Filed under: chickens, Companion Planting, Garden Planning, outdoor gardening | Tags: brussels sprouts, carrot fly, chicken poop, food, rabbit poop
Well I finally tilled two beds and fully planted it out last weekend. I have been composting chicken poop on top of my beds for over three months. I felt it was ready to be integrated in the soil. Unlike rabbit poop, chicken poop is considered hot and needs to be fully composted before you plant in it as it will burn seedlings otherwise.
Onions, Shallots and Leeks oh my!
So after it was spread evenly on the bed, I tilled the first bed. Last year this bed contained parsnips and arugula. This year it is going to be the onion bed. Leeks, shallots and onions are planted with a variety of carrots as the onions help to hide the smell and prevent the carrot fly. I have 56 leeks, 13 shallots and 59 onions planted. Hopefully this will be a start for us to use. I am in hopes of a great crop of shallots this year – they were extra-large.
Moving to the next bed I tilled it in and decided it was going to be the lettuce bed. Last year it was tomatoes so this will help keep the soil healthy by planting the greens. It is housing brussels sprouts, 1/2 bed of arugula and many mixed greens. I had so many mixed greens in packets that each row I planted was a different mix. It should be interesting to see how it progresses. The arugula was coming up after just three days. If you have been a long-term reader you will already know that we are crazy for the arugula. I usually plant out a complete bed, though this year I am trying to control myself a little more and plant only 1/2 a bed for right now. I keep reminding myself that I need moderation. I have to say, moderation is totally over rated so far. I am going to be creative in my bucket planting for out front this year and don’t be surprised if arugula is included!
Stay tuned in for the first of the tomato beds. I have a nice variety planted and will discuss them. But until then enjoy the picture!
After sometime, my girls have decided to lay eggs again! I can’t believe how much I missed the eggs this winter. It has been so long that I forgot how many eggs I get from them. My neighbors are happy, but more importantly I am! Nothing says I love you like a fresh egg still warm from the chicken – that with maybe homemade bacon….mmmmm good!
soon to be started in a basement near you!
It has been too long since I lasted chatted. We have been too busy lately. Between dance classes, rock climbing and the gym we really don’t have much time to do anything else. I am not so keen on this schedule, but we are trying to train for the Tough Mudder in May. I have a lot of running to go so I am prepared for it. I have also started a weekday “Paleo” Diet. That means no gluten, dairy, grains etc. It makes me appreciate the garden and miss it even more. But I am in hopes that with the warm week ahead, the ground will thaw so that I can dig out my parsnips. My mouth waters just at the thought of eating them!
I am still getting some seeds filtering in that were on back order. I don’t think that I will ever be disappointed when I open the mailbox and see another package sent to me. It makes me feel so special. I bribed my husband to deal with the mice in the basement. We went to Home Depot and picked three different options for traps. So far we have only caught one well fed mouse. Deron is in hopes of more as I promised him a nice manhattan for every dead mouse he had to deal with. It has proven to be a wonder bribe in the past and continues to be. The trickiest part is hiding the alcohol so he can not find it!
I have a three day workshop I am taking this weekend for my mid-life crisis of changing my profession. I am going to try to become a personal trainer. It should be quite fun. When I finish the weekend, we are going to celebrate by organizing the basement for planting to start. Hard to believe that it is already that time again. I will keep you posted as I plant. This year I am changing a few things for when to start, I hope to see a better production by doing so. Only time will tell.
The girls are still not laying. I just purchased a new feed in hopes that might encourage them. I really miss my eggs that is for sure!
Eating Popcorn for the first time
I gave my chickens popcorn for the first time recently and decided that I needed to post a couple of photos. It has been too long. They have all recovered from the sporty bare butts that they loved all summer. I guess it is just too cold for them. Something is different though. I am not getting eggs from them this winter. It has gotten so bad that I had to break down and purchase a dozen eggs to cook with. If I heated the coop they would probably lay, but I decided that I would give them time off. It is not like I am dying for eggs. I threaten them with chicken soup, but they just turn around and show the tails. I guess they know that I would never do anything to them.
Allie showing off for me.
They seem to be very happy with the arrangement. Although, it has become cold for the next couple of days, so I have to lock them in the coop. Chickens instantly want to go where they can no longer go. They are like little children with a bit of a fit. It can’t be that they are spoiled and the parent is to blame. I promise it is not me! But they love me dearly when I reopen the coop to explore in the sand…so atleast it doesn’t last long.
My chickens were loosing feathers all summer long. It was like they started and decided that the built-in a.c. was worth it. I tried everything to get the feathers back. I gave them more protein. I checked them for mites and lice. I dusted them with DE just in case I just didn’t see the mites and lice. Nothing seemed to work. Worst of all, anyone who visited suddenly thought I was not taking care of my chickens. It doesn’t matter that they never had chickens, they were sudden experts. I hate that look of “You must be killing them”. I’m not a bad chicken owner, it is just what they were doing. But as predicted, it took a couple of nights of cold and the feathers started growing back. I went from seeing no feathers to each looking like they had ants crawling all over them (the feathers were black dots and continued to look just plain weird until they were about 1/2″ long where they started to vaguely look like the feathers they were.) I am happy to see that they are all getting tail feathers, and not knobs anymore (Although they have a long ways to go before they truly look like tails again). The above picture is of the tailless flock.
The down side of this is that I have not had eggs for over 2 weeks. Not a single one. I don’t miss them when I have a lot, but when I don’t, I all of a sudden need them. Funny how that works.
So for all the looks from visitors, patience is key – not blaming.
On a slightly different note, I decided it was time I learned how to properly kill a chicken in case I ever had to due to injury. I chose to volunteer at a farm that I order chickens from (to eat). I was nervous yet excited about helping out on Misty Brook Farm. I was afraid I would not be able to handle it. I didn’t know what to expect. I told my husband it was either going to make me appreciate what we eat, or I would never eat chicken again. But either way, I would learn how to do this in order to be responsible for my animals. While it was not the best day in the world, I am happy that I have learned it and in the process, participated in preparing the chicken I eat instead of just picking it up at a grocery store/farm stand. I appreciate and understand what has to happen for the meat to land on my plate. I think that is why my husband and I have reduced the amount tremendously. I said a little wish for each that crossed my path that day.
This has been very bizarre weather we are getting here in Massachusetts. I never thought I would be watching tv to here that I needed to move to the basement immediately. Lucky for me, I open that basement door and both the cats and dogs go running down. So, after they went down, I went outside and placed the girls inside which they were not happy with.
I got downstairs in enough time to save the cheese. Gus was about to chomp on it!
As chaotic as it was, it was a good exercise for me.
Anyway, my luck appeared as it shifted slightly south, hitting the next town over. But I did manage to get larger size hail, which was not good.
I was surprised to find the squash ok. I thought that would have been the first fatality, but all the squash appeared healthy, as did most of the tomatoes. What didn’t survive was the swiss chard. It is not all gone, but a lot of it is. It could have been much worse!
The picture is full of seedlings that survived the storm.
It seems this week, my suspicions were confirmed. Fauna is a he. I have a rooster. I am trying really hard to rehome so he doesn’t become fried chicken, but atlas I have had to resort to the person I got it from.
My town has a strict no rooster policy. I am sad, as he is really lazy, but quite protective of Gertrude.
My growing girls, 1-1/2 months old
It is now a little over a month and 1/2 since my two chickens were born. They are growing leaps and bounds. I have had to open the full dog crate for them now. They love it! Friday I am planning on putting a perch (stick) in the cage for them. The love to fly and will perch on my finger, so it is past time for the introduction to the stick. Maybe I can get them to perch better than my first ones.
I am in love with my morning wake up of the chickens clucking, the birds chirping and the sun coming up earlier. My favorite part is the fact that spring has sprung and life is beginning again around my yard. I am planting like a maniac right now and plan to work on my garden bed outside on Friday as I am a bit late in planting my shallots.
I will be posting shortly to discuss everything that I have growing downstairs right now. It is getting exciting to see the green in the basement. I can’t wait until I see more green outside!
Filed under: animals, Cantainer Gardening, chickens, Garden Planning, Indoor Gardening, outdoor gardening
The snow is melted, the weather is beautiful – in the 60′s- and I have had spring fever for a while now. So, it has been a very busy time in our household. No rest for us this weekend. I went to Harvey’s garden center to see what they had and see if the asparagus was ready yet. Of course it was not ready, which was quite the disappointment, but I started to notice the price of seedlings. Wow, they were expensive. I did however, purchase a small primrose. It was just so pretty I could not pass it up. That was the start of a busy outdoor weekend for me.
On Saturday, I woke up and worked on cleaning my herb beds which were a mess. I just didn’t have the time I needed last fall to get everything done. After cleaning the first level, I was so excited to see my chives, oregano, mint and lemon balm all starting to have new growth. My lavender survived the winter, that is a first for me. I then made my way out front and cleaned my buckets so I could plant lettuce in them. All pots should have both green and red lettuce in it. My mouth was watering just thinking about it. Oh how I can’t wait. After finishing planting the lettuce, I made my way to the side of the house, where I cleaned and prepped for planting my kale and mustard. I seeded the mustard, the kale will have to wait a bit. By then I needed a nap which turned into a very long nap. But I still danced out on the deck while Deron was making dinner. It was so grand having daylight still at 7pm.
Today, Sunday, I had to clean the coops for the chickens. I decided to have the chickens in the portable coop while I cleaned it out. They loved it! I scrubbed the coop out and started to prep the bed next to them. Amelia was raising a lot of ruckus, so I decided to let them back into their own coop. As I picked Amelia up first to bring her to the coop, she pooped all over me. Gotta love it! She ran to the nest box when I put her in. I finished bringing the girls back and changed. I figured there was no reason to change until I moved them all.
I changed and took the boys for individual walks. It was great to be out with them. They loved it as well as they were both perfect! I then went to work on Bed #1. This is the raised bed that is closest to last year’s compost bin. It gets a little bit of shade when the trees fill out, so I decided this year it would be the lettuce bed. I planted 2 rows of parsnips, 2 rows of red swiss chard, 1 row black spanish radish and 1 row of lettuce. I will plant more in a couple of weeks.
Now, I just have pate to make, seedlings to water as well as plant downstairs and do the work I brought home to do this weekend! I think it is the start of busy days/nights for me!
The picture is of a younger red tail hawk that has been hanging around our yard. It is quite beautiful!
My new chicks 2 weeks old
I thought I would give a baby announcement of sorts. We have a new addition to the family – 2 Black Cooper Maran chicks that are 2 weeks old. They are beautiful little creatures. I think I am going to wait until they feather out more before I give them names in hopes of finding something distinguishing about each of them. Both the Mom and Dad were on the premise along with an amazing coop. I was so jealous just looking at it!
So a little about my Black Copper Marans. They are very common in France, but due to an import ban in the US, they are one of the rarest breeds. My little girls are of French lines as they have lightly feathered legs. The eggs are a very dark chocolate-brown. What is interesting is that this color is achieved by a coating that is applied in the last part of the laying process. That makes it only on the surface, letting you rub it off with a little work. The eggs should be around the same size as my Barred Rocks, laying a little less – an average of 3-4 eggs a week. I will keep you updated as these little girls grow up big!
