Farm Update For April 12

Yes, I know that Rosella is almost as big as her mother. Nevertheless, she's still nursing at the age of eight months. Red Poll moms, I've read, generally wean their bottomless pit youngsters about that age, so I'm hoping she'll do so at any time now:

I've had a Hairy Woodpecker at the suet cake for a month or so, apparently having driven off the smaller Downy Woodpecker. It's been getting calmer about my presence, however, and not flying off the minute I walk out the door:

My bantam hens are doing pretty well in the egg laying department, but one day they left me this tiny egg, as small as a pigeon egg. I cooked it with the others the following morning and it had no yolk inside:

And the flock has been getting out nearly every day now. Their favorite spot, for obvious reasons, is directly beneath the bird feeders:

The Mourning Doves used to clean up the dropped seed, but now the chickens do it. This must have come as a shock to the doves:

The chickens have the run of the place and boy, oh boy, do they get around:

The snow began to melt beneath the apple trees, gradually exposing rotten apples:

The fantail pigeons have also had access to the outdoors, at least on days with nice weather. But they're all nesting now and not much interested in going outside. I expect that will change as spring rolls along:

I had to stop the tractor and wait for the chickens to get out of the way:

Five hens want to go broody and all squeeze into one communal nest box,  ignoring all the other nest boxes they could have chosen. I not only remove the eggs, I also remove the hens - as often as necessary to discourage them from going broody:

They sure do enjoy the outdoors:

Scarlett was licking her salt block one day as I watched. When she was finished, she turned around and pooped on it. I had to slosh through the mud, pick up the salt block and its container, carry it outside the fence and hose it down. Ah, the beauty and wonders of the pastoral life: