Wow, did the weekend ever fly by! And before I knew it, Sunday evening was upon me and I realized there would be no blog post. This week might continue to be patchy in the posting department but a more settled schedule is on the horizon.
The Dashwoods are now six weeks old. Technically they can go out to their coop but the weather has not been cooperating. In spite of the very early spring – the lilacs are blooming already, two weeks ahead of time! – we had frost Saturday and Sunday. The Dashwoods have been living under a heat lamp their entire lives, keeping them at a constant temperature. We raise the lamp a little every week in order to acclimate them and they are currently at 70F/21C. To toss them outdoors into even a well-insulated coop would be a bit shocking. So they are hanging out in their brooder one more week.
Which works out great for Bookman and I because the wet, cold, windy weather last week did not allow us to finish getting all the tiny details done on the coop, not to mention finishing the wiring around the run. Bookman had to work Saturday but had Sunday off. We finished all the details on the coop like the ventilation and framing the windows so they don’t fall out. We put baseboard trim up inside the coop to hold down the flooring on the edges and cover over a few gaps from some not so straight saw cuts and crooked angles. Now the coop just needs to be painted. About half of the wire is up around the run and should not take too long to finish. Famous last words!
As for the Dashwoods themselves, just one of them is now about the size of all four of them squished together when they were a couple days old. It’s crazy how big they are. They know I am the bringer of treats so whenever I even open the door they immediately get excited. Their newest treat this week was worms.
Remember a few years ago I started worm composting in my kitchen? The red wiggler population has grown huge and the bin is a mass of worms. So I thinned the population a little on Sunday. Not much, only about a dozen worms were sacrificed to the chickens. I slopped a few worms onto an old plastic lid and did not bother cleaning off the compost, I figured chickens like to dig and scratch and all birds like worms so they could figure it out. I put the lid in the brooder, the Dashwoods expecting dandelions or lettuce, and they didn’t know what to do. They ignored the worms and pecked at the lid instead. Since they have never seen worms before I realized I was going to have to be Mama Hen and show them what to do.
Don’t worry, I did not eat worms. I took the lid out of the brooder, picked up a worm, cleaned the compost off it, and offered it to the chickens. They were not sure about the wiggling thing. They knew it must be food but they didn’t know how to eat it. As a consequence, at one point there were about four worms wiggling in the litter with the Dashwoods peeping and running around and working themselves up into a frenzy.
Finally Elinor figured out how to eat the worms. Once she did she was a greedy chicken and pretty much got all of them. She’d grab the worm from my fingers and slurp it down like a string of spaghetti before any of the others knew what was happening. It was hilarious. I did not feel bad the others didn’t get much because Elinor usually has a hard time getting her share of dandelions. I did feel a little bad about feeding the worms to the Dashwoods, but one of the main reasons I got chickens was to eat bugs in the garden and worms are much easier to start with than grasshoppers or beetles.
Here is Fresh Dashwood video. Their eye-beak coordination sucks and since they are big enough that when they miss the proffered leaf — and they miss a lot — their pecks hurt, especially when they all miss at the same time. So I thought I would tear up some dandelion and sorrel and put it on a little plate for them. For some reason I imagined they would be neat and orderly, all four of them bellied up and peacefully chomping away. As you will see, orderly is not in their frame of reference. The all black one is Margaret, the red/brown one is Elinor, the black one with white speckles is Mrs. Dashwood and the one with the white head is Marianne.
Since we had frost over the weekend I am very glad I have not had much chance to plant anything from the plant sale we went to. The frost touched a few of the shrubs and perennials we already have growing in the garden that are up earlier than usual, but for the most part, everything is fine. The new plants were protected with a blanket. Our average last frost date is May 15th so very likely we will be frost-free from now until October. That means, the week ahead will involve lots of planting. It’s about time really. I have been anxious to do it but the chicken coop has kept me busy. Turned out to be a good thing though.
Next weekend Bookman and I will build the beds on the green roof and add the soil and plant the plants while we also get the Dashwoods used to their new home.
Cycling
And of course I had to go on a ride to test out the tires. I rode out to the Minnetonka light rail trail which is a trail made of packed dirt and gravel. There were a variety of conditions on the trail I got to sample from mud puddles to ruts to loose gravel and a partial trail closure I had to carry Astrid through a ditch in order to bypass. And what a difference slightly bigger tires with a lower psi inflation make! I was enormously pleased. If only the weather could have been better. It was just above freezing when I left with winds gusting up to 20-25 mph/32-40 kph. And of course, no matter what direction I went, the wind was always against me.
But I had a great time. At one point I came upon about two dozen swallows dipping and diving over and around the path after bugs I could not see. Astrid and I glided through them and they surrounded us briefly as though we were flying with them. It was amazing!
I put 71 miles/114 km on the new tires and it felt really good. In spite of arriving home cold and a little wind burnt, it was a fun adventure and I felt like I still had a lot left in my legs. Bring on the race!
The Dashwoods are getting so big! I hope the weather improves soon for you.
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AMB, it is startling how big they have gotten and they still have a ways to go before they are full sized! The weather is improving already and should be in the 70s by the end of the week. Yay! 🙂
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I’ve heard it’s going to get into the 70s in my area soon too. It’s usually in the 70s by now. My poor garden is really struggling!
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Yay! My garden is having a hard time too. The peas I planted two weeks ago are just now beginning to sprout. I feel like I am behind with the garden but it has turned out that I am not really. I wish you 70s and sun very soon!
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My year-old cat liked the peeping again. They could defend themselves against a cat now, it looks like!
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Jeanne, sorry to disturb your cat! They aren’t quite big enough to defend themselves against a cat yet, but it won’t be long!
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Please note that I appreciate your ongoing identification of each of the Dashwoods. At some point I will be able to identify them independently of you but I have not yet reached that place. :p Them learning to eat worms sounds amazing, I wish I could have seen it. You’re such a good chicken mama!
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Jenny, glad to know the identification helps. I have been wondering whether I sound like a broken record! It’s really fascinating what they know and what they don’t, what they have to be taught. It will be interesting once they are outdoors to see how they go about learning things.
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Yes keep up with the identification. It will sink in eventually. It’s very helpful.
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The chicken video is hilarious 🐥!
I’m so impressed with your cycling adventure. 71 miles WOW!
My longest ride this year has been about 25 miles.
Looking forward to hearing about your race 🚴🏼 next weekend. You’re going to kill it.
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Helen, they are so much fun! I have a 100 mile race in early June which will be doubly challenging because of the distance and it is on gravel/dirt. But should be fun! 25 miles is a nice ride 🙂
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We visited my cousin and her twelve new chickens on Sunday. Jack took a video, but I haven’t figured out how to edit it yet. One of their chicks is much bigger than the others, one looks like a baby hawk! There are three breeds: Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, and Easter Egger. Whoever thinks that chicken don’t have personalities should spend a half hour watching them. There are the sweet ones, the aggressive ones, the ones eager to explore, the timid ones.
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Joan, What fun! I have one of each of those breeds 🙂 They do indeed each have their own personalities and it plays out differently among themselves and with me. They are all such lively and interesting little beings.
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They’ve grown so much! I’m enjoying following your chicken updates, and reading about them learning to eat worms was funny. I’ve thought of feeding baby red wigglers to my fish as a treat, but I’m nervous to do it- maybe I’ll give the fish some kind of disease. Even though people who raise worms just to feed fish do it the same way I do for getting compost, I still hesitate.
What are you planting on the roof? Is it to keep the chicken coop better insulated? Did you have the build the structure extra strong to support soil & plants? Sorry, you probably explained all this in a much earlier post but I missed it.
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Jeane, your fish will very likely enjoy the treat of your small wigglers and unless you put bad stuff in your bin, which I am sure you don’t, I wouldn’t think you would have to worry about disease or anything.
Yes, we decided to do a green rood to keep the coop better insulated and because we thought it would be generally nicer. The structure does have to be stronger to accommodate the weight of the soil. We built extra rafters for support. I’ve got some orange creeping thyme, pasque flowers, catmint, hens and chicks (couldn’t resist trying those!), and a few other things I can’t recall at the moment. In addition I am sprinkling in annuals of nasturtium and sweet alyssum. Once I get an idea of growing conditions I’ll pack in more perennials. It is a big experiment 🙂
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Cool. I can’t wait to see what it looks like all planted!
And maybe my fish will get those worm treats soon. Especially since they haven’t had any fresh goodies for a while- my kitchen doesn’t have fruit flies cropping up yet…
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Hopefully it all turns out looking nice and the pond liner we are using as the waterproof layer between dirt and wood roof works like it is supposed to! You are going to have some happy fish 🙂
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The weeks ARE flying by, and it is fun to mark them with the growth of the Dashwoods!
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jenclair, it’s crazy how fast the weeks have gone and I’ve had so much fun documenting the growth of the Dashwoods. I’ve raised parakeets before but they are a whole different ball of feathers!
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Your riding is truly impressive Stefanie. Good luck with the race – when it comes.
And I do love Elinor – sensible, she wasn’t going to look a gift worm in the mouth! But, really, they are all rather pretty aren’t they?
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Thanks whisperinggums! It is so much fun otherwise I wouldn’t do it 🙂 Elinor has turned out to be quite sensible 🙂 They are all very pretty and it is really interesting watching their colors and patterns change as they mature. I didn’t expect that!
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I was holding my breath about your mama chickening. I really did think for a moment you were going to go the whole worm, as they say.
When we first had hens, they all became poorly at the same time with one ailment or another and I read that maggots were good for them so bought a plastic bag of them and kept them in the fridge. As far as I remember they never escaped – although perhaps once? – but visitors were really repelled by this even though they were on a separate shelf.
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Helen, ha! I don’t think I have ever eaten a worm even when I was a kid so I am not about to start now! Maggots in the fridge? I’d do it too if I thought it was good for the chickens. But I can see how others might be squeamish 🙂
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Best of luck for the race; sounds like a lot of practise with the new tires already. I can’t believe how much your chickens have grown! Granted, I no nothing about chickens, but thought they’d be smaller. Glad to hear they’re getting to grips with things.
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Charlie, thanks! The chickens have gotten huge. I have never had any before but I knew they grew fast, just didn’t realize they’d grow as fast as they have!
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I’m glad you didn’t have to show them everything they needed to do with worms!! Loved the update and the video!
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ha smithereens, I’m really glad about that too! Glad you enjoyed the video 🙂
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Poor worms, but ah, what can you do? That’s nature and the food chain for you. It is funny how they need a little extra direction to know what to do with things like worms–you would think some of it is instinctual, but maybe not–I certainly have zero knowledge on chicken development! 🙂 At least they were sacrificed for the better good!
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Danielle, since the worm population does need to be thinned a bit and since this variety of worm will not survive winters here it seemed like it might be better to feed them to the chickens instead of letting them die from exposure come winter. I thought eating worms would be instinctual too but apparently not!
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Better good? Did that even make sense…. it’s Friday….what can I say. But you know what I mean. 😉
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