Yes, that is correct, it’s been raining here for days! I can’t wait for the sun to come back out and grace us with it’s presence. My seeds are mostly sprouted now, and are enjoying very little daytime sun due to the weather, but they are still growing. We’ve prepared another bed for growing food, right along side of one of our coops. This is where I plan to plant onions and the like. Since it’s a new bed, it won’t be ready for anything that isn’t tough for a year or more. I hope onions will grow there. It’s only 3 rows maybe 5-7 feet long. I know it sounds small, but so is everything here on our micro-farm! We are planning on trying to construct a cold frame of sorts on our property, to extend our growing season in both directions. If I’m correct we should be able to grow a few things straight through the winter months, assuming we don’t get hit with blizzards and such. I’m not sure what yet I could grow, but I suspect I can grow some tomatoes, parsnips, cabbages & lettuces, maybe even a cucumber plant or two. This could be enough to keep us in salad & the chickens with cabbage for the winter months, which would be GREAT. Today I put the 2 eggs in the incubator in hatching position, again I’m using a carton to hatch these. We expect them to hatch on Monday or more probably Tuesday. It’s ok that there isn’t more, we cracked the other 3 eggs and it looks as though we have 1 quitter and 2 clear eggs, the quitter was in the first couple of days because there is essentially nothing there.
Today I need to get lots of computer work done, and so had my daughter go out to care for all the poultry. The chicks in the turkey brooder outside are doing well. They have a plastic storage tote filled with woodchips which they sleep & “dust”bathe in. It’s the same as we are using for nest boxes, with a hole cut out of one end for entry/exit. We have the lid off of this one and a 85 watt red floodlight shining down into it, which keeps it nice & warm. The rest of the brooder is wire floor and they are getting used to that little by little. This way they are out of the living room, in a brooder big enough for them (this is the turkey brooder) and they have both warm & outside temperature places to get to, it’s their choice. Since they’ve had to huddle together in the evenings, they’ve been getting along much better since moving out to the porch last week. Which is of course helpful, as the weather and their future coops are NOT ready for them to yet be living out in the yard. I’ll hold the two hatchlings in the 3rd bedroom tub brooder until their new friends arrive by mail, and then I’ll move everyone out to Snoozer, our regular chick brooder. By the time they are too big for snoozer, the chicks in the turkey brooder will have moved out, and so they can move in there. At around that same time, I should be hatching GLO Project chicks and the whole cycle continues.
Once I sort the boys from girls on the 4 week olds (Blues Mixed Mystery Chicks) in a couple weeks, I’ll have a better idea of who I am keeping or not. I was pretty sure for a while that they are all boys, but now I’m doubting that. Regardless, it’s just better to wait a couple more weeks to more easily tell.
Ok, I have lots to do and little time to do it in, so, until next time, HAPPY SPRING!