Someone, who regularly reads the blog, suggested that I not fret so much about how the postings read, but just to simply state what’s been going on day to day. Most of the time I believe that’s what I do, but if I didn’t work at it a bit more than that, I think you’d be getting almost the same post every single day. Generally, I’m not home during the “working” part of the day; I get home when it’s time to do the afternoon chores. So, I don’t always have a great take on what went on during the day. This weekend and today, we did some interesting things and I think I’ll be able to share that pretty well with you. 

We are trying to make the majority of our chickens mobile. We have various chicken tractors, the chick-shaw, and now the RCW to attest to that fact. What we’ve found is that, in order to be mobile, they need to be light-weight, in order for them to be stable here- with the winds- they need to be heavy duty. That makes mobile a bit more difficulty. Thus the experiment with the RCW. We want them to be mobile so that we can take them to different areas of the property and let them pasture. Don’t worry – we don’t let them drive, like the crazy person who took this video… but we do let them ride along :).  This Saturday morning, early, we moved the RCW a bit down the pasture to give the chickens a new patch to scratch. I think, for our first time, it went pretty well. Took us about an hour and a half. We needed to take down the electric fence first and determine where we were going to set up again. Then we needed to gather all the outside chicken paraphernalia and move it a safe distance away. We had to secure the trailer, raise the attached feeder so that it wouldn’t drag along the ground as we moved and then line up the truck to the tow ball.  Yes, I know that sounds funny, but the tongue attachment on the trailer was so rusted, that even after liberal doses of WD40 and other lubricants, they could barely get it attached to the ball, originally. Then they couldn’t get it off. So the ball just stayed with the trailer. We needed to align the truck just right to get everything hooked back up. We accomplished this so much more easily than I had first anticipated. We’ll only get better the more we do it! As you can see, the chickens continued to make comments and pass judgement all  throughout the process. They were incredulous, but quite happy once everything was moved and they were finally allowed out of the trailer. In no time, they were exploring their new patch, wallowing in the gopher mounds, and chasing around the morning bugs. They are quite happy little campers. Ha! I think I just came up with the words to put on the RCW along with the painted chickens… “Happy Little Campers”.  They just need camp chairs and accoutrements! Too funny.

More to the mobility of chickens…. The tractor for the meet birds is done! We moved it this afternoon to it’s first place outside the coop. We’re trying out a spot on the more north eastern part of the property. Underneath a large oak-tree, so – at least for the afternoon they will have a large shaded area. It’s somewhat secluded being on one side of the garden shed and under the oak. This is for the meat birds to finish up their growing time. It is closer to Prince Placer Dr., so they’ll need to get used to the traffic, but that shouldn’t take them too long. Sue is thinking of using the solar battery and setting up the smaller 50′ electric fence so they can get out of the tractor and mess around. There is some grass in that area, so they should do well there. Sue has already received notice that the next batch has shipped; we needed to set this up right away for the Red Rangers that are here already so that we have the brooder area free for the others that will be here soon, Wednesday, most likely.  We’ll share photos of everyone in their new space, as well as the new chicks, as soon as all is arranged.  Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

P. S.: Here is the promised video of Octave taking a bath. Enjoy!

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Today’s Weather: Hot and a bit muggy. It was 102° when I got home with fluffy clouds overhead. Nothing says anything about rain, but that would be nice. Looking at the weather app, it might be exactly the same tomorrow.

Egg Report: Saturday –  1 duck egg, 35 chicken eggs Sunday – 2 duck eggs, 33 chicken eggs Monday – 2 duck eggs, 25 chicken eggs.  Still slowing down on the really hot days.

Cool thing:  Our summer toad has made his appearance. Sue captured this image this morning during a watering session. Well, we call it a “he” not being very good toad biologists. Always shows up near the herb garden. Comes out once the monsoons have started.  At least he’s someplace we keep generally watered so he doesn’t dehydrate between rain storms.  He blends in well under the porch; looks like a rock with a well placed stripe in the middle. We should call him something. Names, anyone?