News and new poems

First, the news! AKA the boring stuff first...

Still trying to integrate(note to self: buy 2-3 more chickens then you think you need and hopefully no integration will be necessary in the future)
Latest intelligence from the chickens is that sybill thinks I'm a rival chicken in the pecking order.
Yada yada yada
Blah blah blah
Oh, also we went to the U-pick raspberry place and got 4 pounds of berries!!!! YAY!
Oh, and we also made key lime pie!!!! With real key limes!!!!! (Note to self, buy regular limes, though not as good, they take much less juicing, cutting and slapping yourself for not noticing their the size of a quarter and, obviously, HARD TO SQUEEZE)

Okay, I have some poems i wrote now

Hallows Eve

Fur and Hide, Tooth and Claw, Tail and Moon and Gaping Maw. Staircase creak, Pipe Tinkle, Closet moan and Hallway groan. Witch's cackle, Gravestone speak. Black cat, Silver bone, Tail of rat. Full moon, Shadows move, Howl, Growl, Yip and Yowl. Caw of Crow and Tip of Blade, Silver glint in shady glade.

*Applause*

Stormy Day

Cloudy gray, a slow, light, drizzle. Golden Fields, a slight breeze rustles. Tattle Tales tell, Crows take flight and caw, Warning all of cat and fox

*Crickets*

Moonspiration

Full moon, Light of the Lantern, Howl of the Wolf, Crackle of a Twig, Erie echos and Flickering shadows. Jet black sky, twinkle of a star, bats chasing moths, owls hoot and animals sleep. Glowing embers of a long burnt-out fire, Muffled snores of campers in their tents, Glowing eyes of a Cat or Raccoon and the rustle of trees in the wind.

When I rite poems I tend to have a very descriptive style, there for, I only rite poems about things that suite my style of riting -- Hence the poems about night, dawn, Halloween and stormy days.

My favorite one so far has to be Hallows Eve.

Hail

It is totally hailing like craaaaazy right now. I don't just mean little stuff, either, this is almost marble-sized hail!!! We maneged to cover the bigger bed before it did too much damage to the crops. We'll see how big this storm is and if it passes quickly.

I'll make updates tomorrow or whenever this stops...

Update: The hail seems to have stopped for now, we'll assess the damage (If any) in the morning

Update: Sorry, forgot to post this... The hail damage is minimum, I don't think we got much. It's sprinkling again, I hope we don't get hail again.

Chickens

Sybill and Minerva have been causing quite a commotion for the little chickens. Hawk didn't get enough sleep last night, so we have to put her in a box (She's so tired, she fell asleep on my mom's lap). Mini-Max is faring better, but is still getting bullied. We've tried the usual method, introducing them, letting them sleep in each other's houses, etc. (Here's a page about flock integration, we're only on day 1 of it so dunno how well it works).On Back Yard Chickens there's allot of ideas out there, some quite funny and far fetched , not just smuggling chicks under a broody hen, or sneaking pullets in and making a big fuss the next at at feeding time, but stuff like: Sneaking the little guys in at night, then spraying all the chickens with the same perfume (And your chickens smell nice all day, too!), and apparently quarantine is needed sometimes... Oh, and I like the Chicken Jail idea.... You can't run from the law forever, Sybill!

Edit:
Okay, so this has nothing to do with chickens, but I'm getting back into knitting (I got bored of it once spring came)and I wanna learn how to knit hats next. Hats seem like usefull things.... :)

Sybill

Sybill has been an increasing pain in the butt. A couple days ago, she attacked Sunny (Sunny was unhurt, luckily). And, of course she's been pecking poor Minerva's wing to un-death. And lately she's been campaigning against Mini-max and Hawk.
Here's the story:
We knew that Minerva and maybe Sybill would be the meanest to the newcomers, because they were last and 3rd in the pecking order, Sybill continually pecks Minerva to keep it that way. And we were right, at first we brought the hens up to see the chicks and yes, Minerva was rather mean to them. Sybill wasn't too mean to the chicks, maybe because she wasn't even sure if they were going to be in their flock. But apparently, either Sybill realized she'd have to contest with these fuzzballs in the pecking order, or she's gotten very mean.
We stayed late at a game party last night, the little girls were in the big girl's coop and when my dad and Harry got home, they didn't know that the little girls were in there, so they let the big girls out and they ran into the big coop. The next morning it was pretty loud, and we guessed there was allot of henpecking going on, as we knew about the lucky mistake (We think them going to bed together helped the little girls integrate in to the big girl's flock). And Sybill was probably giving them a hard time, but she even went to the extent of not letting Mini-Max lay in the coop.

I have no idea what we're going to do with Sybill, but one things for sure, if I had to eat one of our chicken's it would be her. *Sigh*

Maybe I should threaten here with debeaking and being eaten or something, not that chickens understand what I'm saying....

Dawn

Bats flutter in and out of the lightening sky as crickets sing their last good-bye's to the night.
The stars and the clouds together in a sea of pastel blue.
No sound but the bat's wings flapping almost silently and the cricket's chirping and the rustle of the wind in the trees.
A bird song in the distance, the sky is brightening yet more and suddenly the air explodes with song. Chirping and singing, birds fly trough the sky greeting a new and a wonderful day.
The crickets tire and burrow deeper into their homes, the stars hide themselves among the sky, the bats retire and fly home with stomachs full of insects.
The squirrels and the rabbits take this as their cue, and emerging from their dens and warrens, begin to forage in the early light.
And gradually, the sky brightens from a dark blue to pastel and then into lavender and pink and soon the sun appears, turning the clouds above it magenta with flecks of gold and orange.
The bird songs become louder, more animals wake up to eat and bask in the morning sun.
The robins and the starlings, the morning doves and the blue jays all come out to eat with the early birds.
Dewdrops form on the grass as chipmunks and squirrels skitter up and down trees stashing nuts and seeds here and there.
The flickers and robins gobble up worms and grubs as they emerge from the ground, drawn up by the dew.
A rumble of a distant car, a bark of a distant dog , a splash of a distant river-- and suddenly it is morning.
The air is damp and cool and the sun shines brightly down upon the earth, the air is heavy with the smell of dew and the songs of birds.
And then the world awakens, people getting up and going to work, people walking their dogs, people watering their lawns, people getting ready for school, people on their front porch sipping their coffee and their tea.

5 Eggs!

Yesterday one of our two pullets, Mini-Max, layed an egg. So that brings our total of laying hens up to 5! I keep expecting to see a blue egg.

Hawk's doing well (Hawk's the surviving Ameraucana. We had a fox attack)

Minerva, our little Black Austrolorp, has been having problems with her wing, the tops of the feathers getting chewed (Or, in fact pecked) off. We only recently caught the culprit. It was Sybill who was henpecking her. Now I've got a pretty good idea of the pecking order with them now (Though It'll change as soon as we integrate Mini-Max and Hawk)and poor Minerva has been nicknamed 'Zombie Wing' because of the Zombie look on her wing, and Sybill's nickname is now 'Death claw'.

Here's the Pecking order we think:
Maxime aka 'Sun hen', Alfa hen.
Ginny, Deputy.
Sybill aka 'Death Claw', 3rd in the Pecking order
Minerva aka 'Zombie Wing', lowest ranking.

And Hawk aka 'The Survivor' is the deputy in her and Max's two-hen flock we think.

Not much more news, it's been quite rainy the last couple of days. The gardens are doing great, a bowl of strawberries everyday. Here's a post about the gardens in more depth. The rats are doing good and sunny's her usual, high strung, barky self.

Awesome Animal Art!

I've been into Werewolf/were-animals lately and I've found the coolest site while web surfing. It's got all sorts of cool fantasy artwork: Griffins of all sorts (not just eagle/lion, but eagle/snow leopard, white tiger, puma, ETC.), dragons, Fae folk (Fairy-like people/creatures), Werewolves, wolf people, animal people-- And there's much more....

But anyway, I'd advise anyone who likes mythical animals, werewolves or were-animals to check out this site , it's realllllllly cool. I think my favorite piece of artwork there is the "Shift Happens" one.... ;)

Anyway, that's all.