After a storm passed through last night – thunder, lightning, and pouring rain – everything was wet this morning. What’s significant about those conditions? The earthworms come to the surface.
Flipping over pavers, old logs and pieces of wood, and other items that were sitting on the ground before the storm revealed lots of healthy, plump worms. The adult hens were following us around, and they pounced on the morsels. Chickens are pretty adept at pulling the worms out of the ground or other crevices in one piece, but the ducks are really experts at it. Continue reading “Earthworms For Everyone!”
One of the Muscovy ducks has been behaving a bit strangely. We saw her circling the duck coop the other day, as if she were looking for a way in (we have to keep the door shut after they come out in the morning or the chickens scratch the straw out). We opened the door and she rushed in, so we assumed that she needed to lay an egg.
We’ve been putting the teen chickens out daily in the tractor, but the weather has been crummy lately and the ground is saturated. It actually snowed quite a bit yesterday and that made the ground messy. Today is gray and damp, so the teens are stuck inside in their brooder based on the formula chicks + mud = muddy, wet, cold, and unhappy chicks. 
The teens have been going out in the tractor daily. We’re glad they’re out, they’re glad to be out, and the rabbit does are undoubtedly glad their noisy neighbors are out during the day.
Anyone who has been to the farm store this time of year knows it’s chick season. The stores will have big galvanized tubs full of chicks and ducklings on display, and some, frustratingly, will fail to ensure that people and/or children don’t handle those chicks (which can result in dropped and injured chicks).