Hanging out with the newest flock…
They’re getting so big! It’s almost hard to believe they’re only a couple months old. I’ve been taken care of them for the two weeks Mum’s been on vacation, and they’ve been getting more and more use to me spending time with them and touching them. Quite a few will be calm now when I pick them up and pet them, which is quite fun.
This one was perched on my knee while I knelt down to take pictures.
Filed under Project 365
#217: Pineapple.
Normally, when I see pineapples growing, they are more straight-up-and-down than this. I’m pretty sure this one fell over at some point, and still kept growing. The sideways pineapple amused me, so I figured I’d share it with you all.
#218: Dust Bath.
Chickens like to create little dust baths like this one; they help keep them clean and smother dust mites. If you ever get the chance to watch a chicken taking a dust bath, it’s really fun. They kick and scratch the dust all over themselves while laying on their side in the dirt, and fluffy their feathers so they get a thorough coating everywhere.
#219: Juicing Cane.
Dad has been selling fresh pressed cane juice to the same local restaurant that’s buying our eggs. This means 1) we’ve been getting a regular supply of cane juice for ourselves as well, 2) Dad’s been streamlining the juicing process, and 3) Dad has been researching cane juicers — which means, of course, that now he’s always talking about the unaffordable best one on the market that would be able to juice all the cane on our farm in a couple hours.
Filed under Project 365
Here’s the link to the post about buying the book on the official blog for Hubbell’s Hog Heaven. You can order directly in the sidebar; and as a bonus, you’ll get the book signed by the author, Elizabeth Cannon!
Just click here or on the title of this post to get there.
Mum and Dad decided to start getting their animal feed shipped over from the mainland from a family-owned, sustainable company called Scratch and Peck, located in the Pacific Northwest. Their products are certified organic and Non-GMO Project verified.
We’ll be getting all our chicken and pig food for our animals from them now, and reselling to other local farmers and friends. It’s a great solution until the food crops can sustain the animals instead of just supplement. We figured since we go to such care to make sure we’re eating health natural food, that it’s only good and fair that we do the same for our animals — especially since they are part of our own food source, too.
The first shipment came in (pictured above in close-up), and the chickens LOVED their first taste of the new food:
Filed under Project 365
Sorry I haven’t posted anything in almost a week — my days seem to fill up so quickly I didn’t find the time…
By the way, the most recent Big News is that I passed my massage therapist licensing test; as soon as I send in the form and the fee, I’ll be official!
Now, on the photos:
#151: Greens For the Chickens.
This is actually an accidental shot as I was setting up the camera, but it turned out to be my favorite!
We try to cut “greens” — weeds, grasses, etc — for the chickens every day, a bucket for each of the three flocks. This month it’s become my job.
Since we have a farm with both plants and animals, the plants need protecting from the livestock. Because the ground is solid lava rock (with maybe an inch of soil on top, if that), it’s hard to build fences. So, our chickens can’t be free-ranged.
Instead, they live in large open-wired roofed pens that my Dad designed (search for “Hubbell Bubble” to see articles written about it!). There is also an added benefit of protecting our hens from rat, cat, and mongoose attacks — the pests of our neighborhood.
The chickens still get to scratch at bare ground, but they don’t get the fresh greens which are so important for their health and for the lovely dark yokes of good eggs. Hence our daily collection, which often doubles as weeding the plants of the farm. I love it when everything is multipurpose!
#152: My Pagan Alter.
At the top is my alter space; in the middle are a couple of my spiritual paintings and the wing I preserved (and also my pajama pants — the wire shelves are my dresser, too); and at the bottom is the new box, on top of which is a great bumper sticker given to me by a dear friend.
I may have mentioned how I change around my alter once in a while… This time, it was because I acquired the lovely box at the bottom of the picture, and I knew right away I wanted to use to for my extra pagan stuff; storing whatever isn’t being used for the alter, and my things from the OBOD, and so forth.
#153: Exploring Volcano.
Mum and Dad exploring a trail in Hawaii Volcano National Park.
A lot of times when it’s raining at home, it’ll be nice weather somewhere else. This time, the nice weather was making an appearance up at the park, so we decided to go take a hike!
#154: Farming.
A while ago, Dad bought a small tractor. It has been invaluable in helping to keep up with the mowing on the land around our crops. And as an added bonus, Dad loves to ride around on it!
Filed under Project 365
Mum has 70+ hens now, separated into three flocks of various sizes. We get so many eggs every day (between four and five dozen, on average) that we’ve taken collecting them twice a day so there aren’t quite as many to deal with at once.
This particular flock has the smallest nest-box. Usually if there’s any hens when I open it it’s just one, maybe two. So when I checked this day and saw FOUR, all crowded half on top of each other, I had to take a picture!
Filed under Project 365
(PSA: This was supposed to have been published on the 2nd, but apparently didn’t, and I failed to notice. It is now being retroactively published in the order it was supposed to have appeared.)
Allow me to introduce you to the youngest flock! Since they started laying, Dad built them their new nest-box today. Watching them getting use to it and exploring this interesting new structure in their world is endlessly entertaining. Seriously, I think I spent about 15-20 minutes just crouched in their pen taking pictures and laughing.
So far, none of them have yet realized they can enter the box by hopping over the lip and brushing past the black screen-cloth. They probably will eventually, but for now they see it as 1) a new roost, 2) something to peck at, and 3) a novel new way of getting enough height to flap madly through the air and land halfway across the pen. They also try to perch on the diagonal sticks and slowly slide — again madly flapping — towards the ground. They are hilarious, truly an embodiment of the phrase “birdbrain”.
Even though I did a bonus picture just last post, I have to include this one…
Now try to tell me that chickens don’t secretly remember being velociraptors…
Filed under Project 365
