Spring carries on!

Spring is continuing here in my little corner of the world.  In fact, we've had a few days now that feel distinctly summer-ish.   I thought I'd write a little bit about the latest activity around here.

The garden has progressed wonderfully.  I'm really excited about the progress in the greenhouse.  I have a local helper who is coming out several mornings a week and he is just fabulous.  I keep an ongoing list of tasks that I'd like help with, and he comes when he's able to do so and puts in a few hours of time to help out.  This means that a lot more is getting done here, so I feel good about that, while he's able to supplement his income and enjoy seeing the progress of his work, which I think is rewarding for him.  It's a win-win!  I hope I'll be able to share some of the bounty of the garden with him and his family later in the season.

Here's a view inside the greenhouse.  My helper placed paver pathways inside the greenhouse so that I have space to walk and tend to the plants.  He also placed the cross strings at the bottom and top of the rows.  I planted the tomato transplants and put the upright strings in place.  The plants will grow upwards and I will gently wrap the string around the main stem as it grows, thereby supporting the plants.  This will make pruning much easier, and will facilitate easy picking of the fruit.  The plants are already doing well and looking healthy.  I planted some tomatoes in a raised bed as well, just for comparison.  I already see a significant difference.

The raised beds have been all planted - kale, cauliflower, broccoli, broccolini, carrots, parsnips, shallots, onions, peas, runner beans, kohlrabi, beets, fennel, melons, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, and herbs.  All the beds had some compost supplement as well.  I have ordered the parts for installing a drip irrigation system for the new raised beds.  I'm hoping we can get that installed soon after the parts arrive.  Here are the four new beds and the 2 small new raised beds by the greenhouse.

Marc has also been very helpful this weekend with the planned expansion of the chicken outdoor run.  They will now have more than double the area they used to have for free roaming, while remaining protected from ground and air predators.  Marc spent a lot of time yesterday and today putting in the posts and building the supporting structure.  Next will be chicken wire and hardware cloth (at the bottom).  Eventually the new area will connect to the old, but the idea was to build as much of the new area as possible so that the chickens didn't have to be confined to the coop for a long time now that the weather is warming up.  The new area will have a partially roofed area that will allow for winter dust bathing because it won't fill up with snow.  Happy chickens!

Here's the view from the top so you can see how much bigger the enclosed area will be.

The initial 11 chicks that I hatched are all doing well and are learning to go to the roosts at night instead of hanging out on the floor.  They are such a lovely bunch.  I hope quite a few are hens but it all remains to be seen.  Another 13 chicks are currently being raised in the house, and there are just a few still to hatch.  Of course, a large portion will be roosters and will end up being soup stock, but that's part of raising chickens.  This black and white one is the biggest one.  I suspect he's a roo.

Learning to perch!

I love the unusual plumage on this one.  I hope she's a hen!

Sir Francis' area isn't quite finished yet, so today he got to go out and enjoy a temporary enclosed area with a swimming pool for his personal pleasure.  He's going through a major moult right now, so he's doing a lot of bathing and preening.

Moth season is in full swing and there have been some fabulous visitors so far.  Yesterday I had an absolutely stunning male luna moth (Actias luna) who was really fresh and undamaged.  

Today I had a modest sphinx (Pachysphinx modesta) - such beautiful hindwings.

Not a small moth!

So that's a bit of an update from me - hope things are going well in your part of the world.  

Chick Progress

This is a picture-heavy post, but just for interest's sake, I've matched up the pictures of the chicks today with their day 1 pictures.  Some of them are quite firmly in the awkward adolescent stage at which they have lost their fluffy cuteness and have progressed into semi-feathered semi-cuteness, with a touch of teenage angst.  There are some major size differences (which is expected based on the egg sizes they hatched from) and some clear roosters showing up.  I'll give my best guesses here.  I put a mini hand sanitizer bottle in the pictures today for scale.  It's the little travel size.  I realized, looking at the pictures, that I've had it for more than 8 years now, since it's from Walgreens (we don't have Walgreens in Canada) and has no French on the label.  Thus, I must have brought it with me from Iowa!  Amazing how these things are found in the back of the drawer as needed!

Three of the current brood were hatched later than the rest and are still quite small.  They are easy to identify.  It is a bit early to guess on gender but these 3 might be hens if I'm lucky.

Cinnamon Chipmunk, Day 1 (far left)

Day 14, Best Guess: hen

Chocolate Chipmunk, far right, Day 1:

Day 14, best guess: hen

Solid black with white chin, middle, Day 1:

Day 14, best guess: hen

There is a wee bit of brown speckling on some feathers.

Chocolate Chick, Day 1:

Day 25, best guess: hen 

She's a little darker than I expected but has a lovely ring of golden neck feathers.  Her feet and legs darkened a lot.

Day 1: Black with a white eye marking

Day 25: Best guess: hen
She has some white wing feathers and more speckling than I would have expected on her underside.

I think she might have cheek muff feathers, which means she has a bit of Ameraucana in her. I think her mom is one of my Ameraucana bantams.

Day 1, yellow and greyish chick with light beak, back striping:

Day 25:  Biggest bird, very mixed feathers and patterns.  Quite interesting.  Best guess: roo
Definitely at an awkward stage!

Day 1: Pale coloured chick, light beak

Day 25:  Seriously?!  Best guess: Roo
This bird really surprised me with the extent of dark colour in the feathers, including on the head.  I thought it was going to be nearly solid white at hatch time.  It's also very large now.  The slight pink tone to the comb area makes me think it's a rooster.  Darn it!  A pretty bird.

Day 1: Chipmunk with gold tones


Day 25, best guess: roo
This is a really beautifully feathered bird with great colour, but the comb screams roo.  Possible head crest feathers too.  Grumble...

Day 1: Chipmunk chick

Day 25: Interesting!  Best guess: hmmm..... 

Honestly, I'm not sure.  There's a bit of comb swelling, but no pinkish tone yet.  Might be a hen.  Really neat feather patterns and interesting colours.  Quite a stocky bird. 

Day 25:  Sorry, this bird missed its chick pic!  I'm sure it's a rooster though.

Day 1:  Tiny black chick with feathered legs
This one was the smallest of the batch.

Day 25:  Head crest!  Best guess: roo
This one has some grey tones in the feathering and quite a head crest forming.  It has silkie toes, which explains the head crest.

 I'm not sure if it's a roo, but I suspect...

Day 1:  Solid black, including beak

Day 25:  Smallest one (of the initial batch), best guess: hen
I'm not entirely sure, but she acts like a hen and has no comb swelling.  Silkie toes.

Day 1:  Last one!  Black with white shading, dark beak mark

Day 25, best guess: roo
Interesting head feathering.  Again, it has the look of the lacing on my Ameraucana bantam, so I think that's the mom.  No silkie toes.

I just love barnyard mix birds.  They're fun to hatch because you really have no idea what you're going to get.  The feathering is always a bit of a surprise.  I am happy with this set of hatchlings and hope to have some lovely hens.  The extra roosters will unfortunately be for soup stock, but they'll live their first year happily digging in the dirt. So far it looks like 5 roosters for sure, which if that number holds, 8 hens would be quite lucky out of 13 birds.  I'm sure others will declare themselves though!

A few of the girls

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Knit East.  Where does the time go?  I still need to blog about the Maritime Spinner's Retreat and a host of other things but, yeah, time gets away from me.  And it's that time of year when knitting deadlines get imposed and stuff happens and the calendar is busy and I'm still doing the 3-nights-a-week exercise classes and I just. can't. keep. up. sometimes.

So, instead of all that stuff I should be blogging about, here are a few pictures of some of my chickens, who have (for the most part) recently moulted, and therefore look rather lovely. Not many eggs this time of year, because the day length is short and we seem to be living in a phase of perpetual gloom and grey skies, which also doesn't help.  Eggs should pick up again in late February or March sometime.  For now, it's 2 a day, most days.

Here's Raptor, who was a hen that didn't get along well in another flock, and she's been with me for a while now, and seem to have settled in.  She got her name from the screeches she makes when I touch her, which for her own comfort, I generally don't do.

She's some kind of bantam cross - on the larger side of bantams. 

Here's Maple - a very serious and determined hen.  She's a Swedish Flower/Isbar cross.

This is one of the roosters that came from this year's 3 hatched chicks.  This little chick...

...became this gorgeous guy. 

Although we usually use our extra roosters for chicken stock, I can't bring myself to eat him.  He's a stunner. He also has a small comb, which is ideal for our winters. I have no idea where that comb came from because none of other other birds have one like that.

This beauty is Onyx - she's a maran cross.

Here's Paprika and one of the other red hens (either Poppy or Marigold I think) enjoying some pumpkin.

Lucinda would like to show you her fluffy bloomers. There's a show-off in every crowd!

Shadow is an Icelandic/Isbar cross hen.  I love her black-laced feathers.

The girls do like to sit on this old Craftsman table saw stand.  We don't have the saw, and I was going to throw out the stand, but thought they might like it, and sure enough they do.  Here's Onyx and one of the red hens (maybe Kaede) with a young black bantam rooster in the background. 

I do love my chickens!