Swallowtail visitors

I was out in the garden picking some kale, peppers, and beans this morning. On my way out I walked by the carrots and decided to pull one and see how it was looking. When I knelt down I saw a couple visitors on the greens: big, chunky caterpillars. I took a few pictures and went inside to look up what they were. I have a butterfly book that I love. It shows them at all stages of their lifecycles so you can identity what you're seeing whether it is an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or butterfly. 

I think this is pretty close to what I saw:

The book says it is an Eastern Black Swallowtail. It says their favorite host plants are dill, fennel, and Queen Anne's lace (also called wild carrot). So it makes sense that they like carrots because the greenery looks the same on all these plants: lacy, thin leaves. It doesn't look like they are hurting the plants too much so I'm going to leave them be. Maybe we will get some pretty black butterflies in the garden too. 

Six eggs in the nest

The ducks have been in their new home ten days now. In that time Bossy Pants has laid seven eggs in her nest.  We were out of town last weekend and when we came back one of the eggs had been smushed and pushed out of the nest so that leaves 6 eggs, beautifully tucked in around the edges of the round nest. Here's the nest from above, in the corner of the duck house:

 

What we've read is that ducks usually lay 5-15 eggs before they sit on them; we may see that happen in the next week or so!  

Uniting the flock

We decided it was time to bring the big and little girls together. The babies are getting big enough that they need more room and there wasn't enough space to block off a bigger run for them inside the adult pen so we thought: This is our sign.  It's time to let them mingle.  

Before we took down the fence, Josh made a cut out to put in the doorway of the small coop which the babies could fit through one at a time but the adults would be too big for. This allows the smaller birds to escape if they are getting pecked by the bigger ones. 

Then we took down the fence and crosses our fingers. Initially a few brave souls came out and got chased all over the place by the older birds. Most of the first day the youngins hid out in their coop. The next morning when I came out the big birds were still locked up so the little ladies were milling about, exploring the run in safety. When I let the older birds out most of the little ones went inside but not all - progress. 

We are now in our second full day and the little birds are coming out more and more. I read an article this morning on pecking in birds, which said that cannibalism can be caused by boredom. If they have a lot of things to explore though, they leave each other be. They suggested making your run three dimensional by going the birds lots of things to perch on, scratch under, and explore.

I took some tree stumps from the wood pile in varying heights and put them in the run. I also made a little ladder of sorts where they hop up onto a perch then can pick food from a suet feeder. 

 

They were intrigued by this and kept trying the strain their necks up to peck the food from the ground. I'm hoping that giving them more to do will distract them some from the fact that there are new creatures integrating into the flock and help the process along...

We have Eggs!

It's been super busy here the last few weeks so I haven't been doing much posting lately.  There is much to share though.  The first and most exciting item is that the girls are laying blue eggs, green eggs, brown eggs...more eggs than we can eat!  So we are ready to sell. Eggs are $5 for a mixed dozen of different color eggs. You can use the contact form on the website if you're interested in purchasing them. 

In other news, the ducks have 12 eggs in their nest and we are anxiously waiting to see if bossy pants will start sitting on them soon.  The ducks have been sleeping on the pond most nights though and she has just been going in to lay her egg in the morning.  

The garden is thriving with a new round of plants: butternut squash, summer squash, pumpkins, carrots, and beets.  And the beans, peppers and a few tomatoes are still chugging along too. Last week I made pickled jalapeños, hot sauce from habaneros and a habanero gold jelly. Today I spent several hours processing kale.  I blanched and froze most of it. Some I made into kale chips too. Tonight I used a big butternut squash to make a sauce for stuffed shells with chicken sausage, ricotta, and kale filling. It was delightful!  I've been looking up new recipes to try to use the stuff coming out of the garden and I think that one's a keeper. 

Quarantine

I walked by the run this morning and noticed there was an adult in the area with the babies. It took me a while to get the big girl out, and she pecked at one of the little girls before I got her out. Then all the other little ones began pecking the bloody spot on that poor girl until her white back was covered in red.  I was able to catch her and now she's in quarantine in the workshop until her back heals a little. 

Our neighbor gave me a natural salve made from comfrey leaves that will hopefully speed the healing.  It's Vaseline with herbs mixed in:

We have had a lot more issues with this younger generation pecking each other. We actually kicked one girl out already because she was pecking everyone. In a day's time she made more than half her sibs bleed. We tried separating her for a few days to disrupt her position in the pecking order but she was even worse when we put her back in. Not only was she pecking, but she was also doing this thing where she would grab ahold of another bird then twist her head trying to pull off skin. So she's on her own now out in the yard - our total free ranger. I put out some food and water for her but she's gotta figure out the rest because she can't be with the others.  Mean girl, chicken style. 

A simple dinner from the garden

I got these three beautiful summer squash from the garden yesterday afternoon and I have a seemingly endless bowl of beautiful red tomatoes on my counter.  I made a simple but delicious dinner by cubing the squash and cooking it briefly in olive oil with a couple tablespoons of garlic and a little salt & pepper. 

Then I boiled water and cooked a batch of potato gnocchi. I mixed the squash and gnocchi with about 8 ounces of feta cheese, a handful of basil from the herb garden torn to pieces, and a big tomato diced up. The end product looked like this...

... and tasted delightful!

"A Recipe For Three Bean Salad"

My second article was published today on the Countryside magazine website:
"A Recipe For Three Bean Salad"

It is about making bean salad with beans and peppers from my garden.  I also included my recipe for Dilly Beans.  Check it out!  Leave me comments.  Share it!