SNAFU@WingnutAcres

Veggies in the bathtub...........
Chickens in the dresser.......

and the new Chicken Spa, formerly known as my flower bed, up and running.

yup............Situation Normal @ WingnutAcres

So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but time of year being what it is and all , and all that needs to get done and all…………….

So quick recap from where I left off,

The ducks are not only IQ impoverished, but illiterate too…………the "lay the eggs here" dummy egg……………well we finally fed that one to the dogs, we were still fishing one a day out of the pond, and it took about 2 weeks to find the new nest for the others. So a massive amount of duck eggs of questionable quality later, we marked six of them as decoys ( dummies ) put them back in nest #2, and boiled up the rest for the other critters. 3 days later………….no new eggs in the nest, and yes we are still fishing one out of the pond every day. Give us a couple of days

and we find new nest # 3………………still more questionable eggs to deal with, but we have an active clientele for them so no worries, and the last dip shit duck that lays eggs in the pond has decided to follow suit and lay eggs on dry land with the other girls, but somehow they have managed to confuse a chicken.

All’s good for another week and then we have a complete overnight raid on all the eggs in the nest………….they are all dummies, completely marked up with permanent, probably toxic, marker, we used red this time as black seems to disappear in the massive amount of dirt a duck can put on her own egg. Anyways, ya damn coon, hope you get Salmonella, a seizure or something, because you have no idea how long it took to get these dumb ass ducks to all lay in one place…………and I know it was a coon, because now the shells are all in the pond. My poor pond, the one that was to be such a tranquil little oasis of running water, native plants and rockscaping……….ya whatever. I doesn’t much resemble that at all right now.

But, on the bright side, so far, so good, the ducks are still using the new, and did I mention, easy to reach, nest.

　

　

　

Easter Eggstravaganza....Wingnut style

It’s April already and Easter has just come and gone…….

With all the kids moved out, my Mom doing dinner and any remaining daffodils or crocuses that may have survived me and /or the landscaping project of 2011 being eaten by either squirrels or ducks………..there really wasn’t anything much Easter around here,

……….unless you count the new chicken that lays us green eggs.

It was basically going to be a work weekend anyway, cutting trees to let more sun onto the solar system and building my new and improved terraced garden, an unexpected and welcome by-product of the tree project.

Thinking that I was going to be working on the gardens, I did buy a new garden tool to replace the old and worn out one……………just a regular garden hoe, nothing fancy except for the lime green handle ( kinda Easterish I suppose ) but with the new project well underway it became obvious that I was not going to get around to using the new tool this weekend………………or so I thought.

Nice Hoe...eh



Raid, Vapona and Citronella
aka Huey, Dewey and Louey
aka Dumb, Dumber and Stupid

Seems our 3 remaining ducks, all girls, have their own idea about Easter. They came of age about a month ago and started laying eggs, and except for the first ones, which I figure might have caught them by surprise, they have laid 3 eggs a day in a nest which we found after it had about a dozen eggs in it. The nest they chose is under the chicken coop, behind a bail of hay, in a spot that is inaccessible unless you get down on your hands and knees and crawl into the spot with the least amount of clearance. But that’s fine, every day we collect 6 chicken and 3 duck eggs from the coop area and one chicken egg from the greenhouse
……….Helens new home.


Until Easter weekend arrives, and who knew that ducks were so into the egg hunt thing??

Just look where they have laid their eggs for the last 3 days…………..

This is where the first "surprise" eggs were laid, and they were still there, but now I have my new Easter colored garden tool turned egg scooper, and I’ve gotten some use out of it this weekend after all.

All the eggs retrieved, and the original ones too…………….2 fed to the dogs and chickens and one used as a "Dummy Egg" to put back in the nest to help them "maybe" get the idea that Easter is over and I really don’t need to make the trip to the coop every day with a basket ………and a hoe.

I hope they get the message.

Well it's not called Wingnut Acres for nuthin'

OMG, I can hardly keep up with the amount of stupid around here today.

A few days ago I posted about Little Helen, our blind chicken, who survived the latest hawk attack, but her eyesight didn't, how she's doing well, laying eggs again and how a barrier has been put in place to keep her and/or her eggs from falling out of the coop.

Seems the barrier should have been a bit higher because sometime on Tuesday, Helen managed to fall out, again, and no one noticed till that night when Bob the Builder went to lock everyone up for the night and discovered she was missing. An hour and a half of searching the woods for her with a flashlight............and no Helen.

The next day, I went out and searched again, but all in vain. Not even a feather to be found. Neither of the dogs seemed to understand the term "FIND MY CHICKEN....DAMMIT" so they were of no help whatsoever, but totally enjoyed a prolonged walk through the woods. I was actually hoping that some predator, maybe even the damn hawk, had found her and ended it for her quickly. Thinking that she was just out there, with no way to find food or water, was not sitting well with me at all.

By the end of the day, the Builder and I had to sit down and rework the numbers for the next chicken order, something that we were already working on, and up the amount of fencing that we need to purchase to keep them safe and yet still have them be able to free range.

We came up with the idea to get 5 more already laying birds ASAP, since the farm fresh egg supply was rapidly dwindling, and then order another 10 day old chicks.

..............apparently this is called chicken math. You start out wanting 4, and somehow you end up with around 24, and it's something that is quite common with new chicken owners from what I read. A couple of months ago I had just finished reading someones comment on BackYardChickens.com " you will get more, it's just a matter of time" and no sooner had I read that, when the Builder says " you know, I think we should get more chickens" !!

A quick search of Kijiji and we found someone who was wanting to sell trios, and low and behold, it just happened to be the same guy that gave us Ruckus the Rooster a few weeks ago. We already had a bottle of Maple Syrup set aside for him as a thank-you for that. So there we are, the chicken math has gone up by one again........6 instead of 5, and still order 10 chicks. As it turns out we went out there and he had already had lots of interest in the ad, with people coming on the weekend and could only spare 3 ( chicken math = original # minus 2 )

Three chickens rounded up and in the truck on the way home.

The plan is to put the 3 new girls in the coop, close off the run from the others so that the new ones can figure out where home is. Then tonight, have the new ones in the coop, leave the old ones in the run like they have been doing anyways since we locked them out that first night that Helen was injured.

And that's what we did. Three new chickens in the coop.

On the left we have Salt, an Australorp that went straight to work and laid us a green egg just minutes after getting here. In the middle we have Pepper, a Barred Rock. And the girl on the right is Ruckus' half sister, so I think the name Bobby-Jo fits for her. I just need to figure out how to tell her apart from Elvira......... not like it matters if I do or don't ;)

All is well in chicken land, the Builder is unloading lumber and fencing, I'm looking into placing the order for the chicks, when the Builder runs in and announces
....HELENS HOME!!!

As IF ?!?!?!!? we've had a bind chicken wandering the property for 48 hours and she's safe, has found home ( tell me that rooster is not doing his job calling her back...........better than the dogs, that's for sure !! ) and we just gave away her room!!!

Chicken math = original # minus 2 plus 1

So the new girls are pushed out into the run by the Builder, which means he has to get in the coop, while I hold Helen and close the door, so that they don't take the wrong exit. Meanwhile, I guess out of habit, I latch the coop door, and while I'm waiting, I start wandering about talking to Helen, when all of a sudden I hear "LET ME OUT"

So I now have the 3 old chickens happily doing their thing, one rooster watching over them, three new chickens waiting for us to just make up our minds about where it is we really want them, three ducks just being ducks and eating everything and pooping everywhere, two very jealous dogs whining and watching me cuddle a blind chicken.....and I've just locked the person that is supposed to be my better half in the chicken coop.

.............and THAT'S why it's called Wingnut Acres!!

Meet Little Helen

Little Helen, formerly known as "one of the un-named teenagers".
Obviously she's not a teenager anymore.
Little Helen is our chicken that, just over a week ago, was attacked by a hawk,
escaped to the safety of a big spruce tree, and then gave me a run for the money trying to keep her from running into the river. All her wild maneuvers that didn't make sense at the time, are turning out to be perfectly understandable now.
Little Helen, as it turns out, is now kinda blind. Well, not really kinda, this picture was taken, with a flash and without the aid of a zoom setting, and there was not even a flinch, that was sort of the final test, to confirm that yes, she's really kinda totally blind.

Now I do understand that any self respecting farmer would have just named her Noodle Soup at this point but I guess I'm just not that farmer, heck, I own chickens and grow some vegetables, that hardly makes me a farmer anyways, and it's not called Wingnut Acres for no reason either.

And besides, Little Helen is coming along just fine, she's laying eggs again that actually have a shell on them that is not paper thin, so that means she's eating and drinking again.

The other chickens have stopped picking on her, and have even just decided to stay out in the run for the night. They were locked out of the coop for one night for being such bullies, and seem to have taken to the idea, and only come in to lay their eggs, which is a good thing, keeps Little Helen alot cleaner, she can't get up on the roosts anymore and tends to lay under them, so not having anyone sleeping up there is a good thing for her, not to mention the whole coop, which is now her home, all day.

I do have to pick her up, after talking to her first so she knows it's just me, and put her foot in the water dish so that she knows it's there, she has figured out that the food is to the left of that, and the sunshine is that big warm spot near the door, just in front of the food and water. She's even found one of the nesting boxes for her eggs, not that it matters, I can pick them up from where ever, but we did have to install a little railing in front of the door since both she and one of her eggs have fallen out...........

I found her in the bushes behind the coop pecking away at bugs that I think she could still hear, maybe she got some, who knows. 
I found her egg behind the coop, in between Ol Farts paws, under his chin, while he was showing teeth to the 3 chickens that felt that it belonged to them..........seriously funny situation there..........110lb dog vs 3 chickens over an egg, and a rooster standing by not knowing what to do with this scenario. In the end, the rooster stood guard, the chickens were fearless, they actually had their head in the dogs mouth to get the shells, and the dog, who could have had the whole chicken dinner at that point, behaved and just tried in vain to protect his find with a show of teeth ( that actually made him look like he was smiling..........but I know he wasn't )

Not Again

Another overly warm day for March, in this, the year of no real winter at all, and it seems the birds, after a relatively bug free winter diet, are totally focused in their search for more and more of the constantly emerging tasty little morsels. So unknown to us, they wander off down to the field, heads down and happily pecking away, no doubt following the pond run off that not only leads straight through the field, but is chock a block full of bird goodies as well.

the goody loaded trench that leads birds from the safety of trees to the dreaded field

.........and then it happened.....another hawk attack, witnessed this time, so NO, we are NOT crazy, that is what’s picking off our birds.

I'm inside when my phone rings, Bob the Builder on the other end, calling from the field and telling ( yelling ) for me to get down there quick because he needs help.......this is from a guy who notoriously does NOT ask for help, even when he should, so I'm picturing the worst.  

In a matter of seconds this blissful bug picking adventure has turned into a chaos zone. One of the as yet un-named chickens is injured, missing a load of feathers and hiding under a tree, either Joan or Elvira was last seen running for all her worth to the cover of the spruces with a hawk on her tail, Ruckus the Rooster and the other two girls are nowhere to be found. Bob's gotten a shot off and the hawk was diverted and flown off, but the chicken may or may not know that.

And the 3 remaining ducks have FINALLY found the river......we have been hoping that they would find the river someday and make that their new home, saving us the whole Duckponics issue, so I quickly abandoned the idea of getting them back, seems we finally had them just where we wanted them and they were joyfully discovering all kinds of goodies in the tall grass on the banks. So I was happy thinking there's some good in everything.

Injured chicken then proceeds to give me a really good run for for my money, through what little ( wet, heavy, slushy ) snow that remains amidst all the mud, trying to keep her from frantically running straight into the river, because I'm pretty sure that even though that river may be a ducks dream, it's got to be chicken hell, and I had NO intention of jumping in to get her even if I could catch her in that current. If it came to that, I would probably have better luck running all the way back up the hill from hell, getting in the car and scooping her out at the first bridge down the road with the fish net that I was really wishing I had brought down here right now. So I just kept running.........and so did she, in no particular direction, but all of them taking her closer to the river. In the end, she was captured, without the help of the fish net. So there I was, soaked and muddy from the knees down, sweating from the waist up, trying to get control of a flapping, hysterical chicken that was making enough noise to call in every predator in the township at that point. I finally calmed her down and I think the two of us just sat there wondering which one of us was going to have the heart attack first. 

So we now have one chicken headed for the coop to hopefully recover, Elvira is MIA, Ruckus and the 2 other girls were found hiding in the garage and 3 ducks finally in the river.

3 hours later...........injured hen is getting severely picked on by the others, so they are all locked out for the night, injured has the coop, the rest of them have the run, good thing it’s warm out, but who knows where tomorrows eggs are going to be. MIA chicken managed to sneak back home without anyone noticing, and she seems just fine. All is calm again, just hoping that injured chicken makes it through the night.

AND THEN THE DUCKS CAME HOME.........................I really think that sometimes they just pretend to be stupid.

TMI ( too much information )

When we started on this bird adventure, our only source of information to start with was the internet which we surfed endlessly, followed by some emails and visits to others that were already doing this........I mean these are living creatures and for sure we want to do everything right for them. So with what we learnt we built them the Chicken Hilton which, we were told if we were to be doing this egg adventure in the winter, would need to be insulated, so we did.

There was lots of information about the lighting shedule required for them to lay eggs, so lights with timers were installed. This being Canada and the temps having the possibility of falling well into the negatives ( well not this year....2012, the year of the non-winter, regardless ) we installed a heat lamp with a thermostat. Of course providing food and water is always a given, and we have adopted the deep litter method for the coop, with a good coop scooping to happen in the spring.

In our mind we provided them with everything a chicken could want ( except a rooster ), and we did the same for the ducks too, including a pond.

So as winter sets in everything is working fine, the ducks have abandoned the run of the Hilton in favour of living either in the pond or underneath the Hilton. The spring is still running madly so water for them is not an issue. The lights and heating in the coop are working fine, eggs are getting laid, and we haven't found a chicken frozen solid yet, so the heat must be working, and we know for a fact that the hydro bill is working just fine.

Not having a rooster has been a problem as the girls are not following the standard information that we recieved about "free run" chickens that they just simply go home at night. This has resulted in the loss of a few birds, in particular Little Lucy, so they are now being locked up much to my dismay and more so theirs.

.......so our only issue so far is that the water still freezes up rock solid overnight and the chickens are thirsty in the morning. We have an automtic waterer for them in the summer which obviously will not work all year. We tried the chicken waterers and surfed again to find all kinds of elaborate ways to make them stop freezing up, all of which would require more wiring and $$$. In the end we chose to go with a dog waterer instead.....the kind that has the one litre pop bottle attached, pop bottles bought for this reason only BTW. Things were still freezing up overnight so we moved it a bit closer to the heat lamp...........which promptly melted the darn bottle. So now instead of just taking a replacement out to them, we have to run back and forth with the one remaining bottle, not really an issue except that someone decided to put the chicken coop downhill.

And then one day all things changed..........we got a rooster!!!

How does a rooster stop water from freezing you ask, well he doesn't, but the "old hand, I've been doing this for years, lets take the simple approach to all of this" farmer that gave us the rooster, also gave us the biggest, most useful, piece of advice yet by simply saying..............

" I just give them a bucket of snow"

REALLY!!!..........it's so stupidly simple that it makes total sense.
It makes you realize that sometimes you can just overthink things

It's so stupidly simple that it makes a person feel like an idiot for not figuring this out themselves........I'm just glad it wasn't one of my kids that came up with this.........then I'd feel really stupid!!!