Who's not eating my cherries?

It’s a misty humid, hot day here, it needs to rain good but just can’t seem to get it out.  This am I opened the door so mama hen could get out in the yard with her chicks, and I also opened the young hens pen so they could get into the big chicken pasture.  Time to get some space and fresh greens.   After a few hours the pullets hadn’t made it outside but mama hen had brought her chicks out a short distance from the pen. 

I heard peeping from the frizzle pen and I think I have some chicks hatching there.  We are finally getting babies at a good clip.  Mama brown turkey has a nest in some tall weeds close to the barn.  It’s a pretty exposed place as far as weather goes, but she has always chosen outside locations.  I am just hoping nothing gets the eggs.  I had actually started mowing the tall weeds down before I knew she was in there, but had to quit because the little mower was overheating.  That was lucky.

I have to sort out the banties and decide who to keep and who to sell.  We are going to turn the extra dog kennel into a new banty home.  It has a nice inside run and a big outside run.  The only bad thing is that it shares a wall with the one last occupied kennel and its occupant, a Jack Russell named Brandy.  In the outside run we are going to put up a secondary fence with a top and we will make the inside wall solid.  I am keeping the pair of Porcelains and maybe some extra gold Seabright hens or one of the old English game hens.  There are 2 OEG hens and a rooster and 6 seabright hens and a rooster, plus the pair of Porcelains.

One of the dogs, Ginger of course, got out and got one of the kittens in the barn, but it seems to be ok, at least as far as the dog grabbing went.  The kittens have that respiratory virus barn cats get, with runny eyes.  

We didn’t have that last year and I noticed that the one kitten that one of our cats has hidden in the old junk pile doesn’t have it either, she’s plumb, healthy and frisky.  The kittens last year were also hidden outside until they were about 5 weeks old or so and followed their moms inside.  I just wonder if the barn is where they get the infection. 

Our 5 year old granddaughter was here for the holiday and she of course wanted to play with the kittens.  We alternated kittens so no one got all the attention and she was pretty gentle but that sure tired them out. Tired us out too.

They are tasty- but why aren't the birds eating them?

I picked several pints of cherries last week and I am wondering why.  Usually the birds get to them before we can get them.  I also noticed that my bird feeders aren’t needing to be filled as often.  I asked friends on my garden facebook page if they noticed a decrease in birds and several responded that they had.  This is a bit of a worry, what’s happened to the birds?  I know my dad down in the city says he keeps finding dead birds.  Someone else also mentioned dead birds. I am going to talk to a naturalist I know that works at a nature center about 25 miles south of here and see what she says. Its also time for some detailed observations. You know where you have to sit in a comfortable chair and watch for birds.  It’s kind of funny when you are wondering why the birds haven’t eaten your fruit.

Baby tales

Young muscovey ducks

I do enjoy the baby ducks.  Last week I let them loose, the morning of the big rain, which was lucky because the rain collapsed the top of their pen when it collected on the tarp.  Momma duck had brought them safely inside the barn when it began to rain.  Contrary to what most people think ducks do not enjoy rain.  I don’t think momma duck has taken them to the pond yet, they still enjoy splashing in the big rubber dishes and I haven’t seen them down there yet.  They do enjoy chasing bugs all over.   The little buggers know what a bread bag looks like and mob me when they see me carrying one.  I love watching them play.

Little chick being raised by red momma turkey is still alive and well although it looks so small, even compared to baby ducks.  I so wished for my camera the other day. It perched up on top of momma turkey as she walked around the turkey yard, just sitting there like riding an elephant.  I fill a red chick waterer for it every day as it still can’t reach the water in the big dishes.  It has to wait until the baby ducks quit playing in it- they like it even though they can jump right in the big water dishes. And to eat the poor thing waits until everything else has its fill, then momma brings it to the dish.

After I repaired the roof to the nursery pen I moved the hen that hatched 4 chicks there with her babies.  The first thing she did was make a dirt bath, and she stayed there at least an hour, turning and tossing dirt on herself, looking like a bird having a seizure, so happy to be back on soil.  They had been in a 2 foot square cage for their first 10 days and the little chicks really enjoyed running around in the bigger pen.   The chick that lives with the turkey likes to watch them; it somehow knows it is connected to them more than its foster momma I think.  In another week the hen will be turned loose and the babies can mingle.

One of the other red turkeys had a nest in a plastic doghouse just outside the barn.  It was under the overhang of the tree and also partly under a piece of plywood leaning against the fence, but still the heavy rain managed to get in there and with the floor being plastic it didn’t drain away.  I didn’t realize this for a day or so until the hen came out to eat and I noticed her breast was all wet.  I immediately checked the nest and it was a loss- the eggs were in 2 inches of water and muck and I had to dump the entire thing.   The hen’s breast and legs looked reddened for a day or so but she looks better now.  She is very unhappy though.

Today after morning feed I noticed this turkey hen was sitting next to a duck on eggs.  As I watched she carefully put her head under the duck and slowly rolled an egg out and under her breast.  She wants to sit on something and isn’t beyond stealing.  Poor thing.

Another weird development is that the dark tom turkey has been sitting on 4 duck eggs in the barn.  He doesn’t sit totally faithfully, although he spends a lot of time on the nest. And I doubt the eggs will hatch.  But I don’t understand his motive.  He seems perfectly healthy when he’s out strutting and gobbling but spends a lot of time on that nest.  I think it was abandoned and maybe he just thinks the eggs need a sitter. 

The dark turkey hen had a nice nest and was just about to start sitting when something got the eggs. Instead of finding a place near the barn she went way out by the pond under a bush.  I set a trap after that and caught a huge possum.  It was just outside the barn door in the trap and I was running water there and it looked thirsty so I dribbled water into the trap, which it lapped up with its little pink tongue.  It’s head was all bleeding from trying to get out of the trap.  I suddenly felt sorry for it and drove it a couple miles away and turned it loose, which didn’t make my husband happy, he generally shoots them.

 

We still aren’t getting the amount of eggs I think are being laid but I have set the trap again a couple nights and haven’t caught anything.  I think it may be something besides a possum eating the eggs now.

The baby kittens are out of the box and walking around the barn and that is a problem.  My husband’s electric wheelchair is big and heavy and they are so small he can’t see them good.  He gets to buzzing around so quick in that chair I worry about kittens getting squished.  One I named Tippy, because it has a white tip on its tail of course, is particularly persistent in trying to follow us around. He also follows mom up around the car and porch.  That’s always the one that gets killed, the too friendly one, so I don’t know why I name them.  I think it’s actually better if they have a little fear of humans and strange things.  Maybe I can raise them a few more weeks until they can be given away.