" (although I might be attributing too much thought into a chicken). 

Initially they huddled in a corner, standing on top of each other, being scared. Little by little, they moved apart and spent an inordinate amount of time pecking at the walls. The black hens (Noirans) are the most inquisitive and "smart" and figured out food and water first. They others slowly followed suit. 

Later in the day, I opened their little chicken door to provide them the opportunity of going outside in the run, and for the two older ones to check out the youngin's. That went pretty well, there's always going to be a bit of tussling. 

The older hens (like many who are getting up in age) retreat to their roosts by 7:00 p.m. (even though it is still light outside), but the young ones stayed outside in the run, or moving about in the coop until at least 9:00 but eventually everyone went in. Most haven't figured out the roosts yet. That will come. 

This morning there was lots of squawking going on before I got out to open up their little chicken door. One of the old ones is quite disturbed by the infiltrators now and gripes and complains whenever she gets the chance. Later this morning, as I was going to check inside the coop to see how things were coming along, I was shocked and amazed. 

There was an egg on the floor of the coop, rather small. I think it was laid by one of the Noirans (black feathers) due to its darker brown colour. I wasn't expecting eggs for another four weeks or so, according to their approximate age, so that was exciting. 

So there you have it, chicken fans. I now have ten new girls and two geriatric hens, for a total of  twelve in my flock, with five different breeds. It's a proper back yard flock now!

Early June Morn

 A June garden makes everything right with the world. 

Here is what is blooming this morning in my front perennial beds.

The first of the delicate very pale pink peonies, which then fade to almost white with pale yellow centres. The darker pinks follow later in the month.

Beautiful purple irises with their golden yellow beards have been in bloom for a little while now. Some have toppled over, but they still provide shots of colour in the beds.

I love these purple Siberian irises so much that they were a part of my wedding bouquet.

Back to the bearded iris, or iris germanica, these pale yellow ones have been around in my gardens as long as I can remember. I'm sure I had them at our house before this one, too. I like that they aren't a glaring, bright yellow, but a softer touch of colour.

If I was going to have only one flowering shrub, it would be the weigela. This one is just starting to open up and is literally covered with buds. I can't remember which kind it is, perhaps Red Prince?

I have so much of this and other cranesbill, that I could literally provide a shovel full of this plant to all of the people who read this blog and still not feel the loss. It fills spaces beautifully, doesn't care about soil quality, never suffers from insects or mildew, just a solid, good best friend of a plant. 

The edges of our property are pretty wild, with grape vine and tall grass and thistles and whatever else encroaches. This is wild phlox, don't know if it has a fancier name, that just grows on its own. It can either be considered a weed, or a free shot of colour and the bees love it.

Lastly, I will share the new arbor that husband built a little while ago. There used to be a flat topped arbor there for years and years, but over time it started to rot at the base and had a pretty scary lean to it. It had to come down last year. He built it with posts and rails that we already had. Handy guy, husband is.

My garden provides me with so much happiness, contentment, exercise (ha ha)... I couldn't imagine having to live in a high rise apartment in the city with no yard, no dirt to dig in. I'd likely fill my windows and balconies with plants. Do you have any of the same perennials?