Western Vervain (Verbena lasiostachys)

This species is commonly known as Western Vervain, Common Verbena, Western Verbena, or simply Vervain.  The species name, lasiostachys, is taken from the Greek lasio, meaning woolly, and stachys, meaning [...]]]> Verbena lasiostachys (ver-BEE-na las-ee-oh-STAY-kis) is a deciduous perennial herb that is native to a variety of plant communities throughout California and Oregon.

Western Vervain (Verbena lasiostachys)

This species is commonly known as Western Vervain, Common Verbena, Western Verbena, or simply Vervain.  The species name, lasiostachys, is taken from the Greek lasio, meaning woolly, and stachys, meaning an ear of grain, or a spike.

We first noticed this plant back in May, growing out in the orchard in soil that was disturbed last year when we re-cut the road leading out to the gardens.  We didn’t think much of it then, as it was blooming alongside various other spring blooming plants, including some hedge nettle at the time.  However, with a second period of bloom in late summer, this plant has caught our attention again.

The leaves of Verbena lasiostachys are coarsely toothed, larger toward the base of the stem, becoming smaller along the stem toward the tip.

Leaves of Verbena lasiostachys are coarsely toothed

The flowers of this species are borne on spikes between 10-25 cm long.  Each inflorescence has fused petals forming a tube with five flared lobes, with flowers opening from the base of the stem, toward the tip.  Flower spikes are upright in young plants, but may arch downward in taller specimens.

Verbena lasiostachys

Here, Verbena lasiostachys grows to approximately 2 feet in height without any supplemental irrigation, keeping its aggressively spreading nature in check.  It’s not fussy about soil type, thriving in loam, clay, and sandy soil.

Western Vervain, although somewhat weedy in habit, has a few qualities we like very much.  It’s a useful plant as its deep roots, and ability to thrive in a range of soil types, make it a good plant choice for erosion control on our slopes.

Verbena lasiostachys is somewhat weedy in habit

The deer seem to mostly ignore it, which here is a huge benefit for anything growing outside our deer fences.

Perhaps the most important quality of this plant though, is that it is just now beginning to bloom for the second time this year, when almost all of our other native wildflowers are deep in summer dormancy.  As such, it is proving to be a very valuable late-season habitat plant.   This species is used by many native butterflies, and hoards of honeybees.

Numerous honeybees are found on our native verbena, when little else is blooming

Verbena lasiostachys

The bees seem grateful for even the smallest of blooms

The Costanoan’s are known to have used infusions of Verbena lasiostachys both as a gastrointestinal aid for “fever of the stomach”, and as a treatment for typhoid fever. [1]

Western Vervain is not a formal plant in the least, and not suited to small, orderly gardens.  It is quite weedy in habit, and mature plants become more prostrate than upright in appearance, and it spreads readily both from underground runners, and seed, and can be particularly aggressive in the presence of supplemental watering during the summer months.

Verbena lasiostachys

Although our specimens are growing wild here at Curbstone Valley, Verbena lasiostachys is available from a number of native plant nurseries throughout California.  If you choose to plant it, your native pollinators will no doubt appreciate it, but be sure to give it plenty of room to roam.

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[1] Daniel E. Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotanical Database

This is Ginger helping out [...]]]> In recent years it’s amazing how popular chickens have become as backyard pets.  We’re obviously huge fans of having chickens around the farm.  The benefits of having the freshest of eggs in close proximity to the kitchen are obvious, but hens are more than mere egg-laying machines.

This is Ginger helping out with the weeding

We often tout the other benefits of having chickens here, beyond egg laying.  However, with the resurgence in chicken keeping, in backyards all across America, we feel it’s important to also be honest about how gardening life really is with poultry on the loose.  We see so many magazine articles with blissful, perfect homesteading scenes. Mr. and Mrs. Urban Farmer planting out seedlings, or walking about with pristine perfect produce-filled baskets, with a line of innocent looking hens in tow.  Gardening with chickens isn’t all bliss.

Poultry keeping has become so popular, entire publications are devoted to all things chicken

So what do you really need to know about having chickens in your garden?  First and foremost, you can’t train a chicken.  If something looks like food in the garden, it will be sampled, and if it tastes good, they’ll keep going back to it.

In the mornings our retired hens wait impatiently to patrol the gardens

Chickens aren’t goats…well, I suppose that’s stating the obvious, but I mean in the sense that they don’t quite mow down every green plant they encounter, but they can be very damaging to gardens.  Two or three hens, turned loose in the lettuce patch, can decimate the entire crop.

That said, chickens can be quite discriminating creatures.  Our old girls in the orchard aren’t particularly fond of basil, and although they’ll investigate it they usually quickly move on to something else.  Our tarragon though, along with the flat leaf parsley and sorrel, is very popular!  But I suppose tarragon chicken was inevitable.

One of our Buff Orpingtons sneaking in a sorrel snack, before trying the tarragon

The other challenge of gardening with chickens, at least here, is that we often use straw as mulch in some of the garden beds.  Mulch is really fun, if you’re a chicken.  If you scratch around in it, you’re likely to find some tasty, wiggly morsels lurking beneath.  If you’re successful at removing large patches of mulch, on a warm afternoon, the cool damp soil beneath makes for a great place to a take a refreshing dust bath.  Did I mention that hens can be very lazy?

Aftera grueling 10 minute day, it's important to remember to take a break...

Chickens do have their benefits in the garden though.

Chickens are excellent bug catchers.  In fact they loved helping us organically control a cabbage looper problem earlier this year.  Cabbage loopers apparently are most scrumptious…if you’re a hen.

Chickens LOVE hunting for bugs

Generally they’re smart enough to avoid bees, but I have read of chickens standing at the entrance to beehives and picking off numerous bees as they come and go.  It’s not common, but if you’re a bee-keeper, that’s something to keep your eye on!

One chore chickens are great at, is green-waste recycling.  They love fresh kitchen and garden scraps.

Babs investigating some extra salad greens

Our girls love it when we’re turning over one of the garden beds, as they’re fairly good tillers and rakers too.  They love to help dig over the soil, looking for tasty morsels, and helping with general clean-up.

You never know what you might find when the raised beds are turned over

However, it seems that trowels are somewhat confounding…but then again, what use is a trowel to a chicken?

Chickens are excellent tillers and rakers, but trowels confuse them

After snacking on garden bed remainders, this material is then all efficiently processed into…well…to put it delicately, fertilizer.

Chicken manure, once thoroughly composted, is an excellent high-nitrogen soil amendment

However, as a gardener you must be aware that chicken waste, although very high in nitrogen, MUST MUST MUST be composted first.  Until it’s composted, it can be a lethal substance in the garden, as the excess nitrogen will burn your delicate plants to a crisp.

Small amounts of chicken manure though, added to your regular compost pile, is far superior to any ‘compost booster’ you can buy in a box!

Chickens are also good at aerating your compost piles too.  Nothing holds a hen’s attention better than a mound of compost.  This is nirvana to a chicken.  They’ll scratch around in well stocked compost for hours, digging up tasty high-protein wriggly snacks.

The hens find even the closed kitchen compost bin to be fascinating!

Another chicken chore that’s always in need of attention here at Curbstone Valley is weeding, a task I simply don’t enjoy, and one that the hens are actually quite good at.  Well, for five or ten minutes at a time, until they reveal another patch of soil worthy of dust bathing in.  I admit, it can be quite challenging keeping our hens on task.

If you have a garden, and you want chickens to be able run around freely, what can you do to protect your plants?  Most chickens will take the path of least resistance.  If you have raised beds, the simplest thing is to wrap the edge of the beds in a 1 to 2 foot wire barrier, either chicken wire, or hardware cloth.

Without netting or row covers over some of our crops, our chickens would eat the lot...especially the strawberries.

Alternatively, you can net over your crops, or use floating row covers.  If you plant directly in the ground though, a low perimeter fence or a portable net-like poultry fence may be required to help keep your chickens in strictly designated areas.

Alternatively, you can simply spend time in the garden with your chickens, supervising them.  They are actually quite easy to herd.  But you have to keep watch, or one will break away, and run straight back to the tomato patch!

Remember though, that in addition to protecting your fruits and vegetables, you also need to protect your chickens.  Don’t ever assume that chickens are smart enough to avoid foods that may be toxic to them.  As you can see in the video above, one of our hens, Babs, thinks that tomato leaves are tremendously tasty.  She doesn’t know that they can potentially harm her.  The occasional nibble won’t hurt, but in quantity, they are toxic to chickens. Other toxic plants in your vegetable gardens include potato leaves and peels, rhubarb, and onions.

Sweet Pea loves to be in the garden...do you garden with chickens?

If you’re going to let your chickens roam freely in your gardens, please remember that they rely on you to keep them safe.

Basil 'Aroma 2' and 'Nufar'

This year we grew two varieties of basil, ‘Aroma 2′, and the large-leaf basil ‘Nufar Genovese’.  [...]]]> Fresh basil growing in the garden is one of our favorite sights of summer.  We intentionally try to over-plant basil each year as it’s so versatile in the kitchen, in soups, salads, sandwiches, or pizzas.

Basil 'Aroma 2' and 'Nufar'

This year we grew two varieties of basil, ‘Aroma 2′, and the large-leaf basil ‘Nufar Genovese’.  Of the two, my personal favorite is ‘Nufar Genovese’.  The plants are very productive, and their larger leaves go further when making pesto, and are easier to roll up and chiffonade.  Unlike some herbs that lend themselves well to drying, like thyme and rosemary, basil is always best when freshly picked from the garden.  If you have more basil than you can use fresh though, don’t let it go to seed, make pesto!

This basil 'Nufar' was threatening to bloom...rather than waste it, we turned it into pesto

3/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Garlic cloves
2 Tbsp Pine nuts or Walnut pieces
1/4 Tsp salt
1/3 Cup coarsely grated Parmigiano Reggiano*
4 cups packed, fresh, Genovese basil leaves

*As cheese texture may be altered by freezing, we prefer to omit the cheese, and add it to the pesto after thawing.

Remove the leaves from the stems, discarding any flower buds, and rinse thoroughly in cold water.  If your home-grown basil has signs of aphids, small snails, or similar pests, fill the sink with cold water, add 1 Tbsp salt, and soak the leaves for 10 minutes.  The unwelcome guests will fall to the bottom of the sink.

Strip the leaves from the stems, and wash thoroughly

Drain, and rinse the basil leaves thoroughly in cold water.

Pine nuts are traditional in Pesto alla Genovese, albeit expensive

Walnuts are an excellent alternative for pesto

Place all of the ingredients, except the basil, into a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Add the basil one handful at a time, blending until all the basil is incorporated, and the pesto is of an even texture.

Fresh pesto...the possibilities are endless

Buying ready-made pesto can be expensive, and in my opinion, is rarely satisfying.  I often find commercially prepared pestos to be excessively oily, or salty, and lacking in any real freshness of flavor.  Homemade pesto though is simple, can be adjusted to taste, and freezes easily, helping to extend one of the freshest flavors of summer, deep into fall and winter.

This pesto is destined for the freezer

If storing pesto for later use, I recommend freezing it in various sized portions.  Freeze some individual servings in ice cube trays or small muffin tins, and once frozen, empty the trays and place the frozen pesto cubes in freezer bags.  These small quantities of pesto are perfect for swirling into winter soups, or using in sandwiches.  Larger portions may be frozen in small reusable 1/2-1 cup storage containers, handy for serving over pasta, or pizza.  Don’t forget to add the cheese to the thawed pesto if it was omitted at the time of freezing.

Grocery store basil is often exorbitantly priced.  If you’re not growing your own, or don’t have enough, local Farmer’s Markets here have recently been selling lush large bunches of basil for just $1 each during peak season. There’s no excuse, now is the perfect time to pesto!

"This post is all about ME!" - Frodo

Our young Dark Brahma, Frodo, is now 22 weeks old.  If you’ve been following along, you know he’s been [...]]]> A few of Frodo’s fans inquired about how he was doing last week, so we thought we’d devote this Fowl Friday to all things Frodo.

"This post is all about ME!" - Frodo

Our young Dark Brahma, Frodo, is now 22 weeks old.  If you’ve been following along, you know he’s been through a lot in his short life.  Turned against by his flock-mates, he was ousted from the coop before he’d even grown in his first full suit of feathers.  Then after weeks of feathers falling out, and growing in again, reintroductions to the flock were disastrous when Siegfried tried to shred Frodo through the side of the chicken run.  Taking a chance with the older ladies, Frodo seemed to do well at first with our orchard hens, right up until one of our hens, Ginger, snapped, ripping Frodo’s tail out, leaving nothing but a bloody stump. It’s really not been easy being Frodo.

...it's not easy being different...

The last few weeks Frodo has been separated from the other chickens.  After Ginger attacked him, we were hesitant to keep him outside while his wounds healed, primarily to protect him from flies.  Flies, open wounds, and warm summer weather, can be the perfect recipe for…I really don’t want to say this…maggots.  Makes me cringe just thinking about the nasty little creatures.  Keeping the wound clean and dry, and Frodo fly-free, was absolutely imperative for him to heal as quickly as possible, and prevent any infection.  After a few days sequestered indoors though, Frodo’s wounds were scabbed over enough to send him back out to forage around in the sunshine, on fresh green grassy weeds during the day.

Don't laugh, this was all that remained of Frodo's tail after Ginger attacked him

It’s now been almost a month since we pulled Frodo from the orchard, bleeding, with a featherless derriere.

However, as you can see in the video below, he’s absolutely no worse for the wear…well, except perhaps for being more wary of other fowl on the farm.  His wounds healed without any complications, and Frodo was fortunate not to have any damage to the feather follicles, so his feathers are growing in strong and straight.

In just the last week he’s actually looking like he (almost) has a tail again.

Frodo's tail is looking much better today

His tail feathers still have a lot of growing to do, but it won’t be long before they’re back to the length they were.

His tail feathers will grow much longer over the coming weeks, providing we keep him away from the hens

His saddle feathers, although shorter than they should be courtesy of Ginger’s pruning technique, are just now starting to grow long again…

Frodo's saddle feathers on his back, just forward of his tail, are growing back

The saddle feathers are long and slender, and will drape down Frodo's side in front of his tail

…and his hackle feathers have been filling in well since Siegfried gave Frodo a haircut.

No more mullet! Frodo's hackle feathers are filling in nicely around his neck

Speaking of feathers, Frodo did acquire his name for a reason.  His feet!  Even though he’s still nowhere near full-size, and won’t be for another 6-8 months, his feet are getting huge, and more feathery than ever!  Really, Frodo Baggins has nothing on these feet…

Frodo's toes are getting huge!

Frodo's feet are heavily feathered, and more feathers are still growing in!

In the last few weeks Frodo has also been starting to connect with his ‘inner rooster’, and the one thing all roosters are famous for, is crowing.  Siegfried has been crowing for weeks now, but Frodo’s crooning abilities are somewhat lacking.  Hear it for yourself, this is how Frodo sounded a couple of weeks ago when he first started to realize that crowing was something he should be doing.

You can hear that Siegfried tried to coach him from afar, but Frodo appears somewhat tone-deaf, sounding more like the horn from an old Model A, than a real rooster.

Even now, he doesn’t yet have the typical sounding rooster crow.  Although he has progressed somewhat from the ‘Ahooga’ horn sound over the last couple weeks, but it’s clear his voice is still changing, and he needs a lot more practice to get his rooster song down cold.

He obviously won’t be auditioning for any episodes of Glee anytime soon!  We expect in a few more weeks though he’ll be fully rehearsed, and crowing like a pro.  Hopefully by then, we’ll have Frodo’s new house started finished!

There’s a lesson in Frodo’s tale, or should I say tail, for anyone considering chickens. Being different in a flock, whether it’s significantly different in size, in color, pattern, or rate of growth, can cause some members of the flock to single out the individual that’s different.  In extreme cases the flock may kill the individual that stands out.  This usually won’t occur until the chicks are larger.  In Frodo’s case, by 7 weeks of age he looked significantly different than the rest of the flock, and that’s when all his trouble started.

At 7 weeks, Frodo really stood out in a crowd

It doesn’t mean that a varied flock will always have problems, it just increases the possibility, even when they’ve all been raised together.

When we selected our chicken breeds, we intentionally chose breeds that would all grow at about the same rate, and all have a similar weight range as adults. Frodo was our surprise bonus from the hatchery, but it’s unfortunate that considering the breeds we had already selected, that the hatchery didn’t choose a bonus chick that was more evenly matched at least in growth rate.  This clearly has been Frodo’s downfall in the eyes of the flock.  However, although we may never have selected the Brahma breed on purpose for just that reason, we do love having Frodo around.  So much so that I at least would love to have more Brahmas here in the future.  It just would have been so much simpler if Frodo had been accepted by the flock.

Male Coast Range Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii) - click to enlarge any image

The most common of the two species by far is the Coast Range Fence Lizard, [...]]]> As mentioned previously, we have two primary species of lizard here at Curbstone Valley, Alligator Lizards (Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata), and Coast Range Fence Lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii).

Male Coast Range Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii) - click to enlarge any image

The most common of the two species by far is the Coast Range Fence Lizard, commonly called the Blue-bellied lizard.  This subspecies is a member of the spiny lizard family Phrynosomatidae, and endemic to California, ranging from Sonoma County south to Santa Barbara.

Juvenile Coast Range Fence Lizard

The genus name Sceloporus is from the Greek skelos, meaning “leg” and porus, meaning “pores” in reference to the femoral pores located along the underside of the leg in this species. The species name occidentalis refers to their western distribution.

Coast Range Fence Lizards are found in open, sunny woodlands, chaparral and grasslands near waterways, and around suburban neighborhoods.  This is not a desert-dwelling species.  On the farm we find the highest concentrations in the orchard and garden areas, often perched up on sandy banks, or on fence posts or tree stumps basking in the sun.

A Coast Range Fence Lizard uses an old oak stump as a lookout

Coast Range Fence Lizards may be brown, gray, or near black in coloration with a blotched pattern across the dorsal scales. Light colored lateral and dorsal markings may appear to form irregular stripes or bands. Their overall coloration provides good camouflage against leaf litter and logs, making it more difficult for their predators, like our resident red-shouldered hawks, to find them.

The gray-brown color of the dorsal scales provides good camouflage against the leaf litter...

...and logs...

This is a small lizard species, averaging 21 cm in total length. They have pointed scales of relatively equal size on the dorsal, lateral, and ventral surfaces. Scales on the caudal thigh are smaller, predominantly keeled, and yellow to orange in color.  This differentiates the Coast Range Fence Lizard from the Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus graciosus gracilis), which lacks the yellow-orange caudal thigh coloration.

Note the small orange scales on the caudal thigh of this male

Males have blue, and occasionally green markings on the belly, a blue patch on the throat, which is more prominent than the Sagebrush Lizard, and occasionally blue flecks on the dorsal surface.

This male has beautiful blue scales around the throat

This coloration can be quite spectacular in some individuals, especially during breeding season.

Closer view of the blue and green colored scales on the ventro-lateral surface of a male Coast Range Fence Lizard

Females may have faint blue markings on the lateral surface of the belly, but no blue markings dorsally, and may also appear to have dark barring on the dorsal scales.

The female Coast Range Fence Lizards seem more secretive

One notable feature in this species is the presence of a brown line that connects the orbit and upper corner of the ear and continues to the dorsal surface of the neck.

Note the brown line connecting the outside corner of the eye to the upper ear

Like the Alligator Lizards, Coast Range Fence Lizards may detach their tail deliberately (caudal autonomy) as a defensive tactic, and the tail will regenerate, but the regenerated tail will not be as perfect in appearance.

These lizards are excellent climbers, and have sharp, curved claws on both their fore and hind limbs.

Fence lizards have very sharp, hooked claws, that facilitate climbing

The diet of the Coast Range Fence Lizard consists primarily of small invertebrates, including spiders, crickets, beetles, flies, wasps, scorpions, termites and ants.

Occasionally these lizards may be observed with white crusts around their nostrils, like the lizard shown below.

Coast Range Fence Lizard with salt crusts around the nares

At first glance this might appear to be some sort of fungal growth.  However, to conserve water in an arid environment, many lizard species have specialized nasal salt glands that enable them to excrete excess dietary sodium and potassium salts.

This subspecies mates during the spring months, during which time some impressive displays, and even occasional fighting between con-specific males can be observed here on the farm.

Coast Range Fence Lizard male

The females lay up to 3 clutches of eggs, averaging 8 eggs per clutch, but reportedly may be as few as 3 or as many as 17, between April to July. Eggs laid earlier in the season are larger than those laid later.  We were fortunate to observe a female burying her eggs in some loose soil in the orchard last month, but were trying not to disrupt her behavior, so we neglected to film or photograph it.  Incubation is approximately 60 days, and the eggs hatch between July to September.  We’ve already seen a number of juveniles running around this season, and expect we’ll see more before the season is over.

Coast Range Fence Lizard

The lifespan of Coast Range Fence Lizards is believed to be up to six years, however, due to predation by birds and snakes, many will not survive their first year.

As mentioned in our Alligator Lizard post, proteins in the blood of Coast Range Fence Lizards have been shown to have a bactericidal effect on Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis (Lyme disease) [1,2].  With our healthy deer population, and subsequently robust tick population on the property, we’re more than happy to do what we can to encourage our resident lizards to thrive here.

A content Coast Range Fence Lizard resting on a log in the vegetable garden

If you have fence lizards where you live, you can help provide suitable habitat by leaving small rock piles, or brush and log piles for them.  They will utilize these areas both when basking, and to retreat to when hiding from hungry predators.

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We leave all wild animal species at Curbstone Valley in their natural environments, and are careful not to damage sensitive habitat and hiding places.  Note that it is illegal to collect and possess native reptile species in California without the required licenses and/or permits.

[1] Kuo MM, Lane RS, Giclas PC.  A comparative study of mammalian and reptilian alternative pathway of complement-mediated killing of the Lyme disease spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi). J Parasitol. 2000 Dec; 86(6):1223-8

[2] Lane RS, Mun J, Eisen L, Eisen RJ.  Refractoriness of the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) to the Lyme disease group spirochete Borrelia bissettii. J Parasitol. 2006 Aug; 92(4):691-6.

…but now it’s August, and our pullets have started laying their first eggs!

The first egg from our 2010 pullets!

Our girls are coming online right on schedule. On average, pullets come into lay somewhere between 18-22 weeks.  Ours have started laying at just over 20 [...]]]> In late March we simply had a heap of peeping fluffy chicks…

…but now it’s August, and our pullets have started laying their first eggs!

The first egg from our 2010 pullets!

Our girls are coming online right on schedule. On average, pullets come into lay somewhere between 18-22 weeks.  Ours have started laying at just over 20 weeks of age.

Beginning at 18 weeks we transitioned the pullets to an organic layer-diet that is lower in protein, and higher in calcium compared to their grower-diet, in preparation for egg-laying.  We also began to leave the nest box shutters open during the day.

Small shutter doors between the nest boxes and the main coop allow us to control access to the nests

We open the shutters during the day so the pullets have free access to the nest boxes

The pullets, like this Partridge Plymouth Rock, access the nest boxes from inside the coop when the shutters are open

Chickens defecate where they sleep at night, so we close the shutters at dusk to prevent the chickens from roosting in, and soiling the boxes.  This keeps both the boxes, and the next morning’s eggs, clean.

At night the doors are latched closed to prevent the pullets from sleeping in the boxes

With our previous hens, if we accidentally left the boxes open after dusk, one box would quickly turn into the chicken equivalent of a clown car, and five or six hens would try to squash themselves into one box for the night!

In addition to leaving the nest boxes open during the day, we also placed artificial eggs in each box.

An artificial resin egg was placed into each nest box

This wasn’t to ‘teach’ the pullets where to lay eggs.  Providing there are designated nest box areas, pullets are actually quite savvy, and will naturally seek out such an enclosed area to lay their eggs away from the rest of the flock.  However, this time we have a large rooster in the mix.  Siegfried is housed with the ladies full time.  Part of our concern was that he could easily break an egg, even if it’s just out of curiosity.  The artificial eggs gave Siegfried and his flock an opportunity to be inquisitive about these new objects in the coop, but these eggs can’t be broken.  This desensitizes them to the sight of eggs in the nests before the real, more fragile eggs are laid.

We’re not specifically concerned with the physical loss of a broken egg per se, but broken eggs in the coop can lead to a very nasty habit in chickens.  Egg eating.  Once started, even if only one or two pullets engages in egg breaking/eating behavior, it is nearly impossible to extinguish this behavior once it starts.  Oddly enough, chickens love the taste of their own eggs.  Not particularly advantageous from an evolutionary perspective, but important to know that it can and does occur, and often starts when they first begin laying eggs due to accidental egg breakage.  Desensitizing the flock to the presence of eggs, and quick retrieval of eggs once they are laid both help to prevent egg-eating behavior from starting.

So, back to our pullet eggs.  Thus far it looks like just one or two of the Delaware’s have started to lay.  On Tuesday, after hearing a round of rather loud clucking from one of the Delawares, I went up and peeked into the nest boxes. Nest box one…fake resin egg.  Nest box two…fake resin egg.  Nest box three…Oh! A PAIR of eggs!

Fake resin egg on the left; our first real egg on the right

Since Tuesday, we’ve had one additional egg each morning so far, including this morning, although not necessarily all from the same pullet.

The classic clue that a pullet is becoming sexually mature, and will soon be coming into lay, is the ‘egg squat’, where the pullet will quickly crouch low to the ground when approached by a handler (or a rooster).  Additional clues are a significant reddening of both the comb and wattles, and noting an increase in the time a pullet spends investigating the nest box. Here you can see that a young Buff Orpington, accompanied by one of our Delawares, is checking out the Curbstone Valley egg-laying accommodations.

Our first little ‘pullet egg’, was just a mere 40 grams in weight, compared to the 55-70 gram eggs laid by our mature hens.

An average hen egg on the left; our first pullet egg on the right

Pullet eggs, or practice eggs as they are sometimes called, are usually quite small compared to the eggs of a regularly laying hen.

A peek inside shows that the hen egg on the left, compared to the pullet egg, is really only different in size

The pullets are just laying eggs for the first time, and as such undersized eggs are normal when they first start to lay, as the pullets themselves aren’t quite yet full grown.  It’s also not unusual to occasionally find a pullet egg without a yolk, or sometimes an egg may be laid without a shell at all, or with a very thin, soft, or friable shell.  This is completely normal in newly laying pullets, providing after a few false starts, their egg production normalizes.  We’ll get into the complexities of egg-formation in a future post.  However, as mentioned before in regards to egg eating, it’s important to keep a close eye on the pullets at this stage so any shell-less mishaps are cleaned up quickly.

So now that our girls are coming online we expect that they’ll soon be producing lots of beautiful brown eggs, like these ones from our orchard hens.

Our old hens aren't laying as often, but their eggs are still beautiful

Omelette anyone?

Our 'Persimmon' tomatoes in June

Despite the fact it is now mid-August, thanks to unseasonably cold weather, not much has really changed in the garden over the last six weeks.  As Jackie, just down the coast from us pointed out in her recent post, the weather along the central [...]]]> Remember our June garden update?

Our 'Persimmon' tomatoes in June

Despite the fact it is now mid-August, thanks to unseasonably cold weather, not much has really changed in the garden over the last six weeks.  As Jackie, just down the coast from us pointed out in her recent post, the weather along the central California coast this summer has not exactly been conducive to ripening tomatoes, or peppers this season.

The majority of our tomatoes, like this Russian 117, are still green

We expected 'Ilini Star' to be red by mid-August

'Persimmon' is still green too

It’s not just Northern California either, even our neighbors to the south have been similarly affected this year.

Although 'Carmen' is a red pepper, it is supposed to still taste good green

Overall production doesn’t seem particularly affected by our dreary summer weather, as the tomato and pepper plants have set ample fruit.  They just need a little sunshine to encourage them to ripen.

Many days in July and August saw daily high temperatures below 70 degrees!

That said though, July was warmer in London than here, and somehow, that doesn’t seem quite right, does it?  After all, this is California!  After our ‘June gloom’ subsides, we’re supposed to be dripping in sunshine during July, and tourists should be crowding the local beaches.

You were more likely to need a sweater at the beach in July, than sunblock...

However, this July if you traveled to our local area beaches, you were more likely to get GOOSEBUMPS than a tan!

In June a young green katydid was seen stalking squash blossoms. She's all grown up now!

There is finally hope though. There was actually a warming trend over this last weekend, and yesterday we managed to break 90 degrees Fahrenheit!  According to the National Weather Service we should experience some warmer, sunnier weather for a while.  The coastal fog bank is noticeably thinner, and we’re seeing the sunshine much earlier in the day than we have for weeks.

All through July and early August the tomatoes have been hanging on the vines, patiently waiting in all their green glory for just enough sun to turn color.  After only a couple of warm sunny days, the cheeks of the Cherokee Purples and Argentina are now finally starting to turn color.

The Cherokee Purples finally started to turn this weekend

This morning 'Argentina' is showing a lot of promise

Even our cherry tomatoes are far behind this year, including our Salisaw Cafe, and Beam’s Yellow Pear.

We have yet to harvest any Beam's Yellow Pear, but it shouldn't be long now

Of course, not everything has been lagging in the garden.

With all the extra green forage this year, our crop of fawns, including these twins, is coming along nicely.

Friday afternoon's visit from 'the twins' shows they're both doing very well

As we’re now succeeding in keeping the deer out of the gardens, we still have plenty of zucchini…

Despite the cold weather, zucchini 'Raven' continues to produce

The scarlet runner beans are taller, and still blooming, keeping our hummingbirds and bees happy…

The scarlet runner beans continue to bloom, attracting pollinators to the garden

Our winter acorn squash and pumpkins are setting fruit…

The acorn squash is on track

...and so are the pumpkins

We have plenty of  basil ready to harvest

Bountiful 'Aroma 2' basil ready for harvest

The sage is looking fabulous too.

Nothing is slowing the sage

We’ve harvested three crops of potatoes, ’Yukon Gold’, ‘Rose Finn Apple’ and these ’All Blue’.

'All Blue' potatoes are blue on the outside...

...and on the inside

The ‘Frost’ peach tree produced a small crop this year, which was promptly converted into jam, and the canner has also been kept occupied with pickling beets, both red and gold.

All of our strawberries, ‘Seascape’, ‘Eversweet’, and these ‘San Andreas’ are setting another flush of fruit too.

Strawberry 'San Andreas'

...this one didn't make it to the kitchen...

So it’s not all bad news in the garden.  We still have just over five weeks until the first day of fall, and there’s still plenty of time for a successful, albeit late, tomato harvest.  Hopefully, if we continue with this warming trend, our tomatoes will soon start to catch up, and the peppers will ripen.  We’ll have to wait and see what our September garden update brings.

Hello? Remember us?

Our four turkeys have been at the farm for twelve weeks, and are now 17 weeks old.  There have been some significant changes since they arrived at the farm.

The last few Fowl Fridays have been all about the drama in Frodo’s world, but what happened to our turkeys?

Hello? Remember us?

Our four turkeys have been at the farm for twelve weeks, and are now 17 weeks old.  There have been some significant changes since they arrived at the farm.

6 Week-old Turkey Poults

There’s no question now that we have three males and one female.  During our last turkey update the presumed Jakes (males) appeared to be showing more prominent snood growth than the presumptive Jenny (female).  We also had clues from the size of the caruncles as to who might be who.  However, we’ve never had turkeys before, so we weren’t completely sure.

Both the snoods and caruncles have become more prominent in the Jakes over the last few weeks though, removing any doubt.

The snoods on the males have grown significantly in the last few weeks

Overall body size has increased substantially in the past few weeks too.  The male Bourbon Red/Royal Palm crosses are the largest, and also have the largest snoods.  The Bourbon Red/Standard Bronze Jake is somewhat smaller in stature, and his snood not quite so impressive, yet.

The snood on the Bourbon Red/Standard Bronze male is noticeably smaller

The feather coloring has become much richer in both the Royal Palm crosses, and the Standard Bronze crosses.

Bourbon Red/Royal Palm Crosses are becoming a rich amber color

The Standard Bronze crosses have more pattern in their feathers (Jenny left; Jake right)

The male Bourbon Red/Standard Bronze cross is showing some beautiful iridescence in some of his body feathers.

Iridescent body feathers of the Bourbon Red/Standard Bronze Jake

The Jenny of the same cross is now easily distinguished from the Jake as the edges of most of her body feathers have a cream-colored border along the edges, giving her a slightly lighter appearance.

The Bourbon Red/Standard Bronze Jenny (front) has pale body feather margins compared to the Jake (back)

The red-toned Royal Palm crosses, although not apparent when they were younger, are starting to show some dark edging to their body feathers too.

We’ve discovered that overall turkeys are far more suspicious of new things in their environment than chickens.

"What was that !?!" - Turkeys are intensely curious about anything that flies overhead

You’ll notice in the video that they make an interesting series of chirps when confronted with a new treat (off camera) that they don’t recognize.  It took an entire day for them to muster enough courage to investigate a simple slice of melon.  The chickens would have devoured it in 10 minutes!

We also have experienced the downside to having too many future Toms in the mix.  Boys will be boys, and we’ve broken up a couple of fights between the Jakes over the past six weeks.  Siegfried, our rooster, has recently taken to crowing in the mornings, and for some reason this seemed to agitate the Jakes.  In fact Siegfried’s crowing was at least partially responsible for more than one scuffle between the three Jakes, although the Jakes do now seem to be getting used to their early morning wake-up calls.  We suspect part of the problem was that turkeys like the status quo, they don’t like change, or differences in their environment, and having a crowing rooster around is, well, different.

"No change, please!"

The Jakes seem to be primarily posturing and play fighting thus far.  Snoods, and especially wattles, are fair game during a scrum, and it takes quite a while to get them to calm down once a ruckus has ensued!  You’ll probably notice the Bronze cross Jake in the video has a couple of minor grazes on his face from a recent skirmish. Ideally we’d have multiple Jennys, not Jakes.

The Jenny has a smaller snood, and significantly smaller caruncles than the Jakes

Although there’s only one Jenny at the farm, our brood are too young to be concerned with trying to garner her attention yet.  However, we will need to reduce our male quotient before next spring, or the fighting will become more serious.

Too many males...Bourbon Red/Royal Palm Jake pair

It’s interesting to note that popular commercial broad-breasted turkeys are usually harvested between 14-18 weeks of age.  Our turkeys already fall into the upper end of that age bracket.  However, heritage breeds (including heritage crosses) take significantly longer to mature, usually in the realm of 6 months before they are ready for the table.  Don’t worry though, we have many more weeks to go before then, and in the meantime we’ll continue to spoil our turkeys rotten, they deserve it.

Fresh apples make for a tasty turkey treat

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Frodo just can't seem to get a break

During our last Fowl Friday post a couple of our readers suggested that Frodo would make a good subject for a children’s book.  [...]]]> Last week, and I quote myself, I said “…but Ginger wasn’t the problem…”.  I hate eating my words.  I should have trusted my initial instincts. 

Frodo just can't seem to get a break

During our last Fowl Friday post a couple of our readers suggested that Frodo would make a good subject for a children’s book.  Unfortunately, things have taken a dramatic turn in the wrong direction, and a story with the potential for a happy ending, has now turned into a tale akin to one written by the Brothers Grimm. 

On Saturday Frodo was back out in the portable pen again with our three Buff Orpington hens, Ginger, Babs, and Sweet Pea.

We've been slowly introducing Frodo to our orchard hens

He’d already spent time alone with Ginger, which had gone very well.  Everything seemed to be going along fine, and all the birds were scratching around rummaging for grain and bugs.  I sat with them for a while.  It was a warm afternoon, and as everyone seemed relaxed, I went back into the house for a short while to make some bread dough. 

Last week I mentioned that when Ginger and Frodo first met, a few feathers flew, briefly, and then everyone seemed fine.  Ginger, even as head hen, didn’t seem to mind having Frodo around, but we were continuing to work with all the hens to ensure that Frodo was accepted by everyone before even considering trying to house them together permanently.

Ginger rules the roost in the orchard

It turns out that Ginger wasn’t as willing to give up her role of ruler of the roost as she first led us to believe.

With the bread dough proofing on the kitchen counter, I went back out to check on the chickens.  All seemed quiet enough.  On the return walk from the house toward the orchard, as the portable pen came back into view, I could see that Frodo was laying down in the corner.  I thought at first that he was just relaxing in the shade with the girls.  Then, as I got closer, I could see that Ginger was standing on top of Frodo.  Closer still, and Ginger looked like a vulture perched on a carcass.  I realized she was violently pecking at Frodo’s back.  Frodo was just laying there, dead-still.  I couldn’t see where his head was…he wasn’t moving at all as she struck at him. I was sure I was too late.

This is how Frodo's back looked when I left him in the pen earlier that afternoon, his saddle feathers finally growing out

I ran the last bit through the gardens, and as I got to the pen Frodo raised his head up from the corner.  That was when I realized I was holding my breath…as I breathed a brief sigh of relief.  He was still alive, but he was silent, and didn’t make a sound as Ginger struck him again.  He buried his head back underneath the edge of the pen.  I could see he’d been desperately trying to tunnel out of the corner.  I was mortified, angry, disappointed, disgusted, and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for leaving him alone with the girls.  He’d already been through so much, and now this?

Ginger was ripping Frodo's tail and saddle feathers out

Livid, I lunged toward Ginger, smacking the side of the pen, to scare her off, but it’s not easy getting through to a chicken that is dazed and enamoured by the sight of blood.  I grabbed the corner of the pen, lifting it off the ground, shoved Ginger away from Frodo, and quickly coaxed him out.  I had no idea how badly he was hurt, but I was appalled at how much blood there was. I could see his beautiful iridescent feathers strewn across the garden.  I ran after him, to catch him, and realized his tail was completely missing.  There was nothing left but a bloody stump, and his back was raw and bleeding.

His tail feathers had a beautiful green sheen

Things were rough with Siegfried in the coop, but this was far beyond anything that happened with him.  This was brutal.  The vicious reality of life as a chicken that doesn’t fit in with the flock.  I know that there are times when chickens can be ruthless toward each other, sometimes with little warning, even when everything seems to be going fine, they can simply snap. Ginger had snapped.  I’m not a poultry psychologist, or an expert in poultry behavior, but I do know this can be a very real part of being chicken.  I wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t walked out to check on Frodo when I did.  Would Ginger have kept going until she killed him? That we’ll never know, I just had to be content that I’d found him when I did. 

Ginger was clearly agitated after the attack

Frodo was rushed into the house, and we quickly examined him to assess the extent of his injuries.  His vent was intact, thankfully, but there was a lot of blood all across his back.  We cleaned the area of enough blood to determine that his skin, although brutalized, bleeding, raw and tender looking, wasn’t torn. We watched for a few minutes to get an idea of his rate of blood loss.  His saddle feathers were still growing in, and new feathers have enriched blood supplies, and when broken, can cause excessive blood loss, so we wanted to be sure he wasn’t going to exsanguinate as a result of his injuries.  There were numerous broken feathers with the quills still embedded in his skin, some of which were slowly oozing blood.  Of his saddle feathers that took weeks to grow in, the longest ones were gone.  His beautiful tail that had just started to fill out, this is all that’s left…

This is what was left of Frodo's tail

Frodo was breathing very hard, trembling, and clearly stressed.  Content he wasn’t bleeding too much, we set him in a large box, with a heat lamp at one end of the box, and a towel, fresh food and water, and left him in a darkened quiet room for a while to give him a chance to calm down. Birds can be very stoic, especially chickens, but to aggressively treat him while he was so stressed, could be enough to tip him over the edge.  We checked in on him periodically, just to ensure that any active bleeding had stopped, and left him alone until the next morning.

I’ll say this for chickens, they’re tough.  The next morning, a rather antsy and agitated Frodo greeted me.  The bleeding had stopped, and he was back to eating and drinking, which was an excellent sign.  I promised him we were done with trying to introduce him to any other chickens, and pulled him out to assess the damage.  Fortunately for Frodo, it seems no damage was done that time won’t heal.  He was lucky this time.  

A little tuft is all that's left, but Frodo is healing well

We know that chickens attack each other for a number of reasons.  In this case, Frodo was new, he was different, and he was a rooster.  Ginger is now a repeat offender.  Once before she had attacked our old hen ‘Roo’ when she was egg-bound and bleeding from her vent.  This was the first time I’d witnessed a chicken, personally, in that ‘red-haze daze’.  That was the only time I’d seen that glint in Ginger’s eye, but Roo was bleeding, that was clearly the catalyst for her behavior that day.  Why she attacked Frodo, beyond him being new, and not looking like any other chicken she’d seen before, only Ginger knows.  Sadly, Frodo just doesn’t have it in him to fight back.  Perhaps that will change as he grows older, and significantly larger, but at the moment he just doesn’t seem able to stand his ground, not even against a hen.

So now we have to decide what to do about Frodo.  Despite being raised with our new flock this spring, since he was seven weeks old, his flock-mates just refused to give him a break.  We’re clearly not going to try to introduce him to any new hens any time soon either.  As a slow grower, it will be a while before he’s up to full size.  We could try to re-home him, but I honestly would prefer not to, as the issue is that he can’t or won’t defend himself, and he’s just as likely to meet the same fate, or worse, somewhere else.  Soup isn’t an option.  I know, real farmers would soup him, but we can’t.  Us ‘hobby-farmers’ have that latitude, and we have the space here to make room for him.

For now, our thought is to build a second ark, like the one we put up in the orchard this year.  When you have more than a few chickens, it’s not a bad idea to have a spare pen to house an ill or injured bird in, or to house a broody hen if we wanted more chicks down the road.  We’d need another ark sooner or later.  We can alternate ranging him in the orchard, versus the hens.  Maybe things will be different once he’s full grown, which won’t be for some months yet.  In the meantime, Frodo will continue to be doted on by us, to ensure he remains a tame rooster, and as you can see below, he’s already making friends with some of our local woodland creatures.

Once he’s grown more, and can stand up for himself, we can try bringing a few docile, passive hens from the main flock to range with him, but we’re not going to push it.  For now at least, Frodo will remain a bachelor.  His wounds need to heal, his feathers need to regrow, again, and he needs to work on finding his inner rooster.  We’ll let him dictate where we go from there…

We have pocket gophers.  Lots of them.   We try very hard not to interfere with native plant and animal species on the property.  However, in the garden and orchard areas we occasionally find we need to address our pocket gopher population.  Burgeoning populations can [...]]]> ***some images and video not for the faint-hearted***

We have pocket gophers.  Lots of them.   We try very hard not to interfere with native plant and animal species on the property.  However, in the garden and orchard areas we occasionally find we need to address our pocket gopher population.  Burgeoning populations can quickly decimate rows of crops, kill small shrubs and trees, and do significant damage to underground irrigation systems.

Valley Pocket Gopher - the mortal enemy of young fruit trees

When we first moved here it was clear that in some parts of the property we had a healthy pocket gopher population. We knew that some degree of effective gopher control would need to be employed to protect our investment of newly planted fruit trees in the orchard.

Our goal was not to eliminate all gophers from the property.  That’s neither reasonable, nor desirable.  Although pocket gophers are damaging to crops, they do have benefits.  They bury organic matter in the soil, increasing soil fertility.  They aerate soils, preventing compaction, and increasing water penetration, thereby decreasing run-off.  Their burrow systems are often utilized by other species, including our resident Coast Range Newts, as valuable shelter from weather and predators.  Gophers also help to increase the rate of soil formation by bringing subsoil materials to the surface, where they are subjected to weathering.  A few gophers aren’t necessarily bad, we just want to prevent the population from getting out of control.

In addition to powerful jaws, pocket gophers have long sharp claws

Five species of pocket gophers are found in California.  The Botta’s, or Valley Pocket Gopher, Thomomys bottae, is the most widely distributed in this state, and the species we have here.  Various species of pocket gopher are found throughout the western two-thirds of the United States, and parts of the southeast.

Regardless as to species, they are all controlled similarly and there are numerous legal methods of gopher control.  Popular control methods have included baiting with toxic baits such as Strychnine-treated grain, or anticoagulant rodenticides, or hiring a certified professional to fumigate with aluminum phosphide.

We weren’t interested in using any toxic methods of control, not just to protect our own animals, but also the wild birds and animals here, and to eliminate any risks of residue run-off into the two creeks on the property.  We consider this property to be sensitive habitat for numerous native plant and animal species, and have no desire to risk their populations for the sake of controlling a few gophers.

Non-toxic methods of control include trapping, barrier-exclusion methods of control, such as lining garden beds with hardware cloth or gopher wire, wrapping root-balls of sensitive plants in gopher wire, and encouraging natural predators to assist us in keeping populations in check.  In the non-cultivated areas of the property we rely on natural predators to keep pocket gopher populations down.  Our resident hawks, owls, coyotes, and bobcats are all natural predators of gophers, as is this gopher snake.  But honestly, how many gophers can a gopher snake eat in a year?

The Pacific Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer) can't eat enough gophers to control large populations

We caught this bobcat earlier this year catching a gopher, with a side of salad, near the chicken coop. 

Unfortunately, the bobcats can’t reach the gophers running amok in our fenced orchard, and even if they could, they don’t consume enough of them, often enough, to significantly affect their populations.  That’s where trapping becomes our best option.

We’d tried Macabee traps previously, but we had very rare success using those traps.

Macabee Trap - 'Old Reliable'...wasn't. We had poor success with this time-consuming trapping method.

Our soils here are friable, and it’s difficult excavating down to a horizontal run to place pairs of traps, without collapsing the tunnels completely.  Macabee traps also aren’t very humane.  They impale the gopher, but they’re not instantly killed.  They bleed to death, slowly.

Cinch traps are easier to use than Macabee traps, and a more humane method of trapping

We had tried Cinch Traps, and had even less success with those.  They are more humane, as they instantly kill the gopher, breaking its neck.  What we didn’t realize was there is an art, and a science, to using Cinch Traps correctly, and successfully.  Fortunately for us, we have an excellent local resource available, Thomas Wittman. 

Thomas owns and operates Gophers Limited, in Felton, California.  He teaches farmers, grounds keepers, and individual gardeners how to evaluate and control their own gopher populations.  Desperate to squash the gopher problem that was gnawing its way across our orchard slope, we spoke with Thomas about doing an on-site evaluation and personal training session to teach us what we were doing wrong, so we could effectively trap our gophers. Thomas however recommended that we begin with one of his ’starter kits’, which included two traps, a hori-hori knife, and an in-depth instructional DVD.  If after watching the DVD we still weren’t successful at trapping gophers on the property, he’d be more than happy to set up a private consult. 

Our starter kit included this instructional video

We purchased his ‘Cinch Method Starter Kit’, and watched the video.  We learned a lot more about gophers than we realized there was to know, and finally understood why our previous trapping attempts had been met with such limited success.  Thomas taught us how to think more like a gopher, how to read important patterns in soil disturbances, and most importantly where to place the Cinch Trap, and how to properly set the trap for greatest success.

The next morning, eager to deploy our new found knowledge against the gophers that had previously outwitted us, we set two traps.  Thomas demonstrates placing the Cinch Traps in this video excerpt.

We didn’t expect to be as successful as Thomas is in this video, as we hadn’t caught a gopher ourselves in months, but before lunch, we’d caught our first TWO pocket gophers in the orchard.  Thomas’ kit had already paid for itself as we now had finally caught the most problematic gophers threatening our new fruit trees.  As our gophers are killed without toxins, rather than bury them, we leave them at the soil surface.  There are plenty of predators and scavengers here, and by morning they’re always gone.

Our first catch of the day

Ever wonder why these little rodents are called pocket gophers?  I’d never really thought about it before.  Pocket gophers get their name from their extensive external cheek pouches.  Fur-lined pockets that extend all the way back toward their shoulders.  They can pack a lot of food into these pockets, and transport it through their burrows, leaving their teeth and claws free for digging.

Pocket gophers transport food in their extensive external cheek pockets

Turning out this gopher's pockets revealed an entire crimson clover seed head

We took a little video of our first two successful catches.  The video starts with a gopher underground tugging on the roots of some weeds (you can see the plant ‘twitching’). 

We don’t usually recommend specific products on our blog, but if you have a seemingly endless supply of gophers, and are interested in non-toxic control of your resident gopher population, we highly recommend Thomas Wittman’s DVD.  It was a good investment for us, and we finally feel confident that we can keep our gophers under control.  If you reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thomas also does presentations throughout the year, in various locations.  See the Gophers Limited website for upcoming sessions.

Our plan is to move Frodo out to the orchard with the hens

Last weekend, after a rather traumatizing experience with Siegfried in the coop, we started to introduce Frodo to our older orchard hens.  Our concern initially [...]]]> After Frodo’s difficult week last week, things are starting to look up for our young rooster.

Our plan is to move Frodo out to the orchard with the hens

Last weekend, after a rather traumatizing experience with Siegfried in the coop, we started to introduce Frodo to our older orchard hens.  Our concern initially was that Ginger, our head hen, was used to being Queen of her roost, and may not tolerate a young upstart rooster in her midst.

Ginger is in charge of the orchard coop

We started out with Frodo in the temporary pen, and turned the girls out loose in the orchard.  To encourage them to investigate Frodo, we wedged some watermelon under the edge bottom edge of the pen.  Ginger thinks with her stomach, she always has, and sure enough she found the melon…and Frodo.  For a brief second we thought it was going to be another big Siegfried-sized fight.  Ginger lunged at the pen with her feet and her beak, and Frodo lunged toward Ginger…with feathers flying.  We blinked…and it was over.  That was it. After a brief 10 second squabble, they’ve been fine together ever since.

Was it really going to be that easy?  No, of course not, they’re chickens, it’s never that simple! 

This is Babs, and she's not sold on the idea of Frodo...yet

We’d hoped the other girls would follow Ginger’s lead, but it turns out, the number two hen, Babs, and number three, Sweet Pea, weren’t so easily convinced that Frodo would make such a good room mate.  We let them adjust to each other for a day, then tried turning Frodo and girls all out loose together.  This worked, except it was too easy for Frodo to wander off and avoid the ladies altogether…especially after not-so-Sweet Pea ripped out a mouthful of Frodo’s chest feathers when she introduced herself to him.

The portable pen forces the chickens to work out their differences, rather than avoid each other

On Wednesday we put Ginger and Frodo in the portable pen along side the other girls in the ark.  This worked out fine, in that there was no fighting, but Ginger wasn’t the problem, we needed to convince the other two to accept Frodo.

Scratch grain hidden under straw keeps the hens distracted

On Thursday, we gradually worked up to having all the girls in the temporary pen with Frodo, and this sent Frodo into a minor state of panic.  It seems he’s a little intimidated by the hens, which is understandable, as they’re twice his size, and he still hasn’t really figured out that he’s going to be a 12 pound rooster some day.  Although he challenged Ginger the first time they met, he would only run from the other two.  With a little bribery in the form of fresh fruits, veggies, and scratch grains, it became apparent the girls really didn’t seem to mind being in the pen with Frodo.  He on the other hand was a little twitchy, and just wouldn’t settle down.  Any time Babs or Sweet Pea would look in his direction, he’d get antsy, and start zipping around, which of course would get the girls attention, and then they’d feel obligated to chase him.

Frodo has had a rough start, and is still somewhat unsure as to where he fits in

However, they’re not fighting, so compared to last week, that’s a huge step in the right direction.  Now, if we can just get Frodo to relax and accept the girls, this should work out.  He spent the afternoon today in the pen with the girls again, and he’s nervous at first, but slowly starting to unwind.  It’s just going to take a little time.

We’ll continue to take it slow, and hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll be able to leave Frodo with the girls full-time very soon…

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense) - click any image to enlarge

Symphyotrichum chilense (formerly Aster chilensis), is also known as common California or Pacific Aster, and is native to the western United States, found from [...]]]> Species in the Asteraceae (sunflower) family, including asters, cudweeds, and thistles, seem to be dominating our orchard this summer.

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense) - click any image to enlarge

Symphyotrichum chilense (formerly Aster chilensis), is also known as common California or Pacific Aster, and is native to the western United States, found from central California, northward to British Columbia.  This species is commonly found in open dry site plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, coastal salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and mixed-evergreen forests.

Pacific Asters grow from 1 to 3 feet in height, and their flowers emerge between mid-June and October.

Flower buds of Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Leaves are slightly hairy, semi-elliptical to lanceolate in shape, and slightly toothed along the margins.

Leaf of Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

The inflorescence is comprised of cymes.  Cymes are flat-topped clusters of flowers where the central flower bud opens before the surrounding ones, as shown below.  Each bloom is a compound flower with violet, lavender, or white rays, surrounding a cluster of yellow disk flowers.  Each ray measures approximately 6-12 mm in length.

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Some native plant nurseries do stock this species, which provides an excellent nectar source for a variety of beneficial insects and butterfly species, including the Field Crescent and Northern Checkerspot.  The lavender form is generally more common than the white form we have growing here.

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Pacific Aster is not well suited for formal areas, but this plant is a good filler for meadow gardens, in dry areas, and can be used to help stabilize slopes.  It is a drought-resistant, and vigorous, perennial, spreading both by seed, and via underground rhizomes.  In the wild areas of the property here, including our slopes above the orchard, this plant should remain reasonably well behaved, even in the absence of deer. However, in cultivated gardens, in rich soil, with occasional supplemental irrigation, this native Aster species can become very unruly and invasive.

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Although I haven’t been able locate any ethnobotanical data relating to this particular species, a number of native Asters have had a variety of uses by native peoples.  The Blackfoot Indians used infusions of Aster as a gastrointestinal aid, and to treat their horses or dogs with sinus disorders.  An infusion of Aster was also used by the Blackfoots as an eye wash to treat dogs with eye infections.  Flowers were used to make necklaces, and the Chippewa apparently boiled the leaves with fish and ate them. [1]

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Note that some nurseries report this to be a deer resistant plant, however, here our deer clearly didn’t receive that memo, and the only plants we’ve found blooming are within our fenced area.  Perhaps now that some of these plants at least are secure from browsing deer, hopefully we’ll see a few more blooming next year.

——————

[1] Daniel E. Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotanical Database

Frodo, our young Dark Brahma male, was our bonus ‘mystery chick’ from the hatchery, that arrived with our new chicks earlier this spring.

Frodo, a gift from [...]]]> Fluffy chicks may be cute, but the realities of farm life are that chickens can sometimes be brutally unkind to each other.  Let’s rewind a little, briefly.

Frodo, our young Dark Brahma male, was our bonus ‘mystery chick’ from the hatchery, that arrived with our new chicks earlier this spring.

Frodo, a gift from the hatchery, arrived shortly before Easter

He was raised with everyone else, first in the brooder, and then he moved out into the coop with the flock.  He’s been slow to mature, as is typical for Brahma males compared to other standard sized breeds.  For Frodo, the only Brahma in our flock, that became a BIG problem.

At 3 weeks, it was obvious Frodo was feathering in much slower than the rest of the flock

Everyone was mostly feathered in by five weeks…but not Frodo.

"it's not my fault!"

All the young birds were moved out to the coop together at 7 weeks.  For the first 48 hours everything was fine, until one of our Wyandotte pullets noticed that Frodo’s suit of feathers was a bit raggedy-looking.  He was different, not quite like the rest of the flock, and she decided to make something of it.  She and some of Frodo’s other flock-mates turned on him, and he took a nasty beating in the coop.  Bleeding, reluctantly, Frodo was pulled from the flock, along with a docile young female for company, to prevent further, and more deleterious injuries.

Still not feathered, Frodo moved with the flock to the coop at 7 weeks

The initial intent was just to let Frodo heal for a week or so before returning him to the flock.  For a number of reasons (slow healing and re-feathering), he was held back longer than we expected.  Not good, as chickens aren’t really gifted with long-term memories.  For them, it’s very much out of sight, out of mind.

Frodo was almost healed within 10 days, but then feathers that had grown in, were falling out again as they were being replaced by more mature feathers, and his ‘fluff’ over the saddle area fell out, leaving a large bald spot.  This resulted in us jokingly dubbing him “Frodo Finnegan”.

There was a young Brahma named Frodo Finnegan,
His feathers fell out…
…and then they grew again,
Poor old Frodo Finnegan. Begin again!

This poor chap has spent most of his first few months of life with significant bald spots in one place or another. Next time we get a Brahma, we’ll get more than one, so they all look goofy together, and nobody will care.

At 9 weeks, Frodo's fluffy feet looked great...

...his back though, still highly peck-worthy

A couple of weeks ago we decided bald spots or not, that we should just go ahead and get him back in the coop, as the longer we waited, the more difficult the re-introductions would be.

Have I mentioned before that our Golden Laced Wyandottes are not particularly friendly birds?

"next victim...um, I mean...patient please!"

I had made the mistake of going into the run in a short sleeved shirt.  I found out the hard way exactly what Frodo was about to be in for on his return to the coop with any pink skin showing.  Dr. Wyandotte’s Dermatology Service apparently offers complimentary anesthetic-free mole removal!

I’m serious…this is MY arm!  That WAS my mole!

OUCH! What the....?

It’s a simple surgical procedure…peck, pinch, twist, pull, rip…only takes a fraction of a second…and it’s over.  I informed ‘Dr. Wyandotte’ that she was still young enough make a VERY tender and tasty meal, and left the coop to clean my wound, and count to ten. (If you’ve ever cut a mole, you know they can bleed like the dickens!)

I have never, ever, had a chicken draw blood on me.  For Pete’s sake, they don’t even have teeth!  I was miffed, and decided I didn’t have the heart to put Frodo in the pen with that piranha, at least not until he was fully dressed.  He was close, maybe another week?

Frodo's saddle feathers, almost there...

Finally Frodo’s saddle feathers broke through their sheaths last weekend, at the same time his old hackle feathers are falling out again and growing in anew, but he was at least ‘covered’.  Regardless as to his disheveled appearance, it really was now or never to see if he could reintegrate with the flock.  As it had been so long, we weren’t particularly hopeful, but wanted to try.

To improve his odds of acceptance, every day we’ve had a temporary pen set up alongside the run.  The chickens have all been able to see each other, but not make physical contact with Frodo and Sam.  We’ve done this for weeks since Frodo has been separated from the flock, in the hopes they didn’t ‘forget’ each other. Everyone seemed fine.

Time to try returning Frodo to the flock

Late on Wednesday night, long after the rest of the flock had roosted for the night, Frodo, and his friend Sam were quietly slipped in the back door of the coop, on to a section of the roost not inhabited by anyone else.  There were a couple of brief mumblings from inside the coop, but then everyone quickly settled down, and went back to sleep.  So far, so good, so we went back to bed.

Early the next morning, all still seemed quiet.  Wanting to be sure that if any skirmishes broke out during daylight, that it would be out where we could see them, and supervise them, we loaded up a colander with fresh garden treats (as a distraction), and opened the coop door.  Out they filed, in their usual order, Delawares first, with the little Buff Orpington who is bottom of the pecking order coming out last…well, last except for Frodo and Sam.  We scattered the treats around, and everyone was busy scratching and pecking.  Sam finally ventured out, but was greeted at the bottom of the ramp by a Wyandotte with a nasty peck to the head.  The Wyandotte was quickly shooed to the other side of the run, and everyone seemed to calm back down.

This is Frodo...

However, poor Frodo didn’t even make it half way down the ramp before pandemonium ensued.  Our other male, the same age as Frodo, a Partridge Plymouth Rock now named Siegfried (named after a character in the James Herriot books) clapped eyes on Frodo, and…well, by 6:15 AM I’d already broken up two nasty fights between them.

This is Siegfried, and he's NOT willing to share HIS coop!

We expected some initial skirmishes, if for no other reason than when (re)introducing chickens to a flock, the pecking order needs to be reestablished.  We knew they’d need to work out a new hierarchy between themselves.  Our job is to ensure that things don’t get too out of hand, and be prepared to intervene if necessary.  Initially, when challenged by Siegfried, Frodo would rise to defend himself.  Who wouldn’t?  After two rounds, they seemed to settle down a bit, well, sort of.  Siegfried was still mumbling something about interlopers in HIS coop.

Having put Frodo in his place, Siegfried relaxed a little, and then turned his attention toward Sam, who was again being picked on by the head Wyandotte witch pullet.  In Sam’s case though, much less drama, it was a quick peck from Siegfried, the real fight with her came later.

Twenty minutes later though, voices were raised, hackles and tails were flared, and Frodo and Siegfried were again toe-to-toe in the tango, but this time Siegfried had clearly had enough.  He started to pound the stuffing out of Frodo, and just wouldn’t relent.  It was a classic case of ‘Rooster Rage’.  Frodo was starting to bleed from his earlobe, and his comb, and had clearly given up.  Before we knew it, Frodo was smashed between Siegfried and the side of the run, desperately trying to push himself through the hardware cloth.  Anything to find a way out from underneath Siege-fried’s feet.  Siegfried wouldn’t accept Frodo’s surrender.  I was torn, continue to let them work it out?  Or call it a valiant effort, and be done.

I couldn’t stand it anymore, that was it.  I decided we had two choices.  Pull Siegfried, or pull Frodo out of the coop.  I don’t doubt that Frodo could be content to be subordinate to another male.  Siegfried just won’t tolerate another male in his midst. We could push it, be persistent, try other methods of re-integration, or try again during a different time of day, but even if miraculously that worked for a while, it doesn’t mean it would last.  As both males continue to mature, the fighting is likely to escalate, possibly even to the point of death. It’s simply not worth it. 

Siegfried isn't a bad rooster, he's just doing his job

Frodo was pulled out from under Siegfried, cleaned up, and won’t be returning to the main coop, not as long as Siegfried is there.  We have to do what’s best for the flock, and for Frodo.  Although Frodo is the nicer of the two males, and I admit to briefly being tempted to ’soup’ Siegfried, to pull Siegfried out would completely upset the coop dynamic.  Siegfried is not a ‘bad’ rooster, in fact he’s a good one, and doing exactly what he should do to defend his girls from intruders, and rival males.  He respects us, and has not been a problem with people.  I can’t punish him, or the flock, for that. 

Sadly now, Frodo is alone.

Frodo

We left Sam in the coop, as this is her best chance to rejoin the flock permanently.  She was attacked by Siegfried once late yesterday morning.  He held her down, and everyone seemed to have fun pecking her.  We broke up the fight, and proceeded to spend five hours yesterday afternoon in the run with Sam, defending her from Siegfried, who was entirely over-reacting to her presence.  With some positive reinforcement in the form of treats, and communal feeding, the other girls accepted Sam fine.  Then there was some negative reinforcement directed at Siegfried, via a hose soaking, twice.  It wasn’t to hurt him, just to divert his attention, and maybe dampen his pride a little.  He finally gave in, and realized Sam really wasn’t a threat to his fiefdom.  It took a while though, and during that five hour stint in the run, it seemed I either had Sam in my lap, or more than once, she flew up onto my head as she escaped from Siegfried. 

This morning though things seemed to have calmed down a lot.   While there are ‘adjustments’ going on in the hierarchy over the next few days, we’ll continue to keep a close eye on her. 

It’s plan B for Frodo though. We’ll take him out to free range with the older hens in the orchard.  Now, Ginger, the head orchard hen, has an attitude almost as big as any rooster.  We’re hoping in wide open space, introduced slowly over the coming days, that she’ll accept Frodo as a new room-mate. 

Maybe Ginger and the girls in the orchard will be kinder to Frodo

He’s a fabulous, docile bird, and completely trusts us, so we’ll start by holding him during initial introductions, until we know how Ginger will react.  If we can convince these hens to accept him, it will be the best for Frodo.  He’ll have a few girls of his own, out in the orchard, with lots of room to roam.  What we don’t want is to have to isolate one or the other male, alone, for the rest of his days.  That’s really no life for a rooster.  If it comes to that, the only fair thing will be to find one of the males a better home.  Let’s hope Ginger thinks Frodo’s cute…we certainly think he is.

Be nice to him ladies...

Since spring, the orchard appears to have been a haven for thistles.  Sow thistle (Sonchus asper), and the occasional artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus) predominated in early spring, along with some wild mustard.  They were removed, and now, as the weather has turned warm, the Bull Thistles (Cirsium vulgare) are springing up across the orchard hillside.

Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

Cirsium vulgare, like the cudweeds, is a member of the Asteraceae family, and is classified as a moderately invasive plant in California by the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC).  Native to Europe, Western Asia and North Africa, it has naturalized throughout much of the United States.  As it invades native wild land, Cirsium vulgare displaces native species by competing for water, space, and nutrients.

These plants are usually biennial, with flowers emerging in the second year of growth between June and October.

Bull Thistle begins blooming in June

I say usually biennial.  One mistake we made in attempting to control these thistles this spring, was to cut them back before the plants had gained much size.  Apparently though, if these thistles are cut down too early in the season, the plants re-sprout with significant vigor, and will bloom in the first season, rather than the second.  This explains why, when we cleared the orchard last year, that these plants have already grown to over four feet in height and are starting to flower already.  Ideally, these thistles should not be cut down until shortly before they bloom.

We should have waited until just before bloom to cut these thistles

It’s critical to remove the cut plants however, as flower heads, even when cut, can still produce viable seed.

Dried Bull Thistle seed head

These plants, like our cudweeds, seem to favor sites that have been recently disturbed.  These thistles also occasionally sprout up in random places on the property, even through the middle of established shrubs, but perhaps we can blame the gophers for that.  Apparently, a small disturbance, even as small as a gopher mound, is enough to encourage Bull Thistles to sprout.  More on our gopher troubles later.

These thistles can be cut once blooming, but must be removed to avoid forming seed heads

Although an individual plant can produce thousands of seeds, Bull Thistles only reproduce from seed, and each plant only sets seed once before it dies.  Theoretically, controlling these plants should be a far simpler task, than our invasive French Broom.  These thistles aren’t particularly difficult to remove by hand, although the job is rather unpleasant, and not without pain.  The leaves are heavily armored with lethal-looking spines, requiring the thickest pair(s) of gloves you can find.

Cirsium vulgare is laden with fierce thorns

These thorns have easily pierced through the thickest leather work gloves.  To avoid excessive skewering we usually dig out the base of the plant, and handle the plants near the taproot where they’re somewhat easier to grasp without being run through.

Sharp thorns of Cirsium vulgare

It’s rather unfortunate this plant is so ill-mannered and invasive.  The blooms are actually quite beautiful, and do produce abundant nectar, much to the delight of our bumble bees.  Even the few plants currently starting to bloom have been enticing our native bees to sip from their blossoms.

A Yellow-faced Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) enjoying the Bull Thistle blooms

However, its weedy thuggish nature negates its benefits, but to appease our bees, we do have alternatives.  In place of Cirsium vulgare, we can plant an alternative thistle of the same genus that is actually native to this part of California, Cirsium occidentale, the Cobweb or Western thistle, which is also a preferred larval food source for the Mylitta Crescent butterflies that reside here (Phyciodes mylitta).  It may sound strange, intentionally planting thistles, but we have areas around the periphery of the orchard that are too steep to plant any food plants, so why not plant something that we know will make the bees happy?

Pseudognaphalium stramineum (syn. Gnaphalium stramineum)

This species is an annual to [...]]]> This summer, we appear to have two predominant species of cudweeds growing on the property. Both plants are members of the Asteraceae (sunflower) family.  At present, the genera for these species appears to be in flux, but currently the accepted genus for both of these cudweeds is Pseudognaphalium.

Pseudognaphalium stramineum (syn. Gnaphalium stramineum)

This species is an annual to biennial herb, native to western North America.  Common names for Pseudognaphalium stramineum include Chilean cudweed (this species was previously known as Gnaphalium chilensis), everlasting cudweed, small flowered cudweed, annual cudweed, and cotton batting plant.

Newly emerging Pseudognaphalium stramineum earlier this spring

The word gnaphalium is derived from the Greek gnaphalon, meaning “a lock of wool”, and stramineum means “straw-colored”.

Pseudognaphalium literally means 'false lock of wool'

Pseudognaphalium stramineum blooms between May to October.  Flowers are white, appearing yellow, to straw-colored, in bud. 

Pseudognaphalium stramineum

Leaves are narrowly lanceolate, ranging from 2-8 cm in length.

This plant is renowned for growing in disturbed areas, and has a preference for moist sandy soils.  Heaviest concentrations of this plant are presently in the orchard, which has been heavily disturbed between tree planting, and deer-fence installation the past year.

Pseudognaphalium stramineum

A hot poultice of leaves and stems from this plant, applied to the body, was used by the Kawaiisu as an analgesic.  The Navajo and Ramah peoples used this plant as an emetic, and the Pomo would apply a poultice of boiled plants to reduce facial swelling.

A fading inflorescence of Pseudognaphalium stramineum

This plant also had value in hunting.  The Pomo and Kashaya would use the cottony material from the flower tops as a stuffing to line their deer antler head disguises [1].

Pseudognaphalium californicum (syn. Gnaphalium californicum)

Pseudognaphalium californicum is known commonly as ladies’ tobacco, California rabbit tobacco, California cudweed, and California everlasting.

California Everlasting (Pseudognaphalium californicum)

This species is also native to the west coast of North America from Washington to Baja California. This is an annual or biennial plant with a branching stem reaching 20 to 80 cm in height. Stem branches have lance-shaped leaves 2 to 20 cm in length.

The inflorescence is a cluster of flower heads, each enveloped in an involucre of rows of white phyllaries.

Pseudognaphalium californicum

There doesn’t appear to be much of this second species growing here, and where it is found is up-slope of the orchard, in a relatively undisturbed area, in association with Lotus scoparius, and Diplacus aurantiacus.

A fading inflorescence of Pseudognaphalium californicum

The American Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) uses this plant as food for its larvae.  A number of these butterflies have been sighted in the orchard area recently.  Alas, none close enough to my lens to photograph them.

Although some consider cudweeds to simply be ‘weeds’, some native plant nurseries do stock this particular species as it is quite attractive, and a valuable larval food source.

An infusion of Pseudognaphalium californicum was used by the Costanoans for treating stomach pain, and as a cold remedy. [1]

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[1] Daniel E. Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotanical Database