Rain, Rain go Away...

Now I like a good thunderstorm as much as anybody (Well maybe not my dog Morgan, she always tried to hide under the bed). A nice sprinkle, or a cleansing rain when the humidity gets too much. And of course i don't want to have to water the plants anymore than I have to, but this rain has really gotten out of control! Three weeks, rain ever day, and several deluges. I'm wondering if I should build a boat! I can't get out to till, or plant. Silly me tried today, and got the tractor stuck in the mud...that was an adventure. Lots of time, effort and a bale of straw later I got it out all by myself!

I just need a few sunny days!

Who Dat?

I got a new little Houdan Roo Tuesday evening. One of the other vendors at the Westside market had him, and needed to find him a new home. They live in the city, where you can have a few chickens, but hens only. One of their "girls" started crowing, Oops! He's a very handsome fellow, as you can see. About 12 weeks old.

Well when I said I would take the guy, they went home and brought him back in a cat carrier. I wasn't quite sure what to do with him when I got home, I had never introduced a roo to the flock before. I also wasn't sure if the other chickens would recognize him as being male, since he is only half grown. I gave him water, and left him in the cat carrier in the mud room overnight.

First thing in the morning I put the little guy in a large wire doge crate, with food and water, in the shade in the chicken yard. then I let the girls out. I have 13 full grown hens, and 15 pullets (young female chickens) that are about 5 months old. The little roo (his name is apparently Emily, we will have to do something about that!) was a little freaked for a minute, and then fine. The older hens spent most of the day hanging around his cage, clucking at him ... and he was cooing right back at them ,looking all happy and proud of himself! (Yeah, I'm the man!) LOL

Well since there had been no aggressive moves on anyone's part, I figured I'd let him out, around 2 pm. I opened the cage, he calmly walked right out and right up to one of the big hens and boom! Hit her with both feet, and them walked up to a couple more of the big girls and did the same thing. Totally caught them, and me, off guard. Well that didn't go over too well. And he was doing so well wooing them before! The girls turned around, looked at him, and each gave him a sound smack down. (You're, not the man, you're the boy!) He went off under another tree and was sulking and scratching around there. That was all the conflict. He followed the hens into the coop at night, and when I went out early the next morning he was at the feeder with a couple of the girls. He has some integrating to do yet, but it seems he's well on his way.

Ducklings Everywhere!

Yesterday afternoon my mother brought my nephew and his friend (both 21 yrs old) out to my place to help with some heavy lifting type stuff. My nephew has never been out here, or really anywhere rural, and he was having a blast. He got to see the chickens that laid the eggs that he loves. They went down to the pond, and almost stepped on a fawn before it got up and took off. Then a little while later the mother and fawn came back to the pond. (Which is next to my gardens, grrrrr...but that is another story)

Anyway, I cooked some hot dogs on the grill for lunch, and my nephew went out to bring in the last of them. He comes running back in saying "hey, you have a bunch of baby ducks all over the yard!" I don't have ducks, I thought maybe he was hallucinating, lol. I go out there, and there really is a pile of baby ducks. we ran around for about 45 minutes catching as many as we could, I think we got most of them. those little guys are fast! We couldn't find an adult duck anywhere, dead or alive. Maybe the neighborhood fox got it? (Yet another story, grrr...) No nest either. So now I have 14 ducklings in my bathroom. I am guessing they are only a couple days old, Mallard maybe?

They are so cute, and I have no idea how they ended up in my yard. Maybe they were thinking that one of the chickens was their mama?

Always check your shoes!

Last night a ruckus downstairs woke me up. The cats were running around, and then I heard this LOUD squeaking. I though "Oh no, a chipmunk got in the house." I got out of bed and went downstairs to see the cats chasing a mouse. Who knew mice could be so loud!

I stood on the landing, watching the cats and mouse and trying to wake up a bit. The mouse reared up a couple of time and "yelled" at the cat, interesting. Then the cat got a good hold of the mouse, walked across the room, and plopped the mouse straight into....my shoe! Ugh!

I'm thinking "Great, now I have to fish a dead mouse out of my shoe." I was also thinking that at least I had seen this, because checking my shoes for dead mice is not something I normally do!

As I'm going for a bag to put the dead mouse in, it pops out of the shoe, and takes off, cats right behind it. Color me startled!

Anyway, the cats play with it some, and finally one is walking around with it in her mouth (ugh) and finally decides to drop it on the floor. I'm pretty sure it's dead this time, it's just lying there on its side, but I'm not taking any chances. I got an empty coffee can and a piece of cardboard, scooped it up and put the lid on.

Guess what! It wasn't dead! (sigh) I was just too tired to deal with this anymore, so I went outside and flinged it as far as I could off the back deck. I hope it learned it's lesson, and stays outside.

And from now on, I will check my shoes, in case the cats decide to leave me any presents!

Seed Starting

I finally got my tomato and pepper seeds started! I ran out of starting mix, so the herbs I need to start will have to wait until this afternoon. Not too bad, last year I was 2 weeks behind on everything, this year 10 days...who knows, someday I may be early!

I have all kinds of heirloom tomatoes! Purple, yellow, green, orange, striped! Multi- colored sweet peppers and a good assortment of hot peppers. It's going to be so colorful in the garden come summer.

Markets

Well I'm definitely in the Irondequoit market, and Monroe Village market. I'm still waiting to hear from Westside market. Supposedly they had their committee meeting the first week of April.

I made a new brooder for the chicks, and now they are out on the front porch. Two weeks there and they should be big enough to go out in the coop. They grow so fast! And they poop so much! LOL

Chicks everywhere!

OK, not everywhere, just in the bathroom. I broke down and bought 18 four week old Golden Comet pullets. I got them From Jim Pecora in Macedon (www.naturebettyfarm.com) Here is some info from Mt Healthy Hatchery (www.mthealthy.com)

"The Hubbard Golden Comet has been widely acclaimed in all areas of the world where brown eggs are preferred. The reason is simple. The Golden Comet pullet is easily one of the finest brown egg layers available today. They mature early and lay eggs of excellent size and quality. She is an extremely quiet bird, that seems to be able to withstand the colder, non-insulated, laying houses of the small flock owner, better than most breeds. The Golden Comet is a buff sex-link strain. The chicks may be sexed by color, pullets red-roosters white. When mature, the Golden Comet pullet is golden red in color, but has some white showing through in her neck and back."

I have two of these in my flock right now and I just love them! great personalities, and lovely big dark brown eggs. And they laid all winter too, what more can you ask for?

I was going back and forth on whether I wanted more chickens, and finally caved and got them. They are so cute! But a bit stinky for raising indoors, so I will be happy when they are big enough to go outside!

My Seeds Came

My seed order from FEDCO came, I'm so excited. When I opened the package it smelled so good, dill seeds are very fragrant! It's be a while before those are planted. I just keep looking at all the seed packages, dreaming of the warm days coming when I can plant them. I will be starting some things inside too. Like all the lovely heirloom tomato seeds that I have. It makes me happy, and a little impatient, just thinking about it! OK, I'm going to go look at my seed packets again. LOL

One Less Hen

I'm a little sad. One of my chickens died last night. She was a brown leghorn, laid white eggs. When I went off to my part-time job, she was lying under the overhang on the back of the garage. I didn't think much about it, the chickens like to dust bathe under there. When I got home, she was still there and lying kinda funny. I crawled under there (yuck) and got her out, and brought her into the house. I checked her over, she didn't have any injuries as far as I could see. I think perhaps she was egg bound. That is when an egg gets stuck on the way out. I oiled up her vent and massaged her stomach, hoping to help the egg out, if that is what it was. I also got her to drink some sugar water with an eye dropper. It was just too late. She was so weak, she only opened her eyes once the whole time. Poor thing. She dies within about a half hour of me finding her.

Rock Farming

Things are finally drying up enough that I could go out and take a look at the garden areas without sinking in mud. It doesn't look too bad. Most of the vegetation (stems and leaves and such) from last year's crops have disintegrated into the soil. I'm also surprised how much grass and weeds have grown. I swear they flourish under the snow!

Right now it looks mostly like I am farming rocks! especially in the new area that I started last fall. I tilled it up and planted oats for a cover crop. the oats are now gone (killed by the winter temps and gone back to the soil). The field is covered in fist sized or bigger rocks that were exposed and cleaned up by the rain and melting snow. I see a few days of rock picking in my future. Wanna come help?

Irondequoit and Monroe Village Markets

I just got the applications done for Monroe village and Irondequoit Farmers markets. Yeah! So hopefully all the paperwork is done. That gives me a total of three market a week for this upcoming season. Now if it would just be spring already.

Lots of eggs!

The chickens have been very happy lately. Warmer temps and no snow, so they are happily running around all day. Egg production is up too. I got 17 eggs yesterday, out of 19 hens. It's just so good to see them having fun again. It was a little sad When there was snow on the ground. I would open the coop door, and they would be all excited to go out. Then they would see the snow and back up into the coop. Poor things. Hopefully there won't be any more snow this year, or at least no accumulation.

Seeds

I got my Fedco Seed order in, yeah! I get the majority of my seeds from Fedco, I just love the place. You can check them out here http://fedcoseeds.com Soon my seeds will come, and I can look at them for a month or two until I can plant them, LOL. I got green and yellow beans, several types of heirloom tomatoes, Summer and winter squashes, a bunch of culinary herbs, beets, lettuces....lots of stuff! I have to make a small order at Harris seed, and then I'll I'll have to worry about is the weather.

Mud Season

Well I think the worst of winter is finally over and we are moving into Mud season. It has been raining like crazy the past few days. The bottom of the pasture is flooded, and I'm sure all the ditches are full to the brim. it's mighty sloppy out there! Today we got a break from the rain...but have 50 mile an hour winds. sometimes it feels like you just can't win. The chickens don't care though, just as long as there isn't snow on the ground, they are out and about!