Posts Tagged ‘black australorps’

Another coop & more new chicks

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Another coop has been constructed, and we now have to put up new wire walls.  It’s a 4 post structure with a roof right now, and will become another completely open coop.  I’m still not sure who will be moving in exactly as it’s almost that time again; to re-evaluate and figure out who is going where to do what!  We have all our little chicks on the back porch now, growing like weeds…  11 Bantam Cochins and 15 Australorps.  Also, from my GLO Families, it looks like I’ll end up with one trio and one pair only.  Yes, unbelieveable but from GLO Family 2 I have 90% cockerels.  What a bummer really, but I think it’s still enough to go forward with.  I may still decide to match everyone back up to get more chicks, but at this point I’d like to just trudge ahead with what I have.  I still have ALL the white Orpingtons, as it’s been a slow season for selling chicks over here.  I am considering using the production type whites as extra girls to keep our extra boys busy, I’m just not sure at this point as I have so many of them.  Right now I’m collecting eggs from the Black Orpingtons and from Pierre & the girls (GLO Family 1) and have just over 2 dozen.  I’ll collect for another week and then start incubating.  SO many people want Black Orpingtons, and it’s likely that Miguel will NOT be with the girls too much longer, so before the eggs become B/B/S (Black/Blue or Splash) I thought it important to collect the true black eggs.  I’m still thinking of combining my blues & blacks for the winter months, to save space so right now I am planning accordingly.

The gardens are doing well… I’ve pulled our first onions, we have a lovely watermelon in the fridge waiting to be cracked open today.  One of the Topsy Turvey Imposter bags is regrowing with pickles, the sweet potatoes have gone CRAZY taking over the entire back garden.  The cherry tomato & one of my roma tomatos are like 7 feet tall, and nothing I have will hold them up so they just keep falling over.  They have GONE CRAZY TOO!!!!  We planted our 2nd run of sweet corn a couple of weeks ago and it sprouted within 4 days and is already approaching a foot tall!  July is a GREAT time to plant corn!  Now lets see how the season holds up to a full second crop; it takes 60 days or so to get corn.  Within the new corn I’ve planted 2 more cantelopes and 2 more watermelon and I’m about to plant a HUGE crop of cucumbers for pickling.  Well.. maybe not HUGE, but for us it’s big, I’m planning on planting at least 8 plants and allowing them to run across the old corn field.  There should be plenty of room.  Yesterday we weeded the strawberries as they are being overrun by this awful grass that runs everywhere and strangles everything!  None of our spaghetti squash has done very well, so I may try that one again.  OH, and the Black Beans I planted have started sprouting bean pods!  This is all so exciting, I can’t wait to start harvesting them!

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Farm Update

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Today was a fantastic day really.  It was warm and wonderful, the sun began to dry the wet muddy spots everywhere in the yard, and I got some good things done.  We started with the front porch today, which has been holding 3-4 chickens in dog cages for the last few weeks.  Lexi’s show chickens have been sold as she is interested in another breed, Seabrights.  She’s always been interested in them, but I encouraged her to choose a dual purpose breed in the beginning.  Now that I have my own breeding programs and poultry plans set, it’s a fine time for her to get whatever she would want and build her own coop for them.  So that’s what we’re going to do this year with her.

I sold the last two Australorps today to a lovely woman who lives not too far from me.  And now my Black Orpington Pen is just that only black orpingtons.  I must say, Broody is doing very well with the change.  We took her from the eggs late at night and placed her on the perch in the completely new environment with a different rooster.  She’s fantastic, eating, scratching and hanging out like the other gals. Yesterday we tried to put a couple of our little Buff hens with Wattles, who is now in his own pen, but he was a little too rough for them and they weren’t ready.  They managed to escape and we found them outside the hen house trying to get back in, so we let them.  Wattles will just have to wait a while longer for a girl of his own.  We moved the 2 Turkey Hens into the hen house too because they really needed some space to stretch out.  They have been living in their brooder at night and on my back porch during the daytime, but there is no roof so only when the weather was good.  Its awful when they are cooped up in there, its plenty tall enough for them to stand up but they can’t really stretch out, no dustbathing or anything and so it makes me sad.  Now that they are in the hen house, they can do more of the things they want to do until I get the Turkey habitat done.   So, for the first time in almost a year, there is no poultry on the back porch!  Of course, there are still 7 chicks in the dog crate in our living room.  It’s been nice outside for the last day but it’s still getting pretty cold at night, so I’ll keep them here a few more days.

I still haven’t started my seeds, probably because I just haven’t had a lot of energy to do much, and just doing the minimum can be exhausting!  I did go out today, saw lots of started plants already well into the growing stages.  It’s frustrating because I thought planting seeds now was early! But I guess next year I should start February 1st if I can find a way to protect them from the cold.

It’s getting pretty late now, 11:01 p.m. and I should get a few more things done before sleep, so, this is Dawn, signing off!

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