Illinois...

[Faraday40]

My adventure in carrots.
I've never been very good with growing carrots. In fact ours have always been disappointing.

Here are some examples of this year's fail.

My Best carrot (& only "good" one)

Got a couple monster carrots like this

Several bitty bites like this

My Ugliest carrot

My carrot golf ball


I really loosened the soil & added a little sand. Guess I needed a lot more sand. I even thinned them this year.

 

[cavemanrich]

Was this one of your helpers???

 

[Junibutt]

Janesville WI area. Also update turns out the man in his 20s did not rupture his femoral artery and was caught just above the ankle. While he did have some nasty cuts and bruises and needed some patching up it could have been much much worse. Turns out he backed up into the head of the combine as it rested on the ground running(they were shoveling spilled corn into the head) the man in.the combine saw it happening and turned the combine off as the young man stepped back into it. So while he did get banged up and they were worried about tendon damage and such he really was very very very lucky. He will make a full recovery. His tendons were all fine and other than the cuts and general bruising and such and the one broken bone in his lower leg he got off lucky. He could have lost his whole foot.



We used poultry/garden permethrin dust for mites and had very good luck with it. We treated them twice or maybe it was three times whatever they say on the thing and had amazing luck. Also as it is created for chickens and gardens I know it is safe although you will want to wear a dust mask and have a helper. We also washed our clothes afterwards but are kind of paranoid BC of my asthma. Of course it isn't effective on leg mites I don't think.

@Junibutt
What orps are you planning on selling?

Egg production here has dropped dramatically in about a week or two although I know that part of this is probably due to the naughty birds that are hiding their eggs on our property. Still it has declined a lot. We have been working on winterizing and I know that has greatly disturbed the flock lol. We also had to put a new tarp on the coop roof and clean it out both terrifying. Lol

We have also been moving cockerals around, we have just this week moved 10 juvenile cockerals out of the juvenile side of the cooler coop and into the main population. Due to the lower number of pullets in there they were caiaomgnway to much trouble. They are not enjoying foraging and growing even more. We have 10 more cockerals ready and nearly ready to do. Yay! While I dislike the day it makes me proud of us and grateful to them. They have all had wonderful lives and continue to do so. I wish we could keep more but we can't it isn't fair to the hens and pullets.

It's amazing to see the freezer filling up with farm fresh chicken. We have to date done 9-10 and we have eaten two. We have another 10 that are probably ready. They will hopefully be done once dh2b is done in the fields. That should be this week hopefully. Then we have the ten that we pulled out of the juvenile side. They're much larger than they sound and some could probably be done soon. We will see. They had to be pulled from the back side BC of rotten behavior, the adults put them in their places. Lol there are also a couple that have been showing some attitude towards people. Thankfully the oldest cockerals don't stand for that. (The two orp boys from this last March from Junibutt are such a riot to watch them chase these young boys if they get too rough with a hen or bite me.)

We had a friend visit and get to meet the flock. This is his first trip to the US and there was a lot to see. He's from Haiti and they have wild game bird type chickens. He got to see a half wet day old chick courtesy of an early hatch(something he's never seen before-lol he thought it was ugly) and meet the rest of the flock. He really enjoyed them and was amazed when he saw the single barred chocolate English orp boy from Junibutt. He kept saying, "This is also a chicken?!" Lol hahaha so funny I think he was quite intimidated by this giant bird(he's truly massive) but once I picked him up and told him he could pet him he was quite taken with him. Lol we are still unsure if he will be staying permanently. While we adore him we do wonder if his younger brother will be a better choice. Time will tell. In the meantime we have discussed what we will do if we do process him as a meat bird. I don't believe we have a pot large enough to scald him in and I'm not sure he will fit in out large sized killing cone. Lol everyone who comes here asks if he is a turkey.

He is such a sweet bird I don't truly know of we will be able to make ourselves process him. He doesn't roost even on roosts that are only 16-18" high and had a broken off feather that became an infected feather follicle on his abdomen. He's such a good boy that halfway through treatment when the dog went after a motorcycle we both took our hands off of him and he just layed there calm as could be. We got the infected follicle out and it has not come back. While he doesn't care for handling usually although sometimes he lets me pet him he isn't hard to work with. Except for his size lol he's hard for me to hold because he's so huge. Even dh2b can't hold his wings down by wrapping his hands around them like he would with a normal bird. Or like I would usually as well.

Okay I suppose I have blabbed on for long enough. It's good to hear from you all keep in touch.

I m selling a choc, choc cuckoo and mauve orp. All three are 17 months old.

 

[Faraday40]

Was this one of your helpers???

Actually some of these:


The Sebright & Spitzhauben taught the rest how to hop the garden fence.
No broccoli, peas, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, green beans or onions for us this year. Only my pitiful carrots & a few leeks. The chickens left the tomatoes alone....until they ripened. Next year we're building a taller fence without a top railing!

 

[cavemanrich]

@Faraday40
No broccoli, peas, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, green beans or onions for us this year. Only my pitiful carrots & a few leeks. The chickens left the tomatoes alone....until they ripened.

I have to disagree with you slightly. You are getting all the above in molecular form in their eggs.

 

[Faraday40]

@Faraday40
No broccoli, peas, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, green beans or onions for us this year. Only my pitiful carrots & a few leeks. The chickens left the tomatoes alone....until they ripened.

I have to disagree with you slightly. You are getting all the above in molecular form in their eggs.

This was my pitiful garden in July. That's when I decided to give it up for the summer & simple eat whatever the flock left for us.
I at least had my cucumber ,squash, & tomatoes in my 2nd garden. A few fruit trees as well - but those were raided by squirrels. (Tyrion -an elder hen- is getting older & she stopped chasing them off.) I prefer to eat the veggies & then give the flock our leftovers. NOT do it in reverse.



...but I can't stay upset with these faces for very long.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Note to self: Never again decide to try and clean out the poop tray when everyone is up for the night. Crap!

 

[RADjr]

located in North central Illinois.
am wanting to sell ten to thirty Amber Star Hybreds,8 mo old hens laying daily...currently have fifty available.

 

[Faraday40]

Note to self: Never again decide to try and clean out the poop tray when everyone is up for the night. Crap!

I'm guessing you mean that in a very literal way!

- laughing along with you.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I'm guessing you mean that in a very literal way!

- laughing along with you.

Yes it was meant in a very literal way, in my Hair, centimeters away from the right side of my face, LOL.