MaC
Moderator
I asked Himself to bring me home some frogspawn. I maybe, with hindsight, ought to have been a bit more specific, but in his usual enthusiasm, he duly brought me home a bag-full of frogspawn.....and those little full stops duly hatched into minuscule wee commas, that rapidly became literally thousands of tadpoles. I am beyond grateful that I live beside a burn, and so far we've released maybe 500 or so of them into the shallow-ish pond bit that forms half way along. Perhaps it's unfortunate that the ducks are nesting there now too though, so, not sure that we've done much to increase the biodiversity any, but at least they'll get a chance. The puddle he brought the spawn back from, on a farm across the river from us, is now totally dried up and gone, so none of their siblings got a chance.
I have three buckets full in my greenhouse, and they're growing there, but slowly. I spooned up five and put them into a big 5ltr jar on my kitchen windowsill. Those five are huge now. They're warmer, well fed, (they love the fleshy skins from courgettes
) and they're already sprouting legs. They're the size of big fat almonds with tails over an inch long. The ones in the greenhouse buckets, though fed, kept fresh, etc., are barely an inch long themselves and nowhere near ready to sprout legs.
I've kind of planted up the buckets and jars with pond weed, sphagnum, rotted leaves and mossy stones, and Himself brought back a bottle of pond water that was hotching with daphnia, waterbeetles, etc., so that's all added to the health of things too.
It's been fun watching the five in the kitchen grow up. Better than tv For siblings, they're all remarkably different, and I can tell them apart. I'm thinking I might sort of keep this handful if I can. Have them settle into the garden, maybe keep down my slug problem ? I think the rest will end up down the burn, with maybe a bagful back over the river when the rains come back again. We've had such a lovely dry month. It's been a real pleasure just to open the door and enjoy the outdoors without looking for wellies, cagoules, mudboots, etc.,
The garden is already a wee Scottish jungle, and I'm quietly hopeful for Summer. The fruit bushes and trees are already showing very willing, so we'll see. I think the frogs will get a good start though, and they're fun to spot around the place too.
M
I have three buckets full in my greenhouse, and they're growing there, but slowly. I spooned up five and put them into a big 5ltr jar on my kitchen windowsill. Those five are huge now. They're warmer, well fed, (they love the fleshy skins from courgettes
) and they're already sprouting legs. They're the size of big fat almonds with tails over an inch long. The ones in the greenhouse buckets, though fed, kept fresh, etc., are barely an inch long themselves and nowhere near ready to sprout legs.I've kind of planted up the buckets and jars with pond weed, sphagnum, rotted leaves and mossy stones, and Himself brought back a bottle of pond water that was hotching with daphnia, waterbeetles, etc., so that's all added to the health of things too.
It's been fun watching the five in the kitchen grow up. Better than tv
For siblings, they're all remarkably different, and I can tell them apart. I'm thinking I might sort of keep this handful if I can. Have them settle into the garden, maybe keep down my slug problem ? I think the rest will end up down the burn, with maybe a bagful back over the river when the rains come back again. We've had such a lovely dry month. It's been a real pleasure just to open the door and enjoy the outdoors without looking for wellies, cagoules, mudboots, etc., The garden is already a wee Scottish jungle, and I'm quietly hopeful for Summer. The fruit bushes and trees are already showing very willing, so we'll see. I think the frogs will get a good start though, and they're fun to spot around the place too.
M