Oh Tomatoes!

Way Back Garden 42 tomato plants

Has been a long hot week here, pushing 90 some afternoons. Crazy early spring, I can remember years I was still making an occasional fire this time of year.

This is the way back garden, because it was "way back" of the house, it's really not that far from the house tho. Some pick and shovel work and I planted 42 tomato plants, they seem to all be doing well.

Tomato Cage

Since I had to move in with mom my old chicken pens are empty. Well now they are full of tomato plants!  Gives a whole new meaning to tomato cage doesn't it?  I have gotten 86 plants in the ground, with 40-50 more in pots waiting to be planted. I have 12 plants in permanent pots at mom's house.  Why so many? I sell eggs and veggies at our farmer's market from June through September. For the past 2 years there have been almost no tomatoes from any vendor because we have all had a horrible problem with viruses and wilts. So I just decided to plant lots of different kinds and see what happens.

Found one of my lost marbles

carrot seedlings

ripening mulberries

nasturtium

You know nasturtiums are edible, right? Blossoms, leaves and seedpods have a spicy flavor reminiscent of watercress to which they are related.

A pot of flowers

baby silkie

zucchini blossoms

And in an exciting development we have zucchini blossoms at about the time of year I am usually just planting seeds!

Buff Orpington Chicks

Nosey, left, Whopper, right

Well Claire and Henrietta, the big beautiful Buff Orpington girls have gone home to Cindy for the summer. Two young cockerels have taken their place here. These boys are the oldest of Claude & Henny's babies. These were hatched and started by Cindy and are about ten weeks old now.

Nosey is a tad smaller than Whopper and is just that really nosey! When ever I'm feeding the other babies Nosey is behind me pecking at my pants and shoes, trying to see what's in the bucket and generally being a nuisance. Whopper just hogs the feed trough and runs off the slightly smaller and younger Black Copper Marans chicks in the pen.

Trouble

Trouble is just that, big Trouble! Always trying to escape and then getting stuck in a corner somewhere! Trouble is a Claude & Henny chick hatched here on Feb 27 so almost six weeks old.

Trouble's hatchmate

trouble's hatchmate

Trouble's hatch mate is bigger and is getting red wattles. I am thinking perhaps this one is a little roo and Trouble is a pullet, but time will tell.

Look at how wide he is!

Chicks hatched 3/13 and 3/22

More siblings growing out, the ones from the 3/13 hatch are hitting the dinosaur stage, the little one laying down is from the 3/22 hatch

Bianca & chicks

In other news Bianca's eggs hatched today and she readily took on the 6 Buff Orpington chicks that also hatched this morning. A couple of her eggs were still working on hatching when I checked on them this evening, so I won't know until tomorrow how many chicks she has for sure. The silkie chicks are so tiny, they are half the size of the orps.

The Brooder Coop

Baby coops ready for chicklets!

Well I managed to weasel out of work around noon, came home and busted it; cleared out the hoop coop, sprayed for mites, put the new baby pens together. I would have made my own little pens but just did not have time!

Purebred Ameraucans and some Black Copper Marans

Roger & Bianca's babies, hatched 2-27-14

First out were the purebred Ameraucana chicks and some Black Copper Marans, most all of which look extremely male.











Alas, Roger is no longer with us, but I have two chicks from him and Miss Bianca. They will probably be pet quality, but I"m sure someone will love them.

Roger & Princess's baby

I lost Princess in the same predator attack as Roger and only have the littlest chick from them. Alas, those naked legs are a no-no in Silkies, so another pet quality bird.

Gold & Grey Easter Egger

I have a lovely grey and gold chick from Earl, my Easter Egger boy. The photo did not quite catch the right shade of soft grey. I am hoping this is a pullet. This is the coloration I have been breeding for, as it is really pretty.

Buff Orpington babies hatched 2-27-14

We now have about 15 Buff Orpington babies from Claude and Henrietta. These are the oldest two I have here. (Cindy has 3 down in Scottsdale that are older).

Look at how dark a buff their feathers are!

The same two BO chicks

The slightly smaller one has earned the name Trouble. Because it's always in trouble or causing trouble! Every time I open the brooder it comes running out. In the house it was determined it could free range in the living room. One evening when I fed them I thought everyone that had escaped in the process was back in. But not Trouble, there it was, right next to the brooder, as close to the light as it could get.

Wide Load!

BO chicks from 3-7-14

These chicks have nice wide bodies. Trouble's sibling is quite a chunk when you pick it up. That one weighed about 6 ounces at three weeks old.  I should probably weigh some of these guys now.








Some siblings from the 3-7-14 hatch.

BO chicks

In this picture, the chick on the left and in the background were hatched on 3-13. The bigger chick on the right was hatched on 3-7.

BO chicks hatched 3-13-14

These little guys were hatched last week. After getting as much done outside as I could, I had a quick bite to eat and unloaded the incubator of this weeks hatch.

Black copper Marans & a BO chick

These Black Copper Marans and the Buff chick hatched yesterday. The BCM in the lower left was a slightly small chick from last weeks hatch that I decided to keep inside another week.

Here are a couple of the Buff chicks from today's hatch with that older BCM. All of my home grown chicks hit the ground running. I've never had to show them where the food or water was; they are active from the get go, running around, finding the water and getting a drink, finding the food or scratching in the shavings.


Tonight I"ll be putting in more Buff Orpington eggs to hatch, along with some more purebred Ameraucana eggs from some great looking show birds.

New Happenings

The Silkie Tribe 

Well things around here have been totally insane. I have been working crazy amounts of overtime while my boss recovers from surgery. Hopefully things will settle down soon. Some days it was all I could do to make sure everyone had food and water. Today was my first day in 28 days.

So I let some of the birds out to run. The weather was really nice; the iris, tulips and lilacs are blooming. Here the Silkies enjoyed a day in the sunshine from the front, Mr. A. Snowman, Precious, Black Magic, Fiona, Smokey.

Fiona is the girl that was broody, her foster chicks are off in the bushes taking dust bathes.

Bianca is broody

I'm afraid little Princess & Roger were killed by an unknown predator. After that I moved Miss Bianca in with the other Silkies where she would be safer. What I didn't realize was that she was making a nest. She was still coming out every morning for breakfast and with my work schedule I wasn't paying a lot of attention. So I have no idea how long she has been sitting on these eggs. Guess we will just wait for the chicks to show up when they are ready.

Precious

Little Precious was apparently injured and spent some time in the house recovering last month. I didn't know that Silkies were prone to brain trauma from head injuries such as another bird pecking them on the head.

But she is well now and doing fine with the other Silkies. I think it was a rambunctious little rooster of another breed that was in with them that injured her.

The Kennels with the chicken house

I bought a large kennel new and found another smaller one on craigslist so have been busy getting them all set up to use for breeding and growing out youngsters. It's still a bit chilly at night and the wind has been blowing; therefor still needing tarps and plastic on the sides. Pretty quick I"ll have to change it out for shade cloth.

Claude

Claude is a really big chicken. My son saw him and remarked "That is a big freakin' chicken Mom!". My grandson saw him today and said "That is a big chicken!"

Claire 

Hennrietta

 I have been hatching babies from Claude and Hennrietta, have 11 chicks now with more hatching today. Maybe another day soon I'll be able to get pictures of all the babies I have!

Slow Progress

pop door open

Well it was slow going today on the little silkie coop. I did manage to fix up the sliding pop door though.

pop door closed

door frame try out

I also got the door frame built and tried on for size. But then things got really bogged down. I wanted to use some small panes of glass that I had but of course they were just slightly too big. So a lot of time wasted finagilling what else to use and how to go about it. I'm still working on this problem.

I did manage to put some tar paper on the roof. And in other news, I did actually work in the garden today, but I forgot to take a pic. Of course all you would see would be white row covers. I planted some lettuce in one bed and some carrots in the other.

vermicompost

I also emptied part of my worm box of compost to spread on the seeds I planted. I thought about feeding some of the worms to the chickens but decided to wait until next time I clean out the box as I want to get the population up there before summer.

I also just took a few minutes and hung out with the birds.

Mr. No Name

Precious

Mr. Snowman

Smokey

Since the coop did not get finished and the eggs are due to start hatching tomorrow, I brought the broody girl in to a crate so I can give her the chicks as soon as they hatch. She did not like the box I gave her for a nest but as soon as I put a couple of eggs on the crate floor she promptly sat on them. 

The Roof Goes on the Silkie Coop

rafters installed

Well as predicted I didn't get much of anything done on the little silkie coop during the week; just not enough day light after work.

Here's where I left off, with the rafters on, during the week I managed to put up the trim around the back vent and install one bird block.

Today I added the rest of the bird blocks and started on the roof.

roof decking going on

roof in progress

Like the rest of the coop the roof is not really square or quite flat. But with two or three layers of tar paper it ought to be weatherproof until I can get some sort of shingles or roofing on it.

hole in the floor

I also cut the hole in the floor for a sliding pop door to the bottom section of the coop.

Tomorrow I'll add several layers of tar paper to the roof, figure out how to make the supports for the sliding door and finish constructing that. Then I just need a door on the front and it will be done enough for the broody mamma to take up residence. If it doesn't all happen before dark, then broody mamma will spend a few days in the house while coop construction is completed, because the eggs are supposed to hatch on Monday!

And I still haven't spent a dime on this coop!

Busy Busy Building!

Blue Silkie rooster

If you had told me a year ago that I would be building doll house coops for foo foo chickens I would probably have laughed in your face. However, things change and I am learning, never say never!

I have now been given 5 silkies, bought one and won some in a raffle at a poultry show. I had decided that since Silkies have a great reputation as broodies and very good mammas that it would be nice to have some as baby sitters for my other chicks. 

So now of course they must have housing. Some are living out in bigger coops because they came with a group of foster birds that were later given to me and they were used to it. The others were much smaller and younger when I brought them home so they are sharing the baby coop but it's getting crowded in there.

One Silkie is broody and since I have eggs in the incubator I decided to build her a little coop so I can give her the chicks to take care of when they hatch.

I have also decided that I wanted to make these small coops cute & fun. Something that would make me smile whenever I go by them. Since they will be in the side yard right  near the front gate, that will be several times a day. So I have been designing in my head, and poring over tons of pictures of cute little chicken coops on the internet. Last weekend I got busy.

coop floor and framing boards

I happened to have picked up a pallet that was 40x48" with a piece of heavy plywood already nailed to it. That would become the floor. It looked a little greasy so I checked the paint cabinet and found part of a can of Kilz, getting a bit dried out, but a lot of stirring and a touch of water got it to a brushable consistency. So I put on two coats and while they were drying I found and cut some boards to make legs and a frame work.

Mr. Abominable Snowman

That was about all I had time for the first day.  The next day I managed to attach the legs and frame work and cover the back wall with boards on the bottom half.

The coop will be a double decker, the top enclosed to be safe from predators and to be warm at night, with the bottom enclosed with wire so they can have sunshine and fresh air during the day and still be safe.

A lot of details are still fuzzy because there are no plans except the picture in my head and that changes with each new idea as well as each new piece of found material that I can recycle. I did however decide to work out a gable roof because I wanted to practice making the angles. I haven't done that in almost 30 years and have forgotten nearly everything I knew about doing it.

The framework as of Friday evening

I've been slathering on the Kilz as I go, to help protect the wood from the weather. All of this wood is from pallets and is rough and raw. I figured it needs all the help it can get. So here are a couple of the boys checking it out before I got started on it this evening. I got a little bit more done before dark, but no picture. I'll take a picture in the morning before I get started.

It is not quit square or plumb. However it is, after all, just a chicken house and they won't care, as long as it isn't drafty in their sleeping quarters and has enough fresh air and light, they will be quite happy.