Spiderman...

...or woman, I suppose. Either way, here's a cool photo of a black and yellow spider (Argiope aurantia) I took in our front prairie a couple weeks ago. That morning, I looked out the bedroom window to see huge spider webs covered in dew all over the prairie. I'm not a good enough photographer to be able to capture those images well, but this one was pretty cool, I thought. This spider's body was probably a little bigger than a quarter -- a bit too big for my comfort, but they must have some important job in the prairie or they wouldn't be there, right?

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

We had another fun day at the State Fair a couple of weeks ago. It was a long one, from 10:30am to past 9pm. That's plenty of walking and eating and walking and seeing animals and walking and visiting the 4H building and walking and eating. Here are some photos:

Max at the all-you-can-drink milk bar -- the pipes overhead carry cold milk (regular or chocolate) straight down like a tap at a bar.

Mmmm -- chocolate milk!


Ben on the Sky Ride with Ted

Noelle on the Sky Ride in the rain

An action shot of Ellie, Max and Noelle on the River Ride

Back outside!

We received and installed the electrified poultry netting over the weekend, and now the birds are finally back outside. Yay! It's not exactly "free-range" anymore, but their new range is big enough to at least let them have some freedom to roam, scratch and do other chicken-y things.



One fun side effect of the chickens' relative captivity is that the goats can now share space with the birds. Birds hang out in the goat yard and goats can wander and browse through the chicken "paddock". It took a few zaps for the goats to learn to respect the fence (what the kids attest feels like a "playground shock"), but now Moose and Lily happily co-mingle with the poultry gang. Of course, Moose promptly scooted through the chicken door in the coop and started munching on chicken feed, so now we have to make sure that's closed before any mingling can occur. ;-)

Ben's a kindergartner now!

Ben started kindergarten this week! His teacher is Mrs. Moen, and the class is with both kindergartners and first graders. He seems to love things so far, with his usual favorites of the morning being recess and snack. ;-)

Ben "signing in" in his classroom on the first day

Here is Ben with Ellie and Max in front of the peace pole at their school.
This was day 2 for Max and Ellie. That little girl on the left doesn't look too happy about starting kindergarten, does she?

Chicken Joe's a-crowin'

At 6am this morning, we wondered what in the world was that strange, low, sort of gargling noise outside. Wild turkeys? A crow? The young cows down the street? No, it was our very own Chicken Joe, finally really going for a bonafide crow from inside the coop. I realized it was the same pattern I had heard coming from the coop last week (in the middle of the day), only today he was repeating himself several times. True, he sounded a bit strangled and like he didn't quite know what he was doing (he is a chicken teenager, after all, about 4 1/2 months old), but he's finally found his voice.

A few minutes later, we heard another rooster from a neighbor (don't know who has chickens by us!), and that one was the traditional high-pitched number. Chicken Joe's not the most macho of cockerels so far (for which we are grateful!), and I really hope his crow stays this nice, low, soft version. Unlikely, I know, but a girl can dream. Continuing to crow after 6am would be nice, too, but again, unlikely. ;-)

Sad week around here

Well, we have some sad news to report from Fat Beagle Farm. On Tuesday, we lost over half of our chickens. :-( When we went out near dusk to close in the chickens for the night, there were only 7 of the 15 chickens hanging out on their roosts. We beat the bushes and looked and looked, and all we found were 4 or 5 different piles of feathers at various places all over the back forty. We had just talked to our neighbor, who told us she saw a dog (that looked "like a wolf", whatever that means) hanging around our pens a bit earlier in the day. We figure this dog (or possibly more than one?) got as many chickens as it could catch or carry.

It's hard to believe over half the flock could be gone just like that (the survivors are in the picture at right), but after consulting other chicken folks online, it seems that neighboring and/or stray dogs are one of the biggest threats to a free-ranging flock, especially during the day. Many people also said finding just feathers (and no other parts) sounds right for dogs, especially a big, hungry dog. Who knows what dog did the crimes -- people around here let their dogs roam unfenced and unleashed as a matter of course. I doubt we'll ever find who did it.

As you might expect, we were all extremely sad. This remaining flock seemed rather stunned that first evening, but now they're just itching to get back outside. We let them out for a few hours one afternoon, but only because one of them escaped out the front door and we didn't want her by herself. Too bad for them, but since then, they've been in their coop. We've ordered some electrified poultry netting so we can at least set up a small area where they can at least be outside. Fully fencing a good area for them to roam is too big and expensive a project for us this season. It really bums us out since they really enjoyed free-ranging so much, but for now, the risk feels too high.

Plus, I don't think Ellie would stand for them out there without protection, at least for a while. We have spent time talking about how at least the hens led a great free life before the dog came, which is more than you can say for chickens at Tyson!

A few recent pictures...

So serious.....

....but now they're all having some fun.