Red Clovers and Pullets Update July 2020

Gardening is finally full on. Took some time and persistance with the crazed weather and temps. But corn is three feet tall now, just starting tassels and I have put the last dose of manure on them before I switch over to the bone meal and potassium. I pulled about 30 apples, either sick looking, had worms or there were simply too many in a bunch.  I think there will be about 70 left to harvest later. I threw those apples into the compost pile. Sun has been too hot for the tomatoes so I now have a shade cloth for mid to late afternoon, then I take it off after 5 as the peak heat has hit and the sun is headed west. The clover that we planted in the first batch is nice and lush. I'm happy with it. 

Red Clover, Red Clover, Send.... 

Pullets, are just about ready to start laying.  These ladies are super friendly. Love their treats. I need to concoct some type of nesting boxes for them.  I'm hoping that the square buckets that I ordered will be large enough.  

I'm speculating that the Rhodes will being the first or second week of August, while the Barred may not start laying until the end of August or even the first of September.  We reallyl don't know their hatching dates, so that will make it a bit harder to determine their ages when they start. 

We moved them onto fresh grass last night, and they seem quite happy with the fresh cool blades of grass under their feet.  The Barred are super smart and curious. They are a fun breed to have. Collectively, they are a bonded flock now, but there is still a special connection between the two Barred Rock within the flock. 

Barred Boot Inspection	Rhode Boot Inspection
My Good Buddy Barr	I Want Pets too
Rhodie Buddies	Curled Neck Feathers
Barred Buddies	A check in
A different check in	All check in

Major Chick Update April 2020

We have more chicks now, than ever.  We had the original four Rhode Island Reds that are six weeks old, outside, really, outside, in the sun, in their run and making the adjustment from coop to being in the grass. 

Plus, a bit of a tragedy yesterday.  One of the 1-week old Rhode Island Red chicks died.  Actually, two of them seemed sickly when we picked them up.  My bad.  I received a call on Wednesday night that the RIRs had arrived at the store.  I didn't realize that the store had called, and so the little RIRs sat there until Friday morning.  The Barred Rock did arrive Friday morning.  I know better than to let chicks stay at the store in shavings and under a heat lamp for any length of time.  They will eat the small shavings and will also get too hot and get dehydrated.  A lot these "store chicks" will get pasty butt too, meaning that they are dehydrated/too hot. Although none of the chicks that I picked up had pasty butt, several of the RIR were lethargic, were not eating or drinking well, and they were stretching out their little necks while opening up their mouths really wide as though there was something stuck in their crops. So my bad for not checking my phone for calls from the store this past week. 

Sensing that we were going to lose at least two of the six new RIR chicks, we kinda went into panic mode trying to figure out what we were going to do.  Called the store only to be told that all chicks were sold from that batch they received in. That come Monday morning they MIGHT have a few left that people might not pick up.  Rather than risk it, I put in an order for three more chicks to arrive in early May.  Then we found a farm on the other side of town that had some three week old chicks, both RIR and Barred Rock. As we were arranging to drive across town to pick up some, the store called me back to say that they had three of the RIR's from the batch this past week.  Did I want them.  Yes, thank you!  I picked them up and they seem fine. Then, headed over to pick up a couple of the 3-week old Barred Rocks from across town. 

When they first arrived, I thought, no way that these are three weeks old.  Perhaps two weeks.  But, now that they are out and moving around in the quarantine pen, they do appear to be about three or four weeks old. In a few weeks, we can either put them out into the coop with the older RIRs. or mix them into the large flock in the brooder pen. 

So, yep. We have a LOT of chicklets right now! Oh, and by the way, the other RIR that seemed sick and we thought might die, is doing much better today.  Eating, drinking, pooping and running around with the larger flock. That means we now have eight 1-week old Rhode Island Reds, four 6-week old Rhode Island Reds, two 3-week old Barred Rocks and six 1-week old Barred Rocks.  This should be interesting for the next few weeks into June! 

2 6wk Rhode Island Reds Outside	2 other 6wk RIRs Outside
The 2 3wk Barred Rocks	2 3wk Barred "Plymouth" Rocks
The 1wk Mix of RIR and BR	Peeps digging in the corner
1wk Peeps	More of the 1wk peeps
And Peeps Just Hanging Out

First week of June Gardening Blues

It's the first week of June and, like last year, it has turned off colder than usual. Lots of rain and humidity. Hoping for the best, for the corn. It's hard to keep the soil at "growing temps" when it cools off like this.  It will do what it can do and we will live with it. 

My replant of corn from last week is coming up along with the plants that were already sprouting up last week, so, if it warms up this summer, we should have a nice "micro" crop. I planted 28.  In some spots, there are two that came up. (I always plant at least two to try to ensure that one comes up.)  Usually one pops up, occasionally 2 pop up and some times none pops up.... I soak the seeds over night to try to spur growth, but some seeds just don't grow. Corn is difficult to grow in our region, so when it happens, it is BLISS! 😋  Hey, the basil actually sprouted this year.  Didn't happen last year.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they keep growing. Time to fertilize too.  Corn and Onions need a lot of fertilizer to grow quickly. 

I need to start weeding both gardens.  I need to replant some bush beans too. Potatoes are still flowering which is a good sign!  Typically, the more flowering we see, the more potatoes we get. We don't pull them until the flowering is all done and the leaves start dying. I think we will be getting potatoes early this year!!!

Picking and pickling my mini radish crop this weekend. YUM - love pickled radishes on my burgers! 

We sold our three older Welsummers this morning.  I never ask for "going rate" and I never have a problem selling them to a good home.  I'm disappointed, however, when people try to talk me down to a lower amount, considering I am already asking 50% less than the local rate. But, rather than get upset and throw verbal darts, I just don't reply at all.  They are sold to a nice family that I know will love them as much as we have. I handed over plenty of fresh eggs to seal the deal. 

Next projects are to finish the east wall of the greenhouse to help control humidity and temps, put a new floor in the smaller coop so that we can get the pullets moved, and then work on the hoop coop to shore it back up and put in a larger door.  The plastic zip ties are giving out so it is time to replace those before our fall meat chickens arrive. 

Just a typical first week of June with rain, albeit colder then we would like. Hopefully, this will clear quickly and we can head into summer with a great mini crop this year. I don't want a repeat of last year!

Baby Corn Stalks	The Replants are Sprouting (see circle)
Harpo is Missing the Sun

Seven Weeks Black Spanish Turkeys Are Outside! New Coop Design

It is hot hot today, but thankfully, the new coop allows for great air flow! The Coop is finally done.  It is not tooo heavy, but I think it will be solid enough for Aries and Luna. I will still need to paint it.  It's only a primer right now. But you can see that the Poults are over a foot tall now and growing rapidly.  They are just starting to get feathers developing on the backs of their necks. A canvas tarp will protect them in the evenings and on rainy days.  I will need to start on their run now. It will be similar in style, but setting on the ground to allow them to forage safely. Heritage turkeys are supposed to be great foragers.  As they get older/bigger, we will let them out of the pen and forage in the field.

The Start - a base on sleds	The front with sliding plexi-glass door
Luna Checking the new Coop Digs	Aries standing under Roosting Bar
Still using small feeder/water until they get larger	Back wall with Clean out door
The door panel is secured to Wood on front wall	Canvas Tarp will be secured with bungie cords
Roost is a 2" x 3" bar attached to Front and Back Panels

Black Feathered Friends One Week In.

The turkeys are growing fast! If we truly have a pair, we think the one with the black dots near the ear region is the Tom. That one is more assertive and interactive. We are calling that one Aries. The other one, we are fairly certain is a Hen and we are calling her Luna. Their wing feathers are filling in on both and they are almost twice as tall as a week ago. I put a stick in the cage for them to start roosting on. They are not quite as peepy as chicken pullets, but definitely peep loudly when scared (in the dark). We're adjusting to each other. They seem healthy.  I don't see any lethargy or strange behaviors. That's about it for the week.