The wayward chicken

We have one chicken who refuses to stay in the area where chickens are allowed. She much prefers the yards close to the house and the bus...cats and all. We were pretty sure she was laying eggs because she announced it everyday. Although we have looked in all the likely places...under the trees and bushes, around the rabbit house, under the porch, in the bus, etc. we could never find where she had laid an egg.

Today Evelyne was going into the bus and the chicken came out of her hiding place where she apparently sleeps at night...and has a nice little nest there. It is in an old freezer with the door removed which we use for storing rabbit supplies.

It obviously made a very good nest for laying eggs:

Poppies

Our Poppies are outdoing themselves this year.  We have tried to grow them several times but last year was the first time they ever bloomed.  These are self-seeded from the few that bloomed then.

Pegleg comes home

Last fall we gave Pegleg to a young boy who thought Pegleg was just the neatest thing.  This family has other animals and we thought it would make a good home for him as he hasn't been neutered and we didn't need him nor did we need more kids this spring.

His new family had to go back east to take care of some business and arranged for a woman to care for all their creatures while they were gone.  The woman determined that Pegleg was mean and unmanageable.  She called and said we needed to do something about him.

We said we would take him back, knowing we would have a long road ahead of us to get him calmed down and trained.  When we went to pick him up he was in a large kennel with a dog house for shade and climbing, plenty of water and some alfalfa spread on the ground to eat.  No fresh grass, no weeds, no companions other than barking dogs.  I think that might have a negative effect on my attitude as well.

We loaded a collapsible carrier in the back of the van with some nice oat hay in a tray and a bowl of wheat berries.  After gathering a lead to tether him with and two leads for us to lead him and control his movements so we could load him in the van we left to pick him up and bring him home.

He was crying out when we arrived.  I fed him through the kennel fence while Evelyne entered to try to put a tether and lead on him.  He looked at her and decided the food was more satisfying than attacking her and kept eating.  The latch on the leads is a tricky one and she couldn't get it fastened.  I went and opened the gate to the kennel and joined her inside with Pegleg.  He had no problem with that.  We attached only one lead and he followed obediently to the van...not a hint of a vicious critter here.  He stopped at the end of the van but wasn't going to climb into it.  I held on to his horns while Evelyne hefted his body into the carrier.  He found the oat straw and decided that was okay.  Then the van started moving and he was unnerved about that.  He stumbled a bit and then found the wheat berries.  We could have hauled him anywhere after that as he was perfectly content.

Upon arrival back at Prairie House we opened the carrier and grasped his lead firmly, prepared to be drug by him.  He was content to go where we led him and thrilled with all the tasty green stuff along the way.

I think the lady who was supposed to care for him was afraid of him.  Animals can sense that and take advantage of it sometimes.  We had absolutely no problems with him and once he was back in the barnyard he started discussions with the others to determine who was where in the pecking order.  Ginger was uninterested and kept grazing; Star was uninterested and continued his nap after looking the situation over.  Once the lower order was established, Ginger re-affirmed she IS queen and he did back down from her.  Star hasn't even bothered to enter the fray figuring that since he is twice the size of the little whippersnapper it is a moot point.

I'm sure Pegleg will be happier here with some companions of his own kind.

A rough week

It has been a hard week at Prairie House.  A couple of days ago we lost Juliet to the highway.  We lost the little turkey that hatched with the chicken to an unknown malady.  The nest the barn swallow built sits vacant now as the barn swallow couldn't fly higher than Katie Kat could jump.  A snake that Karl Kat brought to the porch bit the dust...well, okay, that was an assisted death.  Tonight Katie Kat was lost to the highway also.

When their instinct is to hunt, they get so focused on their hunting they don't notice other things around them.  It always hurts so much when we lose them to either the highway or the predators but that is a fact of life on the farm.  Creatures get killed on dirt roads - I see their bodies when I deliver mail - so it isn't a problem only due to the highway.  The thing that really hurts however is that Evelyne and I were petting and playing with Katie Kat only a couple of hours before and she was following us around.  She didn't want to come into the house.  She wanted to play and hunt for exciting things.

We only have two calico cats left now.  One of those, Betsy (who suffers from the psychotropic alopecia) refuses to come into the house and will only go into the bus when it is on her terms.  She does sleep on the porch.  EmmaPatches and the 6 boys (plus Earl's Buster cat) are all safe in the house or the bus. We try to make sure they all go in at night to protect them from the coyotes, foxes, owls, opossums but sometimes they have other ideas.  All of our cats are spayed or neutered so unless we end up fostering kittens again we won't be having any additions.

Barn Swallows

I think barn swallows are beautiful birds.  Bright blue feathers with a yellow/golden chest and an adorable "V" tail when they fly.  We have had them nesting out in our lean-to behind the barn for several years.  They catch tons of bugs and are a valuable bird to have around.

Now a pair of them has decided to move in closer.  Much closer.  They have been busily building a nest at the corner of my kitchen window.  I am ambivalent about this.  I suspect they will make quite a mess there by the time the little ones fledge.  But I love watching them and keeping track of their progress...building a nest is hard, tedious work for a bird. Both partners share in the work.  Originally they thought the light just outside the back door was a good location for the nest but fortunately changed their mind on that one.  I cannot actually see the nest from inside but do see all the activity as they diligently work at "home improvements".

The potential error in their choice of residence:  traffic.  Both people and cats frequently travel beside their chosen spot for the nursery.  This makes the momma bird nervous.  It makes the cats intrigued.  The patio table is too far away to be of assistance to them in their quest to satisfy their curiosity about the commotion...and too far away to be of any use when at meal time but that fact does not stop them from perching on the table and watching intently.

I cannot tell if there are any eggs in the nest yet, or if it is simply nearing completion of construction.  I do know that their day starts a lot earlier than I intend for mine to start and they are happy in their work, singing away ever so joyously early in the morning.

Darn spiders

Those darn spiders!  If they aren't building webs which are invisible until you walk into them, or lying in ambush among the plants they are cutting off the water supply.

Yes! Cutting off the water supply.  Our well has never given us any problems...until tonight.  All of a sudden we had no water.  We checked the breakers...none were tripped.  We checked the fuses and even changed them out...still the well pumped no water.  With visions of astronomical costs looming we called the trusty electrician.  Fortunately, he came out promptly.

After some cursory inspections using all the appropriate tools, including his flashlight as it was well past twilight by then, he determined there was nothing wrong with the wiring.  Everything was fine up to the electric box dedicated to the well.

Puzzled, he remembered a previous experience he had where a spider had built a home in the electrical box and created a short.  Alas, that was the case here...the electric current could not jump across the fine web the spider had created in the box.  The electrician cleared that web and BINGO the pump worked and the water flowed.

It is always something weird here, isn't it?

Wanda is relocated

We managed to catch Wanda and move her and her clutch of eggs into a nesting pen.

Her nest was not in an easily accessible location in the creek bottom but we tromped into the weeds once she was settle on the eggs and attempted to catch her.  She wasn't all that thrilled with the idea and left her nest.  We pursued her and it became obvious that she was better at maneuvering rocks, weeds and sticks that we were.  We gathered her eggs, carefully climbed back out of the creek bed and brought them into the yard where they were placed in her intended new residence.  As we were trying again to catch her it started to rain.  Although that was cold, wet and uncomfortable for us, it did work to our advantage as she was smart enough to go into the pole barn for shelter from the raindrops.  We grabbed our trusty trapping net (originally designed for sport fishermen but makes a wonderful fowl catcher) and with limited space for her to escape to managed to get the net over her.  She struggled and it took both of us working on the task to get the net removed from her feet and head.  She is a heavy bird and when squirming is most difficult to manage!

We put her in the nesting pen where her eggs were and she immediately threw herself against the wire trying to get out, then paced back and forth.  At this point we were dripping with water from the continuing downpour and wondering if we would be putting 17 turkey eggs in the incubator to hatch.  We left her unattended while we went inside to dry off and wait for the storm to pass.

Upon inspection later that evening, she was peacefully sitting on her eggs.  She has remained faithful to the task and hopefully there will be baby turkeys by the end of the month.