Sunday, September 14, 2008

Hello Ike

The last two days have been miserable around here. We walked out the door and into a sauna. I won't say this too loudly but I much prefer cold weather to humid weather. Hot is fine as long as it isn't humid. Yesterday and Friday were just unbearable, you didn't have to do anything and you were soaking wet with sweat.

Hurricane Ike or what is left of him is suppose to arrive here today with heavy rain and a wind advisory, wind gusts up to 45 mph. That could make it dangerous here, we might get hit by flying chickens. Ike is suppose to bring cooler, less humid air this week and I am really looking forward to being able to milk without sweating.

We sat outside while we were finishing up feeding last night and looked around us and realized that we have a lot of chickens. They were everywhere we looked. I gave away one of my Banty hens with her seven chicks, so I think that I have 30 or 31 left.

My chickens are fairly strange, most everything else around here has the sense to stay out of the rain but not them. It was pouring rain on Friday and they just went about their daily routine like the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

We are so thankful for the rain, our pastures were drying up. Hopefully this rain will help out with the hay crop and they will get another cutting. There doesn't seem to be the demand for hay that there was last year though, the farmers are trying their best to keep the prices up but no one is buying because so many people dumped their livestock last year.

My chickens are working hard to provide us with eggs. I am getting at least seven eggs, that we can find, everyday. I found a nest of five eggs just lying out in the yard, that lets you know how badly our grass needs mowing. I am sure that some of our chickens are laying in other places that we don't know about. I just wish that I had some regular egg customers, that I could rely on. We do sell them but it is just here and there. No one that comes here to the house and picks them up on a regular basis.

My Polish rooster has finally found a name, everyone has been calling him Elvis and since I haven't come up with a better name, I guess that one will have to stick. I am very pleased with all of my roosters, none of them are aggressive and as long as they stay that way, they can stay. Rocky has us a little puzzled, we haven't quite figured him out yet. Elvis is popular with the young hens, doesn't that just figure? Bootstrap has always just partnered with one hen. The fox managed to get his first two wives and he actually grieved over them. He is exclusively keeping time with my last Mille Fleur D'Uccle hen now and that leaves poor Rudy, my D'Uccle rooster, all alone.

2 comments:

Juri said...

I somehow found your blog and I am glad I did...I just spent a bit of time with my cup of coffee and read some of your posts....what a great blog, and what an interesting life you lead!! Although I have nothing like your farming life, I do have some pet goats and some chickens, as well as my two yellow labs...so it was such fun reading about your adventures!

Juri

Anonymous said...

Elvis is a great name for a Polish rooster! Have you ever tried putting golf balls or plastic easter eggs into the nests to give the girls an idea of where the eggs should go? I tried the golf ball method and it worked. They haven't laid outside of the nests at all.

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