Yesterday we started out by opening up all the buildings and releasing the animals. It was then that we noticed that some of the young chickens were missing from the center block of the brooding house, so we naturally started looking under the shelf on the floor where they should have been running back and forth, as usual. There was not a bird to be found under the shelf! We then looked back at the center block to find another chicken half way in and half way out of the window screen, which had been pushed part way out of the frame. THEY ESCAPED TO THE REAL WORLD!!!!! Unfortunately, they are still a bit too small to be free ranging here...especially with the cats. Now the cats don’t bother the adult chickens, but the new chicks, at this juvenile stage, resemble regular birds, which our killers insist on killing on sight. (Un-pleasantries of the feline breed and reason enough to not have any) So...we rounded up all but three of the ten chickens we had in the center brooding box and tried repeatedly to catch the last one we saw, but to no avail. There were two that appeared to be gone, so I must assume they escaped during the night and met their fate with “night critters”!
We finished feeding and watering....checked the new bunny babe and with everything good...we left with intentions of catching the remaining “loose” chicken at dusk when it wanted to return to a safe abode with the other chickens. (It was sort of hanging with hens in the brush at the edge of the yard)
Anyway, we took off for Middleburg and the Crewell Farm feed store to pick up corn and then meet with our friend Joan for lunch over Pizza at The Village Pasta & Grill.
Crewell’s only had four bags of corn and a clerk that had such an attitude that we’ll never return for anything there again. We’ll return to Shaul Farms on down the road a piece and she can stuff the attitude! Shaul’s corn is now probably the same price as Crewell’s, so fuu, fuu...to you Crewell.
We returned home, after a little visit at Joan’s home, which is only two miles or so up the road from Middleburg. We intended to check on the animals, leave the dogs out to pee and head to Coxsackie for dinner and strawberries and shortcake with Isabelle and Ralph...our close friends. When we checked the animals, we found the second angora baby bunny dead. Well...what a perfect way to crash an otherwise pleasant day with friends, doing relaxing things! Actually becoming brazen to death now-a-days... we ventured off toward Coxsackie with intentions of rebreeding bunnies until one of the goofy females get it right and raise a litter of healthy bunnies! Thank goodness the nice girl who traded Guinea Fowls for a bunny is patient...but her daughter is growing up more and more every day. I sure hope she doesn’t lose interest before we get a baby bunny for her. It’s been two years now, that we’ve been trying! Well, we can breed all summer long since the brothel is air conditioned now anyway. As you recall...last summer when the killer heat struck, we lost an adult and BG’s expectant litter of ten bunnies....all to one day of murderous heat that struck like lightning that day.
We made it to Isabelle and Ralph’s for a fine dinner, strawberries and home-made shortcake and some wonderful conversation about aquaponics. Ralph has grown some amazing lettuce for their dining room table and Vick and I sampled it before soup and desert. It was as delicious and fresh as one could imagine.....and it made delighted me when I thought of the lettuce at home in our own garden. Ralphs lettuce, however... would re-grow quickly using the aquaponics he had employed in his vegetable garden. These new things spur new ideas for future projects on the farm, like a high tunnel greenhouse large enough to create a sustainable aquaponics garden and raised bed section to grow vegetables in the early spring so we’re ready with produce for the opening of the farmer’s market each year, instead of waiting until mid summer for vegetables to sell.
Yeah...... things to think about......interesting....
040608 Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC
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