Michigan

[NovaAman]

Well, I just got the garage chickens moved to the chuckles coop. ALL the chuckes have moved themselves out of there and it the big coop. All except one.. I had to move Criptoe myself. I would have left her in there, in her original coop, but all of her brood mates have left it. I only originally moved 4, the other 4 moved themselves. HAHA. So glad I put in the second roost today. Well, anyway, so I moved Belle, Loralie, and Rod Stewart, previously known as U.B. to that coop. I am going to try and get the other faverolle bantam in with them. She's a loner at the moment, but she has been following them around much more since I took her brothers to Camp Frigidaire. She is pretty much the same size as the other three. She looks more like a salmon faverolle, except she has a black beard, muffs, and her head is also more blackly feathered. I keep trying to get her picture, but she is very very skittish.

SO, No more chickens in the garage until we have another broody getting ready to hatch. Yup.

 

[Juise]

Taprock - Tachinid Fly. This fly uses the caterpillars as a host for their eggs, which hatch in the caterpillar and begin eating out their insides, they emerge after the caterpillar begins to pupate. We lost a number to them last year... most just after they started the "hanging J" stage. Kaia was devastated, but it was a good lesson as well... we had a number of talks about the circle of life, the food web, etc. And then I tried like all Hell to have a successful hatch for her, lol. The tachinid fly either lays eggs in the caterpillar, or on the milkweed for the caterpillars to eat. Our first attempt to successfully hatch some after we lost all was to collect the caterpillars at the first instar, or as eggs. Lost all those, too. That's when I found out that they will lay their eggs on the milkweed, too. So, finally, we hatched a number that we collected as eggs and first instars and I scrubbed the crap out of all the milkweed we fed them. Man was it a process... But we did hatch some healthy butterflies.

While it sucked losing them, it did lead me to end up learning a ton more about them than I ever have before, even though I have hatched many in the past. Here are some of the things I learned last year that I thought were cool and you may or may not find interesting:

*Monarch caterpillars shed their skin as they grow, and each molt brings them to the next stage of growth, called instars. They go through 5 instars before pupating.
*While they feed "only" on milkweed, if you keep different instars together, larger caterpillars will "accidentally" eat smaller ones.
*Monarch caterpillars do not actually have antennae, they are technically tentacles!
*When a caterpillar is in the "hanging J" stage, their tentacles will "wilt" just before they shed their last caterpillar skin. I think it was 15 minutes you have that they would shed within.
*The chrysalis is actually their last skin, and seeing them shed that last caterpillar skin and reveal the chrysalis skin underneath was even cooler and more amazing than watching the butterflies emerge!
*Inside the cocoon, the caterpillars turns almost entirely into a liquid before reforming as a butterfly.

Here is a chrysalis we found that was parasitized by tachinid flies, note the splotches of brown discolouration.


Another thing I thought was cool is that the two gold spots on the bottom of the chrysalis are directly over the eyes of the butterfly.


One of the butterflies about to emerge:


Just out, and working on that tongue. It starts off as two pieces which they have to get figured out and stuck together to form a straw.


Release:

 

[NovaAman]

Wow, that was really cool, Juise.

 

[Juise]

Juise - Is there a rooster in the tree with Kaia?

Yep, and just in the last few days he has suddenly entirely abandoned his little flock and endlessly trails after the big girls, who are constantly chasing him off, lol!

Aw cool! Bob has one of those 1 man people movers?!!

Oh. Em. Gee. I cannot believe I did that. Segue. Segue. Segue!!!

Nova, pretty pics, hope Hawk's eye gets better soon.

 

[RaZ]

Juise,
You are spot-on with that post.
I started posting and then lost what I wrote. Then I got distracted and didn't get back to it.

Nice photos and good information.

Thanks.

 

[Amy PT]

We just had 5 Painted Lady butterflies emerge in our butterfly habitat today. My kids are 6 and 3, and we all held our breath as we witnessed one emerge. Amazingly cool.

 

[Opa]

Everything is loaded in the truck and all that remains to do is hook the boat up. It's a little cool starting off but it is going to be a fantastic day. Now if only the fish will cooperate. I'm only going to a small lake not far from here to fish for bluegills but still it's fishing and not working.

 

[Mom 2em All]

The catepillars on my milkweed disappeared. I looked for crysallises but didnt find any, I found one catepillar dead- shriveled and black.
The one I posted a picture of ate all the leaves off my little milkweed plant.

Juise that was a great post!

I meant to quote posts last night when I was catching up, but I didnt- and now I cant remember everyone I was going to answer.
My husband is in the hospital. Saturday he stepped on a nail when he was up in the Thumb area. The nail went through his shoe, sock and into his foot- the head of the nail end.

He is diabetic, and has had MRSA- and his doctor did not give him any antibiotics on Monday. He even asked for them, and the doc said "oh you wont need them". Well, yesterday, he was limping even worse so I told him to let me see his foot. WHen he took off his shoe and sock, his foot looked like an elephants, even all his toes were swelled up huge. And his ankle. And his foot was red. I told him we have to go to the ER before you lose your foot.
One of the nurses thought he broke something because of the swelling. When they xrayed it, no breaks but there is quite a bit of debris in there next to the bone. Probably part of his sock and shoe sole and paint from the nail. And it is swelled from infection. They want to keep him on IV antibiotics.
I am going to head up there in a little bit and see him and take him a change of clothes.


Looks like it may rain out there. We could use some rain..but not just a humidty-increasing drizzle.

 

[Mom 2em All]

Good luck Sam!

Have a great time and catch lots!

 

[Brethren49619]

Lost my first chick last night. He had pretty much stopped growing at about 10 days. Just seemed off, a little bit "special," if you know what I mean. I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. Ameraucana with the biggest muffs, would have been the cutest.


He had gained a little bit of weight recently, so had hoped he would make it since he was now 5
weeks.


The others didn't pick on him, almost knew he was "special." Out of 4 Ameraucana's I bought, 2 are pretty definitely roos. That only leaves one possible as a hen.

Keeping my fingers crossed for at least one EE hen.