Birds and bees and ins and outs

It's nice to be able to report some good news!  Garage pigeon returned!  I drove to Wisconsin to the farm store and much to my amazement he was on his perch in the garage when I came back an hour before sunset.  He looked exhausted and cold, a little puffed up, and couldn't dance and vocalize for me, only nodded his head when I nodded mine.  I told him good boy, and I texted G right away with the good news.  

On Saturday I left early for my bee course at the university, and left the farm in G's hands with a few rushed instructions. The course was on bee keeping in northern climates, focusing on year one.  I will take the year two class next February, and hopefully will have surviving bees to welcome into next summer.  It's pretty complicated!  The bees need 75-100 pounds of honey going into November in order to survive the winter.  I don't quite know how I'm going to measure that. So this is why they say that Top Bar hives don't work in northern climates--the bees simply can't store enough honey in them.

It was an eye opening class, learning all about bee biology, management, pests and diseases.  We aren't supposed to expect a honey crop in the first year. We just have to try and keep them alive! Oh well. I think I've learned to work against the odds a few times over the years.

It was a long day away from the farm, and sitting in a chair for so many hours was agonizing!  

Late in the afternoon I got a text from G with some incredible news.....Pigeridoo has a girlfriend!!! He saw them flying together.  He called out for him, and a few minutes later turned around to see the handsome bird perched on the garage peak, watching him.  A flutter of wings and he hover-glided into the garage to his roost.  

This is good news.  He's a wild bird, after all.  But I still don't want him to leave....

Yesterday I saw her--she dropped him off at the garage an hour before dark.  She perched on the peak for little while, then left and flew north.  Hopefully I will be able to get a photo some day soon.

His new name is Rocket! He earned that name. But he knows our call of "Piger-eeeeeeeeee!!" when we are looking for him.

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One of our new hens was laying on the ground in the palace on Friday night when G locked up, and then he found her on the ground on Saturday as well.  Unfortunately I didn't know it had been two days in a row, so when I found her there on Sunday morning she was not in great shape.  She was stumbling, not eating or drinking, and just mentally dull.  This is what she'd been like only a few days prior:

She's the one with the red leg band, on the lovely day I tried to introduce them to the palace chooks.

A little spitfire!  We had our suspicions that she was going broody, but she wasn't exhibiting super strong signs, just a few weak ones, so we weren't quite sure.  I moved her inside to the brooder/chicken hospital. I spent part of Sunday in the basement with her, so that while I cleaned animal dishes and organized medical supplies I could watch her behaviour, and check her ins and outs. (a nice way of saying 'is there food going in and poop coming out) There really wasn't much of either.  She had seeds in her crop. They weren't moving anywhere. Later in the afternoon she managed one small bm, and it had undigested seeds in it.  She still was very unsteady on her feet, and would lay down and close her eyes. Not great signs.

My theory is that she is going broody, but she also has a gizzard problem, perhaps an impaction.  And on that note, I have to go and spend some time with her and check her status.  I gave her an egg to sit on.  It's a good way to test part of my theory. 

She's getting an omnivore slurry diet as well as free choice fine mash, an enzyme preparation to help digestion, a product called Booster,some ranitidine (zantac), a vitamin and mineral supplement in her water, and I massage her belly a few times a day and try to get her walking.  Last night after night check I spent some time with her while she ate and drank a bit, and her colour seemed slightly improved to me, and she actually pecked at the lettuce I had hanging on the door. I took that as a good sign.  

Updates soon.