Battle damage

Today was another full day of work and such. It was an ideal day. The temps hit the low 70s degree F. Anytime I started to think it might be getting a touch warm, the wind picked up.

We planted the raspberries near the garden bed and fenced them in.

 The raspberries have a nice thick layer of mulch.  Fingers crossed that it will kill off the grass around the plants.

 The blueberries are tucked into the ground as well.

I set up my son's trampoline

He's just a wee bit happy about it.  Hours of fun were had on the trampoline today. 

For lunch we had hobos. 

My eyes were bigger than my stomach when I made them.  They were huge. Delicious, but huge. 

When we sat down for lunch the chickens thought we had a treat and came running.  Then they hung around, hoping for a morsel of food to be tossed their way.

They babies are LOVING the new coop.

Depending on the side the sun is on, that is the side they hang out on. They have it all figured out. 

This little Barred Rock seems to want some attention each time we go over and look at them.  She kind of reminds me of our very first Barred Rock, Spot.  I've enjoyed every Barred Rock we've had except for the current adult Barred Rock we have.  Probably because she was an adult when we got her and already set in her nasty little ways.

 

The turkey's voices are changing. They are starting to sound like the wild turkeys -- just a little bit.

The bigger babies had a rough day today and sustained some battle damage. We didn't let the chickens out of the run until noon.  By then Honk, the white chicken, had been thoroughly cowed and was running scared and very timid.  Later on he got trapped into the run and a few of the chickens were in with him terrorizing him while Brewster was outside the run egging the other's on and pecking at Honk through the wire. When we got the chickens out of the run Honk was acting shell shocked and was walking with his "flock" in a sort of daze.

Later on my son noticed that Buck's beak looked weird. My son was able to catch Buck and bring him to me for inspection. 

Poor Buck, his beak tip is gone.

 There was no blood and he didn't seem to be in pain.  I did a quick internet search and found out that this is fairly common and the severity of the beak injuries can very.  Since he wasn't bleeding and I have no idea where his beak tip is, I don't think there is much I can do for him.  About half an hour later we heard him crowing.  The beak will grow out eventually.

These two are pretty good buds.

Most of the day these four hung out by themselves. 

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The Wynadotte is always on the look out for food.

Grandma P has the tip of her tail growing out.  I've said it before: It's so wee and cute.  Now the other feathers need to catch up. She was a naughty girl this evening and managed to con my DH into opening the door and holding her.  She managed to fly out of his arms and strut her stuff around the yard for a bit.  Then I saw Blackie getting an evil look in her eye and go for Grandma's rear end feathers.  She didn't get any.  A few minutes later I was able to get a hold of Grandma, give her some love and put her back into her shelter.

We had some drama tonite at bedtime. We wrangled the bigger babies into the coop and up onto the roost.  Honk was trying to turn around and stood on Grandma's baby. Grandma's baby was stuck and panicked.  I got Honk off of her and they were okay. 

Then I noticed No-tailed Red was reaching under and between Brewster's legs to peck Elvis. Then Brewster got in on it and was attacking Elvis.  Elvis panicked and jumped onto my shoulder and then up on my head.  

I really, really hate the whole pecking order thing and all the stuff they do while it's getting reestablished.  Grrrr.  I just hate seeing animals being mean to each other. 

I took Elvis out for a bit and let her hang with Grandma P.  Then Elvis managed to make an escape on my DH when he took her out of the shelter and was going to put her back into the coop.  She came to me and I was able to put her into the coop.  I put her in a nesting box so she wouldn't be bothered.  

Last I looked, the babies were fine.  They are all going to have to stay separate tomorrow while we are at work.  Otherwise I think we might have a severely injured bird tomorrow.

Daily 5 of things that made me happy today

1. Perfect temps today

2. Getting more stuff planted in the garden.

3. Hearing the grasshoppers tonite.

4. Having the windows open all day

5. I have only one box of chickens left in my craft room.