Welcome Fatheads!

Today was Fish Day! Every September our local Soil and Water Conservation District has a fish sale for those who wish to stock their ponds at a bargain price. Fender's Fish & Llama Farm (interesting combo) brings two aerated trucks all the way from Baltic, Ohio to sell their fish. They grow very strong, healthy fish!

Last year I stocked yellow perch, red-ear sunfish, channel catfish and amurs (grass carp). When I got my order form this summer and read that they were offering fathead minnows (oh JOY!) I ordered 500 of them along with 50 more red-ear sunfish. I had been looking for a cheap source of fathead minnows for the pond for over a year and couldn't find anything less than $300 for 5 gallons! The SWCD sold them for 7 cents a piece this year, so they only cost me $35! Here is what 500 fathead minnows look like.

Fathead minnows feed on aquatic plants and they multiply like rabbits. They provide food for larger game fish like my large mouth bass and yellow perch. I released them into the aquatic plants so they would have instant cover from the big fish.


Next, I released the 50 red-ear sunfish. This species doesn't care much about feeding on bugs like their blue-gilled cousins do. They'd much rather eat fresh water crustaceans, like snails. Snails can carry a worm-like parasite which will infect the fish and make them unfit to eat. So the sunfish act as the health department in the pond! Here is a red-ear sunfish. See his little red ear? That's how they got their name.


I wished all the new fish good luck as I set them free in the pond. I will be paying very close attention to the fish populations next spring.

Mr. Bull Frog seemed very uninterested.

Nesting

I bought a bale of straw from my cousin first thing this morning. I felt it was time to line the nest boxes in the chicken coop to get the girls used to it before they start laying. I have placed some golf balls in the nests to plant the idea of where the eggs should go. As soon as the chooks saw the straw they got nervous. They had never seen straw before and judging by their reactions, they thought it was going to eat them! They got over it after a while though, and now they are more intrigued by it than anything.

Apparently blood is not thicker than water, at least not in this family. My cousin charged me $5 for that bale of wheat straw. See if that cheap jerk gets any free eggs from me! Harumph!

We haven't seen Rocky in a few days. He is becoming more independent and doesn't seem interested in visiting us anymore. He has been very busy building a nest in one of the blue spruces next to the shop. In the morning, he can be seen scurrying about, gathering grasses and pine needles and hauling them up the tree where he packs the material into his huge nest. It just amazes me how this orphaned squirrel knows how to be a squirrel without ever being taught! Rocky doesn't come back at night to sleep in his cage anymore; he sleeps in his nest. He also weathered three powerful thunderstorms in his nest and seemed to come out unscathed. We wish he would come home for a good meal but he refuses, so we leave peanuts and sunflower seeds on the wood pile for him. Each evening we find the chewed-open peanut shells and halved sunflower hulls on the ground. He doesn't leave a thank you note.

Jim fished this afternoon and caught lots of blue gill and two large mouth bass. Then he caught something that really surprised and thrilled me--a yellow perch! It was one of a batch of 30 that got stocked last fall. It was so good and reassuring to see that little fish. Now I have visual confirmation that they did indeed survive. Jim let the little perch go and the rest of the fish are now in the freezer with the last batch he caught. Wonderful!

The fire flies are out in numbers now. I can look across the field at night and see a scene that reminds me of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I can just imagine fairies and pixies flying around in the woods with fire flies in their lanterns to light the way. It is a magical scene, right out of a dream! The bull frogs add to the effect with their baritone chorus. Crickets are chirping (at least the ones that haven't been caught by the chooks) and I can hear an occasional screech owl. Green frogs fill the percussion section with their twanging song which sounds like a loose banjo string being plucked. I don't know what pleases my senses more--day or night.