We rarely end up with roosters, but this year, we got two. The Australorp that was showing it's rooster traits early, and now the Easter Egger that has started to crow in the mornings, afternoons, evenings... whenever it is so inclined to crow. Especially now that the pullets are a long ways away. He has calmed down, also, now that they are no longer nearby. He's a very handsome guy.
 Today's Photo of the Easter Egger Rooster |
 The May 1st Photo of the Easter Egger - Didn't Know that he was a he. |
The ducks at three weeks are settling into this outdoor life. The sunshine days are the best. But we still have the brooder warmer set up out in the corner of their pen (you can see it in one of the photos) that they will go to when they are feeling insecure. But, mostly, they are enjoying their environment. I have been trying to find a treat that they like. I tried scratch, but that was not a hit. I tried peas, and one liked the peas, but none of the others seemed to care for them. Today, I chopped up some baby green spinach. That was a hit. They all dug into that one. No bread. I have read bread is not good for them. I think I will try to buy some live mealworms from the pet store to see if they will eat those. We just need to find the right treats so we can start training them to respond to us by using treats. I can try some canned corn (no salt) to see if they will eat that. It hasn't been warm enough out to have them go for a swim. We would need to do the bathtub again with warm water and use a hair dryer afterwards to do the quick dry before taking them back outside.
The pullets and the three hens are adjusting to one another. Some of the pullets are roosting on the same bar as the hens, so that's a good sign. We have three feed stations and two water stations set up at the moment to cut down on their station wars. But, all in all, they are settling into the coop routine.
Not going to do as much gardening this year. I planted 21 hills of potatoes this year. I think we will be getting a lot more summer rains so I have a dome with plastic over it to help minimize the too wet factor for the potatoes. And so it goes. I found some interesting bulbs in the garden that I think are garlic starts left from the fried garlic of last year's heat period. I could be wrong, but I think they are garlic. I transplanted them into the garden space next to the garlic that I planted last fall. We shall see what comes of it.
I have the garden patch covered with a black tarp to kill weeds in the corn patch. That's pretty much all that's happening at the moment. No tomatoes or bell peppers this year.
