Sweet Jesus, I think Scarlett is brooding an egg or two. We’ve not had a lot of eggs because of the heat, but Buffy has started crowing again and I saw him busy with a hen or two recently, so I guess the heat had him off his game as well. Anyhoo, Husband was woebegone because there were no uovo to have with his beloved Tillamook formaggio. Then, last night I went to lock the door of Toad Hall and have a sneaky peek for an egg or two, and Scarlett had assumed the position! What took me by surprise more so than Scarlett eyeballing me, was seeing her housemates crammed into the other nesting boxes, rather than roosting like regular birds. That shit is startling! And gross. I need to put larger walls between each of the boxes to discourage congregation. Husband is all for building a new house, but he is full of crackpot ideas that aren’t always realistic or necessary (whereas my crackpot ideas usually involve work for Husband, but they are AWESOME ideas). Also, both wings of Toad Hall are in fine condition. We will be ordering an automatic door opener and I do need to do some gap-filling, and probably cutting out a poop-chute for easier cleaning, but those are just maintenance issues, rather than whole new housing issues.
The blackberry vines are growing like wildfire and providing nice coverage of the chicken fence, so it should be quite picturesque by spring next year. It has also provides some extra shade for my ladies. There weren’t many blackberries on it, though, unless my ladies ate them all. Anyhoo, if there is another bebe or two brooding away, there will be plenty of shade for them by next summer. I will have to watch even closer, though, I’m not prepared for all and sundry to be having their own little family, and I wonder if even adopted Grandma Mabel will tire of too many littles running and jumping all over her.