Cock-a-doodle-doo!

One of my neighbors, who is a poultry processor, mentioned a few weeks ago that one of my young hens may not be a hen. I did a little internet research to find the characteristics of young roosters because I was curious if my neighbor was right. There are two obvious things that lead me to think we had a rooster: the dark, oily-looking feathers and the tail, which is starting to grow. Just recently, he's also started to get a bit aggressive. He likes to peck at peoples feet. At this point, I am quite sure that he is a he.

I took this picture yesterday after my daughter decided to bring the rooster into the house. She absolutely adores her chickens. I said from the beginning that if one of the chickens turns out to be a rooster, he'd end up on the dinner table...well, Kaiya won't let that happen. And since I really wanted a couple of laying hens, we'll see if we get some baby chicks out of this guy. Well, not literally out of him, but you know what I mean. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to eat fertilized eggs, but from what I've been told, they are actually healthier for human consumption than a non-fertilized egg. Supposedly, they are lower in cholesterol.

I'm gonna cross my fingers for baby hens next spring, but I won't hold my breath!

Life and Death on the Farm

My daughter had a friend sleep over on Friday night. Her friend wanted to see the horses so we were all in the barn, petting Zazu, when we heard the chirping of a baby bird. It took us a few minutes to locate him - seems he fell from the nest and landed inside the barn wall. We could see him down there! At first I had no idea how to get him out. Kaiya made it very clear to me that she "didn't want nature to take it's course!" (Her words.) Since the barn walls are sheets of plywood that are screwed into a wood and metal frame, the space the little bird fell into was no wider than a 2x4. Hmmm...

After a quick look around the tack shed, I found an old aluminum ladle. Ah, idea! I used duct tape to secure it to the end of an old broom handle. I lowered the contraption down into the space in the wall and the little bird hopped on! I pulled him out and held him in my hand. He seemed fine. We took him into the house, made a little cat-safe hut for him and gave him some water. He was ok for a few hours, but nature did take it's course and the little baby bird died in my hand. Kaiya shed a couple of tears for him and said, "Well, baby bird. We tried!"

Kaiya recovered quickly and soon went back to her frogs - she's got about 15 of them in a homemade aquarium. She knows she has to let them go today - it's hard to catch live bugs to feed to frogs! And we can't find any worms - we haven't had any rain for a while (except last night - I think it rained for about 2 minutes) so the worms have burrowed deep.

The temperature is suppose to be back to normal today - thank God! It's been soooooo hot. But I still like it better that -10° and two feet of snow :)

The Baby Birds

Visite de la Forêt!

In this video, Shorty and I give a little tour of the woods behind the house. Check it out! It's a long video, but it's a big piece of property! Once we replace the belt on the DR, we'll be working on connecting the two horse pastures together. After the trails are created, we'll be moving the wire fence. Fun Fun! Anyone wanna come to Vermont to help? :)

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation for me starts today! Yay!! Lots to do around the property. We'll be staying in North Hero for the majority of the time. Fireworks at North Hero House on Monday, Shorty's birthday is Wednesday...

We cut the trail through the woods last night. There's a little bit left to do but we need to put the new belt on the DR.

Check out the video of the chickens eating an apple. They LOVE apples! They're so cute :-)