Predators

The last time we got hit by a predator was in November. A hawk killed our hen Tweetie. We thankfully made it through December and January with no predator losses. Sadly, our good luck ran out and we've lost two hens in the last four days.  Both were killed right around dusk. Both hens were killed along the edge of the forest at the side of the house. both were white chickens. However, they were killed by two different predators. 

The first hen was murdered three days ago. She was, without a doubt, killed by a bird of prey. most likely the same damn hawk that killed poor Tweetie back in November. The little shit has been hanging around here all winter. We are constantly chasing the darn thing away. 

The second hen was killed yesterday. We missed seeing the killer by mere minutes. When we went out to put the birds away, we heard the murderer running away through the forest. The hen's body was still steaming. The killer was definitely 4-legged and big enough to make noise as it ran away; we could hear tree branches snapping. I have never seen such a brutal kill before. The killer ate a lot, way more than normal . I've seen fox kills, not the same. I've seen coyote kills, not the same. I've seen hawk and eagle kills, not the same. So, what did it? I'm thinking a very hungry coon or feral cat, or even possibly a bobcat (though I think a bobcat would carry off the hen, like a fox or coyote do). It's been a hard winter here; winter started almost a month early. To eat the hen within the perimeter of the house like that, its ballsy and/or desperate. 

PIC OF THE DEAD BIRD FOLLOW - VERY GRAPHIC

If you a sensitive to graphic images, please do not scroll further! 

If anyone can identify what type of predator did this, please let me know. 

We are high alert around here. Praying whatever killed the poor sweet hen doesn't come back. We are upping our security and will be trying our hardest to defend the featherbabies and keep them safe! So many predators here, it's a constant battle!

Showgirls and Silkies

My friend Melanie dropped me off two showgirl chicks today. dear Gods, they are so ugly they are cute! Showgirls are a cross between a silkie and a Naked neck chicken. They are not extremely common and are quite expensive - $20 a chick straight run! Depending on breed, most chicks cost $2-$10 straight run (straight run means unsexed). 

The fella below is my silkie roo Han. He's such a sweetie! He's my fav feathered fella :)

And the little sweetie in this pic is a silkie chick I'm hoping is female! She's about 6 weeks old. she is a blue partridge colour.

Toffee and Gus

Winter

Hi! sorry I haven't blogged in so long! Been super busy and not feeling the best.

My friend Melanie and I hatched out some winter chicks to help make up for the hens we lost to predators in the fall. At the moment, we have 9 barnyard cross chickens and 7 silkie chicks. Hopefully some of them are hens!

The guinea hens I got in the fall are doing well and have now joined the greater flock. They are funny little buggers :) I'm looking forward to a few less ticks this summer thanks to them!

This winter has been really up and down. freezing temps, lots of snow, then plus temperatures that melt it all away. Here's a photo of my best friend Taco in his snowsuit :) 

And here's a photo of Toffee. she turned one year old early Jan.  she's almost 100 pounds now! She's doing a great job helping to keep the birds safe. She chased off a coyote a couple of days ago! Such a good girl!

Hugs and love!

Chicks

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Winter Solstice is on Friday! So excited! For me, the Winter Solstice is something to be super excited about! I'm not a huge fan of this whole darkness at 5pm thing. At the Winter Solstice the sun is the furthest away from the earth that it will get, and is going to start moving back towards us. On December 22nd, the day after the winter solstice, our days begin to get slightly longer and the night starts to decrease! To me, this is truly something to celebrate!

Happy Winter Solstice Friends! May the Sun's return bless you with love and light!

Power Outage

Nova Scotia got hit with a storm Wednesday night/Thursday.We only got about 20-25cm of snow, but it was mixed with rain so extremely heavy and there was 80-100km winds.

The power went out at my place around 3am Thursday morning and came back on Friday night around 8pm. 

All of my town, Thorburn, lost power Thursday morning; however, the town's power was fixed and back on around 8pm Thursday night. Mine was not. My power was back on about 24 hours later.

Unfortunately one of the 30 foot pine trees down at my pond went down in the storm. As it fells it hit the hydro pole that was near by and ripped out the wires

With being the only house affected by the downed wires, we were at the bottom of the priority list, so I was pretty amazed when they showed up here yesterday, Friday, around 5pm. I thought they'd be a couple more days before they got to us.

The weather had been slightly above zero for the entire storm and the time after.even the night stayed at +1. Not high enough to melt the snow, but enough to make it a wet soggy heavy mess. The ground here isn't quite frozen, so it's really soft under the snow. too soft for the huge hydro truck to come down my quite steep 1km driveway. When the hydro guys first got here (they left their truck halfway and walked down) they weren't even sure if they would be able to fix it due to how soft the earth was! They were thinking they'd have to wait till it either froze or dried! That would of been horrible! Thankfully, that were super great guys and called in a pick up to bring the tools they needed down the hill to them. They had to cut down five more 30 foot tall pine trees at the pond. so sad :( Those trees were so beautiful. The pond looks so empty without them. It tooks them about 3 hours and they got the power back on! YAY!

So thankful! 40+ hours with no power sucks big time! I have guinea heats and ducklings that need heat that didn't have any that I was freaking out about and I was starting to run low on water for the animals. With 80+ poultry, 4 dogs and 4 cats, I go through a lot of water daily. I do have a propane heater so didn't freeze, but it alone doesn't do the best alone for keeping the house warm. We were at about +8. Not horrible, but still pretty chilly. 

Thankfully everyone is ok and all the critters are great :)

About three hours before the storm I got this little lady delivered.

A Bourbon Red turkey hen! She came from Cape Breton. She's super tame and sweet. :)