LuLu LuLu the Lunatic...

So our little baby, our runt of the litter, our sweet little lulu the Polish wonder chicken is causing a big disruption to our chicken harmony. Chicken harmony is our term for peace and good will amongst those in our flock. Harmony means there is still a little pecking here and there but for the most part, all chickens know and accept their place in line - aka the pecking order. Well, little lulu has become quite the hardass and is throwing the flock in a tizzy. The pecking order was recently (well until Lulu struck) like this: Gladys - Eleanore - Gerdie - Maybel - (Tillah) - Razzle -(Stuffy) - Penny - Lulu. Lulu clearly was in the rear and we worried that she would always be severely hen pecked. We had some changes as we had to re-home Tillah and sadly Stuffy passed away on us (see previous post) and Razzle has been broody for a few weeks and these changes through things off a bit. Well Gerdie and Gladys started to befriend Lulu and within a few weeks, we have mayhem. To put it simply, Lulu now beats on Gladys our all powerful leader so we thought. For good measure she beats on Gerdie as well. So our new circular order is something like this: Gladys - Eleanore - Gerdie - Maybel - Razzle - Penny - Lulu - Gladys - Eleanore - Gerdie and so on and so on. So we call Eleanore the beast because she is the number 2 chicken in order and is the muscle to the Gladys regime and she can be vicious when she needs to be. Well sweet little Lulu is now starting to back down the beast which is simply amazing. So if Lulu beats down Eleanore then its quite possible that tiny little Razzle, our smallest chicken, might be running the show because she, along with Penny are the only 2 that do not back down to lulu and actually put the beat down on her ... summary is we do not have chicken harmony and it doesn't look like its coming anytime soon... so we may as well get more chics to add???? see next post.

Good bye Sweet Stuffy

With heavy heart we say goodbye to our sweet white Silkie, Stuffy. Stuffy was a little over one year old and died suddenly on March 25, 2011. She was a special little girl and will be deeply missed not only by her humans, but by her sister and broody-mate, Razzle as the 2 were inseparable. In the beginning when Stuffy was just a little chic, she and Nicole bonded right away. Stuffy would spend hours in nicoles hands and would take mock dust baths in her hands. When she got older and moved outside, she would sit in Nicoles hands and duck her head underneath her arms and sleep and preen away. She was a personable little girl who brought big smiles to us both. She was the first of the 'littles' to lay and would go broody all the time. Along with Razzle, she spent many days with me when i would get restless and was one of the great joys of my day. Stuffy loved to have her chest rubbed right underneath her right wing - it was wierd but she loved it. Stuffy was a wonderful pet and friend and her spirit will always live on in the Modees Farm.

Goodbye my sweet friend.

Rainy Days Don't Keep Us Down

All our rain left us with a huge mud puddle all along the way to the coop. Thank goodness for Wellies! This year we knew it would need a solution- a well drained path. So Mike dug some more dirt (to the delight of the girls who quickly lapped up the worms and frequently got in the way) and we laid down some gravel. Voila- one path completed. Look to the right for a grey gravel path and not to be left out we included a photo of the front yard herb garden.

Out next project was a more permanent fence to keep those sneaky chickens away from the garden. They kept kicking out the shells and we knew when the veggies started they would decimate them. So up went a fence.


Last week Mike went out of town and Nicole put the eight week old chicks outside. Another gate keeps the little chickens in the back part of the yard and the older girls get the side yard. They are both arms full at night when they want to love and preen with the humans. Check out the partridge penedesenca in a pear tree (no kidding).

Most of the time the young chickens hide in the raspberry bushes. Why do they call them bushes when they are really canes? In any case, they are turning ripe and giving a lovely snack while we work in the yard. And there is always work: no one ever talks about the endless weed pulling and slug hunting. The hazelnut shells have deterred many slugs but not all so Mike has captured several with cans of beer. Nicole opted for sluggo (organic of course). The few strawberries that have managed to turn red despite our endless cloudy rainy weather have been spared slug death. Not so lucky- cucumbers and okra.

Since the cucumbers are getting replanted anyway and as Father's day approaches it was time to get tomatoes in the ground and think about trellises. After much research and several "failed" experiments in past years we think this just may be the winner. It's rebar hammered into the ground about 2 feet and twine. We connected the rebar with 3/4" plastic plumbing elbows. The cucumbers are in a tepee shape, melons in a ladder, and tomatoes got the full cage grid. Parr lumber was very kind to assist us in cutting the rebar to size (it was the only place in town that has a cutting option on site) and we saved some money buying 20' lengths and dividing them into 8 and 4 foot lengths for out 8x4' beds.

The garden is slow going in general this year. Late planting and a late start to summer weather has made it a challenge but it did make growing celery outside from seed a success. Rumor has it that celery is notoriously difficult to grow so I am very proud we were able to have about 20 seeds germinate and begin to grow. We even were able to harvest 20 heads of garlic this weekend! Is there a dance that has the opposite effect of a snow-dance? Come-on its time for movies in the back yard and to fire up the bbq!!!!