Bruce's Journal

[CntryBoy777]

It wouldn't matter if they were full grown, they could still be a meal or snack for an array of wildlife....we had many in the pond and still caught fish....when they are small they can hide in many more places....I used to sink old tires in the pond for fish attractors....glad to hear your work is being rewarded with a blooming environment....

 

[Bruce]

You mean the algae blooming in the pond? yeah, I hate that stuff. It is curious about the turtle(s). We have no idea where the "infant" one we saw in the pond as it started to fill in the fall came from. IF there are 2 adults and they can't cross over the fenceline, the one I saw in the pond today must have been hiding in the weeds around the pond all summer and we just never saw it. Wish now that I had spray painted a spot on the turtle we saw outside the fence so I would KNOW if it is the same one in the pond. We've also seen 2 red salamanders in the pond since the dredging but never saw any before.

Sure you were catching fish in the pond, you had LOTS of fish. I think maybe I'll stock some fathead minnows before I put the rescued fish back in, that will give the turtle something else to eat. Just seems a shame to go to the effort of saving those 2 fish for them to end up as turtle dinner.

 

[Baymule]

Is yours a common snapping turtle or an alligator snapping turtle? We have the alligator snapping turtle variety here.

 

[greybeard]

Last week while looking for signs of Yuki's demise, we spotted the big snapping turtle just outside the fence on the north side of the pond. I didn't see any way it could get to the inside. But today I was raking floating algae gunk out of the south end of the pond and in the shallows was a large snapping turtle. I spotted the shell as I lifted out some gunk. The shell wandered down the sloping ledge to deeper water. So either there is 1 adult snapper and it has a secret passage under the fence or there are two adults, one on each side of the fence.

Well now I have a conundrum. I rescued the two fish from certain death in the mud hole, kept them in the bucket in the house all winter. If I put them back in the pond at their current size I suspect they may become turtle food.

I was once told that any fish that can't outrun (outswim) a turtle deserves to be eaten..

Been about a month ago I saw several turtles crossing the pasture to lay their eggs. They lay them, according the biologists..in holes they dig 'above the high water mark'....Yeah....good luck with that premise here.

 

[Bruce]

Regular snapping turtle. Yes I read they aren't real agile or fast in the water, so they lie in wait.

They lay them, according the biologists..in holes they dig 'above the high water mark'....Yeah....good luck with that premise here.

Maybe you need to watch how high they lay their eggs in a given year and see if that isn't above the high water mark. Maybe they know something Mr. NOAA doesn't

 

[rachels.haven]

*finding snapping turtle eggs on the roof*

 

[Bruce]

Chicks arrived today ... while I was out. Prior emails said Wed by 3 PM. Well they were left outside the (locked) porch at 12:48, DD1 and I got home at 2:15. They don't seem worse for their experience, temp was about 65°F


The gray ones are Columbian Wyandottes, the yellow are White Rocks, the yellow with dark spots are Austra Whites, the dark chipmunk center front is the Barnevelder, the other chipmunks are EEs

 

[B&B Happy goats]

I'm happy they were ok when you got home....that would not of had a good outcome if it happened here !

 

[CntryBoy777]

Looks like ya have "painted the face" of chicken math with some really Cute and Fluffy "peepers".........sure glad they were all Okay....sure don't need the temps to drop too low, that young....sounds like they are pretty hardy little sweeties.....

 

[Bruce]

So far so good. I have 2 broodies. Angel has hogged the N end of the community box and steals any egg laid in it by another hen. Anais has gone broody 2-3 times a year for the past 6 years and is parked in one of the open boxes. I'm pretty sure she is the one that played "auntie" when Zorra was raising the 2015's (Angel is one of those) and stuck with them for a month after Zorra unceremoniously dumped them at 2 months. I take both girls out of their nests each morning so they will eat, drink and poop.

Yesterday I cleaned out all the stinky old shavings in the coop and put in 3 bales of new shavings as well as the brooder space (*).

I have a plan, which means it will probably blow up in my face:
Tomorrow I'm going to see if Angel will accept being put in the brooder area after she heads back to her nest. When I tried that with Anais last year she went bat****. I tried 3 days running then gave up on her and put her in the buster. The chicks were "raised" by their Mama Heating Pad cave.

If Angel can't take that move I'll let her have her community box nest for the day. I'm going to put the broody buster box against the north wall of the coop under the roosts (yes with a cover so poop won't rain down!) perpendicular to the official brooder area and put in shavings. At 0 dark thirty tomorrow night I'm going to stuff 4 chicks under Anais and 5 under Angel. After they wake in the morning to the miracle hatch of plastic eggs and have accepted the chicks, I'm going to move Anais to the buster and I ASSUME she'll be happy there with her babies. If Angel is still in the community box I'll move her and her chicks down to the brooder area.

Fall back plan if one of the girls rejects the dark of night raid: I'll put them all under the other hen .... unless NEITHER accepts the chicks in which case the chicks will get their MHP cave in the brooder area and in the morning the broodies will start their week or longer "sentence" in the broody buster moved back to the "spare" coop in the next stall over.

Wish me luck!

* 2 sides of a rectangle, 1/2" hardware cloth sides. It fits in the corner at the front of the coop.