Summer is here

We had a pair of wild birds decide they were going to build a nest in the rafters on the deck out back. And they decided to build in on the near side instead of the far side. Everytime some one went out on the deck, they would take off and wait for us to leave before they came back. Was afraid the eggs would never hatch. But they did hatch. Never really looked in the nest, just kind of left it alone. Then one day I noticed there were baby chicks in it. I saw at least two. So I stuck my phone up there and took a picture. Went out this morning, watered the plants and figured I'd check again. All the babies are dead. Not sure what happened, if they got abandoned or got tooo hot or what. Looked like there were 4 of them. Need to get rid of them later.

Now that I think about it, even when I discovered them, they didn't look really good. And I never thought about helping them or anything. Oops.

26 June 2010

Not been able to keep up on the blog really well. Not as well as I would like to. I’m hoping in the future at some point I’ll get a steady job with a steady schedule and it will allow me to have more time to do things as routine.

Got sick a few days ago, went to the Doc yesterday and took today off sick. Feeling better now. Been getting hot here, up in the low 90's every day with the heat index over 100. Started having the summer thunderstorms. Funny because one place will get drenched and the other won't. And I can't seem to get any rain in my garden.

Back to the birds. The youngest set of my birds are outside in the little pen during the day and then I put them all in the coop at night. Too many losses to coons if I don’t. And I had too many birds to keep them all in the house for as long as they probably should have been. Next year I’m hoping to be a little more prepared and have a better system designed. I still have another set of birds in the living room, they are a week and a half old or so. The peacock, and some chickens I think. Not even sure if there are any turkeys in it.

Remember the nest the Red was sitting on? Went to check on her the other morning and she wasn’t on her nest, there were only two eggs there, instead of the 6 I left. So I look them and put them in the incubator with the other 6. She was really good about it, never went back to her nest or anything. Spent that night, and every night since in the coop. The eggs were still warm when I took them, so I have every hope they will hatch. Really disappointed as I wanted her to have her own poults to take care of. Just some thing got 4 of those eggs, and with only 2 left, it wasn’t’ worth the risk of loosing her over. Shocked that she made it that long and no one really bothered her. And the coons didn’t get her.

So I looked at the dates I collected the eggs from her, and if that were day 1, they should hatch 2 July. So some time between now and then, should have 8 reds hatch. Then I took 2 slate eggs I got, the last 2 it would seem for this year, and put them in with about 6 geese eggs and they should hatch 18 July. That will be it for hatching eggs I think this year.

The garden is doing alright this year, even though I haven’t had a lot of time to put into it. Moved the tomatoes to a new area and they are growing like crazy. Have lots of large leaf basil and the cilantro is growing good. Just have to keep them from, going to seed. Had a lot of cilantro grow up volunteer from what went to seed last year. Go figure. The Jalapeno plant is producing like crazy. My green beans are growing up the wires, the bush beans are looking good, but no beans yet. The peas are starting to succumb to the heat and not sure I’ll get any more from them. Have pumpkins and watermelon and other vines in and starting to grow. Actually, almost everything in the garden is late this year. Hoping to have a fall garden and get some of the things in that I didn’t this spring. Things like peas, carrots lettuce and such.

I’ve also decided that I am going to move the strawberries over to where the beans were last year. Was reading about them and they should be moved every 3-7 years and I just can’t keep a head of the weeds where they are. So maybe if I move them over and put down a lot of wood chips as mulch, I’ll be able to get a decent crop next year.

Went out and picked the wild black raspberries once, just haven’t gotten back out again. And the real black berries will be coming in soon, will need to pick them too.

I’m doing this from the other computer and it has more pictures on it, so I’ll try to get them all posted and set up right and labeled.

Went out to the coop the other night to check and make sure every one was there, and make sure the little ones were in there. This is what I found. Funny, really.

This is the TOP row of the roosts. Notice how the babies are integrated every othe one. Not sure if it is significant that some are turned the wrong way or not. Even the big birds turn both ways.

This is the middle row almost directly below it. If you look closely you can see the two chickens in both pics.

Then on the bottom row on the far side, there was one lone bird.

Over next to the feeder and small door that leads outside, the little chicks were all settled down for the night. Some are turkeys and some are chickens. Can you tell which are which? And there are 2 or 3 LITTLE chicks there. Same age, just not as big. Not sure what caused that.

Then right behind the door, the three baby geese were bedded down. I had disturbed them coming in and out. Came in once to check, then left to get the camera, came back and pretty much took the pics in this order. And it was pitch black in there, had to just point the camera in the general area and hope. Think they turned out pretty good. Isn't flash great?? Oh, and that is Dad's tail you can see. He showed an early interest in the baby geese, following them and all. Now they are a family of 5 that is together all the time during the day.

This is the other roost, straight ahead as you open the door. And yes, that is dad's head. THis was just a cross your fingers kind of shot, but it did rather well. You can see the black tom, he's been reduced to sleeping on either the floor or the bottom roost there. Above him you can see the red tail feathers of the red tom. The red hen sleeps on the other roost near the slate hen. In the very back you can see the mom goose and the black marking she has on her neck. If any of the babies have black on them, that is where it comes from. And finally, just above the black tom, you can see a couple of the babies that are back in the corner. I had put them back there to start, but one got trampled, so I figured I'd let them decide where to sleep. And on the other side right above dad's beak is another and one on the shelf above that.

The babies were just every where, but what surprised me the most were the ones on the top shelf. Of course, it seems that has happened before, some of the young ones just fit right in.