Summertime

The Summer has been brutal, so far.  We have had weeks of record-breaking temperatures, no rain and an incredible storm called a Derecho. The Derecho gave us very little rain, but delivered extremely damaging winds. We lost about 40 trees here at Hunter's Grove.

The huge Pecan tree in our yard went down and we are feeling the loss acutely.  This tree provided shade for much of our yard, and for our chickens.  In the 100+ degree weather, with no shade, the chickens have really suffered.  We actually have one in the house right now.  I was surprised that she was still alive this morning.

Before

After

The chicks we hatched back in late February are doing great!  They should start laying any time now.  We ended up with 26 out of 50 hatching. 7 were male, 19 were female (those were great numbers!).  8 (5 pullets and 3 cockerels) went to live with our friends the Eastwoods.  The rest stayed here.  We lost one to a fox (or maybe a hawk).  We have 3 cockerels we are going to have to cull soon since we just put everyone in the same coop.