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While tucking the chickens in the coop the past two nights, I noticed one of my Golden Penciled Hamburgs in a nest box. I thought she might be starting to get broody, but this morning when I let the chickens out of the coop I found her - dead in a nest box. She was one of my soft shell layers, and I checked her vent just last night. There was dried yolk and egg white on the feathers under her vent, but the vent itself was clear. I was upset that I lost her, and absolutely baffled about what could have caused it. So, next to sticking my finger up chicken butts on a routine basis, I did something I never thought I would. I cut her open. Her abdomen was filled with yolk and egg white, but other than that, I saw nothing that would raise a lot of concern. I’m no necropsy expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve studied the subject a little and was hoping something unusual would catch my attention. It didn’t.

You may recall I lost another Hamburg that died quite suddenly last year. I have no idea what happened to her either. It makes me sad to lose a chicken, but I know that sometimes these things happen. I hope this is just a rare, odd, occurrence.

On a lighter note, the pups and I walked down to get the mail today and on the way, I noticed this in one of our cedar trees:

How very odd. When I flipped one of them up, it looked like an alien blob.

A little later, I found the same thing on another cedar.

In a weird and scary kind of way, I thought they were actually quite pretty.

And I noticed this slime on the trunk of the trees:

I carefully backed away and ran in the house to google this orange/slimy/spaghetti looking goo. As it turns out, those big orange blobs are Cedar-Apple Rust Galls. And that goo on the trunk? That’s Cedar-Quince Rust. These are both a type of fungi. And they are neither one cool to have. Both can eventually kill their host. The Cedar-Apple Rust Gall is especially worrisome. It is a two host fungi. It depends on both the cedar tree and the apple tree. We have many cedar trees, and only two apple trees - which is apparently enough for this fungus to live. In the early nineteen hundreds, the Cedar-Apple Rust fungus was apparently decimating the apple orchards in Virginia. So much so that the Cedar Apple Rust Act of 1914 was passed. This act required any land owner in Virginia that had a cedar infected with the cedar-apple rust fungus, and living within two miles of an apple orchard, to chop the tree down. I am not kidding. It was an official ordinance. As far as I can tell, this ordinance was never repealed and remains in effect today. Not that it pertains to us. We live no where near an apple orchard. But it is rather disturbing that we have trees with this fungus. It’s cute and all that, but it’s still a fungus. And it’s still not cool. I mean we do have two little apple trees that were likely the result of a bird pooping seeds out of it’s little butt. And now I learn these orange blobs of gall are a threat to our little apple trees. *sigh*

Mother Nature can be a real buzz kill sometimes. But she happens to rule around here, so I’m trying to figure out a way to live peacefully with her. And I’ve learned she doesn’t negotiate. At all.

Bee Free,
Penny

Like many of you, we’ve been having unusually cold weather here on the homestead. I don’t think I can remember a November and/or December with this many days of below average cold temperatures. I am trying not to be in a bad mood over it, but these cold temperatures are testing my good nature.

Yesterday morning it was a brisk 14 degrees outside when I let the chickens out. The good news is now that the coop is insulated, it was 15 degrees warmer in there. The bad news is that 14 + 15 = still freezing. Their water was frozen solid. I dragged out the heated font I have and plugged it in for them. Today the temperature is in the mid 30s, but the wind is blowing something fierce. If I were a hen, I’d snuggle up in a nest box and pretend I was laying an egg all day long. As it is, everyone is outside in this frigid weather.

Bernie got the electric finished up and I now have electricity in both the coop and my garden shed. Yay! I know he isn’t crazy about working outside in all this cold weather, but he heads out each day and takes care of things around here. I just love that man to pieces.

I have some sad news this week. A few nights ago we lost our first chicken since they were little peeps. When I went to tuck them in the coop, I came up one short on the head count. I looked through the woods and decided to count again, just to be sure. As I was heading into the chicken run, I spotted one of the Golden Penciled Hamburgs huddled up in a corner of the run. I knew when I picked her up that she was in a bad way. I brought her in the house and Bernie wrapped a blanket around me and her, although she didn’t seem particularly cold.  She was so weak that she didn’t even fight me as I checked her over. I could find nothing wrong with her - there was no blood, her vent was clean, and she had no unusual lumps or bulges. She died within an hour and 1/2.

We were very sad about losing our little hen, but we were also concerned about why she may have died. To be safe, I sterilized all water and food dishes, and sprayed the coop and run with Ozine. Due to the fact that she died so quickly after showing symptoms of being ill, we suspect it was likely some sort of poisoning. I was in the chicken run with all of the chickens at 4PM, and no one showed any signs of being ill. I fed them some scratch and everyone was eating and pecking. I went back out around 5PM to do the head count and close up the coop, and it was shortly after that I found the sick hen. She died so suddenly that poisoning does seem very likely. We do not have any type of poison out that is accessable to the chickens, but we do have many plants around here that are poisonous to chickens. These plants grow wild all over our property. Pig Weed, for example, is listed as poisonous, and heaven knows we have enough of that around here. I think most of these plants are dormant right now, but I suppose chickens could still dig up the root system. It’s hard to know. So far, no other chicken has exhibited any symptoms of being ill.

I’ve spent the majority of this weekend making gifts for my Christmas Victims. Bernie has been keeping the wood stove going and firewood stacked up in the living room. He also brought in a small refrigerator we had in storage and plugged it up in the dining room so we can free up some space in the big refrigerator for something more than cartons of eggs.

Tomorrow Bernie’s heading to Tex’s so the two of them can hook up a snow plow to the little Trail Wagon. A few years ago we bought a second hand Arctic Cat ATV and it came with a snow plow that we never used. Since we use the Trail Wagon for everything around here, Bernie decided it would be nice to put the snow plow on it. It will take a little imagination and fabrication, but I am confident he and Tex will get it hooked right up.

That’s about it from the homestead today. We’re just trying to stay busy so we don’t think about how dad gum cold it is outside. Hope you’re staying warm!

Bee Free,

Penny