Middle of a warm July

The smell of the oriental lilies blooming in front of the house keeps
wafting around on this hot, humid air - oh so delicious a smell. Almost
makes the heat and humidity worthwhile. We had a storm blow in last
evening- not too bad and it left about an inch of rain, which was nice
because I didn't have to water. The grass is starting to green up again.
I made sure we bought some bacon at the store today so we can have bacon and
tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow- I have a few ripe ones.

My rose of sharon is blooming and the buddleia is about to bloom too.
Everything is so early- I wonder what will be left to bloom this fall? And
I think it will be a long, warm fall.

Our 6 oldest hens are laying about 4 eggs a day now - although only one is
using a nest box. We have 6 nice nest boxes and they won't use them. I
explained to them politely that if they ever want to go outside and roam in
the big pen they need to learn where to lay their eggs. The younger set
should start laying soon. Just found out that one of them is actually a
rooster - saw it crow today- and I suspect another is too. They are
Ameraucanas. That makes a couple fewer hens than planned but we should
still end up with 14 hens.

Tomorrow morning, when its cooler I am going to experiment and move the nest
boxes to another spot. I may need to adjust the lighting so the boxes are
darker. They are laying on the floor down by the roosts and it is darker
there.

Frizzle, the old rooster and the two turkeys are roaming around the back of
the barn still. They jump over the outside pen wall and sit looking in the
grate that I put over the hole to the outside pen at the new chickens. I
don't want them inside because the turkeys eat eggs. And I think the young
roosters would make mincemeat out of Frizzle. So I have some decisions to
make soon.

I am trying to find some canaries to buy. I want one for my office and
maybe to start breeding them. I used to breed them as a kid and then we had
some when we had the big finch aviary but that was almost 20 years ago.
They have gotten scarce and expensive since then- or I just don't know where
to look. My dog groomer has a few but she didn't have any luck breeding
them this year. Maybe I can find someone who wants to trade roosters for
canaries- or turkeys for canaries, now that would work.