The weather has been
gorgeous here but it is due to change overnight and we are in for a bit of rain
and cooler temps. We actually need the
rain, after last month I didn’t think I’d be saying that soon but the soil
surface anyway is dry. The farmers are
back in the fields though and they may want the dry spell to last a bit
longer.
The mile of dirt road
leading from pavement to our house is lined on one side exclusively with farm
fields and it’s interesting that this year it all seems to be planted with
wheat. The field closest to us was being
plowed up yesterday, the stand of wheat didn’t look real good so I guess they
are replanting with something else so there will be one area of diversity.
We have been working to
get the new veggie garden in, trying to fill raised beds, mulch paths and plant
at the same time. Sometimes at this time
of year it feels like there is more to do than can be done. The fruit trees are blooming, the beach plum
tree was literally covered with bees this morning. The sour cherry and one of the apples is in
bloom with the other apples soon to bloom.
My new strawberry bed is starting to look good and the new grapes have
leafed out well.
The chicks I ordered
have been here a little over a week now and I am starting to be able to guess
what the banty assortment holds. There are
two porcelains, I hope male and female, several seabrights and some very tiny
white chicks that I can’t ID yet. It’s
amazing how fast chicks grow. They have
their wing feathers coming in and are jumping up on top of the small box I put
in the brooder and on top of the water bottle.
I expected to have baby
ducks by now but so far nothing. All of
them are sitting; the last one to sit has her nest under the hens nests. The duck males are now together on the turkey
side of the barrier and only occasionally fighting. The old red turkey tom still looks ratty, but
the bronze tom is beautiful. I love watching him strut, which he does for me
every time I sit down out in the yard to watch them. All the red turkey hens are sitting although I’m
not sure how many turkey eggs they are actually sitting on. One is taking turns with a duck that has her
nest in my garden wagon. They fight over
who gets to sit when and sometimes end up together in the wagon.
The bronze turkey hen
has just started to think about nesting and she spent a whole morning walking
the fence last week complaining because we added netting to the top and she
couldn’t jump over into the yard. She
has nested in my garden each summer and raised nice chicks, but she and they
roam a little too much and this year I wanted to keep them more confined. I don’t know where she decided to lay finally;
she has a whole pasture with lilac bushes, low spreading pines and other
interesting places to choose from. I
added two doghouses with straw in them out in the run. I hope she isn’t adding her eggs to the pile
in the garden wagon. But she isn’t
complaining anymore so she found somewhere to lay. She is still roosting inside at night so she
isn’t ready to sit tight.
The one red turkey hen
that hatched the chicks two weeks ago went right back to sitting in the
doghouse in the back part of the barn. I took the two chicks and put them in
the brooder. I had emptied all the eggs
that were left there out but she already has quite a pile and I see that they
are mostly olive colored hens eggs from the two little hens that hang around
out back. We’ll get baby chicks if
nothing else.
The frizzles have such a
huge pile of eggs that I doubt any will hatch.
In a week I am going to dump that box if nothing hatches and this time I
will limit the eggs. One little hen is
sitting on probably 30 eggs, maybe more.
Another hen has started sitting on a few on the floor. They are darn good layers, even if the eggs
are small.
I picked up a pair of
pretty parakeets at a swap meet a couple weeks ago and I added a nest box to
the parakeet cage. So far only mild interest in it. My
canary is sitting on 5 eggs but we will see if anything hatches this time. I have been adding egg food and soaked seed
every day to their cage anticipating a hatch.
If nothing hatches in a week then I am moving the male, despite his
wishes to be with that hen. One of the
other hens is mildly interested in nesting and maybe he could breed her. I don’t
seem to be having any luck hatching birds this spring.
