The End

As some of you know, Spring Creek Gems is now closed.  It's been a great run, but it's time to move on to other things.

This decision has been coming for a long time, and some of you may have suspected it as I sold off rabbits, and went to fewer shows.  I need to downsize my life which means smaller house and smaller yard.  There won't be room for anything but me and my dog.

The remaining rabbits will be delivered within the next 2 weeks, and then the equipment will be released to the new owner.  The chickens went to a new home, as did the cat.

I'll leave this blog in place for a while, but there will be no new posts after this.  You can follow me on Natureschild Gardenworks as I move on to the next phase of my life.

I've made many wonderful friends along the way, and you know who you are.  You are not rid of me!  :-)

Goodbye, dear readers

Dennie

May 19, 2013

Not much happening in the rabbitry.  I have 2 broken babies in the box, and they just opened their eyes.  That's about it for news there.

The chickies are growing fast and keeping me busy buying to keep up with them.  I only buy 20 lbs of chick starter at a time so I'm not feeding it longer than necessary.  I kicked the adults out of the pen so the chicks could have the run of it.  I moved the PVC feeder so the outside birds could reach it but I could still fill it from inside the pen.  It's sticking through the chainlink.  Because of the way it's hung, a couple of the feeder holes are inside the pen, and the older chicks are eating big bird food as well as the starter I provide in another feeder.

The oldest ones are getting on the highest roost already.  The one at the front of the line is one of my favs.  He's half Silky, half Cochin.  Super fluffy!

I decided to revive the garden blog.  From now on, garden and nature stuff will go there.  Natureschild Gardenworks

tnt

4.6.13

I got more chicks since the last post.  There's now 9.  First there was another Silky/Cochin and another patterned white.  I raised them alone until they were big enough to join the week older chicks in the big bin.  That went well.  The S/C is different than the 1st one, more gray than brown.  It's so cute!  There's just something about it.  It kinda reminds me of a dwarf.  Round fluffy head and big eyes.  I think it's the sweet eyes that are getting me.

Then I found another Silky/Cochin the same color yesterday.  Just one.  The poor little thing cried and cried all alone in its bin.  Hoping for more real soon so it can have clutch mates.  In the meantime, I moved the 2nd S/C back to keep it company.  It will teach the little one where the water and food is, and if there's more, that one can do the same.

The oldest S/C is now looking like it will have Cochin feathers, but with the head pouf.  That should be adorable!  Can't say for sure what color it or the others are, but I'm going with birchen for now.  The white patterned ones, I don't have a clue.  Their wings and tails are coming in dark and patterned.  Pretty sure about the buffs, but not so sure about the lightest one.  It could turn completely white.  It's a good thing showing birds is not my goal.  My goal was a pretty flock of varied colors and I got that.

I'm starting to guess gender based on comb and wings.  If that's correct I only see 1 or 2 roos.  Good ratio.  The silky things are probably going to throw a wrench in that.  I have no idea how silky combs develop since they are so unlike the cochin combs.  And there's that pouf to hide what's happening.

I've talked before about how I give does more chances.  Many breeders are strict in their "3 strikes and out" rule.  I'm not and it usually pays off.  Babe is the latest doe like this.  No, she hasn't yet given me a litter but she almost did this time.  It was her 4th attempt.  She had 3, one was alive, and I think another might have been at birth.  Since the singleton wasn't a color I wanted, I left it with her to practice her mother skills.  As expected, it died by the next day, most likely to cold.  I take this as a very good sign she'll get it right, and it should be warmer by the time her next litter arrives.  I'm not giving up yet.

Speaking of warmer.  Yeah, not so much.  Spring is so unsouthernly this year.  The cherries in my yard, and the Bradford pears elsewhere (I don't have any) are starting to bloom.  I don't know how these continued frosty mornings are going to affect that.

There's a weed I've come to appreciate.  I believe it's Hen's-bit.   It's a short groundcover that blooms now in reddish-purple.  It's very pretty in the lawn and gardens.  The nice thing about it and why I don't object to it in the gardens is that when it finishes setting seed, it disappears for the rest of the year.  It doesn't take over the garden and it helps suppress other spring weeds.

In the front yard just outside the boundaries of the Bird Garden, muscari (grape hyacinth) has escaped and joined the large swathe of hen's-bit.  There's lovely pops of bright blue scattered among the purple.  I like to plant muscari around the base of daffodils because they bloom at the same time and look wonderful together.  But muscari has a mind of its own and sends seeds wherever it wants.

There's quite a few Peewees flitting around the yard.  Actually, I'm not positive they're Peewees   They might be Phoebes.  According to my book, Peewees are smaller and have a prominent crest where Phoebe is shown with a smooth head.  These have a crest.  Without seeing and hearing (calls are similar) them both at the same time, it's hard for me to say.  I'll go with Peewee until proven otherwise.

Anyways, there's more Peewees than I've seen before.  They seem to be looking for a place to nest.  They're looking real hard at the wind-wrecked shed.  I hope they don't go there.  I've set up a guy to tear it down next week.  Oddly, they also seem to be looking somewhere under the gutter on the back of the house.  The only thing they could possibly build on there is the light fixture on the wall.

There were a couple Rufous-sided Towhees under the feeder a week ago.  That's always a pleasure because I hardly ever see them, but they sometimes appear for a short time in the spring.  Mockingbirds have been cleaning up the nandina berries.  I don't see any other birds eating these berries.  I love mockingbirds.  They're the quintessential southern bird to me, and their songs are wonderful.  They don't really stick around here all year.  I don't know why.  For a long time, I only saw them in the spring, but in town, they were more common than robins.  I guess they're city birds.  But the last few years, I see more for a longer period.

There was some grossness this week.  I noticed crows in the backyard and when I watched more closely, I saw them carry off what looked like red meat.  Went out to investigate and found some fur near the house.  Abby the cat often eats her kills in that area, and unfortunately, doesn't always finish it.  Going by the fur, and the size of the meat the crows were taking, it was a cottontail.  I don't know how it ended up scattered all over the yard far from the fur, but since the crows were cleaning it up, that worked for me.

Another gross thing.  I found some yuck on the porch.  It looked like cat food and snake.  Yeah, half of a little snake.  I wouldn't think there were snakes out and about this early, especially when it's been so cold, but that's what it was.  I've noticed Abby often pukes after eating her ration of cat food and then a kill.  Time to cut back on cat food.

Supposed to be real nice this weekend.  Hope it stays that way from now on.  I need to get stuff done outside, and it has to be warm enough.  I could handle the coolth for working outside, but my sinuses can't.  My nose runs like a faucet if it's less than 60.  That can turn into a full-blown sinus attack and I'll be down and miserable until it's over.  So I wimp out and only spend a short time outside until it's warmer.  So come on, Spring!  Get warmer!

tnt

Chicks, man.

Fun!  In the last post, I mentioned a chick that was found later in the day after the first 5.  This is it.

It's a bit lighter than the other patterned one.  A thing I noticed was that its beak is colored.  The other one, even though it's darker, has a pink beak.  Got me wondering sooo.....

Looky there...5 toes.  I think this is a Silky Cochin.  Silkies have black skin which is why the colored beak caught my eye.  That's definitely possible, I have the one partridge Silky hen.  I got rid of all the other odd breeds so my Cochins could mingle freely, but decided I didn't mind if there were Silky/Cochin crosses.  Can't wait to see what this looks like later.

Got a better idea of colors and maybe sexes.  Looks like 2 buffs, 1 white, 1 birchen (the aforementioned darker patterned), and the white patterned one.  I think now that it will be patterned and not pure white (yay!) because the wing feathers are coming in very dark.  And whatever color the Silky Cochin is.  I'll say birchen or partridge.  Cool!  Lots of pretty colors.  As to sexes, I'm using a hint I read that the ones that have wing feathers at hatch or before others are hens.  If so, got plenty of those in this little clutch.  We'll see how accurate that is later.

A friend blogged about how she raises chicks.  Thought I'd talk about how I do it.  This might not work for anyone who raises a large number of chicks but it works for my small scale operation.  I can raise 6-8 bantam chicks at time in this smaller bin.  I have had more, but it does get crowded after a while.  I do have 2 of these so I can split them up if necessary.

This is set up in a back bedroom.  I like having it near to keep an eye on things.  I'm changing water several times a day for the first few days because the water dish is so small.  There's actually stages for the dishes.  The first day or so, the water is in a small plastic jar lid.  They can't drown in it.  Once they are drinking and walking well, I move up to a small pet dish.  I think it was meant for hamsters or something.  It's flared at the bottom like a dog dish so it won't tip over.  The food dish is a shallow plastic thing.  I don't remember what it was originally.

I start the chicks on newspaper at first.  I know this isn't recommended because it can cause leg problems as the chicks move around on the slippery paper, but it hasn't been a problem for me.  They are only on the paper for 3 days.  I discovered I hated raising them on shavings.  I tried shavings on top of paper, and it ended up in the water and food dish.  I was cleaning out the water dish too many times a day.  And it got stinky real fast.  I tried a piece of wire on top of shavings to keep it from being kicked around and that was a little better but still way too smelly.  There is also a risk the chicks could become trapped under the wire.  That happened with the guinea keets.

After 3 days, they're strong enough to go on wire.  I made the insert to fit inside the bin.  It's rabbit floor wire on the bottom with plastic mesh forming the sides.  I had the mesh for something else and it's too small for them to get their heads stuck.  I just put paper under the insert.  Perfect!  No fouled water or food, and it's so much easier to clean.  I just pick up the insert, chicks and all, and replace the paper.  There's a flange on the floor wire to hold it a little above the paper, and they can reach the paper to peck at food that falls there.  They also graduate to the large water crock and chick feeder.  After a couple weeks, they will move into the larger bin which also has a custom insert.  That one has a hinged top as well.  You'd be surprised how high chicks can jump once their wings grow out.

The heat lamp is used for as long as I think the chicks need it.  Usually 2-3 weeks, but that depends on the weather.  When it gets warm outside, the room is also warmer.  The bulb is just a 60 watt household bulb.  It's puts out enough heat, and I always have some on hand.  If the chicks aren't huddled under it or shivering, they're warm enough.  If I see them panting, it's definitely too hot and I'll either reposition the lamp or remove it.  I keep them in the house for a while longer without the lamp.

If all goes well weather-wise, I move the big bin out to the rabbit barn when the chicks are well-feathered.  It has to be consistently above freezing at night before I'll move them out.  By this time, I'm over having them in the house because the odor is too strong.

After they've acclimated to the barn and outside temps,  they'll go out in the pen in the transition cage.  This is an old 24x24 rabbit cage.  I flipped it over so the bottom is the larger gauge wire on the top of the cage.  This gives the chicks access to the dirt under the cage.  The first thing they do when they realize there's dirt is dust bathe.  It's kind of comical to see how much they wanted that dust bath.  I guess under more natural conditions, they would have it much sooner.  They are also ready to perch so there's one in the cage.  I move the cage every day to give them clean dirt underneath.  This also saves feed.  If they scatter it on the ground, and they will, they can easily clean it up.  I give feed in an old rabbit J-feeder, and water in a clamp-on parrot cup.  They stay in the cage until I think they are big enough to be allowed out into the pen.  Then I open the cage door so they can come and go as they please.  They return to it to eat, drink, and roost, and also to escape the older birds.  The pen is kept closed during this time which means most of the adults have to stay out.  They get used to getting their feed and water outside the pen, although a broody hen might be locked up with the chicks because that's where the nestboxes are.

I'm in the process of converting an old 4 foot dog cage into a better chick cage.  They'll be able to live in that for longer, and I can take it out on the grass.  The chickies will enjoy that.  Photos when I finish it.

tnt

This week at SCG

So this happened yesterday.

What is wrong with spring this year?!  I haven't seen such a crappy March since I've been here.  It's not even the snow, that's not a big deal here, it's the cold.  I'm tired of being cold, and I've got things to do outside.  This is what spring is like in Michigan, and I moved down here to get away from that.

My poor daffs have been frozen and snowed on so many times.  They've been blooming since the middle of February!

This is also the first time in 9 years I've had spring fever.  For me, the main symptoms of spring fever are depression and sometimes unreasonable pissed-offness.  In MI, you get teased and denied spring weather well into May, and it's rough on the mood.  Here, reliably good weather comes early enough that I don't have time to get depressed about it.  Or at least it did until this year.  I get through February by believing that March will be much better, but here it is the end of March and it still looks and feels like February.  I am not content these days.

In other news.

Buffy hatched these little pretties on Sunday.  At first, there was 5, and then I found another later that day.  I can take a guess about colors.  The solid blondies are probably buff and/or white.  The lightest patterned chick (top right) might be white, too, but I hope not.  One of Buffy's last year started out a lot like that and then became pure white.

The 2 darker patterned ones might not be Buffy's.  The hens share nests.  I think they're birchens.  There's 2 birchen hens and the only roos are birchen and red.  Red is the alpha roo, but I've seen Bert hit on a hen when Red wasn't looking.

This is Buffy and her last clutch last year.  Sadly, none survived to maturity.

The other hens are sharing the other boxes and there have been PILES of eggs since early February!  What happens to them all?  It's been so freezing cold, any eggs that I don't see hens sitting on for any length of time get tossed over the fence into the field for the crows.  Yeah, the crows eat them.  A friend mentioned that she tossed "bad" eggs out into the yard for the crows.  Shortly after that, I saw my crows carrying off the eggs they found over there.  I suppose I could eat some of those eggs, but again, they've probably been frozen.  I'll only eat eggs I find fresh and I can't tell which those are when several new eggs appear in each nest every day.  When it gets to be too many, I toss them.  How many is too many?  I have chucked close to 2 dozen at a time, leaving 4 or so to keep the hens laying in the box.  That's a PILE!

Buffy is still sitting on 6 eggs that haven't hatched yet.  I'm not sure if they're bad, or if they're younger.  I did move some from the pile in another box to her clutch.  I'm also thinking about moving some more that way since she's my proven broody.  At this time, there's always 2 hens hunkered down in that other box at the same time and they get quite pissed if I try to see what's going on under them.  Buffy doesn't get as angry about it.

I also learned another thing about hens.  They talk to their babies.  The day I discovered Buffy's had hatched, she was softly clucking.  A sound I hadn't heard any other time.  Sure enough, when I gently picked her up, there were chicks under her.  So now I know how to tell eggs have hatched.  I had also jotted a note about when I expected them to hatch based on when she went broody.  I was spot on, BTW.

In rabbit news, not much new.  I have to get pictures of Daydreamer's 2 little boys.  They are about 5 weeks old now.  The keeper is a nicely broken silver marten.  Not crazy about the fact that he's a silver marten, but I'll see how he grows up.  The other is an otter "hotot".  That's what I call it when they only have color on the eyes and ears.  He's the one with the type of course!  He's way too cute for something I really can't use.  I'm almost tempted to keep him for a pet, except that I can't justify keeping bunnies for that reason.  I'll see how I feel about it when someone hits me up for a pet when he's ready to go.  Been getting the usual Easter bunny inquiries, but I have nothing else available.

Baroquen's 3 are doing well and they are all nicely broken black otters.  The other doe that was due right after her failed, but she actually did pretty well for a 1st-timer.  The kits weren't mangled or stretched which is a good sign for success in the future.  Next litters are due in about 2 weeks.  Sure hope the weather gets better by then!

tnt