Joining the flock

Update:  A couple of hours after writing this post, I went out to check on them.  The silkie is gone.  I have no idea what happened.  No sign of her anywhere, no fence breach.  It must have been a hawk or an eagle.  I am really upset - I bought 3 silkie chicks because I really wanted silkies again - and now I have none.  The poor little gold one is really upset too and following me around now.  I feel horrible, I must have put them out too soon.  But they seemed ready.  Ugh.  Farm life can really hurt sometimes.

Remember those little chicks I couldn't resist buying in this post?

Well, as you may recall, sadly, two of them didn't survive, but the one black silkie and the production hen of unknown breed (brown layer) did survive.  Yesterday, I took them out to the coop to join the flock.  Integrating hens into an existing flock can be tricky.  The pecking order needs to be re-established, and the new ones are almost invariably at the bottom.  These two are likely to stay there for a while at least, until they  gain some size.

I put them into the coop in late afternoon, a couple of hours before roosting time.  This gave them a chance to spend some time alone in the coop before the flock returned.  It also meant that they would not be subject to a long day of hassles from the other birds.

They ended up on top of the nesting box (former desk) and I took a couple of flash pictures of them together.  They are bonded with each other and will likely remain close as they get older.

 In the nesting unit underneath them, there is a hen sitting on wooden eggs, and she's been sitting for at least 3 weeks now.  I wish she'd hurry up and get over her broody spell!  Unfortunately, others lay eggs in her nest box but she eats the other eggs.  Silly bird.

I still don't know exactly what breed of brown-laying production hen I have.  I thought she would be a little darker.  She's really very pretty - a sort of golden brown with light coloured tail feathers.  She may be a Golden Comet or Gold Sex-Linked hen. You can really see that she is quite a bit bigger than the silkie.  The silkie seemed to settle down to roost, but the layer hen was more active even after dark when I went in to take these pictures.  She will figure out the routine soon!

I hope they'll continue to be good friends and that they will integrate into the flock without too much difficulty.  They are a funny little pair but I enjoy adding the diversity to my flock.

More Moths!

I know, some of you are probably less than excited about moth pictures *again* on the blog, but hey, it's my blog, and I love these moths - both their fabulous diversity and fragile beauty.  It must be "moth season" because every time I leave the porch light on overnight, there are at least a few!

Marigold the goat commented on my last moth post about sphinx moths being the ones who produce those voracious tomato hornworms.  Fortunately, none of these that I've photographed are the specific variety of sphinx moth that produces the tomato hornworm.  That moth is the Five-spotted Hawkmoth (Manduca quinquemaculata).  You can click on that link to see its picture.  So far...I haven't seen any of those, thank goodness!  The ones I've been seeing are primarily moths whose larvae feed on native plants on my land, including apple, poplar and birch trees, as well as marsh and river plants, which are in abundance here.

This newcomer is Paonias excaecata, whose common name is the Blinded Sphinx moth.  It is so named because of the spot on the hind wing, which you can see (because my finger was pushing the forewing aside).  As you can see, it looks like a blue eye, but without a pupil.  Thus, blinded sphinx.

You can compare it with the One-eyed Sphinx moth (Smerinthus cerisyi) which has a "pupil" in the blue spot, as shown below.  Sorry about the shadow in the picture - it's from my porch light and was unavoidable.

The third one in this group is the Twin-spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis), which has two blue spots separated by a dark stripe.  I managed to take a picture of one of these a couple of days ago, but when I tried to get the eye spot, it flew away, so you'll just have to trust me on the double spot story!  Or, you can see a picture of one here.  This is the one that I phographed - a really stunning moth.  (Sorry about the copyright but I submitted it to a moth photography site that required it and now I can't remove it)

Here is another lovely moth - the Northern Apple Sphinx moth (Sphinx poecila).  I loved the fact that it was on the old red painted wood around the door frame - really made it stand out.

A couple of smaller and more subtle moths were also present.  Here's one that goes by the delightful common name of the Agreeable Tiger Moth (Spilosoma congrua).  I have no idea why it's agreeable, and I'm not sure that I'd want to meet a disagreeable tiger moth.  This one really looks like it's wearing a furry hood, like a sort of winter fairy-robe.  I absolutely wanted to pet it on the head.

This is a Spotted Tussock moth, also known as a Yellow-spotted Tiger moth. Common names can vary a lot and that's why I prefer the proper Latin taxonomic names, which for this little guy is the lofty Lophocampa maculata.

I noticed this little guy in his brown furry hat!  He's a Ruby Tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa).  I couldn't get a picture of his body, but if you could see it, it would be a deep red colour.

Last but not least, here is the impressively large and beautiful Modest Sphinx moth (Pachysphinx modesta).  I'm not sure why it's modest but perhaps it doesn't show off around the other moths.  So furry!

So there you have it - my moth menagerie.  Back to work for me!

A Moth Morning

There was some fairly heavy rain during the night, and this morning when I took Jet out for his walk, I noticed quite a few moths on the front wall of my house, presumably where they had sheltered during the rains.  I took some pictures and set about making identifications of these lovely visitors.  I thought I'd share the interesting variety in these Lepidopteran species that make their home in this area.

There were two of these beauties - Twin-spotted Sphinx Moth (Smerinthus jamaicensis).

As you'll see in these close-ups, the top one of the two was a little darker than the bottom one, but they are definitely the same species despite the variations in their wing details.

I love how the body of the moth is arched in a sort of S-shape as if it were designed to have a little rider on its back!

This is the Yellow Slant Line Moth (Tetracis crocallata).  It was sitting on my propane tank, taking a rest. A rather uninspired name choice for its common name, but it does make it easy to identify.

Here's an interesting moth that sort of looks like a curled up dead leaf.  It goes by the name of Sigmoid Prominent (Clostera albosigma), but if you like, call it the curled up dead leaf moth.  If you look closely, you'll see that there's another moth disguising itself against the wood in the picture below.  It's some kind of geometrid moth but I'm not sure what species.  There are over 1,200 geometrid species native to North America, and I don't have the time to positively ID this one!

Here's a close up of the Sigmoid Prominent.  You can really see the way it wraps its wings around itself to give it that curled leaf appearance.  I love those fuzzy antennae!

Just above this moth was another interesting species - the Modest Furcula moth (Furcula modesta).  It is also quite easy to spot because of its distinct black markings.

Finally, another moth vying for the prize of looking like a dead leaf.  This one is the American Lappet Moth (Phyllodesma americana).  It reminds me, a little bit, of a furry hedgehog with wings.

There were also quite a few June bugs on the same wall.  Probably they were the same ones that kept on slamming themselves into the windows last night.  I'm not sure why they don't all get concussions, based on the sound of those thumps every time they hit the window, but somehow they just keep on going!

Fox in the Henhouse (almost)

I've had some recent sad losses in my chicken flock.  I've now lost 6 chickens to a fox.  I think it's the season in which foxes have their young, and I believe that's why, after 2 years of no problems, I suddenly have a fox issue.  So, I put up a fence to keep my hens safer, and to keep the fox at bay.  Unfortunately, some of my smaller birds can fly over the fence, but for the most part, this seems to be an effective solution for the time being.  Not pretty, but it will have to do for now.

For the record, I'm not interested in shooting the fox, or catching it in any sort of trap.  I believe in a healthy predator population and I don't like trapping in general unless it's live trapping without injury to the animal.  However, even if I had a live trap that would accommodate a fox, in this case, when it likely has young ones, I think it would be inappropriate to try to relocate it.

Today, I heard a big commotion from the chickens and rushed to see what was going on.  Having had this happen a number of times now, I was quick enough to grab the camera on my way to check it out.  My fence worked effectively, keeping the fox at bay.  The fox didn't appear to make any attempt to go over the fence, nor to dig under it.  When I saw the fox head around to the back where the barn is, I quickly went to check out whether it would enter the barn.

The goats and sheep were in the barn, because it's a pretty warm day, and they tend to stay inside and go out to eat for short periods of time.  Lucky Nickel was adamant that I should NOT go out the door of the barn.  I had to climb over her to get out.  She wasn't letting anyone else out either.  Sure enough, the fox was out there.  Nickel was staring at it intently and did not want to move at all.

Nickel was a very good guard goat, although I don't think the fox is really a threat to the sheep or goats. It's a small fox and they don't usually take down large size prey.

When I finally got past Nickel, here's what I saw.

I feel rather sad and sorry for this fox.  Its face looks like it might be a bit injured or unwell.

It's also missing a lot of tail fur.

From some quick reading, I think it might be sarcoptic mange, which means that eventually this fox is likely to die.  That is a difficult situation for me.  I don't like the fox eating my hens, but I don't like the fox suffering either.  I might try to put some dog food out for it, laced with ivermectin, which is apparently effective in treating the mite that causes sarcoptic mange.

I know that seems counter-intuitive.  Why would I want to help a fox that has already eaten 6 of my hens.  Admittedly, the fox does actually eat the birds in their entirety, unlike the raccoons, who just bite off the head and leave the rest (that makes me really angry).  I know that nature is harsh, it's an eat-and-be-eaten kind of world.  I will do my best to protect my hens, but I also do my best to promote a healthy ecosystem and I am really distressed by the thought of this fox suffering a slow decline as a result of a skin infection.

The fox ran away after seeing me...beating a hasty retreat into the woods.  Lucky Nickel stayed on "door duty" for quite a while afterwards though.  She may be a nuisance sometimes, but she's also a good herd queen and she seems to keep the group protected.

I hope the fox gets the idea that it can't get to the chickens, and finds some other prey for its young.  I don't like my chickens to suffer, but I don't like the fox to suffer either.  What a conundrum.

Apple Blossom Time

When I took Jet for a walk this morning in the warm sunshine, I was amazed by the heavy, sweet scent of the apple blossoms.  It filled the air so completely, and each breath was like sipping a glass of spring wine.  As I walked down the driveway, my ears were also drenched with sound...the steady low hum of a thousand bees.  They were everywhere - on the apple blossoms, the choke cherry blossoms, the tiny white and purple blossoms of weeds in the grass, and on nearly every dandelion I could see.  Count the bees!

Unfortunately, Jet went charging into a bank of dandelions and ended up being stung by a bee.  I had to take my poor hound back to the house, remove the stinger, and give him lots of reassurance.  I thought he was going to lick his leg right off.

I went out with the camera afterwards to try to capture the delights of the day.  Unfortunately, I had to wear my mesh bug jacket.  Here in this part of the world, we have a lot of biting insects.  I wasn't worried about the bees, but the black flies were out in droves.  If you don't live in a place with black flies, you might think I was just talking about flies that are black.  No, that is not the case.  The black fly is an incredibly annoying little biting fly, worse than a mosquito.  They hover around your head and face and bite repeatedly.  As you'll read, if you check out this Wikipedia entry, black flies are a scourge in some parts of Canada, even causing livestock deaths due to their incessant biting.  My sheep and goats are miserable at this time of year with the bites they receive around their eyes, and there really isn't much I can do for them.  The "fly bait" traps and fly sprays don't work for black flies.  Very few repellents work at all, and those that do are only marginally effective.  So, I was "suited up" for my walk.  See those nasty bugs off to the right of my head?  Just can't escape those things!

Trying to see the little digital camera screen through the mesh is a challenge.  The mesh is very fine and therefore the screen is hard to see in much detail.  I took almost 200 photographs and had to weed through them and crop a few to get the pictures I was aiming for.  Still, I think you'll be able to enjoy the sights that I was seeing.  I just can't get enough of those apple blossoms. They start out as a deep rosy pink in bud form.

Then they burst open into a pale pink that becomes more and more white with age.

They are only here for a short time, but it's a beautiful time.

Last year, due to late frosts, the apple blossoms never came out for me.  I really didn't have any to speak of, and I think I saw about 20 apples total last fall on all my trees (about 10 or so).  This year, every tree is thickly covered with blossoms....hundreds and hundreds of them!

The bees were enjoying all the pollen they could fit onto their legs.  Here's a bee on a dandelion.  See his pollen "baggage" on his legs?

His pollen trousers remind me of water wings that children wear in swimming pools!

Then, there were the bees enjoying the apple blossoms, probably just as much as I was, if not more.  Here comes one from the right, choosing its blossom.  You can just see the wings.

Bee bum!  

 I love how this picture turned out.  The blossoms aren't the showiest, but the bee is great!

As I continued to walk around, I noticed another visitor in the apple trees.  I had a flock of cedar waxwings who were eating the blossom petals.  I didn't know they would eat petals, but after some research, I found out that they do.  Not a bad breakfast, for a bird!  The waxwings are a little bit secretive and furtive in their movements, so it was hard to photograph them, especially given my difficulty in seeing the screen, but I think you can see them well enough in these pictures to identify them.  There are three of them in this picture, if you can find them amongst all those blooms!

Here you can see that the bird on the left actually has a petal in its beak.

I managed to catch one in flight.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture showing those tiny red tips on their wing feathers, but they are still lovely birds.  I think there were about ten of them hopping about in the trees.

I was quite captivated with the beautiful show that nature put on for me this morning, despite the black flies. See, I am still smiling!

Spring is finally here

I'm glad to say that spring is finally arriving here in my part of the world.  It sure has taken its time this year, but things are beginning to turn green instead of being brown.  I won't mention the fact that there are flurries forecast for tomorrow because that would just ruin everything...

So, I have daffodils!  Yay!  The one thing that the goats simply don't eat.  I'm not sure why, but apparently they just don't taste good.  All the other bulbs were destroyed by the goats, before they really made it out of the ground, but the daffodils keep coming back.  That's a lovely treat for me since I love gardening and used to have a really beautiful flower garden.  One day when I get fences put up, I can have one again I hope.

There are three different daffodil cultivars in my garden now - the classic all yellow, the one above that is white with the pale yellow "frilly" inside, and this one below, which is rather beautiful with its dark orange rim.  See the little ant in there?  I didn't notice that when I took this picture!

The tree leaves are just starting to come out.  That's pretty late, even for here.

I have a lot of trees with black knot fungus.  Unfortunately it's so widespread in this area that there really isn't much point to trying to control it.  It only affects Prunus species, which in this area means choke-cherries and wild plums.  It looks unsightly but the leaves cover it later in the summer.

Down on the swampy part of my field, the wild iris patch is coming back.  They have beautiful yellow flowers later in the early summer.  It's strange because there's just this one patch, but it's lovely when it's in bloom.  It's nice to see those green spears returning.  Here's a picture of the patch from my driveway.

Here they are a little more close-up!  I think if I were a duck or other water bird, I'd like to hang out in the middle of that patch to build my nest!

Some of the trees are beginning to blossom now.  These have a lovely scent.

I'm particularly pleased to see copious blossoms forming on the apple trees.  Last year there weren't any apples on most of the trees because there was a late frost and the blossoms didn't make it.  I'm hoping for a better harvest this year.  They make great treats for goats and sheep!

This is one of those interesting evergreen species that loses its needles every year.  They're starting to emerge again now.  I think it's a larch species but I'm not sure which one.  If anyone knows, I'd be delighted to find out.

Also, I've seen some tadpoles in the stream!  This picture shows the area that makes a fairly deep pool most of the time, and that's where I see tadpoles at this time of year, and fish later in the year.  The rest of the stream is shallower, rushing over rocks and making little waterfalls, but this one area stays more calm and has slower movement.  When I walk by, if the sun is in the right spot, my shadow makes all the tadpoles and little fish dart to the shady spots to hide.

So here's how it looks overall when I'm taking Jet for a walk on my field - the grass is certainly green now and the trees are starting to get a green glow as the leaves emerge.  There's still a lot of vegetation that hasn't broken bud yet, and therefore a lot of bare branches.  But, at least it's nicer to look at when it's green!  Unfortunately, the blackflies are out as well, and I had a swarm of about 20 around me on this walk.  I will have to start wearing my bug jacket when we go for walks or I will be forever scratching at bites.

In other news, the Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking store in Amherst, Nova Scotia, is now carrying 5-yard lengths of my handspun yarns for rug hookers.  It's not latch hooking - it's another kind of traditional rug hooking that is often done with strips of wool cloth, but can also be done with yarn. There are plenty of examples on her website of the types of rugs and wall hangings that are made that way.  Here are the yarns I took this past week.

And finally, here's a picture of wee Fezzik the goat, because I just love his smile.  One of these days he'll have to have a post of his own.  Signing off from spring in Nova Scotia!