Of Birds and Bees

     Well, as if I don't have anything else going on in my life, remodel-wise, spring proceeds on unabated. As usual my garden is amazingly fecund, and I have been able, through the miracle of no- rest-and-less-sleep to keep ahead of the weeds.  There are changes afoot on 2 fronts that are amusing and at least temporarily distracting.

 First the birds.  Over the last year or so, Brandis and I lost 2 of the older chickens.  The original portion of the flock are older now, and so the first death was a shock, but they are over 5 years old now.  For chickens, that is getting on.  We fully expected to see them stop laying this year as well.  So in January, we ordered more peeps!  They arrived about a month ago, and have been a source of amusement and stress ever since.  Originally 6, one died before they arrived.  Then another died about 2 weeks later, for no discernible reason.  Generally, you figure that some baby chicks die, for unknown reasons, but 2 weeks later was a shock to us.  We had a scare with a 3rd peep, but that has passed as well.

   
     Of the remaining birds, 3 are bantams, which is new for us.  One is a Polish Crested, who will have feathers that look like a punk rocker on her head (Ludmilla).  Brandis' dog, Jack, has been a great baby sitter, although you just have to wonder what's going on in his head about all of this.  You forget, until you have peeps again, how goofy they are:  trying to fly out of their box, racing around.  They get almost frantic when separated from each other.  Remembering our foibles with Calamity Jane, we are very hesitant to let them outside for a while, at least without close observation.
     And then we will have to figure out how to integrate the flock as well.  Stay tuned for more posts on this one.

     It was over dinner, looking out over said fecund garden, that we noticed the bees.  One of my bird houses, which has never had a bird tenant, had bees coming and going.  There was a lot of buzzing going on, and it turns out that we have a bumble bee hive!  These gals are great pollinators, so they are naturally welcome.  No honey to be obtained, and according to my friend Kit, they are not likely to stay around past this season.  We will then rejoice and enjoy the visit, and be grateful for their service.
     Finally, if all goes well today, we will participate in this year's Chicken Coop Tour!  This is very exciting, and has forced Brandis and me to knuckle down and address some ongoing garden issues:  we have built our garden gate, the approaches, with steps, to it, and spruced up our coops.  Brandis is still working on the design elements of her coop siding.  If all goes well, we will have the great back hoe removal of bamboo next week.