Got a "Buzz Worm"

That's what my neighbor likes to call rattlers. We've got a lot of them here in the chapparal, and this morning I moved a small bucket in an area I was doing some rock work--- and there was a sleeping little baby buzz worm.

The weather was chilly, so the little fella (or gal?) just sat there, flicking its tongue. It wasn't being defensive, and it was too young to rattle. Here's what it looked like when I uncovered it:

I got my snake-stick (the kind the fire department uses; basically a really long version of those "reach extenders" that have a trigger at one end, and a kind of pincer-device at the other) and put it into a bucket.

I took the bucket up the hill a little ways, and let it go into a sage thicket. It wasn't moving too fast, but it managed to get itself under cover, so it'll be fine. Which is good; the more snakes we've got around, the less rats, mice, ground squirrels and gophers.

Coons Had a Chicken Dinner

Those triplet raccoons living under our deck just wore out their welcome. They actually pried open a sliding "chicken door," a small hatch-type door that slides down between two wooden flanges. They pulled hard enough to bust one of the flanges, and treated themselves to one 3-month-old chick each.

Naturally one of the victims was the prettiest one, the Brahma. Coons have discerning taste, evidently.

Anyway, I reinforced everything so that can't happen again, but I'm down to seven chicks. I like to keep 10-12 layers at a time, so I'll go get some more this weekend. I'll keep them separate, since they're younger, and that way I'll have staggered laying, as their molt should hit at a different time than the current flock.

When chickens molt--- which they do about once a year--- they pretty much shut down, laying-wise. Takes a couple weeks before they're back to work, and usually each molt slows their production a bit. By their third molt, they're usually played out from a production standpoint.

By the way, I think I'm gonna live-trap the coons and relocate them. I'll post some pix if I decide to do that.

What's That Funny Lookin' Bird?

One of the drawbacks of having property in the Santa Monica foothills is the extreme fire danger, and the resulting difficulty in finding affordable home/fire insurance. CalFair is required to offer insurance to all who are otherwise refused; but I decided a little over 10 years ago to take a different tack.

I became a "farm," eligible for farm insurance (and much lower rates with better coverage) by fencing some pasture area and running emus. Originally I was going to "board" another guy's breeder birds, but he flaked on me after I fenced in an acre-and-a-half or so. So, I ordered some emu babies from Kansas (it was much cheaper to buy the and fly them here than to buy them in CA, go figure).

Now the survivors (two were lost to coyotoes when small) have paired up and wander around the property, trading feed for insurance discounts.

They're not much good for grazing--- I was hoping they'd help with weed abatement, but no such luck. On the other hand, they're very easy residents. Once fully grown they require no shelter, no special attention, just food and water. They eat "Ratite Maintenence" pellets from Star Milling, and they love a treat of grapes now and then.

Emus pair up, so my two male/female pairs each stick together, occasionally chasing each other if they feel they're being encroached upon. The male sets the eggs; at their peak they lay about 30 big, emerald green eggs per season (Nov-Mar). Once the male feels he's got a clutch of eggs he'll set them for about 60 days, with very little movement, no food, no water to speak of. He just goes kind of comatose, rising once in a while to turn the eggs.

I don't raise chicks; I remove the eggs and give them to friends, donate them to museums and schools, keep a few for conversation pieces, etc. Four emus is all I want, and there's not much of a market for selling chicks right now.

Here's a quick video where I talk a little about "Blue," my most tame emu. They're all very docile, but he's downright friendly--- and lazy as hell, as you can see...



Thanks to Sean Arenas for the videocam work. You can see Sean's other work here.

Composting with Worms: Vermiposting

Here in the volcanic foothills of the Santa Monica mountains in Southern California, the "soil" is mostly rock. In order to have any kind of respectable vegetable garden (or grow much of anything that isn't a native chaparral plant, for that matter) you have to create soil.

I do that by scavenging around for dirt (sometimes I pick up fill dirt from Craigslist) and composting practically everything. Kitchen waste, leaves, horse manure from neighbors, chicken manure and shavings from my chickens, grass trimmings from a neighbor, you name it. There's no such thing as food waste here; if leftovers don't get fed to the chickens, they get fed to the worms, or to one of the big compost bins.

As you can see from this video, I use a small vermiposting (the technical term for worm composting) "station" for table scraps and other random food. I also have a large outdoor bin for bigger loads.

The cool thing about one of these little stations is that you can use them indoors. They don't smell, they're easy to manage--- perfect even if you live in an apartment, and you want to practice composting while you're saving up for your suburban ranch. I got this one (and an initial load of red wrigglers) from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.

I especially love the worm compost for my tomatoes. Mixing that stuff into the soil is like giving my tomatoes crack, they just go crazy. Very high nitrogen content, I'd guess.

If you want to learn more about vermiposting, I recommend the "bible" on the subject, "Worms Eat My Garbage." Here's a link to the book at Amazon.

Reconsidered Opinion on Gapeworm

Wow, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to find Ivermec, but I was unable to locate any in local feed stores.

So, I decided to try and confirm the diagnosis before hunting the stuff down. I held the chick and opened its mouth while my wife looked down its throat to see if she could spot the gapeworms. Gapeworms are hooked together in a "V", in permanent conjugal bliss... at least, I guess it's bliss.
Here's a romantic picture of a bunch cuddling up in a chicken's trachea


Anyway, my wife couldn't find anything in our chick's throat. So now I'm back to wondering what the heck the sneezing is. Maybe something I need to treat, maybe not. I'll watch and see if any of the other birds start sneezing too.

Chick with Gapeworm

One of my chicks was sneezing (or coughing, hard to tell which with a chicken) and was opening her mouth in a yawning motion. The latter tells me she's probably got gapeworm, a little booger that nestles in the trachea (usually paired male-female, for double the fun).

I had her isolated in the brooder box (I've moved the others to the chicken barn) because I thought she might have a respiratory infection, but the "yawning" is a pretty good sign of gapeworm, so I put her back with the flock and tomorrow I'll get some Ivermectin and treat all of them. I'll mix it 2 ml to a gallon of water, and let 'em finish the water.

War on Yellow-Jackets

I hate 'em. They're aggressive, pesky, and occasionally they'll gang up and go after one of the beehives. So, I set a lot of those standard yellow traps, but I don't use that high-priced smelly "pheremone" fluid they sell with the traps (and separately, once you use that first dose)

Instead, I soak some cooked chicken meat in water in the fridge for awhile. Then I tear off a chunk and put that in the "well" of the trap. I open a can of the cheapest cat food I can find, take a fingerful of that, and smear it on the chicken.

Yellow jackets are carniverous, and in my experience they just can't resist this concoction. I hang a trap near my trash cans, a few near my beeyard, and another one near my frog pond--- all places the little boogers like to hang out.

Usually I've got one or two buzzing around inside the trap within a minute or two, and others soon follow. I empty the trap and change the bait once a week or so.

TIP- If I'm ready to change the trap but there are still a few yellow jackets buzzing around inside, I just stick the trap in the freezer for a half-hour. No more buzzing.