Growing Mandelas

Mandelas is growing up and the ugly is keeping pace proportionately. I call this her dishevelled stage. Her feathers are sticking up all over the place and not two seem to be the same length. It looks like she had a major fight with a hair dryer and lost big time. I only realize how ugly she is when I look at pictures of her. In real life, her personality shines so bright it just burns the ugly away. She's a bright, inquisitive, cheery little thing. Never nasty and loves to be petted and held. She's about two months old now.

I'm calling her Mandalas now because from all accounts it looks like she is a female. When she goes out to the coop, I will have two pairs of Guineas, a pair of light uglies and a pair of dark uglies. If it was Spring, I probably could put her out now but I think it's just too cold for her now.

She really enjoys being out of her cage and trying her wings out. I let her out when I am doing the rabbit chores. I still have my bucks downstairs. She's constantly underfoot, watching everything I do, and giving her opinion. Good thing I don't understand Guinea because I don't think she's always complementary in her comments. She very curious about the rabbits but they don't seem to be really impressed with her. Probably because she's always trying to peek inside their ears. I think it's either envy or she's sure there is some hidden treasure in them.

Wandering Around the Tub

There's an old comedy routine Bill Cosby used to do about the joys of raising kids. He talks about bath time, and there's a line in there that has stuck with me. He explains when you tell your child to take a bath, you need to give detailed instructions and one of the things he says is something like "You have to tell them to run water in the bathtub or else they'll just wander around the tub wondering what to do." I always found that an extremely funny line simply because of the mental picture I got. "Wandering around the tub." has become a catch phrase Don and I use to describe a state of confusion. I spent the week between Christmas and New Years basically wandering around the tub.

I expected a lot of challenges when we started this whole becoming more self-sufficient lifestyle. I knew there would be times when things wouldn't go well and hard lessons would be learned. I knew there would be a lot of things to master, how to make do with no electricity for days through storms, figuring out wood furnaces, maintaining septic systems and water wells. What I really didn't count on was the simple confusion the accompanies the lifestyle. The DaM farm sometimes seems like nothing more than an acre sized bathtub I wander around in.

The picture of the two eggs is one of things that confused me. The one on the left is a typical egg I find every day in the nest boxes. The right one I have no idea what it is or why it is. It's the size of a marble and I found it under the roosts. Is it a Guinea egg? Could be, but the descriptions I've read doesn't seem to match this perfectly round egg and the colour seems to be much darker than what a Guinea egg should be, according to the books. May-be it happened because a chicken sneezed or hiccuped at the wrong time. Who knows? The books don't say anything about it and when I asked "chicken" people, all I got was "Never heard of that before." I get that response a lot, I'm kind of tired of it, actually. Google is useless because I'm obviously not using the proper key words. Though I must say, I've gotten some pretty interesting results. Unfortunately they have nothing to do with my situation. So I'm confused and I yet again wander around the tub.

I have a broody hen. In fact, I have two. Why on this Green and Good Earth hens would go broody in the dead of winter is beyond me. With a little research, I did find out it sometimes happens but the why seems to be a mystery. Anyhow she was broody and she had one egg so I stuck a couple more under her just to see what would happen. I figured brooding 3 little chicks was something I could manage. After a week or so, I moved the hen to a nice, secluded enclosed spot, I noticed she has another egg. OK, well, I guess that she laid one more the day I put the two under her. A week after that, when the hen hops out to eat I look into the nest. Low and behold there's TEN eggs under her. How did that happen and I thought hens stopped laying when they went broody and are they even fertilized considering she's been in solitary confinement for a week and does this mean they'll be hatching at all sorts of different time and why is a hen broody in the middle of winter? I'm confused and I meander around the tub once more. At least this time I have an inkling that I should be looking for faucets. I have found out that it's entirely possible that other hens will sneak an egg in and I did find other hens on her nest a few times. I finally figured out how they were getting in and put a stop to that.

Inter spacing all the chicken doings were weird rabbit activities. Ceilidh, an excellent mom who pops out litters with no fanfare and cares for babies beautifully has decided to totally forget how to have bunnies. She ignores the nest box and persistently builds a nest in the coldest corner of the colony. Finally, I move the nest box over there and she gets a clue. She's due on Dec. 31. In the afternoon of Dec. 29, I find a little kit in front of the nest box all by its lonely. She hasn't pulled any fur at all. I take the kit inside because I know it will freeze. I figure she'll be have the others shortly so all I have to do is wait...and wait...and w-a-i-t. Gives me time to wander around the tub again. The next afternoon, she drops another lone kit in the middle of the colony. I look at Ceilidh, confused, wondering how she got in the tub with me. She's not supposed to be doing this, I know this because I've read the books. Unfortunately rabbits can't read so there's no way she and I will ever be on the same page. I take that kit in to join the day old kit who's obviously really hungry by now. The next day, Ceilidh kindles five more in a beautifully fur lined nest in the nest box. I've been feeding the other two by hand. That night I put them in with the others. Why did she have such an odd kindle? Was it because of the colony setting, something she'd never kindled in before that confused her? Can rabbits get Alzheimer's? What are the odds of teaching her to read? Can't be much greater than a rabbit dropping a kit daily for a couple of days. I wander around the tub yet again, this time not even knowing there's supposed to be faucets.

The kits are doing fine and the two broody hens seem fine and all is well. I've climbed out of the tub for the time being, and I didn't even need a towel to dry off since I never got wet.

A New Visitor

The latest storm blew in and brought a new friend along with the new year. I believe this little bird is a mourning dove. The picture is taken from inside the house. She is sitting on the cable that runs to the chicken coop. She's actually on our deck where it's somewhat protected from the wind and cold. And windy and cold it is. The blizzard brought winds over 100 klicks an hour and the wind chill was in the -20s somewhere. I'm not sure of the exact number; anything under -15 just becomes 'freaking cold' and numbers no longer matter, -23 or -35, it's all just freaking cold to me.

This delightful guest is charming us all. She sits on the wire waiting for all the other birds to finish eating at the bird feeders then she flies over and daintily moves around the trampled snow, royality showing in her every step. She delicately picks over the leftovers pretending it is the human equivalent to caviar on toast points. After she has her fill, she sometimes flies away or, more likely, comes back to the deck. She'll land between our dining room doors and the styrofoam insulation I left on the deck from building the coop. The little six inch space between the doors and the styrofoam is a very cozy, sheltered nook made just for a 'lonesome dove'. Finding a place for the styrofoam and storing it was one of those things that belong to the "Almost Season". Sometimes not being the most efficient and energetic person has it's rewards. Everytime I pass through the dining room, I take a peek at her, she looks back curiously but doesn't seem fearful.

I always thought perhaps procrastination has an upside, I just didn't think it would be soft-eyed and fluttery.