Month: July 2020

Veggie garden irrigation addition

The other day I noticed that the soaker hose for one of the beds in the veggie garden had burst, as they are wont to do:

Burst soaker hose

Burst soaker hose

So on Saturday I replaced that hose with better irrigation, like I did earlier for a couple of other beds:

New irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

There is now one bed remaining with a soaker hose in the main part of the veggie garden, plus the ones in the berry cage. I’ll replace those over time when their soaker hoses fail. We’re slowly phasing out the soaker hoses; irrigation tubing and emitters work much better, as they are more reliable, and the irrigation can be more focused and adjustable as needed.

Ducklings day 46

For today’s duckling post, we start with a cam picture from last night, then sleepy ducklings, then treat time. I’m starting to use their names more, too.

From the cam, Betty spreading her wings in the pool; her feathers are coming in nicely:

Wings

Edit to add: a GIF of Betty dunking and flapping her wings:

Wings

Sleepy ducklings:

Sleepy ducklings

I had been plugging in the heat lamp each night, but now they’re old enough to not need it, so it has been discontinued. They still have the EcoGlow for now, though I’ll remove that in a few days.

Treat time:

Treat time

Betty and Cora (I think) heading in for a swim, with Bert approaching in the pond:

Ducklings with Bert approaching

Sonja:

Sonja

Betty and one of the Rouens on the steps, Cora at the top, watched by Bert:

Ducklings

Cora, I believe (I haven’t quite locked down the differences between her and Clyde, but I’m reasonably sure, if only because the females are more into swimming):

Cora?

Now that they’re mostly feathered out, and almost fully grown, I should do another duck name post. Once they’re in the pond, it’ll be harder to get as good pictures of them all.

Beehive tweaks in July 2020

Yesterday we did some tweaks to the beehives: adding a top feeder to the orange hive, a queen excluder to the hot pink hive, replacing the base of the turquoise hive, and replacing a few temperature sensors.

Here are the components we brought to the hives:

Hive bits

We replaced the Boardman front feeder on the orange hive with a top feeder that consists of four glass jars in a frame. The sugar water (1:1 ratio) can be accessed by the bees through a hole in the inner cover below:

Top feeder

The feeder is enclosed in a box; we use white boxes for feeders:

Top feeder box

Here’s the orange hive with the feeder box from the front:

Orange hive

As previously mentioned, we ordered a base for the turquoise hive, but it was the wrong size, so we got another one. Here’s the hive with the temporary base:

Turquoise hive temporary base

And with the new base:

Turquoise hive new base

From the front; much better (you can also see Jenn with her bee jacket, which will be relevant later):

Turquoise hive new base

We peeked at the yellow hive while replacing its temperature sensor, and noticed a little comb under inner cover; not approved, but not a big deal (this shows the inner cover hole like I mentioned above):

Yellow hive comb under inner cover

The hives:

Hives

Hives

Last night at sunset we added an anti-robbing entrance screen to the orange hive, since it is the weakest hive, and has the feeder. This screen has an entrance hole at the top, with a second one in the normal place that is closed. The idea is that this unusual arrangement prevents alien bees from invading the hive. We added it at sunset so the bees would be home, so they learn the new arrangement when they leave in the morning:

Anti-robbing entrance screen

Anti-robbing entrance screen

This morning Jenn cracked a couple of hives to add temperature sensors that had to be reset, and was rewarded with a couple of stings on her legs (as she was wearing the bee jacket, as above, instead of full suit). One of the joys of beekeeping.

Ducklings day 45

Today, in addition to the usual duckling run pictures, I have some pictures from up the path, and from the pond deck, including a GIF.

Firstly, a cam shot of nighttime activity:

Nighttime

And sleep:

Nighttime

Treat time:

Ducklings

Water droplets everywhere:

Splash

Shall we swim?

Shall we swim?

Haven’t quite figured out gentle paddling yet:

Haven't quite figured out gentle paddling yet

Dunking head:

Dunking head

View from the path to the duck house:

View from path

Closer:

View from path

View from the pond deck; I have both the fountain and waterfall going currently:

View from pond deck

GIF from the pond deck, with a duckling visible in their pool:

GIF from pond deck

Not long before they’ll be out in the pond; probably sometime next week.

Cat update for week ending July 18

For this week’s Caturday: Porcini by the small pond, Pommie by the cabins, Bella and Poppa by the cat house, Poppy inside the cat house, and more.

A nice picture of Porcini watching me from between the cat house and small pond:

Porcini by small pond

Pommie toe beans:

Cat toes

Sleepy Pommie:

Cabin cat

And in front of cabins:

Pommie in front of cabins

An interesting silhouette of a cat jumping up the log pile, with lots of lens flare from the sunrise:

Silhouetted cat jumping

Double-decker cats:

Two cats inside

While doing rounds, I felt I was being watched:

Cat

An animated GIF of Poppa, Pommie, and Bella arriving, Poppa eating then sitting on the deck while Pommie ate, Bella rushing him then rolling around on the ground, then finally Bella chasing Poppa off:

Cat GIF

Pommie and Poppa:

Pommie and Poppa

A GIF taking a closer look at part of that sequence, where Bella rushed at Poppa, then sniffed him:

Cat GIF

Bella rushing at Poppa, while Pommie ate:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

I was pleased that Poppa didn’t fight back, he just raised a paw in defense; it wasn’t a serious attack. Then Bella sniffed him in a friendly way:

Bella, Poppa

Bella, Poppa, Pommie:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

Bella rolling on the ground below Poppa:

Bella, Poppa

Poppy spent most of yesterday inside the cat house:

Poppy

Here’s a GIF of her day:

Cat GIF

Flock Friday for July 17

For Flock Friday this week, a bunch of pictures of our adult duck Bert, and a few chicken pictures.

Bert and Betty drinking water drained from the duck house:

Bert drinking

Bert with the ducklings, when I first added the kiddie pool (remember that?):

Bert with ducklings

Bert by my feet:

Bert by my feet

Bert

Bert by the duckling run, from across the pond:

Bert by duckling run from across the pond

Bert and ducklings from across the pond

Bert on the island:

Bert on island

Bert with ducklings on another day:

Bert with ducklings

Bert on the island from the pond cam:

Bert on the island

We gave the chickens some tasty slugs as treats, though they ignored them, at least while we were watching. Here’s Domino:

Domino ignoring slugs

Domino ignoring a slug

Sometimes an egg gets broken in a nesting box, which makes other eggs dirty. When we have plentiful eggs as now, I just toss the dirty ones, rather than laboriously clean them:

Dirty eggs

With warm weather in summer, I have the chicken coop windows open:

Chicken coop

Some chickens visible on the roost above the nesting boxes:

Chickens through coop window

Ducklings day 43

Shockingly, no modifications to the duckling run today. They’ll only be using it for another week or two, so it’s fine.

I mentioned yesterday that they swam in the afternoon. Here are a few cam shots from then, starting with three pairs of duckling feet on the edge of the pool:

Duckling feet

The shade does make the pictures less clear; the cam can’t handle the sunny and shady contrast as well:

Afternoon swim

Afternoon swim

This morning, treat time:

Morning treat time

Drinking water drained from when I just refilled their water dispenser:

Drinking water drained from house

Flapping wings; it’s fascinating watching the feathers growing, as little pins that sprout feathery bits from the end, spreading towards the base:

Flapping wings

Touching bills:

Touching bills

Splashes:

Splashes

Scratching:

Scratching

An afternoon swim today:

Afternoon swim

Flapping wings:

Afternoon swim

Converting the fountain into a garden, part 2

Last week I posted part one of a project to convert our fountain into a garden. Here’s the thrilling conclusion.

You may recall that I drilled a hole though the base of the fountain wall, and ran an irrigation tube across the bricks, at the back where it isn’t usually visible. To make that tidier and reduce the risk of tripping on the tube, I added a pipe cover:

Pipe cover

I added more soil:

Adding more soil

And scoria to the fountain bowl, to aid in drainage:

Adding gravel to bowl

Scoria and soil in progress:

Gravel and soil

More soil:

More soil

A much smaller soil pile; the remainder will be used in the veggie garden, and possibly elsewhere:

Smaller soil pile

Adding plants:

Adding plants

A hose valve for the tube to the top of the fountain (as seen on my What’s It Wednesday question and answer yesterday), to enable adjusting its pressure independently of the irrigation emitters for the bottom level:

Hose valve

Irrigation tubing; half inch tubing to the top of the fountain and down one side of the bottom level, with quarter inch tubing off the latter leading to emitters:

Irrigation tubing

An irrigation emitter; this style has an adjustable spread, so can cover anything from inches to several feet:

Irrigaton emitter

Pulling back a bit to focus on the plants:

Plants and irrigation

And back further to see more of the plants:

Plants

Another angle; Jenn chose the plants to be predominantly blue to evoke water, with some splashes of color representing fish. Plus taller plants at the back, shorter in front — and in the bowl, some that will trail off the edge nicely:

Plants

A last shot of the finished garden:

Plants