Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[TTs Chicks]

What an awesome gift! This is really weird cause last night while I was half awake/half asleep I was dreaming of this very thing for my family. I can't get my Grandma's stories or my Daddy's but it would be cool to get stories from others while I still can.

 

[savingdogs]

Even though I knew the story, it gave me much better perspective on my family. I'm also glad I didn't read it when I was in my 20s, it would not have had the same impact. Those people were still around at that point for the most part and I did not "miss" them until I got to be more their age, or even think about their mortality.

No matter how you slice it, getting old sucks. I guess it beats the alternative.

I had a very bad dream last night. I was dreaming first a coyote got my goats. For some weird reason (you know how dreams are) that meant I had to give up my fosters. Then suddenly I had a different group of dogs here (some are dead!) and I was giving them up, people were taking them away. But it wasn't like real adoptions where I'm happy as well as sad, this was just sad. I started crying in my sleep until Hubby woke me up as I was trying to hug Lillianne (one of the dead ones). Moxie was leaving (not with her current owner) and I couldn't hug them both goodbye at the same time. When I woke up Hubby had to reassure me Moxie is okay.

Maybe this stems from my financial worries and fears we will lose the house? I'm not 100 percent that dreams really mean anything.

I don't know if that stressed me out, but now I have "vertigo light" and couldn't get Molly to go out to graze with the other two after milking. So she is standing inside the enclosure now, looking longingly at Ginger eating. I should probably go back out and try again but I really don't feel like it.

I'm so glad I don't usually remember my dreams. And I wish I felt as good as I did last week. It is icky being ill after feeling normal a week, I forget sometimes what it is like to feel normal.

 

[savingdogs]

Not much doin' here. I've had my vertigo back, and can't hear again, and haven't been able to get much accomplished. We did get the older batch of chicks (now fully feathered out) moved into the big chicken pen, leaving just the four babies I hatched. I think that two of the ones I hatched are males, darn it.

One of the ducks is having an identity crisis, she wants to live with the chickens. She insists on laying her egg in the chicken coop. I had been letting them all free range and of course we had noticed that there was a duck egg in the chicken nests, but she has totally decided that is HER place to lay eggs and if she can't get to it, she paces back and forth, back and forth, in front of the fence closest to the nest. Today since we moved the chicks in there I didn't let them all free-range (chicks could escape from the free range fence) and so we had to carry the dang duck over to the coop, and then she took about four hours to lay her egg. I think she was enjoying it in there.

Hubby is constructing me some more rabbit cages today, I need another one for Daughter to have her own place since Sister should kindle again soon. And I'll have an extra cage as well for letting the young ones grow once they leave mom. After that I don't think I should need more cages or more rabbits, I think three does and two bucks should be good. I'm really hoping that Sister has a big litter this time and that Nana actually has some, but I'm starting to give up on Nana since this is her fourth breeding. I may try to sell Nana as a pet and keep one more female from Sister if she doesn't produce something by fall. It is too bad because Nana was the "show" bunny.

Well that is about it for now, not much going on besides that.

 

[abifae]

lol!! what do the chickens think of their new friend??

 

[framing fowl]

Hey SD! Just doing some catching up from the week. Sorry you're not feeling good.

What a wonderful treasure your Grandma's memory book is.

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks, FF.

Abi, I think she likes the nest in there because the other duck is broody. She is nasty to me when I go into the duck coop so she is probably nasty to her sister as well, and I suspect she gets less "flack" at the chicken coop.
My ducks grew up with these chickens, we used to have one big pen at first, so my poultry blends well. We separated the flocks because the ducks don't mind being wet and get the chicken coop too wet in the winter.

That duck was funny tonight, she and her "man" duck were making ducky eyes at one another through the fence (we were at the store). She was pacing back and forth against the fence-line again, this time trying to get back to the ducks. I said to leave her because in a few hours she will want back, but Hubby took pity on her and took her back to duck land. But the drake was waiting for her at the door and immediately climbed on top to ....you-know-what! Usually he woos her for a long time but this time he just climbed right on! Very ungentlemanly! But she had been pacing back and forth to get back in there, so perhaps she was happy about the end result as well, who knows?

We didn't get to scrounge the supplies we wanted to make rabbit cages after all. I will have to re-purpose a dog crate for now for Daughter I guess. I'm sure Sister won't want Daughter in the cage with her anymore when she has more babies. Right now they seem to love each other and I dread taking Daughter out. Sister still acts like Daughter is her little baby, grooms her, even though Daughter is almost her same size. Since my rabbits live in cages alone and have big cages, it is kinda nice for them to have a friend.

 

[BarredBuff]

Did my duck idea work??

 

[abifae]

How rude! No foreplay! But I guess they got impatient making eyes at each other? *

 

[savingdogs]

Yes, BB, immediately. She started getting broody as soon as there were four eggs in there. I managed to get 10 under her. It is funny, she is so territorial about the coop, neither of the other ducks go in there at all.

The duck I'm referencing in my story above is the sister.

Having a nice sunny day today, such a nice change. I turned a wire dog crate into a rabbit tractor today, I'll take a picture if this works well. So far Junior is just looking around, he never had the chance to just chew the grass! But I just took the pan out of one of those black wire dog crates and have it sitting directly on the grass.

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh I wrote a long old story and then my computer didn't take it....

Our lawnmower broke and Hubby has long fantasized about the goats cropping the front lawn for him, and I keep mentioning that isn't how it work.

Hubby spent the day making a "goat pen" out front out of pallets.....but didn't pay attention when I mentioned I thought Emilee (the baby goat) could get through the slats. He grumbles that she will stick around if her mom and aunt are in there.

I go off to paint the bathroom yellow.

After he works all day on it, he puts the goats in there and .....Molly escapes immediately too and she and Em run back to the old pen.

Guess I have a new strange contraption on my front lawn.