Sage is also doing well. She's figured out how to climb the kitty tower and loves to hide in a box and then pounce on anything that walks by. Lately we've been seeing her with Zombie a lot. Zom seems to be acting as her babysitter and playmate. She's been eating hard food and starting to drink water. She keeps going potty on the floor yet, but I think the problem is that the litter box (a standard box - no high sides) is too tall and she can't get in. I'm considering making some kind of ramp, but I'm afraid the other cats would make it a priority to destroy anything I put together. We shall see.
Today I also put four does in for breeding. This will be our third attempt this year. All previous attempts have failed - and I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps the ladies have put on a little too much weight over winter. With warmer weather comes the measured summer rations (and lots more natural forage diet). Today I paired Penelope and Sushi for a repeat breeding, Fern and Thatcher, Kaelyn and Kevin, and Alice and Fella. Lots of mutt bunnies, but they should be pretty.
If these breedings fail, we may be looking at selling out most of the bunnies and focusing more on gardening and other projects. I've already figured we'd keep the four French Lop rabbits, and the newer trio of meat rabbits. We'd probably keep the colony rabbits for now, just because they're low maintenance, which leaves a lot of bunnies on the sell list - including many that I adore. I'm hoping they kick it in gear and make lots of little furry minions next month!
Above photo is of a bird we believe to be a Black Laced Red Wyandotte. We will have to wait and see when it gets feathers if that's the proper identification or not. Unfortunately, it appear to have a comb coming in, which means it is likely a rooster. That said, I'm not certain, as it doesn't have the normal "pokey" comb (I still need to do more research).
Below is a chick we've identified as a French Black Copper Marans (again, we have to wait and see how he feathers out to figure out if we are right). Despite being told not to name the chicks until we know gender, the kids lovingly refer to this one as "Raven" because he is the darkest black chick in the lot. Unfortunately, he also appears to be a rooster.
That said, we did name the biggest gosling. It's quite a bit bigger than the other three, and has a different head marking. I suspected a girl initially due to the color, but it remains far and away the largest in the group, so maybe it's a boy? Either way, we named it Ryan, which could be a gender neutral name. Yes, I know - I'm sure there are a lot of geese named Ryan (I mean, Ryan Gosling - right?). Two of the chicks have taken a liking to Ryan and follow around. I suspect they think Ryan is their momma. One is yellow, and the other is a chipmunk striped chick. They both seem to want to cuddle with Ryan and will follow Ryan around the brooder, pecking when and where Ryan pecks, going to the water bin when Ryan goes, and generally acting as Ryan's entourage. They even climbed into my lap tonight while I say with Ryan in the brooder. Gosh, I do like Ryan. I hope Josh likes Ryan as much as we do. These goslings were purchased to be friends for Josh, because he's our only goose, and as much as he loves his ducks, I feel like he needs someone his own size in his flock too. We're set for introducing the goslings to the barn in mid to late May, depending on how they're doing with feathers. So far all the goslings still just have down, while the younger chicks are starting to get wing and tail feathers already. They'll also have to be big enough to not get tossed around too badly if Josh doesn't like them, or decides to assert his dominance while they're still half grown. It will be a very closely supervised introduction for certain.
The rest of the chicks are supposed to be old enough to go outside and join the flock by the end of May! I'm sure by then they'll be ready to leave the basement, and we will be happy to have our basement back.