Cardinals in Heat

 The seasons progress.  Although it is still winter--trees are still dormant and it was 18 two weeks ago, the daffodils are up (though not blooming yet) and we're entering a sort of peri-spring period. The roads are covered with dead skunks--they mate mid-January to mid-February--and squirrels have been getting active.

Another early-season mating period is apparently that of the cardinal.  For the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a bird fluttering around the mirrors on my truck, and then I noticed this:

Somebody has been spending an awful lot of time on my front bumper.  I then started to pay attention and saw the cardinal (or maybe there's more than one) flying away from the front of the truck every time I walked nearby.

The picture isn't the greatest--massively digitally zoomed and through a not-so-clean window--but you get the idea.  He's seeing himself in the chrome and in the mirrors and fighting his own reflection, trying to drive the presumed rival male out of his territory.  Not surprisingly, this hapless soul doesn't have a female with him--which is doubtless part of the frustration.

All birds apparently are prone to this, and the impact of a mirror on a male betta fish is well-known.  Cardinals may be more susceptible than most other birds.  There are plenty of pictures online of the phenomenon.  Hopefully this soon passes--then we'll be progressing to male woodpeckers and carpenter bees.

Hay, Bunny!

 As is generally recommended, my rabbits are getting pellets and hay.  Although websites usually mention Timothy hay as the most preferred, that's pretty pricey (Tractor Supply sells a 50-pound bale for $23.99 as of this writing).  Bermuda and alfalfa hay are more available.  The link above suggests that rabbits don't like Bermuda grass as much, but the nutrition profile of Bermuda and Timothy are essentially identical (see Table 1 of the linked PDF). One note is that alfalfa hay has more calcium and is usually contraindicated for rabbits in most articles I've read (e.g., this one). This is not a problem; alfalfa costs more.  On Craigslist, alfalfa bales are usually about twice the price of Bermuda, which are the only two readily-available options other than the prepackaged and expen$ive route from a Tractor Supply or similar store.

When I got rabbits, the only hay I had on hand was some Bermuda bales from the previous winter--I park the chicken tractors in late November and don't move them again until March.  I tossed some in the cages and the rabbits immediately began nibbling at it.  They may prefer Timothy to Bermuda, but they seem to go for Bermuda with enthusiasm nonetheless.

I'm not sure exactly how much they actually eat vs. lose through the wire bottoms of their cages.  Some people have built little hay racks in their cages, but I just dump a bunch on the floor of the cage.  Sometimes there's still some left the next day; sometimes not.  Some of the rabbits seem to get into playing with it:

In the foreground is the red New Zeland buck; the TAMUK buck is in the background.  The one in front often burrows into the hay as soon as I put it in his cage--but he eats it, too.  Tossing his hay around though is bound to make more fall through. Alas.  He has gained weight very well, and rapidly, so he's getting enough to eat one way or another.

Snow, 2022

 It happens sometimes.  The mountain counties probably get snow every winter, but elsewhere, it's not an every-winter thing.  I got snow in mid-January this year for the first time since February, 2020. 

The total amount of snow was probably around three inches, but there was rain in between two bouts of snow, so the amount at the end of it all was less.

Southern lore holds that if the snow stays on the ground three days, another snowfall will occur soon--and it did, sort of.  I got a few flurries about a week later, but there was minimal accumulation.  The cold is not done for the year, although the snow may be / probably is.  Although snow is possible into early March, that is very rare.  March is early spring around here.

More on the Rabbit Hutch

 The re-engineered rabbit hutch is working decently well.  More overhang on the sides would be potentially helpful, but overall it's working worlds better than Hutch 1.0 did.  However, once I put rabbits in, I realized they pick a corner of the cage as their latrine spot, and one of the rabbits ends up routinely urinating on the horizontal cage supports.

I should've realized this would be a problem.  It would've been much easier to address before installing the rabbits.  Alas.  However, it was addressable ex post, too.  I pulled all four cages off:

...and painted the 2x4s the cages rest on with high-gloss white paint:

I only did one coat... I should do another.  You can also see that I painted the insides of the cross braces and the vertical supports, too--I had heard, but had to experience first hand, that bucks spray urine everywhere.  So far, the two boys seem to be coexisting reasonably well, but there was a chance they'd end up spraying more than just the wood under their cages--so it all got painted.  It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than raw wood.

The Return of Eggs

 Last year my first group of chickens started laying right after the winter solstice--January 2.  I've read elsewhere that the trend of day length matters as much (or more than) the day length itself.  Charting my birds' production this year reveals that their peak was actually in late May, a month before the summer solstice.  Then they slowly declined throughout the summer, still producing at 80% of their max as late as the end of August.  Shortly after the fall equinox I sold off the "Reluctant Egg Layers" (and brought in the Delawares), and the remaining layers went into molt, shutting down completely in early November.

Then in late December, actually a couple of days before the winter solstice, I got the first egg.  For the first week, I think it was just one chicken that had rebooted, because I found three eggs, all the same size and shape.  Now there may be a couple of them going.  It looks like I will end up with about eight eggs the last two weeks of December to finish out the year.  The Delawares may come online in late February or early March. Hope springs anew!

Transformative Kraut

 As I have mentioned before, more than once, I have made sauerkraut and it has worked pretty well.  This was true even last spring, when the temps were warm.  Holly at makesauerkraut.com indicates that the flavor is better when temps are lower (she says below 72, which I have often hit, but I now think it might be below 70).  All of my past batches have turned out about the same, but this fall I made some that was different.

I didn't start it until late November, after temps had crashed in the house and I was using the wood stove.  This time, the temperatures were solidly below 70, not just for the first few days but throughout.  The only caveat is that I initially located the crock in the same room as the stove, where temperatures hit 80 for brief periods when the stove is in use. Holly specifically warns about this.  I thought the increases were too short to matter, but maybe not: I had extreme sauerkraut tides to deal with; the moat would be almost dry then overflowing.  When I moved the crock to another room the situation improved, but on a day when the temp was lower indoors, the moat completely dried up.

When I carried it into the kitchen, some water did flow back in, so it was being sucked up.  On opening, things looked pretty normal.

And I got about the normal amount of kraut (eight pounds went into the crock, pretty much the standard amount).

The flavor was different, however, and much improved.  It has a nuance and subtlety that I haven't noticed before.  Maybe the cooler temperatures did allow different bacteria to work and leave their imprint. My other sauerkraut has been okay, and even good.  But I'm going through this so fast that I'm going to need more soon.  I've downed the two quart jars in less than a week, minus a half pint I've given to someone else.

Maybe this is a one-time thing, but I'm hoping I can replicate it.  Whatever I did this time worked out very well.

When Roosters Go Bad

My first Barred Rock rooster was sometimes a little ornery. But I could usually deal with it.  The second Barred Rock rooster, which I still have, is a definite punk.  I've renamed him Psycho.  He's never absorbed the age-old wisdom of, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."  So I have to deal with him periodically.

 

 It's a challenging situation.  He's fairly fragile, but also pretty big.  And I have him for exactly this reason--to defend the hens.  He couldn't take on a bobcat or a fox, but I would expect him to charge a cat or hawk.

With both roosters, I have occasionally employed the tactic suggested in this YouTube video.  Unlike SSLFamilyDad, I have not found it to be a permanent solution, but after I engage in a correctional session with either one, I have peace for a while.  The first Barred Rock would behave himself for months, but Psycho is only good for about three weeks before he's apt to start acting out again.

Hopefully a solution is to work with the roosters when young.  I have a cockerel with my new Delawares, and he's first to the door of the tractor every day.  I'm spending some time stroking him a little and feeding him weeds.  Hopefully, that will pay dividends in coming months.