Bee Attack!

Today's Saturday, the day to clean and do chores and run errands and get everything done that doesn't get done during the week.  And Springtime is here, the bugs and the bees have arrived.  I suddenly have watery eyes, I assume it's an allergy to pollen or flowers or something, even though my allergist tells me I have NO ALLERGIES whatsoever.  Whatever, I've been taking Zytec and my eyes are not crying uncontrollably all the time. 

Stinkbug

This morning while brushing my teeth in the bathroom, with my eyes closed, I heard a buzzing.  I assumed it was an annoying little stinkbug.  We've been plagued by stinkbugs for the past few years, I'm always vacuuming them up off the floors.  They're not scary, just annoying.  I really hate it when they fly into my face.  They Stink!  They make me grumble and curse the old house.  I have no idea how they get into the old house, but they are everywhere.  First this morning Randy saw Bob, the cat, eating a stinkbug.  Bob's not too smart. 

camel cricket

Anyway, back to the story...I was in the bathroom, leaning over the sink, toothbrush in mouth, I open my eyes, and inches away from my face is the largest bumblebee I've ever seen.  I semi-scream, choke on toothpaste, and run out of the bathroom.  Ok, ok, it was probably a carpenter bee, they don't sting, but it doesn't matter.  There was a monster, fat, black creature walking inches from my face.  It was as big as my fingers are long.  Bees are my weakness.  I don't mind snakes, lizards, crickets, even camel crickets.  I've gotten used to spiders and mice, but bees - no.  I hate them.  I hate that they fly.  I hate that they sting.  They scare me because I can't do either of those things.

Carpenter bees

I hightailed it out of the bee room, closing the door behind me, finished brushing my teeth in another bathroom, and then braved a return.  Sadly, I left my iPod playing an audiobook in the bee-room, and my mouthwash bottle was in there, too.  So, I armed myself with a towel, and opened the door.  The monster bee was flying all around the room.  Goodness, maybe there was more than one?  I quickly closed the door again.  I wasn't ready for flying monster bees, I expected them to be stationary.  I gathered my strength, readied the towel in front of me, and opened the door again.  Silence.  No bees.  I entered the room.  Nothing, no bees, no wings buzzing, only the iPod playing the audiobook.  It was like the scary part of a horror movie before the monster attacks the person.  I grabbed the iPod, turned it off, shoved it in my pocket, and looked around.  Nothing.  I couldn't find a bee anywhere.  Hmmm.  I know it's in there.  I grabbed the mouthwash bottle and left the room, closing the door and turning out the light behind me.

I planned on cleaning that bathroom this morning.  Maybe I'll save that chore till last today...  

New Blogger Interface???

OMG, have any of you gone to the new blogger interface?  What do you think of it?  I tried it for a minute and hated every second!  I can't find anything!!!  I guess the page it displayed was the dashboard.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just returned to blogging from a short hiatus, and I'm not ready for a major change right now.  I need to know how to navigate around my blog, I don't have time to figure this out.  Please tell me what you think, is it that bad?  Have you made the change?  Are we all going to be forced to jump to the dark side eventually? Should I just suck it up and take the plunge and deal?  Or can I stay old fashioned in my old blogger interface, where comfort abides and all is known and friendly?  Help me before I jump! 

 

The Legend of the Little House in the Woods

I love this picture of our cat Shadow. Her name suits her.

Last year we adopted Bobby, another stray cat who appeared outside. He has a tipped her, meaning he came from a feral community. He was cold and hungry, covered in ticks; it was obvious no one was taking care of him. Shadow has the same story, except she had a twin brother, Smoky, with her, and they didn't have tipped ears.  And now, in the past couple weeks, another cat has arrived outside. We believe it's a large female, with a tipped ear. It might be a fixed male, not too sure. But it's a large cat, with big feet. I call her Brindle, to describe her color.  She has a sweet meow.  I'm working on getting her to accept pets from me; right now she's wild and won't come near unless there's food, and even then she stays a few feet away.

Where in the world are all these cats coming from????? Who is dumping them here??? We guess that maybe one of the other farms in the area pick up stray cats from a feral community and dump them in their barns, wanting the cats to be "barn cats" to control mice. Evidently, they don't feed them, and the cats wander away, starving, and find our little house in the middle of the woods, and I'm a kind soul who can't turn away a hungry mouth.

I like to believe in the legend of the little house in the woods.  I think that all the wild animals in the forest tell the cat to find the little old house in the clearing in the woods, that's where the nice people live. They will be fed and if they're lucky, taken in, once they find the little house in the woods. The birds and the woodchucks and the deer and the fox and the coons all know about the little house in the woods and pass on the legend to the lost, alone, and wandering cat.

And so the lost cat wanders in the forest for days, sometimes in the freezing cold.  He eats mice and bugs during his search, some days he eats nothing at all.  The vultures watch him from above, telling him to hurry up and die.  The coons encourage him, telling him to follow the coon paths through the thickest and darkest part of the woods to the house.  All coon paths eventually lead to the little house. 

The cat searches for days and finally comes upon the back barn, haggard and starving, with a matted coat and ticks drinking his blood, too exhausted to bother with cleaning himself. Then he has to make it past Jerry, the guard cat, who according to the legend, lives outside the house but travels sometimes.  Jerry is rumored to love to fight and will defend his property. But sometimes he's not there at the house, he's out fighting in other areas of the woods, and the lost cat is lucky enough to make it to the yard of the little house. 

The fnal test of courage are the guineas who patrol the yard surounding the house.  According to legend, they are a strange dinosaur bird that walks the earth even now, with bony horns on their heads.  They chase everything that moves, they move in a large flock, making them hard to avoid, and they have a horrible cry that may make the lost cat deaf.  The legend says that many animals, even the largest horned deer and the quietest woodchuck, have been chased away by the screaming, charging guineas. 

When the lost cat makes it past all the obsticles and finally arrives at the back porch of the little house in the woods, he is fed and gets milk and praise and love and never wants to leave. And he finds out Jerry isn't that bad after all, he's a little grumpy but actually he just wants a friend to play with, not to fight with. 

I wish I knew the real story behind all the strays, but for now, I'm sticking with the legend of the little house in the woods.

I'm baaack!

Sorry everyone, I needed a break from the blogging world!  But now I'm back!  And it's gonna be great!  Spring is here, the weather is great so much is going on, my only problem will be finding the time to write it all all!  So get ready and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be an awesome year!

Our winter egg production was down to 7 or 8 eggs a day, from 16 hens.  Still more than I'll ever eat!  Thanks ladies!!!!  Egg production is already starting to rise since the weather's been so nice.










Muffin the rooster has been feeling his oats and has started chasing me and attacking me when I enter the chicken pen.  Silly boy.  I remember from my lessons learned in the past to carry a broom, and he remembers getting swatted with the broom a few times, so he leaves me alone as long as I carry my broom friend.  It's funny that he looks to see if I have the broom or now.  He's too smart...

A baby deer spent a few months in our back yard this winter.  I assume her mother was killed by hunters.  This seems to happen every year.  I guess the mothers bring their babies to our backyard before hunting season a lot.  We have good grass and brush for deers to eat and provide a salt block.  When the mother's are killed, the babies seem to come back here, where they remember.  Luckily, a large number of deer travel through, and the babies join another herd.  If they're lucky, there's another baby deer in that herd so they have a playmate.

This little deer spent a few months with us, she was wasn't afraid to come up to the house, as long as we were inside.  Herds passed through, some even spending a few days out back with her, but she refused to go with them and leave the backyard.  Guess she was waiting for her mother.  Too sad!  Eventually she left with a herd, and we haven't seen her since.

The guineas have been feeling their oats, too.  They've been chasing each other and are pairing up and going off alone in pairs to make nests and lay eggs.  The only prob is that we don't have enough females to go around, so quite a few males don't have mates, and they aren't happy about that.  It seems that each female picks a mate for that season (maybe longer) and they stay together as a couple.  When the weather gets cold again then they all stay together as one flock to deal with winter.  We have a group of guineas that we raised from eggs from the last parent guinea flock.  The parent guineas, all except for 2 males, were killed off by a monster that lived in the woods.  I don't know about these guineas mating, because they all may be related, father and daughter, brother and sister, and these ones aren't that bright, so I can only imagine their children will really not be too bright.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if birds inbreed???  Let me know! 

The guineas are very friendly to us, and greet us every time we are outside.  They hate and attack chickens.  If a chicken gets outside the chicken pen they will eventually kill it by pecking it to death.  Even if I'm out there with it, beside it, they still attack it.  They don't attack cats or people. They love people, people sometimes have treats.  They do attack deer and woodchuck and especially love to chase cars.  Strange birds, these guineas are.  But I love them still.

I could go on and on, but theis is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later!

Banana Cupcake Sunday

Icy Walk

Last night we had an ice storm.  This morning we awoke to everything covered in ice!  The ice is expected to melt by noon today, but it's cold outside now! 

Come on outside and check it out with me...

These first couple pictures are of ice on the cars.

The guineas were not happy with the ice.  They were up on top of the chicken coop and refused to come down to the ground.  The one on the right has ice on her back - it looks like she put glitter on!

Lets go in the chicken coop and say good morning to the chickens!  They didn't want to leave their coop to go outside, so they were all hanging out inside.  Here's Muffin, lead rooster.  He approved our visit to the coop.  If he didn't approve, he would have attack us.  Today he was friendly.

This is Luna.  Luna doesn't look good.  I'm worried about her.  She just sneezed.  Luna and her sister Virginia are 2 hens that we purchased as adult hens off Craigslist last year.  I will never buy a bird off Craigslist again.  Luna's been sneezing for the past year, since we got her, it just seems to be getting worse now.  She's a great hen, has gotten very friendly, and lays every day.

Cinnamon is laying an egg!

Dotti is looking outside.  Dotti is Muffin's grand-daughter; she's still a pullet.  She lays green eggs.

Here's Freckles, our very first hen - we bought her as an adult with a batch of chicks from an Amish farmer.  She was with us through the early days of chicken-raising.  She's a senior now and doesn't lay anymore.  We couldn't have had a better first mama hen than Freckles.

Let's go for a walk outside...  Bundle up...

Past one of the fields...

I'm heading up to the cemetery.  Looks like someone else, a family of deer, were here just recently.

Rest in peace.  It's quiet out here.  And cold.

The ice is starting to melt in the road.  My hand holding the camera is cold, I'm going to head back now.  Thanks for coming on the walk with me!

Ahhh, nice and warm inside!

Happy Saturday!

Angel Food Cake

To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, I made an angel food cake!  I'm off work today, and I've been wanting to make an angel food cake since I got an angel food cake pan for Christmas!  I actually bought the pan for myself since I realized I didn't have one, and then I also realized I've never made an angel food cake before!  So today was the day!

I downloaded the following recipe from food network.  I really liked that it came with a video on the website that showed Alton Brown actually making the cake.  It looked easy!  I can do this!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/angel-food-cake-recipe/index.html

The craziest thing is that it takes a dozen egg whites!!!  The recipe calls for an entire dozen!  I actually used 15 egg whites because my eggs are small.  Luckily, I usually have 5 dozen or so eggs in my fridge at any given time.  I do love my hard-working chickens! 

The most important thing is to bring the egg whites to room temperature before baking begins!!  I've attempted to use cold egg whites before to make meringue - they don't get fluffy when they're cold, I guess.  My previous meringue was awful.  And the recipe called for fresh eggs.  My eggs were laid yesterday ~ guess that's fresh enough!

This time, my eggs whipped up higher than could fit in the mixing bowl!  Yeah!  My batter was fluffier than what was shown in the website video.   

For Christmas I also got a new mixer as my old one broke.  This was my first time using it.

My cake pan was pretty small - only 7 inches around. I thought it was cute because it was small. But then I wasn't sure for how long to bake the cake, as the pan was smaller than the one used in the recipe. I ended up baking my cakes for 23 minutes. I made 2 angel food cakes because they were so small. It's important to cool the cake upside down.

I used almond extract in my cakes. You can use any flavoring - the recipe called for orange extract, but said any flavor could be used. The cake turned out light and fluffy ~ just perfect. The cake itself didn't have much flavor, it was just light and airy and moist and good. I served the first one with warmed blueberries. The second one had mixed berries as a topping. Next time I'm going to use another extract other than almond and see how it tastes. There will definitely be a next time for this cake!

 

I loved this angel food cake - I give it 5 forks up!

Now you go give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

Diesel Fuel Spills in NJ Waters

Although this didn't happen here at Razzberry Corner, this happened to my sister in NJ, and I felt compelled to mention it here.

On January 12, 2012, twenty-six thousand (26,000) gallons of diesel fuel spilled into NJ waterways, including Big Timber Creek, Greenloch Lake and Blackwood Lake.  The area is a country, wooded area, with lakes and creeks. Many animals lived there in and along the waters.  This caused devastation for the animals living in and along the water, and greatly impacted the people in the area.  My sister lives along the water there.  Here's the initial video from a local website about the spill.

Diesel Fuels Spills Into New Jersey Lakes: MyFoxPHILLY.com

The spill is now contained according to the  state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  As of about 8 a.m. Friday, roughly 13,000 of the 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel believed to have leaked from the New Jersey Transit underground storage tanks had been collected, Gloucester Township Mayor David Mayer reported.   The heavy odor of diesel fuel hung heavy in the air and over the water Friday as crews from Clean Venture Inc., a contracted environmental remediation firm, worked to clean up the spill for New Jersey Transit. Workers in protective suits installed 1,300 feet of yellow booms to stop the fuel’s spread. Water vacuums, skimmers and absorbent pads were all utilized during the cleanup. Residents should not enter the impacted waterways or fish in them or their tributaries until further notice, officials said. New Jersey Transit has installed signs around the area notifying the public of the ongoing cleanup efforts.  Despite the heavy odor of diesel on the waterways, officials say there are no air safety concerns. 

Good luck to all those people who live there and who are dealing with this.  I don't know how the animals who used to live in and beside those waters, who depend on those waters to drink, can survive.  Such a tragedy...

Artificial Light in Chicken Coop?

Just thought I'd ask my online friends about artificial light in the coop.  What do you think?  Do you add light in the coop?  There's so much passion among backyard farmers about it.  

Here's my take.  I do it.  I have a light in the coop which stays on about 12 or 13 hours/day.  I think it does help the hens to lay in the wintertime.  Plus my coop just naturally gets dark, it's only got a small window to let in natural daylight.  And that window doesn't face the sunny side at any time of the day.

We have 17 hens and are averaging about 9 to 11 eggs a day right now, in January in Maryland. 

How many hens do you have?

Do you supplement with artificial light?

How many eggs do you get a day?

Here's today's photos.  The coop always looks dirty - I cleaned it a week ago.  This is the nest box scene at 11AM.

There were lots of birds hanging in the coop this morning.

These hens were in the nestboxes this morning:

Bella

Chloe.  She's broody.  She's starting to look bad.  We are going to have to break her of her broodiness if she doesn't get over it soon.  She's looking very dehydrated.  Poor girl.

Zoner.  Her name fits her.  She's such a space cadet.  I love her!

Cheryl

We also add plastic eggs in the nest boxes.  The hens seem to like them, although they know they are not real.  They are supposed to encourage the birds to lay.  When the hens are in a bad mood they throw the fake eggs out of the nest boxes.

Here's the first egg today.

I'm looking forward to your comments!

Welcome, Bobby!

It's come to my attention that I neglected to tell my blog friends about our kitty, Bobby, and his Christmas wish...

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Bobby

Bobby WAS an outside feral cat.  He did great work out there, taking care of the rodent population, and even taking care of any wild birds that ventured too close to him, too.  He enjoyed working with the chickens and always kept me company at chore-time, although he HATED when he was locked in the chicken pen by mistake.  He dealt with the guineas - he really didn't like them, but they allowed him to live outside, so he respected them and kept his distance when they came close.

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Bobby outside

But Bobby didn't understand why he had to stay outside in the cold when two other cats lived the good life inside.

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Jack and Shadow

And so, Bobby was granted his Christmas wish...

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Bobby

Bobby moved inside the house, and now lives the high life.  He's still a teenager, he's full of spunk and plays 24/7.  (In the picture above he removed the tail from the toy mouse.)  He gets into everything, but he listens and wants to please.  He watches the other two cats and imitates their actions.  Bob is now a happy boy.  My only problem is that he looks VERY similar to Shadow, and when he flies by at 10 MPH, or when I hear a crash and enter a room just in time to see a black tail disappearing around the corner, I never know if it's Bob or Shad.  But most of the time it's Bobby who's causing the commotion these days.  

He lived a few weeks locked in a bathroom, then moved into the kitchen, then after he kept escaping from the kitchen, we decided to let him have the run of the house.  None of our cats get up on tables or counters or anything.  They eat in the kitchen like respectable beings - their food bowls are in the corner all in a row.  They come when called to eat.  So far Bob hasn't learned to shake hands for treats, but he will.  Shad and Jack both happily sit and shake hands and earn treats.  Shad is funny because she's not good at sitting and shaking, she needs to lay down to give us her hand to shake.  It's something about her balance, I think, and she's plump .  Bob's just a little too hyper to sit down and shake hands right now.  We worry that we didn't keep him locked up long enough when we first brought him in and he's too hyper now because of lack of restraint in the beginning, but I think he's hyper because he's young and he'll mellow out.  He's very curious, and he learns by watching.  He can meow, unlike Jack, but he's not loud.  I've found that he needs toys.  He'll play with the table legs or Jack's tail or whatever else is available if he doesn't have toys.  Maybe I'll work on teaching Bob to fetch since he's so full of energy...

Happy New Year!!