Leave Your Leaves Alone

...rovide. A review of research by Linda Chalker-Scott (2015, Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, 41.4, 173-186) suggests that both native and non-native woody species can enhance biodiversity of urban landscapes by providing these essential services. At this risk of wonkiness, do we have a Hegelian plant dialectic here, perhaps? Are we on the cusp of a synthesis in the native/non-native plant debate? This is a complicated question, but I think that Eise...

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Are We Keeping Too Many Bees?

...iting a fill in the blanks form for journalists doing the inevitable urban homesteading backlash story. You know, “Folks are tired of all the chores and are dumping their [chickens/vegetables/bees] and returning to a life of [shopping/golfing/riding jet skis].” This month’s backlash story concerns urban beekeeping in London. Reader Cassandra Silver (who has a really beautiful blog) alerted us to a bee story in the Independent, “How do-gooders thre...

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Off the charts

...a normal sized egg, weighing in at extra large on this antique egg scale. Chickenzilla’s egg is way beyond the measure of this scale, weighing in I’d guess at somewhere around extra, extra, extra large. Pretty good for an industrial meat chicken that isn’t supposed to be a good layer, much less survive past three months of age. The antique egg scale, by the way, hails from Orange County, California. Orange County is now known more for Disneyland...

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I’ve Flown the Coop

...cinated for Marek’s disease. This is the most common problem with backyard chickens and it’s entirely preventable. If you have a sick or dead chicken and live in California, send it to the California Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHHFS) for a free necropsy. Here’s a list of the labs and their contact information. Call for instructions and don’t freeze the carcass. If you bring a sick chicken they will euthanize it for you. UC Coo...

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Who’s Visiting Your Garden While You’re Not Watching?

...same direction. That raccoon pic is another reminder for me to recheck my chicken coop’s fortifications. And the rat is telling me to lock up the chicken food at night. Reviewing these images has given me a less adversarial feeling about our mammalian visitors. They are just so damn cute, especially the skunk. Next up in my CritterCam experiments will be to see who is visiting the bird bath. I’ll need some help from readers for that, since I don’...

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