Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Dots in Winter

Lucas watching the Dots on Friday; it has warmed
to the 30s so it was very pleasant & the Dots were
happy to be outside.  So was Lucas!

Lacey and The Dots sharing the safe pen. When
Lacey isn't in the hay house, the Dots are checking
it out. They've learned to co-exist and are doing
quite well together.

The Dots are still laying and the egg numbers are
going up since the slight warmup; today we got 8
eggs in the morning and 4 more in the late afternoon
so all but 2 hens laid eggs today. Pretty good production.


All the pretty eggs

Wild birds waiting their turn to eat at the feeders

The feeding frenzy during the below zero days this
past week. They ate a lot of seed.

This morning when we let the Dots into the safe pen, Lacey came out and first spent time with Mark doing chores. He then left her out of the safe pen on her own when he came back into the house. We watched her to see what she would do. She circled the Dots safe pen a few times, then laid down outside the pen. She played with sticks, wandered around the yard a few times, came to the door a couple times but always went back to The Dot House and circled it and then laid down again. Seems that she is getting the hang of protecting the Dots. It was a successful first day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

During major snow shower the other day, there were birds chirping in a tree. I couldn't believe they were out! They must have been singing to keep warm!

Why is it that some birds migrate South for the winter and others don't?

~Robin

Delores said...

I believe the birds that fly south are doing so for food since their food is limited in the north during the winter (eg bugs). The seed and fruit eaters usually find that in weeds and trees so can stay all year in the same place. Some birds switch from bugs when they are plentiful to seeds and fruit. We have lots of cedar trees with berries, plum thickets, and other berry bushes along with corn and soybeans from the nearby fields so our birds are happy here all winter. Edwards Ranch is easy pickins because we have 6 seed feeders, 1 suet feeder and warm water all winter long. That guarantees the birds will stay in our area.