Fun in the Chicken House

Mary Sunshine and her newly hatched chick!

I knew this baby had hatched but thought it might be a day or two before it got active so didn't take the steps needed to secure the "nursery". What a surprise to walk into the shed to find Mary chasing around her baby and the baby not paying a whole lot of attention. They were circling around in the center of their little house and I feared the baby would accidently find it's way outside--I'm sure Mary had the same fear. She'd hop into a nesting box trying to coax her baby to her side but the baby had no clue where she was!

I quickly grabbed some gating material and coraled them both into a corner and then secured the bottom with panels high enough to prevent the baby from jumping through the holes in the gating system. Last was to put in food and water. It gave me some pleasure to see Momma visibly relax once she knew she and her baby were safe and they have been happily residing there ever since! Mary is a good little Mom and watches over her chick constantly calling to it and gently pecking it on the head.

It's good to say Mother and Babe are doing just fine, thank you!

Peace!

Carol

In Praise of Poop!

Anyone who reads this blog knows by now that we live in Texas where currently it's very, very dry! We haven't had any measurable rain in over a month! Hopefully, we'll get some in the

next day or so! My husband and I retired down here nearly five years ago with the thought that this little mini-farm would either kill us or make us stronger! We still haven't decided which of the two it's done!

However, One thing we do enjoy is recycling and composting. And it's way past time to start a garden so the composting is becoming significantly more important. These pictures didn't come out in order--how do I re-arrange them? Anyone have a clue? But at any rate thought you might get a charge out of one of our recycling processes!

Poop is really neat! As you can see from the pictures. The ponies and donkey make it and we get to "recycle" it to enrich the soil in the garden! When I went out to the pasture to collect poop, you can see I had a very interested audience! I don't know if THEY know they made this stuff--maybe they wanted to keep it for themselves? It is rather soft to walk on! Especially after it's layed on the ground for a few days! Do you think they wanted it back? I'm sure they recognized the smell--although I have to say that it really doesn't smell that bad!

Their poop is made up mostly of hay and grains we feed them--there's not much out in the pasture for them to eat and what they eat is mostly grass. So now we can scoop up as much as we want and re-use it to fertilize our garden--some people pay good money for this stuff! They actually buy it in bags! I'm sure I scooped up the better part of at least 3 bags per garden cart!

And this stuff is aged! 'Cause this is the first time I've done this since we've lived here and that's been over 4 yrs! So it's very special poop! No wonder they're so attached to it!

Chickens make poop too. But it's more widely scattered although perhaps better managed in that they seem to deposit it randomly throughout the garden. Wonder what the effect will be on the blackberries this year! One thing I've noticed with the chickens is that they also seem to be very effective weeders--don't think I'll have to weed those berries this year although I wish they'd get busy in the back--that could use some work!

I also noticed that when I was scooping up poop, there were some good plants growing up underneath it and my scooping released them! I need to do this more often! It's very therapeutic! Besides it's fun wondering what the animals are thinking! "Aren't these humans funny! We go to the bathroom and they collect it like it's gold!" Little do they know we're using them as living recycling machines! Gotta love it!

Peace!

Carol