Author: Caryn

Daddio

On By CarynIn Wildlife
Daddy long legs, aka harvestman

I grew up calling these arachnids “Daddy Long Legs”. This bad boy is about six inches from leg tip to leg tip and one of the largest I’ve seen (they grow them big in Texas). I plugged the photo into iNaturalist and their algorithms gave me the order of Phalangida. Wikipedia says the order is now called Opiliones and are also known as harvestmen (which seems much more sinister to me than daddy long legs, but maybe I watched too many old horror flicks as a teen). The Wikipedia article (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones) is quite detailed and may seed some more nightmares, even though these guys are harmless to humans.

For reference, the siding is 6.5” top to bottom

Health check

On By CarynIn chickens

We did a health check recently and from the look of the hen’s vents, we think everyone except Navi and Cockatrice are now laying. Navi has finally gained some weight, but if we let her out of isolation for even parts of the day her crop gets large and squishy. We have decided to go for quality of life and are letting her run with the flock. If she gets lethargic and won’t eat, we’ll put her back in isolation with copper sulfate water.

Magic lost her colored band for awhile, but we made sure it was her and put the band back on. However it does look like she lost weight, so either we mixed up chickens or we need to keep an eye on her too. Seeing as how she was the heaviest chicken last month, and is still the heaviest chicken, I don’t think we have a chicken identity crisis.

They like it!

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop, eggs

They don’t like it as much as the other nest boxes, but I found a chicken in the metal nest box! And she laid an egg there! Cleaning and painting it was not a wasted effort, yay! Granted, their two favorite nest boxes were both occupied.

I spy a chicken!

I have been putting down plastic bins everywhere I find an egg on the floor. We are up to 6 nest boxes. For 12 chickens. A little overkill, but they fight over the two boxes under the workbench. Here is a video: https://youtu.be/6hDRHzRU3fQ. I thought Velociraptors were eating my chickens; no, it was just a hen screaming at another hen coming toward her nest box.

New onion experiment

On By CarynIn Garden

We harvested the greens from the green onions in a baggie in the window, and it worked so well, we are trying a new setup with onions in test tubes.

Green onions in test tubes

I ordered a set of plastic test tubes and a test tube rack through Amazon. I chose the plastic because there is a good possibility of the cat walking on the window sill and knocking it over. We cut off (and used) the green parts of the onion (which my eldest likes best anyway) and put the white part and roots in the test tube, then filled the water just to cover the white part. The idea is that we harvest the greens when they are long enough. After three days, we are already seeing growth!

Green onions growing in test tubes

Strong eggs

On By CarynIn eggs

Holy smokes are the egg shells strong on the eggs coming out of my chickens! The chickens apparently think the whole coop is a safe place, and I find eggs everywhere. I found one with the sole of my foot. Yikes! What was amazing is that it didn’t break. I didn’t put my full weight on it, but I did feel it through my shoe.

I also scared Sunrise off the nest when the egg was out, but still stuck to her tail feathers (she did not appreciate me recording video (click here to see video) with a bright light while she was busy!) The egg fell from her feathers as she left the nest and fell over 18” to the floor below. Of course the pine shavings had been carefully shoved away from that spot, so the egg hit the plywood floor and the shell broke, but the shell membrane stayed intact! Whoa. I did then have egg drop soup for lunch. It seemed appropriate.

The egg I found with my foot (bottom) and the egg that dropped from Sunrise’s bum (top)

I’ve had a bit of a learning curve cracking open the eggs as well. I’ve found that I need to consciously pierce the shell membrane after I crack the egg or I have a terrible time with shell bits in my breakfast. Store bought eggs pour out of the shell as soon as it is cracked. Not so with these!