You'll remember from my week off -
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5
Last week was a whole lot of rain with major downpours a few days even.
This past Saturday was decent - until the evening and it started up again. The good thing is that we were at a charity event and having a lot of fun while the rain came down. Then Sunday was fairly decent again with only spits here and there.
On Friday evening, the little ladies were taken on a field trip and got to go out on grass for the first time! It took a minute or so, they weren't sure what exactly they should do. After awhile they figured out that it was warm and they started to forage in the grass...you know, act like chickens. One even found an itty-bitty slug and commenced to run around in their very cramped enclosure. She finally decided to settle down and gulp down her prize. The others were still getting used to the great outdoors and one figured out that being outside meant more than just Chick Starter food.
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They were treated to a second trip after church on Sunday. There are no photos, but their enclosure was a little more roomy. I thought why not use the corner posts from the Electric Poultry fence kit for now. So this fence material was zip-tied to the posts at the opening and the bin that we used to transport them was a safe place/block for the open side. While they enjoyed their little trip out and we had to bring out...
The baby duck and baby goose. Yeah, we came home with a couple more birds for the brood. These little ones were 3 days old on Saturday when we brought them home. In all the time that we (my family) had all the chickens, ducks, geese and other winged creatures, I do not remember ducklings or goslings. I'm guessing that we had broody ducks and geese...who knows? I think there were little ducklings running around the property...how else would we get more?! Anyway - I promptly forgot what breeds we went away with. I want to say that the goose is an Embden, maybe. The duckling? Unsure. Maybe if we find ourselves out at Wilco again I'll see if they still have some of these little guys.
The goose is very sweet and very needy. As of today they are both 6 days old and still very much babies. I have to keep reminding myself of that. They don't have a momma to help them get food or to keep them warm, so we have to do our best to keep them fed and watered and happy. Boy do they cry A LOT! The moment they lay eyes on us it's time for them to start talking! So we do what needs to be done and then pick them up and give them some attention and a little bit of time out of the box. They will be stuck in the box until they get too big for it and we have to get a bigger bin or until the Jersey's are big enough to get out of the brooder. However, I have a feeling that they will grow faster. Which would be okay, because as soon as they are able to defend themselves better we'll introduce them to the flock and they will need to start living together with some understanding that they both belong.
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| This coat has a duck pocket! |
I found out that these little ladies were delivered to the feed store on March 24th. So they are supposedly all pretty healthy and active. The question now is how many and where do we house them?
Since the Chicken Mobile is essentially finished they could live in there - and I'm thinking that 5 or 6 would be a good start for the egg layers. The reality might be different, but a girl can hope right? However many we end up with will have super deluxe accommodations for sure since the Chicken RV is 6 X 6 and will seat many chickens comfortably as well as the goose and the duck :)
Soooo, the weather forecast for later this week is predicted to be in the 80s. Okay, that's just not right. Why can't we ease into the heat? We are thinking that the weather is just a tease and that it will be back in the high 40s and 50s for a little while longer. Summer will arrive and last precisely one week.
Wouldn't that be awesome? (she said with a sarcastic tone)
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