Animals

Finding Solutions

I am happy to report that all is calm in the world of roosters.

Milton, Milroy, Millard, George, and Statler and Waldorf spend the day

together out and about.

While Milford is quite happy around the barn.

There was a question in yesterday's comments asking why Milford had to move to the barn.

My understanding of chickens is that they are very social animals.

And much like humans, chickens can be quite bigoted...

ostracizing a member of their flock for no apparent reason.

This is precisely what happened to Milford.

Perhaps he was perceived as weak...

and a weak chicken makes the rest of the flock more susceptible to predators.

For whatever reason, he was the low man on the totem pole and subject to

physical abuse.

Hence, the rescue and move to the barn.

On another note, we recently became aware that our hemlock trees have been struck

by the wooly adelgid.

This microscopic bug was accidentally introduced into North America from Asia...

yet another price we pay for intercontinental travel and commerce.

The fluffy white substances at the base of the hemlock needles are egg sacs.

Sadly, scientists predict that this bug will almost completely wipe out the

hemlock forests within the next ten years.

Solutions for the wooly adelgid, at this point, lie in the use of pesticides.

There is also some research into finding another insect species that will destroy the adelgid.

Somehow it always seems that solutions become a sort of Pandora's box in the end.

At least half of our 100 Acre Wood is populated by hemlocks.

If you look down the road, here, our woods are to the left of the road.

Further down the road, you can see all of the hemlocks.

We've made a plan to begin harvesting the infected hemlocks,

a little at a time, so that the young deciduous trees can begin to take over the forest.

Harvesting the trees while the wood is still alive gives us the opportunity to sell the wood, rather than wait until the trees die...at which point the wood becomes useless.

Hopefully, over the next ten years we can encourage another species of tree to take hold

and repopulate our woods.

Life on the farm is never as simple as just taking care of the gardens

or the animals.

Both plants and animals present us with problems for which we must find solutions...

making farming somewhat of a biology experiment!

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Animals