Dead Poultry

I've lost a buckeye hen and one of my female muscovy ducks to rampaging dogs today. The owners don't seem very concerned that their dogs escaped yet again and this time, though I was home, they attacked my free ranging chickens and killed my duck. The male duck is severely wounded and is in the garage. The other female flew away but eventually came back and she is in the garage tonight as well. My buckeye rooster has a couple nasty gashes in his back and lost a lot of feathers. He's in a crate in the house where I can feed him and watch him for shock. I'll be lucky if both these males survive. Four of the guineas refused to go back in the coop tonight and are sitting on the fence. It is snowing. It's been a lousy afternoon.

A Little Snow Storm

Winter is back. A snow storm snuck up on us yesterday. There was nary a flake falling from the sky at 11 am but afterward it snowed steadily till after midnight. There's at least 10 inches of fluffy snow out there, I measured it, plus drifting. I shoveled the deck once last night and again today, exhausting work. Then I shoveled a path to the coop and inside the chicken run. Those little beasties hate getting snow on their feet. When I opened the pop door this morning they fell all over each other to keep from getting any snow on them. The sun came out a little today which was nice, too.

I took Rocket and Luna to the vet Thursday for their heartworm tests and got some medicine for a yeast infection in Luna's ear. I have to treat her for 10 days, already she isn't scratching or shaking her head as much. Currently, she is sleeping while Rocket is at Uncle Butch's. He may be staying there for supper as I am too tired to go get him, walking through all that snow is hard. I should have worn my snow shoes this morning on our walk. Left to his own devices he won't come back by himself till 9 pm but I know he's happy there.

The Thaw Continues

Today was the warmest day of our February Thaw. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder and rainy. The temperature reached 53F today and the sun came out in the afternoon after the fog cleared from the sublimating snow. I was able to empty the duck pool and add fresh water which I am sure the ducks will appreciate for the rest of the winter which is returning on Thursday.

The guineas and chickens had a chance to run around all day, too. They still try to stay off the snow, they like the deck and the ground around the bird feeder since it's covered with seed husks and therefore not quite so intimidating as all that strange cold white stuff. They even went into the coop tonight without any prodding by me. I'm getting 1 or 2 eggs a day which is pretty good for young birds in winter. One of these days I'll put in the order for the other birds I want, assuming I ever make a decision.

I've been taking mini movies of my dogs and the birds outside today. I haven't tried to download them to the computer yet, but they look pretty good on the camera. It's amazing how much better these digital cameras are than the old VHS-C camera we bought years ago. I don't even need to supply extra lighting, another good point of this Panasonic. So far it's been just the perfect camera for me! Perhaps I'll download some photos for this blog tomorrow.

The February Thaw

Usually, the thaw happens in January. This year it stayed very cold (doesn't say much for the so-called global warming now called "climate change" by some in order to cover their asses, but let's not get me started on that). Saturday the temps here reached 50.1 and yesterday 40.1 Fahrenheit. We've had a lot of snow melt but fortunately it hasn't rained so we didn't get any flooding. I was able to let the chickens and guineas out to free range which they seemed to enjoy immensely. They especially liked the seed scattered under the bird feeder. Looks like the temps may reach 50 tomorrow, too. By Thursday though things will be back to normal with snow. Oh joy!

Still, it's February, we expect snow and I try to enjoy it because there ain't nothing I can do about it anyway. My neighbor, Mikey's owner, called from Florida last night and even they have been hit by 50 degree temps. Florida isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm hoping I may get to visit there for a couple weeks this winter with one of my sisters-in-law but things beyond my control may keep that from happening. I'd like to visit Kennedy Space Center.

Luna is pacing about, she can't get anyone to play her, poor thing. I think she misses that annoying little puppy, Lyra at times. Rocket is still snoozing though he's already been outside. Yesterday I was able to clear a path to the lower gate in the fence and open it so he no longer has to walk up and down the stairs which is hard on his hips. Soon I will feed the birds and perhaps let them out to run around. It's only 23 at the moment but the sun is shining so I suspect the temps will rise soon. It's already risen 5 degrees since I got up at 8.