Are We There Yet?

It's not even summer, but back in the nineties tonight for chores.  I took a few minutes to sit and watch the little birds.

Here you can see the Half-Mille Half Silky chicks.  Cute, aren't they?  They have Silky heads and Mille bodies.   They are doing great in the little coop Kathy made.

I'm thinking of ordering a second one, so that I can put Fancy and April outside for the rest of the summer.

Here is the pasture pen. As you can see, the hens are still steadfastly setting.  I am not sure if these are the original eggs (which would be 8 weeks old now!, and therefore unhatchable) or if these are new ones.  Only one chick hatched and is healthy.. another hatched but one of the hens killed it.  I am debating whether or not to pull all these eggs this weekend.

Notice the tail up?  Inca stood in front of Tony for ten minutes tonight, inviting him, and finally kushed.

She gave him a very perturbed look, finally!

He ignored her.  When he was gelded, he was truly gelded, and I have only seen breeding behavior once since then.

Click on this to see the big healthy muskrat in the middle of the picture, eating out of the feeder.  He wasn't the only one.  I was sitting in the pasture filling the trough and pool when I realized it's no wonder all the food is disappearing.   It's like they are pets, I went into the yard and one calmly stayed there, eating, not six feet from me.  Sheesh.  I have poison to feed them, but I am always wary that the chickens, who love to chase and kill mice, will ingest a poisoned mouse and infect the eggs with the poison.  I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and do something about it, the mouse situation is out of control.  The Duck House, out of view to the left, had no eggs tonight, because our resident snake has moved into it.  I sure hope he doesn't find the standard chicks in their pen... he can't eat them, but he could suffocate them trying.  They are not the smartest chicks on the block, instead of roosting in the little hutch, they pile into a corner and snuggle against each other.  In the hutch I could protect them by shutting it up each night, and the snake could not get through.  I guess we'll have to see what happens (and cross my fingers).

And while all this fun was going on, look what was approaching from the west?  I am praying we get some rain from this one, too, as the ground needs it so very badly, as do all the crops around here that will start suffering with it's lack.