Chicken Update

Our chickens are mostly all doing fine.  Many of them are finishing up molting now, and egg production is way down.  It's getting very cold here, I don't know why chickens molt at this time of the year.  If I was a chicken I'd want to molt in the heat of summer.

Here's Freckles - she was the first adult hen that we bought who came with a batch of chicks.  She was a great mother to those babies, she taught us alot, and she never went broody since we have had her.  We would have let her raise more chicks if she wanted.  We thought she was old when we got her, but she's still doing fine.  She's the wildest of all our chickens, since we didn't raise her.  Freckles has a special place in my heart; she's the old wise woman in our flock.

Freckles, our original hen

Here's Bella, one of Freckles' chicks.  Bella goes broody all the time and has always raised our guinea keets for us.

Bella

 Muffin is the best rooster I've ever known.  He's a hard working man.  He feeds his hens, he protects them when needed, and generally does everything he can for the flock, taking care of himself last.  He doesn't like other roosters, but tolerates Leggy, his assistant.  The other (new) roosters are enemies.  In the springtime Muffin likes to push me around, but I've learned how to manage him and we both really love each other deep down inside (even in the springtime when it appears he wants to fight and kill me and I'm taking the broom to him).  I like to hold Muffin in the evening inside the coop to keep him tame.  He always tries to peck my eyes out; I've learned to keep a hand on his head when he's being held.

Muffin, the lead rooster

This summer we got 4 Cuckoo Maran and 4 Rhode Island Red chicks.  We didn't know the sexes of the chicks- we picked them out of a big box at the local farmer's market.  We ended up with 2 Cuckoo Maran roosters and 4 Rhode Island Red roosters!!!  The Cuckoo Maran  roosters have just started crowing. So far we haven't seen the Red roosters crow yet.  One of the 2 Cuckoo Maran hens has laid an egg this week - our first dark brown egg!  But it was broken open and made a mess in the nestbox.  This week we gave the 2 Cuckoo Maran roosters to a friend, and once we prove to ourselves that the 4 Reds are roosters, they too, will have to go...  

Cuckoo Maran rooster

Rhode Island Red rooster

Cuckoo Maran egg in upper left of basket broke in nestbox - first Cuckoo egg!!

I always take my favorite hen, Lucy, out to scratch for worms outside the chicken pen.  Lucy is so sweet and works so well with me when we look for worms, and she comes to me when called, she never runs.  If I don't watch her, Lucy tends to sneak out of the chicken pen when I leave the gate open.  She'll push the gate open if it's pulled closed but not locked.  But she doesn't run away, she just walks a couple feet and stops and scratches for worms.  She would be fine living separate from all the other chickens, she's very independent.

And that's all from the chickens today!

Have a nice day!

It's a Camel Cricket Leg!

So, did you guess what this was?

This is a camel cricket leg.

To me camel crickets look like a cross between a cricket and a spider.

Here's a website about camel crickets:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae

As the weather gets colder, we get camel crickets in the house.  Not a lot, but usually we have at least one camel cricket a day somewhere in the house.  

The horrible thing is that the cats love to eat them, but the cats always pull off the back legs and leave them laying on the floor.  I've watched the cats work at pulling off the cricket's hind legs with their teeth, while they hold the cricket body with their paws.  I guess the legs get stuck in the cat's throat.  All we find are the legs, and we know the cats ate the cricket body!  I certainly would prefer the cats didn't eat crickets at all, that's for sure.  And yes, the chickens love them, too!

I call these crickets "George".  As in, "I found a pair of George legs on the bathroom floor today."

The first time I saw a camel cricket, I had no idea what it was, and after I ran screaming out of the room, I named it George, and eventually captured George and took George outside.  I assumed George was some kind of freak of nature, a one-of-a kind creature that shouldn't be killed. 
And then more and more George's came to visit, and I realized George's are a normal pest around here.

George, stay away or you may lose your legs!

What is this?

Does anyone know exactly what this is?

What is it?

I know what it is...

If you do know what it is, I feel for you!

I'll publish the answer tomorrow...

Orange Chiffon Cake with an Orange Glaze

Today's special is a orange chiffon cake with an orange glaze.  

Chiffon cakes are lighter and more fluffy than traditional cakes. 

This one is my very first chiffon cake.  Come on over for a piece!

Bobby Cat

Meet Bobby.  

If you've been around Razzberry Corner much, you already know Bobby.

Bobby is a stray cat that showed up outside and never left the porch.  We, of course, feed all hungry souls, and Bobby became a part of life here.  Bobby is a working class cat.  He takes care of the outside.  He catches any birds that are brave enough to land on the ground.  He is friends with all other critters, including Jerry, the woodchucks, opossums, and raccoons.  he knows to let them be and they don't bother him.  Bobby really dislikes the guineas, but he puts up with them.  He doesn't like being locked in the chicken pen, but really doesn't mind the chickens from a distance.  Bobby assisted when a night monster, what we believe was a great horned owl, was killing the guineas and Randy spent many nights outside hunting.  Bobby was by his side all those nights, happy to assist with guard duty. 

The only thing is, Bobby doesn't understand why he lives outside and we have 2 other cats who live strictly inside.  It's getting cold outside.  Poor Bobby.

Here are Shadow and Jack.  Shadow was a stray who lived outside here at this house, and Jack was a stray from a former house.  Both cats melted my heart, moved inside, have been fixed and get all yearly shots and exams.  They now live the good life.

Yes - Shad looks just like Bob. She looks like she could be his mother or sister.  She doesn't have the same personality as him at all, though.

Bob, Shad and Jack are all friends through the glass.  We have been very careful to never let anyone smell noses, as we didn't know if Bobby had FELV (feline leukemia), a deadly and infectious cat disease.

And the good news is that this week we got Bob tested and he does NOT have FELV!  He got his FELV immunization and all his shots this week, and got de-flead and de-ticked.  Next we have to get the Bobster de-wormed, and then he will be ready to go!  We already let all the cats smell noses, and we've been carrying Bobby around the house in our arms, so he sees that there's life inside.  Right now he seems to prefer being outside, but that's just because he's scared inside still.  

This means that Bobby doesn't have to brave another cold winter outside by himself.

Yeah, Bobby! 

Update

Well, hello there my friends.  I haven't been posting lately.  I just have been busy, and when I have a few spare moments I consider all the work that must be done, and decide it's more important than sharing my world via the blog.  I have really missed my communications and support from my online friends.  It's awesome how blogging builds friendships between people with the same interests.

And so, I will probably keep my blog posts short and targeted, but I will try to continue the blog through the winter here at Razzberry Corner.  Winters are cold and rough times, but many holidays all fall in during wintertime.  I guess we need to find something to keep us happy when we are working extra hard to keep everyone warm, and so we have holidays!

So here's a quick update on the happenings here at our farm...

White Boy Guinea

White Girl Guinea over on the right

 The guineas are all doing fine.  I am so surprised that even the "slow" white female guinea is doing great.  She is my favorite now.  She had an issue after birth, when she was an infant, and her developing slowed down.  She did weird things, like walk backwards instead of forwards.  She didn't make good decisions and was brushed aside by the other guineas, often missing out on treats because she wasn't fast enough.  She got very sick at one point and couldn't stand on her own.  We considered putting her down many times.  She quickly was put on antibiotics and vitamins and miraculously she recovered, but she never recovered all the way back to normal.  When they got bigger, the other guineas made her an outcast.  She appears to be blind in one eye still.  But she's a fighter - she wandered alone, and eventually a pair of other shy females who were ousted by the guinea flock joined her and she became the leader of her own little flock of ladies where everyone was accepted.  I always make sure to feed the separate little flock treats, and most times now the 2 flocks join together and just separate during treat feeding times.  The white female guinea is the only pure white child from our white male guinea papa.  He was one of the last 2 guineas to survive from last year's flock.

The young guineas, who were born this year, started laying eggs this autumn before it got too cold.  If I searched I could find their eggs out in the bushes. Next year we will raise more guineas from our own eggs to maintain the flock.


Below is a picture of a typical dozen of our chicken eggs, plus the two little guinea eggs.  we only have light brown and green eggs right now, despite the fact that we got 4 Rhode Island Red and 4 Cuckoo Maran chicks this summer.  Both of these breeds lay dark brown eggs.  Those chicks have now all grown up into beautiful LARGE birds, much bigger than all our other bantam birds.  However, we think that all 4 Reds are roosters, and 2 of the Cuckoos are roosters!  We had a "great" system for picking the chicks from a mixed batch that was being sold at the local farmers market.  We read online how to tell the differences between the sexes of the chicks for these 2 breeds.  Evidently, we did it exactly wrong for the Reds.  Well, hey, we know how to pick Rhode Island Red roosters from a batch of chicks now!  The 2 female cuckoos haven't laid yet, although they are adults.  Possibly we're wrong and they are roosters, too, who knows?  I'll post some chicken pics next post, and will give you more chicken news.  There's always drama in the coop, you know.

Stay tuned, I do have some GOOD, no GREAT, news about Bobby the outside cat...  But you're going to have to wait for it!

Shadow

Autumn Photos

Autumn has hit us here at Razzberry Corner.  It sometimes feels more like winter!

Here are some photos and a video I took last weekend.

This is an old, tired tree at sunset.  To me it has such character.

Look for the historic brick column in the photo below.  It lines our drive.

 

Walking to the front fields, through the trees and bushes...

Fall colors are just starting to show.

You can hear the guineas welcoming you in the below video!

The video is a panoramic of the front fields.

Have a good evening!

Guinea Update

We have 12 guinea fowl.  2 are adult males, born last year.  10 were born this May from eggs we collected and hatched.  And so we enter into autumn with a dozen guinea fowl.  I hope they all survive to next spring.  Last year was a tough year, our guinea flock dwindled down to 2 males.  Luckily in the springtime we collected quite a few eggs from nests we found in the woods before all the females were killed.  Every year I guess we will hatch eggs to keep the flock going strong.

 

My guineas.  They are so sweet.  And funny.  And noisy.

They come to me to be hand fed, although they keep about 10 feet away at all times.  They chase each other all around the house.  They entertain everyone who sees them.  They eat bugs around the house.  This young flock doesn't wander too far around the property, they stay pretty close.  The previous flock used to wander far and wide.

Running Guineas!



Today I found 2 guinea eggs in the woods ~ these are the first eggs I've found from the hens hatched in May.  The guinea eggs are the 2 top ones in the below photo.  The others are chicken eggs.

Eggs ~ Chicken and Guinea

 The news eggs are so small, as they are starter eggs.  Guinea eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, anyway, but these are exceptionally small.  The right egg is dirty - I didn't wipe off the dirt from the nest.  The guinea eggs do have little brown spots on them, but that one has brown mud, too!

Guinea Eggs

Thank you, guinea girls!

Breakfast

Breakfast is an important time here at Razzberry Corner!

Jerry and Bobby, the outside cats, take breakfast seriously!

Jerry

Bobby

 "Leave us alone!" they say.

Both cats are getting their thick winter coats, as it's getting cold out.  Jerry has been here since we moved into this house.  We still are not able to get too close to Jerry.  We will never be able to pet him.  Bobby, however, is a lovebug and loves to be pet.  Bobby loves attention.  We wondered if Jerry would get more friendly after seeing Bobby receive attention (pets) from us and actually not being killed by us.  Jerry acts like if he gets too close to us we'd kill him!  Jerry just watches from a distance when we pet Bob. 

Both cats are well-fed, at least! 

Good morning from Razzberry Corner!

Cardinal Boy

The other day I happened to be hanging around the house, which is rare, and heard a loud "thud".  Prior to the thud I heard a lot of cardinal twitters outside my dining room windows . 

Let me say that we have many cardinals around here, and cardinals have multiple nests/families throughout the year.  That morning I noticed the adult cardinals feeding the grown babies suet from our suet feeder.  The grown babies always love to be fed, even though they are adults themselves, and they tweet like little babies.

After the "thud" I found this grown male baby cardinal laying on the windowsill.  Evidently he flew into the window.  Hard.  He was shaking, his eyes wouldn't focus, his toes were curled up into a fist.  I didn't think he was going to make it.

The little cardinal laid out on the window sill for quite a few hours.  I checked on him about every 30 minutes and could see him breathing.  I made sure my inside cats didn't notice him out there so they wouldn't torment him by staring at him through the window.  The outside cats weren't around, either.

When it started to get dark out, I figured the little guy had to be checked out.  He couldn't stay out there all night, the night animals would find him, and he'd be blind in the dark and couldn't attempt to fly to safety.  If he could even fly.

He was still breathing.  I tapped on the window, and to my surprise he was able to focus his eyes on me then!  He was coming around!  He still didn't fly away, but it appeared he was waking up, coming out of his stupor.  He looked all around, confused as to why he was laying on the windowsill.  After a few minutes he still laid there, and the sun was setting fast.  If he could fly, he had to attempt it immediately before it got too dark out.  Darkness comes upon us fast when the sun sets.

And so I started opening the window.  I was going to put him in a little cage or something where he could get some rehab until he was able to fly and go free.  By all means, I certainly didn't want to have a cardinal in the house, but I couldn't let the little guy just lay there and be eaten by an owl overnight.

The little cardinal wanted nothing to do with me!  As I opened the window, he immediately looked around, and with a loud baby cardinal twitter, he flew to the tree where the cardinals live!  He was better!  He didn't fly in a straight line, but he flew well enough to make it.  He left behind a huge poop on the windowsill. 

  

The little cardinal boy lived to see another day!  I bet he had a headache!