Chicken Life

Panic has discovered that a just blushing tomato is edible and has started eating just ripening tomatoes on the vine.  Does she target the small tomatoes?  Of course not.  She goes after the giant fruit.  What a jerkface.  But the forecast is showing intermittent days of rain so I think it’s time to pull in all the the remaining tomatoes and be done with it.  It was a good run.  Next year, I’ll get them in earlier.  Up next….peas!

We got a new feeder for the girls.  This one hangs, holds more, and is metal.  Brunhilde has been getting territorial over the food.  A feeder on the ground end up getting food all over the ground that doesn’t get eaten and they were going through the supply before the day was over.  Hopefully, this new feeder will alleviate some territorial issues.  Otherwise, I might have to reign in Brunhilde’s crabiness to the rest of the flock.  She’s starting to stress them out and I don’t want to have to temporarily isolate her.

It’s bed turning time so maybe all the girls will chill out.  They’ll have some beds to rustle around in before they get planted again.  They’ve gotten antsy with the change of the season.  We’ve retrieved some weird looking eggs, so I’ve upped their protein and calcium levels by making sure they get plenty of dried worms (ew) and some ground oyster shell more regularly.

I’m so excited that Coastal is now selling American made dried worms.  We were ordering them online because all of the store shelf options were coming from China.  No thanks.  So, I was heavily rationing the dried worms because they were pretty pricey online.  They aren’t cheap at Coastal, but it’s still cheaper than buying them online.  Literally all of the protein the girls get comes from insects.  We don’t feed them table scraps with the exception of organic produce….no beef, chicken, pork, or fish, and no dairy.  And we don’t spray so all the bugs they get here are chemical free.  They make some pretty snazzy poop for the farm.  And the eggs aren’t bad either.