Here is my second very short TikTok video, featuring our chickens:
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Chickens
Our chickens and chicken-related topics.
Flock Friday for February 19
It’s been an interesting week, with an ice storm, snow, and days of power cuts. The ice and snow is all gone now, and we have power again (albeit with an hour outage yesterday evening). But things still feel unstable, and I know other parts of the country aren’t faring so well.
If you missed them, check out the previous two posts on the ice storm, including pictures of the chickens and ducks.
Here’s an aerial drone shot of the pond and snowy environs; you can see the new island in the center, and the ducks nearby:
Duck prints in the snow:
Despite the days of freezing weather, the pond didn’t fully freeze at all; the closest it came was a slushy crust:
The hummingbirds were very hungry with no other food sources:
Ducks on pond bank, with melting snow:
Ducks on the island:
A cam shot of sleepy ducks on the edge of the pond, and on the island. It’s got a bit of a tilt due to water pooling on it, but the edge is still above the water line, so that’s okay:
Hungry hummingbirds again:
Ducks on the lawn:
Let’s finish with a couple of token chicken pictures:
Ice storm: generator, chickens, ducks, bees
Our electricity is still off due to the ice storm a couple of nights ago. Fortunately we have a portable generator, and fortunately I recently got it serviced so it actually works. I had it running most of the day yesterday, and expect to keep it going all day today (I turned it off overnight). It is providing power to our kitchen fridge/freezer, and currently slowly recharging the UPS for our internet router and Wi-Fi, and can be used to recharge other devices as needed:
Since we’re on a well, when the power is off, we don’t have any water, so we are using water jugs:
Though weirdly when we flush a toilet it does refill; I know there’s some water in the pipes and pressure tank, but I would have expected that to be exhausted quickly, but hasn’t been yet. Upstairs, what’s more. Could water be coming up from the well without the pump?! We don’t want to push our luck, but are glad we don’t have to refill the cisterns the hard way yet.
Ice on a tree by the chicken runs:
Ice on the chicken run roof netting; it’s survived much better than the old netting I had previously:
Chicken coop icicles:
The chickens are quite happy to stay inside, thank you very much:
I took a look at the beehives this morning:
They each have a sheet of ice on their roof, which could be concerning, as the heat of the hive should have melted it, though the feeders on top of each hive may have insulated the roof from them:
Levitating ice:
There are a bunch of dead bees on some of the hive entrances, which is actually a good sign — it proves there are some bees active to clean out the dead ones. There are thousands of bees in each hive, so a few dead ones is normal and not concerning. I did see a live one walking around, too, probably on the cleanup crew:
More on the ground:
The chickens reluctantly came out for their treats:
I refilled the food for the ducks, and tossed some over to them to enjoy:
The pond isn’t frozen; after starting to get slushy yesterday morning, it hasn’t been quite cold enough to maintain that:
Flock Friday for February 12
It’s currently snowing; some snowy duck and chicken pictures towards the end of this post. Plus some pictures of the ducks using the new island, which makes me happy.
But first, a funny picture of a stretching chicken; such a long neck!
The ducks in the pond:
On the edge of the pond:
To see the new island, I moved the second camera to further back:
This is just a temporary placement, to check that the location works; at some point I’ll mount it more permanently:
The view from that camera, showing the first duck to go onto the island:
Several ducks on the island:
Chickens in the veggie garden:
Chickens with leafy treats:
In a nesting box:
Coming into the coop to get mealworm treats:
Ducks on the lawn:
Sleeping ducks:
When approaching the pond, I noticed some ducks on the island; my first non-cam photo of them using it:
Of course, as I got closer, most left it and swum towards me (swum/swam… grammar is hard):
Just Bert left on the island:
It snowed overnight. Here are some ducks on the island, and the older upturned pot islands, with snowy banks:
Ducks going after leafy treats while it snows; they don’t care about the snow:
Yes, the pond hasn’t frozen yet. It takes a while for it to cool down enough, but considering the high temperature today is about freezing level, I expect it to start to freeze in the next day or two.
Here are some ducks sleeping on the ledge at the edge, and some on the island:
Ducks are very cold-hardy, but it’s probably warmer in the water than on land right now.
The chickens aren’t such fans of the snow. They came out to get their treats this morning:
Then headed inside:
Flock Friday for February 5
It’s quack and cluck day.
Here are the quackers beyond the pond:
And the cluckers in their run:
The ducks in and next to the pond:
The chickens are ramping back up laying eggs; they slow down in fall while molting, but are back up to about five per day at present:
I often include screenshots from the cam viewing iPad app in my Caturday posts, but don’t tend to do so for the chickens and ducks, since it’s more easy to take better photos of them. But here are some samples.
Firstly, the page that shows the new chicken coop, the duck house, and two angles of the pond:
Later in the day; you can see how the upturned boat shifts around (I have yet to see the ducks on it; I’ll remove it when I install the duck island):
Another page in the app shows the old and new chicken coops, and the old and new chicken runs. Here you can see them starting to head inside as dusk approaches:
Heading up to the roosts:
All settled:
The pop doors automatically close when it gets dark:
Mucking out the chicken coops and duck house
One of my many homestead tasks is mucking out our two chicken coops and duck house, which I do about monthly, give or take.
Today was such a day. I start by using scoop and spade tools to scoop up the dirty bedding, and place in a plastic bin for removal:
The bin with dirty bedding, and my supervisor:
A wide angle shot of the coop:
Several containers full of dirty bedding is carried to the compost bins.
Then I add fresh pine shavings; I usually just grab several handfuls and dump in a pile in the center of the coop, and let the chickens have fun spreading it out:
I do toss some under the roosts, though, since that’s where it’s needed the most, to collect night droppings:
I do the same in the other coop too, though it’s easier there, as most of the poop is collected on poop trays under the roosts. I still replace the bedding on the floor, though not as often.
I also added fresh straw to the duck house:
I use straw in the duck house as it copes better with getting wet.
Flock Friday for January 29
It’s Friday again. Today, a bunch of pictures of hummingbirds, chickens, and ducks. I know, very surprising for a Flock Friday post.
As mentioned on my personal blog, the hummingbird feeder was starting to freeze overnight, so I added my hacky heater. The heater comes on when the temperature gets down to 35° F, and goes off when above 45° F, via a thermostatically controlled outlet:
The heating pad gets quite hot, enough to melt the ice, but too hot for the plastic base of the feeder, so it hangs a bit below via some paperclips:
Here’s a closer view of the feeder and heating pad:
The first customer approaches:
A couple of hummingbirds:
A cam shot of the ducks on a snowy morning:
Did you see the snowy aerial photos? Here’s one picture of the pond and ducks that I didn’t include there; check out that post for more:
Snowy ducks:
A couple more pictures of hummingbirds, with at least 15 visible on the two closest feeders:
A closer look at the hummingbirds on the house feeder:
A bunch of pictures of the chickens, with new pumpkin and apple treats (and the older pumpkin shells slowly dissolving):
The ducks on the back lawn:
Snowing:
A GIF of ducks going after mealworm treats while it’s snowing:
A couple more pictures of ducks:
We still haven’t decided on a name for that Silver Swedish male duck formerly known as Sassa; options include Stefan, Silvan, Sigfrid, Sigge, and Silvester; what do you think? I rather like Stefan, though am tempted by Sigfrid in honor of Siegfried from the All Creatures Great and Small TV series we’re enjoying at present.
Flock Friday for January 22
Welcome to Flock Friday! I couldn’t help myself, I succumbed to the Bernie meme with a couple of the pictures this week.
But first, here are the chickens greeting me in the veggie garden:
Bernie watching the chickens:
Chickens greeting me in their run:
Chickens waiting for treats:
Me holding a container with some rice, which gets their undivided attention:
They do love the rice:
Bernie in the pond; don’t sit there too long, the water is rather cold at present:
Ducks:
A wide angle of the pond:
More of the ducks:
A foggy view from by the grove, with the new chicken coop on the left, the brown gazebo on the right, the white gazebo barely visible in the background, and if you look closely, some ducks on the edge of the lawn:
A closer view:
Flock Friday for January 15
Only nine pictures today, starting with some of the ducks:
Some of the chickens:
Some jays grabbing peanuts:
Flock Friday for January 8
How about some pictures of chickens and ducks to distract from the chaos of the world? Oh, and some bonus cats.
Only three chicken pictures this week. Here are a couple roosting on top of the metal food storage bin in the old coop:
Enjoying some treats in their run:
The ducks over by the edge of the flowerbeds, with the white gazebo in the background:
Heading over to the back lawn, past the pond deck:
Night ducks:
On the back lawn, with the brown gazebo and new chicken coop in the background:
As mentioned on my personal blog, I noticed that Sassa, the gimpy duck, is actually a boy:
So we need to come up with a male Swedish name starting with “S”. Got a bunch of suggestions via Micro.blog already, but if you have any ideas, let me know.
Along with a similar discovery last week, that means that of the six ducklings from the second batch last year, which were supposed to be all female, two were male, and four female. Which brings our totals to five males and seven females… not an ideal ratio at all. I hope that won’t be a problem in Spring when they start mating. Male ducks can be, shall we say, rather enthusiastic in their endeavors.
A couple more pictures of the ducks on the back lawn:
Yesterday when I went to the pond, I noticed the ducks on the back corner, and two cats off to the right:
Here’s a closer look at the two cats; a black one (hard to see) and the gray Paladout:
Closer:
The ducks sleeping on the bank:
I went around that side for a closer look; here several of the ducks are tilting their heads to look at me (but Betty is sleeping by the seedling):
I went behind the pond, and the black cat scampered through the fence (I’m pretty sure both living on that neighboring property):
Paladout is more used to me, and just watched from the top of the bank:
I wasn’t too worried that the cats would attack the ducks; ducks are too big for cats to want to tackle, unless desperate.