Summer storm

Beaver Creek before the kids arrived

For a few days at least, the nasty, goopy weather that has characterized summer 2015 is gone.  The weather was still goopy during adventure camp down at Beaver Creek yesterday, but the kids all finished their critter-catching sessions and got back up the mountain before the storm hit.

The severe summer storm brought down trees, took out power and littered the yards and roads with various-sized limbs and branches.  A tornado took out an elementary school near Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and though the principal was in the school at the time, she wasn’t hurt.  It’s possibly a mark of how odd this summer is that it took a storm like that to bring about some normal summer weather.  So I will enjoy the weather for a few days before the goop returns.  Perhaps I’ll even have time to put together a new chicken run for the girls, a project hampered by the last three rainy weekends.

I have a broody hen, something of a rarity in Rhode Island Reds, who are notoriously poor mothers.  She is, naturally, brooding where I don’t want her to brood. I tried moving her and the eggs, which didn’t sit well with her at all. She returned to her original spot within an hour, so I gave in and returned the eggs to her.  They were still warm, so I hope all is well there.  If I’m going to have a broody hen, I hope to get some chicks out of it.  And if she’s going to have chicks, then I really need to get that new run built.  Of course, Miss Broody may well decide that motherhood is not for her and give up before the 21-day hatch time is over. I’m also not sure she’s turning her eggs, as she should be, but she sure has plunked herself solidly in that one spot. There’s a long way to go before any hatching might occur.  And even then some hens kill the chicks that hatch, which is not only should I not count the chicks before they hatch, but I’d better not count them afterwards, either.