Weekend Update

So immediately after posting the last update, I was sitting at the computer and heard some loud clapping and yelling from our neighbors. I looked outside and saw a chihuahua running around the backyard chasing the chickens. Two houses down from us lives a number of dogs including this little chihuahua. He came and visited us once last year when he got out and that was it. So I ran out the backdoor and had to chase the stupid dog out of our yard. He didn't do any damage, thank goodness. Most of the chickens booked it into our mass of tiger lilies next to the garage. We then had to herd them out of there afterward which was pretty funny. I hope he comes back in a few months, because chihuahua vs. 25 full grown chickens and maybe 2 turkeys may not turn out so well for him.

We've been having perfect growing weather down here the past few weeks, hot, sunny, with perfectly interspersed rain showers, we haven't had to water at all, and everything had just been exploding. We did have one issue, with of all things, zucchini and summer squash. The two plants that I expected to do nothing too and have them overflow with produce...oh no. We're apparently lacking pollinators in our yard, as we are now hand pollinating zucchini and squash. This definitely means we're getting bees next spring. Other than that everything else is doing very well, we harvested 35 garlic bulbs this past week which are drying in the garage, and making it smell delicious.

Onions

Lima Beans
Cherry Tomatoes
Summer squash, hand pollinated...

Weekly Update, half a week late.

Here's your pictures for the week. We did actually take these the other day, I just hadn't put them up yet. The chickens are bigger now then when we took these pictures a few days ago. We've been letting them out most evenings and they are in no way hesitant to go outside now, they still don't roam very far, but they love to go outside. Hopefully in a week or two they'll be big enough that we can let them into their run all day without worrying about them being able to sneak through the fence. We've been debating about keep a couple extra layers around since we've received a number of inquiries about selling eggs, we'll see, and if that doesn't work out, into the oven! We might be getting a turkey or two also. A guy at work has chickens and turkeys and he's currently incubating 20 turkey eggs and asked if I would want any, he apparently keeps his right with his chickens, so a nice turkey or two sounds delicious. He's also hatching peacock eggs, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Chicken Update

Here's this week's growth update. They are getting enormous, they look like little birds now, not little fluffy chicks. They have almost all their wing feathers and little tail feathers too.

We left the coop door open for a while after work tonight to see what
they would do. They were all a lot more hesitant than I expected.

Only a few brave ones jumped out and poked around for a bit.

Their roosting instincts have definitely kicked in, they have free run of the coop now and can pretty easily jump/fly from the ground to the top rung.