Potato Starts and Nine Cornish Cross Outside

The nine Cornish Cross have been in their "outdoor" coop for two weeks in the garage. So they are sufficiently acclimated to it and will be easier to herd back to it in the evenings.  Three are pullets and the rest are roos so most are quite large already. They are five weeks of age, and we will process them in about three to four more. With the extra mouths of "over eaters" we have gone through more feed than I anticipated.  Looks like we will be going through over a 100 pounds of feed this spring! 

Today, we moved the coop outside and they are all outside in the day run enjoying the sunshine, lots of bugs and worms and, generally being all chicken like.  I wish we could have moved them out sooner, but our spring, truly, is just now setting in. 

It pushed our potato planting time back by two weeks.  We planted California Whites (12 starts) and Pontiac Reds (24 starts). This is double the amount of potato starts we normally plant. I plan on planting the onion starts tomorrow. I have not yet started the spinach.  We had some mold issues in the greenhouse over the winter with the crazy mix of a hot January, and a freezing frosty wind-whipped February. January did in my carrots that I had wintered over in the greenhouse.  I was pretty disappointed to be throwing out a beautiful looking bunch of carrots into the compost pile! I should have harvested them as soon as January started to warm up. Garlic is doing okay. I was worried with the January.  I threw a bunch of leaves on, as mulch and frost protection.  I need to get more fertilizer on them. And I guess that's about all I can report on, for now. It's TRULY Spring 💗❤💗💝😁

Marching on in Snow - Winter 2019

So we seem to be stuck in the winter despite the groundhog signaling an early spring. 

January was pretty warm, and even one (or maybe) two of the Welsummers started to lay an egg, now and again. But that's stopped by mid February as the cold snap settled in and we started getting snow. The Rhodes continued to do their best, with at least two eggs every day. But this crazy weather is wearing on them, as well.  We are almost to 12 hours of sunlight per day, but it sure does not feel like it. Yesterday was another round of rain, sleet, hail and snow. Then we received another half-inch on top of that, last night. All together, it was a little more than a dusting, but not much more than. 

We only have 11 more days until the season changes over to spring, and I can't even plant potatoes yet! What a Mess! I may have to start them in the green house to minimize the freezing. I'm hoping that my garlic starts have survived that were started last fall. 

Some More Snow 3-9-19

Not Much, but More Than We Wanted