Eleven geese took an hour break from their migration in our pond. Our ducks were curious.
Birds
Cat update for week ending March 21
This week, a new alien cat, a jay landing, and assorted cute cats.
I mentioned this yesterday, but for anyone who didn’t see that: because everyone could use a bit more joy at present, I’m posting a moment of cuteness every day on my personal blog. Which will include additional feral cat pictures not posted here, plus our pet cats, our dog Rory, ducks and chickens, and other cute things from around the homestead. So you might enjoy following the Dejus blog, or its RSS feed, or cross-posts on Micro.blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Also, a plug for one of my Dejal apps: to help people new to working from home, I am giving away the fully unlocked features of my Time Out break reminder app for macOS. It’s important to take regular breaks. Learn more on the Dejal blog.
On with the pics. Here’s Porcini peeking:
Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:
In the breezeway during the day:
I encountered Pepper in the front of the shop; she is used to me, so doesn’t run away unless I get within a few feet of her. The feral cats have been practicing social distancing before it was cool:
Porcini on the driveway:
Bella in the cat house:
And by the cabins:
Bella and Porcini:
A new alien cat turned up this week; similar to Pumpkin, but a lighter color:
I haven’t seen Pumpkin for a while; I had to significantly reduce the food dispenser quantity, to avoid leaving food overnight.
A good stretch:
Bella, Poppy, and a twin by the cat house:
A twin on the front steps (sorry about the reflections in the window):
A fight between two cats; I assume one of our twins and the new alien, but could be two aliens; I can’t see them clear enough to be sure:
The new alien cat again; an un-neutered male:
A Steller’s Jay coming in for a landing; such a pretty bird:
A twin with their tongue out in the cat house:
I hope you enjoyed this cat update. Be like feral cats, and practice good social distancing!
Flock Friday for March 20
This week, the ducks walked across the back lawn to meet me a few times, the chickens got their favorite treat, the heron visited again, and more.
Oh, and for anyone who doesn’t follow my personal blog, Dejus: because everyone could use a bit more joy at present, I’m posting a moment of cuteness every day. Which will include additional duck and chicken pictures not posted here, plus feral and pet cats, our dog Rory, and other cute things from around the homestead. So you might enjoy following the Dejus blog, or its RSS feed, or cross-posts on Micro.blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Anyway, on with today’s Flock Friday. Here are the ducks in their house:
The ducks on a frosty back lawn:
Eating mealworms next to the duck house:
Chickens having a dust bath in the veggie garden:
The ducks on the back lawn again:
Quacking and walking back to their house:
A couple animated GIFs of the ducks on the path to the duck house (different than the one posted on my personal blog):
Chickens staring at me, waiting for treats:
It was worth the wait; rice is their all-time favorite treat, after mealworms:
Another frosty morning, and again the ducks running over the lawn to see me:
Quacking at me by the chicken runs:
Did you see the YouTube video of them following me to the duck house and getting treats?
A heron coming in for a landing:
Heron in the pond, watched by the ducks:
Finally, since Jenn hasn’t been going to work due to COVID-19, and the chickens are laying about a dozen eggs per day at present, we’re accumulating lots of eggs. Here are four dozen, washed and ready to make into a heap of breakfast burritos this morning:
We’ll work on thinking of other meals to eat up the eggs. Let me know if you have any recommendations.
Stay safe, stay home, everyone!
Cat update for week ending March 14
While you could all use cute pictures of ducks and chickens this week, everyone knows that cats rule the internet for cuteness. On to Caturday!
Three cats in front of the cat house:
Poppy face:
Three cats in the breezeway:
Porcini and Pumpkin in the cabins:
An animated GIF of a bird landing:
A new alien cat visited a few times, and menaced Pumpkin (giving him a taste of his own medicine):
He looks like one of our ferals, though larger, but doesn’t have the ear tip:
He went after Pumpkin in the shelter; Pumpkin stood his ground:
Pumpkin was none the worse from that encounter:
Porcini:
A GIF of Pumpkin arriving, and pausing while another cat departed:
GIF of Poppy slowly walking towards the feeder, only to be overtaken by two of her kits:
GIF of cats playing:
Four cats outside; two in front of the bench, one only visible as a shadow behind the bench, and one by a rock:
At the same instant as that photo, another cat in the feeder. I always enjoy seeing all five cats at the same time; a rather rare occurrence:
Pepper on her perch in the shop, watching me collapsing cardboard boxes:
Porcini:
Porcini under the deck, looking startled when I was refilling the bird feeders:
Snow on a cat in the feeder:
Two cats inside their house, taking advantage of the heating pads:
Flock Friday for February 21
This week, the heron returns, a super-exciting stack of food bags and fun egg math, and assorted duck and chicken pics.
The heron landing:
The ducks swam over to investigate:
A while later, taking off again:
The ducks by their frosty-roofed house:
Ducks from below the pond deck, while I was wiping off the pond cam:
A peek of some chickens through the fence:
The aforementioned exciting pile of bags of chicken food, and a flock block:
Let’s do some fun math. The chickens go through about a bag per week between the two coops — I typically get about six bags of feed every six weeks or so. (The ducks eat it too, but there are only a couple of them, so negligible difference.) Each bag costs $29.95.
We’re currently averaging about 6 eggs per day, ramping up as the weather warms up. At their peak production it’s more like 10. So that’s 42 to 70 eggs per week, or 3.5 to 5.8 dozen per week.
So in terms of food, each egg costs $0.71 to $0.43, or $8.52 to $5.16 per dozen (they eat at a fairly constant rate, so the more eggs they lay, the cheaper each is). And we give away the majority of those. Certainly not a cheap way to get eggs, but we enjoy the chickens, and you can’t beat the taste of farm-fresh eggs!
Sometimes it’s best not to look too closely at the numbers.
Anyway, back to the pics. The chickens in the new coop, waiting for their mealworm treats (let’s not factor those into the math too!):
They are still mostly roosting above the nesting boxes in the new coop:
For completeness, the old coop too:
Finally, some pictures in the old coop just after I gave them the new flock block:
Cat update for week ending January 18
This week, the trials and successes of Bella, birds making poor life choices, and cold wet stuff.
Portabella and Pumpkin continue to not get along; Pumpkin seems to feel he has to chase her off whenever he sees her:
She came back, and again was chased off:
In that encounter, Pumpkin kicked the decorative barrel off. It was glued to the deck with the smaller ones; apart from helping the old west vibe, the barrels help hold the shelter’s maintenance door closed:
A Steller’s Jay grabbing some cat food:
Two cats arriving, with Pumpkin in the house; he’s fine with the other cats, just not Bella:
Pumpkin watching me from under the main deck:
A bunch of small birds drinking from the heated water dish:
Pumpkin and Pommie hanging out on the cat deck:
A bird tried to have a drink when cats were nearby, and Pumpkin suggested that might not be wise:
Pumpkin and Paladout seem to be getting used to each other; the latter saw Pumpkin peeking, but kept on eating instead of getting upset like in the past:
Pumpkin in the garden:
Snowy cats:
A Steller’s Jay arrives for more food:
This time, not so lucky: Pommie was in the cat house, and heard the bird:
Though I guess the bird was actually very lucky: it got the food, and narrowly escaped becoming food.
You may have seen that I added a new heated shelter in the breezeway next to our workshop. Subsequent to that, I modified it a little to make it more sheltered, by putting some old hanging baskets next to it:
Bella found the cabin, and tried it out. She has spent most of the past two nights in there, which makes me very happy:
Pommie and Pumpkin:
A cat in the breezeway:
Pommie has spent a fair bit of time in the cat house, too:
Bella in the breezeway again, from another angle (this camera is only there temporarily):
Bella inside the breezeway cabin last night:
Bella having a stretch in the morning:
I’m glad that she has a comfy shelter away from Pumpkin’s usual haunts.
Flock Friday for January 17
This week, the ducks get to practice walking on the ice again, and more snow.
Let’s start with a couple pictures of most of the chickens in the new coop:
The ducks carefully walking on the frozen pond:
On the ramp into the duck house:
Inside:
Mealworm treats on the frozen pond:
A bunch of crows in the field, making quite a racket; there were many more elsewhere on the field, too:
Ducks slogging through the thin ice on the frozen pond:
Chickens with some snow:
Ducks in the partially frozen pond:
An early morning shot of snow pooling in the middle of the frozen pond:
The snowy path to the duck house:
Ducks in the slushy ice:
That’s probably going to be it for snow for this season, though it could snow again. It’s melting now, and will probably turn to rain over the coming week. Looks like the temperatures won’t be cold enough to freeze the pond either. It was fun while it lasted.
Cat update for week ending January 11
This week: using the cat house a bit more, Paladout becoming accepted, Pumpkin and Bella not so much, a little snow, and more.
But first, a Steller’s Jay on the cat house deck:
Pommie (I think) and Bella:
One of the twins inside the cat house; not sure if Pommie or Spud, though probably Pommie. They have spent several nights in the cat house, since Pumpkin has mostly vacated it in favor of the cabins:
Poppy entering the feeder via the back door:
Poppy and Bella:
Porcini and Paladout seem to be getting quite comfortable with each other. Here Paladout approaches Porcini fairly closely:
When she turns around, he backs off a bit, but they seems happy enough; not even a warning hiss:
Pumpkin arrival:
Using the back door:
The twins on the deck:
Pumpkin is still using the cat house a bit, typically just before breakfast, while waiting for it to dispense:
Our dog Rory inside, watching Pumpkin by the gate (look closely… and a hummingbird visible too). She can react to seeing cats on the deck by jumping up on the window, which is strongly discouraged; we’re worried that one day she’ll break it:
The cabins with their typical occupants, Pommie and Pumpkin:
A twin on top of the camera housing, watching Paladout:
The cat house façade and signs:
A fun detail; a cactus ornament in the feeder cupboard window:
When I do my morning rounds, and refill the bird feeders, Pumpkin often retreats, but sometimes he stays in the cabin and watches me warily; here he was slowly blinking (cat smile) while I reassured him he was safe there:
Bella and Pumpkin really don’t get along. Here she is entering the feeder, and Pumpkin is way over by the bird feeders:
As soon as Pumpkin saw her, he came running up:
And they had a bit of an encounter in the feeder:
Followed by a rapid exit out the back door:
A tail sticking out the back door:
Two cats watching a bird:
Paladout, with Porcini peeking around the corner:
Paladout eating, Porcini watching from the back door:
More Porcini peeking, this time on our main deck, watching me inside our house:
My first hint that it was snowing the other day was seeing some white flecks on a cat in the feeder:
As mentioned, a twin has been spending the night in the cat house, but Pumpkin likes to turn up in the morning to wait for breakfast. That of course led to them having a face-off, with Pumpkin outside and the twin growling and hissing to defend the house:
After a few minutes, Pumpkin decided to wait in the feeder instead:
A sneak peek of snow:
Cat footprints in the snow on the bird box:
We’re expecting much more snow next week, so you can look forward to more snowy pictures if that eventuates.
Cat update for week ending January 4
Some more feeder back door tweaks this week, among other things.
The cats seem to be accepting Paladout; he has been hanging around pretty much every day, and they’ve walked by without seeming concerned by him:
A different configuration of three cats:
Porcini closeup:
Pommie and Pumpkin at the cabins:
Poppy closeup. She always looks grumpy:
Some birds making poor life choices:
Porcini not at all bothered by Paladout:
Graceful Pumpkin:
A long-distance zoomed shot of Pumpkin in the house and two others on a rock:
Me refilling the feeder; you can see the feeder drawer out, and I’m dumping excess food into plastic bins that get stored on the top shelf:
Pumpkin looking handsome:
Puzzle time; there are four cats here; can you see all of them?
A cat peeking out from under the house, while another cat scratched the tree:
The cat under the house reached out and tagged the tail of the other one:
The latter then jumped a bit:
Paladout eating in the feeder, and is blocked from leaving by another cat. He considered using the new back door, but wasn’t sure about it (which is strange, since he’s clearly a pet cat, since he has a collar; perhaps his humans let him out instead of having a cat door?):
He tried to get past, but couldn’t:
Paladout peeking from behind one of the twins, who was ignoring him; the twin eventually wandered off, so Paladout could leave:
So based on that, I decided to help them further, and attached a bungee to hold the feeder door open:
Didn’t take them long to investicat the opened door:
Peeking in the door:
They seem to like it open; they can now freely exit and enter through the door:
Pumpkin:
Going out the door:
The original reason for installing the door: escaping Pumpkin:
It was still a big step, a bit awkward, so I then added a cinderblock to make it more comfortable to use:
Two cats investicating the step:
Finally, a harder puzzle; again there are four cats; can you see all of them?
Flock Friday for December 27
The pictures this week are pretty evenly split between hummingbirds, ducks, and chickens.
The hummingbirds have been very hungry this week; I’ve been having to refill their favorite feeder pretty much every day. There are 11 hummers on this feeder; can you see all of them?
Foggy pond:
The chickens have mostly kept to their own coops so far, though Lola (the introverted chicken) did spend one night in the new coop:
Ducks:
Pippin in my arms, watching hummingbirds:
After refilling the feeder (yet again), I stood there a moment and captured them a couple of feet away:
Partially frozen pond:
More frozen pond; they struggled through the ice to come see me (or rather Gert struggled while Bert followed along behind; I’m sure one could have gender commentary about that):
On rounds (see Rory by the coop), the chickens rushing to the new coop, where I was dispensing treats for the chickens there:
