Good Morning!

[ross]

As food sources dry up & or surrounding hunting season opens up yep .

[Ontario Chick]

Here is hoping...
so far they decimated the Swiss chard that was just about ready to harvest so there went my food source

[TomK]

they are gorgeous birds to be sure and a pleasure to watch, but why is there a hunting season on them?..they were introduced here and are not a native species and play havoc with the forest floor...

[ross]

they are gorgeous birds to be sure and a pleasure to watch, but why is there a hunting season on them?..they were introduced here and are not a native species and play havoc with the forest floor...

Hunters , OFAH & MNR introduced them here to be hunted . They are a native species but just got wiped out . One of the best reintroduced success story’s but need to be kept in population control . Just ask farmers & OC lol

[WLLady]

yeah the eastern wild turkey was wiped out by settlers shortly after the settlers arrived. turkeys are none too bright.....but it's nice to see the reintroduction worked well! however.....as any body that farms will tell you, they are brutal on beans...and have a liking for corn that is nice and ripe and not dry. and then REALLY like the corn when it's dry and can be pecked kernel by kernel off the cobs while still on the plants! they also will root up by scratching little baby bean and corn plants, eat the growing buds off the corn and all kinds of other fun behaviours.

i am still smacking flies here. geez these things will never end this year! now we're into green bottle flies, house flies and i think the 4rth hatch of stable flies. at least the mosquitos are a little tiny bit better. We actually managed to have a bonfire with needing only the thermacell and not the citronella torches as well.....

honey harvested yesterday. all done now. just cleaning wax today....we only have the cappings to clean, opted not to scrape the entire frames. YET. so i have a few 1 oz bars of pure beeswax. The rest (tiny amount) is going to be made into beeswax chips. they're easier to weigh out for soap making. And i think this afternoon i'm going to finish cleaning the mint out of the herb garden. That was an EPIC mistake. I did plant in pots in the ground, but the stuff grew up, fell (or got knocked) over, and rerooted from the stems and went from there. So last week my herb garden was 2 little clumps of chives, some oregano, a sage bush and 3 kinds of mint. And mostly, 3 kinds of mint. so. off they go to anywhere else. haha. Thinking i'll just throw the pulled plants into the north end of the horse paddock (horse doesn't eat it). then it can root and do whatever it wants up there.

Has anyone ever taken fall cuttings from russian sage? thinking i might try that this fall. but there's not a lot of helpful stuff online about it other than to start from seed. haha

baby ducks grow so fast. it's incredible. they can now jump into the pool without needing a brick to stand on. and we still have 39 even with a harrier scare yesterday. Went out to do chores just as a harrier zipped by, slammed into the sunchokes (ducklings were racing underneath those). Harrier didn't know there's a coop wall directly behind the sunchokes, slammed into the wall, fell to the ground and then got up and promptly got stomped on by the free range rooster (not mike, but son-of-mike who looks just like mike without the funky comb), shook himself/herself free and flew off to the bush...barely above the beans, and obviously stunned (not sure if from the coop wall or son-of-mike's double spurs to the head....). Good rooster! and counted 39 babies and 2 moms running to the barn right after. we shoo'd all the birds in and closed them in for till the next day and the harrier hasn't come back since. phew.

[ross]

Yep had one chasing my pigeons the other day . Whistled & Cawwed it away plus dipsy diving pigeon .

[Ontario Chick]

Met them this morning crossing the road , they looked like so many baby velociraptors....
Addy is definitely a bird dog, when I wouldn't let her have them, she sat down and refused to move even after they left, I guess she knew they will be back eventually :)
Happy to report the group is gettin smaller, there is a male fox hanging about, probably has something to do with it.

[TomK]

mornin folks...i was informed, or rather re-informed, by those that know me well enough that it ain't real until pics are posted....well, ok...brief back story..i raised some meat birds again this year and a certain someone who shall go unnamed offered me a very decent incubator in exchange for a few dressed birds...well, ya can't turn down a good deal can ya?...so there i was with this new fangled 'bator and thoughts coursing thru my brain, always a dangerous thing around here, so I collected a few eggs and tried it out...it almost worked except the humidity reader was wayyyyyyy off and I drowned the developing embryos...a new better unit was introduced and this time I collected 18 Welsummers eggs and gave it a try again...the result?...7 non fertile, one improperly developed and...........drum roll please........................

[Killerbunny]

@TomK congratulations!

[Killerbunny]

SO the OPB show is going ahead - check out the SHow section. Also the Organisers sre now having to comply with the new vaccine regulations the Province is introducing. Hope to see many of you there! A last word, please be courteous to the Organisers who do a great job every year. They managed to put on a great show last year under very difficult conditions. Yay to them.