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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Spring-in-the-North Alert!!
  • Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:48:50 -0400



Mogrits wrote:
A few years ago I posted that hawks were decimating our duck
population. They gradually worked through 8 mallards and a pekin and
really got attached to this area. There are a couple hawk nests
hereabouts and they can really make some racket. I miss the ducks-
they were raised from ducklings but were never really tame nor never
really wild. Every day was an easter egg hunt for mallard eggs- they
just dropped them wherever the urge struck.

Well, one way to look at it is that the hawks are indigenous, the pekins and are not. Mallards, of course, are indigenous throughout the Northern Hemisphere and even Australia, not even close to being threatened or endangered, but almost all North American raptors are in trouble. I know what you mean about missing them though-I miss having ducks and geese,too. Everyone that sees the hawks here asks me why I don't kill them. I am utterly flabberghasted by it. I'll probably pay the price in chickens later on if my luck doesn't change, but hopefully, my goodwill gesture will put a few good kharmic credits in my accounts and the hawks will eat the rodents and snakes. I learned today that there are at least two other mating pairs with chicks within a three quarters of a mile radius.


But watching these hawks work is also a thing of beauty.

That it is. I've been really impressed with their dedication to providing food to the chicks. Watching them weave their way through the tree branches without flapping wings is awe-inspiring.


I've been turkey hunting (unsuccessfully thus far) this year and am
enjoying the birds. I wish woodpeckers would take a liking to pine
beetles.

Wouldn't that be nice! I heard a pileated woodpecker just today. It is unusual for me to hear or see them this time of year-usually here I see and hear them in November and December. This place is covered up with lesser woodpeckers, sapsuckers, flickers and the like.

Yesterday I wrote that a pair of bluebirds were building a nest in one of my birdhouses...correction on that. While working in the garden within about 10 feet of the birdhouse, I heard chicks and wouldn't you know there are 3 baby bluebirds in there!

Speaking of birds, I sold 8 mutt chickens yesterday, 6 pullets and 2 roos, for $90. I want to sell 10 more, at least. I'm thinking of putting them on Craigslist. I gave away three to pay a barter agreement, and I actually lost one from something or another.
Yesterday, while collecting eggs, I found an older hen, one I think may be the result of a recessive game chicken gene<g>, hiding in a nestbox. I thought I saw blood, so I pulled her out and saw that she was nearly decapitated. I had noticed that she was being roughed up and was a bit bare-backed, but this was a horrible injury, very deep and dripping blood, the wound went 3/4 of the way around her neck. I honestly thought she was near death, so I thought I would give her freedom as a thank you gift. I set her on the ground and much to my surprise, she puffed up and tried to attack me! Wow, what an ingrate! I left her alone and hours later, she was foraging around in the grass, staying near the coop and the other chickens. At dark, she was still living and apparently going to make it, so I put her in the chicken tractor and gave her some food and water. Until she heals up, refeathers, and puts on some weight, the chicken tractor infirmary will be her home. Today, I noticed that one of the new hens in the main coop is not a hen at all. I have two roosters in the same coop, so I need to act on that rather quickly. I think my little mutt game hen might have been tag teamed. DH asked me why I would save her..she's old, flighty, and doesn't have the best personality nor is she very pretty. I showed him the huge egg she laid for me today. 'Nuff said. Maybe I will name her Susan after Susan Boyle, the singer who gained overnight fame because she could sing really well, but whose common and plain appearance was less than Hollywood star quality.

B


--
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

--Cicero, 55 BC
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/




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