Farm News - Week of May 30, 2010

We lost one more chicken this week, it was another one that had never really grown at all. The rest of them have grown much bigger this week, I think we should be in the clear now. The garden is flourishing right now with all of the rain and hot, sunny weather we've had this past week. I had to build some trellises today for the beans and tomatoes. Our celery and cauliflower got decimated by a rabbit this week, I need to step up the defenses and try and keep the little punk out. I have some fence up, but it's not quite small enough to keep the baby bunnies out, yar. He's lucky we don't live in the country...

You can see a little better in this one, they're a handful now.

I expanded the brooder to give them some more room to run, they
attempt to run and fly with their little wings, it's pretty hilarious.

Turnips poking through.

Gigantic Lima beans and their new trellis.

Chickens

The chickens are all doing well, except for the free bonus rare breed chicken they send with your order, which I'm pretty sure is just their way of dumping extra chicks off on people. That one unsurprisingly died, I have no idea what it was, I couldn't match it to anything on their website. It didn't look very good from the beginning, the rest of them all look very healthy though. They're pretty hilarious to watch. Here's the rundown on what we got:

18 Rhode Island Reds - Brown egg/meat combo

3 Buff Rocks - Brown Egg Layers, suppose to lay well through the winter.

3 Black Australropes - Prolific brown egg layers

2 Araucanas - They lay a mix of blue/green eggs, are suppose to
lay well straight through the winter as well.

So that's 26 total, one I owe to someone as a trade for the heat lamp they gave me. Then we'll probably keep around 8 for laying.

The Invasion

Of cuteness (and future deliciousness)!!!
The red light district of Seattle Dr.


Rebecca: Clara, what do the baby chicks say?
Clara: CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!!!!!!!

Our little birdies arrived around 8:30 this morning, Greg was, of course, at work. Thankfully, he had the pen ready, I just had to get the birds, then feed and water them. They are pretty much adorable, but really stinking hard to take pictures of!

Greg will get off work in 2.5 hours, and I'm sure the first place he'll go is to the coop. I'm sure there will be more/better pictures to come, probably accompanied with what species of chick is shown.

Chicken Coop

I've been slaving away on the chicken coop in order to be ready for the chickens to arrive. They're scheduled to be here this Monday or Tuesday. I finished fencing in the garden also, we're now protected from the neighborhood rabbits.

The attached run that the chickens will be let out into everyday. We're planning on planting some blackberries in front of this to help hide it a little bit.

The rolling plains of 562 Seattle Dr.

Nesting boxes; these are accessed by the two fold down doors for snatching eggs out of.


The brooding area set up with heat lamp. In other news I went to a Tractor Supply Company store for the first time the other day. It was full of delightful things, I wish we had one closer into town.