Brennah's Backyard

Chicken Talk

As I went out to close up the chicken coops this evening after they should have all been on their roosts, I was briefly startled to see one of the hens still out, and looking at me like she needed help. Then I remembered; the inner door to that coop had been closed earlier, and I’d forgotten to open it so they could get inside. Sure enough, there were the other two chickens that slept in that coop, at the top of the ladder in front of the closed door. One of them, the bantam (miniature) rooster, hopped down and came over to me as I came into their enclosure, so when I opened the door, only Little Wing saw it open and went in. The other two were still just looking at me, seemingly looking for help. I was just considering picking them up and putting them into the coop when I heard Little Wing calling them from inside.

Little Wing (darker hen) and Chezabu (the hen that greeted me first in this story)

Chickens have a specific sound they make to call each other, but it is usually used to call others to some sort of tasty morsel or food. It is used mostly by roosters to call the hens to a treat he’s found, or by mother hens teaching their chicks how to find food. Sometimes roosters also use it when they think they’ve found a good spot to lay an egg and want to let the hens know (and there’s another more specific sound they use for that as well).

After Little Wing called them, the other two found their way in fairly quickly.

The bantam rooster inspecting the camera.

Honey Bees in the Winter

Honey bees flying in late November. — My honey bees flying in late November after an early cold spell.

When it gets too cold for the honey bees to leave their hives it can be much harder to tell how the colony is doing. The hives look pretty lifeless on a cold winter day. There may be some dead bees scattered at the entrance. This is actually a good sign, especially if they are recently dead and as long as there aren’t too many of them. It means there are still live bees inside, and they’re cleaning out the dead. If there’s a warm day and the bees can leave the hive, they’ll clean off the entrance board of their hive and fly the dead bees away from it.

A dead honey bee dropped off into the snow by another member of her colony. — A dead bee dropped off into the snow by another member of her colony.

Another sign to look for when there’s snow on the ground is little flecks of yellow in the snow: bee poop. Bees do not poop inside their hive unless they are sick or it stays very cold for a really long time and they just can’t get out.

Honey bee poop on snow — Bee poop on the snow

The snow also seems to melt a little faster right on the entrance board when the bees are doing well. Other than that, you can’t tell much unless you get a really warm day and are able to take a peek inside, or at least see bees flying around the entrance. But for most of the winter, the bees will be hidden inside their hive, clustered together around the queen, vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat, and eating the honey they stored away during the summer. And then, at some point, usually around mid February here (if not even earlier), the queen will start laying eggs and the bees will have to raise the temperature inside the cluster (to above 90˚F) because the larvae need it extra warm to survive.

Technical Difficulties

Hi everyone, I have been having technical difficulties with my site recently and been unable to log in but I think I may have finally gotten it fixed! (I was even having technical difficulties with the tech support!) So, if you have been wondering why I haven’t been posting lately, or responding to comments, this is why. I should be able to get another post done soon, though, as I was halfway through writing one when problems started.

In the meantime, I also added another twenty photos to my shop site, since I was still able to access that because it is not directly connected with this site.

I hope you all had very happy holidays!

Moss Gallery

This time of year, after the last of the fall color has died away, but before it has started snowing regularly (or at least freezing the water in the creek and elsewhere into whimsical shapes), is pretty drab at first glance. There are always exceptions to be found if you look for them, though. Last year at around this time I wrote a post about rose hips, which are one source of color. This year, I’ve been finding myself taking pictures of mosses. They seem to like the cool dampness this season has to offer.

Here are a couple pictures I took last winter:

Water Drops

The snow is melting (for the moment) and I found the melt water dripping from the bridge into the creek. In one spot the drops were coming down very steadily, and I was able to catch the moment when the drop landed in the creek fairly easily. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

water drop landing in creek

Autumn Snow

We recently got nearly a foot of snow, which is unusual for this time of year, and made for an unusual mix of fall and winter scenery.

snow on autumn olive — Snow on autumn olive branch

oak tree during a snow storm — A big oak tree in the woods during the snow storm

oak leaves in snow — Leaves from the big oak strewn on a path through the field.

oak leaves in the snow — Oak leaves in the snow

It’s kind of hard to tell what this is under all the snow. The leaves look like dogwood, but I hadn’t noticed any dogwoods with red berries before. (White and blue are the colors I think of for dogwood berries.)

Announcement

I have added a link to an online store I just created to sell my photography. (If you are looking at this site on a phone the link is all the way at the bottom.) Due to the limitations of the website I am using, I currently have only five photos on the site, but I am planning on adding more. If you see any photos on here that you particularly like, or if you have thoughts on what sorts of photos you would be interested in seeing, let me know!

Wanders in the Woods

I went for a walk in the woods yesterday, thinking it was about time to check on the witch hazel and see if it was flowering (it was) and kept getting distracted by other interesting stuff around. So, here’s a selection of what I encountered.

This is a plant I had not seen on our property before. Now I have something new to identify.

One of the biggest trees in the woods, an oak, next to an elm with still green leaves, and a maple.

witch hazel flowers — Witch hazel flowers

witch hazel flowers and leaves — In previous years, the witch hazel flowers have appeared after the leaves had dropped, but this year, a few plants still had leaves on them and were flowering anyway. The cold weather started a little more abruptly than usual, and I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

I found this little fuzzy ball growing from a leaf mixed in with the leaf litter. I have no idea what it is. Some sort of gall, maybe? And I found other strange growths on leaves nearby.

This looks like an alder cone crossed with an anemone seedhead, but it seemed to be growing from a leaf in the leaf litter.

Flying Ants

swarming ants — Ant workers and queens on a leaf

A couple of times this year, I have witnessed the ant colonies in the yard swarming. Or at least, that’s what I’m inclined to call it; as a beekeeper, swarming means colony reproduction to me. But the process is different for ants, and I’m not sure swarming is the right word for their colony reproduction. All the colonies send out their young queens and drones (is drones what it’s called for ants?) to mate and presumably hibernate and start new colonies next spring. The workers do not accompany them as honey bees do. Each colony sends out dozens if not hundreds of queens. The queens seemed reluctant to leave; it looked like the worker ants were herding them out, and appeared to be chasing and even biting the young queens. The queens have good reason to be reluctant; their odds for surviving their flight are terrible. There’s a reason each colony sends out so many.

ants swarming — A queen being herded to the edge of a leaf

By the time I started taking pictures, most of the queens had taken flight already, (this first part happens impressively quickly) and many of those that were left had damaged looking wings. They were trying to leave, and the workers were insisting, but their wings were causing them difficulty.

queen and worker ants — This queen is actually missing one of her wings

ant queens and workers — Ant queens and workers on a leaf. A couple of them have slightly battered looking wings.

ant queen and workers — This queen seems to have good wings

ant workers and queens

All colonies of a particular species of ant sends out their winged offspring at once, and for a few hours, the air is thick with flying ants. Not too surprisingly, any creatures that like to eat insects see this as a brief opportunity to feast.

jumping spider eating queen ant — This is how most of the flying ants will end up; as food, not necessarily for a jumping spider specifically, but for many different predatory insects, spiders and birds.

I have seen ant colonies sending out their queens in previous years, but this year, not only did I see it happen twice, it seemed like there were just a lot more ants. It seemed like every few feet was another clump of ants, sending off their young queens. ant queen and workers

Cool Weather Crops

Fall can be a very productive time for the garden. All the cool weather crops we’ve planted for winter are reaching maturity now, and it hasn’t yet become cold enough to kill the warm weather crops (which right now is mostly just tomatoes, since we weren’t able to plant much for summer due to the flooding this spring). Most of the cool weather crops we planted should continue to be harvestable into winter, and although options are fairly limited now, there are still seeds that can be planted. For the most part, though, plants grow very slowly during the dead of winter, so it is important to have most of what you want to be eating in the winter pretty much full size by late fall.

endive and escarole — Endive and escarole, but which is which is confusing with these varieties since they both look more typical of the other type… but it doesn’t matter too much, as they taste similarly. They are both the same species and are actually a type of chicory.

mustard green leaf — The frilly edge of a mustard leaf.

This is Tokyo bekana, a plant in the mustard family that is mild enough to use like lettuce.

The purple veins of a variety of flowering broccoli

Mizuna, another mustard/cabbage family crop. Sometimes we may rely on this plant family a little too much… it has a huge amount of variety, but many of the ‘different crops’ are actually the same species. This is the same species as the flowering broccoli and the Tokyo bekana, as well as other crops we’ve planted that I haven’t included here.

tomato flowers — Most of the tomatoes around just came up on their own, and this one came up pretty close to winter, but nobody wants to just pull it out…