Be careful what you wish for.  There’s an old saying I have used a lot this month.  Right now I am using it in the context of rain- we needed it but boy are we getting it today.( August 10)  We had  2-1/4 inches in the gauge this am and it has rained steadily, sometimes torrentially all day.   I had to unload groceries in pouring rain.  I sat in the car waiting for it to quit but it never did and I didn’t want the frozen food to thaw so I slogged the short distance from car to back door unloading groceries and getting drenched.

I worry most about the turkey hen with her three chicks out by the pond.  She had her nest under a flowering quince which helped keep animals and other birds away but doesn’t shield rain too well.  She could go to dozens of places where the cover is better or for that matter into the barn but she stays huddled under that bush when it rains, with the chicks under her.   I tried putting a tent like cover over her with an old plastic seed variety sign but I couldn’t get it all the way over her because of the bush.  And she is too stubborn to move under it more.  That’s why turkeys get the reputation of being stupid.

 My other older red turkey hen finally got to hatch a baby.  At least she is in the barn with it, not in the rain.  The poor thing has had such bad luck with her nests and she almost had more.  I was going to throw out the nest yesterday because I thought the eggs were way past hatching date.   I didn’t feel good yesterday so it got put off to today and lo and behold - a chick. 

 The other mama turkey that has her 3 chicks in the front yard was smart enough to bring them into the front of the barn today.  They sit in there right next to the cats.  They have been coming in the front of the barn to eat cat food anyway- those little ones have it made.  Thats her in the photo, we call her the front yard turkey. ( By the way I pulled the weeds in front of the flower bed after I saw the picture.)

 I had to separate one of the young frizzle roosters, the one that is the spitting image of his grandfather, my pet frizzle rooster, from the rest of the chickens.  He wouldn’t leave the young hens alone; he kept chasing them into the coop, constantly herding them somewhere.  The old, bigger roosters even left him alone. I put him on the turkey side of the barn.  There are 3 half grown chicks out there; so far he’s left them alone.  The other 3 roosters his age just hang on the edges and don’t make trouble.

 We have started culling some of the older hens.  Steve took 6 of them up to the market and they sold within 15 minutes.  I sent the oldest rooster with them but no one wanted him and he got to come back home.  There are still about 10 older hens left but at least one is sitting on eggs and I am only picking up 4-5 eggs each day now.  But the young hens should be laying in about a month.

 My little frizzle- sizzle hens are good layers.  Their eggs are small but they lay regularly.  The trouble is they start sitting on them soon as they get a big pile.  I have been picking them up lately and feeding them to the cats.   One hen is sitting on a huge pile now.  I am hoping the 2 pairs of tiny bantams I kept will also lay and sit well because they might be good sellers.  One pair are Porcelains, the other Belgian Antwerps.

 Our county fair is this week and I took a turn watching the Master Gardener display barn this Wednesday.  We have a butterfly tent where kids can go inside and feed monarchs Gatorade off their finger.  We also made an earth tunnel, that kids can walk through and see roots and bulbs hanging down as well as a rat with her nest.  We have a display of pollinator plants and a “plants of the bible” display.  The first two days of the fair had great weather; I don’t know about the next few days, we sure need the rain though.  I bet there are plenty of places that would trade their fairs for a few inches of rain this year.