Dave, thanks so much for all your help, especially after my redundant post pertaining to the same subject in the vegetable forum... " Although some plants like tomatoes, eggplant, onions, and peppers won't do as well direct seeded as started from transplants - the ratio of seeds planted to plants that produce falls off substantially." I will definitely try to start those crops indoors.. However, if i'm not able to, how much of a difference are you talking? A few tomatoes, a whole crop? Do you get around the same yield, just later in the season? I'm more concerned with yield than i am using a few dozen more seeds. Still, it would be nice to save every seed i can, especially if sustenance growing.. "But many common vegetables perform much 10x better when direct seeded anyway - leafy greens, beans, squash, cukes, corn, carrots, beets, turnips, etc. assuming you pay proper attention to soil temps for planting times." This is the info I'm looking for.. I would like to be as efficient as possible. "True subsistence farming - if one has actual farm-sized space to work with and the time to devote to the crops and the knowledge to preserve those seasonal crops, is great and works well. But the average home gardener has neither the garden space nor the time required, not to mention the equipment and experience needed." I understand it is highly unrealistic, especially on my not even quarter acre property.. I plan on foraging for a good bit of my food as well.. I just want to be as self-reliable as possible, nothings perfect.. I'm not to proud to go to the market and buy necessities.. It just feels good to have some backbone..

Squirrels will kill adult birds at feeders also. When I lived around them I had squirrel baffles on the poles and all my feeders had grids. My platform feeder had a 1" grid over it also to keep out the starlings and cowbirds that bully the song birds. Keeping the feeders and birdhouses quite far from fences and trees helps also. Squirrels can jump really far. I have a friend who calls them flying rats. I also had a clear dome over one niger feeder. It's a lot of paraphernalia but I felt like I had to protect them if I was going to lure birds to the feeders. Here we have trouble with hawks that sit on the fence and wait for the quail and small birds to get distracted. There's kind of a downside to feeders and bird baths I guess. Birdhouses are easier to protect. Sounds like you have a good plan for the houses. So nice that you are looking out for the babies.

Yes, it's illegal as heck- AND, artificial incubation takes time, turning and moisture. The egg needs to be turned during incubation, as well as given moisture regularly. Not knowing which species you have doesn't help because when it does hatch, you won't know what to feed it, if it's altricial (helpless). If it's a precocial species (eyes open, fluffy and nearly walking, such as the case with ducklings, goslings, killdeer, quail and others), then getting it grains and insects of a natural quality will be difficult. In a desert environment, I wouldn't guess turtle. I might go for tortoise, but the egg isn't round, is it? Most turtle and tortoise eggs are round and soft like leather. Your best bet is, as everyone has said, to leave it alone. It's so hard not to want to help; it's an innate tendency within all of us to want to help. (Personally I think God put that within us so we wouldn't abandon our young or someone who is hurt). It's so strong in some of us that we become animal rescuers. In my case, I was a wildlife rehabilitator from 1986-2004. So I will repeat: hatching eggs artificially is extremely difficult, even when we *know* the species, without the proper incubator, without knowing the species, and without the right baby bird foods on hand. . . . Feather

To adhmumrgh: You create a contradiction in terms by writing "Cats are not domestic animals, humans have domesticated them." Cats are not domestic. Humans have domesticated them. You even claim to have domesticated a cat. Yet you state that cats are not domestic animals. What ???? ALL home/house/farm/ranch animals were (and mostly are) still found in the wild. This includes dogs, goats, horses, cows, sheep, et. al. Domestication is the process of adapting a wild animal (or plant) for human use. In the case of cats, that use is usually pleasure, companionship, or mousing. House cats and feral cats are of one species (Felis catus). Feral cats are house cats that have gone from domestication to the wild (the opposite direction of domestication), and any of their offspring. So, the great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of a house cat from 10 years ago is still Felis catus, even though her bloodline is largely from feral cats. She is no longer a domestic individual of a species that is largely domestic, and is considered feral. I have a cat that was a house cat (domesticated) that I got from a shelter. I also have a cat that was feral (not domesticated) that is now domesticated. So, counter to your original post, this cat is a domestic animal. Oh, and I domesticated it. As an aside, I keep both cats outside year round. They grow wonderful coats in the winter, they hunt, they anger me when they kill my songbirds, they play with my children, and are wonderful outdoor pets. There's very little I can do regarding their killing of my songbirds. The birds are wild, the cats still have wild instinct, and things like coyote spray, collars (break-away, or not) simply do not work. I've tried *everything* for 20+ years. I now accept, with grace, when one of my cats ceremoniously deposits a dead cardinal at my feed after she's viciously killed it -- it's a gift, and it's a cat. :-) Cheers!