On foggy warm days it is easier to see the funnel webs of the American grass spider. The saucer sized webs dot our woods and meadows. The internet tells me their webs are not sticky. I tried spinning some garden spider web, but it stuck to my fingers. Maybe I will find an unoccupied bit of grass spider web and try that. But with much caution because the internet also tells me their bites hurt. In the meantime I will just admire their little spooky blankets.
I was a little afraid after the summer when it was too hot for laps, and after the holidays when life was hectic, that I wouldn’t have anymore lap chickens, but I do! Magic is my girl, and if I sit down she will hop up and make herself comfortable. Some of the other hens will hop up and look for treats, but Magic settles in for a snooze. Ah.
Happy Anniversary to me! One year ago today I published my first blog post! This is my 367th post. (I had a couple days where I doubled, oops.)
I really enjoy blogging, and I’m pleased that I’ve kept to my subject. (Or rather, I’m glad I picked a subject broad enough to cover enough material!) It has helped that WordPress lets me schedule posts, so on days where I have five ideas it makes up for the several days that I have none. And in case you were wondering, I post in the wee hours of the morning Central Time because scheduling is my friend and internet traffic bogging everything down during prime times is not.
Thank you to those that have been with me the whole year, and welcome to those who started reading part way through. Thank you to those who have contacted me, I appreciate your thoughts!
Here is to another year! Prost!
I found a shell-less egg under the roosts. It was quite disturbing: soft yet crackly. A little like the eggs where the shell has been dissolved in vinegar, but not rubbery. It was partially broken open in the shavings, but thank goodness it didn’t look like the hens had sampled it, just that it fell from the roost with no shell. There was an intact egg near it, so I think something was particularly stressful that day. I scooped it up with the manure rake and disposed of it. The internet and my books tell me that the occasional shell-less egg is not a concern. Ok.
Well that was a gully washer. A right spring storm (and yes, it is January). Almost three inches in about two hours. And all those fallen fall leaves ganged up with the twigs and dammed my drainage, flooding the chicken runs. My poor wet chickens were blocked out of their coop. I opened the people door and they all ran back inside. The coop stayed dry (except for beneath the window I left open, sigh).
It took about 30 minutes with a hoe and a rake to clear the ditches and let the water drain. My Fitbit says I burned 1,000 calories. Not bad for 30 minutes.
I cleared the drainage just in time, since the water was almost to the bottom of the feeder and rising. I found a nice sturdy rock to put outside the pop door so the chickens have a landing spot, even if it floods again, and I pushed all the detritus against the run thresholds and packed it down to help redirect water. When it dries out I’ll have to haul in some more dirt to replace what washed away.
The outside camera caught most of the action. I combined pictures from 5am dry, 7:48am wet, 8:05am completely flooded, and 8:39 when I had at least found land even if it was muddy. I took pity on them and strung up a feeder inside.
Critters and Craft 