Maine

[yankeehill]

My ducks are laying up a storm! I have 3 Khaki hens and 1 Golden Buff hen (with a Rouen drake). I get 3-4 eggs a day. Chicken eggs - NONE. We're so discouraged by them. I guess they're in molt? All of them? What the heck?

And geese - we have toulouse. No eggs yet. I think they're young though, at 7 months.

 

[buckabucka]

We are getting eggs from the young (first year) hens, but everyone else is on break. Today, though, we got our first egg in quite a while from a hen in our 2 year old flock. According to past records, next week should be the very beginning of the rebound, starting very slowly, and then taking off like a rocket.

 

[Widget]

Got my 2014 Johnnys catalog the other day so that means that Spring is coming right?

And I have started thinking about whether or not I want any new birds this year. Still leaning towards some Saxony and/or Muscovy ducks. Hopefully my turkeys will be good birds and lay some fertile eggs this year so I wont have to order any poults. Fingers crossed that the geese will reproduce. Chickens I am still up in the air about. I have a couple hens who are two this year and they have never been reliable layers. My Tetra Tints will be a year old and will hopefully be the egg laying machines they are said to be. That just leaves the Silkies and the bantam cochins who are here because I like them and not so much for eggs. Guess I have something to think about during all these way too cold for man or beast days and nights that are coming up this week.

 

[lazy gardener]

I threw some calcium on top of the hoop coop this afternoon. Within 10 minutes, the snow/ice layer on top was soft enough that it flaked right off with a bit of shovel persuasion, so that building is good to go for the next storm. I have yet to touch the hoop-green house. It's got about 8" of snow/ice on it. Will have to dig that out after this next round. Johnny's catalog here too. I'm cross referencing with Fedco, just for grins and giggles, but will order Fedco, as I usually do. I prefer Johnny's straight forward descriptions to Fedco's cutesy descriptions, however, Fedco has more variety options, and none can hold a candle to their pricing.

Bucka: Your laying records are without light supplementation??? I have one girl who has faithfully been giving me an egg every other day. Every one else slacking.

 

[buckabucka]

I don't supplement with light. We're getting 4 - 7 eggs per day, but I have 16 pullets. Not all the pullets are laying, but enough that our slowest week (last week) we had 36 eggs.

We also cleaned off hoop houses and the hoop coop today. DH has a hoop house tractor shed which collapsed in the last storm, breaking the top-rail chain link fence pipes that form the hoop. All of our hoop structures have this same construction, but the tractor shed is often neglected when we rake off snow. DH beat the heck out of the hoop houses/coop with a roof rake today and managed to not damage them while removing ice. The chickens were terrified, of course, but they recovered. Then he went up on the roof and beat on all the solar panels to clear them. The snow will cover them immediately, of course, but that is much easier to push off than the ice.

 

[yankeehill]

Well here's to hoping that come January, egg production picks up!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

I got myself all panicked today (surprise, surprise) because I saw one of my BRs had seriously large brown spots on her comb. After a web search and thoroughly scaring myself, I went out to check her again and it was just mud!

About seed catalogs... is that the way to go? Are there local suppliers? Do seed catalogs run out of supply, or is there usually no problem getting what you want? It's my first year planting, so lots of questions! Thanks!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I got myself all panicked today (surprise, surprise) because I saw one of my BRs had seriously large brown spots on her comb. After a web search and thoroughly scaring myself, I went out to check her again and it was just mud!

About seed catalogs... is that the way to go? Are there local suppliers? Do seed catalogs run out of supply, or is there usually no problem getting what you want? It's my first year planting, so lots of questions! Thanks!

Johnny's is local, and I also buy from Fedco and a small amount from Burpee. I found that if you wait, Fedco runs out of some things (at least they did last year). Johnny's wasn't out of much that I ordered, and Burpee is rarely out (they're such a large company). I usually buy online after pawing through the catalogs. The catalogs are like crack to me. I want everything. I have sooo many extra seeds that I can't possibly plant, but I'll be buying more that strikes my fancy this year.
If it's your first year planting I would suggest you start record keeping. When did you start your seeds (or buy seedlings). When did you transplant them? What was the weather like? Do you wish you had waited more or did you wait too long? When did you first see blossoms? Pests? Get your first harvest? How much from each type?
When you do that you can then plan better for next year. I know that certain plant types do better here than others. I know that if I plant seeds too early that I run out of space in the plant brooder and in the cold frame (I swear BF was going to build me a new cold frame last year). I know that if I don't weed I can't find my garlic to harvest! That was this year's fiasco. And then I ordered more garlic, and when I went to plant them the garlic that I didn't find had already sprouted. We may be afraid of power outages here, but not vampyres.

 

[lazy gardener]

You can buy your seed in the stores, but you get much better choices from a catalog. Add to that, the benefit of curling up on the couch with a good catalog and a cup of hot tea, by the warm fire while the wind howls and the snow blows. The variety descriptions are much better in a catalog. I recommend ordering early if you want specific varieties. Johnny's and Fedco are both Maine companies. Highly recommended. I think they're more likely to carry varieties that do well in our climate, and are more realistic in letting you know if a variety needs high temps and more pampering. However, if this is your first gardening season, and you don't have specific varieties in mind, anything goes. Talk to a few folks, and see what works for them. Start small your first year, and realize that those little bitty seeds and pants have the capability of turning into a jungle. Even after planting for more than 30 years, I always over plant, crowd things, and every year, I say, "next year, I'll do better!" That's the joy of gardening. There's always next year! Always a new variety to try. Every gardening season is different, and there's plenty of room to experiment and see what works well for you.

 

[lazy gardener]

SCG: If I don't get around to harvesting my garlic I just let it stay in the gound. I have some clumps that are about 1' in diameter. And If you really want to grow garlic, let a few seed scapes mature. They produce little bulbils that fall to the ground and sprout like weeds... nice weeds though! You sound like you have my affliction. A girl can never have too many seeds... Always new varieties to try! My DIL thinks I need a serious intervention.

Izzy, and SCG. If I could offer one word of advice it would be MULCH.