Gone So Long

For all of you that have been holding your breath waiting for my return, I am back! I have been so busy with life here in the Cuckle Burr Patch, that by the time I'm done with all I have to do, I am just done for and sit around like a zombie.

Now I am going to show you part one of what has been going on around here. This is in addition to all the critters I already had to take care of!

First I decided that I needed some more babies. So I got the incubator out and loaded it with lots of eggs.

After three weeks of checking temperature and humidity and rolling eggs like the mama hens.....The pipping began.




Struggling to break free.




The hatching happens fast, and after they dry, you can play and pet them. They can go two days without food and water, which is what happens when you order chicks thru the mail. After they are dry I like to get them started immediately with water spiked with electrolytes and a pinch of sugar. It's kind of like Gatorade for peeps and gives them a boost.

This is the result of playing mama chicken!

A few weeks later, they have developed their feathers and colors!

Also during this same time period, I got 15 pheasant chicks. I dont have pics of them when they were no bigger than a jacks ball, but if you look real close in the pic below, you will see some of them. They are very illusive. We have them in our high tunnel and before we could move them, we had to make the tunnel secure.

They seem to be quite content and have made little hidey holes all thru the grass and weeds.

Well that's it for part one. The next installment will be tomorrow, so stay tuned for part deux!

New Babies!

Here are the newest members of the Cuckle Burr Patch family. Aren't they just the purrtiest little dawlings you have ever seen? They are just beautiful, though I might be a little on the slanted side. What, you might ask and I know you will, is that blue stuff on four of the little ole heads? Well since you asked, that is Blue Paint, non toxic in case any PETA heads are out there, and that is how the company where these little beauties came from, mark the little boys so you know which ones are the roos. Get it? Blue for roos, pink for chicks. Ok I stretched it a bit, but the blue paint is real and if they will hold still for you, you will see that there are 4 blue roos and 4 non blue roos.

In this group of 4 blue roos there are 3 different varieties of roos. The non blue non roos are all the same and will belong to one of the blue roos of the same family. The other blue roos already have non roos waiting for them. Think "prearranged marriage"! AND guess what? When they all grow up to be roos and non roos, they will look nothing like they do now! They will morph into the most beautiful roos and chickies, and I promise to show you the morphing the entire way. And No, they won't live their entire lives in my laundry basket. They might stay in it a week, unless they learn they can jump out of it any time they feel like it. Besides, I will need to do laundry again this weekend!

Buckwheat--Buckwheat!!

Guineas are a type of wild fowl brought to us from Africa. There are various colors with pearl being the most common. Pearl is dark gray with white spots and some white edge feathers on the wings. They have what is called a helmet on the top of their head wattles that hand down from their cheeks. Google it if you want to see one. Some people think they are one of the ugliest birds on the planet. I think they are as beautiful as any of my special chickies.

Ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki! This is the warning call of guineas, the “watch dogs” of the fowl population. Another word the females make is “buckwheat-buckwheat-buckwheat”. Buckwheat means we are on patrole and all is well. The males can only make the ki-ki-ki sound while the females can say both buckwheat and ki-ki-ki.

Aren't you glad I am teaching you the language of guineas. If you have never had guineas and hear the racket that they make, you might just think that they are just a bunch of noisy buggers. But there is a method to their madness.

For instance, a few weeks back, when I was home on medical leave, I was walking outside talking and cooing with the chickens. When all of a sudden the guineas broke out with the ki-ki-ki-ki warning. Now up unto this point, it had really not meant anything because they will also break out with the warning when my DH comes out with a different hat on! But on this particular day, the warning was very intense and did not let up.

Curious about what they were concerned with, I went looking. My girls were in the field about 4 feet from the edge of the woods, staring into the brush, and shouting their warning with all their might. As I watched, the bush they were watching began to shake. What evil alien or would it be Jason, was about to jump out and claim another victim. This is the thought that ran through my head in those few seconds before the real monster jumped out. Coyotes!!! Oh no they were back! My girls didn’t flinch or run. They are sooo very brave, but I thought they were going to become the main course for a coyote brunch. It was mid day for heavens sake. Coyotes are suppose to only hunt at night. I started yelling and the coyotes retreated back into the dark of the woods but the girls continued the warning call for several minutes more.

They were gone for now. But would return a short time later with much more devastating results. That is another story to be told on another day.

Needless to say, whenever we hear the ki-ki-ki-ki-ki warning from our security team, we grab the gun and go looking. Their noise is not taken for granted anymore.