Types of artificial bird nests. Nesting houses for birds. Nests for gray geese

March in the yard. It is high time to take care of the nesting places for the bird population of the district. What kind of birds do we want to see in our garden?

The great tit and the blue tit are real gardener's helpers, one of the most useful birds in forestry and park management. If you regularly fed your titmouse in the winter, then in the spring they will not forget the way to your garden. But no matter how hospitable the feeder may be, tits will not remain in the garden or in the park if there is not a hollow, a house suitable for building a nest.

Most often, people make nesting houses for starlings - birdhouses (they are also willingly inhabited by sparrows). Undoubtedly, the starling deserves to build a house for him. One starling brood in 5 days can eat about 1000 May beetles and their larvae, not counting the huge number of caterpillars and slugs. Observations of ornithologists say that the starling most often hunts not in the garden near the house, but in the nearest forest or in the field, while the titmouse works only in the area where its nest is located. So - choose. Maybe, first of all, to help small birds? Such as blue tit, garden redstart, pied flycatcher, white wagtail. These birds usually settle in hollows, and few people remember them in the spring, which is a pity. My opinion: you need to attract as many small birds as possible to gardens, parks, squares and shelterbelts, and leave villages and the outskirts of forest parks for starlings. It is most correct if for every five houses for small birds hang out one birdhouse. Such a measure will keep the starling in our gardens and yards, but will reduce its numbers. There is another, very original, method of keeping the number of starlings within reasonable limits. The fact is that in a spacious standard house a pair of starlings raises three to six chicks, and in a cramped birdhouse with a bottom area of ​​​​12x12 centimeters (as in a natural hollow) - two or three.

The material for nesting houses can be any dry board with a thickness of at least 1.5 centimeters (2-2.5 centimeters is best), as well as tessellations, slabs, solid logs or logs with a hollow. Thin boards and plywood are unsuitable: they are short-lived, warp quickly. You can make a hollow out of a log, but compared to a house, it has no advantages, and it is much more difficult to make it.

From the outside of the house, the boards can be planed, but from the inside they cannot be processed: it is very difficult for chicks (and even adult birds) to get out on a smooth surface. If the boards turn out to be smooth, then before assembling the house on its front wall - from the inside, below the notch - it is necessary to make horizontal notches with a chisel or knife. Outside, under the entrance, no sills are needed, the birds do remarkably well without them. It is good if there is a branch near the tree house: tits and flycatchers, before flying into the nest, like to sit on the sidelines and look around. The letok is drilled with a brace or hollowed out with a narrow chisel. If there is nothing to cut a round hole, let it be square. To do this, saw off the upper corner of the front wall. The titmouse differs from the birdhouse primarily in the diameter of the notch. To inspect the house before the arrival of birds and clean it from the remnants of last year's nest, the roof is made removable, strengthening it so that neither the wind nor the crow can bring it down. The simplest fastening option is to pull the lid to the house with wire, the more complex one is the spikes provided in the design of the side walls and the roof. A flat roof with a slight slope back is more rational, a gable roof will begin to leak faster.

When assembling the house, first a bar is nailed to the back wall, with which the nesting box is attached to a tree or pole. The side walls are nailed to the bottom, then the front and, finally, the back with a bar. To fasten the walls to the bottom, it is better to use not nails, but screws. We must try to make the house firmly knocked down, without cracks. If any are formed, they are caulked with tow or smeared with clay.

The houses begin to be hung in February, as some sedentary and nomadic birds (sparrows, tits, nuthatches) look for nesting places very early. In the central zone of the European part of Russia, the latest hanging date is the end of March. Flycatcher houses can be hung up until the end of April. Best time for hanging titmice - autumn: by spring, the nesting place will darken, become part of the tree.

The feathered house should be modest and inconspicuous, hanging vertically or with a slight inclination forward. Birdhouses suspended with a tilt back, as a rule, are not populated.

Sparrows and starlings are the least "picky" about the appearance of artificial nests. Other birds do not like to settle in bright or freshly planed houses. Before hanging, they are painted with a strong solution of potassium permanganate or lightly coated with earth. Pied flycatcher often ignores the house darkened over the years. But it is worth whitewashing it inside with chalk - and the situation will change. The great tit, on the contrary, prefers twilight in the nest. Birdhouses can be painted on the outside with oil paint.

In noisy, crowded places - parks, squares - nesting places for birds should be placed higher: birdhouses - 5-6, titmouse - 4 meters from the ground. In a calm garden setting, a titmouse can hang at a height of 2 meters.

Unlike the starling, the great tit is very selective in its choice of nesting sites. It is better to make a house for her from thick boards and also without cracks. It is advisable to cover the titmouse in the crown of the tree, but the branches should not close the notch. Neither tits, nor flycatchers, nor redstarts like open, wind-blown, sunny places. The wagtail differs in that it cannot cling to vertical surfaces with its paws - therefore, it never settles in birdhouses. But if you make a special house and hang it under the eaves of a non-residential wooden building, a pair of wagtails will willingly build a nest there.

There are different ways to attach nests to a tree. The simplest option is this. Outside, a 6-7-cm nail is driven into the side walls of the house exactly in the middle of the cut of the back wall, retreating from above by 1/3 of the entire length of the wall. The nail is driven in from the bottom up. The end of a hemp rope or soft wire (aluminum should be insulated) is wound around one of the nails, thrown over the roof, slightly pulled and brought under the second nail. Then they cover the trunk or thick bough of the tree with a rope and fix the end on the nail. For this kind of fastening, old electrical cords are good.

To hang the house, you need a light 4-meter ladder. It's better to work in pairs. You can make a loop at the ends of the rope in advance and put them on nails when hanging. The rope on the tree is placed obliquely to the shaft of the trunk, and not across it.

Where should the letok of the house look? In a park where winds and rains are held back by trees, it is not necessary to strictly follow the direction of the entrance. Before you hang a nesting box in an open place, you need to determine exactly which side in your area in summer rains and winds most often come.

A properly made house can serve as birds for several years.

bird houses
( Dimensions are in centimeters)

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan

Municipal state-financed organization

additional education

"Children's Ecological and Biological Center"

artificial nests"

Compiled by: PDO

Birdina A.F.

2016

In the middle of the XIX century. German zoologist Gloger was one of the first to propose the use of a birdhouse as a means of protecting and attracting birds in European countries. At the same time, there is evidence that the first birdhouses in Europe began to be made as early as the 16th century. At the same time, not only practical goals were pursued (at that time, the benefits brought by starlings as exterminators of harmful insects were already known), but also aesthetic and religious-cult goals.

Birdhouses, 18th century

In the middle and second half of the XX century. the hanging of bird houses in order to attract birds and increase their numbers, primarily in the centers of mass reproduction of pests and in human settlements, has become especially widespread.

The use of artificial nests to attract birds has a long history. According to G.P. Dementiev, the first birdhouses in Russia appeared several centuries ago. Copies of birdhouses made by Vologda peasants in the late 18th - early 19th centuries have been preserved. (Fig. 1). P.S. Pallas in his "Zoography" (1811) writes about the custom of Russian peasants to hang birdhouses as a ubiquitous phenomenon.

MAIN ELEMENTS OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES
An artificial house for birds, an artificial nesting place (hereinafter simply an artificial house) is a structure created by a person in which a bird arranges (viets) its nesting place. All artificial houses have a number of basic elements, independent of the type of house.
* Letok - a hole for the bird to enter the house.
* The front wall is the wall in which there is a notch.
* The back wall is the wall to which the pole is fixed, or the wall that leans against the tree.
* All other vertical walls are called side walls.
* The chamber is the internal volume of the artificial house.
* A pole is a plank used to attach an artificial house to a tree, etc.
* A fragment is an element of an artificial house made of wood.
* A suspension unit is a mechanical fastening of the elements of an artificial house.
* The connecting element is called: nails, screws, etc.
* A gain node is a set of elements used in this place seam for increased strength. May be: metal tapes, wire and other elements.
* A seam is the plane of contact between two load-bearing elements.
* A porch is a name for various devices at the notch.
* Bearing elements are called front, rear, side walls, bottom, suspension unit.
* A brand is a small metal, plastic plate indicating the year of manufacture, manufacturer, place of manufacture, individual number.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES
The main material for the manufacture of artificial houses are boards and slabs. Plywood, chipboard, fiberboard are not suitable due to the presence of an adhesive bonding base in them. In the manufacture of an artificial house, a number of basic requirements must be met.
* The thickness of the material is not less than 15 millimeters.
* Compliance with the main dimensions given in the tables.
* Do not process the planes of the boards, especially for internal surfaces.
* Seal cracks in the seams with sawdust on PVA and small chips. To prevent the seal from spreading from above, the seams are treated with waterproof agents: plasticine, green paint.
* Ensure reliable connection of load-bearing elements.
* The presence of two pairs of holes in the pole for fastening with wire and nails.
* Existence of a removable roof with a lining.
It is recommended that the following recommendations be followed.
* In places of attachment points, pre-drill a hole 1 mm smaller than the diameter of the connecting element.
* Use sharp screws as a connecting element.
* Houses with round entrances are better inhabited by birds than rectangular houses.
* Sometimes large motley woodpeckers gouge the entrances of titmouses (in winter, in order to adapt titmouses for themselves for the night; in summer, to get chicks of small birds from the nest). To protect against woodpeckers, 8–10 small carnations with caps are hammered around the entrance, or a piece of tin is stuffed into the entrance from the outside with a hole cut in the middle for the entrance (the diameter of the hole is slightly larger than the diameter of the entrance in the titmouse).
* When designing an artificial house for a bird not listed in the table, it is necessary to take into account: the area of ​​the bottom should ensure the location of the nest in the house (the size of the inside is calculated from the size of the nest with a small allowance), birds are more likely to populate the house when the notch corresponds to its size and other features bird nesting.
CLASSIFICATION OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES
1. Type: Standard artificial houses.
1. Subtype: Birdhouses.
2. Subtype: Titmouse.
2. Type: Multi-family artificial houses.
1. Subtype: Multi-storey.
2. Subtype: Multi-section.
3. Subtype: Mixed.
3. Type: Experimental artificial houses.
1. Subtype: With modified basic parameters.
2. Subtype: With modified suspension system.
3. Subtype: Reshaped.
4. Subtype: With the use of additional devices.
5. Subtype: Multifamily.
6. Subtype: For a new inhabitant.
7. Subtype: Mixed.
4. Type: Artificial houses with decoration.
1. Subtype: Standard.
2. Subtype: Multifamily.
3. Subtype: Special.
to the first type include artificial houses designed for starlings, tits, goldeneyes, owls, rollers, hoopoes, sparrows, redstarts, pied flycatchers, blue titmouse, vertishes, nuthatches, gadki, grenadiers. It looks like a house. Character traits:
* has four walls in pairs parallel - back, front and two side;
* are intended for settlement by one family;
* in the mount - a pole.Birdhouses and titmouses have no structural differences, but differ in their size and diameter of the notch. We will conditionally assume that birdhouses include houses with an internal bottom area of ​​​​more than 144 cm2, titmouses of 144 cm2 or less.
to the second type include artificial houses intended for settlement by a colony of birds. They are mainly intended for swifts, swallows, sparrows, etc. Feature: several chambers for nesting. Subtypes have a clear distinction.
to the third type include artificial houses in which various new elements are introduced. An example of such elements are: houses for birds not described in the table; attachment points, etc. It is desirable to fill in the accompanying sheet of the house and new elements according to the model. Subtypes have a clear distinction. It is allowed to use various new elements with a separate description of each.
to the fourth type include artificial houses that have different decorations, namely: painting, carving, etc. Since the main dimensions do not change, the subtypes are clearly delineated.

DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFICIAL HOUSES I type. Standard artificial houses.
This type includes artificial houses intended for settlement by starlings and tits (birdhouses, titmouses). They are the main type of artificial bird houses. The manufacture is not laborious, does not require high-quality wood and complex mechanical or manual processing. Convenient to transport and hang.
Both subtypes have the same basic construction. The main differences are in the inhabitant, and as a result, in size. The name says for which inhabitants these artificial houses are mainly intended. But they can be populated not only by starlings and tits, but also by other birds of similar size and nesting in artificial nests. In this regard, it is difficult to draw a specific boundary between birdhouses and titmouses.
MAIN OPTIONS
In the manufacture of both subtypes, the main options are associated with the attachment point and the roof.
The fastening is used in two types: with a double-sided pole (Fig. 1) and a one-sided pole (Fig. 2).
Double-sided pole attachment provides a more secure attachment to trees, walls, etc. It is easier to work with when hanging artificial houses.
Fastening with a one-sided pole is used for fastening artificial houses on poles, to increase the height of the artificial houses. When using this subtype of fastening, special attention must be paid to fastening the pole to the artificial house.
Roofs are mainly used in three types: flat (Fig. 3), sloping (Fig. 4), gable (Fig. 5).
A flat roof is simple and easy to manufacture, it allows for the cleaning of the house, which is extremely necessary after three to four years of operation. Provides reliable protection of the notch from precipitation. To attach the roof to the house, a roof lining is used, which fits tightly enough into the house. The roof is not attached to the house with nails.
The sloping roof is used for variety. It is more labor intensive to make. Does not reliably cover the letok.
The gable roof provides better protection for the house from rain. During manufacture, a metal lining is required at the junction of the halves of the roof. In the manufacture of a removable roof, the lining is attached to both halves.

MANUFACTURING.

Having determined the type of artificial house that you are going to make, proceed to the layout.
The chamber must be of standard size and is taken from the table in accordance with the type of bird for which the nest is being built. In the manufacture of variation houses, the dimensions of the chamber remain standard, plus additional allowances are added to them.
Example: we choose an artificial house with a sloping roof for a titmouse.
Front wall: 14+2 cm.
Back wall: 14 cm.
Side walls: 14+2 cm.
Roof: 240/(10+4) = X/C (142+22).
In the manufacture of standard artificial houses, there are quite a few different ways associated with certain skills, available tools and materials. We present the main manufacturing algorithm and analyze one of the methods.
Algorithm for manufacturing a standard artificial house.
1. Preparatory stage.
1. Choosing the type of standard artificial house.
2. The choice of materials for a standard artificial house.
3. Calculation of fragments of a standard artificial house (length, width).
4. Marking fragments of a standard artificial house.
2. Processing the details of a standard artificial house.
3. Assembly of a standard artificial house.
From my practice, I can recommend the following manufacturing method.
1. We make a standard artificial house with a double-sided pole and a flat roof for a titmouse.
2. The material is boards 2 cm thick.
3. Bottom, lining under the roof 10x10 cm; side walls 20x10 cm; front and back walls 20x14 cm; roof 20x16 cm; notch diameter 3.2 cm; notch center height 14 cm; pole 40x4x2 cm.
4. Marking is carried out on 4 boards. It is advisable to choose flat boards to facilitate marking and processing. On the first board mark the bottom, lining under the roof, side walls. The front and back walls are marked on the second board, the roof is marked on the third board, and the pole is marked on the fourth. To save materials, boards are chosen 5–10 mm wider than the width of the fragments. Between the fragments leave an allowance of 5-10 mm for processing.
2. The boards are sawn according to the marking into fragments. Turning the side edges and ends, bring them to the desired size. A notch and holes for nails are drilled in the front wall.
3. The assembly is carried out in the following order: the pole is attached to the rear wall, the left and right walls are mounted to the rear wall, the front wall is mounted to the left and right walls, the bottom is adjusted and mounted, the lining is adjusted to the roof and mounted to the roof. If there are gaps, they are sealed with sawdust on PVA and covered with plasticine on top or painted over with oily, waterproof green paints. Reinforce seams if necessary. A stamp is made and attached to the side wall.
II type. Multi-family artificial houses.
Multi-family artificial houses are designed for birds that prefer to nest together (swallows). In the manufacture of quite laborious, require careful processing. Special conditions for transportation are required. When hanging, experienced teams and at least two people are required for hanging.
Subtype Multi-storey.
It is a modified standard house. Simplistically, it can be imagined as several birdhouses stacked on top of each other. Usually intended for two bird families.
In production, it is distinguished by the fastening of the intermediate bottom before fastening the front wall. Otherwise, the manufacturing process is similar to the manufacturing process of a standard house.
Subtype Multisection.
It is a modified standard house. Simplistically, it can be imagined as several birdhouses interconnected by side or rear walls. The number of families is determined by the type of birds and the place of hanging.
In the manufacture of multi-section houses, the main load-bearing element is the bottom. The outer walls are common for most cells. In the manufacture of them, it is desirable to use one board. Mounting points can be of two types: hanging on a wire (like a chandelier), or fastening with poles (1-2 or more, depending on the dimensions of the house).

Various materials can be used to make artificial nests: cement, clay, scraps of asbestos pipes, etc. However, boards, boards and tree trunks with a drilled core remain the traditional and best material. The thickness of the boards for the manufacture of bird houses should be at least 1.5, and preferably 2.5 cm. From the outside, the boards should be planed, but their inner surface should be left unplaned, rough. Overall plan sawing and assembly of artificial nests is shown in fig. 2 and 3.

Rice. Fig. 2. Knocking together a titmouse with an internal size of 10 x 10 cm from a board of different widths (top view): a - “normal” knocking together; b - with a corner sawn taphole; c - from a tesa of the same width; d - nailing with folding

Rice. 3. Making a birdhouse. Legend:
A - the outer length and width of the house; a - length and width of the bottom;
B - the outer height of the house; b - distance from the bottom to the lid;
B - width and G - length of the cover; t is the thickness of the material (boards); l - taphole diameter

The lid of the birdhouse must be made inclined to one side, which will ensure that rainwater drains. It is not worth making a gable roof - firstly, it complicates the manufacture of the birdhouse itself, and secondly, it is much more difficult to make a gable roof removable. Meanwhile, the ability to remove the cover and remove nest debris once a year is necessary condition regular settlement of the birdhouse. For nailing boards, it is better to use nails 5–7 cm long. You need to assemble the house so as not to leave gaps, the presence of which many birds cannot stand. If the cracks still remain, then they are smeared with clay or covered with wood chips, nailed with small carnations. It is better to insert the bottom inside and nail it through the walls, and not from below - otherwise it will quickly fall off. The gaps between the bottom and the side walls, if they remain, are plugged with tow, cotton wool or rags, and a certain amount of sawdust is poured onto the bottom of the birdhouse. A plank is nailed to the back wall of the house, with the help of which the nesting box is nailed to the tree or tied with aluminum wire. Outside, the birdhouse is painted with soft oil paint, which significantly extends its service life.

In front of the notch, you should not stuff any planks and "porches", and even more so thin perches. However, on the side of the birdhouse it is useful to nail a small branch that rises above the roof to sit down flying birds. According to the established tradition, in the nests intended for starlings, the notch is made round and drilled at the very top of the front wall, and in the titmouses it is square and sawn through in the upper right or left corner. It should be noted that with all the variety of artificial nesting sites, these two types remain the two main and most common: the “titmouse” and the larger “birdhouse”. Of course, not only starlings and tits settle in them, but also other hollow-nesting birds, which these houses suit in size. However, it is possible to arrange houses and even larger or, conversely, smaller sizes. In table. 1 shows the sizes of artificial nests recommended for different types birds (according to K.N. Blagosklonov).

Hollows are a special type of artificial nesting sites. They can be with an added bottom and dugout. In places where foresters fell hollow trees, segments of hollows of a suitable height are cut from fallen trunks, in which a notch is drilled from the side in the upper part. Then an attached bottom is nailed from below, and a removable cover is made from above. It is much more difficult to make a hollow out of a split block of wood by hollowing out the contour of the hollow from its two halves and then tying them with wire. A simplified technology for the manufacture of hollows was proposed by V. Strokov. He recommends cutting out the core of a block of logs split into four parts, and then putting the remaining parts together again and fastening them with wire and nails. The internal dimensions of the hollows are indicated in Table. 2. It should be noted that nest boxes are no better than nests made from boards, and it is more difficult to make them in a school workshop. The only advantage is that in the first year, nest boxes are populated better than box nests, as fresh wood scares away some birds. In order to avoid this, ornithologists suggest rubbing freshly made nest boxes with clay or earth. A few general recommendations about hanging artificial nests.

In the forest, it is better to place them along clearings, roads or paths, but at some distance. At the same time, it must be remembered that starlings prefer to settle on the edges and therefore an exception must be made for them. It is advisable to hang birdhouses with an inclination forward - so it will be easier for the chicks to get out. Nests are best located on the main trunks of trees and in those parts of the crown where there are no branches. In crowded nesting places, nesting places should be hung higher: in a secluded place, tits can nest at a height of 3 m from the ground, while in open places, houses for them should be located at a height of 4–6 m. However, a titmouse located above 8 m, even in a city park will be inhabited only by sparrows and pied flycatchers. Nests for goldeneyes are hung near ponds on tall trees, nests for jackdaws and owls, kestrels, owls - high on trees or on brick buildings. Depending on the biotope and the nature of the area, both a certain density and the ratio of different types of nesting sites must be observed. So, in the garden, titmouses should make up 3/4 of the total number of nesting sites, and in a village with rare trees near fields and vegetable gardens, on the edge, on the contrary, birdhouses should prevail.

duplyanka

birdhouse

In a mixed forest with a density of 10 titmouses per 1 ha and a hanging height of 3–8 m, one can expect active colonization of nesting sites by pied flycatchers, great tits, blue titmouse, chickadees and grenadiers. In young deciduous and mixed forests with a density of 2–3 titmouse per 1 ha and a hanging height of 4–8 m, mass nesting of pied flycatchers can be expected. In a clean forest without undergrowth, with a density of 5–10 titmouses per 1 ha and a hanging height of 4–8 m, nesting of pied flycatchers, great tits, nuthatches, chickadees and grenadiers can be expected. In the old orchard, with a hanging density of up to 20 titmouse per 1 ha and a hanging height of 2–6 m, pied flycatchers, great tits, redstarts, and field sparrows will nest in the mass. In rural-type settlements, on the outskirts of small towns, on individual trees near fields and vegetable gardens with a density of 2–5 titmouses per 1 ha and a hanging height of 4–8 m, mainly field and house sparrows will nest. Pied flycatchers, redstarts, field and house sparrows nest in large city parks without undergrowth at a density of 3–5 titmouses per 1 ha and a hanging height of 5–8 m. And, finally, on city boulevards and in squares with a density of 2–3 titmouse per 1 ha and a hanging height of 5–8 m, house sparrows will mainly settle, although in a small number one can expect settlement of houses also by pied flycatchers, redstarts and field sparrows .

When celebrating Bird Day during the spring school holidays, from about the end of March to the beginning of April, it is necessary to arrange nesting at this time. The latest hanging dates are allowed until mid-April, but birdhouses - until the end of March. Hanging nests in May, you can still attract late-arriving pied flycatchers. Nests, hung out in autumn, attract tits, which spend the night in them in winter and remain nesting in spring.

And one more important rule. Schools organizing the hanging of birdhouses in large numbers should keep a regular record of the birds settling in them, taking into account the size of the house, the place and height of the hanging, and the nature of the surrounding area. In addition to being a good base for extracurricular activities and environmental education, the material collected from year to year will be of great value to the school museum and biology room, and eventually ornithologists will be able to use it.

Last year I worked as a technology teacher at school, unfortunately my passion for project activities turned out to be unclaimed. The state is doing a lot to create the image of a Trudovik - an alcoholic, a loafer, or an illiterate person who knows only the technology of making stools. My post is not about that.

Soon, namely April 1st, the International Day of Birds will come. On this day, many nature lovers prepare houses for the birds, which, often with their children, are hung in parks, on their own plots and in forests. This post is dedicated to how to make a bird house.

Artificial bird nest

We often call all artificial nesting places birdhouses, there is, but still, only a grain of truth in this. An artificial nest is an artificial structure designed to accommodate nests, but not only starlings make beds in them for their offspring. [Rice. one; Rice. 2; Rice. 3] Artificial nests are divided into open and closed. [Rice. 4] Closed nests are made in the form of wooden boxes (houses) and are usually intended for birds nesting in hollows. [Rice. 5]

Rice. 4 Open and closed artificial nests

Rice. 6 Starling on an artificial nest

Rice. 9 Various forms of artificial nests

Often, artificial nests are set up to monitor nesting and support populations of more or less rare bird species in the absence of natural nesting sites, instilling love for nature and work in children. In the USSR, there was a practice of involving schoolchildren in the manufacture of birdhouses at labor lessons. Every year, since 1924, on April 1, the Day of Birds is held in our country, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren participate in the manufacture and hanging of bird houses. It is believed that the number of bird houses in Russia is increasing every year by at least half a million. [Rice. ten]

Rice. 10 Titmouse at the titmouse

Birdhouses and titmouses - modifications and placement

The most popular artificial nesting sites for small birds are birdhouses and titmouses. They are traditionally made in the form of wooden houses with a round or rectangular notch. [Rice. 11] A variant of a birdhouse or a titmouse is also a nest box [Fig. 12] - a nesting place in the form of a piece of a tree trunk with a hollowed out core, closed from above and below. A nest box can also be made from a block of wood by splitting it into four parts. [Rice. 13]

For the manufacture of titmouses and birdhouses, boards with a width of 10 to 20 cm will be needed. For each "house" they make the bottom and the sleeve of the lid, the lid, the front and back walls, and the side walls. A notch is drilled in the front wall. To fix the structure on a tree, a piece of board is attached to the back wall, which is tied with twine to a tree or nailed to a wall or fence. [Rice. fourteen]

It is best to make a titmouse or a birdhouse from boards (chops) 2–2.5 cm thick (but not less than 1.5 cm), plywood is not suitable for this. Firstly, it is very fragile and begins to delaminate from bad weather, and secondly, plywood perfectly transmits sounds. Most birds do not like noise, and therefore plywood houses are very reluctant to settle. In addition, plywood houses can do a disservice to birds, since when cold weather sets in, the temperature in them drops sharply.

The boards must be well dried, they can be planed, but only from the outside. If both sides are planed, then it will be very difficult for the bird to get out along the smooth inner wall.

The letok is best made round, placing it from the lid at a distance approximately equal to the diameter of the letok. It can also be square; for this, the upper corner is cut off on the front wall of the box in the form of a square.

The cover of titmice and birdhouses must be made removable. In order for the nesting place to serve for a long time, it must be cleaned, otherwise it will be filled with old bird nests right up to the notch.

The essential difference between a birdhouse and a titmouse is only in size. The sizes of nesting sites are determined by three indicators: bottom area, depth (i.e., the distance from the bottom to the tap hole) and the size of the tap hole itself. Titmouses in design, as well as birdhouses, can be very diverse in shape, design and size. Several types of tits live in central Russia: the great tit, the blue tit, the moskovka, the crested tit, the brown-headed tit, the long-tailed tit, the gray-headed tit, etc., therefore, the sizes of two types of titmouses are taken as a basis: the great titmouse [Fig. 15] and small titmouse [Fig. 16]. A comparative analysis of the sizes of the most popular artificial nests is given in the table.

Comparative analysis of the main dimensional indicators of the most popular artificial nests

	inside bottom dimension	distance from the entrance to the bottom	taphole diameter
Sk vorechnik	14 - 15 cm.	15 - 20 cm.	4.5 - 5 cm.
Big titmouse	12 - 14 cm.	15 - 20 cm.	3 - 3.5 cm.
Small titmouse		10 - 15 cm.

Given that the most typical species of tits in the green zone of the city of Naryan-Mar is the brown-headed tit [Fig. 17] and the grey-headed chickadee [Fig. 18], in the manufacture of a bird house, we will use standard dimensions for a small titmouse as dimensions.

Additional Information

BROWN-HEADED GAITCH (Parus montanus), or puffy, is a small gray nondescript bird. Puffy is named for the manner of strongly fluffing plumage in cold weather.The head is black on top with a brown tinge; the cap goes far back, capturing and occipital region. This cap is black, so the name “brown-headed tit” rather indicates the similarity of this bird with the black-headed tit (the latter has a darker cap). The back, shoulders, loin and rump are gray with a brownish tinge. The sides of the head and neck are white, with a black spot on the throat. The ventral side is off-white, with a pale rufous tinge on the flanks and undertail. Flight feathers and tail feathers are grayish-brown.

Medium-sized, large-headed, rather long-tailed tit, length 12-14 cm, weight 9-14 g, wingspan 16-22 cm.

The brown-headed tit is widespread in the lowland and mountain forests of the northern hemisphere: in North America, Europe (except for its southern regions), in the northern parts of Asia, in the Caucasus, Sakhalin and the Japanese Islands. A sedentary, partly nomadic bird, flying during migrations outside the nesting range both in the north and in the south.

Compared to the highways and blue tit, even the Muscovy, the powder gravitates less to anthropogenic landscapes, less often appears in settlements. However, she willingly visits feeders in forest parks and on the outskirts of cities, is very careless, quickly gets used to taking food from her hands.

The maximum known age is 9 years. Chicks are usually hatched by couples in a row for only 2-3 years, sometimes up to five years. A common species in most of the range, in the taiga it dominates in numbers over other tits. And in general, various types of nuts in some places (for example, in the Leningrad, Moscow regions) are one of the most (if not the most) numerous birds, especially if we talk about the winter forest.

Gaichki always keep in pairs, formed, apparently, in the fall. In March, the birds start looking for nesting sites. They nest in coniferous or mixed forests, choosing areas of spruce or pine plantations. Unlike other types of tits, the brown-headed titmouse itself can hollow out a hollow in trees with soft, easily decaying wood under natural conditions (aspen, alder, birch). The hollow hollowed out by a nut differs from the hollows of woodpeckers by the irregular shape of the inlet and small internal dimensions: the diameter of the widest (lower) part of the hollow is 5.5-9 cm, the height is about 18 cm, the diameter of the notch is 2.5-3 cm. from 4-5 to 10-12 days.

Puffs nest in hollows, which they almost always hollow out themselves. Only in case of failure, they occupy ready-made shelters, most often using the hollows of crested tits, the lesser spotted woodpecker, or their own old hollows. In artificial nesting places, puffs settle extremely rarely. Several nests are known, found in very unusual places - under the roots of trees, in old nests of thrushes, in a slit-like half-hollow, in the trunk of a spruce at the place of work of the zhelny. These examples indicate that, despite specialization (gouging hollows), puffies still retain the elements of behavior characteristic of the entire group of tits. First, the couple lays several hollows in different places and pounding them one by one, but then focusing on pounding one.

The construction of the nest is very intensive: there are 12-14 arrivals to the hollow with building material per hour. However, every 1-2 hours, the birds usually stop building for a few hours.

In the time free from building a nest and during the laying of eggs by the female, the couple spends most of the time preparing food. On average, it takes about 3 days to build the nest itself.

The material from which the nest is made is very different. More often, the nest is made of thin, soaked bast fibers, small chips, thin dry roots and stems, dried moss plants, wool of various animals (only thin, short and soft hairs). Less commonly, the nest is composed of scales from pine trunks and birch bark films with a small admixture of dried plants and wood chips; sometimes eggs are laid directly on the bottom of the hollow, on which, in this case, a lot of wood dust and chips are poured.

Having completed the inner lining of the hollow, the female waits 1-5 days and then lays 6-11 (usually 7-9) white eggs with reddish-brown spots. Only the female incubates the eggs for 13-15 days. All this time the male feeds the female. Like most other tits, the chicks do not hatch at the same time, but usually over a period of 2 days. On the first day after the chicks hatch, the female almost does not fly out of the hollow: she warms the chicks and the remaining eggs; the male carries the food. On the second day, the female is already more involved in feeding the chicks, and on the third day, she begins to regularly feed the chicks along with the male. In the future, the female heats the chicks during the day, only when it is cold. The female spends the night in the nest with the chicks.

Chicks usually stay in the nest for 19 days. The male together with the female bring food to the nest up to 250-300 times a day. Butterfly caterpillars, spiders, and sawfly larvae play the main role in the chick feeding of the puff. Brown-headed chicks feed their chicks somewhat less frequently than other tits. But at one time they can bring up to 43 food objects.

After the chicks leave the nest (in the middle part of the range this happens at the end of May), adults feed them for 7-10 days. Then the birds are kept in a family flock, usually consisting of 2 old and 7-9 young birds. In July, such family flocks unite with other species of tits, kinglets and some other birds into large flocks wandering through the forest.

Young brown-headed titmouse leave their native area soon after gaining independence and, after a short journey, settle in other areas, joining pairs of adult birds living here. Here they spend the winter in one flock.

In autumn and winter, chickadees can be found in all types of forests; with the onset of cold weather, they also appear in city parks, gardens, and in bushes along the banks of water bodies. However, they still gravitate toward coniferous trees. Unlike all other types of tits, chickadees quite often hollow out the bark and thin branches, extracting, like woodpeckers, secret-living insects.

Great Tit (Parus major) [Fig. 20], or the big one. Common widespread bird. Currently, in the Northwest, the great tit is noticeably increasing its numbers.

The dorsal side is yellowish green, the ventral side is yellow with a wide black stripe along the chest and belly. The upper side of the head, the sides of the neck, the throat and the adjacent part of the goiter are brilliant black with a bluish steel sheen, the sides of the head are white. The wing is grayish-blue with a light transverse stripe. The tail is blackish with a bluish bloom.

The great tit is one of the largest representatives of the family: its body length is 130-165 mm, its weight is about 20 g.

The tit is a sedentary bird, and only partially it roams. In spring it returns to nesting places in the second half of February - early March. Titmouse settle in a wide variety of forest stands, but they prefer to nest in deciduous forests. Nests are built in hollows of woodpeckers, less often in rotten wood of a tree in place of a fallen branch, behind lagging bark, in crevices of wooden buildings, in old squirrel nests, between thick branches and branches that form the skeleton of an old nest of birds of prey, as well as in other closed places, usually at a height of 2-6 m from the ground. Near human habitation, the great tit can arrange nests in the most unexpected places. There are known cases of nesting of these birds in cast-iron railings, in a pumping pipe, in street lighting poles, in hollow metal pipes of fences, in mailboxes, behind the lining of building walls, inside the muzzle of an artillery gun and even in the skull of a camel! And of course, highways willingly settle in nesting places made by man.

Both birds of a pair build a nest within 4-7 days. In rainy springs, the construction of individual nests is sometimes delayed for 10-12 days. Tits are sometimes dragged into large hollows up to 200 g building material, trying to fill them with all the internal space of the bottom. The nest is usually built from thin twigs, roots, dry grass stalks, moss, lichens, as well as plant fluff, feathers, tufts of wool, cocoons and webs of spiders and insects. In urban conditions, wool, cotton wool, threads, blades of grass, and feathers are often found in the material of nests. The tray is lined with horsehair, soft fur of various animals and soft feathers.

During the breeding season, there are usually two clutches: the first, consisting of 9-15 eggs, in April; the second, of 7-11 eggs, in June. Usually, for the second laying, the birds move to another hollow located close to the first. But it happens that the grown chicks have not yet flown out, and the tit corrects the nest with green moss and lays the eggs of the second clutch right under the chicks. The eggs of tits are white, slightly shiny with a large number of reddish-brown spots scattered over their surface. Only the female incubates them for 13-14 days. The male only occasionally brings her food.

The hatched chicks are fed exclusively by the male for the first 3-5 days of life, while the female warms the chicks at this time. The chicks remain in the nest for 19-21 days; parents feed them, making about 400 arrivals with food to the nest per day. The first day or two after hatching, the chicks are given the juice of insects crushed by an adult bird; chicks at the age of 2-5 days - small spiders and caterpillars. Then the food of the chicks becomes more diverse: parents bring them, in addition to spiders and caterpillars, also butterflies, flies, small beetles. Only before leaving the nest, the chicks begin to receive coarser food, similar to that consumed by adult birds. As a mineral feed, parents give the chicks earth, egg shells, shells of terrestrial mollusks.

After the young birds of the first brood leave the nest, the old birds feed them for another 7-10 days. However, one male finishes supplementary feeding, while the female is busy incubating the second clutch. Then the chicks begin to roam in a family flock near the places where they hatched, and the male returns to the female to take part in feeding the second brood.

At the end of summer, family flocks of great tits unite with families of other species of tits and kinglets, individual individuals of pikas, nuthatches and some other birds. In such flocks at the beginning of winter, there are usually 30-50 individuals, which roam widely wherever there are trees and shrubs. With snowfall, most of the tits migrate to the south, and the individuals remaining to spend the winter move to the outskirts of settlements.

When hanging bird houses, the following rules must be followed:

1. pay attention that tree branches do not touch the front wall, otherwise the enemies of birds (cats, etc.) will penetrate into the nesting place;

2. when attaching a nest to a tree, use natural devices: branches, growths, etc., it is possible to attach artificial houses by hanging them on thick branches with metal hooks, otherwise the houses are tied to the trunks with a rope or wire; [Rice. 19]

3. nesting place is installed at a height of 2 meters above the ground;

4. the distance between the houses should not be less than 20 - 30 meters, ideally - 50-80 meters from each other;

5. 5-10 birdhouses and 6-15 titmouse per hectare are hung, in cities, villages and in places where trees are located near gardens and fields, up to 20-30 artificial nests per hectare can be hung.

It is better to set up houses in the fall - during the winter the birds get used to artificial nests, and in the spring they settle in them.

Designer birdhouses

Relatively recently, in our country, interesting birdhouses began to appear on the trees, from traditional bird houses familiar from childhood, they differ in their exclusive appearance, color, shape, and sometimes size. Each project is distinguished by an interesting design and individual approach.

Often, design masterpieces are designed primarily to decorate summer cottages, parks, and are very reminiscent of the rich houses of their owners, and sometimes they are a small dream come true. Many of these birdhouses or tit houses are made in the style of Russian wooden architecture, many resemble castles and towers, and some look like items that you can’t even call birdhouses.

For example, Canadian carpenter John Looser has planted bird estates throughout his front lawn in Toronto [Fig. 22]. The 46-year-old carpenter used to build houses for people. He had to switch to feathered clients after an accident. Illness forced him to quit his construction job. The bird carpenter says that a new interesting activity helped him to get distracted and, immersed in work, at least temporarily forget about the terrible pains.

Rice. 22 Design Birdhouses by John Loser

Bright roofs, high turrets, palace outbuildings, funny outbuildings - there is nothing here. The master's works reflected various trends in European architecture. [Rice. 23] So these bird houses can easily be exhibited in museums, but it is better, of course, to use them for their intended purpose. For example, the largest building by John Loser can accommodate 103 pairs of birds - a whole bird hostel! [Rice. 24]

Sparrows and swallows live in such houses. But the author of bird palaces claims that he can design a comfortable building for feathered guests of any kind.

Gradually, the bird town of unusual mansions grew, and not only the neighbors were surprised at the strange buildings on John's lawn. Soon, almost the whole world learned about the creations of a skilled carpenter. In any case, there was no end to orders: beautiful birdhouses both Europeans and Australians liked it, and the cost of a bird mansion is from 200 to 2,500 dollars.

WORK PROCEDURE AND TECHNOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

To make one titmouse at the lesson, it is necessary to prepare the following materials in advance:

1. from trimming boards 25 mm thick., 150 mm wide. and at least 700 mm long. we cut blanks for the roof, as well as the front and rear walls, we plan the outer layers of the walls and the lower layer of the roof on a planer;

2. from trimming boards 25 mm thick., 100 mm wide. and not less than 650 mm long. we cut blanks for the side walls, the bottom and the sleeve of the roof of the titmouse;

3. to speed up the work in the classroom, the teacher should mark in advance, with the help of a thickness gauge, the lines for the location of the mounting holes on the front and rear walls, as well as on the perch and the sleeve of the lid (with sufficient experience of the students, they do this on their own);

4. To fasten the parts, you will need 6 self-tapping screws 41 mm long., And 12 self-tapping screws 55 mm long.

From the tool for the lesson you will need:

1. pencil, ruler, joiner's square (for each student);

2. hammer, center punch;

3. drilling machine, wood twist drill Ø2, feather drill Ø30 mm., tools personal protection when working on a drilling machine (for the efficiency of work, it is advisable to use two tuned drilling machines);

4. Phillips screwdriver, for ease of use, with sufficient experience of students, it is advisable to use a screwdriver, otherwise students bait self-tapping screws with a screwdriver, and the teacher tightens them using a screwdriver on their own.

As visual material, you must use:

1. safety posters for carpentry work, work on a drilling machine, rules of conduct in training workshops (are constantly in the workshops);

2. drawings of the details of the titmouse and assembly drawing (fixed on a stand or wall in a place accessible to everyone for the duration of the lesson);

3. a sample of the manufactured product serving as a standard for students.

The marking of workpieces, punching the centers of holes and drilling is carried out by students in any sequence convenient for them, depending on experience, employment of machines, etc. The assembly of titmouses is carried out by pairs of students (helping each other or together with the teacher) in the following sequence:

1. cover and sleeve are assembled according to the drawing;

2. the perch is attached with self-tapping screws to the front wall of the titmouse from the inside;

3. lay out the bottom on a flat surface, around which the walls of the titmouse are installed, put on a lid with a sleeve on top;

4. one of the students holds the structure with his hands, trying to cover and press all the walls against each other, the second - with his left hand rests against the cover of the product, controls the correct location of the parts and screws the screws into the mounting holes with a screwdriver or screwdriver (after attaching one of the walls the titmouse is unfolded and the procedure is repeated with the opposite wall);

5. align and fix the bottom of the titmouse with self-tapping screws.

After assembly, the teacher stretches the sidewalls of the product along with the edges of the front and rear walls on the planer and attaches a narrow rail to the back wall, with which the titmouse is attached to the tree, which in turn will give the product a finished "marketable" look.

If, for some reason, planed boards are used to make a titmouse, then on the inside of the front wall it is necessary to make notches with a chisel or other carpentry tool, which will make it easier for birds, and especially small chicks, to get out.

For painting the birdhouse, only natural, odorless, water-based paints are used.

If the birdhouse is located near the house, in it, on the inside of the lid, you can install a television camera with infrared illumination, which will allow you to observe the life of feathered neighbors. [Rice. 25]

Rice. 25 Using a TV camera in a birdhouse

Material from the Uncyclopedia

Artificial nests are often called bird houses. This is not entirely correct, because the nest itself, twisted or made by a bird, serves as a home for birds. Birds lay eggs in it, hatch chicks there and feed them.

Artificial nesting is made not only from boards or stumps of a tree trunk. It can be built from other materials and have different shapes.

A board nest is made of boards or croakers with a small flight hole. A nest box is hollowed out in a tree stump or made from a cut of a hollow tree. The flight opening is small. The pumpkin nest is made from the mature fruit of the bottle gourd. It is designed to attract birds that nest in hollows.

Special nests are built from any materials. They are designed to attract certain species of birds, such as the white wagtail, gray flycatcher, pika, which almost do not settle in other types of nests. They look different. For a swift, this is a box with a slot in the lid. Corner of two wooden planks-nesting for the gray flycatcher.

The base, or support, helps the birds to build a nest on the branches of trees and shrubs, in the forks of branches. Usually this is a shield of planks, a horizontal lattice. If you put a platform of twigs on the roof of a barn, a barn, a house, you will get the basis for a stork's nest.

Board and pumpkin nests, nest boxes are divided by size into large - galchatniks, medium - birdhouses and small - titmice. You can’t say and write “bird houses and birdhouses”, as is often done, because a bird house can also be a birdhouse. They are correctly called like this: a boardwalk birdhouse, a boardwalk titmouse or a birdhouse-birdhouse, a birdhouse-titmouse. When attracting birds for nesting, we advise young naturalists to cook mainly titmouse. More birdhouses are usually made, and too many starlings have appeared in some areas of the country. But they often forget about tits and other small birds that destroy insects in large numbers.

Nests made of boards and croakers are made in the form of an oblong box with right angles, a square bottom and walls of equal height. In this case, the nesting roof is obtained from one plank and without a slope.

Nesting boards should not be planed either from the outside or from the inside. The bottom is inserted into the nesting cavity and nailed with two nails from the sides. It is better to make a cover in width equal to the outer width of the nest. The rear cut of the cover must also be made flush with the rear outer wall, and only in front, above the notch, the cover can protrude by 2-3 cm, no more, otherwise it will obscure the nesting cavity.

The cover must be removed. To do this, two bars or a square plank are nailed to its lower side, equal in length to the inner width of the nesting box. When you nail this plank to the lid, you need to make sure that the layers of the bar or plank lie across the layers of wood at the lid. A removable cover is needed to clean the nesting cavity from the remnants of the nest, to study birds and ring them.

Letok - a round hole - is made at a distance of 2-3 cm from the upper cut of the nesting box. The wall with a notch is considered to be the front. There are square holes. They are made by sawing off one of the upper corners of the nesting wall. The notch itself fits under the underside of the lid. No additives, sticks and shelves under the notch, either outside or inside, do not need to be done. Birds do not need them, and it will be easier for predators to pull the chicks out of the nest.

The figure shows the details of the board nest, the dimensions of the birdhouse and the titmouse (in brackets), as well as appearance birdhouse-titmouse and its dimensions. The most suitable nest wall thickness is 1.5-2.5 cm.

The sizes of semi-open nests can be different: inner width from 10 to 20 cm, outer height from 25 to 40 cm. . Semi-open nests are occupied by gray flycatchers, redstarts and more large birds: jackdaws, owls, rollers, kestrels. The lid of such a nest is nailed tightly, if it is easy to penetrate into it, stick your hand in there when cleaning the nest.

When knocking together the walls of the nesting places, cracks are sometimes obtained. You should not pay attention to small ones (not wider than 2 mm), larger ones must be repaired.

In gardens, it is best to hang nesting boxes evenly, one for every tenth tree. 10-15 artificial nests of various sizes are needed per hectare of forest, better than titmice nests. Hanging them on trees, you need to make sure that they hang vertically or lean slightly forward. Titmouses are hung within 4-5 m from the ground, and birdhouses - 5-6 m.

Any soft wire that can be bent with your fingers is suitable for attaching nests. They are driven into the side walls of the nest along the middle line and one third from the top (determined by eye) from the bottom up at an angle along the nail so that about half a nail would remain outside. The ends of the nails must not protrude into the nesting cavity. The end of the wire is wrapped around one of the nails, then the wire is thrown with tension through the cover, brought under the second nail, then the bough or tree trunk is covered with wire and the free end of the wire is fixed on the first nail. Make sure that the nesting box does not hang in the same horizontal line with the wire, otherwise, as the tree grows, the wire will put pressure on the sap-carrying vessels of the tree.

Pumpkin nests are made from dry fruits of bottle gourd, which ripens only in the southern regions of the country. The fruits of the correct form are used with a diameter of the base of the lower part of the fruit of at least 8 cm. The fruit is empty inside, pumpkin seeds are poured into it. They must be poured into the hole made for the notch. The notch is made in the narrower part of the fetus, on the side. The diameter of the notch is 3.2-4.0 cm. You can saw off the top. Pumpkin nests are tied tightly to the tree with a soft hemp rope so that they do not hang out. The letok should look to the side with a horizontal, inclined and vertical nesting position on a tree.

Growing annuals in the garden has at least two advantages over growing perennials. First, most popular annuals bloom profusely throughout their growing season. Secondly, many letniki are freely sown and appear in the garden year after year with minimal participation from the grower. Which letniki can be planted only once, and then, following simple tricks, meet them in the garden every season?

You can cook jelly and meat salad with onions from pork knuckle. The knuckle, especially the back knuckle, is a very tasty and affordable part of the pork carcass that you can feed small company. From a 2-kilogram shank you get a bowl of meat salad and a large plate of jelly. There will still be meat broth, on which I advise you to cook cabbage soup or borscht. For this dish, we take the back knuckle weighing from 1.7 to 2 kilograms, I advise you to beg the meatiest one from the butcher.

Eggplants require sunny but short days, medium-warm temperatures without sweltering heat, sufficient moisture, but without flooding the root system. It is quite difficult to provide such conditions in the open ground of most regions of Russia. Therefore, earlier eggplants were grown only in protected ground conditions. With the development of selection, it became possible to grow eggplants in open ground not only in the southern regions, but also in the middle lane.

Among predator plants, sundew rightly claims to be the brightest and most expressive beauty. This plant attracts, first of all, with unusual textures and a play of colors. But the nutritional mechanism of this marsh and quite hardy miracle is so exotic that it is very easy to forget about sundews as plants, primarily ornamental ones. Sundews are quite demanding on humidity, but they are not so difficult to grow in ordinary living quarters.

A chocolate cake with custard made from simple and affordable ingredients turns out to be so tasty that rarely anyone is limited to one piece. Biscuit cakes are moist, it seems that they are made of real dark chocolate, although the recipe contains only cocoa powder. Creamy custard is delicate and light, goes well with chocolate biscuit. All this splendor of flavors is complemented by coconut flakes, the ingredient is simple, but in this recipe, like a cherry on a cake, it comes in handy.

Although the calendar spring begins in March, it is very difficult to call this month spring. But May is already a real long-awaited spring, filled with aromas and multicolors of awakened nature. Fresh young leaves on trees and shrubs attract the eye yearning for greenery during the long months of winter. In May, the parade of primroses continues in the garden, ornamental shrubs, perennials delight with variegated foliage and flowering, conifers are renewed.

In the middle lane, the formation of grapes suggests the possibility of shelter on winter period, which means that the guideline should be to maintain the head of the bush at the level of the soil. Even further north, one cannot count on a large harvest, but such areas also have their own pruning principles. The article considers a sleeve-fan scheme for the formation of a grape bush, often used in the middle lane, and a cordon scheme, which has shown itself well in regions with a more severe climate.

Beef with eggplant with vegetable sauce in the oven is a simple, very tasty and not very high-calorie dish, which is quite important in our time. Sauce only from vegetables, no flour, sugar, milk or cream. Meat without fat, and, nevertheless, it turns out juicy and tender. Can be replaced with chicken fillet or veal. Eggplants do not need to be fried first, just a little salt to make them soft. I advise you to prepare a light yogurt sauce for the finished dish.

Houseplants are much more dependent on top dressing than garden plants. Thanks to top dressing, they get everything they need for growth and flowering. The substrate is depleted several months after transplantation. And if nutrients are not replenished, plants quickly begin to show signs of macro- and micronutrient deficiencies. The leaves are the first and most obvious signal of it. About the deficiency or excess of what elements will the leaves of indoor plants “tell”?

Duck with oranges in French - exquisite, juicy, with golden skin. Such a baked duck will decorate any holiday table, and it is prepared simply, although, compared to traditional fried chicken, it takes a little longer. To speed up the process, to keep the secreted juices, use a sleeve or a baking bag of the right size, remember that not every bag can fit a large duck! We serve the duck on the table with the sauce and filling that remained after baking.

Purslane is a well-known, widespread weed throughout the world, which has a number of qualities for which all gardeners unanimously hate it. One of them is indestructibility. Purslane is so viable that even one seed can be the beginning of the capture of the site by this weed. To remove purslane from the garden and orchard, patience, knowledge and clarity in the implementation of measures to destroy it are required. In this article, we will consider methods for dealing with purslane on the site.

The first half of spring is stingy with flowering plants. Yes, primroses are already pleasing, but there is a very special plant that is impossible not to be touched. This is a perennial evergreen groundcover of obriet. I think those who saw low pillows, or, as they say, curtains of this plant during flowering, probably wanted to have it in their garden. And I hasten to please you, obrieta is a very unpretentious and easy-to-care plant. Although, there are some features.

Delicious cabbage soup with lamb, sweet peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and, of course, with cabbage! It takes quite a lot of time to prepare this dish, but this does not mean that you have to stomp in the kitchen all day. Prepare vegetables and meat - wash, chop, arrange in bowls. Then sauté vegetables, add lamb. When the soup boils, you can go about your business for about 1.5 hours, then add potatoes and cabbage and bring to readiness for another half hour.

If you have an apple tree growing in your garden, naturally you want to get as many tasty fruits from it as possible. Often, novice gardeners believe that the more magnificent the tree, the greater the harvest will please. But it's not. In order for an apple tree to give a rich, high-quality harvest, so that the fruits are large and juicy, each of its branches must receive enough light and air. With a decrease in the amount of light on the branches up to 30 percent, fruit buds do not form on the trees.

Ferns are one of the rapidly growing categories of houseplants. Their luxurious leaves with unique ornaments and soothing mysterious shades of green look so elegant that it’s hard to resist the beauty of ferns, even if they don’t have suitable place. Along with unpretentious ferns, rare and original species are becoming more common. And among them is a bizarre epiphyte polypodium with unusual leaves and colors.

Bigos in Belarusian is a hot dish of sauerkraut and meat, which is prepared in many countries: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus. Each country has its own cooking characteristics, but the basics are about the same everywhere - a mixture of sauerkraut and fresh white cabbage, pork belly and smoked meats. Bigos is cooked for a long time, but the result is worth it. You can easily get rid of the not very pleasant aroma of stewed sauerkraut by following my recommendations.