Oh Dear Oh Dear Miss Lemon

I always love hearing the gentle grumblings of moody broody hens when I check for eggs in the coop. It's funny to see them poofed up in their dazed eyes.
Our silly White Leghorn hen, Lemon has been broody for a few days now, never abandoning her nest. So I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to slip 5 mix-breed chicken eggs I got from Common Ground (3 blue eggs and 2 brown eggs) underneath her. She accepted the eggs and gently scooped them underneath herself when I was gone; I could her her moving around inside the nesting box.

The eggs I gave Lemon are over a week old so I I'm not sure if they are still be viable. So far, 1 blue egg ( an Easter Egger egg) and 2 brown eggs have nothing inside them; seems like they were infertile. I also accidentally cracked an egg that I thought had nothing inside. It turns out that there was an alive growing embryo! 
After that warning, I returned the last blue egg to broody Lemon who grumbled in complaint for disturbing her. I may go back next weekend to get some more fresher eggs, just in case this one doesn't hatch. 

Broody? Or Sham-broody?

Lemon has started acting weirdly lately.

Whenever I pay a visit to the ladies, Lemon seems to sulk and make deranged clucking noises. If I even move or come near her, she erupts in a hysteria of strange clucking; walking around fluffed up a bit in a wary mode.

She reminds me very much of broody Butter from my previous flock. When Butter was broody, she strutted around the whole chicken fence making the same clucking noises Lemon was, with feathers up and wing drooping low to the ground. She was a crazy broody but a good mother and I still miss her "crazy broody mode". She never bit me when I checked the eggs underneath her, only made complaints.

Here she is, a bit upset since I locked her out of the coop.

(Butter is actually growling at the camera, not me)

I dismissed the fact the Lemon could be broody. It simply wasn't very likely in Leghorns since they were bred for egg production, and most of their broodiness was probably bred out of the breed.

But Lemon still continued to make weird clucking noises and strut around day on and day out. At dusk when the flock went to roost, and I to close the coop door.....Lemon still glared at me, ruffling up her feathers with a disgruntled expression. Charcoal, Spice, and Lime softly clucked to reassure her.

 I locked the door and whispered goodnight to the chickens.

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One day, I looked outside and didn't see Lemon. Where could she have gone?

She wasn't in the outside nesting box.

 Nor the old doghouse where the ladies held their secret meetings.

So finally I checked the coop, and snugly fitted inside one of the nesting boxes was Lemon. She grumbled at me and raised her hackles.

I left her alone and wondered.
Lemon could be broody, but I would give her a few more days and see. I know that a lot of hens get "broody" (or sham-broody)only to walk off their nest after two or three days of boredom in the coop.

Being broody does have its high points, and I was planning on incubating some eggs from Common Ground.

But who knows, does Lemon have the determination to brood a nest full of eggs?
In the meanwhile, the rest of the chickens are still going only their daily lives, tilling the earth and searching for worms while Lemon lies bedridden in the coop; full of broodiness.

Fruitful Summer

The wild blackberries in my backyard have finally ripened in to a dark maroon hue. Knowing how much the chickens love fruit I shared the bounty with them.

Some of the berries are ready to be picked.

It's funny to see the reactions of the chickens as I walk to the door. 

First they crowd the entrance, with Charcoal sticking out her head once in a while trying to get a bite first.

As soon as Lemon gets a piece, everyone centers their attention on her and the chase begins. But since the blackberries are so small, Lemon simply gulps it down in one bite. I think that the rest of the flock seems a bit disappointed. I've noticed that since they were chicks, the food chase was kind of like a game. When one chick finds a bug or fruit, they have the choice to eat it in secrecy, but sometimes instead she will emit a small short chirping sound and run toward the flock. The other chicks will catch sight of the tasty treat and run to steal tiny morsel from the finder. Lasting in a second long chase.

When nothing is left, they stare expectantly, looking for moooooore treats. Mrs.Wattlecomb (Lemon) gives me a piercing glare of disgust and with a shake of her head she struts away.

Eventually thee others  lose interest and they too, walk away to get a drink of water. The exception is Charcoal, who's always looking for a lap to sit in. Well not today Charcoal, try again tomorrow.

The Ladybug Cycle

This summer I've been finding a bunch of ladybugs, EVERYWHERE. One day while I was checking the nesting box for eggs, I spotted a newly emerged ladybug in the netting nearby. But when I got a closer look, I discovered that this ladybug was peculiarly colored. She wasn't the usual: bright red or orange lady bug with black dots all over. This ladybug was a dark tan color with a multiple black dots but each black dot was surrounded by a circle of white! Now I've seen an all black lady bug with white spots before at the beach (or maybe it was the other way around...it was a long time ago...), but not this kind. It was the first time I had found such a ladybug, and upon further research, I found that she was an Eye-spotted Lady Beetle (or bug). The black dots enclosed by the white circles were supposed to be copying a predators "eyes", and make a bird or another predator less willing to eat it.

One wing was missing for some reason, but it looked like it had been ripped off (maybe accidentally as she was getting out of its pupa). I observed her in awe, then set the pretty little lady on a newly planted apple tree. I checked back everyday, and she was still there and thriving, although on the fourth day she was no longer on the tree.

Happily lazing away.

But, a few days later I found a ladybug larva, which turned into a pupa the next day. Surprisingly it was white! I suspected it would be another Eye-spotted Ladybug since it was near where I found the first lady beetle.
I also found another white pupa yesterday when feeding the chickens a plant of some sort with a thick stalk. The flock loved it, but it took me a while to see the pupa, luckily it was not pecked by the curiosity of the chickens. Off to the insect jar they go...

Here in this picture, the larva has just turned into a pupa. It was still soft, and I found that after it hardened, it was all white with black markings.

The white pupa I found on the plant stalk. This is a good example of an already hardened pupa, it kind of looks like it has a face to me (reminds me of a Capuchin monkey).

Afterwards, I fed the chickens the tender plant stalk (which I brought inside when I removed the pupa) they were craving.

The BIG plant stalk. (You can see the chickens pacing impatiently in the background)

Who will take a bite first?

In the end the white pupa ended up turning into another Eye-spotted Ladybug which I later released when her shell dried.

Having only emerged a few minutes ago, the ladybug's spots quickly become more and more visible.

The Cardinal Nest

Previously in the post Nest Watch, I talked about finding a cardinal nest.

 Cardinals in my experience are very shy and secretive. I have never seen or spotted any of their nests before in trees or bushes, so this is my first time finding a cardinal nest (imagine my excitement ^^). Here below, I will post almost everyday of the chick's growth and development. Hopefully, they will survive the danger of cats and other predators. So check once in a while for updates!

*I will start from "day one"-meaning the day the chicks hatched- because I don't know ho long the eggs have been incubated in the nest. Just to let you know, I found the nest with the eggs on May 23rd.

Day 1- May 24, 2014

2 cardinal chicks hatched today! Probably sometimes in the morning because I checked them early in the afternoon. The are tiny and bald with a little bit of fluff on their head and body. They remind me a lot of the baby zebra finches I used to raise (but these cardinal babies are bigger). The chicks started gaping at me with their mouth open, but they won't need food at least for the first 2 days after hatching. I noticed that they still have a bit of absorbed yolk left on their belly which will serve as an excellent source of food and nutrients.

The second baby is behind the begging chick, it's a bit hard to see because it is lying down.

Day 2- May 25, 2014

This was the first thing I saw when I neared the nest. The female cardinal's tail was sticking out of the bush. I waited until the mother flew off to find food, then checked the chicks.

If you noticed in the picture that some of the leaves are different on the bush, it's because they are. I added some branches of similar looking leaves inside the bush, because I thought the space was too open and very inviting for predators to snatch away the babies.

Also, the third egg hatched, now, the only one left is the fourth egg.

Day 3- May 26, 2014

When I peered in the nest this morning, around 8:50, I saw blood on two of the baby chicks' faces! I almost thought that there had been a predator attack, until I noticed that one of the pointy spruce tree leaves were lying on top of the chick. Spruce leaves are very pointy and needle-like, so the tender skin of the cardinal babies were easily poked by the needles, causing it to bleed. 

I removed the spruce branch and replaced it with a maple branch. The soft leaves would not bother the chicks. Hopefully, the babies' wounds won't cause them too much harm in growing up.

Lemon's Double Yolker

I found a ginormous egg while checking the coop's nesting box. I'm assuming it belongs to Lemon because she lays the largest eggs. It was almost double the size of a normal egg (which is the size of Lime's egg), and loomed in size when I held in in my hands. It reminded me of the time when my old hen, Pine would lay me giant double yolk eggs.

Here's a short story about Pine laying a double yolk egg:

One day, around 2011 or 2012 back in my old house, Pine was spotted my mom without the rest of the flock. Since she was the lead hen, my mom got a bit worried and followed her as she hobbled all over the yard. She noticed that Pine's posture was strange. Pine was a bit hunched over with a drooping butt, and she walked slowly to each destination. It took Pine nearly 30 minutes, until finally, she stopped to rest at a big pine tree in the front yard yard. Out plopped a fresh new egg, and as my mom neared to collect it, she found that it was very big indeed! No wonder it took so long for Pine to push out that extra, extra large egg! Which mush have hurt considering the size of it. When my mom cracked open the egg, we found that it was a double yolker (an egg containing two yolks). Pine, our Easter Egger hen was the only hen of our 6-hen flock that would lay these ginormous eggs. She didn't lay them too frequently, yet they weren't rare. My only other hen that would give me an occasional double yolker was Sugar, my sweet sweet Red Star (click here to read her story). Though, even Sugar's double yolk eggs were not as big in comparison to Pine's.

Anyways. . .back from the past to current time. . .

Here's a comparison of each flock member's egg. Charcoal has the most petite and adorable chubby egg of them all.

I eagerly brought the egg inside to reveal what was inside.

Was it going to be a double shelled egg?

Or perhaps a triple yolk?

Eh, the first one maybe, the second. . .not so likely.

When I cracked the egg using the edge of my bowl, I saw that it was not a double shelled egg. There was rich yellowish yolk inside, already starting to ooze out now that I had disturbed the membrane. I cracked the other side and let the yolk drop down to my bowl. And there it revealed itself to be. . .a double yolk!

Nest Watch

A lot of birds have been in my yard gathering dry grass and collecting bugs recently, so I though: There is probably be a nest somewhere around here...

It happens to be that I was right!

One day, I followed a flying robin with food in its mouth to my backyard pool. The robin flew out from one of the side bushes as I walked in through the fence. I searched around the bushes near where he flew off and I heard faint cheeping, and found a lump of brown in the third bush down the row. I took a peek from the other side and there it was: a robin nest with about 3-4 nestling chicks inside. In  a few days they would be out and learning how to fly, braving the dangers of the outside world.

Top and bottom: In a few days the baby robins will be old enough to fully fledge the nest.

The only sad thing, is that when I returned to next day, the baby chicks were all gone. I searched the ground and found remaining parts of the poor little chicks. I suspect that the stray cats around my neighborhood ate them, so far I have seen at least two: a black, black and white, and a gray cat. Plus, a relative that was staying over, said she had spotted the stray black cat climbing over the pool fence.

Just a few days ago, however...
I found a cardinal nest!! It's the first cardinal nest I have seen in backyard (new and old house). Most of the time cardinals are very secretive, making it hard to find their nests. Here's a picture:

The eggs are a very light turquoise with brown specks all over (the specks get denser on the fatter side of the egg).

I really hope that the chicks that hatch out will not get eaten by the cats, well we'll see...