Fran Sale Stafford

Trouble In The Nursery

After Mama Hen initially took to the chicks we bought her to round out her family, she decided the two little Midnight Marans were hers, but the Americaunas and Easter Eggers were not. For a couple of nights after the divider netting was installed, I could get them back under her, but after a couple of days, it was obvious she wanted no part of them and didn’t want them near “her” chicks. The 4 light colored chicks managed somehow to get on the other side of the net from her and the other hens were okay with that, but not motherly to them either. The divider net was pulled down so they had the run of the coop and for two nights, Mama Hen put her 4 in a nesting box with her and the other 4 huddled together in an adjacent nesting box. Fortunately, I guess, it has been very hot and they have done okay.

Today, she urged her 4 little dark chicks out of the coup into the run and ultimately farther away from the coop over toward the relative shelter of the grape arbor and wood pile.

She does her best to keep herself between the chicks and me, but I did catch this photo. I tried putting one of the Americana’s that is more darkly marked down near them and she ran her off and tried to peck her. And one of the very light Easter Eggers must have followed her out of the coop or fallen out of the coop and was hiding in the Comfrey plant nearby, loudly protesting.

It looks like she will raise 4 and I will raise 4. The light colored ones are now safely in a large dog crate with wood chips, food and water in the garage.

Next week the temperature is supposed to drop back to something more comfortable for humans and I may have to add one of the heat tables in there with them for a week or so. The 6 we bought seem to be of different ages. The Americana’s look like they may be a week older than the Easter Eggers and Midnight Marans, and they are almost a week older than the two she managed to hatch. The Americana’s are almost feathered out and have long feathered wings. When the Easter Eggers are about 6 weeks old, I will try to reintroduce these to the coop or put the dog crate out in the run or yard so the hens can readapt to them.

Three of the chicks we purchased are going to the friend that gave me the eggs when they are old enough. And with any luck, the remaining 5 will add to our flock to be egg producers late fall or next spring.

Midwifery and Adoption on the Farm

As previously mentioned, almost half of my flock of hens were killed off by predators this winter and early spring. A Coopers Hawk got a couple, a raccoon another couple and one just disappeared, all I could find was a pile of feathers. Then one of the Easter Eggers quit laying at molt last fall and never started back up over the winter or this spring. I didn’t know which one of the two, until about 26 days ago when one of them decided she was broody and there is no rooster here. Usually when they get broody, they are put in time out for several days with no nesting box and it breaks the brood. Since the flock was light, I asked a friend with a rooster if I could buy a dozen possibly fertile eggs from her. She offered them for free and they were tucked under Mama 24 days ago. On day 21, one cute little almost black chick emerged, then another dark, but gray one overnight. One other tried to hatch but died in the process and she still sat. It appeared today on day 24 that was all we were going to get.

On our way home from an appointment in the city, we stopped at Rural King and purchased 6 nearly week old chicks to give to her in place of the eggs that obviously weren’t going to hatch. Two Midnight Marans, two Americanas, and two Easter Eggers and of course, I failed to take a picture of them.

After preparing and eating dinner, while the hay team worked at teddering the hay that was finally mowed today, the coop was cleaned and a “nursery” built at the door end to allow Mama to get them old enough to go up and down the ramp into the coop that is a couple feet off the ground and then the fun began, trying to round them up and get them into the nursery with water and chick starter/grower and isolated from the other 6 hens and their laying feed. They have a space two nesting boxes deep and the width of the coop with one of the two perch bars exposed. That leaves 4 nesting boxes and the rest of the two perches for the 6 hens at night.

Once I thought I had all the chicks moved, I shifted a very agitated Mama, who willingly adopted the 6 new babies to add to the two she hatched and one was missing. As you can see, I can not get in the end of the coop where they had been and was trying to find the missing chick through the egg door which further agitated Mama Hen as it opens all 6 nest boxes at once. The very quiet Easter Egger was finally located and moved in with her siblings and adoptive Mom. I left them to calm down, release the hens who had been penned up while the mowers were here.

Here is Mama Hen with two of her adoptees, a Midnight Marans on the left and an Americana on the right. One of the little barn yard mutts that she hatched in the middle. The rest are hiding under her, wondering what on earth happened this evening.

Now off to shower off the chicken coop cleaning dust and doctor the scratches from trying to move the hen and from the edges of the plastic chicken wire I was using to separate them off. Nothing like a little excitement on a sticky, hot evening.

The Garden begins to provide

This week, the garlic was pulled and is curing in the garage. The late potatoes were planted where the corn failed and the pumpkins in the middle of that bed are growing well. The first zucchini were harvested, it is a compact variety and the squash are about 8″ long and an inch in diameter, so not likely to overwhelm. The green beans are flowering and some small beans are developing.

This afternoon when I went to harvest peas for dinner, I realized that the vines were drying, so I began pulling them and harvesting the peas. After dinner, the rest were pulled. A couple hours of shelling peas, blanching, and freezing and there are about 8 or 9 cups in the freezer, added to about 5 cups of sugar snap peas, and a quart of carrot chunks.

The first basket full.

Headed to the freezer.

Yesterday at the Farmer’s Market, a few quarts of peaches were purchased as we did not get any from our trees this year, and a batch of a favored Peach Sriracha sauce was made and canned for the shelves.

We have a broody hen, she has been sitting the daily eggs for a couple of days. One of my friends has a rooster and gave me a dozen of her fertile extra eggs which will be tucked under her to see if she will raise some barnyard mutts to add to or replace my older gals, and maybe provide a rooster to help protect them.

As successes and failures occur in the garden, and as I age and wish for easier gardening, notes are being made on the plan to remind me for next year. I will plant only sugar snap peas and will make sure to trellis them. The variety of shelling peas planted this year is advertised as free standing, but they were a tangle of 5-6 foot long vines, only harvestable by pulling the lot. It did make for a huge compost pile between the pea vines and the weeds that were hidden within the mess and between the bed and the comfrey. Next time I have a strong helper here, the pile needs to be turned. Last year the tomatillos and cucumbers were a mess, so this year the tomatillos are caged like tomatoes and the cucumbers have a trellis. I followed the Square Foot gardening plan which says a tomato plant only needs 1 square foot. I put 3 in a 4 foot row and 6 in a 4 X 4 square and they are too close together. Son 1 made an A frame trellis for his tomatoes a couple of years ago and I think that would help with spacing and harvesting later.

I now have a 4 x 4 foot bed and a 4 X 8 foot bed idle. In mid July or the first of August, a winter’s worth of carrots, spinach, and chard will be planted there. I am going to figure out how to make cold frames or a mini greenhouse to cover the greens and the carrots will have a thick layer of straw layered over them when freeze threatens.

The apple and Asian pear trees are heavy with fruit. The deer are beginning to come and nibble at the lower branch fruit, but there will be plenty too high for them to reach for us.

This year, I pruned all of the lower branches from the grape vine so the vines are about 4 feet off the ground and they are heavy with fruit. I need to shield the grapes from the deer and then decide how the grapes will be used.

It was difficult to get motivated on the garden this year, but it is nice now that food is coming from it. The last of the spring carrots and the second planting for radishes were harvested earlier this week.

It will be nice if we get some potatoes and pumpkins to store, and carrots that can be pulled as needed this winter. Adding green beans to the freezer as they mature, and having greens in a cold frame or green house to have fresh will make it worth while. I’m still fighting a battle with the Creeping Charlie and to some extent the Smartweed, but less than a month ago.

The riding mower was finally repaired and yesterday afternoon, the remaining grass was mowed. This week is true summer, with temperatures in the mid to upper 80’s and rain predicted only as scattered thunder storms. Maybe our hay will finally be able to be mowed and baled.

Two days ago, I went to my friend’s house and helped them extract honey. That was a new experience and came home with a couple of quarts of very dark delicious honey.