We are picking a veritable rainbow of berries from our garden now, a tasty pay-off for all of DH's hard work:
Our Royal Anne cherries are at their peak (I need to get busy and dry some more!):
All three varieties of daylily are blooming, along with other flowers about the place:
There are flowers to be found in the garden, too:
Along with infant veggies:
This morning when I went down to do chores, Lucy wasn't hanging out in the usual area. I was immediately struck with dread, fearing she had met a violent end the night before. Funny how quickly we can get attached to creatures, isn't it? I trudged into the barn to clean stalls, and heard a little chicken noise. There Lucy was, scratching about in the horses' stalls.
Later, when I took the ewes out to pasture, Lucy followed to see if she could snitch some grain.
She found their jostling a bit much, though; I think she'll stick to eating with the ram lambs.I was so relieved to see our friendly little fugitive again. Later, when I checked email, I read Becky's comment on yesterday's post. She thinks I should put Lucy in with our hens for the very reason I was frightened by this morning. I haven't done that yet, but I'm ruminating on it. She seems so happy having the run of the place and fraternizing with all the four-leggeds. Should I incarcerate her, most likely with a hostile flock, for her own protection? Oh, what to do with Lucy 2?
That's it for now at . . .
12 comments:
I vote that you let Lucy roam free. She seems smart enough to avoid real danger. No doubt she roosts somewhere above ground level at night. Your dog must not be molesting her. Let her keep her freedom and take her chances on the lam. Don't put her with a flock of hens who will attack the foreigner in their midst.
Very impressive berries! How do the light colored ones taste compared to red raspberries? I red raspberries and wild black caps.
Beautiful fruit! You all will be eating good. :-) Why is your grass so brown? Is it just the variety or are you have a dry spell? As for Lucy...is there anywhere you could shut her up for the evenings that would be safe, and not too much of a hassle? I wouldn't dare leave the chickens out at night around here--the first night they would be 'possum, coon or skunk food, not matter where they roosted. I've lost a few over the years because they went and hide themselves at roosting time. The next morning only the feathers and few bits left. However I do let all of mine free range during the day, inside the sheep pastures, so they have a pretty good time. Good luck with all your stray chickens. Obviously they know a good farm when they find one! ha
Tammy
Great looking fruit :-)
I could eat it all up ;-)
Wizz
Did Lucy just show up as a stray one day? You're right she probably won't get along well with the established flock. But you could always try keeping her in a dog cage inside their coop for a few days to let them get used to each other. That should give you an idea if it will work or not.
Do you think Lucy is getting ready to go on the lam again?
Jody, my husband thinks the golden raspberries are wonderfully sweet, but I find them bland. I prefer the red and black raspberries; the black ones are drier but what flavor!
Just to clear up any confusion, Lucy 2 is the second red sex-link hen to escape from the neighbor's "coop" to our property. Lucille came first, and has been successfully incorporated into our flock with the neighbor's permission for some time. Lucy 2 showed up more recently, and while we've caught her and petted her, we haven't put her in the chicken yard yet (and there's NO point in taking her back to the neighbor's). I've thought about shutting her up in the chicken yard at night (the rest of the girls would be shut up in the chicken house), but I wonder if that might make her more vulnerable than she is finding her own roost.
What a wonderful mix in your blog today. Fruit to make my mouth water, flowers that are pleasing to the eye, and a renegage chicken that likes to be free. She is a free spirit and it would be a shame to pen her up. I am sure she will avoid danger as her predessors did. I have seen many farms where the chickens run free and they survived.
We let all our chickens run for the day, but would never be able to let them do that at night...eventually they would meet a violent death. Henpecking is nothing compared to what a predator would do...I vote for finding some sort of restricted night roost.
A safer night roost would be the best way to go if you didn't want to find a bloody mess of feathers one morning.
Love the berry pictures. The flowers are gorgeous too. :-)
The pictures certainly made me hungry!
Beautiful fruit and beautiful flowers!! Lucy2 sounds like a free spirit who is loving her freedom. Can you allow her to roam free, but have protection at night without her having to be caged?? It would be kind of sad to cage her after having so much independence. Thanks for the comment about my sis Michelle. It seems like in order to have a relationship with her, I always have to keep my lips sealed. Frankly, I don't do well at eggshell treading. But I do miss her more than she misses me it seems.
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