Saturday, March 28, 2020

Oh boy, we have a fly problem.  These flies are called stable flies.  They are tiny and fly in a small circle around and around and around in the same spot.  I've learned these are the males displaying for females.  When they are in our home, we name them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe, Tiny, Teeny and so on.  It is one of the reasons we don't usually have more than 4 chickens. More chickens mean more poop and flies live on poop.  My neighbors also don't like flies. So in order to manage for the flies, I must know about flies and know what they like.  I know that they like poop and they like still, clean air.  A farmer must know all the animals on their farm and know what they like, so that the farm can stay balance

Fly Reduction Strategies

1. Manage the chicken poop by raking the chicken yard daily, cleaning the coop daily and covering the chicken yard with yard waste
2. Smoking out the chicken yard
3. Running a fan in the chicken yard
4. Any more ideas?

Strategies 2 and 3 do not solve the problem, they simply move the flies elsewhere (possibly to my neighbors, which is not good).  I must prevent the flies from being born in the first place.  I must manage the poop.  Put your ideas in the comments.  Remember- I don't kill garden animals because all animals are my helpers.  They indicate to me what is out of balance and what needs managing.

Yesterday I gave the chickens food scraps from the kitchen.  They only ate 3 cups of food instead of 4.

As usual, there are American crows in the chicken yard.  They act like chickens too except they fly away when I come in.  They also eat the chicken food.

Today we went to one of our favorite hiking spots.  It has lots of volunteer plants from Europe (some people call these types of plants weeds).  I brought some back home with me to plant in my garden:  roman chamomile also called pineapple weed (Chamomilla suaveolens), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), curly dock (Rumex crispus), plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and watercress (Rorippa nasturtuium-aquaticum).

Sara tried to sleep on the coop floor again so I moved her again.  Popcorn and Isabella slept in the nesting boxes.  Everyone else uses the perches.

Ant and Cob-weaver are cooking again but there are not more chocolate chips.  Tonight they make sugar cookies.

Easy Sugar Cookies

2-3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter softened
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
4. Put in fridge to cool for 15-30 minutes (although you can skip this part if you just can't wait)
5. Roll and shape cookies.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes

🐞Farmer Ladybug