After a few frigid days (including wind chills that drove the temperatures below zero), the temperature has shot up into the upper 50s; at this exact moment, it’s 60 but feels like 57 due to the wind chill. Almost shorts weather again. Well, not really…but it was warm enough to wear just a shirt under a rain jacket this morning.
It rained overnight and is forecasted to rain throughout the day; as a result, it’s soggy and squishy out, just the way the ducks like it. The ground has thawed, so they can dig their bills in, looking for tender shoots and bugs. They’ll be walking around with mud masks on, afterward, leaving large, muddy holes in their wake. Are those groundhog holes? No, just duck-drilled holes Continue reading “Today’s Weather Is Wet, Weirdly Warm, And Windy”
A cold snap is upon us. The temperature was 10 degrees but “felt like” -2 degrees when we got up this morning. It made us glad we’d refreshed the duck coop bedding yesterday so they would stay warm and dry.
With this cold weather, we like to take extra treats out for the chickens and ducks. When we went out this afternoon with scratch, we noticed that the adult chickens were nowhere to be seen…very odd. The juvenile chickens were huddled in the back corner of the barn, and when we got closer, a hawk flew up and into the rafters. To our dismay, we discovered that the hawk had killed and had been eating one of the juveniles – a nice New Hampshire Red pullet, of course, one of the friendliest of the bunch. It had eaten much of the pullet’s head, which was detached, and had plucked most of the breast. *&#@ hawk!
We like easy recipes for tasty meals, and one-pot meals are a bonus. One such meal is congee, a savory rice porridge (but not like oatmeal) that’s true comfort food.
The new duck family (Indian Runner mom, Pekin dad, and 9 mixed ducklings) have been here for 2 weeks and are doing well. They were initially living in a tractor with a coop inside, but we recently started letting them free range during the day with the flock of chickens and Muscovies. So far, everyone seems to be getting along.