Time To Play, 'What Survived Winter?'

 With our landscaping, that is.

After all the snow we got that hung around WAY too long, I was sure some of our plants wouldn't make it.

And yeah, sure enough, the little chocolate mint plant by the back yard hose bib failed to come up this year, and the big Curly Willow tree in the chicken yard is a goner. The mint I planted when we moved in 10+ years ago, and the Curly Willow from starts brought from the old house. Two rose bushes out front also succumbed to winter.

But all in all, I'm pleased that everything else is alive and kicking, even if some got damaged.

The broom plant in the front yard had a giant snow wad burying it for months, and even though I can see dead parts that need trimming out, the tough little bugger made it.

Broom smells like candy and I love it, as do the bees.

Got some on my desk even now!

Alongside the broom plant, mixed in with other volunteers are some volunteer raspberrys, I feel bad because I always forget they are there.

But yesterday we got a tiny harvest!

Next to the raspberries, the hops I planted for fun are doing their annual climb up the support for the power pole.

And the apple tree out front (leaning a bit because it takes the brunt of our Nevada windstorms) also has a respectable apple crop coming in.

I think they are Macintosh. It's produced apples before, but never to the point of us being able to harvest them.

Another volunteer that made it through winter...

Sadly, I've seen none of my pretty blanket flowers that reseed themselves every year, nor any hollyhocks or gladiolas. No tulips or muscari, but a couple of daffodils popped up in spring.

Out back, my serviceberry plant has a surprise bumper crop! I plan on making jam or jelly with them if I have enough.

In the chicken yard, my Satsuma plum tree is producing fruit for the first time since it was planted in 2015. I was worrying about it, even though they promised it was a self-pollinating variety. But darned if it isn't going nuts with fruit! Today I thinned some of them out, the chickens waiting below were VERY disappointed in the hard little green things I dropped.

Also fruiting out back is the Bartlett pear, so far doing better than it has before...

Speaking of fruit, our henfruit crop continues, even if some of the hens cheat a bit a gift us with tiny eggs...

These tiny eggs are fully formed, just extra-small. As they began arriving after Swiffer went out to join the flock, we're pretty sure they're from her!

WingDing...

 Welp...I have some sad news. Something happened back in April that we hadn't said anything about until now, because we didn't want to drag everybody down, and there was nothing anyone could have done to help, anyway.

WingDing died this morning.
Back on April 10th we innoculated the chicks for Marek's Disease. The vaccine must be given a few days after hatch, and is delivered using a tuberculin syringe (tiny, very short needle) via a sub-q injection at the back of the neck. The kid and I have been doing them for years, so we know how to do it and are experienced--what happened was a pure freak accident.

WingDing was a Silikie, and humans developing crested breeds like Silkies for bigger and better crests have caused a naturally-occurring hole in the top of a Silkie's skull to become much larger. Their brains protrude through this hole, leaving them VERY susceptible to brain injury from what would otherwise be a minor injury from a bump or peck to the head. I call this kind of injury Head Boink, and it's generally quite treatable. Head Boink can also be cause by Botulism (or anything that causes brain swelling), the symptoms are a loss of balance and/or what is called Twirling/Stargazing. It can be fatal because the bird cannot eat or drink for itself.

When WingDing was getting her vaccination, she suddenly freaked out and flailed, and rammed the needle into her neck vertebrae. She immediately went limp and I thought she'd killed herself.
She was alive, but in shock and paralyzed. I immediately began treating her with a Selenium/Vitamin E mixture which I've used before for cases of Head Boink, it's got a very good track record for curing it--but it takes time--usually around 10- 20 days.

WingDing's injury was profound, she couldn't even hold her head up and just laid in one spot. We put her in her own cage, and I've been handfeeding her every 2 hours since April 10th and giving her the Head Boink treatment. Over the last three months she'd gained weight, grown and improved to the point where for the last 3 weeks, she could hold herself upright, was eating and drinking on her own, etc. She still couldn't walk around normally and I couldn't trust the adult chickens or big chicks around her, so she'd been living in her own space in the brooder box. The last 14 days or so the three baby chicks were hopping in with her and they were all getting along great. WingDing had gotten much stronger and was still making progress but it was slow, we'd hoped eventually she'd be able to walk around without staggering and could join the flock in another few weeks. But she was alert, healthy and carrying on just like the other chicks.

Today she went out into the small run with the three young chicks from batch 2--seperated from the big chickens, of course--so they could all spend a couple of hours outside and start getting used to the outdoors while we cleaned the brooder box.

An hour later, the kid found WingDing dead. No injuries or damage, she just...died. I don't know if her Head Boink contributed to her death or not, but I suspect that she couldn't overcome it and it just finally got her.

Hope everyone understands why why didn't mention this before...I really was hoping we'd get her back to a point where she could join the flock or just be a house chicken. Sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but it was just a stupid damned accident and we did our best for her.