This week brought a rather large amount of disappointment for me. I continued to pull the peanut patch. It was all for naught. The peanuts are riddled with nematode damage. Pounds of them - ruined. The chickens are enjoying the heck out of helping, but they are the only ones. :-( I'm nearly done clearing the patch. Too bad I chose the wrong area to plant them. Seems they WOULD have been a good, productive variety after all. *pout*
What I did bring to the table isn't much. But, I'll brag that my 'pet' hen Dusty is finally laying again. I got eggs from her this week! It brought my normal dozen eggs for the week up to 17!
Hers are the lightest colored eggs there. They are also the smallest as she has laid the fewest eggs of all. I'm just so happy that all three hens are finally laying at the same time for once. YIPPEE!
Unfortunately I also had 2 visitors to the coop this week. A feral cat and an opossum. >:-( I'm not happy. I don't know what, if anything I can do to keep them out. I took away the ladder from the coop. That should keep the opossum out of the coop. I think it only comes after the food. I do know that if it is truly starving it will eat a chicken, but I'm reinforcing the wires under the gate (where it came in at) as well to try to keep it out. The d*mn cat came in from over the fence. Most cats won't actually attack a chicken, but I don't trust that. Not for a nanosecond. This is the THIRD time I've seen this cat come in and that tells me it's only a matter of time until it is brazen enough to try. I just hope it tries during the day when they can defend themselves. If it does that it won't try again if it gets torn up by chicken claws. :-D
I guess I'll be looking for some sort of way to turn the coop around and then another way to open and close the coop from inside the house in the morning. If anyone has ideas - I'm all ears.
Also harvested 2 more handfuls each of black beans, zipper peas and pink eye purple hulls. A few black eyes thrown in just for fun and a mess of chocolate mint (after drying I still need to take the leaves off here)
The picture is horrible, but my cell will have to do. Once again my memory card was where my camera wasn't. Sorry.
Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday! Thanks Daphne for being such a great hostess.
Till next time.
Barbie~
I hope that your efforts to keep your hens safe are successful :) Sorry to hear about the peanut problems...
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm going to look into the cost of running an electric tape on the top of the fence. Look out Mr. Kitty. I hope it isn't too expensive. Perfect for coons and birds too.
DeleteSorry to hear about nematode damage to the peanuts. And hope for no damage to the chikens.
ReplyDeleteps. any chance of deactivating that word verification?
OK Jenny- I did it. I turned it off and turned on the Moderation. :-) Now if I get spammed to pieces it will have to come back! LOL... not that I relly get that much attention. LOL
ReplyDeleteNo peanuts, how heart breaking after all that work. Hope your chicken stay safe from those animals.
ReplyDeleteThat is the one good thing about peanuts. They pretty well self weed once they get going. Only work is the harvest. :-D
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your peanut crop, very frustrating after all your hard work. Feral cats are a huge problem for us (we live in the country) and they love eating the eggs, one afternoon i went to lock up the girls and found a cat curled up in the nesting box !!!Good luck with your coop repairs.
ReplyDeleteAre the cats so hungry and desperate that they will eat a chicken? I wonder...
ReplyDelete