Around the Farm - August 22, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

Momma Turkey and her 3 Turkets

Some notes and photos I’ve collected over the last few days.

We stopped seeing Momma and kids several days ago. Then one morning I only saw adult prints in the sand around the cellar hole. We feared the worst…

Tuesday morning I saw her and the 3 out in the pasture. I was able to get a picture as they searched grit in the driveway. We’ve seen them most days this week.

Juvenile Cooper’s hawk

We’ve been running the pasture pen for the broilers since 2008. Not once has a Cooper’s hawk tried to get in. We always wondered why, as the ropes are wide enough. (Due to the size of the pen, we can’t add more ropes, the weight is too much for the center post.)

For 2 nights running earlier in the week, my husband saw a Cooper’s fly out of the circus tent when he went up to do chores at night. None of the birds were harmed. (Bitty hid under the wheels, probably the safest place.) The rooster seemed to be doing his job and protecting his ladies.

The other times a Cooper’s has been a problem was during migration in the spring. They only bothered the layer pen, and a very small juvenile got one hen. That pen we were able to put closer ropes on, as it is a permanent pen.

We are hoping these incidents earlier this week were also a migration thing, and the hawk has moved on. They are small enough birds, we’d have known if they got a hen. The hen would be too heavy for them to carry off.

Two night’s bounty

The other day my husband discovered the laying light had burned out and replaced it. We had my intern do the chickens on Tuesday night while we were at the concert. She had left the basket hanging up at the barn.

When my husband found it, it had 12 eggs, and he added 9 more. That’s more like it, for 14 hens. I wonder how long the light was out, as the poor laying has been going on for a while…

Big garden – 2 more rows of onions found

The terrible heat had abated some, but not the humidity. I was able Thursday morning to get 2 more rows cleaned out and 1 row mulched before the heat got me.

Big garden cleared all the way to the fence

My helper friend was here on Thursday and he finished pulling the big stuff up and cleaned it out all along the fence.

He gave the comfrey a haircut on the north side, which filled 2 totes. That’s as much of one thing I will send up in a day to the layers. Then he set to removing the grass roots from that small area. Once it is done, it will be mulched.

Woods goats….

My husband mowed the back 40 several days ago and now he can see the deer again. He says there were 4 and a fawn out there the other day when he was messing around with his nailer. He says they dislike the nailer sound….

In the mornings, especially after a rain, it’s interesting to see all the new tracks in the sand around the house. There’s a lot of interest in what’s going on here….

I’m back out mulching and cleaning out more of the Big garden this morning. Soon I will have to abandon it to turn into TarBaby and then spend time repairing the New Garden fence so the excavator can finish the grading and seeding. If I can get half of the Big garden finished before that, I’ll be doing well.

Source: Cooper’s:
Becky Matsubara Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

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