... the bees and ducklings will arrive. I just called the post office to give them a heads up... the postmaster out here is SO much more accustomed to this sort of thing than the postmaster at our old place!! The hive is set up down by the apple trees, up on concrete blocks to help keep it off the wet ground. I've read and reread my instructions for what to do when the package arrives, and what to do when it's time to install them in the hive. I'm excited, and nervous. Honeybees were what originally interested me in the whole homesteading/livestock thing... I always found them fascinating, and at 16 years old decided I wanted to be a beekeeper. I read book after book, falling deeper in love with the little ladies, and now years later I am finally fulfilling that dream.
The baby chicks don't have a brooder light on at the moment... it's easily 75 to 80 degrees in that room without it on and they appear quite comfortable. It's been raining like crazy off and on here since Sunday afternoon, and the sticky warm air is making it feel more like June than April. When the thunderstorms break, the sun beats down powerfully, making the second floor of our house a very warm place to be indeed. The chicks don't seem to mind, and I don't either with an icy cold margarita in my hand.
The bad news is that I discovered some bloody poo in the brooder tonight... we'd gotten the chicks vaccinated for Marek's and coccidiosis, but I suspect that the latter has made an appearance anyway. Maybe that's what did in the three little sick ones who died in the first week? Who knows. All I know is that I will NEVER order from McMurray Hatchery ever again. It's been one nightmare after another with the birds we ordered from them. I have an appointment with a vet tomorrow morning to get their stool tested. They're all acting fine, eating and drinking and bouncing off the walls... at least that's a good sign.
I'm sure the warm weather will make the ducklings happy as well, I'm sure. I'm nervous about raising ducks, as it's a new adventure for us. I'm hoping there will be enough room in the coop for them to hole up with the chickens... but if not, we'll build them a little duck house near the pond. We're planning to let them free range, and to just herd them into the coop at night.
Mary, our little Barred Rock, passed the impacted egg mess she was struggling with and is doing just fine now! She passed a bunch of eggy gook, and then a day or two later we found an egg with no shell at all in the coop, just the membrane. The next day she laid a normal egg again, and is completely acting herself. I am so relieved!
I am FINALLY going to get our asparagus crowns into the ground today, come hell or high water. I just hope that the plants haven't died while waiting for the ground to be prepared. I'm afraid that the raspberry canes aren't looking too great... they haven't been in the ground long, but I'm not seeing any leafing out happening on them. The strawberries and blueberries are nice and green, sprouting new leaves all over the place... but I worry for the raspberries. We'll see, I suppose.
Our housewarming party was a great success, complete with drumming, singing and guitar playing around the fire. The weather cleared up beautifully and with the help of our friends and logs frm the trees we cut down, we successfully moved the coop from up near the road down to the area with the fenced run. The variety and quality of the people we know never ceases to amaze me, especially when I see them all working together to accomplish something as tricky as moving a chicken coop on rollers, downhill, in the mud.
The sun is shining and the garden is calling, I hope to update tomorrow with ducks and bees and chicks on their way back to health!
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