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My house just gets crazier by the day.  About five days ago, I tried to move my chickens.  Well I moved them alright, but not the way I intended. After they went to bed, I just picked up the pen and moved it where I wanted it.  I figured that should be that and I was done.

However, the next night the birds acted like they didn’t know where to go.  So, after some deliberating I moved the little coop back where it was.  Only two of the birds returned, the other four went up a tree and have been there every night since.  It seems they like it so much, every night they climb higher and higher.

I hate to say this but I’m afraid they won’t come back until something gets one of them.  I just try to keep an eye out for them at night, I don’t know what else to do.

Today, I discovered that my Zucchini has aphids really bad.  So, we were off to buy some ladybugs.  Then of course the ladybugs need a house. I sure hope they do the trick.  I have to wait until tonight to put some of them out.  The instructions advise putting out a few at a time.

Tonight, I gave the birds dried meal worms.  They were happy. I had five of them in the pen, I thought I was home free, but then the one chick went up in the tree and the others followed.  Maybe I’ll get them back tomorrow?  I’ll keep you posted.

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We stopped in at the Sonora Feed & Supply in Sonora yesterday, to pick up some bird seed. I was out of just about everything. While I was there, I found out that their baby chickens, ducks and other assorted birds will be delivered on Thursday. I tried to talk the hubby into letting me get a baby chick, but he wasn’t giving in. Darn!

Later in the day, we stopped in to the Tractor Supply Company in East Sonora, where I got to see lots of baby chicks. They were totally sold out of ducks yesterday but the baby chicks were so cute. I really wanted to hold one but the sign said not to touch them. I was totally bummed out.

When I had the farm in Ohio, we used to get 300 baby chicks every spring. It’s still pretty cold in Ohio this time of year, so we kept them in a pen in the diningroom. It could get pretty loud in there. Fortunately, we only had them in the house for a couple of weeks. Who could stand it for much longer than that? But the kids really loved having the birds in the house for that short period of time.

One year, we ended up getting talked into to taking home 10-pheasants and 10-turkeys, someone had ordered and never picked up. That year my favorite joke was:

Do you know what the only thing dumber than a turkey is?

Answer: A turkey farmer!

We were told at the feed store that in order to get the turkey’s to eat, you have to put shiny things in their food. How crazy is that? We had marbles in there, coins and a few other things for them to peck at. We didn’t lose a single one, until they were almost full grown. Some darn fox decided he liked turkey more than us. We ended up raising 4-birds to maturity. We lost 6 to the foxes.

The pheasants all made it, and not knowing what else to do with them, we said a prayer for their safety and turned them loose into the wild.

I plan to stop in t0 visit the chicks on Thursday. I hope they will let me hold them.

As far as the weather goes…

It rained all night long and the weather man is predicting rain for most of the week. Right now the sun is shining. Everything is drenched from the rain but I have a feeling most of it will dry out soon — but for how long? It’s 51 degrees outside. A nice day for a hike.