I have been ‘doing the paparazzi’ with this little peeper for a week now. Finally I have captured an image of him for you. My oldest barn chicken hatched this wee fella in the loft, he fell through a hole in the floor, she found him again and he is still going strong.
I think it is a he as he is growing very fast. She is a viciously protective mother so everyone steers clear of her. I live in fear of her wandering into the milking parlour at milking time.
This plonker is growing fast too.
And these two are following suit but at a more dignified pace. Number Three (Debs youngest named him Sasha, ‘Yes, yes!’ she said, as the grown-ups spluttered ‘I know we are growing him for bacon but I will call him Sasha. ‘ Anyway he is fully recovered and is obviously the bigger of the two.
I put my bee hat on and went down the back to recover the travelling box from the beehive. They were all very calm and good. I could see bees going in and out of the Queens entrance, eating away at the marshmallow plug trying to release her. Their calmness leads me to believe that they have accepted her now. there was no aggressive behaviour around her teensy box. I replaced the frames, covered the super and put on the lid. They will be left alone now for three more days then I will check to see if they have let her out. There is a rightness that falls across the farm when the bees are here. It is a though we have been accepted by a higher being. It is hard to explain, it is as though a praying mantis with his long glorious folding legs and slow elegant manners came to sit with you at your table to share a cup of tea ensuring that you bowed your head to hear grace first. And of course you would if a praying mantis were sharing your pot of jasmine tea. Say grace that is.
Daisy has been free of the mastitis for more than a week now, almost two I think, I need to look at the calender. But this is the longest that bad quarter has been healthy so far. I think a lot of this has to do with being on the pasture and out in the light and sun all day. Though not in the last few days, we are getting a lot of rain. Not unusual for this time of year, though the cold is. But no cows on my pasture when it is this puggy.
Oh and no sign of the mink for a while either. Probably got something to do with two pigs sleeping in their hunting grounds! And the dogs are out all night.
The chicks and the three remaining ducklings are back in the basement under their light. The glasshouse heat was just too hard to regulate, they were overheating. They are all settled now, though with all this rain the basement is flooding and I said to John I should just let those ducks out, they could happily float about amongst the boxes and tools down there! 
Good morning. My friend across the way and her gaggle of children helped me shift all the big old chooks, in their ark, right into the barn yesterday, (the ground was just too sodden to leave them out) the weather is too inclement, and shortly I am going to release them into the big barn anyway so they can begin their housework.
Do you feel up to date? I think I do.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
37 responses to “A miniature surprise”
Your black plonkers are so endearing, with their frilly bat ears and alert expressions. And I know what you mean about bees. They will only settle if things are calm, so if they’re settling, things are right on the Farmy. Have a good day.
I’m am happily up-to-date particularly as I shall be out of touch for days. I laughed at the praying mantis coming for tea… we once had a locust come for dinner. He waited until we finished and then cleaned off the knives and plates. So pleased that everyone is hatching and growing… and all is well.
Such happy looking piggies! I love those ears, too. Good morning to you, and all the farmy.
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Marmalade appears to be the reigning force over the calm.
So glad all is calm, and everybody beehaving 🙂 Rain is good for the pastures, soon we will be heaving hay bales with you again. Laura
Ha ha – children like to name things regardless 🙂
Reading this I suddenly saw you as the conductor of a well oiled orchestra! At the moment everything being pleasantly pianissimo as you gently waved your baton 🙂 !!! Hope the spring concerto continues . . . .
A perfect Farmy day – Celie’s up to date, Daisy’s comfy, the chicks are safe, the bees are busy and all’s right with the world. How long will you stay skunk-free while the dogs are out all night?
So nice to see the baby chick out from under the car feeder. He makes a nice addition to the farmy.
Sasha looks bigger than he did 4 days ago. Amazing how quickly those little piggies grow.
Having bees again has to be so exciting and fulfilling! Our gardens just can’t produce without a good crop of bees to pollinate them.
Good morning ,
Calm is good everywhere , the little chick is very cute and your plonkers look happy and content. They have a good life at your farm.
Puggy – what an excellent word!
Christine
Little Mr. Chick is a cutie. The biggest plonker is quite the well muscled little barrow. Given the story the notches in his ears could tell, his breeder is quite serious about his pigs. The red plonker looks to be contemplating his bad behaviour or plotting his revenge, could be either one. If Daisy’s mastitis is occurring in the same quarter the majority of the time, it probably is an injury caused by the steer. I would guess that the muscles at the end of her teat canal were damaged and they don’t contract quickly enough after milking. Which would point towards environmental mastitis. I wonder if you were to move her calving back to mid to late April if that would help. She would miss the muddy thaw time (hopefully), be out on grass soon after calving, less exposure to her winter bedding pack. Good news is that since her mastitis seems to be traced to an injury that any heifer calves she would have would most likely not be predisposed to have mastitis. Still for her next calf would recommend that you consider a bull that sires cows with good udder support. Waiting hopefully to see a picture of the ducklings paddling around the basement.
Yes I do agree, and also (learning again) I now take the cup off and cap it the moment she stops milking in that quarter then strip it by hand, I think this has helped too.. we have a problem with AI in July as it gets awfully hot, I have had such trouble breeding her when it is too hot, so we are looking at Late June, which would be late March, early April again.. then she goes into a pristine pen which stays clean, I am very particular about that.. good thinking about that Bull, I shall make that a requirement – we buy the semen after all.. I know the mastitis will be back but so far so good.. Thank you for your help.. c
Your photographs tell have such energy and I love the way you use them to tell your story of living on a farm. I am new to blogging and I am working more on my photo’s thanks to you. I live a very urban life, but imagine I would be happy in a rural setting. I love nature and the simple things. Sometimes there are jewels in the city too…I hope you have a minute or two to see one I stumbled upon and posted about, http://ravenscourtgardens.com/2014/05/14/perks-of-the-job-touring-an-amazing-private-garden-with-a-dragon-mural/ I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you Laurin and welcome to the Fellowship.. Blogging is a wonderful way to reach out.. c
All things going well at the farmy at the moment. That is great. I’m happy that the chicken killers have not been back. That was so awful. We are getting some rain here too, which is very welcome in drought stricken central Texas. I have been finding tiny little worms on my tomatoe leaves and have been plucking them off as I find them. I have not had good luck with tomatoes in the past, but I am determined to succeed this year! I could use some bees to help with the pollination tho. Hopefully, we still have some in our area.
Have a great day!
luckily you do not need bees for tomatoes.. all you need is a breeze, fancy you begin so far along that you have bugs on the leaves already, you will see a great change when you come out here, we are still very cool.. even the bees are not coming out of their house.. c
Love those little moose. 🙂
Laugh!! morning bill.. c