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.