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.