Thursday, May 31, 2007

Surprise Newborn Chicks Again!



It's 94 in the shade on my milk room porch. May 31 in Upstate New York? Hmmmmm. Everybody seems fine...the flies are back in force. Have to get some sticky tapes, and more eucalyptus oil to spray around the trailer. The flies slept on the ceiling above me last night, good thing they hang on okay. I pulled the cot out too far before I made the bed and it collapsed under me and the dogs when I got in bed. I was too tired to make them get up, strip the bed and fix it. What a night, sleeping in the V slant. Tanner managed to pull the blankets off, and it was actually cold! Then this heat wave today? The farmers are out in force getting hay in. Every field I passed had a tractor going on it today. Smart people! It's supposed to rain all next week. I worried about everybody having enough water today while I was at work. Have to get floaters that fill the tanks back up when they go down. That would also prevent me from flooding the barn every time I go to check my email while I'm filling up the tank! While I was walking to the other end of the barn I heard a peep-peep-peep around the same spot where I found the mother nesting in the ceiling a few weeks ago. Low and behold there was a little newborn chick on the hay. Glad I didn't step on it. When I stood on tip toes there was another mother hatching eggs in the same spot under the ceiling! Have to figure out a way to secure that nest so the chicks don't fall out and (perish the thought) the cats don't get them. I don't want to move the eggs while there are more to hatch. Might upset the whole business. I love newborn chicks, and the skill of the hens in raising them is astonishing and inspirational. If I buy chicks from the hatchery I have to use all kinds of equipment to keep them warm, fed, watered, contained, etc. The hens do all that so easily, and relish every moment. I think chickens made America what it is today! Eggs, meat (not me), beauty and entertainment galore. AND they eat the little bugs in the grass so you never have to put chemicals on your lawn. Not that I ever did anyway. When I lived in a fancy development in Morristown, neighbors constantly had trucks coming in to spray lethal stuff on their lawns. Mine was au natural and just as pretty, especially when I didn't mow it and all the pretty flowers sprouted!

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