We have a new hatchling this week! One morning when Jan opened the door of the feral cat shelter (where one of our broody hens had been living) at sunrise, she heard peeping! Look at this cutie:
All week we’ve been worried about her. When we had the day old chicks last summer, there was so much we had to do to keep them thriving. We had to rig up a heater to allow them to be at 95 degrees (or to walk away from the heat). We had to wipe their little chicky butts every morning for the first two weeks - if poop dries on their butts and seals them shut, they can die. We had to make sure they learned how to eat and drink. We had to give them Chick Grit.
Bridget (the baby’s mother) is doing all of that stuff! Without the help of the internet! Here’s another photo - they were on a walk yesterday when I snapped this. The weird thing is, there’s another hen who runs into that feral shelter every time Bridget and her baby go out for a stroll. Sometimes we have to evict the interloper so that Bridget and her baby can get back in.
We waited about four more days after the baby hatched to see if any of the other eggs were going to hatch. Bridget’s eggs were some of the newest of all the broody hens. No other eggs were viable, so yesterday Jan and I went out with a big bucket and threw them all away. The bucket was entirely full. Some of those broody hens had been sitting on mountains of eggs!
We have been so good, lately, protecting our chickens from the skunks. A lot of people emailed me and said we should get a live trap for our skunks and get rid of them.
But, skunks are good, in general. They eat garden pests, which is great, but they also eat animal carcasses. They help keep the world free from carrion. We don’t mind our skunks at all. Also, they’re extremely cute:
We have three skunks that we know of. Fluffy, the skunk who lives underneath the new chicken coop; Fifi, the skunk who lives underneath the hay barn. Look at that hole near the corner of the hay barn. That's Fifi's front door.
Our third skunk is Jordan’s skunk, who lives way in the back of the farm, underneath Jordan’s shelter.
This morning, I was actually torn out of a sound sleep by eau de skunk. Fifi had gotten into a fight with Vera. Soon all the dogs were barking. It’s just amazing how intense the skunk aroma is when you’re in the epicenter of it.
Vera really enjoys a good fight with Fifi. They do this several times every year, and each time, Vera returns to the back porch with a big smile on her doggy face, looking for pets and words of encouragement. Spreading eau de skunk throughout the house. Jan put on the exhaust fan, but there’s something about that skunk smell that just lingers.
I looked it up. Skunk spray contains thioacetates, which decompose very slowly into thiols (the horrible smelling chemicals). The initial spray contains a raft of thiols, and then the thiols just keep on coming.
Our small dogs cheered Vera on this morning. Their yard doubles as a goat passageway during milking time. We shut the little dogs in the house, and then the goats pass through the dog yard to get to the milking parlor.
Earlier this spring we installed a doggie door, so that Coco and Snoopy could run outside whenever they wanted. When the kids were really little, Snoopy accidentally ran out into his yard when it was being used by the goats, and it really frightened him. A couple of the mamas pushed him away from their kids. By the time we realized he was out there - Jan scooped him up to carry him back inside - he was shaking.
Since then, every morning when we milk, we close the door to the room that has the doggie door in it. We not only want to prevent Snoopy from having another terrifying experience, we also want to minimize the damage if some curious kid figures out how to go through the doggie door.
But, this morning we forgot to close that door. I opened the gate to the milkers’ pen without noticing Snoopy was in the yard. After opening the gate and letting the goats through, I turned back around just in time to see Snoopy running pell-mell back into the safety of the house. He made a beeline for his little bed that sits by the door of the milking parlor, and didn’t get out of it till we were completely finished.
Last: we’re going to be selling our soap at the Rail Yards Market this Sunday. I’m really excited. If you’re in the Albuquerque area, please stop by our booth. Booth 145 - indoors. Here's our newest picture bar - rainbow cubes:
They’re not ripe yet, but nearly every week we post new picture bars for sale on our site. Check them out: https://www.serenasoaps.com/