#Longfeather Lane

[kedreeva]

Look who just narrowly escaped a hawk by diving into me

I was outside minding my own birds when I spotted a hawk on a tree nearby. I called a warning to my birds to look out for it (they know a trill means sky danger), and then it stooped on a small flock of birds. They took off to where I couldn't see them at the neighbor's, and a moment later exited neighbor's yard left, pursued by hawk.

I was treated to watching a really stunning aerial chase scene over my field, pens, and barn, which ended when the mourning dove the hawk had singled out made a dive directly for me. The hawk turned away and left, and the mourning dove caught his breath in my hand for a couple of minutes, and then flew to the top of the barn to watch me while he recovered. I think the hawk may have nearly gotten him, too, as he was a bit rumpled and part of his tail/feathers were damaged/missing. No blood though, and nothing broken that I could tell from a quick look, he had no trouble flying.

I'm left to wonder if this might be the same mourning dove I rescued from the peafowl pens a week or two ago. Did he remember I helped him and didn't hurt him? Coming for the human surrounded by much bigger birds than the hawk seems like quite the hail mary pass to make, if not. Then again who knows how much I'm being watched in general by the local birds.

Bug did not appreciate any part of these events, by the way. I'm not sure she could tell if I had the predator or the prey bird.

But she didn't trust that dove on the roof.

[mamaspark]

I got to Bug sit yesterday and today too. She is my daughter’s baby pea hen. Such a sweetie.

The two of us hung out in the big pen at Longfeather Lane with Indie and Arcana. Enjoy a few of my pics of beautiful Indie too.

He was showing off for Bug

[kedreeva]

@rainglazed I’m feeling so called out rn

Yes, I ordered peafowl eggs off of eBay, hatched them in my closet at my mom’s house and went ohshit... gotta have someplace to put them, guess I’ll get a job and buy a house. So I got a job and spent a year looking for a house that I would be able to keep my peafowl at. And I’m still here 5 years later so!!

[kedreeva]

Okay, I haven't wanted to talk much about the peafowl lately, been just kinda dealing with Stan's passing, but! I have news I don't want to keep quiet, so here we go with a little announcement.

I've been helping a friend of mine with a bunch of peafowl genetics work lately, as he's trying to prove out a really neat phenotype of speckled and white peafowl that showed up in his breeding stock, and he just spent tens of thousands of dollars importing two new morphs from Europe: European violet (aka, my dream morph) and Ultramarine (pretty and only otherwise being produced by TWO breeders in the WORLD). When Bill heard about Stan, he asked if I was going to go to a large farm auction that's a few hours from my house. I don't, normally, since it's a few hours from my house and the auctions usually make me kinda sad when it comes to peafowl (they stress out SO MUCH) even though it's cool to see how much they're going for at a wider audience auction.

Then he told me he would be going, and that if I wanted to come down the day before the auction, he'd bring me another male, to replace Stan. I had already made plans to hang onto Bismuth, at least for a few years, and to pick up babies from Indie x Arcana/Eclipse this november, including a male, so I didn't really need another male, and don't have the cash for one anyway. He said no, he meant one of the split EUV males from last year's first-USA breeding. For free. As a thank you for helping him.

To put this into perspective, importing the birds is a ~$10k affair, per bird. I had fully resigned myself to never even SEEING one of these birds in person, much less ever owning one. Even if someone else got them imported, they would remain thousands of dollars for the first few years, and quickly become mixed with other stuff, potentially even be lost by people breeding to purple. He went in on a group import with another breeder and they have both just started selling the full-color birds for over $2k apiece (alongside Ultramarine, which before their import was bred by TWO people in the WORLD, and babies from that are going for almost $7k each, but EUV is more widely spread). Splits (like the one I will be getting) are being let go for $750. This is also the color I have desperately wanted since I first saw them 8-10 years ago (though I believe they've been around slightly longer), but that I had resigned myself to never actually having.

To put it mildly, I'm probably going to burst into tears when I see Bill and this bird. It's going to be super embarrassing. And then I'm going to have to build more pens. And then I'm going to have to get as plain-blue, pure-indian blue hens as I can find, and become one of the most serious curators of plain pure EUV in the US, because I know the other two who have them currently will be outcrossing to other patterns/colors immediately and the people buying them will likely be doing the same, and everyone will be clamoring to make them into high Spaldings ASAP, or won't know not to cross them to purples and wreck the color.

Here's the sire cock, the one imported:

You will notice that this bird is purple in full sun, from the sunny side. That's the main difference between European violet and US purple- a US purple looks blue until you get the right angle on the sun vs the bird vs the camera, and you have to get the bird between you and the sun, so the purple is often in the shadow side- visible to the eye but not the camera. EUV is just purple. Even from the sunny side!!

And the Ultramarine, in case you were wondering about their color:

(pics reposted w/ permission from Bill)

The breeder is Spring Creek Peafowl, and in case anyone is secretly a peafowl breeder or knows other peafowl breeders with too much money that want in on a new color morph, he DOES have UM pairs and EUV hens (and more split males) for sale currently, for less than the only other person in the US that has them. They're still pricey, but cheaper. I WISH I had the extra to have my friend add on an EUV hen, but alas, I will have to wait to make my own in a few years. Even just the opportunity to do so is something I never expected to have!

[kedreeva]

Three of our bird pen doors have carabeners attached.

The first, a purple one, keeps the interior barn pen door from being unlocked by Wendy, who figured out she can pull the "fuck me, locked myself in again" string and let everyone out into the barn.

The second, a blue one, keeps the exterior barn door closed because I put a different release latch on it so I could let them out into the flight pen without having to go outside which resulted in Wendy learning she could let herself out in the morning. Now it mostly holds the door shut because the door board has warped slightly.

And then there's this one.

This is the Carabener of Shame.

This one goes on the pen 1 door, because it's a terrible latch

Don't buy this latch for your peafowl pens. If you wiggle the door enough (like the wind can do on a windy day), it unlatches. It doesn't necessarily open, per se, but it doesn't stay turned right and can pop out of place. Not ideal.

So for peace of mind, I added the red carabener to the latch.

Wind can't open that!!

Except.

Literally every time I open this door, I put the carabener on my belt loop so I can have both hands free to open the coop doors inside and check on birds and close the middle door etc.

And then I forget it's attached to my pants, and I leave without applying it. When I get in, Sark tells me I'm wearing the carabener of shame, and I must then walk all the way back out to put it back on.

[kedreeva]

New boy has been taken to the vet for his intake exam! He's had his blood drawn and throat swabbed for mycoplasma testing, his fecal exam done for parasites, his gram stain done, and all his bits examined. Pending the results of the mycoplasma test, he received a clean bill of health and some meds to help with circulation to his feet while he recovers from the leg bands from his breeder being way too tight. By the time those meds run out, he should have the mycoplasma results back, and we should be close to or completely finished with the repairs to Pen 3, so he'll be able to go outside shortly after.

I have also settled on a naming scheme for his bloodline. In honor of the good boy Stan whose passing brought him here, and his color name starting with an E (European Violet), new boy will be named Earl (aka Earl Grey), and we'll be using other tea and drink names for his ladies and lineage.

[kedreeva]

Actually had mice to take to a reptile expo for the first time in MONTHS (between selling out immediately after listing any mice and taking my end-of-year break, I simply haven't had enough mice to make it worthwhile to bring them since last summer!), and had a blast again. It seems like every time I bring them, there's never a single second where there's not someone at my table.

It's very funny to me that I have to put out a sign that says "these are PETS not feeders" and how often someone starts to walk by, sees the sign, and comes over. I actually have a whole Display Sign that has info about my mice, why they are different, how to handle them, and like a dozen photos of some of the beautiful mice I've had, and I catch people stopping to actually read it, too. The font is pretty big, but it's juuuust small enough they have to come a little closer, close enough I can hold a mouse out to them.

I've also learned that people don't always believe me when I say the mouse won't bite or jump off their hand. I see the tension, I see the anxiety. I tell them, they've been bred for this. I have told people, I will pay you $5 if this mouse bites you, I'm that confident, because I wouldn't bring them if I thought they might. But the only thing that really gets through to some people is to just plain show them. Close my fist around them (gently, but firmly enough I can flip them upside down securely), scrub them up, smoosh my face to them, rub a finger on their cheek/jaw/mouth. Nothing happens. At worst the mouse is lightly inconvenienced for a moment. But the transformation that comes over the people who see it is complete and instant. A visual "oh." moment. They relax completely, which makes their handling experience so much better. People straight terrified to hold a mouse in the first place hold out their hands for one. Small children who said no thank you (which I always respect, I have even told parents no, it's okay if they don't want to hold one, we have to respect their no thank yous too) will often ask if actually, can they can hold one?

I had one little girl who held a mouse that was a little squirmy at first because the girl was holding just a liiiittle too tight, and she was having trouble for a few seconds, but I kept an eye on her in case I needed to intervene, and she quickly figured out to be more gentle, and the mouse quickly figured out she was fine actually, and she ended up flopping down in this girl's hand and getting her face and head rubbed while she bruxed for like twenty minutes. I was surprised she didn't go home with a mouse, but I have a feeling I may see her family again.

I also had some guy ask if I wanted to be on his reptile podcast, for the mice, because he never knew there could be a difference between feeder mice and other mice. So I guess we'll see!

[kedreeva]

My grape vine I planted like 6 years ago finally has grapes. I sprayed the plants with Neem oil early in the season because the damn beetles have chewed them up year after year. Seems to have worked, so for the first time I'm gonna get to try some wild riverbank grape fruits.

[kedreeva]

Today I was visited by the world's tiniest fae creature- a woolly aphid! I've seen a couple of them floating around but I genuinely thought they were down feather bits, since we have the birds. But this one was BLUE and I gently scooped it out of the air to examine and realized it was a bug! Beautiful little thing!

[kedreeva]

This guy mad as hell I removed him from the peafowl pen and carried him to the woods where he belongs

[kedreeva]

My basement spawns frogs. This is today's frog, who has now been released in the woods.

[kedreeva]

So, the first thing we're having done is replacing the fuse box because we want to replace the AC and when the AC guy looked at the fuse box he went D: I'm just.... going to call an electrician to come look at this and make sure it's safe, and then the electrician came and looked at it and went "well... I've seen worse" but in that tone that says he definitely HAS seen worse, and then he looked at the ceiling and goes "is that... knob and tube wiring."

ANYWAY.

The electrician came back today and installed all the stuff and they were outside taking a break before wrapping up and these boys come running to tell me "one of your birds got out!!"

Now me, I'm like, one of three things has happened. #1-A bird has actually turned incorporeal and escaped my pens (I can only imagine maybe they broke the netting but our netting should be able to take it), #2 these boys got fooled by the way Pen 3's flight pen is set up and only THOUGHT a bird got out, or #3 there is a bird out and it is Not Mine. Or possibly it's a turkey. We have wild turkeys and there's a hen that's lost her flock and has been wandering around lately.

So I go out and I don't see a bird out so I'm thinking it must be #2 because they're walking out by Pen 3. I account for the birds in pen 1, and I start walking toward them and the apprentice goes I SEE HIM and points into the woods. Well, I can see Indie and the girls in pen 3, so I'm thinking okay, either it's #1 and polaris busted the new netting, or it's #3, but my luck it's probably #1. And then I see a young boy who is NOT my bird emerge from the brush.

And it's like Ah. Yes that's not my bird don't worry about it.

We head in, they wrap up, I close the barn pen birds into the barn and in their pen, I set out food and water for him. Just in case. I also closed pen 1 birds into just Pen 2 for now, and opened pen 1's door and put out some scratch where he'd be able to see it. I don't think he'll go in right away, but he hung around for a good while before walking, and it's just my birds and Pete's that are very nearby. Since he's still a baby, just a little 2yo boy, he's going to want to stay where there are other peafowl, and pete doesn't have boys to call him back.

We'll see if he sticks around, and if he'll come in to the pen. Pete said he wouldn't even come closer than his back field, not even to his peafowl, but he hopped up on the barn roof and watched me talk to my birds for a while, so I hope he'll decide it's safe here.

[kedreeva]

Well, it took 2 full days of reducing, but here's my chicken stock bullion! It is cooling/freezing in my little portable freezer so it doesn't wreck the temp o in my real freezer, and then I will pop them out and stash them in the chest freezer for later use. We don't eat a lot of chicken, but we do use a lot of chicken stock for rice dishes, and this reduces our non-compostable waste.

I also pitted, cut, packed, and froze 4lbz of dark sweet cherries for later. LOOK at how pretty these bad boys are!

Recipe for the bullion under cut!

4 rotisserie chicken carcasses (everything we didn't eat the day of acquisition, bones, skin, juices etc)

6-8 large carrots (washed, ends clipped, but not peeled), cut in half to make thick chunks

1 Vidalia onion (as much of it as possible, chunked into quarters)

2 celery hearts (pulled apart, tips snipped, green stalks only not the yellow inner heart... That's for me to crunch on while waiting)

3 heads of garlic (not cloves, the whole head, cloves peeled)

1/2-3/4 cup dried parsley flakes (prefer to use whole fresh stalks but my garden is still growing and I have dried to use up)

Salt (no idea how much but. Salt.

Normally that's the recipe but it's been kind of bland (I know chicken stock is supposed to be kind of bland but this was worse) so I also added a tablespoon of cumin, a pinch of paprika, a pinch of cinnamon, and a spoonful of brown sugar, and it really kicked the flavor up well.

Toss everything into the pot, fill with water past the level of the stuff in it, and let simmer (not boil) for 8-12 hours. If you want the broth to be clear (not opaque) you can skim the foam/Stuff off the top as you go, and make sure you DO NOT BOIL it. Once it hits boil temp the proteins dissolve and cannot be separated back out and the broth will be opaque. Which doesn't hurt anything imo and skimming is more work so I don't bother, but some people don't like it.

Remove the chicken and stuff to a bowl or other pot (I use a screen colander over a smaller pot and ladle stuff in until I'm sure it will fit and then dump the rest in). Take the clean liquid that is left and reduce to the desired concentration. I could have gone another hour or so on this batch, I think but I was done waiting.

[kedreeva]

Setting up to house 300+ day-old pheasant hens for a few days. They will be arriving tomorrow most likely, and I'm very excited to see how this goes.

[kedreeva]

This little shit set up camp in the unused baby jail pen. Bold as anything, she's directly under me during this video, I literally had my phone a foot or so away from her. After watching her drink from the bird waterer and eat from their food bowl, I caught and removed her.

[kedreeva]

Anyone keeping rodents or rabbits or parrots in the market for some mulberry chews?

We had to take down two mulberry trees in the bird pens today in order to allow for redoing the overhead netting and repair of a support post, so I have a TON of fresh, organic, pesticide-and-fertilizer-free mulberry wood I can dry and bake for chews right now. The wood is sweet-smelling and on the softer side, and it tends to shred instead of chipping like apple wood. My mice and rats loved shredding out pieces and putting it into their nests. Wood will be cut, air-dried in the house, and baked.

Safe wood for at least rats, mice, rabbits, chinchillas, and guinea pigs to chew and safe for parrots EXCEPT possibly neophema species (diuretic effects were noted in just this species when consuming leaves, but play it safe).