Tales from the Raven

Remember that when you’re making your mom an omelette–she’ll love it, shells and all!

Maybe it was all the times we squirted her if she looked cross-eyed at the chicks.  Maybe she’s counted and realized the barnyard birds outnumber her one hundred to one.  Whatever it is, our cat has decided to gracefully give ground when the guineas come looking for her food–and they’re always looking for her food! [...]

I promised myself I woudn’t hatch any chicks after the first of November.  For one thing, I knew I’d need to clear out all chick and incubator occupied corners to make room for the Christmas stuff.  For another, I wanted to make sure I’d be ready to hatch in the spring–even if our crazy birds’ [...]

Muck, mud, puddles, poo, cold, nails, shavings, dirt.  These are all things my boots are supposed to protect me from, and all things they let in when they’re broken down and full of holes.  But as I head into the flurry of our Thanksgiving week, I’m grateful for my boots, in whatever shape. See, my [...]

This was supposed to be a fun little blog post about how our splash chick got a bath and his new name.  Of course, that was before the scary turn that had me anxious about going to sleep last night, for fear I’d dream of drowning in my sleep. The chick, of course, doesn’t look like he [...]

Most of our chickens love watermelon rinds–it’s truly their most favorite treat ever!  Super Splash, our pet silkie, somehow missed the memo.  We were sad to see him missing out, so one day we offered him a piece.  Coaxed him toward it.  And finally tried to stick his beak in it. He was gonna love [...]

Remember way back in the spring when I blogged about our new adorable little penguin chicks?  Turns out I was wrong about them, and can let my zoo license lapse…at least for a few months.  Those lovely babies have grown into gracious Black Copper Marns chickens.  In this photo you see one of our roos, [...]

Hi, my name is Suzanne, and I’m addicted to hatching. That’s probably how I should introduce myself!  We had two weeks without anything hatching, and it seriously felt like several months.  I kept thinking I should go peek in an incubator to see how chicks and keets were coming along, only to have that bummer [...]

Guess what I found in the incubator this morning?  Mind you, this was NOT the hatching bator.  This was in an incubator that is dedicated to incubating eggs for all but the last three days before they hatch.  For those days, the sweet little egg’uns are moved out of the crowded topsy-tipsy bator and into a [...]

The roses are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and we topped out at 90 degrees today.  Sounds like a good time to curl up for a nap, right? Well, you might want to hold on to your tail!  I think we’re officialy flown past spring and are hurtling toward summer at about, oh, 90 miles an hour!  And that seems [...]