Click on the image below for the post at Community Chickens...
gardening thoughts, wildlife sightings and chicken adventures...
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Spring Wildflowers ♥
I've been crazy busy this spring - early summer season. Not only do I work full time as an ICU nurse, now our hobby (birdhouses) has turned into a second full time job! Fortunately, native wildflowers are tough, drought tolerate, disease resistant plants that will faithfully bloom and thrive with the least amount of attention from me...
Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites...
For more info and photography of wildflowers, visit Clay and Limestone's celebration of wildflowers the 4th Wednesday of each month.
Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites...
Aristolochia tomentosa 'Pipevine, Dutchman's Pipe' (Host plant of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly).
This is the fourth year for this wildflower in my butterfly garden and it's loaded with blooms (and caterpillars)!
Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch, but it's a favorite nectar/food source for the swarms of Great Spangled Fritillaries that visit my garden...
For more info and photography of wildflowers, visit Clay and Limestone's celebration of wildflowers the 4th Wednesday of each month.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Pawpaws and Zebra Swallowtails...
Asimina triloba 'Pawpaw' is a Missouri native small understory tree or large shrub which typically grows 15-20' tall (sometimes to 30') and occurs in low bottom woods, wooded slopes, ravines and along streams. Cup-shaped, purple flowers appear in spring, and give way to edible, oblong, yellowish green fruits which mature in early autumn to a dark brown. Flavor and fleshy consistency of the sweet-flavored fruits resembles bananas.
I have three small trees that I purchased four years ago that are still only about a foot tall. They haven't died--they just won't grow... The leaves of the pawpaw trees are also the host plant of the zebra swallowtail butterfly. Last year I followed one of these fast moving, reclusive butterflies and watched her lay eggs on the leaves of a small tree.--I discovered that I had a mature group of pawpaw trees that just happened to be right next to the chicken coop!
This isn't the first Missouri native plant-tree-flower that I have purchased only to find growing in the wild on my property!
This is the first year that I noticed the flowers on this small tree (thanks to the butterfly) and hopefully I'll spot a caterpillar later this season...
For more info and photography of wildflowers, visit Clay and Limestone's celebration of wildflowers the 4th Wednesday of each month.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
April Blooms...
The spring perennials are faithfully blooming! It's nice that blooms return each year without any effort of mine, especially this year since I have yet to pull a weed or plant a seed...
Viburnum ~ Not sure which variety, but I think that it's Viburnum opulus var. americanum 'American Cranberry Bush'
Viburnum ~ This viburnum was also here before we purchased our property... It's some sort of snowball variety that produces very little, if any, fruit in the fall.
The Bearded Irises that have been in my family for generations are faithfully blooming once again...
I'm not sure of the variety of this columbine. I sprinkled the seeds in my garden a few years and now each year I have columbine blooms showing up all over the garden!
At least Henrietta, the Buff Orpington, is doing her share of weeding in my garden!
Chickens are definitely harder workers than cats...
For more photos of April blooms, visit May Dreams Gardens.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
March Blooms...
Crazy weather in the Midwest, it's been 70-80°F all week. Everyone (chickens and cats included) has spring fever!
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| Grape Hyacinth and Heritage Chickens! |
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| Forsythia--a sure sign spring is almost (officially) here... |
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| Forsythia also makes a great shady spot--for a chicken... |
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| Hellebores--They've bloomed non-stop for the past month :) |
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| "Little Kitty" |
Daffodils...
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| Catnap in a Birdbath... I quit using this birdbath (as a birdbath) for the above reason! |
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Chicken Encyclopedia GIVEAWAY!
One would think that with unseasonably warm weather, freezing combs would be the least of my concern, especially since I purposely chose winter-hardy chicken breeds (I thought)... The problem was that the chickens hadn't really had an opportunity to acclimate to the cold. On the one night that the temperature fell to 7°F, the girls had been foraging all day in a drizzling rain and returned to the coop that evening with their feathers soaking wet. It was this moisture, added to the freezing temperature and lack of acclimation to the cold, that increased the chance for frostbite.
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| Day 1--Initial stage of frostbite... |
My daughter was the first to notice the change in Henrietta's comb. I knew immediately what had happened, and according to the encyclopedia there isn't anything to do to treat frostbite. The book does list some tips to minimize the possibility of frostbite including: reducing the humidity by removing damp liter, coating the combs with petroleum jelly, and heating the coop. I also find an entry in the book "dub," which means to surgically remove the comb. One purpose of "dubbing" is to prevent or treat frostbite in a large-comb breed. I'm definitely not ready to remove all my hens combs as a preventative measure! The good thing is that she hasn't appeared to be in any pain. She never quit eating or laying a daily egg and she's still the first to jump for a treat! She's already lost 3 tips of her large comb, but as long as she doesn't see her reflection I doubt if she cares... I still think she's beautiful--with or without a comb!
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| Two weeks |
Here's the best part of this post: To celebrate the release of the book, The Chicken Encyclopedia: An Illustrated Reference by Gail Damerow, Storey Publishing has generously offered to give a free book to one of my lucky readers! For those of us who sometimes would rather thumb through a book than the Internet, I think is a great "search engine" for all chicken-related info... I enjoy how this book is arranged in an easy A to Z format, and it's full of detailed definitions, color photos, illustrations, charts, tips, etc. Once you start browsing through this book, it's hard to put it down! All you have to do is leave a comment below and I'll include you in a drawing for this book. I'll announce the winner in two weeks--so check back at my next post!
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| 3 weeks |
You'll increase your chance at winning this book by visiting each of the following sites over the next two weeks.
1-March Inside Storey (The tour kick-off!)
2-March For the Love of Chickens
3-March Vintage Garden Gal
4-March The Garden Roof Coop --That's me!
5-March Common Weeder
6-March Chickens in the Road
7-March Garden Rant
8-March Fresh Eggs Daily
9-March My Pet Chicken Blog
10-March Coop Thoughts
11-March BoHo Farm and Home
12-March Happy Chickens Lay Healthy Eggs
13-March A Charlotte Garden
14-March Farm Fresh Fun
15-March The HenCam
16-March Life on a Southern Farm
17-March ADozenGirlz, the Chicken Chick™
18-March North Coast Gardening
(Note: U.S. residents only. Please include your email address or another way to reach you. If a winner does not respond within 10 days, I will chose another winner.)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
February Blooms...
Seems a little early yet for blooms, but it's been an unseasonably warm winter and early spring flowers are appearing. Here's what I found this drizzly February morning...
Hellebore (Helleborus orientalis)
Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis)
Daffodil buds... In another month, they'll be in full bloom!
For more photos of February blooms, visit the sites: May Dreams Gardens, and Tootsie Time and Friday's Photo Blog Hop...
Monday, February 13, 2012
Snow and Snowbirds...
Dark-eyed Juncos or "Snowbirds" are primarily seed-eaters, but today they seem to be enjoying mealworms (along with a sip of water)...
For more posts, info and photography of birds visit...
Bird Photography Weekly and World Bird Wednesday.
Bird Photography Weekly and World Bird Wednesday.
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