I’ve come to associate dragonflies with the farm.
I loved examining this specimen that I found yesterday.
I just wish I’d been able to see him flying around the farm.
Do you associate any animal, bird or insect with your home?
Category Archives: Animals
Making Monarchs and memories
Our days here at the farm start early. In the darkness on Wednesday morning, Matt noticed that the chrysalis for both of our Monarch caterpillars had turned black. In actual fact, they had turned clear. However, they look black because the black wings of the butterfly inside are showing through.
We figured that later that day, we’d be proud parents.
I took Baxter for our morning walk and Matt left for work.
About 45 minutes later I was back in the kitchen making my breakfast. I turned around, and there was a butterfly in the bowl on the island.
Holy moly, EdWING actually had wings!
I went a little bananas. I took lots of birth photos. I messaged Matt. I tweeted and instagrammed the official birth announcement.
I was officially late for work.
Eventually though, I had to leave. That mean EdWING had to go outside. I’ve been referencing Karen’s “how to raise a Monarch butterfly” series a lot as we progressed with our caterpillars. A quick check of her site said that Ed would hang around and rest for about 2-3 hours and then he’d be ready to fly. Well, that would be when Matt and I were very much still at work. I couldn’t rely on Baxter to send his new brother out into the world, so Ed had to finish his resting outside on his own.
I found the most sheltered area I could and hid Ed under some leaves so that he hopefully didn’t turn into breakfast for a hungry bird.
Last I saw of him he was gently opening and closing his wings. So, so beautiful.
Kevin no-longer-a-CATERPillar hatched a little while later. Matt came home to a restless butterfly in a bowl.
He took him outside, and Kevin flew away.
Two Monarch butterflies. Out into the world. So, so amazing. We’ve made lots of memories since moving to the farm, and this is definitely another special one.
Monarch caterpillar update
Our Monarch caterpillars are no more.
But do not despair.
Because we are a big step closer to having Monarch butterflies.
We have two chrysalis.
Over the past week, EdWING Encarnacion and Kevin CATERPillar grew a lot. They decimated their daily milkweed rations.
Towards the end of the week they started to wander, looking for a spot to hang their chrysalis.
Eventually, Ed settled in. But something went wrong. He fell off the screen that covered the bowl. We found him curled in his J lying on a leaf.
We could see the webbing that he’d used to anchor himself to the screen hanging off his tail end, so we wrapped that over a stick and taped it in place careful not to touch him with the tape. It seemed to work, because a few hours later he had transformed into a chrysalis, and Kevin had climbed up onto the stick too.
By the next day, we had two chrysalis hanging from the stick. The black speck at the top of Ed’s chrysalis is actually his outer caterpillar skin. The chrysalis is inside the caterpillar, and he sheds his outer skin as he transforms.
It has been so, so cool to go through this process with our caterpillars. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Raising Monarch caterpillars
We added two new members to our family last week.
Meet Kevin CATERPillar and EdWING Encarnacion.
(I advocated for Troy TuloWINGSki, but it was deemed too hard to pronounce. For anyone who needs an explanation of their names, refer to the Toronto Blue Jays roster).
These are little Monarch caterpillars that I found walking our fields. They started very small–just a few millimetres long. With fresh milkweed every day, they’ve been packing on the weight and the length.
Since I found them as caterpillars, I have no idea how old they are. According to Karen at the Art of Doing Stuff who did a series on raising monarch butterflies, Kev and Ed will spend 10-14 days at the caterpillar stage.
So far, I’m loving seeing how much they grow every day. I’m really excited about seeing the chrysalis stage.
I’m also excited to see their namesakes live this week. Matt and I are heading to the Jays game on Thursday. Kevin CATERPillar and EdWING Encarnacion will be staying home.
Have you ever raised a Monarch butterfly? Who else is a Jays fan? What Jay/Monarch names can you come up with?
Chicken update from Illinois
Sarah in Illinois has made it through her second week of raising chickens. She’s back today to report on what she’s learned and how things are going. See her first post introducing her flock.
So far things with the chickens couldn’t be any easier. Each morning I open the coop, make sure they have water and some food. Each night they return to their coop about 7:30, and I close it back up. That’s it. They are not laying eggs yet. They should be old enough in the next couple weeks so I look for eggs every day just in case.
I will give you a quick tour. We made a coop inside one of our barns.
I have access with both a full door and a lid to lift off of the nesting boxes.
The chickens have a roost with plenty of ventilation. I do plan, however, to add another roost up a little higher.
They have access outside to the pen that was for Treu. I knew from the beginning that they would easily be able to fly over the fence, since there is no top to it. I was just hoping that with all the room and shelter under the trees that they would just prefer to stay inside.
Have you ever seen chickens laugh at you? I am pretty sure I have.
Here they are very clearly not inside the pen!
And the funny thing is, once they get out they don’t always remember how to get back in.
I mentioned in my last post that Toothless may be an issue. And she has been. I don’t think she has any intentions of hurting the chickens. She just thinks of them as her own personal toys. She loves to run right up into them when they are huddled together and just watch them go flapping and squawking away.
Here she is sneaking up on them, you can see one of the chickens has hopped the fence to get away from her.
It was funny the first time, but it is not something I want to encourage and I can tell the chickens are nervous when she comes around.
One night I went to close the coop, and I only counted 3 chickens. I quickly ran outside to see where the fourth one could be. Toothless had her cornered in the bean field.
I knew at that point I had to do something quickly.
I now have a squirt bottle of plain water that I keep out at the pen. Any time I see Toothless lurking around I give her a quick squirt of water and she goes running. Obviously I can’t sit out there all day and keep watch so I am hoping she gets the hint quickly.
Otherwise, I am just enjoying them. I go out to their pen every day after work and watch them peck the ground. I have given them tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden and I love to watch them chase each other and play keep-away.
So far they haven’t found our garden. They can’t see it from the pen. I am hoping it stays that way. I don’t want them to have their own private buffet. But as I mentioned above, have you ever seen a chicken laugh at you?
Anyone else new to raising chickens? Have any advice on getting Toothless to behave? Any predictions on when I will get my first egg?
It sounds like your girls are doing well, Sarah. With our chickens and ducks when I was growing up, my Dad put a mesh roof on our run. Treu’s run looks pretty big, but a covering of some kind would help keep the chickens in and Toothless out. We also put straw in the nesting boxes, even when we had shavings in the coop itself. I’m not sure if that makes a difference for encouraging them to lay or not.
Robin at the birdbath
I spy with my little eye a robin having a bath.
No, I’m not a creepy voyeur. I am geekily excited, though.
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know that watching the birds at our feeder is one of my favourite winter past times. The bird feeder has been tucked in the driveshed since spring, so I’ve been missing out on my bird watching.
Last year for my birthday, Matt had a new top made for our birdbath.
When we put away the birdfeeder, we brought out the birdbath. But no one has seemed interested in taking the plunge. In fact, the one day I saw birds bathing in the puddles on the driveway instead of the birdbath. Snobs.
But last week I finally spotted a fastidious robin having a bath. And over the weekend I captured photographic evidence that at least one bird likes my birdbath.
(Shout out to my MIL for my new camera that has a decent zoom that lets me get pictures like this without frightening bathing beauty.)
Chickens in Illinois
Exciting news from Sarah in Illinois. The new additions that she’s been working for all season have arrived!
Last weekend was very busy for me, so I am going to let pictures so most of the work for this post.
They’re here:
I haven’t had much time to spend with them but I have already determined a couple personalities. I keep saying that I am not going to name them, but I am sure it will eventually happen.
This one is the boss. She is the leader and the noisiest. She is the first one to make noise as I walk up.
This one is shy. She is the last one to approach me, the last one to come out of the coop, the last one to try the new piece of food I give them.
This one is the tallest and always has her neck up high and reminds me of a lookout for organized crime.
I haven’t determined what personality this last one has.
I still have a lot to learn, but as I write this, I have kept them alive about 32 hours! So I consider that a win.
I have two outdoor cats and I have been very concerned how they would react to them. One really couldn’t care less about them. The other:
I guess time will tell.
This is so exciting, Sarah! Have you had any eggs yet? What kinds of chickens are they? I think I see a Plymouth Rock and a Rhode Island Red? Shy and Lookout look different from the breeds I’m familiar with. Good luck with kitty. Hopefully it’s just a case of curiosity.
Gotcha Day 3
Last week marked three years since Baxter came to live with us.
Inspired by Tracey at Oh Melvin and Yo Jake, I have a tradition of writing a letter to Baxter on the anniversary of his gotcha day. Now that I’m writing for ThatMutt.com, I decided to share my letter there this year.
I invite you to visit ThatMutt.com to share in the love.
Want to look back at how we got here? Here are my letters from year 1 and year 2 and Baxter’s adoption story.
Update and a new adventure in Illinois
Sarah in Illinois is back today with a bunch of updates on what’s happening at their home. Hint: some new additions are on the horizon.
This may be a disjointed post. I had been working on a project, and I thought I would be done before I had to send this week’s post, but it didn’t turn out how I had planned. (Argh. So frustrating when that happens, Sarah.) I will be sure to include why it didn’t work and I had to regroup in a future post.
This post will be a little bit of an update and share what I have in the works.
Kittens
As of when I am writing this, the black kitten has been reserved and the tiger-stripe is still waiting for a new home. The mother cat has been to the vet and spayed so I will not have to be in this situation again.
The cutting garden
There are about a half dozen different varieties of flowers that are growing. Right now the only one ready to cut is the zinnias.
Future posts
I hinted in one of my comments a while back that I am getting chickens! My neighbor has been raising several chicks and offered four of them to me. They will not be ready to lay until about September, but I can get them as soon as I have a secure place for them.
So my free time has been spent reading and reading about chickens and working on making a secure coop for them. I have never had or really even been around chickens so this is all a new learning experience.
Some of the books I have been reading include (not affiliate links):
- Backyard Chickens: the beginner’s guide to raising and caring for backyard chickens by Rashelle Johnson
- Barnyard in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cattle by Gail Damerow
- The Mini Farming Bible: The Complete Guide to Self-Sufficiency on ¼ acre by Brett L. Markham
- Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy
I think I am ready to start this adventure. I have been told that I am overthinking everything and that chickens are a lot easier than I am making it out to be. I hope so! I will be sure to post about my adventure and in the meantime, any advice would be appreciated.
Cute kitten, pretty posies and exciting news–this worked out to be a post after all, Sarah. Congratulations on the chickens. I confess, I’ll probably take the same approach as you when it comes time to add birds to our farm. Your forethought just might make you a more successful chicken farmer.
Having grown up with backyard chickens, my best advice is to make sure to collect the eggs a couple of times a day. We got a bit lazy and our hens started eating their eggs. That was a hard habit to break!
How to help a turtle cross the road
Our farm is in a very marshy area. On the roads around the farm, I often encounter turtles on the move from one marsh to another–usually on the opposite side of the road.
Fortunately, most drivers seem to be pretty conscientious about doing what they can to protect turtles (I saw one car yesterday with an “I brake for turtles” bumper sticker). So it’s not unusual to see cars pulled over or stopped a safe distance from a crossing turtle.
Most times though people don’t seem to know what to do with the turtles. They’re obviously not the fastest creatures in the world, so it’s usually necessary to help the turtles on their way.
Here’s my technique to move a turtle along.
First the basics: safely pull over your car making sure to get as far out of traffic as possible. If you have to enter the road, look both ways and make sure you’re going to be safe.
Now the more complicated step: picking up the turtle.
Most of the turtles I encounter are large snapping turtles. I have a childhood paranoia from swimming at my grandparents’ cottage about being bitten by a snapping turtle–not that I’ve ever been bitten. It’s just a childhood hangup.
However, I’ve learned it’s very easy to pick up a turtle without endangering yourself or the turtle.
My technique is to grab the turtle with both hands on the rear half of the shell. Get a firm grip. If the turtle’s on the small side, you might be able to grab it with one hand, but it’s safer to use two hands. The turtle might squirm a little bit or might be heavier than you expect.
Now lift. Her head will maybe turn around, but she won’t be able to reach you if you’re on the back half of her shell.
Make sure to hold the turtle away from you. It will likely be slimy and wet. And the last time I moved a turtle, I swear it tried to pee on me.
Now carry the turtle across the road and gently set it as far from the edge of the road as possible.
Wipe your hands (the grass will probably work if you don’t happen to have tissues in the car) and go on your way.
Have you ever helped a turtle cross the road? What’s your technique? What animals do you encounter around your home?
Home on 129 Acres 