Isolation and eggs

On September 22, 2019September 28, 2019 By CarynIn chickens

What an eventful day. We have had our first eggs (!!!) and put the first chicken in isolation.

The move to isolation came first. I noticed a couple days ago that Navi had a larger crop than everyone else, like softball size and squishy. But she is eating and moving around, and I kept checking in the afternoon and evening. After consulting with my Mom and the chicken health book, we decided to check again in the morning to see if her crop empties. The isolation is to be able to observe her droppings and catch her before she hit the food bin in the morning. We decided not to make any further measures because her breath is not sour smelling as would be the case with sour crop.

Navi in isolation ward. She has a roost, but came off it when we left.

While setting up the isolation ward (I had been using it for storage), my eldest asked if I had checked the nest boxes for eggs. Honestly I had not in a couple days because I had resigned myself to no eggs until the chickens were 8 months old. So she checked. Not only were the nesting boxes behind the curtains visibly sat in, there were eggs in both bins! Holy cow! Three itty bitty eggs! (Yes, I weighed them! 38g, 38g, and 35g, which is about 1.3 ounces each. Extra small eggs.)

Nasturtiums

On September 21, 2019September 17, 2019 By CarynIn Garden

My nasturtiums have sprouted! We kept them well watered (which was easy because they are near the chicken runs where we are still sprouting wheat and rye grass on rotation, and those get watered three times a day). They haven’t starting vining yet, and there are definitely no blooms, but that they sprouted at all is quite exciting.

Teaser apology

On September 20, 2019 By CarynIn chickens, Coop

Here is the video of the chickens actually leaving the coop. At least I hope it is. I’ve trimmed and uploaded it five times, messed with it with four different apps, and finally went back to the original and only used the YouTube trim option. Interesting that a video trimmed in iMovie, then trimmed again in YouTube gives a completely different 40 second clip. Did I say interesting? I think I meant frustrating. So sorry for that little teaser in my previous post!

Potential cucumbers

On September 20, 2019September 20, 2019 By CarynIn Garden

It was rather exciting to see blossoms on my cucumber plant!

I planted cucumbers as an experiment with a second summer garden. Two of the three mounds have vines! Alas,the peas I also planted don’t seem to be fairing as well. I think something found them delicious because there is only one pea vine, all the other sprouts have disappeared. We’ll see if I actually get cucumbers before the first freeze (which doesn’t usually happen here until November). It will be a first, as this is as far as I’ve managed to get cucumbers.

As a bonus, here is a video from our camera in the coop of the chickens heading out into the runs after the automatic door opens in the morning.

Down the rabbit hole

On September 19, 2019September 17, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

I no longer wonder why spinners need display cases or large jars to hold all their spindles. Yes, I made another spindle today. I was supposed to do the filing. It isn’t hard to get distracted from that.

This spindle is an assembly of miscellaneous parts again, but it came together a little more smoothly. I had a leather edging tool and a dowel that fit perfectly in the center hole. I sharpened one end with a pencil sharpener, added a small brass screw eye, then opened it up with pliers to make the hook. To keep the whorl in place, I used a small rubber band. The whole thing can be taken back apart and repurposed if necessary too.

I wanted to try a top whorl drop spindle. I have no other excuse. Now my excuse for spinning immediately with it is that the cat sat on my lap and was sleeping, so I didn’t want to disturb her. (Good kitty!)