December 16, 2010
Thursday, 12:28pm
Woke up early to a light dusting of snow which had turned to sleet, which has now turned to rain and created a slushy mess. Tree limbs are still frozen though. Our second snow event of the season, when we normally have no snow. Temperatures have been way below normal as well. I suppose the plus out of this is that I now know the standards and bantams can survive temperatures that go into the teens and might have gone single digit with the wind chill factor.
I went out this morning at 9 am to check on them and give them some food fuel in the form of leftover linguini noodles. They tore them up, fighting over the long noodles and tearing them away from each other. Farrah had laid an egg, probably very early this morning. Farrah and Hawkeye are so dependable in this cold weather, it surprises me.
I came back inside, shivering and proceeded to make a cup of coffee and something I rarely make....a bowl of steaming organic oatmeal to which I added honey from our neighbors hives, dates, walnuts, cranberries, raisins, a dash of coconut creamer, clove, cinnamon and nutmeg. Talk about sticking to your ribs!!!! I suppose it’s better than a Big Mac which always seems to stick to the thighs or buttocks!!!
Around noon, I peeked out the back window just in time to see a hawk swoop from one side of the yard to the next. I coated up and went to bring them a second meal of mixed grains. I walked closer to the big oak he was in and stood looking up at him (not an easy task through the rain/sleet mix coming down). I have found that birds of prey do NOT like you staring at them and usually will fly off. I couldn’t get a very good look at him, but he is not very big at all. Not sure what he is, peregrine falcon, some small breed of hawk??? He appears to be smaller than some of my chickens. I think I may need to invest in a pair of binoculars so I can get a better look at him and try to identify him in my bird book. He didn’t stay long and flew off two yards away into the pine trees. The chickens had not seen him and were out pecking in the run.
I went in and gave them the grains and stood there for awhile watching them. The heated water bowl I just got is working fine (hopefully the extension cord will not short out in this wet weather). However, the birds did not seem interested in the water bowl and instead were drinking out of a puddle, that had been their dust bathing spot the day before. In addition, I noticed an even more unusual behavior – they were eating the snow! More like slush, but they were eating all of it that was sitting on one of the baseboards of the coop. All their water bowls were full but they were still eating the slush. Interesting. I imagine this is what they would do in the wild if they could not find a running source of water, but they HAD an open source of water. Maybe they liked the taste of it better? Hard to say.
Chanel seemed in a sociable mood and crawled halfway up the ladder to the coop entrance and sat there looking at me as I talked to her. I swear, if she could speak English, she would carry on a conversation with me. She turns her head sideways and looks up at me thoughtfully with her big brown eyes, assessing the situation. She is now the biggest and is beginning to realize it. Since the sleeping quarters have shifted lately, she is pecking on Goldie Locks who in the past had mercilously pecked on her. Really a site to see, a tiny little yellow bantam pecking at the biggest standard chicken in the flock!!!! Well, not anymore. All of the chickens have been sleeping on the top of the nesting boxes now since the cold weather – all except the two that are laying who are still sleeping in the coop. Not sure why this change has occurred, cold weather or fear of some unknown predator, but they have rearranged their sleeping quarters and their pecking order yet once again. The chicken click, therefore, is a dynamic organism.... :-)
Oh, one more note before ending this.....Chanel looks like she will lay soon. Her comb and wattles are dark red and getting floppy. I’ve also noticed dark red skin on her cheeks and near her eyes, sort of like red hooded eyelids.... I do wonder, will it BE this year that she lays or not??? Will she be a Winter layer like Farrah and Hawkeye? I already know that Goldie, Raven and Ellie won’t be. Perhaps the smaller they are, the more they have to conserve energy for the colder months.
2:22pm
Mr. Hawk must have returned, the local birds were making a loud ruckus, led by the Blue Jays and the Mockingbirds. I stepped out onto the back deck but could not see the hawk. He must have flown off because after awhile the birds stopped squawking. You've got to admire the bravery of birds who will swoop a hawk, knowing he can kill them instantly.
I realized that today is the first day without health insurance, first time - ever.... It is an odd feeling. I pray that nothing will happen to us and we will be okay. I imagine I am far from alone in this, given the economy, but it is still a frightening place to be. I continue to post for jobs, but the market is bleak and no one is getting interviews according to some other former coworkers who were laid off as well and now run a weekly networking luncheon. We all see the jobs out there but no one is getting asked to interview, we are guessing either college grads are getting the openings or internal hires, but not older, experienced workers.... I refuse to give up though!!!! There are amazing lessons to be learned from all of this.....
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