Bluebird Report

I had to go back and review all of my observations this year (which were not done as carefully as they should have been). My final report is a mere sixteen bluebirds fledged this year and a big fat ZERO tree swallows... due to the six that mysteriously died in the nest. Probably because of the blasted black flies, I've been told. Sure hope to do better next year.

Cover Crops

I have been reading up on sustainable gardening methods... I have been reading Eliot Coleman, his wife Barb Damrosch, Terra Brockman's new release; 'Seasons on Henry's Farm' most recently, not to forget the usual Rodale's Organic Gardening line up, etc. ...

Today this article Improve Your Soil with Cover Crops from Mother Earth News came to my attention. Always good to gain information from as many sources as possible...this helps to sharpen the focus as I'm trying to gain a grasp of the direction I want to go. Each writer may make just one more statement that makes a certain point more clear for me.

I have been thinking of the use of cover crops for several years. In the vege garden (of course) I have been dealing with the weed problem...mostly keeping somewhat of a grip on it by mulching with flakes of old hay. This does biodegrade and adds to the organic matter in the soil, which is good. It is labor intensive at certain times of the year, when I would rather be doing something else. I cannot handle it by myself as quickly as it needs to be done and must enlist the help of DH. Growing cover crops at the right times would be far less work, I think. And would do more for the health of the soil in the long run...especially by repairing compaction problems and then aeration.

I have some leftover legume seeds that it may not be too late for...not for a harvest, but soil improvement. It's a nice sunny day and have been working in the kitchen garden-- even though the soil is yet a little too damp than ideal after yesterday's three inches of rain. I will make a point of sticking some of those peas throughout some bare spots though as it couldn't hurt and might help.
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Read the book 'Managing Cover Crops Profitably'.  You can order a hard copy, or download it in HTML or as a PDF and read it online.

Insect Repellent

One of many projects that I never got around to finishing this summer was adding a new raised bed that will surround the chicken and goose run. I did get the thornless blackberries planted at the southeast and southwest corners, but the plan for the herb bed never came to fruition. The problem? Ground ivy! or creeping charlie...whatever you want to call it. Not to mention that nasty burdock with the massive roots that grow all the way to China.

I did lay plastic part of the way around with the hopes of getting rid of some weeds (I don't use chemical weed killers, especially not around the livestock). Well, the plastic did do a good job of suffocating out everything that grew under it, but anywhere the ground ivy found a hole or a tear, it did not hesitate to move in and make itself at home. And around the edges of the compost covered plastic? Up and over the ivy went. It's now looking very plush.

I plan to remove the plastic, rake it all out and then cover the area of the desired bed with thick flakes of old hay. It will have the entire fall and winter to choke out the ivy and then decompose somewhat to make for a nice rich spot for a late spring planting of my insect repelling herbs. That is the main point of this particular bed. I found an article at Horticulture magazine's website that gives me some ideas of what to plant for this purpose. It speaks specifically of mosquitos, but there are other insects those plants will target. In addition to the plants mentioned there, I also will research wormwood (Artemisia), tansy, citronella and others. I have to be careful not to plant any insect repelling plants, that might also do harm to the geese and chickens if they were to take a nibble...

Aaaaah...so much to do, so little time.

Pullet's First Eggs

Yesterday I found our first brown egg from one of the new pullets! It must have been from one of the sex links because the Americaunas will lay blue or green and the Leghorns lay white eggs, I believe...need to double check on that. Today there were several eggs and I have one of the old hen's eggs with them in the photo for comparison.

I was not really expecting any eggs this soon...I thought maybe another month to wait, but they surprized us! We brought home the baby chicks on the 20th of March. They may have been as much as a week old--not really sure. That would make them between 19 and 20 weeks old...so I guess that is about right. The eggs are a little larger than the first eggs of our pullets four years ago. The shells are nice and hard, especially the Americauna's. This may or may not be due to the extra electrolytes and vitamins and also apple cider vinegar that I have been adding to the water. I did not do this for the older hens a few years ago. All of these eggs have yolks also.

For breakfast I made zucchini fritters with zucchini from the garden and these yummy little chicky eggs! Thanks, Girls!

The Last Nestlings

Well, this will be it for the year, I think. There are four baby birds in nestbox #2.

Last birdies of the season...I think

I haven't been keeping up with my bluebird reports. Before I forget, I should note that the four bluebird babies in box #1 fledged sometime ago. Just the other day, I found that the bluebirds in box #2 had hatched. This is the same box where I found the dead tree swallow babies.

I also have two boxes near the house for the Jenny Wrens. Both have nestlings in them, but I don't track these. One box is in the kitchen garden right out the back door. It is over my raspberry patch where the Wren parents enjoy the raspberries and Japanese beetles, too, I'm sure. My chickens sure do. I have caught them in the act of jumping up and grabbing raspberries straight off the cane. They really love 'em! Our one little Rhode Island Red Hen (Rhoda) who is so tame, will stand on my hand and eat raspberries and japanese beetles as I pull them off the canes for her with the other hand.

Tropical Hybiscus

A couple of weeks ago, a friend put me in touch with someone who was moving and looking for a new home for her very large potted tropical hibiscus! Well, thank you so much! I have never owned a tropical before.

Hibiscus moscheutos

I do, however, have the hardy Hibiscus moscheutos here in my garden which I enjoy very much. The tropical will be a nice addition...even though I will need to over-winter it indoors. It is too large to bring into the house and also I am afraid the conditions will not be right for it...it was always over-wintered in a semi-heated garage in the past. I may be able to fit it into the foyer by the front door. It stays above freezing in there, but still very cool as there are no heat ducts. But...that's jumping ahead about five months! Right now I just need to repot it. The old pot is lightweight plastic and too narrow in diameter at the bottom to keep it from blowing over with a good gust of wind. What I would really like is a nice glazed ceramic pot---or faux ceramic with a with broad base. The ones that I have seen so far still have the narrower base and would not likely solve the problem. Gotta do something soon...

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I did my rounds of the bird boxes today. Box number one has brand new baby bluebirds! I caught them at just the right moment as all but one are hatched out. A single shiny blue egg remains. He has not even pipped yet. Maybe a bad egg. Will check on it again tomorrow.

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Bad news on the tree swallows in box number two. They hatched out a week or so ago--all six of them were fine. Growing and seemingly healthy. Well... checked on them today and they were all six DEAD in the nest! I have no idea what happened to them. They were not attacked, there is no evidence of insects, they all appear fat/well fed. They probably just died today or yesterday...don't know. I last saw them two or three days ago and they seemed just fine. I don't think they gaped at me when I opened the door, but I didn't think anything of it. They were all breathing then. I do know that there was at least one parent flying around as usual. We did have a torrential downpour yesterday afternoon. I was driving home and it was so bad that I could barely see the road. It seemed to come out of the Northwest. The opening in the box is facing Northeast, but maybe the rain came in and hammered the poor babes. The nest did seem a little damp. I guess I will never know what happened to them for sure.

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Box number three has had an English House Sparrow trying to nest in it. I have removed the nest at least three or four times now. I hope they give up and go away soon.

Bluebird Report

I had checked the boxes a couple of days ago...maybe Wednesday? I didn't have my camera with me, but wish I had as the bluebird babies in box number three were quite large and fully feathered out! I finally got around to bringing my camera out with me today, but alas!--they had fledged sometime between Wednesday and today (Friday). They were so beautiful. I guess I will have to make a point of taking the camera out each time.

So now that makes nine fledged so far this season. Four from the first and now five from this one. The eggs in box number 1 are now four count. The tree swallows have not yet hatched, but momma tree swallow will now stay put when I check on them. She hunkers down and stares at me until I dutifully close the door---leaving her in peace to do her motherly duty of keeping the eggs perfectly warm.

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On another note-- some not so happy news to report: Mama Kitty brought me a little gift and dropped it at my feet on the kitchen floor this morning. I picked it up and to my utter dismay, it was a tiny fledgling hummingbird! Oh, it was very dead and mangled. I had to have another talk with Mama Kitty about which species of birds she absolutely must not touch and those which she may hunt and eat (exotic invasives, such as English House sparrows and European starlings). I really don't think it sunk in. She stared at me for a short second, and then promptly turned her back and walked back outside. I don't think she cared for the stern tone in which I berated her...especially after bringing me a 'love offering'.

So far they have brought us a red winged blackbird, a fledgling tree swallow, an American goldfinch, robins, and now the fledgling hummingbird...

All this in addition to the legal House sparrows and rodentia.

Infestation Not Bothering 'my' Nestlings

We first noticed the flying buggers last Sunday. They were all over the chickens, annoying the H-E double hockey sticks out of the poor things. I did not know what they were, but noticed when I smashed some against the window pane in the chicken coop door that blood splattered. The evil things were blood sucking vampires! Poor chickies. I dusted all that I could catch with diatomaceous earth that I had on hand. Not much else I could do that night.

The next morning, they all seemed to be gone as if by magic...as quickly as they arrived. I have since found out that these pesky buggers are 'black flies' or 'buffalo gnats'. They do suck blood and can actually kill a BULL if the infestation is bad enough!

A day or two later when we started butchering our meat chickens, we noticed that the black flies were back. They didn't bother me too much, but seemed to like DH better. We could only get about a fourth of our chickens processed outside because of it.

I received an e-mail from our bluebird club about the pests. Apparently they can be a real problem for baby birds---even killing the babies still in the nest. The recommendation is to paint pure vanilla around the box opening using a Q-tip. For some reason this repels the black flies. I did this immediately...what a horrible way for a baby bird to go!

Yesterday when we had to get some more chickens processed, I got the idea to put some pure vanilla and some water in a spray bottle. We sprayed our arms, head and neck with this vanilla water while working and this seemed to help.

Bird Box Update

The tree swallows have six eggs in the nest now! I guess they were not yet setting when I last counted four. Six will probably be it.

The bluebirds in box number three are growing fast. I can still only identify five in the nest. When I opened the door, one of the babies offered me his fecal sac, which I gladly removed for him. See, I can fill in for mom and dad bluebird if the situation arises!

Box number one has the beginnings of a new nest. Looks like bluebird nesting material again!

Processing Day

Today we began to process our meat chickens. Go to my blog 'Our Food, Our Health' for the full story.

The First Fledglings!

Until today, there was really nothing new to report-- but now the four bluebirdies in nextbox number one have flown the coop! I am not aware of exactly the day, but they are gone for sure. I have cleaned out the old nest and am now hoping the parents will raise another brood.



The tree swallows finally have finished thier nest--they have it lined with plenty of soft feathers for four eggs/soon to be hatched baby tree swallows.



The six bluebird eggs in box number three have hatched. They look to be only a day or two old. I'm not sure. If I had been at this longer, I could probably have told you exactly how old they are. Anyway, they are tiny--not too much bigger than an egg. I can only see five, but if there is a sixth, he is not picking up his head...the fifth one seems a little tired and doesn't gape at me when I look in--so maybe there is a sixth one somewhere in the pile as well.

Nestbox Check

The bluebird babies in box #1 are fine...all four of them growing and feathering out.
Box #2 has a tree swallow nest about half finished! There are no feathers yet--not ready for them, but I know it is our tree swallows as they were swooping around and chattering at me.
I was able to see the eggs at box #3. The mother heard me coming and made her escape before I got to the box. There are still six eggs and I think that will be it.

More Bird Words

Yesterday, I checked on the birdboxes again-- I want to keep an eye on things. I did not have any problems with English House Sparrows last year, and hopefully not this year either. I don't have one of the Birdman's Sparrow Spookers on any of the nests yet, but so far it doesn't seem necessary.

The Tree Swallows have not yet begun to nest in box #2, but my peeking in on them might have given them second thoughts! There was just a few more pieces of dry grass, but I think if they were seriously thinking about a nest in that box, there would have been more progress. Just my opinion.

A couple of days after I startled them in box #2, I went outside to work in the garden. At the garden gate there is a nest box for wrens (not yet occupied). The pair of tree swallows were standing guard over the box. One was perched on top and the other was sitting prettily on the garden gate. I think the hole is way too small at 15/16", for tree swallows. I never did see them go in. They were making that dripping water sound that I always thought was a Brown-Headed Cowbird sound. Maybe the BHCB makes the sound, but I guess the Tree Swallows do, too. I do not know many of the birds calls or songs yet, but learning their various sounds is part of the fun!

I hope they do settle into box #2. I don't really have anywhere else for them to go. I guess I need more boxes.

Oh, by the way, the female bluebird was setting on the six+ eggs in box #3! She looked at me, but did not move from the nest when I peeked in.

Bluebird Update

I did check on the boxes again two days ago. The number 1 box with the four eggs had brand new hatchlings! Boy, I really missed the boat on those. The bluebird parents probably started thier nest the minute after I first checked those boxes and saw they were still empty. I didn't have my camera with me the other day to get shots of the little ones, but here they are today. I am just fascinated with how quickly baby birds grow. Not only these, but also our geese and chickens. You can almost see them growing before your very eyes!

The number 2 box had a surprize for me today. Two days ago, there was a few blades of dried grass and that was all. Today, I opened the door to find a pair of tree swallows bundled up inside. They sprung out of there as soon as the door was open, so I didn't get a photo, of course, but it was neat to see. Last year, I also had tree swallows in one of the boxes, but it was in box number 1. I suppose they got here a little late and found they had missed out to the early bluebirds...


Another surprize awaited me in box number 3. The one that had two eggs on the 19th, now has six. They might have started incubating them, but I have not seen the parents yet. Maybe I will be lucky and have a nest with seven or more eggs.

Lame Broiler, More Sex Link Info and Terra Cotta is Out

I finally took the time last night to dig for info on a lame Rock Cornish cross. I had isolated this one some time back, for observation, thinking that it was sick. After a few days, I realized that it was apparently very healthy, but was not able to hold itself up on it's legs. So it is now back in the pen with the others. The book that I consulted is "The Chicken Health Handbook" by Gail Damerow. I have concluded that the weak legs are due to a vitamin difficiency. I have been feeding them Purina Chick Starter and Grower from the beginning, which I had just assumed would have all of the vitamins and minerals that they need. From here on out, I will add a vitamin supplement to their water.

All of the other birds appear to be quite healthy...large with enormous legs and feet. I have come to believe that maybe I have been feeding them too much, however. Since they act like a bunch of starving pirannahs, I guess I felt like they were starving! I hope the additional vitamins will take care of the problem along with cutting back on the feed to slow their growth.
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While perusing through another Damerow book, "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", I came across some info on Sex Links. When I went back to Rural King a couple of days later to pick up some more broilers, I also chose two more layers. I originally had only the Ameraucaunas and Red Leghorns, but since these were straight run and a gamble, I decided to bring home the Sex Links so that I at least would have two pullets for sure. Well, I had previously been told that the solid blacks were the pullets, so I let the young employee grab two black ones and put them in the box for me. When I got home, I picked them up and they both had white bellies! So I wasn't so sure I had pullets, afterall.

Last night, I found this explanation by Damerow: "Since a pullet does not acquire her dam's sex chromosome, she cannot acquire any genetic information it contains. A cockerel...always acquires genetic information contained on its dam's chromosome. All characteristics that are controlled by genes on a hen's sex chromosome are called sex-linked. ...when a hen with a certain sex-linked trait is mated to a cock without it, the trait is acquired by all the resulting cockerels, but not the pullets. Since all the pullets are like thier sire and all the cockerels are like their dam, ...allows the sex-linked sorting of chicks according to things as their color...numerous variations are possible. ...If you cross a barred Rock hen with a Rhode Island Red cock, each cockerel will have a white spot on its head."

I am somewhat more reassured now that my two sex-linked chicks are pullets. They definitely did not have white spots on thier heads. I do remember seeing others with the white spots in the bin at the store. I also remember this white spots on the heads of the pure barred Rocks that we bought four years ago.
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Lastly, I wanted to comment on the use of Terra Cotta for a feed tray...don't. I had rigged up a feeder for the goslings, trying to save money. The hanging feeders are a little expensive at $18 and up. I bought a terra cotta saucer and put a large plastic funnel in the middle to keep the goslings out of the feed. Well, the terra cotta is pourous and absorbs moisture from the ground. I went to clean it out today and found mold growing under the funnel due to the ground moisture. Mold is not healthy, so I would definite not recommend the use of terra cotta!

Foster Parents, indeed!

Well, the adult geese have taken so well to the new goslings, that they have not left the pen since the day I brought them home! They are so protective of these fuzzballs, and so 'parental' in fact, that I believe the older goose has stopped laying altogether. (I should begin to use thier names for simplicity's sake, even though I don't really call them by name often). The gander is Larry, the older goose is Mo and the younger goose is Curly. The three stooges--HA! They really are very silly geese.

Yes, I think Mo has decided that these are 'her' goslings and therefore is done laying and has probably decided also that she must have set on their eggs and hatched them out, too. Which is fine, considering her miserable and futile efforts of the past years.

When the Toulouse goose that we had hatched her goslings out, she had them out of the pen and halfway across the yard by the second day. These adults have shown no desire to leave the pen with these to browse. They certainly have enjoyed their greens though, as I go out several times per day and pluck up armfuls of grass, dandlelions and that infernal creeping jenny. I am hoping that they will develop a taste for it especially. Then they can serve as 'weeder geese' for the time they are here... If I ever get them out of the pen.

Bluebirds

Yesterday was the ECIBS annual conference and I heard several people there saying that they already had nests with eggs in their nestboxes. A couple of people who came from south of here even had hatchlings already! I had checked my boxes for the first time a couple of weeks ago and there was not yet any nestbuilding going on. "I guess I had better check my boxes!", I thought.

This morning, I went out to see if anything was going on and sure enough! Two of the boxes already had nests with eggs. The number 1 box had four bluebird eggs, number 2 was empty and number 3 had two bluebird eggs.

Goslings Arrive

I got the news today while on my way to Greenup to pick up four more bags of chick feed from Dillier's Hatchery. Oh, Boy! I still had quite a bit of work to do to get the brooder ready. I had started on it yesterday, knowing that any day now the goslings would be in. Still had loads of old compost to clean out of the goose pen and fresh planer shavings to put down. Still had to place the cinder blocks to set our makeshift brooder house onto, had to hang the heat lamp, get the waterer set up and a feeder of sorts in place....

It was late afternoon before things were all good to go. I didn't make it to town to pick them up
until 5:30. As I walked into the store, there they were in a small galvanized trough waiting for me, "SOLD" sign prominantly displayed. There was a little boy there, maybe three or four, with his mom admiring them, but not touching due to the "Do not touch" signs everywhere. I told them that they were mine, so he could pet one. I picked one up and held it out to him. He was a slightly timid about the idea, but with encouragement from Mom, reached out and gave the fuzz ball a pat. I was surprized at the temperment of this little gaggle. The first ones that we bought four years ago would scream and run away if you reached your hand into the box. These just stood there looking at me...and the one that I reached for, calmly accepted me picking him up. He made gentle gosling peeps as I held him out to the boy...not at all afraid. My first thought was, "Oh dear, if these stay this sweet, how are we ever going to bring ourselves to do the 'dirty deed' when the time comes?"


Here is their home for now. Same as with the chicks, we used a factory-second spreader hopper, overturned onto some cinder blocks. This will be their shelter from the elements and from the older geese, if need be. I am not too worried about it though. From what I have read recently, the geese will make great foster parents for them.

'Geese Grow on Grass' --Mother Earth News, 1970

Easter Eggs

I have decided to stop collecting the goose eggs as of today. I think that Easter is a good day for that. The Africans have never successfully hatched out any eggs. That is not for lack of trying. Both have tried with all of their might...to their own detriment I think. I hate to see them sitting there for so many weeks, barely coming out to eat. They do come out and browse some, but I can't imagine that it would be enough time to nourish themselves. My two females share a nest which has actually worked out. With two nesting spots available last year, they both still wanted the same one. They ended up taking turns laying eggs. One would lay one day and the other would lay the next. When it was time to set, however; it was another story. The younger one (actually a daughter of the African gander at least) was hatched out by our Toulouse goose which we no longer have. She seems to be more dominant over the older one and 'wins' the preferred nest when it is time to set. So each had their turn setting for weeks on end, each on their own nest...only to eventually start breaking rotten egg after egg and finally giving up. I knew that when I saw them browsing all day that it was over.

So I decided to let them keep their eggs starting earlier in the year while it was still cool. Maybe this will make a difference. I'm not sure if the Africans are just not as good at incubating the eggs as Toulouse or what. Maybe they don't keep them turned as they should. I don't know if there is something else I should be doing for them. I do know that the gander covered all of the geese on a regular basis (And darn PROUD of it, too!) so infertile eggs would not be the problem.

Our goslings ordered from the hatchery will be delivered sometime this week. Maybe this will get them in the mothering mood.

First Goose Egg of 2009

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Let it be known that spring has officially begun! The younger African goose has laid her very first egg of the year. The gander has not yet turned defensive and bitey, but this is soon to come I am sure. They are becoming more attached to their pen, as is par for the course.

We found out the first year that we did not prefer the taste and texture of goose eggs over our chickens'. We ended up blowing them all out to use for future eggery crafts. At first, we would drill two holes, one in either end and then blow them out! Boy, was that a headache...literally. DH came up with the idea to use a syringe. We would drill one hole with the Dremel and inserted the needle of a syringe and then draw the white and yolk out. The yolk had to be scrambled first with a bamboo skewer. Much easier! and it was nice to have one hole in the shell only.

I mainly wanted to use the goose eggs for Pysanky, so I was still wondering how I was going to deal with keeping dye out of the hole. Usually Pysanky is done on raw eggs and eventually the egg will dry out after some years. Sometimes the egg will rot and explode! I did not want to take this risk, especially after doing what would be hours of work for me.

The final, happy solution was to set the whole eggs, pointed end up, in a flat box filled half way with silica sand. It has taken about a year and a half, but I now have some whole goose eggs that are completely dry. The dried yolk moves around in the shell like a marble, but the white seems to evaporate through the porous shell. Best of all-- no holes!

I am thinking of trying to bury the eggs in SILICA (used for drying flowers) this year to see if they dry out any faster.

Check out these Chicks!

I finished getting the space ready for the chicks in the chicken run this morning. I went back to town to the Rural King for the purpose of picking up 25 Rock Cornish Cross. At this point, I still was undecided about what I was going to do about layers. After having my car T-boned in the parking lot and dealing with all that (Arrgh!), inside I went to choose my chicks!

I did decide on some layers, too. I chose Ameraucanas and also Leghorns out of the several types that they had. This time, the right guy was there who could tell me what each of the breeds were. These were too old for me to try to guess at the gender. Someone once told me that an easy way to sex day old chicks was to look at the pin feathers on the wings. The pullets' pins will be more advanced than the roos. It was still kind of iffy, but four years ago when we last bought chicks, this method gave us almost 65% pullets. I think we would have done better, but I may have forgotten to check every one in the excitement of the moment! Those who know better will sex the chicks by squeezing out the poop and then they can squeeze a little more and see if there is a little 'nub' (roos) or not (not roos)! I tried to do this, but just couldn't handle this method. Oh well, maybe someday I will have someone show me how. I can only hope that out of the six Ameraucanas and the three Brown Leghorns, that I will get a few pullets out of it. They did have Sex Links, but I wanted something a little more interesting.

Here is the set-up that we put together for them. The shelter is an overturned sand spreader hopper that goes in the back of a pick up truck. This was a factory second that was given to us. I knew right away what I would use it for! So I have it setting up on cinder blocks. The bedding is loose straw with a layer of wood shavings over the top of that. I have the heat lamp hanging from above, plywood on top to cover the opening and I have covered the whole things with a couple of blankets for the night. Last, but not least, there are flakes of hay around the entire thing to keep it snug and warm. I will remove the flakes in front during the day so they can move freely in and out. It is supposed to get down to 34 degrees F tonight, but the rest of the week will not drop that low. I will go out and check on them later to see how they are doing.

The ICYouSee
Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart

Getting Ready for Chicks and Goslings

Yesterday I stopped by the Rural King for a new lawn rake... The weather has been wonderfully warm and breezy and I have accomplished mucho spring clean up this week...looks good, feels even better! Not too surprizingly, they had baby chicks in by the truckload. Six or seven galvanized water troughs were set up with heat lamps and ground corn cobs for bedding. The chicks were straight run, of course. This is the only way you can buy them here unless special ordered. Two whole troughs were Cornish Cross--one trough held chicks a little older than the others. The other troughs were divided up into various other unidentified breeds of straight run chicks. Some look like Rhode Island Reds, Cinnamons and Barred Plymouth Rocks, which we have had before...but still it would only be my best guess, not being so familiar with identifying breeds of chicks. The Rock Cornish Cross, I do know for sure.

I have spent today and yesterday cleaning up the chicken run and getting it ready for about thirty Rock Cornish Cross. These are for the freezer. At the same time, I need to be able to choose maybe half a dozen of a layer breed. I was thinking about ordering older pullets ready to lay, but maybe I will just get the chicks afterall. We are doing ok with the number of eggs that we are still getting from our two remaining three year old hens for now. I worry about whether older pullets would come back to the coop to roost since they would not have been raised here. I don't want hens that I have to keep locked up all the time. I was hoping to have Leghorns this time. I wish I knew someone to ask about bringing in older pullets to a free range situation.

I did place an order for fifteen Toulouse geese for the freezer. I hope our Africans will adopt and care for the new goslings. They were all very protective of the goslings that were hatched here two years ago by one of my geese. I hope they will do the same for the 'orphans' when they come. If they don't protect them, I will have to concern myself with keeping them safe from the barn kitties...after all, they look like just another bird to four kitties who are used to hunting!

Tulips from Garfield Park

As it was somewhat nice outside yesterday, I took a little gander around the yard...picking up a few branches and litter as I meandered. Probably the happiest discovery was the tips of the tulips poking their brave little selves up through the still cold and damp soil. My little salvaged tulips did survive! So maybe it was worth the hour drive out to Indianapolis for Garfield Park's Keep What You Pull Day for these. I may go out today and throw on a layer of something for protection from freezing as it would be sad to have their appearance damaged when spring finally does hit for real.

Cassie is now Izzie

Today I made a surprizing discovery. My chubby little fluffball 'Cassie' aptly named after Mama Cass for her unladylike habit of wolfing down her food like a horse and then moving onto her siblings' food... is probably a male. She/he is so fluffy that it was never real obvious. Once I had determined months ago that she/he was a female, she was dubbed 'Cassie' as a most befitting name. I haven't really bothered checking since then.

Today, however; as she/he was getting a good brushing of her gorgeous fluffiness, I noticed what appeared to be fluffy little testies under his/her tail! It wasn't so obvious...somewhat UNDERSIZED in my opinion in relation to his/her overall size, but there nonetheless.

Oh Well, almost five months old and your whole identity changes. So now the question of a new name, since 'Cassie' is wholey inappropriate for a tomcat, I do believe! My first thought was to change it to something that sounds similar since she/he is already used to it. Cassius was rejected by DH, as were several others that crossed my mind. So something new altogether.

I think I will honor our little gender bender kitty with the name of Eddie Izzard...Izzie. Izzie a boy or Izzie a girl?

Here is a picture of our pretty little boy taken back in October.

Burlap 'Sausage' for Raised Beds

I saw this on an episode of 'Victory Garden' and I think I may want to try it. They had made long tubes of burlap into 'sausages' stuffed with straw. I'm not sure if the long side was stitched up or not...maybe just rolled up like a cigar. The 'sausages' were then shaped into a round raised bed and staked into placed with a hemp rope. Fill with organic rich soil and you have your very cool looking bed!

I imagine that this would not last more than a couple of seasons, but it looks nice and it is biodegradeable. May only be worth it if I can get my hands on some cheap or preferably free recycled burlap.

One application that comes to mind is to use it to terrace an area of ground that is sloped. This is a new spot that I will put into tomatoes and peppers this year. I have bales of mixed hay that can be used, but I will do the burlap 'sausage' instead if I can come up with the burlap.

Beneficial Nematodes

Ever since we have lived here I have noticed a huge population of white grubs in the soil. They are especially plentiful in the compost piles. The Japanese Beetle population seems to be worse some years than others, I guess it depends on the weather...don't really know why, but the grubs are always plentiful. Yes, the chickens and geese love to eat them, but I don't really like them to as the grubs carry parasitic worms.

For this reason I have mulled over whether or not I should order some beneficial nematodes and milky spore. Well, now that we have the cats that we are caring for, the idea came to me that maybe, just maybe, the beneficial nematodes would be of some help against parasitic roundworm eggs or larvae in the soil (the kind that infest cats). Our vet has told me that these roundworms' (eggs?) can live for up to two years in the soil waiting to reinfest an animal as part of thier life cycle.

It is my understanding that beneficial nematodes are themselves a kind of roundworm, but are microscopic in size and are only parasitic to certain pests in the soil. They harm neither animals nor plants. So there are several pests that they will certainly help me with: the beetle grubs, fleas and there have been termites in the soil here. I have not found any info yet that states that the cat roundworms in the soil will be killed by the beneficial nematodes, but it couldn't hurt to try this means of reducing the population of roundworms for the kitties to have to stave off. I've skimmed through several websites on the beneficials and one did state that they are effective against rootworm nematodes; a nematode harmful to some plants....so I just might get lucky with this.

IPM University of Connecticut