Gertie's first egg!!!!!!

They grow so fast!

It's amazing how quickly the chicks are growing!!  They were two day old chicks and in the three days we've had them,  they've begun to develop some wing feathers and a couple have sprouted little pin feathers on their tails.  The Easter Eggers (Charlie, Lulu, Cleo) and  seem to be developing the most quickly, followed by the Barred Plymouth Rocks (Sweet Pea and Etta) and lastly the  Red Stars (Gertie and Ruby).  Charlie and Lulu are the largest and most dominant so far.  I sprinkled a few dried meal worms in along with their starter feed.  When one chick finds a worm, the others chase her all around the brooder until she stops and gobbles it up.  They have some fine parakeet grit sprinkled among with the wood shavings which they love scratching for.  Gretchen, our miniature dachshund is mesmerized by them and can sit for hours watching  CV (Chicken Vision :)   We enjoy watching their high-jinks too.

Chick Pics

Chick Express.......

Picked my chicks up from the post-office at 7:00 AM this morning!   I ordered 7 chicks from My Pet Chicken (2 Barred Plymouth Rocks, 2 Red Stars, and 3 Easter Eggers).  They came in a cardboard carrier and they were cheeping like crazy.  Got them squared away under the brooder lamp and they are settling in well.  Gretchen, our miniature dachshund, is a little out of sorts but hopefully she'll come around soon. 

Holy Hail !!!!!

Heavy 50 cent piece size hail stones for about 20-30 minutes late this afternoon after a sunny day with temps in the 80's.. My heart sank thinking about all my nice chunky little tomato, pepper and eggplants that I had planted in the first week of May. I was relieved to find that other than the loss of a few lateral branches on a couple of tomato plants, my garden was in pretty good shape. Our cars had several dents on the hoods and roofs and were not quite so lucky. Weird weather for the end of May for sure.......

April showers.........

It continues to be a fairly overcast and wet month so far. Hopefully we will get a little bit of warm up into the 60's and some sun for a short while in the late afternoon today. Can't wait to get out and ready the garden for spring. I've planted two varieties of peas (a sugar snap variety and Mr. Big, a shelling pea) using my new Bean Grow Bags from Gardener's Supply Co. It's a simple system with a reusable fiber grow bag supported by a metal rim and pole which you string for supporting the vines. I have a small yard and the grow bags will allow me to move the plants around my space as I need to. My second planting will be Trionfo violetto and Golden sunshine runner beans. I need to get my lettuces, chard, kale, beets, potatoes and onions planted this week too.

Chicken little..........

Just ordered three Silver Wyandotte and three Easter Egger chicks which will arrive on May 31st. A friend of my son's is building a triangular chicken ark coop with a run for me, based on one I saw online. I used to raise White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds and sold the eggs to the neighbors growing up on my parents farm. I am really looking forward to raising the chickens and getting some organic farm fresh eggs for cooking. I just finished reading Janice Cole's excellent and engaging book, Chicken and Egg from Chronicle Books. It's a fun read on suburban homesteading and raising backyard chickens packed full of delicious and beautiful recipes.