Spring-y things.

So...as Spring gets older there is lots happening here at Frogknot. We have Kookaburra's nesting down near the loo and a Black Faced Cuckoo-Shrike at the edge of the treeline on the hill at the front of the house.I got the ladder and tried to take a pic of the baby kookaburras but as I peered in the hole I realised that the mother was in there with them so I backed off not wanting to scare her off.

Not so solitary confinement.

So...Long-mu spent the night alone in her box and this morning I let her out in the garden. She went straight over to the chicken run and the other hens came to the fence to see her. I relented and lifted her in with the others and she ignored them and went straight inside and into the nesting box with Dou-mu.One night in the box alone had not cured her so I lifted her out again. Where we put her box was too close to the pen and she could still hear Dou-mu's chicks calling so we have moved the box away from the house and we have put Wuji-mu in with her.

Solitary confinement.

So...our eight new chicks are doing well and Dou-mu is looking after them well. She took them outside today for the first time.Long-mu, however, is also broody and we have been removing her, many times, daily from the nesting box. I found her yesterday sitting on one of Dou-mu's chicks and today she was getting a little aggressive towards them in the chook shed, chasing after and pecking them.I waded into the shed and picked her up and carried her out but had nowhere else to put her safely so had to put her back in the pen.Using the box that 'Velociraptor' the chipper machine came in I made another cage this afternoon and Long-mu has been sent to Solitary Confinement.

Apparently removing broody hens from the pen for a few days into a box without straw but with food and water should cure them of their 'broodiness.'We will see.She was most indignant about the whole thing.

Supermoon.

There and back again.

So...we are returned to Frogknot after an evening away in Brisbane for Women in Voice 2016. It was the fourth Women in Voice I have been to since coming here in 2013.It is always a wonderful night out and last night was no exception. We had an Indian meal out first with Andrew, Ros, Steve, Trevanna, Molly and Georgia and then headed to the Judith Wright Centre for the show. It was the last show of the run so it was a special night.We stayed at Ros's last night and this morning headed to Morningside to see if we could get some Vimto from the 'Foodworks' there....but they had none. So we headed over the The Valley of the Leeches (Indooroopilly) and the Woolies there had 9 bottles reduced to clear. I got them all! Bargain!We called in at Redbank Plains to the Cineplex Cinema and saw 'Arrival' at 10.30 am.Gosh! It was good! Go see it if you can.After a quick lunch we went to see 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'...It was not so great and we were very disappointed with it.It was 36 degrees when we came out of the air conditioned cinema and poor Roxy was overheating again coming up the Range. We arrived home just after sunset and rushed to check on Doumu and the eggs she was sitting on.They have all hatched!We have eight new Araucana chicks, three white, three grey and two black.Fingers crossed they all make it.