Wednesday, Sept. 3rd… The critters are again on the loose.

 Today when I went to the chicken houses to leave them out for the day, we only let the ones we could trust to come back in at dusk, so we leave out the older chcikens in the old hen house and turned the turkeys loose. The younger chickens in the new barn (approx. 65 of them) don’t get to run loose, because they will not return to their barn when it gets dusk. Instead, they roost in trees, hide under bushes, run around the perimeter of the old hen house or just, plain old hide where ever they can or want to. It is terrible trying to get them in the barn in the evening, where they will be safe from predators.

We do leave all the older chickens (approx. 45) inside the old hen house and another 10 that roost in the outside fenced area free to run, because as soon as it becomes a little dark, they come back in to go to roost in the hen house or outside and we never have to chase them. The rat pack (6 ducks we raised from this spring) are not allowed out now either, because they wait until dusk and go out into the high weeds and then get scared and quack constantly. (like they are taunting predators….. here I am…Here I am!) You have to wade into the weeds and scream and yell “Go Home” and if you hold the flashlight beam in front of them, they will run all the way to the duck house…… like they were scared to death! (which I believe they are)

The old ducks will stay right around the duck house as soon as it starts to get dark and wait for us to pute them into the safeness of their little house. No Problem at all getting them in.

So, today……. all the critters that can be trusted to behave properly and go into their little houses at dusk are allowed to be free for the day, while all the others enjoy life in the outside, screened in runs. The turkey’s are really good and stay right around the pond, barn and other critter houses, so they can roam free daily and will quickly go into the barn at dusk. Today, we go to Guilderland for Vick’s last therapy session and Mike will look at the x-rays we got yesterday at Albany Imagining where they took pictures of her neck so Mike can check as to why her fingers and toes get that prickly jab every now and then, so we will be a little longer than usual today before we get home. Also, we both have haircuts scheduled at 1:00 PM, so we won’t do much to the barn until after that.  Talk to ya tonight!