Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

Yes, Annie's third cousin came last night and spent 3 minutes getting the belt back onto the lawn mower. He repairs lawnmowers on the side.
I got 1 1/2 hours of Ollie time this morning.
I dragged the cultivator/chisel plow all over the old garden plot. knocked down a lot of blackberries . I found only one rock. the one I hit with the lawn mower. it is a lot bigger than I thought it was. I brought it back for Annie to see.
I have the garden ready for rototilling. I have a bag of old buckwheat seeds. i am going to scatter them where the corn isn't.
tomorrow we are going to our annual chicken group get together. I think this is about the 15th year. the group dwindled down to 4 couples since covid, . we still have a pot luck lunch. and a white elephant sale.
the other 3 couples stay for Friday night through Sunday morning.
Annie and I go just for Saturday .

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What a day today. Husband was removing the older hay from last year from my shed to make room for the new stuff we are hopefully about to make. He called me to come out there. My first thought is he found one of my missing kitties, but thankfully not. Instead he shows me a Polish hen sitting on what he thinks is eggs. He touches her and she did what polish chickens do, flew off hysterically, and there under her were chicks popping like popcorn. Some trying to follow her others just panicking. The sneaky little thing had a big nest that she laid and hatched without us noticing in an area that shouldn't of been accessible.

I grabbed a bucket to put chicks in. He tried to grab the hen in a net but she flew off across the yard and disappeared. He finished removing the hay and was able to catch the rest. 15 total chicks, and 4 unhatched eggs. 3 looked viable so I stuck them under another broody hen to finish hatching. I got the chicks set up. They were not happy without their mom.

We tried to catch mom. She was on the lam for more than an hour before I finally herded her near them in the pen I put them in. I reunited the family, and they spent a good 5-10 minutes trying to get back under her, which they all eventually did. How can a scrawny polish hen cover 20 eggs, and now 15 chicks. No idea. Might be a bit of polish magic. She seems to be a good mom. Hopefully they can stay warm enough. I'm now glad I didn't order chicks.

The rest are already under her here. I was about to leave, and heard peeping from the back room where the hay was. Here's one more chick, sitting on a half shell behind a 4x4 on the floor. It was cold so I stuck it under the bantam hen, and I see one of the other eggs already hatched. So far 17 chicks. Gonna be a lot of half polish, half mottled bantam cochins running around here.

 

[jvls1942]

Lisa, talk about excitement !!!!
I hope you get a few hens from that batch..
we went to our favorite place for a fish fry,
it was nice and sunny when we left our house.
heard thunder to the north. yep, we drove right into a real heavy rain. when we got home, it was raining hard here, too.
That should have settled the garden dirt. I will wait for a few days and drag it again. then I will rototill it and scatter the buckwheat seeds all over.
I hope the mourning doves don't find it.
One year I planted some. the next day there were 2 doves eating it. the next day there were about 8 of them,. the next day I estimate about 48 of them, maybe more ? I had planted it is some rough dirt that we backfilled a trench with.
so I didn't mind feeding a few birds.
we are not leaving any food out at night. but the coons come anyway. I hope they take the hint and scavenge somewhere else,. I really don't want them here when the corn is ready to pick.