Farm Flock: follow along with *all* the birds in our flock

[bug_n_flock]

Hanging out with my new buddy. Breakfast today was a banana(he is so cute with a whole one, but it is wasteful, I think I will start chopping it for him). Lunch is fresh arugula, fresh baby kale, fresh red pepper, frozen thawed chopped broccoli, frozen thawed brussels sprouts, frozen thawed mango, pineapple, cherry, strawberry, a few pieces of birdy pancakes(with millet, budgie seed, and arugula in the batter, sprinkled with cayenne powder, ginger powder, probiotic, and a smiiiidge of peanut butter. Now we are just sitting quietly together: he on top of his cage looking around saying "hello" softly to himself every so often, me in a chair near him in the room. We really gotta fast track the larger cage, it is breaking my heart watching him in this one.



"He" is also squatting down, wing flapping, and grabbing the bars with his beak. I'll look this behavior up in a minute, but my frontrunner gueses would be:


this is the hanging from beak wing flapping neurotic behavior performed outside of the cage


"He" is a hen. This is similar behavior to that my female amazon, Crayon(RIP), had when she was feeling in a romantic way. Guess only time and a blood test will say.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hmm, I think I stumbled on his old name. Floyd. And I think he *hates* his old name. He was being loud and scolding himself "stop it!" Etc, and shouted what sounded like "floyd", so I tried it, he stared. I asked, "was your name Floyd?" And he flipped out, I mean *flipped* *out*. Mad, scared. Will not be doing that again. "Floyd" is a swear word in this house now.

 

[Jen5200]

Yikes - new forbidden word! Could have been the name of someone that didn’t treat him well or his own name....certainly nothing positive associated with it so it deserves to be tossed out .

 

[bug_n_flock]

We a still taking it easy around here. Us humans are feeling a little under the weather. The birds seem to be doing fine however.



The Macaw got pellets for dinner last night and still had some this AM, so no breakfast for him. Alex and Legs got spray millet that I hadn't hidden well enough and they found during their bedroom time. They worked so hard to get it that I didn't have the heart to take it away lmao. Lunch is going to be mashed sweet potato for everyone, even me. Still need to think up a name for the macaw. Latest thing I thought of was Myst(if male)/Misty(if female). But still no names that really seem to be a perfect fit.



Macaw seems calmer today after spending so much time out of the cage and with company yesterday. plan for today is basically that again, but I also want to sit outside some and make some bird toys maybe. Think I will move a chair near the window to his room so when I am outside he doesn't feel like he is alone. Yesterday he was being very dramatic when I was outside, and when I walked to the window(after he was quiet for a few moments), we played that head bob game and he seemed reassured. Poor dude. Being left alone with no stimulation for 28 years, I can't even imagine. Those days are over, buddy!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh! I've been talking about him in so many places, I can't remember where I've said what! His personality!


He says "hello" or "hi" when someone enters the room, clicks his beak and makes kissy noises (a lot) when he is happy. Inside of the cage he asks for scratchies("wanna scratch?"), he makes burping noises, barks, sometimes when you leave the room and say "bye" he says calmly back "bye", and other times he gets upset. Lately I have been telling him, "I'll be back, bye bye" and so far this has not upset him at all. He seems to like chewing a lot, and I can't wait till we have the bigger room bird proofed for him to have pleeeenty to chew on. The best medicine we can give this guy is space to be himself. He will step up politely on to a stick, he was trained to do this a few homes back, and he apparently lunges when presented with an arm to step up. I have not tested this. Sometimes he acts quite scared of my hands and distrusting of them, so I figure wait until that lessens before pressing the step up on arm issue. He lets me scratch his head, rub his beak, and *sometimes* touch/rub his feet, all of this only when in the cage. Maybe someone used to do nails through the bars in his past, who knows. Outside of the cage he is too on edge for me to try and pet him yet. If I stand up from the chair, he usually climbs to the highest part of the cage and looks at me, after a little while he comes back down and doesn't seem too scared. We are just taking it slow. When he is in the cage and wants my attention but I am oblivious, he will reach out and grab me with his feet.


Has not tried to bite me or even looked like he has thought about it. Previous owners seemed quite afraid of that beak, but I didn't notice him thinking about biting them. Shrug, maybe as he settles in he will get more bitey, but maybe it is because I am going slow and stopping if he seems unsure or concerned. I *know* there's a good bird just wanting to be loved in there.


When I am in the room with him he is mostly content to quietly occupy himself chewing or eating or looking around. When I am outside the room he seems way more agitated and prone to screaming. He makes quiet little noises to himself as he hangs out, and is quite adorable. Last night as I turned out the light in his room I said "good night" and then shut the door. I listened just outside the door to make sure he was settling in for the night ok, and I heard him talking to himself. I *think* I heard him copying me saying a few things.. "whatcha doing?" "Hey bird/girl" "Hi girl/bird" but it was through the door so who knows.



When he screams, he sometimes also yells human words, and scolds himself by saying "stop that!" He also has a fairly creepy loud whisper version of "HhhhhI!" That is equal parts scary and hilarious. This bird is amazing even with all his issues.



The chickens still have all 3 chicks and are doing well. Oh, we noticed today that in some of the tire tracks that were cut in during the muddy winter, there are frog eggs! How cool is that!! We will probably scoop them all up into either an aquarium, or into another puddle of water. If we don't, the next time we drive thru there it will be a horrible heartbreaking mess.

 

[bug_n_flock]

I went around some of the more easily accessed by hobbling areas of our clearing, and I gathered some grasses, grass flowers, plantain of 2 species, half ripe seeds, etc etc etc. After a good rinse, these will go to all of the small birds. The macaw got an orange for breakfast.



I also mixed up a baggie of various seeds.. a couple kinds of clover, comfrey, nettle, thistle, various grasses, daikon radish, various beets, a few raspberry, lavender, wildflower("feed the bees/butterflys/birds" mixes), zinnias, a few scoops of budgie seed, black oil sunflower, etc etc etc... sort of a soil conditioning, forage for multi species growing, wild garden type mix I suppose. Somewhere or other we have even more seeds tucked away, and if I can find them, I will add one or two more types into the mix. Most of what we have tucked away is veggies, though. We also have a few flowers, which is what I would be interested in(zinnia, poppy, wildflower mixes, lots of different kinds of sunflower, etc). I think we mostly missed the boat on veggies from seed for this year. We will get some transplants, and I may try to put some corn in the ground in the next few days(heads up guys, there will be probably a major corn shortage this year, and gas prices will probably go up too as a result. Something like only 30% of the country's corn crop has been planted due to all the flooding. For every day past May 15 you don't have corn in the ground, your yield goes down something like 2%. We will still plant corn. We figure our corn needs are for ourselves and our animals, so if our yield is down by 10-15% that sucks, but hey that's alright we don't really need all that much, and besides the whole thing is bird safe so we get another use from the plant that other farmers don't: come fall we can dry the whole stalk and give it to big beak mcgee to destroy, or an army of hugely destructive bitty beaks. Should keep the monsters busy for a little while. ). Most of the seeds in that mix will produce something that can be used for the birds in one way or another. Feeding the plant, the seeds, the flowers, the roots, the fruits, whatever.

Gathering the grasses, etc for the small birds was not easy on crutches and after 11 weeks of not doing much while I recovered, I am quite tired/sore. After a break(and finally eating breakfast), I will walk around and scatter the seed I mixed up. Hopefully some takes and I don't just end up feeding the wild birds. Our soil is very very rough in areas, and everywhere it needs some conditioning even where it isn't so rough.. lots of clay.



With me being injured and us being new here, we have not had time to really do any of the soil conditioning yet that I have wanted to do. It will happen, but injuries and illnesses cause delays. Sigh. I have huge plans, some areas more than others. I want to use no-till methods in many areas, and the worst section, dubbed Clay Hill, I have a multi year plan involving chickens, compost piles, rabbits, green manure, and a secure fence. It will get done, we just have had a few things crop up(heh, crop) that limited our gardening abilities for this year. Oh well.

On the plus side: we now "have" running water! At least through a hose. Progress. Now we can wash dishes, etc easier than by using creek water or bottled water from the store. YAY!


George's chicks are growing, but they are still so tiny! Obviously lots of bantam breeds mixed into their heritage. Their wing feathers keep getting longer and longer. We are talking about moving the chicken coop a little ways away into an area of long grass next to a cliff once the chicks are quite a bit bigger. The adult birds used to dust bath over there and eat the compost pile over there before going broody and hatching the chicks. That area is a little out of the way and a bit farther from our house without being too far away to benefit from being by the house. There have been a lot of flies lately and we think having the chicken coop right outside 2 windows that are usually open is probably contributing to that lol.


After I scatter the seeds and Mr. Bug finishes moving a few things around, we are going to spend a few hours with the big bird(Mr. Bug really hasn't spent much time with him yet other than for the drive), and then watch a movie and hang out with the baby budgies while we answer emails.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh, I guess I didn't put here: we decided to name the macaw Freedom.


Today I decided to switch it up, since Mr. Bug has been back and forth to get medical attention for his infected hand. So this morning I hung out with Freedom, and have been spending time with the little birds since. Every so often I pop in to check on Freedom, since this is usually his time with me. When it came time earlier to put him back in the cage, he did *not* want to go. It was adorable, it was a giant version of the temper tentrums Alex throws! My heart about melted. No wonder previous owners thought he was aggressive! Awwww he was all poofy and Grrr I am a big scary bird *lunge* *lunge* *sway back and forth slowly* cute! So I put the stick down and talked to him for a while and he seemed to calm down. I asked him to step up and got the same reaction again to the stick. If he could have been rolling on the ground pounding it with his fists he would have. Such an obvious temper tantrum!


I put the stick down, calmed him down, then said to him, "Wanna Mmmm(total guess that he would understand this. He knows wanna scratch, and Mmmm means tasty thing to him)? Get down on your perch, Go home." and moved his food dish(with a newly added yummy tasty in it) from the play top, to the inside cage spot. He happily "went home down on his perch for wanna Mmm". Success! And both of us were happy. Told him, "I'll be back" and left the room. He was quiet and eating happily.



A little while later I went back in, maybe an hour or so, and said, "wanna come out(have been saying this to him, but I don't know if he understands yet)? Get down on your perch." He got down on his perch, and I let him out. He climbed down to the floor and poked around for a while, but then started getting into trouble(he knew where the yummy tastys were hidden and kept trying to get to them), so I said(as I picked up the bag with YT in it), "Wanna Mmmm?" He came over, I handed him the YT, he climbed up onto his cagetop to eat it. After he finished it and was looking around for more I told him to "Wanna Mmmm? Go home. Get down on your perch" and he totally did. Praised him, shut up the cage and sat in the room with him for several minutes before getting up and saying "I'll be back" and leaving.



He is so very incredibly astoundingly brilliant.





When he was out the first time he was the most relaxed I have seen him so far: mega preening, dozing napping with one foot up. Not quite head tucked under wing beak grinding level relaxed, but it is a step in the right direction!



I found a cav who will see him only 50 miles from here, so that is great news. For now I am going to go sit outside and enjoy what is left of the daylight.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Yanno we need pictures of this fella...RIGHT???



Jim

 

[bug_n_flock]

I will try to get some good ones soon.



I am more and more thinking of him as a her... today we came face-to-beak a few times, actually more like several. Still have not picked her up. I think I may wait for her to come to me rather than try to pick her up in fact. I think that at a couple points today she would have climbed into my lap if the chair were just a smidge closer to where she was. Also a few times when I was messing with the cage moving things around, she came down to the drawbridge door of her cage and sat there talking to me very close to my face. One of the times when she was poking around exploring on the floor, she waddled under my chair and poked her little head out to look at me. Very cute, but I should probably block access, right?



I have not touched the stick since her meltdown. Since yesterday, she has been head bobbing and regurgitating for me. All of this while out of the cage. I think we are making some significant progress. She absolutely is happy to "go home" for yummy tasties, and she has been learning that not every time the door shuts is she in there for a long time, and not every time I ask her to go in there does the door even get shut.



Today she got her cage rearranged and another toy added. We are going to chop up some pine 2x4s for her to destroy tomorrow. And she has started to investigate the boxes that share her room with her. Oopsie, time to move them before they turn to confetti. She has started to hop with excitement on her perch when I come in, rather than hang from the roof of the cage by her beak. She hops when on the floor, or has twice now anyway, and it is freakin' *adorable*. We are also going to throw something together for Freedom to sit on outside of her cage tomorrow, even a suuuuper short term stand made from 2x4's would be better than nothing.


George&co's 3 are getting "big" but they still fit through the holes in the turkey and duck pasture fence. We let all of the outside birds out to free range today, and will probably continue to do that. George was going after the turkey hen at first, but she put him in his place and chased him around the barn and pasture before we stepped in when she got too close to the hens and chicks. After that, the chickens stayed respectful of the turkeys, and the turkeys pretty much ignored the chickens. The hens and xhicks even went to go scratch around in the barn while some turkeys were in there and everybody behaved.


Sorry if this post is sort of jostled and poor grammatically and such, we are sitting outside about to light the grill to cook dinner. Brats and grilled pineapple.

 

[bug_n_flock]

I got nipped yesterday and I want to make sure I am reading correctly:


Mr. Bug and I were both in the room. Freedom was lose and doing her thing, Mr. Bug was playing a game on the laptop, and I was sitting near the cage. I kept calling her over and trying to get her to climb into my lap for a yummy tasty. I kept thinking the issue was that the chair wasn't close enough, so I would give her a bit of YT and adjust the chair closer to the cage while she was eating.



Right beforw the nip/pinch, I was so close to the cage my knee was touching it, and I had decided to not give her more bird cookies(even breaking them into small pieces, I end up giving a lot if I am not careful), so I had switched to apples, which she also likes. I gave her an apple slice which she happily ate earlier.


So, nip stage set: me against cage, Freedom not particularly hungry but still wanting nibbles. She was leaning out to reach the apples, I was hoping she would climb to my lap to get it since it was *only* just out of her reach, and earlier she had put a single foot on my lap twice while turning around.



Instead she got frusterated and nipped my pants and managed to pinch me just an itty bitty bit while nipping the pants.



This startled me and I totally flinched a bit at first, but then stopped doing so and I didn't scold or anything. What I did do was very calmly while looking at her say "no", and drop the apple piece on the floor while she watched. Not in a way that she could easily go down and get it, and she climbed back on top of her cage.



My interpretation looking back? I was teasing the crud out of that poor bird and didn't realize it. 100% my fault. Just double checking that this is correct, though.



A while later after this incident she was still happy to go home for more goodies so I don't think too much/any damage was done by this incident.



Noel had mentioned that when "he" was on stick she could pet him anywhere. Wings, head, belly, etc etc etc(will not replicate due to hormonal triggers), step up on arm he lunges, and she specifically mentioned when he is on her lap he was also on edge and lungey. Hmmmm.



Oh, and here is a picture of her, tho not the best photo.



View attachment 22554







Oh, yesterday was the first time she was out of the cage with Mr. Bug in the room, so that also maybe contributed to the nip? She didn't seem to care super much that he was there, but who knows.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hahahahahahahaha OMG look at this silly little rainbow chicken!



View attachment 22555

View attachment 22556


Baths are the best.





Lol absolutely everything in the room is soaked, but Freedom is one happy drenched pigeon. Every so often she shakes, sending more droplets of water flying around. It is 88 degrees F today, and her room doesn't have air conditioning(and I close her window to just a crack open when she is out of the cage. No need to risk anything even though she doesn't know how to fly). More than one way to cool a pigeon.


Eta: she FINALLY fully opened her wings several times during the misting. So she totally can, it is just not a habit for her I assume due to a lifetime of being in a cage so small she wasn't able to open them in the cage.

 

[Jen5200]

That is one very happy bird

 

[bug_n_flock]

I'll post a farm update soon. For now enjoy our sunset.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Alllllllllllllllllllllrightythen it's time for an update.


We have been scrambling around with last minute prep before another chick order arrives some time late next week. We are getting our first guineas and geese! Very excited!!



I was trying to figure out if I could fly to Previous City to visit with my mom for a few days and bring some more of my stuff that I haven't finished packing and moving, but the logistics of flying in a cast just got more and more overwhelming the more I thought about it so we have decided to wait until I am out of the cast for me to fly home for a visit and to get some work done. After all, my mom is a teacher and once her summer break starts, she will be able to visit us for much longer than a few days anyway. Yes, there are the mobility golf carts and various other things to help accomodate me getting around the airport and onto the plane and such, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary stress and potential to reinjure myself if I push too hard. My mom's house is a 4 story thing too, and my old room was on the top floor. Honestly I don't know how I was thinking I would manage moving things down the stairs when I can only just barely manage to move myself up and down stairs.



Currently, I am in the boot/cast if I am on my feet. Recently I have started taking it off to sleep, or if I am just sitting with Freedom or the little guys. I am using only 1 crutch now, and some of the time (usually earlier in the day before I start to get tired) I am not using a crutch at-all. I am able to do more and more, but my stamina is at 0, which is the main reason I decided to delay the trip. Carrying wood over for a fire yesterday, I was literally winded after making the trip twice and carrying 4 small sections of wood. And the wood pile literally is so close to where we had the fire that a well thrown rock could have hit it. I will get back to normal, but it is taking fruteratingly long.



My fiance is going to drive to Previous City on Saturday instead of me going there. He will visit with his parents, and bring back some things of mine that I would have brought had I been able to make the trip myself. He should be getting back a day or two before the baby chicks arrive.



Speaking of baby chicks, yesterday before we lit the fire, I had all the "chicks"(hatched in early march) over pestering us being cute, and I shared my lunch with them, how could I resist? Lol. At one point they were ALL begging for tidbits of my ham sandwich. :3 George doesn't seem to be a huge fan of them, but he also doesn't seem to hate them. The young cockrels are only just starting to crow(badly), so he probably doesn't see them as a threat yet. It is so cute.... er ah er ah errrrr is the proper crow. These guys? More like derp a doo(with the last syllabule trailing to nothing, their voices too high pitched, and sometimes failing on them midway or cracking mid crow. They are so awkward and adorable at this age!! Soon tho they will turn into moooooonsters. Speaking of which:



We have officially named the adult heritage bronze hen: The Warden. George has been being a bit of a snot lately to Nibbler and Waddles(and to Mr. Bug, uggggggh. Why, George??), and The Warden seems to have taken personal offense to this. When he acts like a brat, she will come running over and put him in his place. She is the smallest bronze turkey we have, and yet she is the feistiest of the lot. She and George are about the same size, but she is 100% in charge of him.




If he doesn't chill out, he is going to get himself killed. We wouldn't do it(too attached to the little punk), but giving him free to someone else? Sure. Dinner or breeder, whatever. He is a good roo to his hens. Protects them, keeps an eye out for predators, feeds them tasty snacks. But he is being a JERK. Also, he is rushing Mr. Bug while he is walking our Anatolian Shepherd foster. Whooooo is a confirmed chicken killer. She almost grabbed George the other day. No bueno. Even a punk jerk rude butt head rooster doesn't deserve to be mauled to death. If it is his time to go, he deserves a humane way out. He may be acting up, but in his screwy little rooster brain, he is just doing his job.



George and co still have 3 chicks, and they seem to be doing great. The indoor chick is doing great too, and since it is a bantie mix, he is abouuuut the size of a new baby large fowl chick. We likely will pair him up with one of the new chicks who arrive next week so he will have a buddy and not be so lonely.



Nibbler is laying herself a clutch of eggs we noticed. My last count she had 3 in her little nest in the barn, but that was 2 nights ago, so it is probably to 4 or 5 by now. We will let her sit on them if she wants to, and hatch us out another generation of mutt ducks. Mutts are such fun birds to have around. Don't get me wrong, the purebreds are great too, but there is something fun about a heinz 57 duck or chicken that I just adore.


We are still letting all of the fowl free range during the day, and so far so good. The march "chicks" are not great at foraging yet, but so far do good at avoiding getting got(knock on wood). I really, really, *really* am enjoying having the birds all loose during the day. But it is time to sort thru the March birds. Choose our keepers and sell the other pullets(and cockrels if someone wants them). Plan for the cockrels is to separate out the cool ones(we have a polish roo, a lavender ameracauna roo, and a few other neat ones we want to hang on to) and put them probably in large pens where we will give them some pullets and have them confined to use as breeders(and keep them from fighting each other). The rest of the cockrels we will hang on to for now until they are big enough to ride the rides at freezer camp(lol). And perhaps a bit longer. We are going to send them to a colder climate based on behavior, and hopefully at the end of it we will be left with 1-3 roosters who are good to the ladies, good foragers, good with each other(sometimes, sometimes you can get lucky and have a few roos who will exist peacefully together as flock roo), and nonaggressive to people. Because this George situation is not ideal.



You can stare him down if you know how to read him and you have the right attitude about it, but Mr. Bug is having some difficulty. I have been watching and advising him, which helps, but I'm not always there and he is still learning bird body language. One time George managed to get Mr. Bug with his spurs(thru jeans so not much cutting damage) in *just* the right spot on his knee, and his leg gave out momentarily! Yipe! This was while he was walking one of our dogs, so thankfully they didn't try to eat George, but still. Sigh, dumb bird.



We still have not finished the first raised bed, but we have all the materials and will probably build it today. In the AM yesterday it was quite stormy, so we didn't get a chance to get started, and by the time the skies cleared, it was time to build the fire to cook dinner(still no oven/range, but it isn't so much a priority. Summer we can cook outside, winter we have the wood stove), so we didn't get anything done on it yesterday. Oh well. It will get done when it gets done.



The last budgie clutch of the season is starting to fledge now. The pair managed to successfully raise 8! Good job!! So 2 of our pairs bred this spring, giving us a total of 21 baby budgies so far this year. 8(2 4 chick clutches) by one pair and 13(clutch of 5 and clutch of 8) by the other. We are meeting a grandmother tomorrow who wants to buy 2 of them. They will likely be caged budgies, but that's alright. In a big enough cage with toys, 2 budgies can be quite happy talking to their people rather than cuddling and playing with them. Not every bird home is the same, and what works for some is different than what works for others. That said, we are going to steer her towards the less people-attached chicks(and it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: these are the older, fully weaned, a few months old chicks that we are selling. We do not sell any babies that we are not 100% sure are fully and utterly completely weaned).



I'm sure I could add more information in here, but i have already written a novel on this post(yipe!!) So I will just leave this update as this.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

So cool! Would just love to spend just ONE day at your "farm" andsee all the critters! I know it's a LOT of work,but you guys seem to be doing a great job with it all,even with you being on the "disabled" list at the moment. Love your updates,keep 'em coming...and of course PICTURES of everyone would be a bonus!!




Jim

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

That’s so awesome! I have always dreamed of having chickens or ducks! I want to see pictures as well. May I ask how many birds do you have??

 

[bug_n_flock]

It rained today. 20 minutes before this was taken our bridge was high and dry, now you can hardly tell there is a bridge there. Water still rising, that blue pex tube is now touching the water in that spot it hangs down. We are filling buckets and are going to call someone local to go shut off the water line in so if the pipe breaks now that branches are hitting it, we are not just wasting water.



This is what I mean when I say we get rained in.



Quickly.



The water had been low. 20 minutes. Went from maybe an inch or so deep to this.



Will respond with pic and info of birds later.



View attachment 22568


We almost got rained out. Budgie people ran late so we delayed going to meet them. If we had tried to meet them at 2 like planned, we would have been rained out.

 

[bug_n_flock]

We are still stuck in. Going to be a few days before we can get out. The creek's level has dropped back down, but all that rushing water has deposited enough rock and silt in the pipes under our bridge that they are not only fully blocked(common), but we won't be able to dig out without an excavator(relatively uncommon). We contacted the water guy again to see if he can bring his equipment and help us get out, but he is finishing up a job somewhere and wont be free for another day or two. Guess Mr. Bug isn't going to Previous City before the chicks arrive afterall. We will figure it out, maybe he will go immediately after they arrive. IDK, it somewhat depends on what comes in the mystery box.



To answer your question Birdies, we currently have: 8 weaned budgies in the baby cage(2 we are keeping, 2 are sold but have to wait for their new home until the bridge is clear, 4 still looking for homes), 2 adult pairs of budgies(one fledging their 2nd, and last, cutch of the season, the other hanging out enjoying being birds since they already raised 2 clutches this spring), 1 semi bonded adult pair(the male is a snot, but gets upset if away from his lady, so we are back to having them in separate cages right next to each other. The hen is sitting on 3 (infertile) eggs now, so maybe in the fall or next spring they will actually breed. If not, this is the male's third strike and he won't be given another breeding chance. He will still live here forever, though. We will either try to tame him down, or have him live full time in the boy budgie aviary when it is built), an adult hen who is bonding to one of Legs' clutchmates that we kept, a special needs budgie(severe splay leg), an old cockatiel, a recent rescue B&G. For anseriformes: 3 pekin juveniles, 3 kacki juveniles, 3 mallard juveniles, and a pair of adult mutt ducks("Nibbler" and "Waddles"). Galliformes: an adult pair of heritage bronze turkeys("Bad Touch Tom" and his wife "The Warden"), 5 of their 6/7 whatever month old chicks that we need to sell or send the toms to freezer camp(they are fighting), and a juvenile heritage bourbon red turkey ("Turkey Bird"). For chickens we have the adult birds, The Fat One, Stockings, Darkfoot, and the Dinosaur one, plus their roo George and their 3 chicks. We have one of their chicks also inside the house.



For the young chickens, we should have had 90. We got about 40 from a hatchery, and bought another 50 from a feed shop. A few were lost in the early days, but really not many. 1 must have had a fatally defective protein or something.. he was TINY. we had 2 of that breed and the little one was maybe a quarter of the size of the other and they were banties so WOW like, the size of a newly hatched coturnix quail chick. And a couple of failure to thrive chicks who ended up feeding our snake.



When we moved them outside there were several losses in the first few days, but no losses since then that we know of. So we should still have quite a few. I'd guess somewhere between 70-80 or so. However, the last time Mr. Bug tried counting them he only came up with 50. But they run around and we have a variety of breeds and some breeds 2-3 of. Asians, barred rocks, and white leghorns we have a whole lot of, so it is possible he missed counting some.




I need to get some new and better pics


View attachment 22572

 

[bug_n_flock]

Ah, and ms. Nibbs' nest now has 9 eggs in it...... 2 of them are turkey eggs. We will let her keep the turkey eggs too/let the turkey keep the duck eggs. The incubation period is the same for mallard based duck breeds and heritage turkeys... 28 days. This will be veeeryyy interesting. Hoping someone starts to sit on those eggs soon.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Here is another pic. It isn't super recent, but it isn't super old either.. maybe a week and a half old? 2 weeks? Something like that(oh wait I can check the file, duh) oh. May 11. So like just over 3 weeks old. Butters is showing off his bum like the ... donkey ... he is. Lol.



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Also here is a wildflower photo I took today. The bees seem to really like these guys, whatever they are. Quite pretty flowers, we have lots and lots of wildflowers.


Eta: yeah, I know we need to stack that wood proper. It's sort of a long story why it is mounded like that... too long a story for 3% phone batt. Night all