HeChicken I plan to leave one end open on the new garden so I can get the tractor in. The problem of course is once I get it in there being able to turn it around. It uses a lot of space to turn.
Can you maybe leave both ends open? That is what we did (well, a livestock panel zip-tied in at each end anyway). That way the tractor can basically make a pass through, exit the other end and turn around outside the garden before making another pass through. We also weren't sure if the tractor would be able to turn inside the garden while pulling the big rototiller so we were planning for that.
I now have two broody hens in my breeder coop, a Silver Penciled Rock & a Mottled Orp,
It is that time of year. I - fortunately - do not have any broodies yet. I had a bantam cochin act very broody a couple of weeks ago. I was cleaning out the coop that day and had to move her in order to clean so I just moved her, along with the other cochins, into my hoop coop. I figured they can brood all they want there and I don't care - I'll even give them eggs to sit on. Well, moving her broke her broody. She spent several days pacing looking for a way out but has now accepted that she's in the hoop coop and even resumed laying. I'm sure it won't be long before she goes broody again. She's VERY broody, even for a cochin, and typically hatches 3-4 clutches for me throughout the year.
I'm hoping that by moving the broodiest birds to the hoop coop, the LF won't be as likely to go broody in the main coop and my egg production will remain good. The past few years, the bantams would go broody and set off a chain reaction and before I'd know it, I'd have 20-30 broody hens fighting over every egg that got laid and making egg collecting difficult.
Yesterday was hatch day for me and it went - is going thanks to a few stragglers - really well. Half of the incubator contained NH eggs and the other half are project eggs. The NH side, 12 out of 13 eggs hatched and no signs of life from the last one so I guess that will be snake food. The project side was slower to get started but several chicks have now hatched and there are several more pipped. I don't like when they hatch a day late as those chicks always seem to have more problems hatching and be initially weaker, though they do eventually catch up. I don't know why those eggs are hatching a day late since the NH and project eggs were laid at the same time and started incubating at the exact same time as well. The project eggs are noticeably bigger than the NH eggs, which is the only factor that differs, so I'm guessing that is the reason for the delay.
Its been another busy, busy, run-all-day kind of week and today will be no different. Sigh. I did get the onions, shallots, chives, kale, collards and chinese cabbage planted in the garden a day or two ago (seeds). I have two more rows of onions to start and probably need to be thinking about starting some more seeds indoors as well. I have trays of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that are looking VERY happy thanks to my grow light.
We didn't get any of that rain that the rest of the state got a few days ago. I guess we are in a dry pocket. The official rainfall for our county varied from 1/10-¼". I am guessing we were in the 1/10th as we really only got enough to wet the ground. I'm getting really concerned about our grass. We need a good hay harvest to feed the sheep and goats over the winter but it isn't going to be a good harvest if we don't get some rain soon.
