Asparagus!

Asparagus season has ended for us here already.  It was great while it lasted but now the plants are tall ferny things that lean over from their own weight and give something nice to look at in that corner of the garden.  We added about 6 new asparagus plants this year and at least 2 of them have sprouted.

The first strawberries have begun to blush and we may even get some soon if the new young chipmunk I was doesn't get to them first.

The potatoes we planted have all come up and look very healthy.  We put some more in the lower garden yesterday.

This year we have found a bit of return plants coming up on their own.  We have kale, tomato, sunchokes of course, ground cherry, squash, sunflowers, and of course all the standards, mustard, red mustard, lamb's quarter, dandelion, and more I am sure we will discover later.

The hens are all doing well.  A few of them are fond of the Sunchokes so we cut them up and feed them to them.  I never knew that chickens really like apples.

I don't think the fig tree really made it thru the winter the way we wrapped it.  There are a few small green buds on it in one place and we are thinking of letting it get thru the summer to get it's self a bit stronger and then transplant it into a pot and take it inside for the winter.  It may do better that way and we could put another cherry tree in it's spot.

We added a grape vine and two blueberry bushes to the family.  They seem to be doing ok so far.  The other 2 grape vines have little tiny grapes on them.  Very exciting.

This summer I hope to build a new and improved woodshed for our fire wood, one that actually looks nice as well as being functional.  Right now I am working on a woodshed in the work yard for all the milled wood that I have.

Lots of little garter snakes out right now.  They are kind of funny, some skittish others more social.  The dog likes to entertain herself by chasing them.

I've been using the SolarShower for bathing in the bath house in the afternoons, after the water has been heated by the sun and after I have worked all day getting dirty.  It is a very refreshing and comfortable thing to have the whole of the bath house to bath in and no furnace running to heat the water.

It's the best time of year right now.  This is the time that if you were given the chance to go somewhere, this is where you'd pick to go.  No need to head to the beach or anywhere else really.  We love it here at this time.

corrEGGtion

We discovered that the hens have not really slowed egg laying production, but that they have just changed location.  They seem to be happier laying in "wild nests" that they make elsewhere on the property.  I am not sure why that is and have completely cleaned out the coop to see if any mice, snakes,,,,,,where hiding in there or if the place was just not welcoming to them.  I think they are just outdoorsy kind of girls and like doing things their own way.  So now I follow them around a bit and do an egg hunt occasionally if it seems that we are missing some of the eggs.  Kind of like having easter egg hunts every day!

The chickens are a never ending source of entertainment.

The Hens

Something like 440 eggs to date from the 6 hens we have living with us.  They started laying in August(?), ya, I think it was August.  For a few weeks it was an egg or two a day and a few malformed at that.  Then about 2 weeks after the first egg arrived we were getting a good 5 or 6 a day.  Just this last week the laying rate has slowed.  I attribute this to the shortness of the day and the cold setting in.

The Brown leg horns were the most inconsistent, and the last to start laying, but they are the ones still laying now. The Red sex link were the first to lay and the most consistent, but were the first to stop laying.  The Tetra's are still laying, but miss every so often.

Having the 3 pairs of hens makes it easy to keep track of who's doing what, it makes it pretty easy to keep a count while working out in the yard and being aware of predators.

We have had our share of predators around.  Hawks sometimes circle but the "girls" take to the wineberry bushes and the dog keeps watch.  One day I caught a Fox about 10 feet from one of the girls, and chased him into the woods.  That was months ago and we haven's seen him since.

We have been feeding them a cup of organic grain/feed in the morning and again in the evening.  They usually finish this, although sometimes they leave a bit in the evening.  During the day the birds are truly free range and can roam as far as they want to.  On occasion I have gone out and herded them back closer to the house but only when I was concerned for their welfare.  They do tend to find thickets to hang out in during the day, especially when it was hot out.  I often just leave the dog out to sit up on the hill and keep watch.  Reminds me of the old Looney Tunes cartoon with the sheep dog and the coyote.

The girls have gotten to know my call to them and come running when I go out and call them.  I do this at mid day when I bring them a snack, usually of corn on the cob, in season, and now dried corn from the summer mixed with sunflower seeds and ground cherries, apple cores.....During the summer when there is plenty for them to forage, I give them less, but now there is not much out there and they need the energy to keep warm, so I give them a bit more.

With the cost of the feed we are spending under five cents and egg, or were when laying was more regular.  Maybe with the winter laying being less we might safely average about spending twice that.  Still ten cents an egg is pretty good in my figuring.

I'd love to get them to eat some of the sun chokes that grow here in large amounts.  Those and the ground cherries grow here like weeds so to get them to feed the hens would be wonderful.  I might try making a mash out of them and see how they like it.

Le deuxieme oeuf

I almost missed it!  Thinking about it, it is pretty easy to tell when a hen is about to lay.  Just like any mother to be she is a bit agitated and she settles into her laying box.  I am very happy that she is using the nesting boxes.  So far one egg at one end of the coop and the second on the opposite side.

The second egg!

It is all very strange.  I still don't like the idea of taking their offspring but I also don't know any of the eggs to be fertile, even though we think Chestnut to be a rooster.

The eggs are small, about 2/3 the size of the eggs we get from our local farm.

double gates yet to be painted.

I built the gates day before yesterday and got the hinges put on yesterday.  I am pleased with the result.  Hope to paint later today.  Funny that the chickens can actually fit thru the balustrades but choose not to.

August brings!?? Egg.

This morning Betty was staying in the coup when all the rest of the girls were out foraging, as usual.  When I went to find out how she was, I saw that she was scratching around in the nest boxes and in the last box was this little brown egg.

The chickens have become hens
well, at least one of them has.
Our first egg.

In truth, I myself am not that interested in eating the eggs.  I have become less inclined to eat any kind of animal food over the years.  Eggs, if there is no rooster around to fertilize them, are not going to become animals, and are in fact just food for somebody yet, a snake, worms, plants (in the form or rot or compost), and even for the hens themselves.  So, why not people?  This starts to become something better discussed on my "ReasonablePath" blog.
So now the little garden is a step closer toward being a micro farm.
We still don't know if Chestnut is a hen or a rooster.  That bird is just larger, with more plumage and seems to lead the others.  Seems like a rooster, but I don't know.
I candled the egg with a flashlight but couldn't even see a yolk.  We gotta get more straw for the boxes and more calcium in the birds diet.