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[Taz2]

Kmg - It is unusual to have four crows together - they may be rooks - most intelligent birds. Here's a link to the difference between rooks, crows and jackdaws http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/C/CarrionCrow/index.aspx

Sounds like you are well and truly hooked    what are you feeding the geese with as a matter of interest and do you know what sort they are?

Taz x

[Witches Cat]

I have been putting out seed for the birdies since we got the snow earlier in the year, it's all up high so the cats can't get the birds, but the starlings kick it all about and a huge amount is now sprouting in my plant pots, a lot is grass, and some look like radish seedlings, but some has saw-edged leaves, and an ex-copper friend said it was.... cannabis ?  If he's trying to worry me, he needn't bother, I can do that all by myself...  anyway I've ripped it out, but what if there's still some to germinate and I don't see it? Could I be done for growing drugs without knowing it? and another thing... if it really is cannabis, why don't the birds fall off the perches, or when they fly, is that how they get so high?
                 

[Taz2]

It is probably hemp Witches Cat so don't worry about it. http://www.food4wildbirds.co.uk/bird-seed-bird-nuts/hemp-seed-c-567_39.html   You might find this informative too http://cy-gb.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2232931658

Taz x

[CLKD]

Too many treats can make chickens fat so they won't lay.  But at 24 weeks I wouldn't worry too much.  Give them a good quality layers mash in the morning, make sure they have a cabbage to peck at and leave the treats until mid-afternoon when they will have taken up the goodness in the mash.  Grit.  Oyster shell.  Fresh water.  We get 3 eggs daily out of 4 hens, one is now 4 years old so has probably slowed down.  I thought the small brown egg was laid by the Black Rock but the speckeldy laid it into my hand on Tuesday morning so I've been wrong for nearly a year  

An egg takes about 23-25 hours to form and they come down continually once a chicken is in full lay, however, because of that the laying time is delayed each day.  So the eggs get later and later and ours sometimes miss 24 hours.  Sometimes we get 2 small ones from the same chicken 

[Deefor]

but the speckeldy laid it into my hand on Tuesday morning so I've been wrong for nearly a year 

Wow - that's a fresh egg...!

I've tidied the garden a bit and have been able to add some more bird feeders in both the front and back gardens; the usual crowd have been about, but for the first time in a long time we've had blue tits and a pair of goldfinches!!  I was so pleased to see them...Less pleased to see one of the local cats trying to creep up on my front garden.  I shall have to ask my son to get his supersoaker out of the loft.

Also, my daughter has a pond in the back garden; the liner was getting very old, so they worked really hard last weekend and replaced it with a rigid one.  I took her shopping for plants to go in and around it yesterday, and was very proud that she went to a lot of trouble to choose only native British plants.  That's my girl!  As well as the fish, she also has about twenty frogs, but we never have any tadpoles - the fish are too big and too greedy!

[CLKD]

We stripped out our pond several years ago for the same reason and found frogs of varying colours, even a lovely magenta shade.  Our tadpoles are in the top pond and we stop the circulation so that the tadpoles at least have a small chance of growing!

What plants did she buy?  I have a large yellow marsh marigold out which spreads, a bit of mint but not much else until the yellow irises flower in June

[Deefor]

Oh, goodness...I'll have to ask her.  But I know she has some Marsh Marigold, and a Ragged Robin plant, and - is there such a thing as a water violet?  That seems to ring a bell.  She also has an iris from the old pond.  She also got some lovely ferns to plant round the back of it where the spray from the little fountain goes when the wind hits it.

[CLKD]

I've found 2 honesty plants in flower, now I remember spreading seeds 2 years ago but can't remember where  and Ragged Robin is here somewhere ...........

[Taz2]

Anybody want any blanket weed? 

[Deefor]

Er - no, thanks, Taz, we're trying to give it up...

It's awful stuff once it's appeared, isn't it?

[Taz2]

Well my partner was whirling it out of the pond but, because I can't bear anything to die, gasping for breath, I had to pull it all apart and found loads of water shrimp thingies and other beetly thingies living in it so had to rescue them and put them back in the pond. This took ages and led to some grumpy words - I just hated the thought of anything living having to die on the bottom-of-the-garden-pile 

The pond has only been there since August - one day my partner said he wanted a pond and by the end of the next day it was all up and running. Hole dug, lined, filled, waterfall running, pump going, underwater lights glowing, plants gently waving etc. Within a few weeks we had frogs but they are off at the moment spawning in their "original" ponds I think. However, last week we saw our first newt but the blanket weed is encroaching. We have put some barley straw in there to balance something-or-other. The birds love bathing in the waterfall which is a bonus. If it was me I would still be dithering as to where it should actually be positioned. My partner is very impulsive and "gets things done". 

Taz x

[Bckquine]

Why do birds have to be so flipping messy when they are eating the seeds I so kindly put out for them???  My patio area looks a right mess, ungrateful whotsits 

[CLKD]

I did lots of weeding this week, it was mainly germinated bird seed - so took that to the chickens to peck through.  As for blanket weed, the barley straw don't work  ....... a good rummage with a long stick does though.  I put all our 'stuff' from the ponds onto the compost.  So critters can bury themselves into the dampness below.  No newts.  A few very tiny tadpoles.  10 fish in the middle pond and 5 in the bottom one. 

[Deefor]

Taz, that's exactly the kind of thing I would do!  Good for you - it's nice to know I'm not the only person who would do something like that!

On a similar subject of things to do with nature that bother me - why does our local council wait until now, when everything is nesting, to start chopping down trees and hacking back hedgerows?  I can't believe there isn't a single nest in all that wood - I know it's supposed to be illegal to destroy a nest, but I bet more than a few have been quietly disposed of in the last few weeks... 

[CLKD]

Hedges should be cut before the end of March.  Contact the Environment Office and complain?  Also your local Nature Group or the RSPB.  At least the hedgerows were left for the birds during the hard winter to eat any berries ............