Good Morning 2024

[Killerbunny]

Interestingly around 10% of wild hens have a beard and when hunting the spring season regs state " A hunter may purchase a maximum of two spring wild turkey tags (only valid for bearded turkey)". My Beltsville hens generaly have beards and strut to show dominance over each other so the best girls get the male first. I wonder if as a secondary sexual characteristic it gives them the testosterone boost to make them better Mums.

[lolotsung]

Frogs.m4a

Can anyone hear this?

Yes!

An active chorus of Spring Peepers and Wood frogs in the Spring. The Spring Peepers create a short, loud peep, repeated once a second. Wood Frogs (more subtle sounding in the sound clip), create a short, chuckle, like ducks quacking in the distance. Spring Peeper: https://www.naturewatch.ca/frogwatch/spring-peeper/ Wood Frog: https://www.naturewatch.ca/frogwatch/wood-frog/

When building a highway, a biologist must go out at night and do a frog count determining the type and numbers by the sounds.

This is a pond near my house.

[lolotsung]

Interestingly around 10% of wild hens have a beard and when hunting the spring season regs state " A hunter may purchase a maximum of two spring wild turkey tags (only valid for bearded turkey)". My Beltsville hens generaly have beards and strut to show dominance over each other so the best girls get the male first. I wonder if as a secondary sexual characteristic it gives them the testosterone boost to make them better Mums.

This is very interesting!!

[lolotsung]

I didn"t know there is a Canadian turkey!

[Killerbunny]

https://heritagelivestockcanada.com/heritagepoultry
More info on Ridley Bronze.

[lolotsung]

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po ... /livestock
Avian influenza in cows in the US...Wonder why Canadian cows do not have it?

[WLLady]

So we are testing for it in canada, but it hasn't been found, so my guess is that we haven't had any jumps from birds to cows here (yet).....not a bad thing for sure!

Well, I have no idea where this year is going. I have 6 baby ducks which just randomly appeared one day with a mom i swear i haven't seen for 6 months and thought was long gone as coyote bait or something. I have a white hen from this year that roosts on the top of the house religiously every night. I have a chicken zenned out in the back of the barn that my farm sitters were sure was dead-and they even told me so, but didn't try to retrieve her and dispose of her....well, I knew she was sitting on eggs (having gotten the evil eye before we left for our travels) and she is very definitely alive and doing perfectly well. And still zen, so i'm thinking she either is sitting on duds or there will hopefully be some little chicks soon. she's been there a while.

Had a flying visit out to quebec. Left wednesday, drove through huntsville and algonquin park (OMG 13 hours of driving...thank goodness we had 2 drivers!), got there, managed to get dinner at the restaurant 20 minutes before they stopped serving. phew. Then the next day I put some of my sis's ashes where she wanted to be laid to rest. Then drove back yesterday-Toronto is a mess....we ended up taking the 407 and then driving down some back roads to avoid at least 5 accidents. Amazing how that happens when the traffic is 130km/hr bumper to bumper. I finally gave up on the driving because I need some personal space...like a half a car length even! These people are crazy!!!! So we took the backroads in to London to drop my nieces off at their place and then carried on home. Another 10 hour drive day. But it's done, we're home and dogs are picked up from boarding and now maybe we can start to try to find our new normal.

Roughly 700 pounds of honey done this year. That's done. Thankfully we found a place that buys bulk, and managed to sell our last extraction of 550 pounds to them. phew. The rain has been super good for honey production this year! Have about 30 pounds of wax to clean up and do something with-hopefully in the next few weeks i'll get that done.

I'm finally getting 2 doz eggs a day! YAY this year's hatch have started laying, and finally getting out of the fairy egg stage. Super nice when they start pulling their weight LOL.
Hope everyone is doing great! Can't believe school is imminent (teaching again this fall along with the other FT work), and summer is winding down. Trees starting to change here, looking forward to cooler nights.

[ross]

Sorry for your lose , Kathy

[ross]

The Taipei earthquake warning system gives everyone an alert on their cell phone... gives you 1 sec. warning before the earthquake. What are you going to do in 1 sec.

Put your head between your legs & kiss your butt goodbye.

[lolotsung]

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/bi ... -1.7332480

Winner of photo award. Warning: Shows 4,000 dead birds...