Category Archives: animal behaviour

Digging up Grubs

Posted on April 28, 2016 by jkmcintyre
[caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignnone" width="2448"]Photo Mar 30, 4 09 14 PM Enter Grubs dug from the overwintered veggie garden[/caption]

Preparing the street beds for spring planting I first pulled the winter plants (kale, cilantro), hoed the weedlets, and mixed in complete organic fertilizer (COF). During this process, I unearthed nearly 40 large grubs of varying designs.

Happy happy day for the hens.

Is there a professional or amateur entomologist out there who can help me identify these guys? What do they become? Continue reading →

Posted in animal behaviour, bugs, chickens, pest control, spring, vegetable garden | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bee Line

Posted on July 7, 2015 by jkmcintyre

What are my bees doing? I came out Monday morning to find this: Could this be the remnants of an overnight bee beard? It was super-duper hot the previous day (90F), still 82F when the bees retired, so maybe they … Continue reading →

Posted in animal behaviour, bees | Tagged , | 1 Comment

From Broody Box to Broody Breaker!

Posted on June 9, 2015 by jkmcintyre

Queen Sheba is broody. We were surprised because our previous Australorp never went broody.  But there she sits – protecting the nest box with the most eggs as if they were her own and as if they would hatch.  *Sigh* But … Continue reading →

Posted in animal behaviour, broody hen, chicken behaviour, chickens, DIY | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Bringing Home the Bees

Posted on April 30, 2015 by jkmcintyre

Old combs will be recycled
Old combs will be recycled

After the swarm moved into the hive we had ready for the new packaged bees, I had one day to scrounge a suitable replacement. Luckily we had the empty hive from the first die-off in 2014. But it needed some love. Continue reading →

Posted in animal behaviour, bees, honeybees, top bar hive | Tagged , , | 4 Comments