Spring on the farm-reader discretion advised.

So I still can't upload my videos, and there are some fun ones to share. Always some unusual or new behaviours that animals will break out when you are least expecting them.  And just like that Bryan Brett quote, you stand there and say "well will you look at that..."  Except two hens copulating was a little surprising, even for me.  Threw me for a loop, that one.  But I guess with the absence of Wedge there is a power struggle, and since chicken sex is a very dominant + submissive it's a likely strategy for assuring one's status, except luckily this was consensual, from what I could tell. Who knew. I certainly don't claim to understand everything we see here!

 

 

    Some random chicken humour, Larson style:

 

     Miss Lace-who's quite dog-like:

 

 

FLOATING GENES AND HISTAMINES--HEY THAT'S A NICE RHYME...

 



We've all been suffering a bit from seasonal allergies (Oakley, me and G).  Spring really is all about spreading seed, sex, combining genes, however you want to put it.  The other morning Glenn looked out the window and thought our pine tree was on fire.  A gust of wind came along and he said the tree looked like it was smoking from every branch, from all the pollen.  I thought he might have been exaggerating until I saw it happen later in the day.  The same thing happened while I was walking through thigh-high grass. Surprising since most of that grass has already gone to seed.

 

 

 

So weird...we live in the USA!! Still not used to that..the pollen is down quite a bit since last week when we saw the smoking tree.

 

 

BABY MAKERS AND WANNABES

Petunia and Millie keep going broody, and I have to kick them off their eggs despite their growling and pecking. Phoenix spends some lonely days by himself in the run while his ladies sit on eggs I'll never let them incubate fully. 

The ducks are constantly broody too.  I have to keep my eyes open for new laying sites, since they seem to shift them when the eggs disappear from one spot.  I found almost a dozen in the corner of Oakley's stall.



I had removed the shingles from this old speaker box turned nest box and was going to clean it out but the ducks found it first.  This nest box has been a huge hit with several groups of chickens, and now ducks, who will choose it over multiple other options. We brought it from Victoria lol!

 

 

Not to big, not too small, just right....

 

She tried and tried to find a way into the banties house when she wanted to lay...Made for some pretty poses for me and my camera anyway...

The other shocker to me was the day I saw Bossy drake's penis. Bizarre! I just had no idea that ducks had such a large 'propagation unit'.  Corkscrew like swine, about 10cm long and as thick as my thumb.  The reason I was shocked momentarily before my brain processed what I was actually seeing is that it looked like prolapsed intestine!(but white, not pink).

A similar story, and similar surprise, and a few possible explanations for the evolution of such an odd unit....If U of Alaska researchers were surprised, then I don't feel too bad, and I've seen some pretty weird things after working with animals for so long. I'm pleased I can still be surprised. : )

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1023_corkscrewduck.html 

Whenever Buff drake tries to get busy with one of the ladies Bossy will do his best to intervene, including biting and pulling at his primary feathers, hissing, whacking Buff in the back of the neck like giraffe wars.  It's mildly tragic but Buff does still get his fair share, and usually in the tub.  Water is quite the aphrodesiac for ducks apparently.

A must read for any evolutionary biologists, and behaviourists. See? It's just like I've described it in the past, along with the lack of wooing/courting behaviour:

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/06/how-chickens-lost-their-penises-ducks-kept-theirs/  

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 

The guineas make occasional trips across the road in what I think is a search for nest sites.  Luckily guinea hen Miss Demeanor likes their aviary in the garage and the dark little corner I've created to entice her, so mostly lays in there.  Chaos, our only buff coloured guinea is ostracized from the other three, and tends to be the kid out there yelling "I'm telling!!" when the other kids do something they're not supposed to...So if I hear him vocalizing I usually go an check things out.

 

Mr. Flan will be introduced to all of Wedge's former ladies soon.  Right now they visit him in protected contact, while he dances and displays and generally gets frustrated that he can't get to them.  Then he takes out his frustrations on his current beautiful flock of four.

 

Lorpie's ovary kicked in to high gear over the weekend--likely the reason she had been eating so much--she was getting ready to lay an egg. But since she's got a problem in there she laid a yolk with no shell, and then got very depressed.  So the injection to shut down her ovary lasted about two months, and hopefully this last procedure will give her a little more time.  She really has had a great few months.  

 

Lorpie tilling in some manure for us at the end of May.



 

 

She's a very hard-working chook...

 

Yesterday she was pretty quiet, and after hunting for spiders along the foundation of the house she came and found me when I was trying to rip up the sedges at the side of the house.  I had to hand rip out their thick roots, and along with them came some tasty worms, so my little black shadow was rewarded.

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

We have some nice looking tomatoes growing despite all the rain we've had recently.  The rhubarb is about six feet tall and has gone to seed as well. Our New Year's wassail to the apple trees has apparently chased away the demons of last year, and there are tiny  grape-sized apples growing on both trees!  The list goes on.

 

It really is incredible to see, in a place like this with such long winters....Nature has to really give it all she's got in a short amount of time to spread those genes...

And now for something non sex related, Starburst and Axle have both learned to balance on their hind legs in order to get to higher and higher ash tree branches.  They really do love browse. I have a brief video of Starburst, sort of shaky because I kept laughing...so hopefully I'll be able to upload it one of these days.

We're considering getting some wethered Shetland lambs to round out our flock since now we only have one brown ewe (the others were moorit for the first year and now will be varying shades of oatmeal and light grey).  Will have to wait until I'm back from my trip back to BC.

I wonder how much will have changed by the time I return....Everything changes so fast here!! Maybe that's part of why I like winter so much...rest, peace, calm.  Though I'll always be impressed with this almost manic act of nature called Spring.