Life goes on

Orpington, her name as well as her breed, finally pecks a bit at the feeder. She was stubbornly sitting on an empty nest following her instinct to protect the young in a crisis. She now has new young to protect as the matriarch of a flock of nine.

Feathers to dust

This is a lesson that a homesteader only needs to learn once. Lock up your chickens at night. We have never seen any evidence of predators in the area. Now we have the evidence. Our Buff Orpington is our only surviving bird. One was partially devoured. Another is missing, we assume carried off. The other three were left where they were killed. Coyotes, like humans, kill for sport. Coyne and Knutzen's book "Making It" has excellent instructions as to what to do with a freshly killed chicken. I highly recommend this book along with "The Urban Homestead." We are taking the boys to City Farmers Nursery directly from school to buy new chicks, but we will have very few eggs this summer. Lesson learned.

Doing, not writing

The flaw to this blog is that it is about doing things. Doing is not writing. After doing all day there isn't enough brain in my head to write. So here is a brief catch up before breakfast. The kitchen is functionally complete and in use. I'll finish it and write about it later. I'm behind on spring planting so I'm on to that today. Bye