Meet the Flock: The Birds Behind Duffney’s Bird Barn
Meet My Babies If you've read my first two blog posts, you've heard me talk quite a bit about my birds. You've heard about chicken math, rescue roosters, and how Duffney's Bird Barn came to be. But before we go any further, I think it's time you meet the real stars of Duffney's Bird Barn. My babies. Now, some people might call them livestock. I call them family. If you ever visit Duffney's Bird Barn, the geese will almost certainly be the first to greet you. Whether you want them to or […]
How Chicken Math Took Over My Backyard
The Day I Learned Chicken Math Is Real If you've ever owned chickens, you've probably heard the term "chicken math." For those who haven't, chicken math is the mysterious phenomenon where you start with a few birds and somehow end up with far more than you ever planned. It defies logic, ignores budgets, and somehow always wins. When I first started raising poultry in 2019, I thought I was getting a small flock. My brother and sister-in-law brought me three Royal Palm turkey poults—Knox, […]https://duffneysbirdbarn.wordpress.com/2026/06/15/how-chicken-math-took-over-my-backyard/
A friend's property in California used to have a little flock of guinea fowls. They are really good to control ticks. Every time I visited there were fewer and fewer until there were none. No one really knew what happened to them. Maybe they found a new home, maybe that cougar I once encountered had a hand in their disappearance.
AI Could Never Feel Grateful
May 27, 2026
Things That AI Could Never Do – #12 in a series
The world is topsy turvy in so many ways these days that my mind is saying ouch! It brings a heaviness that surrounds us; and yet, the heart still finds a place for gratefulness. This May day is filled with the chattering sound of the creatures that make their home here in this beautiful corner of Massachusetts. The voice of wildlife can be heard in the tall white pines and majestic oaks. It permeates from the bushes low by the ground and the vernal swamps in the woods around. Soon a loud and unmistakable cackle fills the air as the neighbor’s Guinea fowls announce their arrival. It is a welcoming sound, and hopefully they have their tick radar on as they peck their way through the yard on to their next conquest. Thankfully, nature marches on unperturbed by the daily news.
The yard here in Freetown has become a haven for bees and birds and other wildlife, but it has been a long process. The soil is sandy with rocks left over from some long-ago glacier that took the topsoil and mercilessly dumped it somewhere else. Well, that is my explanation. The trees love it, but the garden soil must be continually amended. It takes a lot of patience to watch a pile of leaves and sticks turn into compost. I am grateful for the microbes that are working their way through the compost and the soil. They are doing the hidden magic that makes life on this planet possible.
The ants are circling the peony buds signaling that they are ready to open. And when they do, we know that summer will be full on and there is no turning back. Another brief but glorious summer is waiting in the wings, and we must make the best of it. The dahlia bulbs brought up from the cellar are bearing a few sprouts, and it looks like some have survived their long bout in cold storage. The seeds saved from last year’s butternut have sprouted. It was one of the largest squashes I have ever grown so we will see how its offspring does. The heirloom tomatoes grown from last year’s seed are ready to go out in the garden. Every year brings a new experiment. Every year brings a new reason to feel renewed.
Gratefulness is a singular human emotion that does not depend on others for its existence. If we choose, we can have an overflowing abundance of it free from dependence on an outside energy source. It is purely self-created by the thoughts of our choosing. Gratitude lives deep inside us in a realm that AI can never enter, a place we should call sacred ground.
#butternutSquash #dalhias #flowers #gardening #guineaFowl #homesteading #massachusetts
Something different this morning... just had this Guinea fowl appear on the workshop roof.
We suspect it might be a local escapee.
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