Our chickens and chicken-related topics.
On this week’s flock update, some ducks and some chickens. I know, huge surprise.
Ducks amongst the pond grasses:
Chickens in the veggie garden coming to see me:
I went into the veggie garden and took some pictures of the chickens for your enjoyment:
Finally, a couple more pictures of the ducks:
This week, some pictures of the chickens and ducks with a bit more snow, the fish a bit more active, and a bit of a dust bath.
Here are the three big koi swimming slowly about. They’re still very sluggish, since it’s still cold, but I haven’t seen much of them for a while:
The ducks are curious about the koi:
A duck in the rain:
From the pond deck, the ducks swimming over to see me:
Two chickens in a nesting box:
Chickens in snow:
Ducks with snowy pond banks:
I really like this shot from the hidden path:
A chicken having a dust bath:
Here’s a GIF version of the dust bath:
We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning, with a little continuing in the early morning. It’ll likely be all gone by end of day, but let’s take a walk around the property.
Cat footprints on the driveway:
Trees and bees:
Greenhouse (more on the shelving project probably tomorrow):
Chickens (more pictures of them in the snow on Friday):
Gazebo and grove:
Path to the duck house:
Heathers:
East-side trees fading into the distance:
North-east trees:
From the pond deck — the ducks, pond, and snowy trees:
Reflection on the pond:
Gazebo and dormant flowerbeds, with the pond deck in the background:
Finally, the cat house, with more cat prints (more of this on Caturday, of course):
This week, a peek inside the chicken coops at night, and an animated GIF of the ducks.
The chickens are so strange; they have a couple of nice roosts in the new coop, but a bunch of them are crowded on the small roosts above the nesting boxes to sleep, with only one on the main roosts. Maybe they like the view out the window, but more likely they just like to be as high as possible:
For completeness, the rest of the chickens sleeping in the old coop:
The ducks on the pond:
Bert:
Gert:
An animated GIF of the ducks rummaging under water, at 2 frames per second (i.e. 2x speed):
The same GIF of 1-second captures at 1 FPS, i.e. real-time:
(I think the 2x one is better, but figured I’d include both.)
This week, chickens in the veggie garden and coops, and ducks in the pond. You know, the usual. Except a bonus Rory sighting.
A couple of the oldest girls perched on the potato planters in the veggie garden:
The ducks during some rain showers:
Mealworm treats:
Water trailing off the bill:
Bert:
Gert:
Rory out for her walk on afternoon rounds, watched by the chickens in the veggie garden:
Chickens in the new coop:
And in the old coop:
A couple freshly laid eggs in a nesting box:
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.
This week: some treats, some snow.
But first, pre-dawn ducks:
Chickens enjoying rice, their second-favorite treat (after mealworms):
Ducks enjoying mealworm treats:
We got a sneak peek of snow this week. Here’s the tree by the chicken runs, laden with snow:
As usual when it snows, the chicken run roof netting collapsed under the weight. Someday I’ll get around to replacing it with welded wire:
Chickens with a little residue of snow:
Snow on the duck house roof:
Snowy pond bank:
Me tossing treats to the ducks:
The ducks in the pond (which isn’t at all frozen), surrounded by snowy banks and trees:
A fairly short post this week.
We went away for two nights during the holidays, and were greeted on our return with 15 eggs in one of the nesting boxes (and a few in another):
Some of the chickens enjoying treats in the old coop:
The ducks:
I captured a shot of the ducks on the pond at midnight at the new year (see the timestamp); probably not enjoying the distant fireworks:
Later, some night fish:
I haven’t seen much of the fish recently, since it’s been so cold; they’re mostly hibernating in the deep end. Though I do occasionally see a few.
The ducks in their house, having breakfast:
Back on the pond:
Finally, a few chickens:
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:
Let’s take a look at the ducks, chickens, and hummingbirds over the past week.
Some pics of our ducks, Gert the girl and Bert the boy (mnemonic, see?):
A peek of Gert through the duck house:
The chickens in the veggie garden, coming to see me on rounds:
Chicken treats:
Ducks across the partially frozen pond:
Lots of hummingbirds:
Did you see the slow-mo video of the hummers?
Another day, more of the chickens:
It’s been rather windy last night and today. This morning, I found the chair next to the duck house had blown into the pond:
