Brooding for More

 This past week I've moved the chicken coop to the west side of the house and expanded the size of the coop. I'll post pictures soon, but wanted to quickly share the 4 newest members we've added to the brood. Two of these chicks are Frizzle Chochan Bantams. They'll resemble fluffy boa's once fully grown.

Unfortunately, this little fella (I'm hoping it's a hen) had to be separated from the group, as she's the largest and a complete bully. Everytime I allow her to join the other's, she pecks them constantly in the face. I'm concerned she's going to hurt the tiny Frizzles.

Chicks in the City

CORRECTION - Chicks in the kitchen!

We're back to raising chickens again! I was half hoping my sister would talk me out of it, but when she told me this morning, "Go ahead and get some, you'll be glad you did!" I was secretly happy.

So this time we got 4. Remember, last time we got 6 chicks and raised them successfully. The only problem we had was one of our hen's turned out being a rooster. It wasn't very pleasant listening to the cockadoodle-dooo's early each morning. I actually love the sound of a rooster, but I wasn't too sure about our neighbors--not to mention, roosters aren't allowed in city limits.

Before we left the country on our last trip, we had sadly given all our laying hens/rooster away. Over the months, we had missed collecting eggs and giving them table scraps.

We're keeping the chicks in the kitchen till they're old enough to go outdoors. Thankfully I had kept the old chicken coop and supplies!

WANTED: dead specimens

Face of wasp (click photo's to enlarge)

For my daughter's homeschool science projects, we've been enjoying our dissecting digital microscope.

The Roly Poly that took me 20 min to kill - Dawn dishsoap.

bug fished from pool (pool's are perfect for finding intact/dead or atleast sedated bugs)

wasp

Earring my brother purchased for me when he was in Egypt. This is the exact flower design I had seen in Jerusalem, and on some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Israeli Shekel

bug (hadn't identified) found in pool

If you look closely, there's a circular shape on the abdomen that resembles a pig's snout. While viewing through live video, I noticed this "snout" has tiny tentacles that protrude from the openings.

Fly

Fly

Wild onion flower stem

Wild Onion flower petal

Although the microscope comes with an upper/lower light, my mini LED flashlight captures the true color's the best.

Plant leaf

Moth eye

Moth leg

Fly

Roly Poly

Rock found on the Mount of Olives

Diseased leaf

Okay, STOP HERE if you are squeamish. Are you sure you want to know what this is?

Last chance to stop reading.

While examining a dead fly, this "parasite" crawled out of it.


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