BE#3 is a great-flavored snap bean. It's just not terribly productive in that stage, and there are many snap varieties which are better suited. After my crop failure in 2010, I am growing BE#3 again this year, in quantity... three 24-foot rows. Like all of my beans this year, they suffered from early stunting. After being planted on time, they germinated well, then just sat there for almost all of June. Still haven't positively identified the cause, but it affected many of my beans. Fortunately, BE#3 is fully recovered, has been growing vigorously, and now has a lot of pods in snap stage. It could be a stretch to get dry seed before frost, but I am hopeful. I want to return my seed stock to a level where I can again share it freely. By the way, my first planting this year was with seed saved from 2005, the year I first grew it. It was 'preferred' seed, the largest & healthiest that I separated out for that year. Age had taken its toll, only about 25% of that seed germinated. I culled out the seed saved from 2010 (about 75% was bad) and replanted with the good seed in the dead spots; those germinated almost 100%.

We've had a blue jay pair in our rhododendron. I've been watching since it's also about 6 feet from our front door, up against our house. I got mama a birdbath and food, which she never used. So her eggs hatched and I watched daddy feed her, and then her feed her babies. This was so precious. But now they're all gone. Could they be renesting? I've had my field cam on them but it's not revealing if daddy or mommy transported the babies. I havent seen any critters either. I was really hoping I would get to see the babies grow. I feel bad bc I am not sure if her babies made it. 😔

Welcome! First, nestboxes should never be mounted on fences, wooden posts, trees or anything else a predator can easily climb up. They should be mounted on slick metal poles (conduit) with predator baffles (wobbling stovepipe) and put up at least 15 feet away from any fence/tree or anything a predator can jump from. Your raccoon you relocated could be back anytime and or another raccoon could come by and see its happy meal sitting waiting on the fence for it. Please visit sialis.org for helpful information on properly mounting nestboxes and info on sparrow spookers/wren guards etc. If you see birds sitting with the Blues and not being chased away they are not wrens or HOSP. They are most likey House Finches which like to hang with Blues for some reason. However being you are on a farm with other farms around you probably most likely have HOSP around. A sparrow spooker will not scare the Blues away from their nesting and I would put one up asap, right after you move that box off that fence and to a safer spot about 15 feet away from the fence. Yes you can move an active nesting like this, the Blues won't abandon it because of moving it. As far as the TRES you can do the same with that box but you will need to be much more careful if there are eggs. It is really hard to see in their nests because of all the feathers but usually when it is loaded with feathers that means there are eggs in there. I just did a nestbox switch on an active Blues nesting because the momma blue laid seven eggs (which all hatched)in a smaller Gilwood style box, it has a 3 1/2" x 4 1/4" floor. I switched the nest to a larger box mounted on the same pole and had no problems with the adults accepting it. The nestlings were five days old. Good luck! Donna

I have to say those chicks need better nesting material under them. Clean straw or shredded newspaper would work if you can't buy nesting material at the pet store. You need to keep an eye on the youngest chick since the two older ones are going to get most of the food from the parents due to their size. Hopefully you have on hand some feeding syringes, or even a small spoon, so that you can handfeed the youngest chick as needed. If his crop always looks empty, give him some handfeeding formula or he may end up starving. If you're not comfortable handfeeding, you can move the oldest chick to a warm area for about an hour so that the youngest chicks get a little more food from the parents. So far their coloring and skin look really good, but I worry with the size difference. I stress using nesting material of some sort since you can see in the pics that the chicks aren't able to keep their feet under their bodies and they also look cold. Nesting material helps hold heat and will prevent leg splay.