Fall Broccoli Bloom'n

Yes, indeed.  The broccoli that I have in the greenhouse is surviving even with the extra frosty nights.  The marjoram and parsley are too. I checked on the broccoli today to water when I discovered that the florets are starting to form (finally). Granted, I realize that we had a crazier summer and fall than we tend to have in this region. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen, or if my efforts would turn out to be a big dud.  The cooler nights have probably contributed to the slow development.  Nonetheless, I gently scraped some more blood meal around the stalks, added some center stakes to give more room inside the cover, watered and covered them back up tonight. 

We may have snow next weekend as we prepare for December.  So for the hens, we need to set up the water heaters.  The Welsummers are finishing up their moult, so I plan to add a morning light to their coop next month. Rhodes, one is done with her moult, but the other two just started moulting a couple weeks ago, so we are back to square one with them.  Will probably need to wait until January to start putting a light in their coop. Oh well. That's the nature of chickens. 

This morning a coyote was right up to the coop, sniffing and trying to figure it out.  So far, so good, but that's getting a bit too close. 

End of May is Planting Time in PacNW

I don't have a lot planted this year because of weather, compared to last year.

Planted and doing well:

• Tomatoes - 2 cherry tomato varieties and 2 heirloom standard varieties
• Sweet Peppers - 3 varieties; 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green
• Potatoes - 2 barrels of Red Pontiac and 1 barrel of White California (no blooms yet like last year at this time)
• Onions - 24 walla walla sweet, 8 yellow and 8 white.  
• Garlic - 10ish purples from starts last fall. 
• Greek Oregano - (first harvest today)
• Strawberries - 4 sets with berries on 2

Just Planted or prepping to Plant this week

• Sweet Corn - 40 planted today
• Cucumbers - 4 in pots tomorrow 
• Carrots - 4 rows
• Radishes - 1 row
• Basil - 6
• Bush Beans - 4
• Dill - 8
• Lettuce - 8

Cherokee Purple heirloom	Chocolate Cherry heirloom
Sun Gold cherry	German heirloom
Green Bell Pepper with Oregano in background	Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Red Pontiac Potato (not yet blooming)	Red Pontiac Potato (starting to bloom)
White California Potato
Onions blown over from storm	Corn Bed Planted day 1
Garlic almost done
Strawberries (almost)	More Berries

Pesky Coyotes

This weekend, a young pair of coyotes were scoping out the Cornish Cross. During the day, they were right up to the pen, trying to figure out a way in. They quickly ran off as the back door opened with the guys walking out there, clapping loudly. This was pretty gutsy of these rascals. The guys reinforced the hinges on the pen door to make it hard for them to get in, but who knows? We do close up the chicks at night in the coop so even if the coyotes were to get into the pen at night, we would know it before releasing the the chicks in the morning. 

The chicks are about ready to process, and then we won't have to worry about this factor in a week or two.

The 12-week Moult is Done

Finally! The Orloff hens in Coop Two have finally started laying eggs again!  They started molting about the 2nd week of September and in the past two days, we have received 2 nice eggs.  Big Sigh of Relief there!  I really think this very hot summer was just too much for them so they molted twice as long as typical. 

The Welsummers have yet to lay any new eggs since being consolidated into coop three. That was two weeks ago. One of the Welsummers is super low hen on the pecking stick. She's finding creative ways to avoid the other hens' pecking by hiding behind the water pail and fighting back when necessary while making a mad dash for the feed when the other hens get in the coop.  Hopefully, she will be able to regain her weight and strength soon.  

Coyotes are coming right up to the house with the colder weather creeping in. We've been locking the hens in at about 6:00 p.m.  The light set-up that I created for the two coops this year seems to be holding the lights in place without allowing the hens to knock them down. I have the timers inside of a hard plastic casing. This year, we have the lights coming on at 4:00 a.m. instead of 4:00 p.m., because last year, the ladies would not go to roost until the light would go out at 8:00! This makes it easier to corral them in as it is getting cold at dusk.   Live and learn what works for us.

Last weekend, we prepared the garlic and onions ground with old hay to help prevent deep freezing. It looks like we have about 10 garlic and about 15 onions.  Hoping  they make it through to spring.

Triple Moulty Molt

This past week, the hens in Coop three have headed into the full on feather molt for the year. Coop one has been in partial molt since the end of August. There was one hen who has been pretty much laying an egg every other day, but I think she has given up. Coop two has had no eggs for about four weeks now. So, for now, we seem to be relying on the new girls.  We're getting about two eggs per day, so we should be fine with that. 

Darned Coyotes are hanging a little too close in our back yard. Neighbor told me the other day that he's noticed that we have a wide trail leading right up to our house from the highway. Also, he has noted that there are typically two or three coyotes pacing around the coops almost every morning now. That's not good.  I had commented about the crazy coyote we had a little over a month ago, wondering it it had rabies, but he suspects that it might actually be mange. We have an over population of coyotes in the area and that tends to lead to a lot of unhealthy stress in the groups, resulting in more disease. So, that's not good either!  Just another thing to have to keep an eye on. 

Well, anyways, hopefully, the hens will be done with their molt in a couple more weeks and we'll back in egg production soon. 

Smoke, Construction, Coyote, Stress, minus Eggs... Until Today!

This past week has been really rough on the Clucks! And the humans here too. Saturday morning we woke up to a thick haze and the strong smell of timber burnt smoke. The smoke of wild fires up in Washington was being blown south to us. Basically to the whole Willamette valley. The winds were not of the dangerous intensity, but enough to flip over things that were not battened down. As the day wore on, it got stinkier and smokier.

The Sun looked like a tiny red orb in the sky. It was intense.  Sunday, the sky and smell was a little better, and by Monday, we were pretty much back to normal.

Then our new neighbors started on some new construction. Lots of saws buzzing along with the banging of nails and lumber. Plus, another neighbor brought in a tractor for mowing the tall grass that has been left unattended for more than a year (they are trying to sell the property) and so the blades were clanking as the tractor mower moved over the rock-hard ground, while hitting rocks and other debris that had not been cleaned up around all the nursery stock (trees).  It was extremely noisy and distracting, considering there's been no real attempt until this week to improve the appearance of the property for several years. The new activity was quite foreign to our ears, after all this time.

Early Monday morning, we heard a dog in our backyardish, barking and barking.  When D turned on the yard spot light, it didn't stop, which we thought was hugely odd. Then, all of a sudden it yipped and yodeled... Ahhh, it's a coyote.  But it was persistent! It was not going to leave. After about 15 minutes of all this coyote noisy ruckus, it finally quieted down, and we assume it left.  We could not actually see it.  It was not near any of the coops. So we didn't do any active attempts to find it or scare it away.  But when I was leaving the house to go to work, next to the garage door, laid a dead wild bunny with its face mauled off.  That was disturbing enough, but even more disturbing was the white gravy looking substance on it's neck and hind quarters. There was even some on the pavement around its little body. I have never seen anything like that on dead victims of coyotes, and believe me, there are lots of coyote victims out here for us to find.  This photo is not from our area, but the image accurately represents what we see/experience a lot. So, no, we would never leave our chickens unattended or free to roam across the acreage. 

Between all the smoke, noise and predator filled activity this week, our poor chickens have been stressed to the max.  Add on the fact that several of our Orloffs are starting into their molt. It has not been a good week! So, we have received only two eggs from them, so far, this week. (Until today!) This morning, when I went out to check, there were hens (four) in all the nesting boxes. This should be a BIG egg delivery day. :) 

Additionally, we have been waiting and waiting for the new chickens to start laying eggs.  The Welsummers, according to what I have read, can be late bloomers in the egg laying department. I have read that they can start, basically, anywhere from 20 weeks to 40 weeks, with, of course, 30 weeks being the average.  But, regardless, I have been checking their box every day right along with all the rest. At 22.5 weeks, it's a WooHoo day for the Welsummers. Two cute, small, chocolate-colored eggs were laid this morning! 

Our Orloffs' eggs are a light brown (almost pink) color, weighing anywhere from 45g (1.6 oz) to 67g (2,4 oz) The large eggs are laid by the older hens.  The year old hens typically lay medium sized eggs with a few large ones, on occasion. (I'm using the USA egg size standards). Different countries have different standards for determining egg sizes. Anyway, the new Welsummer pullets are now starting to lay eggs which are distinctly different from our Orloffs! A nice deep brown egg with darker little speckles. The first eggs are 43g/1.5 oz and 41g/1.4 oz. Small and narrow, but it's a start! They will get larger as time progresses.

In the photo with the eggs on the paper, left to right, 1.4g, 1.5g, 1.7g, 1.9g and 2.1g.  The first two are considered small and the last two are considered large. There you have it. 

I have been apologizing to the chicklets every day for all the stress. Finally, things have settled down and we are getting back to normal. Plus, the added bonus of the new pullets joining the ranks with the other hens.