Plantin' Peas

Because we've expanded the garden so much this year with the new raised beds and my new greenhouse "The Pod", there has been quite a bit of rearranging and adjusting. There are still paths that need gravel, a used bench I need to stain and move out there, a flower bed that will be built around the Pod. But even with the huge to-do list, the encouraging part is that there are so many things that have moved over to the done list. One of those items was moving my pea trellis from one side to the opposite. Luckily the husband volunteered to place it in the ground a few weeks back (I hate using the hand post-hole digger). Yesterday I put a bit more time into that area, putting landscaping fabric on the ground and mounding up dirt. I also collected rocks from all over our property to make a nice border for the area. The last touch for the day was putting the pea seeds into the ground. One of the things I love about growing peas is how low maintenance they are. For the past few years I've literally put the seeds in the ground and walked away...as long as the peas are in the path of rain or watering, they grow easily. Love it!

Little Critters Hanging Out

The spring weather we've been having - sun, rain, sun, rain - has brought a few critters around to visit. Inside one of the birdhouses I keep by the front door (which were made by the husband last summer)...
...this cute little tree frog decided to spend an afternoon.

One of the things I have noticed as a new comer to the Pacific Northwest was how few snails there are...even with all the rain we have. So I had to get a picture of this cute little guy.

The rain also brought this waddling pair to spend a couple of days floating around and munching on worms and bugs in a big puddle.

By the way, Happy Earth Day (one day late)!

No Tiptoeing This Year...

...but at least I got to see the tulip fields. The sight is pretty stunning.
Beyond the tulips just being beautiful, there's also something that is just amazing about such a large quantity of bright color, in such deep brilliance, with blue skies and puffy white clouds as a back drop.
Usually when I see stunning landscapes, the main color is green...

...but these tulip fields, with their gorgeous colors blow me away. It's almost too much for the eyes.

I'm not the only one who feels this way...the traffic around the tulip fields

at this time of year can be horrendous, especially on a sunny weekend day.

The new job that I've taken a couple of days a week is right on the tulip tourist route,

so during my commute, I had no choice but to stop and "smell the tulips" so to speak.

It was mildly annoying to have my commute time double, but really,

there are worse things in life than driving through tulip country!

This Week...

The husband and I went on our annual date to see the Oakland A's play the Seattle Mariners...it's become an annual tradition for us. We have lots of fun cheering against each other's teams, razzing your mate can be fun!We sometimes get tickets for a cafe in the stadium...you eat overlooking the game from right field and your ticket includes a voucher for food, it's pretty cool.

We noticed this time that the cafe has switched to compostable cups...the husband told me that the company, Cedar Grove, that makes the cups is the same company that makes and distributes the vegetable mix soil that we used to fill our raised beds. It was kind of a cool full circle moment for us.

By the way, my team lost...so I was glad that we didn't make a bet on the game outcome this year.

I hope you're having a great weekend, I'll be back soon!

Sweet Buffs

In the midst of talking about integrating my flocks, creating chicken distractions, and the *possible* discovery of a rooster amoung us, I haven't said how much I really like my new chickens.

It has been fun to watch them discover new foods like worms, greens and wild bird seed. It's cool to see them learn to use their wings to fly - even short distances. It was kind of funny watching them learn to walk down the chicken ramp, they are very cautious at first, but then they figure out that there are slats for their feet to grab onto and they start going up and down more quickly and confidently.

This group of chicks has mostly been a joy because they are so good natured. They are not at all skittish like my group last year was. This group of chicks loves to be petted. They are friendly and curious. The little girl in the picture above was determined to play with my camera strap while I was taking pictures...I hope that these chicks can keep living up to their Buff Orpington "reputation" of being one of the more friendly chicken breeds. They make it easy to like them.

Oh No! Not Again!

It started off as an observation that one was a bit bigger than the others...

Then it was noticing that the comb went a bit further up the head

than the combs on the others seemed to...

We didn't see them for a couple of weeks because we were traveling,

so my mother-in-law watch them for us...

When we got back, the first thing that I noticed

was how much more red that big comb had become...

Much more like a cock's comb than a hens comb...hmmm

There was also that red wattle coming in under the beak.

Shoot, I think it may just be that we've got ourselves another rooster...

I may not have mentioned it here, but it was just last month

that we decided that it was time for our original rooster, Berkeley, to go.

He had become increasingly aggressive and honestly,

any sympathy I'd felt for him was gone.

We promised each other that there would be no more roosters in our coop.

So why does this little bird have to be so sweet, so cute?

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am...

I think we have another rooster on our hands.
Dagnabbit!

Pecking Order and Chicken Distractions

I've been concerned about how my old hens were going to accept my new chicks as I began to integrate the two flocks over the last week...there has been a bit of pecking going on, it's hard to watch the big hens pick on and bully the new chicks. I realize that it will probably all be fine in the end, but to help smooth things out, I've been trying to provide a few distractions for the four older hens. Things that will take their focus off of their new "roommates". The husband has helped with the efforts, he had the idea of giving them a pile of sand to play in - a good idea - they've all been scratching and rolling around in it. But I've wanted to keep the big hens busy to give the little chicks a chance to adjust to being in the new area and learning how to get along with the hens. So I decided to try something out... I cut a cabbage into two halves and used a fondue skewer to string each half with twine.

Then I hung each half with a length of twin from the netting that covers the fenced in area where my chickens live.

Why would I do such a thing? What was my plan for these cabbage pinatas?

They were an idea I'd gleened from a blog written by some folks at Sunset Magazine...basically, they were a distraction, a new toy if you will, for my chickens. The idea is for them to peck at and eat the cabbage. It's a bit of a challenge since the cabbage is hanging, so it is supposed to give them something to work at and stay busy. When I first hung these cabbage halves, the chickens pretty much ignored them.

But after a little while, a little curiousity was shown. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang out in the coop area all day to find out if my idea was going to go over.

But I did check back a couple of times. A few hours after I'd hung the cabbages, the inside of both had been pecked at a bit.

By the end of the day, the damage was much more extensive. It was kind of cool to see that the idea worked. I also noticed that the big hens seemed to be more lax about the little chicks being there. I didn't see as much chasing and pecking as I had in the couple of days prior.

I think the cabbages helped, it's also helped to have all of the chickens sleeping in the same area. The first evening that the little chicks joined the big hens in their hen house, I had to actually go out and physically put each of the little chicks into the hen house and then close the door so they couldn't get out. The second night I went out at dusk to check on things and only 1 of the 10 little chicks hadn't made her way into the henhouse. She seemed upset and confused that she was all by herself as it was getting dark. I put her inside and again closed the door so no one could get out. It seems that being in the same place and getting used to the sounds and smells of each other is smoothing the process out.Another distraction I've been using is giving all of the chickens "treats" - piles of collard greens and wild bird seed in several locations in the coop. Having a few areas where there are treat piles keeps the competition for said treats from getting out of control. I don't really know if all of this really is the "right" stuff to do, but it seems to be working so far.

Though I have to admit that in this season of adjustment, I am going to have to expect that a few odd things may happen. Like this egg being laid under the ramp that goes up to the hen house instead of inside the nesting boxes. It's been a long time since one of my hens laid an egg in a weird spot, the last time it happened in fact, was when we were in the midst of having hawk and coyote problems. It seems like stress and change causes the chickens to do odd things. I can only hope that it is going to continue to all work out as the next few weeks pass.