This is the second broken eggshell I found in the pasture in two days. I don’t know if the wind took it after the bird hatched, or if another bird stole the egg and dropped the shell after eating the insides.
We do have a robin’s nest in the bushy apple tree near the Dahlia garden so it may have come from there. I could take a look in the nest to see if there are baby birds, but I hate to disturb them. The mother Robin is so protective and makes a lot of noise trying to chase me away if I even get close to the tree.
I told her she was in my garden so she’s going to have to get used to me being around. Maybe over the spring and summer, she’ll come to trust me.
A few days ago I started spreading the manure we collected from the winter. The pile is pretty big right now. I’m focused on finishing up the fences so I won’t get to seriously work on the pile until I finish them. But each morning and afternoon, when I feed the animals, I fill up the wheelbarrow with manure and spread it out in the pastures.
Spreading manure isn’t the most stimulating thing I’ve ever done, so for the fun of it, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of getting it out of the wheelbarrow.
First I used a shovel and dug it out scattering each shovelful. Then I used the rake and raked it out of the wheelbarrow to see if it would spread more easily that way.
Yesterday I just dumped the whole wheelbarrow into one pile and raked it out.
This morning, I swung the wheelbarrow from left to right then moved it back a foot or so and repeated the “swing”.
That resulted in a few crescent moons or a manure drawing of repeated arches, depending on how you look at it. Definitely, the most interesting manure spreading results so far.
I brought up the greens and red in the photo, and if you look closely you can see the robin’s eggshell towards the bottom right.
the manure in the lower left looks like the shape of a chicken
Oh I see that Sharon! Why am I not surprised. 🙂
I love the color of Robin eggs, lovely photo, and the shell will add nutrients to the pasture, just like the manure. I believe the parent birds remove the shells from the nest once the chicks hatch, and fly with them, dropping them away from the nest, so they don’t give away its location to predators. We usually find portions of Robin eggshells around our lawn and veg garden, when the pair that nest under our deck hatch their chicks.
Crow egg stealing footage was dramatic! I knew that happened but had never seen it…
That makes sense Hannah, about how the shells get so far away from the nest. I found another one today on the other side of the pasture. Jon got a good picture of the babies in the nest today.