Chickens and Produce

An Ancona in our 4-in-1 Pear tree.

I didn't plant a garden this year as I had a lot going on with chickens, projects going on around the house, and not being home as much. There are other reasons as well that I thought it best not to do one; mending the soil, eradicating weeds and blackberry bushes, plus trying to figure out how much sun the garden gets now with the 2 big pine trees gone. We have had an unusually dry year so far. Yeah it has rained some but not enough to keep our other fruits, flowers, and trees wet enough. We did get some strawberries from our patch but now there are none and no new flowers. All our fruit trees still have no fruit and the 2 that we bought that should had started to set fruit, we lost. Our Meeker raspberry canes are starting to get fruit ripening.

I checked on my kiwi cuttings and it looks promising for 3 of the female plants and at least 5 of the self-fertile ones. Even our fig tree sapling is looking really good! We also have Jerusalem Artichokes growing in many pots. I am super happy that my Calla Lilies are doing very well and even have a bloom on one. I moved the butterfly bush again to a semi sunny location. It gets a few hours of sun now unlike the other place it was where it got almost no sun. However, originally it was in full sun and did not seem to be growing at all. We plan on adding the Stinging Nettle by it, along with moving the Foxglove from the opposite side of the yard to this same location, plus moving the fuchsia bushes as well, and adding some milkweed. We are going to try and make this location around the butterfly bush a place for hummingbirds and butterflies to hang out. I see Caterpillars in our future! The kids will love that!!

Our Globe Artichoke is finally growing. I guess removing that tree sure helped. Yes, I realize I could have just moved it but the tree was coming down regardless. The Horseradish is also growing better now too! I cannot wait until our garden is finally fenced in, mended, beds added, and everything is ready to plant. There are so many things I want to grow. Probably a good thing the garden is going to be 4,000 sq. ft.

 This year we bought 6 new blueberry plants to add to our 2 that we already had. Every plant is full of berries and they are starting to ripen. 4 of the plants will ripen July/Aug and the other 4 will ripen in August. I have a good feeling that I won't get to freeze any or use them in recipes. Not with 3 growing kids around, but I am okay with that! I love the fact that they would rather eat their fruits and veggies than junk food any day! Plus the love it more when it comes from the garden, it just taste so much better.

Now for the chicken updates! If you read the previous post our Silver-laced Cochin, Spice, decided to go broody on us and it felt like such a waste not to let her hatch out chicks since we already hatched out 2 batches of chicks via the incubator. We have never done it naturally with a hen before, so this will be a first. We collected the eggs over the course of 3 days, made sure they were as clean as possible by wiping any bedding or poo off with my hands. Since our nest boxes are relatively clean there wasn't much to do. All the eggs were marked with the corresponding day they were collected. Normally we put them in the refrigerator and then warm them back up before incubating but I wanted to try it differently since a hen would be doing the work. Trying to make it as natural as possible. The eggs were left out at room temperature until it was time to put them under the hen. I sat the eggs under her on Wednesday the 19th. She is doing good so far. I am a little worried that we put too many eggs under her, but she fluffed herself up a lot to cover all those eggs. I have not seen any eggs uncovered, which is a good thing. Waiting is so hard. The only question remains.. Will she be a good mom or will she turn on the babies? Only time will tell and we have some time before that happens. When it gets close to hatching day we plan on setting the brooder up in case she doesn't do good for caring for the babies.

 

As for Thumper and her 8 chicks, all are doing really well. It is so funny how the Black Sexlink boys look like Barred Rocks. We have never seen a Black Sexlink rooster before but have had females in the past. One of the Rhode Island Red pullet does not seem to be growing at the same rate as everyone else and I think it is because of her deformed toe. Her middle toe was curled when she hatched out and I currently have it splinted to help straighten it out. It is so crazy to think they are already 3 weeks old.





As for the other 8 chicks we hatched out. These Easter Eggers are getting big fast! When they first hatched I thought we had all males with only 3 being females, as time progressed I changed my mind and thought we only had 1 rooster. Now I am reverting back to my original thoughts..lol

Seeing their combs changing colors and noticing their feathers are becoming more pointed, it is looking like there are definitely more males. Only time will tell what we have exactly, but it is still fun to keep guessing.