No – I am not going to bake them like blackbirds in a pie. We have Barn Swallow nests all through the barns- I think they might be my favorite birds. And my constant companions as I work or walk in the gardens disturbing bugs for them to eat.
Barn Swallows eat insects, lots of insects but especially mosquitoes, and flies. Lots of flies.
A single Barn Swallow can consume 60 insects per hour or up to 850 per day.
So it stands to reason that more Barn Swallows are more better!
I was in the hen house gathering the eggs when I heard the distress calls of tiny birds.
I heard little baby chirping and turned to find four little barn swallows without feathers huddled against the wall on the floor of the chook house ( literally the most dangerous position in the world for a non chicken chick) chirping their heads off. And you know what those chooks would do if they found them.
So I emptied the eggs out of the bread banneton ( my favourite gathering basket) laying them in the straw then picked up each of the fledgelings and popped them into the basket. Contrary to popular opinion you can pick up wild chicks and put them back in the nest. Mama does not care. So with the little chicks chirping frantically in the banneton; I looked up for the nest. The ceiling in the chook house is very high but I could not see swallow nest.
Barn Swallow nests are always high in a building and they must have been in the rafters above the ceiling panels.
So I climbed up and placed the banneton with the chicks still inside as high up in the wall as I could.
Hoping Mama and Papa would find them. It was the best I could do. Sometimes we have to take that risk.
With little hope for their survival I gathered up the eggs into my dress and left them to it.
Barn Swallow Chicks
I came back the next morning to find that mama swallow has begin to create a nest in the basket. And everyone was fed and settled.
One swallow chick fell out yesterday and is gone. They are in the most dangerous position surrounded by omnivorous chickens. But the last three were still there this morning (Day Three of their great adventure) and getting bigger and have more feathers. So I think their parents are still feeding them.
Living in the wild is a risky business. But we will see they have a ways to go yet. I am surrounded in robin chicks hopping all over the place so I am optimistic that nature has a plan.
I let the chickens out early this morning. Best they are engaged elsewhere!
WaiWai and the flies
Tortured by biting flies (with barn swallows flying overhead) Wai wore his cloak all day yesterday. He moves so slowly that it remains in place for hours.
It cannot be tied on to him. He twitched and growled at me as I walked around him like a dress maker trimming the excess off his robes. If I try to attach anything he leaps up and runs away in distress. It might be that it reminds him of his attackers roping him up. So I follow his lead. And lay his blankets and covers gently on him.
It is there – do you see? on the top of his neck where the skin is so thin that the flies give him so much trouble. He is bloody from their bites. Can you see them? And his back and his rear.
His ears are the hardest to cover because he hates them to be covered, understandably. Poor old Wai. Covering up is the most successful option for him.
He managed to keep his dress on all day and went to bed pre-covered.
I have begun spraying iodine on his ears and wounds. Iodine helps a lot to deflect the flies too.
Now I just need to train his minders to cover him while I am away.
As a rule he spends all day sleeping in his room in the barn. He only comes out to eat. So he is easy.
Cows and calves
I have shut the door to the calf creep so the calves would move in with the big steer. He was feeling a bit lonely after his cow-friend was sold so this is a better arrangement.
He does tend to lie down flat out like a dog but the calves are big enough to get out of his way now.
Being the guardian of this many animals I need to make sure to lean on the gate and watch them as often as I can. Observation is key. I will work on rearranging the barn further today so the big pigs can get into the middle of the barn. They are thick skinned and not bothered by flies at all but I need to think ahead to the heat.
Weather
Have a lovely day!
Celi
PS The new website at TheKitchensGarden.org is now imminent. Even though I am still struggling with the internet – getting brackets to hold up the tower is beyond my pay grade so I must rely on help. But I have. a meeting with Duane today to check the last few things! Then we will do a Soft Launch with you all. As long as you are on my email list you will get to see it early. So make sure to get on that list! Love ya! c
The Kitchen's Garden 
43 responses to “Barn Swallows in a Banneton”
Poor old WaiWai, the Undercover Pig, who has to Duck & Cover! He has certainly had more than his share pain & agony & woe, but really after all, like Lou Gehrig who said after he got that disease they named after him which ended his stellar baseball career, Wai also knows He is the Luckiest Pig in the World!
Seeing those barn swallows in a banneton made my day!
They are pretty funny, and still there! When they are gone I will attach the banneton more securely to the wall – it may as well be a nest now! I am not rising bread in it again!
My farmer (Martin) told me a story about blackbird pie. He said he invited the bank manager to dinner and Heidi (Martin’s wife) made a beautiful pie – the bank manager thought it was delicious and asked for seconds. When he’d finished he asked what the pie was. When Heidi told him it was rook pie, he made a dash for the bathroom!
Haha – was it really rook pie? That is too funny. Is it like pigeon?
I think it really was rook pie. Many old recipes suggest that blackbird pie was actually rook.
I did eat blackbird once. I was at a garden party and the bird tried to fly through a window. We thought it was stunned, but it never came back to life. While it’s illegal to kill and eat songbirds, I couldn’t see any harm in eating one that had died by misadventure. It tasted like partridge.
Ha – your stories do make me laugh! I did not realise it was against the law to eat songbirds – when did that law happen? What about that dish where they place a bird inside a bird inside a bird and etc – or was that just for royals.
Songbirds were very popular food across Europe, with people trapping or shooting them in great numbers. I don’t think this was a big issue in 1900, but in more recent times people were shooting huge numbers of them, especially birds migrating from Africa to Europe. Therefore, there are laws to prevent them from becoming extinct.
It’s very different to game birds, who’s numbers are managed and even then there’s no shooting during Spring and Summer to protect the young.
In America, they credit Paul Prudhomme for the Turdeken, but there’s a much older dish dating back to 1807, called Rôti sans Pareil (“roast without equal”) – a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler.
The plover, lapwing, thrush, lark, ortolan bunting and garden warbler would no longer be allowed.
You must be the most caring farmer in the universe. Lucky little barn swallows(fingers crossed) and your continued loving care of that poor dear old pig. Iodine sounds like a plan. I had not heard of “barn” swallows before but apparently they are the same as the ones we call just swallows in the UK. Maybe it’s because we don’t have as many barns as you! Fingers still crossed re new launch.
Yes they are the most beautiful little birds – when they return I know that summer has finally arrived!
We had barn swallows on our farm too. They are wonderful little birds. We also had some in the underground parking garage in our apartment building in BC, Canada. We loved to watch them. When one resident wanted to get rid of them, my husband got very angry. They stayed and came back every year. I love the pig in a blanket!
Just tell people they eat mosquitos and everyone will want them! I am so glad you and your husband made sure they had a home to come back to! – Pig in a Blanket – snort!!
🐖🐷🐗
I have always loved swallows! I hope that I am on your email list — I would hate to miss your daily posts!
I checked and you weren’t on the list but you are now! Thank you for the reminder, Dana! Have a great day. c
The barn swallows are so cute!
They are very cute and I just visited them this minute and Mama and Papa have been leaving evidence of their visits – even since I gave them a hand building the nest so they could not fall out again and it seems to have worked.
Just checking that I’m on the list (I think I am)…barn swallows in a horse barn, not so great, but then I realized I just had to feed in a pan, not in the corner trough (duh).
Nope you were not on there either – unless you were using another email. I have loaded this one for you. The email address is hand made because WordPress does not give me the option to export all the emails – only a few of them. It depends how and when you signed up – all a great mystery. Thank you so much! I got you now!
Poor little pig. I’m so glad he came to live with you
Yes. I am glad too – and do you remember at the time I brought him here to die – he was in such a bad way and I did not want him dying in a cage in a basement of the Pig rescue place. They were so overwhelmed. Bless him.
Bless him and Bless You also 🙂
Thank goodness you helped the baby birds and the darling Wai Wai!
These baby birds are still alive and being fed by Mama (or Papa) so resilient!
OH MY that makes me sooooooooo happy! Thank you for your care! xoxo
Wai has just adapted so well to where his horrific life has taken him- straight to you C. He has his chickens (or perhaps they have him?) and his bed and blankets. What more does he need. Didn’t you used to put zinc ointment or something like that on his burned areas when they were still so fresh and just beginning to heal?
Yes – the zinc ointment is magic – I need to get come more when I am back in NZ. They don’t have the one I want here. Zinc is also excellent as a sun screen.
I have rehabbed a few barn swallows in my day. They have to be able to take insects on the wing before release, so they are an adventure to keep and rear. I’m glad you had a makeshift nest to put them in!
Have you read “Braiding Sweetgrass?” I think it would be right up your alley.
Yes! I am happy for Mama Swallow to do the work. I have not read Braiding Sweetgrass. I will find it! Thank you.
Add Braiding Sweetgrass to your airplane reading list. I think you will LOVE it. It’s all about taking care of the earth so it can take care of us. It’s beautifully written. The audiobook is read by the author.
That is the second time I have had this book recommended. I am taking MIL to the book shop today! We will look for it. It might be too new for a second hand store. Thank you Heather!!
I’ll be interested to hear what you think! It inspired me to make my footprint smaller. We only get one planet. It is 10 years old, so I bet you could find a used copy. I can’t remember when you’re leaving, but you might have time to order from Ebay if you can’t find it today?
I leave in a week. And yes! We only get one planet. And so do our wild life.
Ooooh I love finding books to read. Braiding Sweetgrass sounds good. And I love learning new words: banneton!! And love even more seeing the bright yellow mouths of barn swallows! Hope they survive. They must survive, thanks to you, Cecilia. Love, love, love seeing Wai. Precious Wai.
I hope I’m on your transfer list. If not, maybe you’d put me on patriciasolari59@gmail.com.
We too look for the barn swalliows each year… the bannetton was clever improvisation. I’m pretty sure you have my email address but thought I should mention it too. Looking forward to the reveal.
Yes! You are on my
List! Thank you! Dale.
I dearly love the barn swallows even though they poop on my horses and Winston the donkey. Once in a while I’ll have one that is very territorial and dive bombs my head when I’m out there. I have had to put a youngster back in the nest a couple of times so the horses don’t smush them. I have stopped using the super wide sticky sheets for fly control as a baby swallow once got stuck on one and died. Still feel badly about that. Have you considered a coating of petroleum jelly for Wai’s head? It can be messy but I know horse people who will put it on a mare’s udder if she’s nursing a foal, they don’t want to risk the foal ingesting fly repellant.