NY chicken lover!!!!

[happyhensny]

Rancher - I sorted seeds today, as the library is closed I will check to see what I can find out online. I guess I want a detailed plan of what to plant next to what for the best yield and I have also read on "companion" planting. Lots to learn.

Heni - I used black plastic in my garden before. Layed it out to cover the entire area, cut an "x" for the plant, no weeds. Really, it worked well but I am so disorganized I had a hard time walking between the aisles and the tomatoes were so huge I had DD army crawl through an pick from underneath. It was pretty funny!

Stonykill - Good luck on your hatches. We have the 1st batch due 3/1, getting 2 more swaps this week sometime.

Queen - Do you like the beds 4ft wide? Can you reach the middle from either side? I will look for the Square Foot book. I am hoping to get untreated boards from a sawmill up the hill. Hoping to get locust, heard they last longer.

ETA: Just filled out the paperwork to be a Game Bird Breeder through NYS DEC. I have Wood Ducks and Pintails I am hoping to have ducklings for sale to pay for the license. If anyone is interested PM me! (no eggs yet though)

 

[demp4]

Anyone plant their gardens in raised beds? I think I am going to try them this year, our soil is so rocky I never get any root crops. Does anyone know where I can find a planting diagram of what to plant next to what to maximize space and minimize weeding?

Here is a great to do potatoes I think I am trying it this year. I found it on Pinterest... http://urbanfarmerseward.posterous.com/potato-towers-and-living-fence-posts

Also enter your zip code here and scroll down to find out what to start indoors and/or plant outside when so you can be prepared. http://sproutrobot.com/

Here is a compact garden design: http://boyslife.org/hobbies-projects/funstuff/7222/plant-a-compact-vegetable-garden/ for a raised bed type set up using square foot gardening.

and my favorite I found for different zones Kitchen Garden Design Plan http://www.reneesgarden.com/hm-gardnr/resource/short-season-garden.pdf

Hope this helps you out!!

~Melanie

 

[happyhensny]

Quote:Originally Posted by demp4



Here is a great to do potatoes I think I am trying it this year. I found it on Pinterest... http://urbanfarmerseward.posterous.com/potato-towers-and-living-fence-posts

Also enter your zip code here and scroll down to find out what to start indoors and/or plant outside when so you can be prepared. http://sproutrobot.com/

Here is a compact garden design: http://boyslife.org/hobbies-projects/funstuff/7222/plant-a-compact-vegetable-garden/ for a raised bed type set up using square foot gardening.

and my favorite I found for different zones Kitchen Garden Design Plan http://www.reneesgarden.com/hm-gardnr/resource/short-season-garden.pdf

Hope this helps you out!!

~Melanie

We will definitely try the potato in a basket. That is a great idea and very attractive too. Sprout bot is also cool. I like the idea that you can pay for specific seeds and get all the info you need to grow a garden. The Boys Life site is also very informative. I am hoping to make a few beds so I may try to put the veggies together they suggest or maybe just plant a few of their suggested beds. Renees garden has some great seeds for sale. Wow, their stuff will need some looking in to. Thanks!

 

[rancher hicks]

thanks! it is going to be FULL. 41 eggs. About 1/2 Sumatra, and the other 1/2 for myself. Sumatra mixed with RIR, black Austrolop, White Leghorn and EE. As well as 2 purebred mutts mixed with Sumatra. Hopefully lots of hens in my mixtures. Otherwise I'm going to have a full freezer!

What I did for my eggs, is pick eggs from my best laying hens only. Now that I have a nice # of girls for selling eggs, I want to improve on them!

12 Sumatra's are for Cass. If anyone else wants some, I'll see how many more I have after hatch time. Plus I'm sure I'll incubate 1 or 2 more times.

Did you see the Mille Fleur Leghorn eggs up for bid on Rarebreeds auction? Very nice but I've spent a lot so far this year on chicks. I do like them though.

 

[stonykill]

Did you see the Mille Fleur Leghorn eggs up for bid on Rarebreeds auction? Very nice but I've spent a lot so far this year on chicks. I do like them though.

no I didn't. Maybe next time through.

 

[Glasshen]

I played stork yesterday!

One of the RIR nice girls doesn't want to have anything to do with the small minded pecking order stuff that has been going on, and decided to do something more positive. She has concentrated on hatching golf balls and donated unfertilized eggs. She has been very focused on this and is so sweet. She has endured my attempts to turn her out of her chosen places with only some disgruntled sounds and some pouty body language, never attempting to peck.

So I saw the website for the hatchery in Seneca Falls! And I called, they had Buff Orpington day old chicks, so I drove over to Seneca Falls, a lovely trip on Route 20 on a sunny day. Anthony and Jeffrey were very nice and helpful and I left with three little blonde babies cheeping.

I set them up in the basement the way I had raised the six girls last spring. At about 7 pm I bundled them and three plastic feed filled Easter eggs out to the coop. My sweet sleepy girl accepted them all and pushed them under her fluffiness. There was peeping heard for a minute, then she gave a little wiggle and everyone was quiet. I checked on them twice more in the evening, and there was nothing to be seen except a large fluffy hen...and Stewpot was roosting on the top of the nest box, and very interested in what was happening. She had her head hanging down so she could look into the nest box.

I hope there is room for food and water in that box, I suspect that it may be like Felix the Cat's bag, infinitely spacious.

Oh it's light, gotta go look.

 

[queenchick16]

With 4 foot wide you will be able to reach the center and then some. I put a tape measure on the ground and 4ft worked fine for me(I'm 5'4") One great book is The Victory Garden. He lays it all out month by month. Can find this book used on Amazon. or I'm sure at the library.Seed types might be a little dated but one of the best Reference books out there.Tried the potatoes in a plastic tub last year; the yield was OK. Whats great is you just carry the tub over to the garden and dump it out.I can't say if it was the method or the potatoes since I got them from a friend.I even put salads in a tub and move them under a tree in the extreme heat.Start pots every two and have salad and have salad all summer.Even put Swiss chard in a huge metal trough every year.You have to remember I'm working on a very small scale. ~Carol

 

[queenchick16]

What about Salmon Faverolles? I was suppose to receive some When I stared my hatch but they never showed up.

 

[Glasshen]

Sadly, one little baby was on the floor about four feet from the nest box. There is no sign of life, but my training is "no one is dead until they are warm and dead." but I think this fluffy baby is dead.

But, I think two are alive, I saw one...

 

[vmdanielsen]

Sadly, one little baby was on the floor about four feet from the nest box. There is no sign of life, but my training is "no one is dead until they are warm and dead." but I think this fluffy baby is dead.

But, I think two are alive, I saw one...

Sorry to hear of the dead chick. Great story otherwise.......