This afternoon I took a break from planting and sat on a rock with the latest issue of Farm Show magazine which had arrived in the day's mail. I may have sat in place for as long as twenty minutes, although it didn't feel that long. When I gathered myself up again I realized I'd managed to get a light sunburn on my upper arm. (Yes, it's tank-top weather. Yippee!) Between the humidity leaving my skin coated in a salty sheen and now a touch of sunburn, this feels like June in New England--without the months long wait. Did I mention I like it here?
Although the hens continued laying through the winter, they've begun to take an interest in sitting on the nest, brooding. Today saw two broody hens supervising the one next. I've left nearly a dozen eggs (ten, actually) for them to hatch and promised to have a chicken tractor built in time so that we won't have chicks running about underfoot. I would really like to build a little hen house on wheels, say in the bed of an old cart, and attach runs so that the chickens could be contained and their fertilizer deposited in prescribed locations; however, I am forever becoming distracted by one thing or another. If I just get a wire-covered frame together in time, that will suffice. At least the chickens aren't nasty about protecting their eggs like that gander.
For two nights now I've managed to corral JoJo and LaLa into a small pen at night. JoJo is easy to catch because he's forever heckling the goats, allowing me to swoop in and pick him up without a fuss. LaLa, though, puts effort into avoiding capture, so much so that I had to resort to using the poultry grabber long handled hook that's been lying around waiting to be needed. I envisioned hooking a leg and reeling her in, but what actually happened--under the almost full moon--was that LaLa's long neck became hooked instead. Poor girl. But the geese were happier once I'd reunited them in the short pen underneath the storage trailer. If I can just keep them contained throughout this season of protective parenting, perhaps visitors won't feel as threatened by our geese behaving badly.
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