And In Other News.....

It's HOT.  Wow.  H-O-T, hot.
That's not that exciting, but it does explain why things have slowed down here a little bit.  However, I keep pushing on, just slowly.  Heat and I do not agree.

On the building front, the new beautiful chicken coop is now mostly painted and partially trimmed out.  But it is completely roofed!!  My husband and I worked on it and finished it this weekend.  I love this coop so much, I'm thinking of naming it.  I love the luxury of walking into it in the evening to do my head counts.  Chicken coops in the evening are peaceful places, when everyone is singing.  It's so nice.

 
We were really lucky that the previous owner left us a HUGE pile of leftover roofing shingles under the deck.  We used a lot on this coop, I've used some for the goose house, the duck house, and Petunia's house.  Speaking of which:

All done!  She moved in last week, and looked at me like "what the heck do you want me to do in here?"  It's a lot larger than her last digs.  I gave her a chimney, can you see it?  The box of the house came out really well, but the roof was so ding-dong cockeyed that it clearly needed a rickety chimney.  I think it adds character.  And it looks almost like I meant to do that to the roof.  Well, I did, didn't I? 

 Jeez, I hate building.  grumble grumble.

This is how it looks with the boys' house:

Pretty snazzy, I think.

And onto the critters.  The chickens are growing beautifully.  Here's a shot of a few of them:

The one in the front is a Sicilian Buttercup, staring straight at you.  To the right, a Welsummer.  To the left, a Speckled Sussex.  Barred Rocks are in the back.

This is one of the two roosters I am aware that we have right now.  Unless anyone else is a surprise, we have only two, unless Fat Black hatches more.  He's a French Black Copper Maran.  Behind him is one of the females of the same breed.  We will be breeding this type of chicken, and the rooster is turning out to be a fine specimen.  His behind looks pretty good in this picture, no?

Ok, here's his front.  He doesn't crow yet, though.  All our lovely crowing is done by Copernicus, the Welsummer rooster (the other breed to be bred).  He makes a nice deep crow so far.  He's gorgeous too, but I couldn't find him to get a picture.  The fuzzy blob in front of the rooster above is not a dirty mop, it's a Silky.  Just FYI.  Easy to get them confused.

.....Ah, I jest.  The Silkies are really sweet.  Just very, very.....fluffy.

This is a shot of one of the only two Guinea keets we have left.  Out of the four originals, three were eaten.  One came back and would not shut up until I got him/her a friend.  This is the friend.  The one that is the one remaining is I don't know where.  It disappears occasionally, and luckily, comes back.  The one above thinks it's a chicken.  Lucky for me, because that means he/she always roosts when they do.  Score!!

Ok, that's a cat.  Let's move on.

Fat Black is still doing an eggsellent job.  HA!  Couldn't help myself.

See?

I really need to stop picking these eggs up and staring into them.  It's not healthy.  For me, that is.  I just need to see what's going on.  I.  Can't.  Help.  Myself. 

Black's nest of surrogate eggs.  She was taking a break at the time:

Can't I just have five minutes????

Dirt bath.  Fun!

The little duckadoos are getting BIG.  This batch is doing SO much better than the last batch, which leads me to say that if you're going to raise ducks, do it when they can go outside.  Wow.  The difference is just amazing.  Leg problems, back problems, slow growth, they all plagued the last batch.  This group has none of the same problems.  They go out every day, unless it's pouring.  I think it makes all the difference.  They're now two weeks old and being switched from the high protein starter to the maintenance ration.  I don't think they care about the difference. 

And finally, guess what we did today? 

What do you think would be a great treat to do in 93 degree weather with your kids?

Swimming?

Water park?

Ice cream?

NO!  We went blueberry picking in the hot, hot sun.

Aren't they beautiful?  We picked 8 pounds, and they could have kept going.  Let me tell you, these are kids after my own heart.  They were psyched to go, picked like champs, and had a blast.  93 degrees, we laugh in your face! HA!