Foxes!

We have foxes!

I knew we did, but have never really seen them. I have now! Woohoo!

It is truly the happiest thing I've seen in months.

We've known about the vixen for a few years, since we've seen her different times of the year. The most recently was this past spring with her haunches looking ghastly from pulling her fur out to line the den.

I've also seen tracks in the snow, usually going down the driveway to cross over to the creek. It's amazing, the fox jumped across the road - 1 hop! I looked one night when there was no traffic and snow covering - there were no tracks anywhere in the road, but tracks on either side showing where it jumped and landed. I was, and still am, amazed!

But to actually SEE them, in the yard, during the day - it's one of those little miracles that modern society rarely is afforded.

1 of ours has no tail! I saw him earlier this AM, which made me wonder if it was truly a fox or a stray dog of unknown ancestry (yes, fancy wording for "mutt"). Well, about an hour later, I heard a strange call outside our front door. I looked and there was the tailess wonder, along with 2 other foxes with tails! How grand a sight!

To me, it's a bit early for this far north to be breeding, but it's worked for them this long, so it must be ok. And with the number of mice and chipmunks we have on our property, it should be good hunting for the vixen when she has her pups/kits.

The miracle of hope brought to me in a 30-second sighting of a couple of fox. It's worth more than anything else in the world right now.

New Darwin Moth

Yeah, the 'discovery' occured a year ago, but I just heard about it - so it's news to me.

Very cool!

Egg Information

I did the research for this to become a tri-fold for the eggs my brother is selling from his nearly 60 hens. I can't promise it'll all make sense, but please read it. It's pretty important information for anyone trying to eat right.

The following are statistics for the chickens and the eggs, comparing naturally foraging “pastured” chickens to their industrial caged “battered” (so appropriately named!) counterparts.
Life Span
Pastured 7-20 years
Battered 12-23 months
Fryers 41 days

Chickens are like any other bird. They forage for their food. Pastured chickens spend their days clucking about, scratching the earth for bugs, grass, and even the occasional mouse. Caged battered chickens are forced to eat cottonseed meal and soy proteins, with an elongated daylight period to enhance their egg laying. This means they can lay up to 380 eggs in a few months, but their life’s energy is literally gone in that short period. A pastured chicken will lay 400-600 eggs in her life, all in a more natural setting.

The eggs from the pastured hen are also far more nutritious than those of the battered chicken. Mother Earth News has corroborated 15 years of research in extensive testing to prove exactly how healthful these eggs are.

Comparing pastured eggs to egg substitutes is apples to golf balls. However, if you like a little egg with your chemicals, we can crunch the numbers!

Vitamins

Vitamin A
You need anywhere from 4,000 (infant) to 12,000 (lactating woman) international units (iu) of Vitamin A per day.
The Egg Substitute - 180
The Industrial Egg - 244
The Pastured Egg - 405

Vitamin D
The old RDA was 400 iu. It has since been increased to 1000 iu since everyone has become severely deficient.
The Egg Substitute - 0
The Industrial Egg - 18
The Pastured Egg - 73

Vitamin E
You should get at least 30 iu of E per day, about half for children. Many people are deficient in E as well, so please pay attention.
The Egg Substitute - .13
The Industrial Egg - .49
The Pasture Egg - 1.46

Beta Carotene
This is a provitamin, meaning it is only 1 step away from being a vitamin - namely vitamin A. A is so vital to all aspects of the cells that make up your body, affecting every organ and its function. Most people recognize vitamin A for it's work with eye function, but that is only one of hundreds of functions it aids.
So, by having both Vitamin A and Beta Carotene available in 1 place, it will help serve the body for both immediate needs and easier storage for use later.
The Egg Substitute - a synthetic form - 108
The Industrial Egg - 5
The Pastured Egg - 35

More Reasons To Buy Pastured Eggs
Now that you know why it is so much better for you to eat pastured eggs, here are other reasons you should buy them:

Extinction – There are over 40 breeds of heritage chickens, 12 of which are original to the US. These breeds are all threatened with extinction by the breeds used in industrial farming. The majority of pastured eggs are from these 12 heritage breeds.

Diversification – all 7 or 8 of NYS industrial egg farmers are supplied by only 3 breeders. As we have seen with lettuce, spinach, beef and peanuts, the ability to damage an entire sector of farming that is so centralized is frightening. By supporting small farms, this ability is reduced significantly.

Economic – Studies throughout the world have proven money spent at locally owned businesses is far more valuable than money spent at regional, national or international stores. $1 spent locally (at small farms or businesses) equals $1.86 in locally re-spent capitol. $1 spent at a chain store equals $.83 in locally re-spent capitol.

Environmental – Industrial Animal Farming is estimated to account for 55% of soil and sediment erosion, 37% of nationwide pesticide use, 80% of antibiotic usage, and more than 30% of the total nitrogen and phosphorus dumped into drinking water resources. By supporting your local farmers, you significantly decrease these numbers, and assist in the rebalancing of the environment. By having small flocks of chickens, all of these issues are balanced out. Bugs and weeds are controlled, the soil is fertilized naturally, and the birds are healthier for being outside, so there is no need for antibiotics for health or growth.

A Day In The Life Of

Chickens.

LOL

You'd be surprised at the number of people who have never seen chickens doing what they do best - forage.

The only pictures or videos seen anymore are of chickens in huge barns, all white, except where other chickens have crapped on them, just milling about.

Chickens do a lot more. They're great for insect control, removing thatch from a yard, fertilizing, egg laying, and of course, eating. They're also a great source of entertainment.

Since I grew up around chickens, it was pretty easy to see my brother's flock doing their thing. But trying to convey this to our friends who've never been around chickens was another thing entirely. So, I asked my brother to take a video. And now he's looking at getting a chicken cam.

LOL - I'll put a link to it when he gets one set up.

Until then, enjoy this video. You can hear them clucking and talking to each other. Just don't jack the volume up too much since the rooster does crow. Twice.



Video Link

And for more - the history of these chickens:
The First Chickens
The Coolest Chicken Coop
Their First Day In The Wild Green Yonder

A Visit To The Homestead

And you didn't think there was any such thing as a real pecking order! Ha! You're wrong. As you can see, the first Red came out while the others were watching. Once they saw she was ok, they started coming out. It reminded me of a horror flick gone cute. Rather than beasts of evil flooding through the unprotected gates of hell, it was chickens coming out of a camper made just for them. Very circus like.

The part I couldn't capture on the camera was a single hen standing on the top of the water bucket while all the others departed. She stayed there the whole time. It was very interesting to watch!

These two pictures - of the Rocks - Heads I win, Tails you lose. LOL It's a cute little butt - as chicken butts go.

Here, you can see they've blended nicely. They've all got more room to scratch out a meal than they've ever had before. The Reds came from a 20x24 concrete floored room and have never really seen the ground before. So this is an extra special treat for them. They can actually be chickens!

The Rocks have had ground to play on, but never more than an 8x8 space at any given time. So, going to a 25x25 is pretty exciting for them all! Talk about clucky!

And if you'd like to know more about these and other heritage breeds, please visit The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy


They had to stay inside the next day since it was a bit difficult getting them to understand night time meant they went INTO the chalet to roost. Their homing instinct doesn't include the building - just the location of the building. Chickens have never been accused of being the brightest bulbs in the world.

I also got to see Venita's green houses. Very cool! They aren't packed yet, as she still is in the seedling stage, but they'll be too full to move very soon. Good for her!

We're all planning a joint venture actually. I'll be making jams, jellies, bread and coffee cakes, utility bags and potholders (quilts are out for now - way too much time needed to make them for this year). They'll sell eggs, flower and veggie plants. I believe their neighbor will be selling goat milk - which is wonderful - have had it.

Bro is looking into making more Chalets to sell since this one went together so well and is working just as he had hoped. He has a solar electric fence around it so they won't leave without permission.

I'm hoping to get a bunch of stuff written up for either the end of the market season this year or the beginning of next season. I don't know which yet. It truly depends on the weather this summer. If it's rainy and crappy, obviously I'll be inside more than out working. If it's super sunny, I'll be working outside a lot. So - again, it just depends.

But we're all such Jack of All Trades that we can probably make a good go of it as a combined homestead of sorts. We're all homesteading, but we all have our specialties within the homesteading. With any luck, it'll work!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Give the Great Backyard Bird Count an eBird Bump!

It's a natural fit: eBirders and the Great Backyard Bird Count. We know you're committed to watching birds and recording your sightings in eBird, so we'd like to invite you to share your sightings in the 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, February 13-16.

Enter your counts in eBird as usual--your personal long-term records are valuable to scientists. But if you'd like your sightings to appear in the online maps and tallies for town, state, and national sightings in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count, make sure to enter your counts at www.birdcount.org as well. (Record the highest number of each species you see at any one time during your count period.)

Participants tallied 635 species in the 2008 Great Backyard Bird Count and you can help boost reports from your area by entering your checklists on the GBBC site. You can keep watch on reports coming in via the website's interactive maps, take the GBBC survey, and upload images for the photo contest. Just by participating in the GBBC you値l be entered into a drawing for great prizes donated by the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Wild Birds Unlimited, and Droll Yankees.

Be a part of our four-day continentwide effort to gather as many observations as possible for this late-winter snapshot of our continent's birds!

Give the GBBC an eBird bump!

Bat Death Spreads

Bat-killing syndrome spreads in Northeast
By MICHAEL HILL – 1 day ago

ROSENDALE, N.Y. (AP) — A mysterious and deadly bat disorder discovered just two winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before it spreads across the country.

White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they eat could flourish. Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates the syndrome's distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disorder from killing off caves full of the ecologically important animals.

"The cause for concern is that this is going to race across the country faster than we can come up with a solution," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

"Now that is entirely possible."

Bats with white-nose burn through their fat stores before spring, driving some to rouse early from hibernation in a futile search for food. Many die as they hunt fruitlessly for insects.

White-nose syndrome spread fast last winter to dozens of caves in New York and southern New England, within a roughly 150-mile radius of the caves west of Albany, N.Y., where it was first found. Early observations show it has reached farther still this winter, even before cave inspections and bat counts begin in earnest this month.

Bats with white-nose syndrome were found recently in northern New Jersey's Morris County and in an old iron mine in Shindle, Pa., more than 200 miles away from the outbreak's epicenter. In addition, the Pennsylvania Game Commission on Tuesday said that hundreds of little brown bats, a species devastated by white-nose syndrome, were found dead from the disorder outside two mines in the northeastern part of the state.

The syndrome may have spread as far as 450 miles from the epicenter, to the John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve in West Virginia. The National Speleological Society has temporarily shut down the preserve as a possible white-nose sighting is investigated.

So far, there are 40 confirmed white-nose sites in the Northeast, said Jeremy Coleman, who is tracking the disorder for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Cortland, N.Y.

Death tolls for the tiny creatures are hard to pinpoint, but some estimates run into the hundreds of thousands.

The news was grim on a recent day when more than a dozen researchers lowered themselves by rope into a sprawling old limestone mine in New York's Hudson Valley, about 80 miles north of New York City.

Bat counter Ryan von Linden's headlamp swept across isolated clusters of the mammals hanging off the rock ceiling. A chorus of squeaks echoed in the blackness.

"There are not as many as there are supposed to be," von Linden whispered. "Not even close."

With a precise total pending, Hicks estimated the cave's count of Indiana bats, an endangered species, was down 15 to 35 percent from last year's roughly 19,000. Researchers said the number of little brown bats also appeared to be down, although they didn't have enough specifics from prior years to measure the drop exactly.

Hoping to glean more information on the syndrome, the researchers plucked 14 groggy little brown bats from the rock, weighed them, measured them, snipped a bit of their hair and stuck tiny radio transmitters to them to track their activity levels.

Bats' nocturnal habits and some species' ability to carry rabies can give the flying mammals a fearsome image. But they can pollinate plants and play an important role in checking the populations of mosquitoes and insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center this fall established that the sugary smudges on infected bats are a previously undescribed fungus that thrives in the refrigerator-like cold of winter caves. The center is still working to determine whether the fungus causes the disorder, but biologists are already focusing on potential ways to combat the fungus.

Since the fungus grows in the cold and damp, they could try to lower humidity levels in at least some crucial caves, though that could create other problems for those ecosystems.

Researchers also are looking at the possibility of a fungicide or even fungus-killing bacteria that could spread from bat to bat. Ward Stone, New York state's wildlife pathologist, said he has been able to culture bacteria that live on big brown bats and kill the white-nose fungus in a lab.

Tests need to be performed to see whether any of the options are realistic. And time is "our biggest enemy," said David Blehert, head of microbiology at the USGS center in Madison, Wis.

For more information
Fish and Wildlife Service

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