This Post Is For The Birds

This post is about the birds - but not all birds, just the fantail pigeons and bantam hens. I'll begin with the pigeons. They have been prolific this year and, in spite of some deaths from old age, have increased in number to 43:

They began to look unhealthy, so I put anti-bacterial medication in their water for a week. It seemed to help a lot:

Then I cleaned their room, a job I do not look forward to. I now plan to attempt to sell about half of them, but haven't done so yet. Stay tuned:

The little hens seemed as healthy as could be, so they never got medication:

Their egg laying went down to an average of one per day (for the whole flock):

But they were healthy and happy, despite not being allowed to go outside:

But on the day I cleaned the pigeon and chicken rooms, I did let them outside. They seemed ridiculously happy, running and chasing bugs, rolling onto their sides to bask in the sun, strutting and clucking:

Alas, three of them began fighting like roosters. It didn't last, though, and hens don't have spurs like roosters, so I wasn't concerned (although I did break it up). They were soon friends again:

The little Easter Egger bantams went one way:

And ventured too close to the dog fence, where Seamus watched them and dreamed of chicken dinners:

And the Barred Rock bantams went off on their own:

When the cleaning was all done, I went out to bring the hens back inside and found feathers. I began to panic, thinking a fox had gotten another hen, but when I used a leaf rake to herd them all back inside, I learned that they were all there and in fine shape. I may let them out occasionally now that autumn is here:

Cleaning The Chicken Room

The day arrived when I could no longer put off cleaning the chickens' room. I let the little hens out again:

They enjoy their time outdoors, but I can't do it on a regular basis because we have so many ravenous foxes. Also, the hens are kind of ravenous themselves, and attack my seedlings and new plants:

The flock made a break for the front of the house:

  They ran past the car:

And stopped on the lawn, where they searched for edibles:

When I thought I could trust them to stay out of the road, I went into their room and removed the feeder and waterer. This photo doesn't make it clear, but I can tell you that the crap and bedding on the floor was 8" to 24" deep. The 24" part was beneath their roosts, and it was both heavy and stinky:

Other places were more dry, but this was still an unpleasant job:

I had to shovel the poopy mix into a plastic tote and then carry it out through the pigeon room, down an aisle and dump it into the tractor bucket. By the way, the little hens have shown no interest in their xylophone since the first day:

Each time I drove a tractor bucket load out to the compost pile, I also pushed some waste hay to the pile. To my surprise, there was still ice beneath the hay:

Three of the hens got tired of being outside and came back into their room where they felt safe. They're used to me moving around, so it didn't bother them that I was still cleaning:

When I was done with the chicken room, I used a leaf rake to herd the hens back inside. This is a routine we used to follow every day, and they still remember what to do. The dogs would have loved to chase them, but the fence prevented that:

Once all the birds were back in their newly cleaned and comparatively sweet smelling room, I once again locked them safely inside - but left three windows open for ventilation:

Birds And Plants

Just when we thought spring had arrived, we got another cold spell. The fantail pigeons, though, stayed safe and warm in their room inside the barn:

The little hens, similarly, had their own room in the barn and hardly noticed the weather. I even turned on the light for them on dark, cloudy days:

There are now three Easter Egger bantams and seven Barred Rock bantams:

  The Barred Rocks are getting too old to be good egg layers, but that works out well for me as I have no use for lots of eggs:

The six little baby roses were positioned in the back room, next to a window. One of them, a variety called Watercolors Home Run, surprised me with a flower just a few days after they arrived:

 

It's a pretty, pastel color mix and apparently a highly floriferous variety. I'm already pleased with it:

The hardening off process has begun. On mild days, I put the little roses outside to become accustomed to our weather. After all, they surely were grown in a greenhouse:

The Day Lilies are emerging. Now I need to do some weeding:

And the old fashioned Iris are coming up. The big, modern Iris on the other side of the house have not yet emerged:

I let the little hens out for a day and they explored everywhere:

They pecked and scratched. They clucked and ran and flapped their wings. They lay on their sides and basked in the sun. A couple of them fought like roosters until I broke it up. Spring is arriving:

Spring Chores

Our weather is finally improving although we just had snow again yesterday. The little hens are laying eggs again:

 The Barred Rock bantams are getting too old to lay very many eggs and there are only three Easter Egger bantams left, so I'm not getting the flood of eggs I used to get, at least not yet:

 I stopped in at the neighbor's sheep farm and watched as they put out a new hay bale for this group. The old ewe is blind, so they separate her when she first lambs to help her bond with and identify her lamb:

 A woman at church wanted Pussy Willows, so I went down to where I knew I had some growing, and indeed they were just beginning to open:

 They looked like they're going to have a good year:

 A closeup:

 I vacuumed up all the dead cluster flies and Asian beetles in the back room, then filled my 144 seed cups with potting soil. It's still too early to plant seeds, but I'm ready:

 The Rugosa Roses had grown so tall and spindly that I decided they needed to be cut back severely:

 I sharpened my chainsaw and began cutting. Alas, the canes had so many small, sharp spines that they were painful to even get near:

 The small spines stuck in any exposed skin and even pushed through thick, lined gloves:

 But I got the job almost done and was planning to tackle another chainsaw job when the chain accidentally hit the steel wire fence and was ruined. That ended everything for the day:

 But I had a big pile of thorny rose canes to dispose of. I carefully put baling twine around them and then dragged them off to the side, for disposal later in the year. I don't know if I helped or hurt the Rugosa Roses, but I believe they will burst forth with much new growth this spring:

Winter Prolonged, Spring Arriving

Many warmer days allow me to open the pigeons' window - with a screen in it, of course:

 They keep nesting and laying eggs, then abandoning them when they don't hatch. I wonder how they know when the time is up:

 But they seem happy and healthy:

 And they keep trying:

 The little hens seldom go broody, but they are laying a few eggs. Of course they cannot hatch because there is no rooster, but the hens don't know that. The broodiness has mostly been bred out of them so they'll lay more eggs (hens stop laying once their nest is full):

 These are the seven Barred Rock bantams. They're getting a little old now, but you'd never know it to look at them:

 The Easter Egger bantams (the brown ones) lay colored eggs and are younger:

I kept finding tracks in the snow but they were never clear enough to tell for sure if they were fox or cat. Furthermore, the online guides vary so widely that they weren't much help. I settled on this one as the clearest example: 

 Blue and Remy's pet Cottontail in the barn seems to have disappeared, but there are more bunnies outside, as indicated by their tracks. The tracks next to them could have been cat or fox, so I went in search of one that was clearer:

 This was the best example I could find. I decided it was a cat track:

Our prolonged winter weather gave me the blues, so I went back to my favorite online rose nursery and ordered two more Zone 3 hardy, continuous bloom roses added to my existing order of three other varieties. High Country Roses is a wonderful company with healthy plants, friendly service and over 300 varieties of own-root (not grafted) roses for all zones. You can check them out here: