Goodbye Bunnies, Hello rain.
We've had rain! Quite heavy rain at times, but it hasn't soaked in very far in areas which have had constant watering. All the water barrels are full again, they were after the first day. We could perhaps do with adding some more in, if we can find the time.
The baby bunnies have gone to new homes, now. They grow up so quick! They were such a cute little bunch and I've already had a message back from one happy new bunny mamma.
Photos courtesy of @izzydawn. Mine were all blurs!
Someone came to look at chickens yesterday and was supposed to come back today to collect, but no show and no reply to texts. I don't care if they changed their mind, but just have the courtesy to say so. I left the car port door open in anticipation and it looks like the neighbour's pug paid us a visit and left a present in front of the chicken run gate!
I hate dealing with the advertising and selling of things at the best of times, but when it's my fur and feather babies it makes it all the more stressful. So I'm always glad to have it over. Still hanging on a decision about this lone bantam pullet.
I want to concentrate on the garden a bit more. I've been digging over one of the chicken runs and plan to plant the potatoes in there. I'm keeping the chickens in there while I do it, so that they can catch any plant eating grubs hiding in the soil. It's not been wet enough for the worms to resurface yet, so they are safe in hibernation from the dinosaur’s hungry beaks! Hopefully I'll have the chickens out and the potatoes in before they come back up for the winter.
After I transplanted some onion seedlings I obviously created an ideal spa area for dust bathing and had a magpie lark busily making little hollows and kicking the seedlings out. So I've put some temporary wiring over the area too discourage birds until the seedlings can handled them. Some of them were also being broken by the spotted dove, who's adopted us, strolling over them. Don't worry, there are plenty of other places for them to wander and enjoy their spas. I'm just diverting them temporarily while the seedlings get a bit stronger.
I don't want to keep birds out of the garden, because as messy as they can be, they're an important part of the ecosystem. They are of great assistance in keeping problem insect levels in check, particularly in spring and summer when they're nesting. As a bonus They also leave their poops behind to feed the plants. They may not be tidy about it, but that's nature. I encourage them by trying to make sure the bird baths are full when it's dry weather and now leave the wall planters for blackbirds to nest in. I have little success with plants in them, anyway.
Just on a last note, Annie the Wyandotte is finally laying again after over a year of being a walking broody! She could never sit long enough to hatch her own eggs, but decided that when our bantam, Red, hatched some, she would also be their mamma. It must have satisfied her itch. This is her in mamma mode:
Photos courtesy of @izzydawn
Posted using Partiko Android
I've bitten the bullet and started constructing an enclosure for our girls. Their constant pecking at the fly screen, penchant for window ledges, poo all over the path; its not worth losing our whole backyard to get 3 eggs a day.
They're going to lose about 90% of their current range, so they won't be happy, but it's still 6 or 7 square metres each, so I'm not the bad guy here.
If they'd just ripped up weeds down the back we wouldn't even be having this conversation; so stop looking at me like that, you have nobody to blame but yourselves.
ISAs seem to much prefer bugs to greens. When we ours, they had the little orange and lemon trees in the run and didn't touch them. The moment I got purebreeds, nothing green survived! I've had to fence the orange until it was big enough to withstand them and the lemon got moved.
I'm sure they'll settle into the new enclosure. They may even appreciate you throwing the weeds in occasionally. It's more interesting when it's a novelty.
Posted using Partiko Android
Of course now I've started building it, their behaviour has improved remarkably. Makes it very difficult to pull together the motivation to finish.
Haha! They're playing you! When they think you've changed your mind, they'll be back to their old ways.
Posted using Partiko Android
It's a common story but nonetheless an instructional one. We had to restrict our girls quite severely because of the destruction they rained on the garden. How do they know first thing in the morning exactly which new seedlings were best, or which Lettuce we were going to eat that day? You'll find life a lot easier with them restricted to a good sized run
Posted using Partiko Android
😂
It's quite a year weather wise. Hot, cold, dry, wet... It looks like a warm dry winter though.
Glad to hear your chooks are sorting themselves out. We still have the problems with Dolores and Yurei not getting along.
Good luck finding the right balance of birds in your garden... I've not found it yet!
Posted using Partiko Android
I think it's also a balance of characters, isn't it?
Posted using Partiko Android
the bunnies look cute and healthy...
Annie the Wyandotte is beautiful! We've had quite a few Silver-laced...but I would love one like her!
The bunny babies are s decidedly cute!! Smiling to see such a typically Australian house after so long - esp with the fold down clothesline. :) Houses are SO DIFFERENT all over the world! Nice gentle post.... thank you.
Leading the curation trail for both @ecotrain & @eco-alex.
Together We’re Making This World A Better Place.
Click Here To Join the manually curated trail "@artemislives" to support quality eco-green content.
@ecoTrain
Haha! They really are so different! I guess that's what make travelling especially interesting. It would be no fun of every country did things the same. I guess you also have to work with so many different climates. It took a while for Australian to become normal for us.
Posted using Partiko Android
Those are very cute bunnies!