Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 4 - Episode 216 - Thriving Bluebirds

Transcript

Season 4 - Episode 216 - Thriving Bluebirds · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome to the good Morning from the Chicken
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  Coop podcast. My name is Kim Johnson and I am
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  a mastermindset, coach, creative strategist, and also happened to
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  be a farmer. This is my chicken coop and I
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  come out here every day. To record a podcast to.
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  Teach distinctions, possibilities, new ways of
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  thinking, and just bring some joy.
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  Into the. World.
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  So welcome to the coop and let's start your day off in a
• 0:24
  fantastic way. Hey everybody, good morning.
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  So I want to share a story with you today about my mom.
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  I learned my love of animals from my mom, no doubt about it.
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  She was the person that taught me to bring home stray animals.
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  She was the person that taught me to rescue things from the
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  middle of the road and she was the person who really gave me a
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  love of birds, like just bird, the birds that you feed in your
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  yard. Not not photographing him.
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  She never went out and photographed him like I do.
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  However, she definitely taught me about having the the wild
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  birds and feeding them and we always had a bird feeder.
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  I don't ever remember my life not having a bird feeder unless
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  I was living in a condo. I had bird feeders and they were
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  always out and about, like they were filled with, you know,
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  busy, busy central places. My mom always had I think 3 main
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  setups and then some smaller ones.
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  But, you know, we lived up north and you rarely got like the
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  exotic birds. And she used to talk about how
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  she would love to have Bluebirds, but you just never
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  got them. Where we lived.
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  One of the first things when we moved S that I noticed was this
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  was a big bird on the list. Like you can see Bluebirds
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  regularly. And so it became my thing of
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  saying, OK, I really would love to have Bluebirds.
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  I would love to figure out how to have the Bluebirds.
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  And when we just, you know, even when we were in our rental unit,
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  you know, it was that rental house, but it was still a rental
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  unit. I put out bird feeders and I did
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  not get Bluebirds. I got lots of other birds, but I
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  did not get Bluebirds. So when we moved out to the
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  farm, one of the very first things that I was very busy
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  doing was cultivating. What do they need?
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  What do they need in order to thrive?
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  And they're very specific. They like to have, they're very
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  territorial. They like to have a place where
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  they can nest, where they have a tree as well.
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  Like they, they want a nest in a nest box.
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  So if you put out a nest box, they will definitely use them.
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  And then they want these trees that give them a lot of cover,
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  and then they want to be able to have a food source and a water
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  source. And if these are all in a
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  triangle, right? Like this is their code for
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  thriving. If they're all in a triangle and
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  they can easily access all of them, they will come and they
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  will stay. So the first year out here, we
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  put up 1 Bluebird box on a, on a post and it was in, in between
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  the house, the garden and the this Big Y, we call it the Y
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  oak, but it's a Live Oak and it comes out and it spreads like
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  AY. And it was really crushed when
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  we moved into the, when we first purchased the property because
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  all the other trees around it, the scrub trees were taking
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  advantage of it. And live hooks are phototropic,
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  so they grow out where they get sun.
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  So as long as they can stretch out and the sun is there, they
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  will continue to grow. So we stripped out the trees
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  around it. We gave it an opportunity.
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  We put out the post and we put out a bird feeder.
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  And lo and behold, we had a couple, just just a boy and a
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  girl moved in to that little house, a Bluebird.
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  And I could not have been more excited.
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  And it was, it was just unbelievable that this happened.
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  So, you know, they had their babies and they would bring
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  their babies to the feeder and we would get to see them.
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  And I would sit and I would cry and I would be like, oh, I know
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  my mother's watching this and she's having so much fun that we
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  have Bluebirds. Well, Fast forward, we now have
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  our three Bluebird houses. They can be territorial, so you
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  have to be very careful about how many houses you put out.
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  But we have 3 right now. And we have so many Bluebirds
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  that are here. Now.
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  Here's what's really cool. These are all Bluebirds that
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  were born on this farm. And it's amazing to me how many
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  times they will have nests in a season.
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  So this season we are working on one the the box.
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  The original box that we put up has now got its fourth nest in
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  it, and I can't tell because they all look the same.
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  Obviously. I can't tell you if they're the
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  same parents doing it over and over or they're different
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  parents doing it over and over and they move in.
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  But even as I'm talking to you right now, it's very early
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  morning and they are, there's a couple in the ones on the dad's
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  on the top, mom's inside. I don't know if they've got eggs
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  or whatnot yet, but I can usually when when the babies
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  hatch, we can hear them screaming and they go and they
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  go right to the bird feeder in which I give them the perfect
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  thriving food, which is they love freeze dried mealworms
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  because it's nothing but protein for them.
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  So I order them online and they're a hot hell of a lot less
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  expensive than when you buy them at stores.
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  But I order them in huge batches.
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  I buy like 11 pounds, 12 lbs at the same time.
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  So it's a bunch. But I'm sitting here, I'm
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  talking to you and at the bird feeder right now, I can count
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  about 22 Bluebirds on the flight deck where they have all of
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  their freeze dried mealworms and males, females, big ones, small
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  ones. So I know there are juveniles in
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  there. Some of them are still kind of
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  grayish in color. There's so many Bluebirds here.
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  And again, this is because it's a thriving environment for them.
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  They're also really, really very territorial protectors of their
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  space. So when Hawks come in or birds
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  come in that are very detrimental, the male Bluebirds
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  will scream and protect their territory, which alerts the
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  chickens. So little different than the
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  crows. The Bluebirds do not care about
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  the chickens, but the crows will definitely dive bomb and help
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  the chickens. So it's very interesting.
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  But in any event, the purpose of me telling you this today is
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  this is such a, a spot of joy for me to come out and see them
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  all out here in the morning looking at I probably got about
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  10 different kinds of birds right now.
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  I've got a summer tanninger, I've got Cardinals, I've got
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  house runs, I've got Bluebirds, Blue Jays.
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  I mean, so many different, all different kinds of warblers.
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  There's so many out here. Painted buntings have been
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  showing up all summer long. So I mean, they're stuck running
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  and such a treat to have, but my Bluebirds are my special thing.
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  And it's in honor of the fact that I feel like we gave them
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  the perfect environment to thrive in and they just come and
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  thrive and they thrive so much. They keep bringing their kids,
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  so next year there's going to be a whole push for putting on a
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  couple more houses. I'm going to try to put them a
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  little further out and see if that gives them more space and
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  see what happens. But I wanted to share with you
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  just this, like, little achievement.
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  It's so seemingly so simple. Create something for something
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  else to thrive. And then you feel amazing
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  because I got to tell you, this makes me feel like a rock star.
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  And it might just be birds, but let me tell you, it really does
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  when you see them bringing their babies to the feeder and feeding
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  them, boy that is just the best. So I hope you guys have a
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  blessed day and I will see you tomorrow.
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  Bye.