• Animal Tracks •

43ºF outside

120+ºF inside

The chickens in the greenhouse are laying at 80% and while that is a good percentage it doesn't amount to alot of eggs since we only kept 19 layers this winter. I can tell you that the eggs are JUMBO; what we like to call 'butt busters'. The goslings are doing fine and I've begun to let them out so they can run around on the grass in the greenhouse for a few hours in the afternoon when it is warm enough. Of course, even though this is a completely passive solar greenhouse, the thermometer in the peak was pinned at 120 ºF last week around 2pm when I checked in. I opened the vent on one end and door on the other and the birds were fine; just needed a bit extra water. I do provide them with shade in the greenhouse. Just looking at a bunch of chickens sprawlled out made me chuckle and reminded me of Gary Larson's 'boneless chicken ranch'. The native birds are migrating. Within the past few days I've seen vultures, a pair of goshawks, grackles, bluebirds, doves, and just yesterday the first bluebirds. Pretty soon, on a warm day when all is wet, we'll have the first flush of flies emerge and all the insect eaters can feast. On a more somber note in the insect world, our last remaining bee hive has died. I opened it to check late last fall and found a small clump of bees and plenty of honey. I checked this week when the temperature was up and the bees are only carcases. There is still honey in the hive so they didn't starve but it seems that they have succumbed to what ever it is that has been killing off hives across the east.

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