So – we start off the Wednesday update with some sad news. You may have already heard, if you follow our Facebook Page, that Big Buff succumbed to his injuries early on Tuesday. He took over quite well after Dodo passed and took care of the flock like a champ. Even the last few days, he wanted to be in the doorway and keep an eye on his girls. It’s always sad to lose a little life, but I’m actually glad he passed on his own and we didn’t need to make the decision to euthanize him. It’s hard enough taking care of those intended for meat, taking care of one you  had expected to be around for a while as part of the flock is just really too much. 

Monday Night we had a successful move (you can read about this in the previous post), but prior to that Sue had been working all morning on the circle garden. In this late evening photo, you can see the walkways set down on top of the cinder block and chicken wire tunnels for the compost and worm beds. The tarps are down because we don’t want the straw and very fine compost to simply float away in the evening winds that tend to come up still. Sunday we purchased six bags of mushroom compost top soil, hoping that would be enough to cover, but Sue spread it out Monday and it only took care of the front left quadrant. It is the largest; however, we will mostly likely need 4 to 5 of those for each quadrant. We are also thinking of adding the straw from the brooder side of the chickens, after the rangers are gone. This will add great composting material to the garden. Then we’ll top that with horse manure and then add the mushroom compost on top of that. When Sue watered down the mushroom compost stuff after she was done, she said that it really helps to hold the moisture in. This will be a GREAT garden! I still think we need to find the perfect standing stone for the middle. 🙂

Chicken update. They are getting along rather well after their move on Monday night. There are now 37 birds on one side of the coop. I was worried about how the little Specks would fare, but they are holding their own; just got chased around my Maeve a little – she finally had someone her size to pick on! They are now my favorites – after Maeve of course. So pretty and petite. They still come running to us when we go in to do any feeding or watering. The ducks and Roman spend a great deal of time outside in the pools, more so than usual. I think because its so hot and they’re still not too sure of their new coop arrangement. Last night, almost everyone on the Biggie side was in to bed by 7:30 p.m.  We just had to chase that one stubborn Delaware in… I swear it tried to walk on water as it jumped over the ducks little pool. They all have their own little personalities and quirks.  We also have twelve new chickens, given to us by our friend

from Church, Lily. They are currently in quarantine for a few weeks, just to make sure that they are healthy enough to join our standing flock. We’re keeping them in the chicken tractor for two days and nights, then they will be able to range around in their separate run. They are rather a mixed bag – Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, Speckled Something or others, a black chicken – breed unknown (now at least Imen will have a bird of the feather), and one Cornish Cross rooster that will be processed with our Gray Rangers on Saturday. He is HUGE, and a little past his prime, so I think that he’s destined for the stew pot. That whole processing thing is going to be another adventure… even though we’ve done it before, we’re upping the numbers this time. We might be getting some help from Dustin and that would be really good. Lily was going to try to help, but she has a prior commitment on Saturday. We’ll see how it goes~ I’m sure you’ll be able to read about it on Monday. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

---

Today’s Weather: All week has been hot and muggy. Low 90°’s recently, but seems hotter because of the humidity. Last night we watched the lightening over the mountains just south east of us in Mexico. Looked like quite a bit of rain was falling there too- none for us, then, though! Tonight may be a different story.  Huge dark clouds above us and the temperature has dropped considerably. Winds picked up too, so we might gets some precipitation if it doesn’t blow beyond us first.

Egg Report: Yesterday we were back up to 9. Maybe because of the perceived competition? Today we had 8. Can’t imagine what it will be like once EVERYONE starts laying! We’ll get there one day soon.