New Digs



We spent a sweaty, filthy day in the barn today but the end result was worth it - doubling the size of the chickens' night quarters. So far only the teenage pullets have ventured over to the new side, but hopefully tomorrow everyone will spread out. We're up to 38 hens and our goal is 50 so I'm sure they'll all appreciate the room. We have quite the menagerie out there now - Turkens, Americaunas, Delawares, Gold and Silver Campines, Sumatrans, Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds and Whites, a White Leghorn, some Silkie/Camine mixes, and a Heinz 57 that lays green eggs. Not to mention the up and comers - six Black Australorps, a buff Polish, two Red Comets, two Rhode Island Reds, and Two Silver Wynnedots. I want to ensure we have green egg layers next year, so I'm going to have to order some Americauna chicks soon too...I've been browsing eggbid, seeing if I can find started pullets instead, but I may have to go with a hatchery to avoid straight run birds. With more room and a new light in their coop, hopefully all of our new girls will settle in, establish a pecking order and start laying! A few are, but the rest are still unsettled from their various moves. We're still on the lookout for another ten or twenty hens...lots of phone calls to make.

I held off on bringing the basil to market yesterday, and I'm glad I did. It's already looking so much BIGGER with these hot days we've been having. I'm also potting up mint per some requests, so it will be a herb heavy market day next week. My direct seeded cilantro, parsley, and basils are coming along nicely out in the garden too. We bought some eggplant and plum tomato starts today, since our own seedlings will be very late this the season. We'll be moving Allis and Chalmers (the pigs) over tomorrow and that will free up a nice sized new garden bed. Hopefully it won't be packed down too much since they've been there a few weeks. It doesn't seem like it's very compacted.

E is out in the garage puttering, thrilled to death with his new tools - a 19 volt hammer drill (he's using it to anchor his new climbing wall into the concrete downstairs) and circular saw. We went to a few places pricing them today, and ended up getting both on sale at Sears, with two interchangeable batteries, so it was a good deal. They were immediately put to use on the chicken coop project - nothing like new tools to motivate him to build something. It's like pulling teeth to get me to spend ANY amount of money on "myself", but I did buy a new watering can and a hummingbird feeder for the front porch...I don't have any regular feeders since I think that would be tempting the cats a bit too much. I'm figuring they certainly don't have much of a chance of catching hummingbirds so I'll hang it up tomorrow and see if they start showing up - I hope so, I love hummingbirds. At my mom's last week I saw the first one of the season feeding on her honeysuckle vines. It's also the time of year when the yard and gardens are FULL of perfect, tiny baby toads...one of my favorite farm residents. OK, I'd better go lend my organization skills to E out in the garage - he's supposedly organizing his tool bench now that he has two fancy new tools to make room for. *grin*


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Posted: Sun - May 28, 2006 at 12:24 AM        

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