Big News In The Hen House

We had our first babies born on our farm this past weekend!  3 little chickies.

Since we do NOT have a rooster (therefore our hens' eggs do not get fertilized) we had to get eggs from someone else that did have a rooster.  Thankfully my friend Tammi was willing to part with some of her viable eggs from her flock.

One of our Barred Rock Hens has been broody (meaning she wants to hatch and raise chicks) for awhile, so all I did was place 6 of Tammi's eggs in a nest in the coop.  Momma Rock immediately took on the job.

She sat and sat and sat, for about 20 days.  Even through a few weeks of a heat spell, she did not leave her nest for a break.

Her hard work paid off, though we can see the toll it took on her appearance.  She plucked out some of her breast feathers to keep the eggs closer to her skin and warm.  Her comb (the fleshy red piece on her head) is shriveled and has lost some color.  I am assuming this has to do with hormones and that she didn't eat and drink.

The sacrifice of a Mom.

Today they left the nest and coop for the first time, and it makes me nervous.  We have cats roaming around and so many other potential chick hazards.  So far they are peaceful.

And the kids cannot get enough of them, little man especially.

Baby girl demands to dress herself in big sister's dresses EVERY.DAY.

Lastly, if interested in a recommendation for a children's hen and egg story, we vote this one as our favorite.  (And we have read a lot).

Egg Story by Anca Hariton

It has beautiful illustrations and does an excellent job teaching about what goes on inside the egg.

For now enjoying these warm August days, a full vegetable garden and more sweet little details. :)

Snap-Pea Tee-Pee

Get it, snappy (snap-pea) tee-pee.  A sign my jokes are bad is that I have to explain them.

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We have no shortage of unwelcome saplings on our property so when we cut them down I recycled them into a tee-pee for our viney legumes.

I left an opening on one side only because I think it would be cool to go inside it once it is covered with plants.  Kids will like it anyway.

One little pea finding its support.

Arch 'gate' is also made of cut down sapling.  I planted Sweet Peas to grow up this.  Hopefully vines will improve its crocked appearance, oh well....

Things are behind here in regards to peas and other cool weather crops.  It has been a cool spring so I am not sweeting it, literally.    Though you can't see them lettuce, beets, spinach, cilantro, leeks, onions, carrots and white potatoes are also hiding/sprouting in there.

And the asparagus is still making its presence known, getting 1or 2 meals a week from it.  We will keep cutting it until the spears start getting smaller in diameter (the diameter of a pencil or smaller), showing we need to let it 'go' so it can start storing energy for next year.

Duckies growing very fast, but still cute.  I think they are about 4 weeks old?  Staying outside all the time now (biting my finger nails when I think of the raccoon and weasels, hard to keep them out).

We also doubled our chicken flock, adding 7 more Production Reds (RI Red/Delaware crosses) to the mix.  The initiation hasn't been that bad, as the older hens are not torturing them too much.  The farmer who raises these from hatchlings always trims their beaks to keep the peeking attacks on each other less harmful. Notice the size of the red combs on their heads, I hear you can tell how close one is to laying their first egg by the size and how red it is (it gets larger and more red).  I anticipate these will start laying early to mid summer. (14 eggs a day).

The older ladies are all enjoying the longer days and each are finally giving us an egg a day. (During the winter, shorter days, not all of them lay eggs daily.  The Production Reds are our most consistent.)

That is it for now, stayed tuned for exciting piggie news (it is exciting to us anyway).

Flower to Food, In The Garden

Though I hear squash flowers (breaded and fried) are quite delicious this isn't what this post is about. Its just a quick post about the lovely flowers I saw in the garden this morning and the role they play other than making my eyes happy.

Boring old potatoes, their flowers are not....

These flowers also mean the potatoes (or tubers) are forming under ground.  Around this time is when some farmers dig them to get 'new potatoes' or 'baby potatoes', the small ones you see in the store.

Little tomato flowers are always a nice site, means a tomato is coming.  Tomatoes are self pollinating, meaning the flower has both the male and female within.  As long as the wind or bee helps pollen fall into the flower then a baby fruit is coming.

Pea flowers can be ornamental alone even if you don't want to eat the fruit of the plant.  Our snap pea flowers are white but I have seen some beautiful other colors.  Just like tomatoes, once pollinated, this flower turns into a sugary pea pod.  Did you know you can also eat the leaves, very good in a salad.

Check out these pretty peas-

http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t8411-pretty-sights-found-while-walking-thru-the-garden

Last bloom, Ms. Sunflower.  Once those little 'pods' in the center of the flower get pollinated they will turn into a yummy, meaty seeds.  This is our first year growing sunflowers so we will see if the birds get the seeds first.

The young pullets also joined me in the garden this morning enjoying their cool dirt bath.  My kids enjoy the same ritual.

New Coop, First Summer Report

This spring a friend generously gave us his shed he had transformed into a coop.  We were wanting a shed style coop after we had another, we think, weasel attack on our laying pullets which killed one.  Weasels are very hard to keep out since they can squeeze through very small spaces.  The pre-fab sheds are nice because they are solid and easy to secure for the night.

Jonathan made a few alterations such as adding egg doors so the kids could collect the eggs, and a ramp for access to the chicken yard.  Locks and latches we choose were important because some predators can work and open simple devices.

The kids enjoyed the temporary play house.

New pullets seem happy, and it has kept out a lingering raccoon.

We are very thankful Andy's kindness for even transporting the shed to our house. (This is also the friend that drove his tractor across town to turn over our yard for starting our garden 4 years back.)  Thank you Andy!

That garden has been doing ok considering the super dry spring we had. (Planted: tomatoes, white and sweet potatoes, snap peas, beans, leeks, garlic, collards, carrots, beets, lettuce, dill, cucs, radishes, sunflowers, melons and second annual returning pumpkin (came back from last year's pumpkins left)

White and red potatoes are THRIVING this year.  Beets and collards doing pretty good too.  Snap peas as always are doing just so so (New England springs are not the best for snap peas).   Our peas usually don't make it back to the house since the kids eat them first.  I think they like snap peas so much just because they have permission to pick them their self.  Little lady is eating a strawberry.

See what I mean, only one pea made it safely back to the house.  Oh and I forgot about our rhubarb, conveniently ready during strawberry season (rhubarb, strawberry cobbler is one of Jonathan's favorite).

Pigs are growing nicely.  They have nice length in the loins showing the Landrace breed influence (these are Landrace/Hampshire cross breed).  Hams and shoulders are not as rounded as our last Hampshire/Yorkshire crosses but still plenty meat there.

I am continually pleased by the quality stock we get from our piglet farmer (he grows pigs, cows and chickens for meat also and sells to local restaurants, all free range for those curious).

Thats it for now.  As always, construction is in progress on the house.  Dad and Mom T. were here last weekend and helped with some projects.  I hope to share some completed updates with you soon.

Is It Officially Spring!?

"I declare that spring has finally sprung!"

And man oh man we are off and running.... maybe a little too fast.

Surprisingly, we got the garden turned over probably earlier than we EVER have.  I haven't checked any stats but I think this has been a dryer spring than normal, hope that trend does NOT continue into summer.  Nevertheless, it is always exciting to get the initial dirt turned over... to let it sit while the weeds rot for the final tilling.  Good husband-

We did plant plenty cool weather plants and hope to be enjoying some of those in the coming weeks:  beets, carrots, radishes, leaf lettuce, collards, leeks, cilantro, red spinach and sugar snap peas.  I also got some red seed potatoes in.
We have been enjoying our asparagus harvest, it's our new kickoff to the season food along with the well established chive bed.  So tender when fresh, and SO easy to prepare.  And SO tempting to grab-

"Read my face, dirt playing season is here"-

Speaking of those chives and what we like them with, we replenished our egg laying operation with four three new RI Red, Delaware cross pullets (one is no longer with us and the investigation goes on to pin point the intruder).  Signs still seem to point to a feral cat.

We also, for the first time, are raising chicks-

In just a few weeks, they have dropped their chicky fuzz and are growing feathers.  We think they are around 5 weeks old.  They should start laying around 18 weeks old.

Typically we buy pullets around 17 weeks old, so our "investment" of $10/pullet starts laying almost as soon as we buy them (a return).  No special equipment is needed at this age either.  We chose to get chicks this year because I have always wanted different varieties, specifically Plymouth Barred Rock Hens.  The other chick varieties we got are New Hampshire Reds and Golden Salmon Maran (we think, or maybe Welsummer).  Hopefully one day we will have the set up to sell eggs to friends.

Last but not least, we also got our piglets for the year!

Three gilts (young females), Landracer and Hampshire crosses.  This is different from our previous year breed- Yorkshire, Hampshire cross.  These girls have much more length in the loins and those cute floppy ears.  Goodness though, they are HUGE for being only 9 weeks.  Our farmer never disappoints us with his stock-

Picture taken by little man-

So like I said, we are up and running, ready for another attempt to grow some of our own food.  I am really behind on sharing what's going on around here, guess I better stop sitting around.