It's the time of year where production in the garden can come to a standstill. The hot days have left a lot of sunburnt plants in their wake. Everything is looking rather strained which is probably a reflection of myself of late. The heat puts strain on just about everything and it wasn't helped by the loss of one of the rabbit kittens at 11 days old.
... and then there were three...
Sadly we lost the brown one.
Death is unfortunately interlinked with life and the more life you have around you then it goes that the more death you will also have to deal with.
We also had a quail die this week, but they aren't long lived anyway and they can be either as tough as old boots or incredibly fragile. You can never quite tell when they're going to keel over, but then they can be absolutely fine after having been rolled around like a football in a storm!
I have some quail eggs in the incubator to add some young blood to the flock and two broody hens are sitting on chicken eggs. One's a proven mother, but the other is a first timer and she's a viciously protective broody. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing yet.
Buffy is back in the brood!
On the positive side I advertised our 5 four month old Easter Egger pullets and they were snapped up. Point of lay pullets (that's young female chickens, for those that might not know) have always been easy to sell anyway, but I've never found it this easy! So I guess it’s been worth the effort we've put into the training of our araucana rooster, Zeus.
A hard thing about growing chicks up for selling is they are so easy to get attached to, especially when they're as sweet natured as these guys have been.
Speaking of Zeus, I'm pleased to be able to say that he has improved so much lately. He's stopped trying to challenge and attack my youngest daughter, meaning that she can help me out outside again without him going off. It feels like were getting our cuddly boy back again. I'm hoping as he ages he'll mellow even more.
Bummer on the losses. Those never get easier. Glad to hear everyone else is hanging in there. Good news on Zeus settling down, too!
I might have spoken a bit too soon with Zeus, but then there are always ups and downs with these things, so I still think we're making progress. 🤞
Progress is good! Fingers crossed it continues...
Sorry if this is a bit off topic but I was wondering how do you use the homesteaders online banner at the bottom? :)
If you click on it, it should take you to the website. From there you can join the discord group or just browse the site. It's still being worked on, but progressing.
ok those kittens are just about the cutest things I've seen in a while...
They're little fuzz balls in the palm of your hand at the moment! I wish they could stay that way.
When you add new quail from the incubator, do you introduce them to the existing flock the way you would chickens? Are there problems with a pecking order and new additions?
There can be, but there isn't quite the same pecking order issues, just random birds that might take issue (they're not the most intelligent of birds are Japanese quail). Having a large enough area for them to escape one anther helps though.
oooooooooooooooooooooow i love it
Thank you.