What did you do in the garden today?

[oldhen2345]

Ok, I caved. It’s like 82F outside but the humidity is 75%. I just turned on the AC.

I keep my AC on 80. Guess I am wimpy, but I earned some cool air over the years. I refuse to feel any guilt- until the bill comes in.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Made an observation this morning... I had 5 chicks that hatched from the incubator on 7/21. They will be 4 weeks old this Wednesday.

I gave 2 of them to one of my broodies to raise. She's a very tame Buff Orpington named Red.

The other 3 I hand raised in the brooder.

The chicks I hand raised are all fully feathered and at least twice the size as the chicks that Red has been raising... Red's chicks are also only half-feathered

Maybe because in the brooder they have free choice food at all times and the broody-raised chicks don't?

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Made an observation this morning... I had 5 chicks that hatched from the incubator on 7/21. They will be 4 weeks old this Wednesday.

I gave 2 of them to one of my broodies to raise. She's a very tame Buff Orpington named Red.

The other 3 I hand raised in the brooder.

The chicks I hand raised are all fully feathered and at least twice the size as the chicks that Red has been raising... Red's chicks are also only half-feathered

Maybe because in the brooder they have free choice food at all times and the broody-raised chicks don't?

It might be that your broody hen is keeping them warmer. The chicks I brooded when the outside temps were cooler feathered out quicker than my recent chicks that were brooded when the outside temps were in the high 80’s.

 

[oldhen2345]

Dontcha love experiments for growth behavior?
I had two different hatches in two different brooders. I bought three chicks from a local hatchery (not good) - They were Mottled Orpingtons (see avatar). I already had 6 chicks ( bought from a reputable hatchery online) in a brooder at roughly the same age as these new ones. Some of these were Buff Orpingtons. The MOs had been raised in a crowded brooder bin, were wet and had poop balls stuck to their toes. They never sat down and slept standing up. I finally put one of the Buff Orpingtons in with them to help them learn to be chickens. Anyway, the brooder with the chicks from the reputable hatchery had a Momma Cave. The MOs had a regular heat light above the brooder. All chicks were about the same size and age to start with. The BO I transferred to help the MOs was the same size as the chicks from the good hatchery. After a couple of weeks, the MOs did learn how to be chickens and two of them plus the BO grew and thrived. One MO had to be culled due to failure to thrive.
When I compared the good hatchery chicks with the new ones, the good hatchery chicks were over twice the size as the new ones. Even the BO that I transferred was smaller by half than the BOs left in the other brooder from the good hatchery. Was it the heat source that made the difference? they both got the same food and water, the same amount of handling from me (after I had cleaned off the MO's and removed the balls from their feet). Interesting study. Hereafter, I have always used the Momma Cave to heat the brooder.

 

[WthrLady]

Harvested 2 cups of marigold seeds this morning. And many heads of sunflowers before the birds get all of them.
Have many more to go, but they aren't ready yet.

50 pounds of puree and tomato sauces simmering on the stove at the moment. Pressure canner is warming up.

 

[gtaus]

I (somewhat patiently)compost all of my finished compost to a small, loose, crumbly texture that is garden ready and does not require sifting out large particles, due to it all being broken down to a fine and light size and texture. It requires a pile method that performs best with at least a 3 to 4 foot height and width maintained and turned occasionally. The pile should emit steam or even smoke when working properly and opened up. Mine are usually much bigger (wider/longer). Nothing woody, bigger than about an inch or two is included in my piles, though sawdust, wood chips, and chipped bark is ok, along with the normal leaves, grass clippings, garden/kitchen waste, coop litter and etc.( the more varied the materials the better the compost). The heat needed to kill common insect pest and weed seeds(found in quality compost ingredients frequently) require the deep pile method or some cooking.

I have five pallet bins that are 4X4X4 feet, but I just pile them up and let them sit... for a year or more. I'm in no hurry for making compost as I get more than enough from my chicken run compost system. I prefer the chicken run compost because the chickens do all the turning and breaking down the material. I really have no desire to turn my pallet compost piles. But, given time, nature will break it all down.

My cement mixer compost sifter sifts out the finished compost into one gorilla cart, and the larger, unfinished compost goes into a second cart. The unfinished compost will get tossed back into the run to age some more. But, like I said, it only takes me ~15 minutes to sift out 6 cubic feet of finished compost with my compost sifter. So I do that maybe a couple times a year and get more compost than I can use. Last year I was giving chicken run compost away to my neighbors that garden. They loved it.

I understand not having money to invest in a compost sifter. Since I had to buy a brand new cement mixer, my project cost me around $200. That is/was a lot of money to me. However, I was buying bags of compost at the big box stores for about $5.00 per bag. It only took me a number of hours for my cement mixer compost sifter to pay for itself. IIRC, I estimated I was making about $60 of compost per hour of machine use.

I think I hit the breakeven point after 3 short days of sifting the compost and hauling the finished compost out to the garden. Since then, everything is just a bonus. I'll probably have that cement mixer compost sifter for many many years. For me, it was a great investment.

Everybody's situation varies to degrees, according to their location and personal tolerances!

Yep, I offer suggestions that work for me, with no guarantee that it will work for anybody else where they live.

Try composting worms, you have a good start to easy harvesting of the worms and or compost!

I had composting worms many years ago, but I think I overfed them and they all died. I know worm castings are supposed to be the ultimate compost, but Dear Wife did not like the idea of having a worm bin in the house, and in northern Minnesota, it was too cold to leave them outside in the winter.

So feeding all our kitchen scraps to the chickens and getting eggs and compost from them just works better for me.

 

[WthrLady]

You could knit them little scarves and hats.

 

[Isadora]

I technically didn't do anything in my garden today (Don't usually do anything in gardens on Sunday anyway) but I did make a batch of peach jam from our tree!

 

[Sally PB]

I dug some potatoes and am air frying them atm. I dug 3 hills that had totally dead plants.

I think I'm not going to plant Caribou potatoes next year. I dug two hills of them, and got more taters from the one hill of Kennebec that I dug.

I haven't dug any of the third variety, Elba, which was my BIG producer last year.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Remember that mystery pepper plant I got? Here's the first pepper from it.

Any ideas what kind of pepper it is?