Many things

My DD was sick last week, seemed to get better, now just got “sick” again. Ugh. I can’t stand this sort of thing, not when the “sickie” just doesn’t “get it” and go where they should to “do the deed”, so to speak.

She’s the one that has seemed to have a sensative tummy when we traveled around when she was younger, but she “grew out of that” eventually. That does seem to have much to do with how she is if she doesn’t feel well though, it just comes up easily, I guess. FWIW :rolleyes:

I’m not one that likes to do that myself, nor clean up others. I can tolerate sickies that follow the rules and stay in bed and get to the bathroom in time … but I do not like the ones who seem to go out of their way not to recognize the impending doom and do it on the floor or where ever they might be.

So to change the subject, it’s May and it’s been fairly nice thus far. We’ve had rain and thunderstorms, which hold temps down. I like that.

I put up my Bluebird Nest Box at the end of Feb or beginning of Apr, on a new pole. The Eastern Bluebird pair quickly claimed it and built a nest, and layed four tiny blue eggs. A few years ago I had the nest box attached to the fence. A couple of nestings produced full clutches to fledglings successfully. The next year three nesting attempts ending in horror. I assume it was either House Sparrows who killed the babies at the different stages of growth, or European Starlings, since both had been sighted in the yard that year, but I had no eyewitnesses to any wrong doing in progress, only the grimy crime scene leftovers after ants started clean-up.

So I did put up the nest box this year, not last year though, and put it up with much fear and trembling. When the E. Bluebird couple occupied the nest with the eggs all there and nice and warm, I checked on the contents every other day or so, and kept my eye on them out the kitchen window. I am happy to say that all four eggs hatched and the week they should have fledged I saw them one day looking so darn cute, and the next day they were gone. THAT is a successful fledging! I was so very happy to have helped them out.

Speaking of birds, my hennies have slowed down on their own egg laying. I’m alright with that though, I have catch-up consumption to do. My old whities aren’t really laying at all, with a couple of eggs the other day and none for over a week before and none since. My green layer hasn’t laid anything for a couple of weeks, and my brown layers are laying some, just not all of them every day, by far. Like I got four brown eggs today. That’s it, from 6 brown possibilities, 8 white possibilities, and that 1 green possibility.

With all the sickness and travel we’ve had the last month you might be able to imagine my egg stock over-abundance has had little decrease and therefore this self-downward mode in laying from the hennies is actually welcomed.

I’ll want them to get back to it eventually, but just not yet. DH unplugged their lights when he mowed the other week, and I do think it could have had the effect of getting them not laying since it’s not a full 14 hours of light a day yet. Not that that is it for sure 100%, but it’s partially it, I do think, as well as they have been laying well since the very end of Dec/beginning of Jan so … they could use a break. Hens do take mini-molt breaks, not everyone knows that. I am thinking that the light lackage suddenly helped edge them to that stage.

My whities are rather elderly for hennies, and I just don’t know how long they’ll give eggs yet, consistently. I will say that they did superb from Jan to mid-April … most or all layed every day to every other day, a mix of that, with most being every day. I am not wanting to be “off with their heads” inclined. I don’t want to do that, and don’t want to see it done, and don’t want to give the job to anyone else. I know that they are not worth having as stewing chickens, being scrappy italian bred to lay and only lay sort of hens. They are not as nice in temperment as my bigger dual purpose birds, but they are my friends nonetheless, and I’ll be sorry if they die or get killed. I don’t want to order the kill, though, or have someone do it behind my back either. I’d rather have a farm where I could let my elderly birds out to free-range and do as they please and be plucked away if a hawk or something decides to get them. That sounds like a nicer retirement than chopping their heads off. Some would say to wring their necks, but I think that is ultra-cruel and worse than chopping heads. I don’t want to do anything about it though since I find they are my friends and well, that’s the way of it with me and my birds since I see them as purposed to a task that is lady-like and to do them in is not my thing.

My other hens are dual-purpose, meaning bigger and meatier, for laying eggs and/or for meat. They make perfect specimens for stewing hens when they are elderly. I don’t want to do that to them either, since they are specialer to me than special. They have sweet temperments and personalities, they are all younger than the whities, at least, and I hope to get to a farm where I can try out some breeding with them and some rooster chap that hasn’t yet been hatched.

Our trees are all greened out fully now, with some trees needing to get more full, but mostly they are all there or nearly. I did some clipping and sawing on several trees the other week. I have more to do, like the Weeping Willow, I took a lot of low branches off and voila! A nice tree was under all that weepage. I have more work to do on that one though, it was what the children tried to climb last summer and suffered damage that must be cut off. I need DH to finish some of the sawing, it’s too much for me.

A few other trees I got a tree shape out of what appeared to be strange bushes, the trees in the back that were bare root types from the Arbor Day foundation some years ago … just little straight sticks … one of them grew faster and is a big tree right behind the house, but the others grew very slowly and are just now about as tall as me, or close, and I just never could get the sense of what they should be as a tree until this year, with them getting a bit bigger since last. I can do a bit more work on them, and they should take great shape.

There are other trees in need of some shape pruning, meaning taking off the branches that need to, to enhance the way the tree looks, how it should look if grown and cultivated. I’ve done some on some of them before, as they grow, this year it’s just something that a lot of them need, obvious lower branches just too low afterall, and dead ones, new ones going somewhere that they just shouldn’t, etc.

I don’t have a garden this year, again. I hope to get something somewhere eventually. I later garden for veggies is fine where we are, avoidance of the spring plant diseases is a real bonus in that case. I just need to time the planting correctly (not to run past Oct with tomatoes, for instance, since first frost is usually Nov 15 but can be earlier.)

Well that’s enough mixed up chatter for now.