Yesterday while working in the barn I heard a chirping that sounded both out of place and at the same time familiar.
It was the chirp of an emerging peachick. I was sure of it. I climbed up the ladder to the loft to check Mrs Flowers but she was giving nothing away. 
Maybe tomorrow we will see some chicks up there. Sensibly Mrs Flowers has created her nest in the Peacock Palace in the well between old hay. She is safe there. I can shut the door. I can keep the cats out of there.
But Pania as usual has made her nest out in the top of a hay stack. Right in the open. Watched by cats. From every corner. They will get the chicks. So I am going to have to take her eggs and incubate them. It feels so mean, but those chicks won’t last a morning with five cats working together.
Poor old Pania. I will work it out though.
The piglets and all were eating sunflower seeds all afternoon.
Poppy and her piglets were separated yesterday. Poppy just followed me across the fields. This was miserable for Poppy, though deep down I think she knew why, the piglets, left in their house, just ate everything in sight and lay about like little fat pigs.
I gave Poppy a few beers, and some rescue remedy and she seemed to settle down for a while. She was already quieter by evening. (Probably hung over poor lovey). Weaning is so hard. For animals and humans.
Tane got all excited about Poppy being out in the field and began chopping his jaws at her so I took them across to the barn. One change in the ecosystem of the farmy and everything is out of sync.
Then terrible weather came in like a whirl and I put everyone I could into the barn. Luckily we missed the worst of it. Later in the night I went out and opened the doors up again. We get some wild weather this time of year.
I pick sunflowers every day, the whole heads. The chickens, both the meat chickens and the layers and all the pigs love munching on them. The sweetcorn and sunflowers have been wonderful feed for the animals.
I hope you have a lovely day,
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
41 responses to “Peachicks and sunflowers”
Boo seems to be moving around just fine today. I’m so glad to see that. Best wishes to Poppy as she gets her figure back. She has done a wonderful job with her babies. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try some beer to ease my separation.
Is that Difficult or Little? That baby is all leg!
That is Little, he is such a scrawny wee thing.. c
His coat is so glossy, though. Always a good sign.
Yes – they are all very shiny – I am pleased about that.. c
Beer for Poppy. I think that’s great. A wonderful soother for sorrow. Weaning really is so painful. I remember your lambs bleating so. When I read about dams being separated from their foals it is heartbreaking too.
Oh I hope Boo is feeling better. At least he isn’t flat out on the verandah. He looks to be active. I am always amazed at how you know what to feed your creatures!
This is life. Farmy life. So normal and yet so special . I like how you everything take into consideration, how you try to do justice to everyone here (or maybe better: how you try to meet everyone’s needs) and how you empathize with whom who needs it the most. So lovely. And lovingly.
I do love all the photos of today. They are so real. Little always looks so forlorn though…
Have a nice evening, Celi. Warm regards.
Boo looks to be up to his usual activities. That wee calf is so thin, but looks healthy otherwise. You invested so much into those wee ones, it has to be encouraging to seem them coming along. Mrs. Flowers has made herself quite the safe haven for her chicks.
One of the family stories about the G.O.’s great grandmother is that she was a great believer in and eater of sunflower seeds, she lived to be 98, a life sadly cut short by being hit by a train while collecting coal on the tracks… imagine the long life the sunflower seeds may have given her otherwise. So there’s a lesson we can all think on in our own way, eat the seeds but watch out for trains.
To share a moment with a weaning sow, nursing a couple of beers together, sounds like an idyllic way to spend time on the farmy. Someday I will have to time a farmy retreat to accomplish this.
I do realize the two-leggeds and four-leggeds truly are a family on the farmy, but sharing beers adds another dimension indeed! Oh my Hungarian ex was never without a handful of sunflower seeds and besides oils methinks there is protein and carbs there too: wish they looked more appetizing to me 🙂 !! Boo: news just great . . .
It’s so true that you can’t change one thing with livestock without all sorts of other changes happening in reaction. I really appreciate the “lulls” when things are working well enough, everyone is happy, and the daily routine can be just that – a routine. Of course, those periods never last for long.
Weaning is so hard. I’ve been lucky with most of my goats; could take the time to let the mamagoats decide for themselves. They all kept the milk bar open a little longer than I expected them to, but when they decided to shut it down, that was IT. No further discussion, and no apparent problems. By comparison, a couple of times I’ve had to separate kids and does for some reason, and the timing meant it made sense to go ahead and wean them. The endless calling, day after day…it would break a harder heart than mine!
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