Today was a fantastic day really.  It was warm and wonderful, the sun began to dry the wet muddy spots everywhere in the yard, and I got some good things done.  We started with the front porch today, which has been holding 3-4 chickens in dog cages for the last few weeks.  Lexi’s show chickens have been sold as she is interested in another breed, Seabrights.  She’s always been interested in them, but I encouraged her to choose a dual purpose breed in the beginning.  Now that I have my own breeding programs and poultry plans set, it’s a fine time for her to get whatever she would want and build her own coop for them.  So that’s what we’re going to do this year with her.

I sold the last two Australorps today to a lovely woman who lives not too far from me.  And now my Black Orpington Pen is just that only black orpingtons.  I must say, Broody is doing very well with the change.  We took her from the eggs late at night and placed her on the perch in the completely new environment with a different rooster.  She’s fantastic, eating, scratching and hanging out like the other gals. Yesterday we tried to put a couple of our little Buff hens with Wattles, who is now in his own pen, but he was a little too rough for them and they weren’t ready.  They managed to escape and we found them outside the hen house trying to get back in, so we let them.  Wattles will just have to wait a while longer for a girl of his own.  We moved the 2 Turkey Hens into the hen house too because they really needed some space to stretch out.  They have been living in their brooder at night and on my back porch during the daytime, but there is no roof so only when the weather was good.  Its awful when they are cooped up in there, its plenty tall enough for them to stand up but they can’t really stretch out, no dustbathing or anything and so it makes me sad.  Now that they are in the hen house, they can do more of the things they want to do until I get the Turkey habitat done.   So, for the first time in almost a year, there is no poultry on the back porch!  Of course, there are still 7 chicks in the dog crate in our living room.  It’s been nice outside for the last day but it’s still getting pretty cold at night, so I’ll keep them here a few more days.

I still haven’t started my seeds, probably because I just haven’t had a lot of energy to do much, and just doing the minimum can be exhausting!  I did go out today, saw lots of started plants already well into the growing stages.  It’s frustrating because I thought planting seeds now was early! But I guess next year I should start February 1st if I can find a way to protect them from the cold.

It’s getting pretty late now, 11:01 p.m. and I should get a few more things done before sleep, so, this is Dawn, signing off!