Welcome to the new folks! I had to catch up on 44 messages tonight! Don't you folks have lives?!?!?! LOL!
I spent part of the day calling other states about importing chicks, part of it planting strawberry plants and onions, and part of it as teenage taxi driver, and part doing chores and unloading feed, and then the rest of the early evening making some weasel trap boxes to kill that little (*(*^*&%*%^(&( that killed another pen! I think that makes about 20 that thing has taken out since the end of winter. I had some traps out after the first round but thought that the tractors must have sent it back to where it came from down by the pond in the field. I was wrong. I made two of the trap boxes with the super duper Tomcat rat traps inside and some rabbit kidneys I thawed out. I hope I get something in them tonight! I also need to get all the grass that is growing like bamboo out in the chicken area so they don't have any cover to hide in. Then I need to find me a fake owl that has eyes that come on and makes hooting sounds every few minutes. I had never had a weasel kill chickens until once last summer. Then it came back late winter and took out a pen of Cornish, now these were the best looking Cochins I have ever hatched and were going on 4-months old, plus some Buckeyes and an EE that just turned into a cockerel this last week. I swear it is a transgender cuz it was a pullet last week!!!
It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I got what I could done in the garden for now, but I am not happy that the brassica (cabbage and broccoli family) stuff has not come up yet. I should have started them in the house, but got behind so put them in direct. I don't think the cold has been the problem either, and they usually are the first thing to pop up. I do have some chard, beets and radishes coming up though. We have also been enjoying quite a bit of asparagus. I just wish I had some morels to cut up and sautee with them and some scrambled eggs!
I am also a bit worried that my potatoes are not coming up yet. I planted them about the same time as I seeded the other stuff. Maybe the cooler weather just has things going slower than the last couple of years where we jumped from winter straight on to summer. It is kind of nice having a good Spring for a change.
I will be happy to report how the peaches do, in about 3 years! LOL I am sure it will be at least that long before we see any fruit on this thing. It is a nice healthy tree and my husband is good at treating trees right. I am just hoping we can keep the cherry trees going. We have tried them in the past and ended up losing them going into the third year, after them being super healthy and strong up to that point.
Dandelioness- good luck with the little one and your pending delivery. I hope yours goes as easy as my second one. Then again, he was easy to give birth to, just has been a pain in the rear for the last year (he's 16).
gofeedthegirls- a couple of excellent breeds for cold weather are Buckeyes and Chanteclers. My preference is the Bucks, but I think Ed will say the Chanteclers are better
Both were developed to be cold weather birds. The Buckeyes have a pea comb and very slight wattles, and the Chanteclers a cushion comb and slight wattles, both are good things to consider to save yourself worry over frostbite. I do keep larger single combed breeds, but they do get hit every winter, but to a much lesser degree if they are kept DRY! There are plenty of folks here that have experience with the cold and their chickens, so you will get good advice on that. I don't recommend heat lamps in anything but brooders for chicks, so I will say that. Heating a coop can do as much harm as good if you don't watch very closely how it is effecting the environment. Condensation will not only cause frostbite, but it can make your birds sick too, so you need to be careful if you go that route.
Good luck with your biddies and welcome to the crazy club of chicken enablers!
Oh, and Ducks too!
And turkeys.
Okay, and guineas and geese!
