A giant egg

Busy days getting the garden in. The first step, as I mention ever year, is putting in the plants you want. That is followed very soon by getting rid of the plants you don’t want. To be honest, I would rather weed than put down drip lines. It is so frustrating! Every year, I think I am laying out the rows in the same configuration, and every year the drip lines are in the wrong place. How can that happen???

In any case, progress was made today. All the drip lines are down, and I planted the cabbages, Brussels sprouts, beans and peas today. Still have to put the tomatoes and peppers in the ground and do some stuff in the high tunnel.

Three days ago. Terry brought in what he described as, “the biggest egg I ever seen.” It reminded me of a joke from an old British sit com: “The ooh-ahh bird is so named because it lays square eggs.” Terry said there was no blood on it, so there was hope that the hen that laid it would be okay.

A giant egg

I was pretty sure it had a double yolk. I had it for breakfast this morning, and I was right.

One egg, two yolks

Sadly, this morning Blackie was not looking so good. I had to lift her out of the coop. She was lying under an apple tree all morning. I chased her out and tried to feed her yogurt with feed mixed in. She wouldn’t eat from my hand, but when I gave up and put it on the ground, she grabbed one bite, but the rest of the girls got the rest. Then she retreated under the coop where she remains.  She will probably die. That’s what birds do. We can’t be sure she’s the hen that laid the giant egg, but it seems a likely hypothesis.

In happier news, Sunday was Thanksgiving Observed. Usually I do that in February, but one day follows another, and suddenly it’s May. There were 8 of us all together, so I had to make two pies, or there would have been no leftovers. Pumpkin pie is traditional; I owed Jane a cherry pie since her birthday in October. I always pay my debts, but sometimes it takes awhile.

Cherry and pumpkin pies

I had a 12-pound turkey languishing in the freezer. It was beautiful. Truly, one turkey dinner a year is not enough.

The turkey, in all its golden glory

The chicks are growing as quickly as ever, and the meat chickens are twice the size of the pullet chicks already.

The chicks are getting feathers and growing quickly

The dandelions are as numerous as ever. It is fascinating to watch what eats dandelion seeds when sunflower seeds are not available. The chipping sparrows are fond of them. I was surprised to see this ground squirrel eating them like there was no tomorrow. It can have all it wants!

Ground squirrel eating dandelion seeds

The grosbeaks, on the other hand, prefer grape jelly as a substitute for the dandelion seeds.

Mr. and Mrs. Grosbeak (Mr Grosbeak is getting an embarrassing updraft)

I got a not-very-dramatic picture of a humming bird. Hopefully better ones are coming.

Hummingbird

The female orioles are visiting the jelly. I don’t know if that means that they don’t have eggs yet or not.  This is the Baltimore oriole female.

Baltimore oriole female

Here is the orchard oriole female. She is smaller and yellower.

Orchard oriole female

The robins have fledged. Every year at least one clutch hatches from the nest under the deck, but this one is unique in that they keep hanging around. I saw one learning to fly over by the glass greenhouse.

Robin fledgling making an emergency landing on the greenhouse

At the same time, its sibling was still hanging around the nest.  

Not ready to fly yet

A coyote took a walk along the woods by the creek at sunrise one day this week.

Coyote out for a morning walk

And finally, the wild geraniums are blooming. Spring will be summer in the blink of an eye.

Wild geraniums

Life springs forth

 The hot weather of last week caused life to return to the earth with a force that nearly knocked me off my feet. Over the last several years, I have spent a small fortune buying native plants, both live and bare root, hoping that some would be aggressive enough to outgrow the numerous weeds we have there. The mayapples, as I mentioned previously, are finally starting to take off. The umbrella leaves have opened. Some even have buds this year. It remains to be seen if they will open and set fruit.

Mayapples

The Dutchman’s britches filled out and have since withered.

Peak blooms of Dutchman's britches

Violets are all over.

Violets

 I think of Hilda when I see them. Every time we walked to the creek while the violets were blooming, she would ask, “Do you want to see the king washing his feet?”

I hope I always smiled indulgently and said, “Sure,” even though she had been showing me the king washing his feet for 60 years. She never tired of it.

She would pick a flower, carefully peel off the center petal, and then, looking from the back, there is the king, wearing a crown, surrounded by velvet, with his two little legs ending in the cup at the base of the flower.

The king washing his feet

I once ordered an entire woodland garden to plant where we took out a big buckthorn four or five years ago. It was a struggle to keep it from being crowded out by reed canary grass and/or eaten by deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. I thought the only plant to survive was Joe Pyeweed. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw Virginia bluebells

Virginia bluebells, blooming at last

And shooting star, perhaps my favorite spring flower. (Bluebells are a close second.)

Shooting star

Jacob's ladder is blooming under the fifth oak.

Jacob's ladder

Up by the house, the magnolia is having a great year.

Magnolia

The ginger has leafed out

Wild ginger

And is flowering secretly underneath, making me wonder what pollinates it. Ants, perhaps.

Wild ginger flowers

The trillium I saved from Pokonokah Hills and moved from place to place for what?—20 years now?—is finally in a happy home and is well enough established that I may be able to separate it this year.

Trillium grandiflorum

The tulips around the first oak are blooming.

Tulips

So far it looks like we will be having a good year for grapes. These are the flower buds that will become grapes later, if pollination occurs and there is no late frost.

Grape buds

In the bird world, we see orioles all the time. I have not been able to get pictures of females or orchard orioles yet, but they are here. Hummingbirds are also around, but camera shy.

Baltimore oriole

The rose-breasted grosbeaks are not averse to eating jelly. Nothing seems to be, really, except goldfinches. We look forward to getting the seed feeders back up at the end of the month. We know there are at least two grosbeak males. This one has a pale bib. Perhaps he is in his first year. The other one has a bright red bib, which makes him the stud.

Not-very-rose-breasted grosbeak

The robin chicks under the deck hardly fit in the nest anymore. They will likely fledge before the week is out.

Robin chicks under the deck

The mourning dove nest I found next to the road failed, but Terry has been watching one near Nursery 1. He told me the chicks wouldn’t be there long. I went down Friday to take a picture. There were two chicks in the nest when I found it, but one flew away before I could take the picture. This chick might be a bit younger. It sat motionless for the photo. I think the chicks are prettier than the adults.

Mourning dove chick

We have kildeer in the field. I only had my close-up camera with me on my walk, so this is not a great picture. I’d love to see some babies, but I expect Terry’s mowing mania will prevent it.

Kildeer

From now on, things will happen at the speed of light. I love summer, and it goes by so quickly!

Heck's a-poppin'

 Where to begin? The chicks and the bees both arrived on Wednesday. I ordered the chicks early because it is easier to keep them warm than cool them off. And we had an unprecedented heat wave this week—over 90°F every midday until today.

I got the call from the post office at 7:50 Wednesday morning. I drove to Harvard and got my cheeping box. I thought of Hilda the whole time. She always had such childlike excitement on chick day. All the way home, with the box on her lap, she would try to pry up the corners to see inside. I discouraged the behavior, not wanting chicks loose in my car. What fun we had!

Box o' chicks

I cut down on laying chickens this year, ordering 4 instead of 6. Two people do not need 12 chickens. We don’t need 8 either, but you never know when one is going to die, and people like to get fresh eggs. The Americauna always look different. This year, we got a brown one

Brown Americauna

And one that may turn out gray. We've never had one this color before.

Gray (?) Americauna

The Wyandottes all look the same. Here’s one.

Wyandotte

The meat chickens mostly look like this, although some have stripes on their back.

Meat chicken

I always start them in a brooder box. This year’s box was courtesy of Jane, who ordered a chair. For the first three days, I need the chicks contained so I can check them for pasty butt, which is exactly what it sounds like. While it seems funny, it is actually fatal. Any chicks with pasty butt get a trip to the chicken spa, where their little hiney gets gently scrubbed under warm running water followed by a blow dry.

Brooder box

Some of the chicks piled up in the corner and pecked at the cardboard. It has been said of chickens that they are curious, but not bright.

Something fascinating in the corner of the box

They eventually found the food. Sitting on top of the food is always popular.

Feeding frenzy, with two chicks sitting in the feeder

They hung out by the water cooler, gossiping.

Water cooler gossip

For many years, I have tried in vain to get a picture of the “chick stretch.” Finally, and quite by accident, I got one. They do this all the time, but it happens with no warning and is over in an instant. It’s always the leg and the wing on the same side.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Like all babies, there are regular nap times.

Naptime 

Even though the coop seemed unbearably hot to me, I eventually discovered that the chicks were most happy with the door shut and the window opened just a little. I turned off the heat lamp, and they spread out all over, which is exactly what one wants to see.

Yesterday, I turned them loose in the coop on wood chips. With the weather cooler today, I put the heat lamp back on. They also have a heated plate that they can sit under. It’s supposed to mimic a mother hen. The good news about the coop is that it’s big enough that there are several temperature zones, and the chicks can go where they are most comfortable.

Exploring the coop

Once I had the chicks settled, we took Terry’s truck over to get the bees. We ordered a “nuc”, short for “nucleus”, which means five frames with comb, a lot of worker bees, and a mated queen. When we got over there, the bee delivery woman, fully suited up on that steamy morning, stood by her truck with nucs all over the ground around her. She found ours and put it in the truck bed. I noticed that her bottle of Gatorade was already almost gone, and it wasn’t even 10:00.

So back at home, I put on my brand-new bee hood and coat. Terry had an old one from his bee inspector days.

Bee prepared

This is what the nuc looked like.

The nuc

Terry took off the lid

Terry loosens the frames

And pried up the first frame, which I carried over and installed in the hive that Terry found by the side of the road with a “FREE” sign on it.

I took pictures while Terry moved the next frame.

Terry picks up a frame

And installs it in the hive

And that was that. The bees were very well behaved. We were not stung. Soon after, I saw one on the dandelions near the hive.

Bee on dandelion

I think we might have retarded bees. I was excited that the bees came on the very day that the apple blossoms started to open. In the days since, however, I have seen many bumblebees and a few smaller native bees on the apples, but no honey bees.

Abundant apple blossoms, no honey bees

Then again, I have to consider the competition. A dozen apple trees vs. twenty acres of dandelions. Hmm.

Hive with 20 acres of dandelions

That’s enough for this post. More later.