horses and turkeys

My husband told me when I came home from work yesterday that there had been a few cars stopping in the road by the pasture to look at the horses.  I wondered why that would be since Lucky is six weeks old and most people around here have seen him.  After dinner I went out to enjoy the fresh air a little after being inside all day.  I wandered out into the back by the pond and there the horses were.    They decided to put on a show for me.  Lily was obviously in heat and Chance was trying to breed her.  I won’t go into details here but trust me when I say that horses breeding can be pretty amazing.

 Little Lucky would stand off to one side while Chance was trying to mount Lily but that little stinker tried to mount her himself when Chance wandered off for a minute.  He’s only 6 weeks old.  I guess living in a family group he gets to see it all and get big ideas. 

 I now know why people were stopping in the road.   The horses have all kinds of room now as we opened up more pasture but they had to go up by the road to breed.

 I found a little baby duck wandering around under the feet of the bigger birds peeping frantically on Sunday morning.  Happy Mothers Day.  No one claimed him- three ducks are sitting on eggs and one had been off her nest for several days, something got her eggs.  The sitting ducks weren’t due to hatch yet.  I guess one egg somehow hatched early.  Big mystery.  I put the little one in with the chicks in the brooder and he settled right in and quieted down once he warmed up.

 The bronze turkey hen that hatched her eggs in my sweet corn last year has been jumping the fence from the poultry yard and going around to my raised herb bed to nest.  This bed runs right along the fence that keeps the dogs from eating the birds and they have been barking at her as she sits but it doesn’t seem to faze her.  I had made several nice nesting places in the poultry yard but none of those must have appealed to her.  She has 2 eggs in under the herbs now.

 We have a junk pile in the back of the barn.  We try to keep it small but you have to have a junk pile.  There’s an old van bench seat on its side in the pile and another turkey is laying under there.  Turkeys have strange ideas as to good nest sites, although that place is probably better than the herb bed next to the dogs.

 My canaries have been a big disappointment to me.  While the hens have built elaborate nests and are even sitting in them from time to time there have been no eggs.  I don’t know why- they are getting top quality food, the males are singing like crazy, I have seen them mate- just no results.  Breeding season will be over soon and I think this one has been a dud here.  This weekend I am going to move one cage to another location and see if that helps.

 The wild birds have been pretty successful breeding.  I hear cheeping everywhere around the barn.  The birds are at the feeder non-stop and the jelly and suet disappear quickly.  I have a little downy woodpecker that has learned to perch on the hummingbird feeder and drink out of it.  I just worry he will try to enlarge the holes.  Dames rocket, autumn olive, honeysuckle and comfrey are all blooming for the hummers to feed on.

 Ah such beautiful bountiful spring weather.  I wish it was like this all year round.

It may have felt like spring in March this year but now I know it’s truly here.  We had a whiz bang all night storm that left us with 2 inches of rain.  And when I opened the barn door this morning the barn swallows were back, chirping as they swooped around.   At the bird feeder today I saw the first hummingbird.  And of course there are new baby chicks in the brooder in the barn.

It was a misty, grey, and humid morning, the kind frogs love and they are again singing their heads off.  The turkeys were extra noisy too, gobbling, fighting and mating.  And then there was the Guineas- the silly things have sort of paired off and one pair would be here yelling and another there and still another there.  Add that to birds singing lustily and roosters crowing, horses neighing and it was a concert.

It is much quieter here in mid-afternoon.  Even the dogs are sleeping. My canaries are singing and a robin somewhere outside is calling, but the barnyard is quiet.  The sun is trying to come out.  From my office window I can see the rumps of Lily and Lucky, one big blond tail swishing and one little fuzzy black one.  The horse flies are out too. 

Chance, the stallion, is back with the two of them but Lily really makes him toe the line.  He is not allowed too close, although I was glad she allowed him to stand at the edge of the run in shelter this morning out of the rain.  She takes any treats I give him away unless I stand there and keep her from doing it.  He tries to keep me away from Lily most of the time, as stallions tend to do, but that’s hard because when she wants something  from me she’s right there and he better not be.  I just have to be wary of flying hooves.

I sponsored a chick sale at work and had over 400 chicks in my office at Extension waiting for people to pick them up.  Talk about noise!  Those poor unhappy babies can really peep.  As each person picked theirs up it got quieter and quieter, finally I shared a ride home with 6 little leftovers.  They joined the 18 I had put in my brooder that morning.    I have some Black Jersey Giant pullets, first time I have raised that breed, some new Ameraucanas, some Rhode Island Reds and of course some of my favorite breed, Isa Browns.

I also ordered 8 assorted bantams to round out an order someone else had placed.  It’s always fun to watch these assortments grow and find out what they are.  I was hoping for silkies but none really look like it.  I am guessing most are Old English Games of various colors.  They will probably be sold as they get older.  One of these days I will have time to sit and watch them for a while and decide what they are.

I was looking around the place this morning and thinking about all the things that still had to be done, spring housecleaning, barn cleaning, mowing, kennel cleaning, flower bed weeding, vegetable planting, chopping down dead trees, the list goes on.  Sometimes the work seems unending, but I wouldn’t want to live in the city again.  Anytime I get to sit around and watch the chickens peck or horses graze makes it all worthwhile.