It's chick season! It's been several years since I have purchased chicks, since normally one or two of my hens will hatch out a clutch of chicks sometime during the summer. This year I wanted to buy some so I could pick out a few different breeds. I like my "mutts", but I was ready to refresh the flock with some new blood.
I picked 2 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Black Sexlink, 5 Speckled Sussex, 5 Barred Rocks, and 2 Golden Laced Cochins. The chicks hatched at the very end of April, so these pics are from a couple of weeks ago. They've gotten much bigger, and have moved into a very large box now, so I'll have to take an updated picture soon.
The wren babies in the sheep shelter hatched! There are several in there....it's hard to see, but there are at least 5 in there! They're so cute.
And the baby bunnies are FAT and healthy.
Speaking of fat....oops, sorry goats. I mean pregnant!! Ida and Nessa are in the "get these babies out of me" stage in their pregnancy. They're due very soon...in the next week. I need to clip their udders and do a "hygiene" clip around their tails so I'll be ready for them to kid! Poor Nessarose has been so miserable in the heat lately.
I bought a couple of ferns that were on sale at Lowe's. I just love how they make the porch look so pretty.
I finally got outside today to work in the garden for a while. I have been procrastinating a bit, since my cover crop wasn't blooming yet (it's best to kill it down when it flowers). It was a bit intimidating to think of all the work it would take to kill down the clover/pea mix. A common way to kill cover crop is by tilling it under, but I have been no-till gardening for a few years now and didn't want to ruin that work with a major tilling. You can also spray cover crops with herbicides, but I didn't want to do that either.
I decided to cut it and put it in rows. I'll either let it dry down and feed it to the animals, or I'll spread it back out on the garden as a mulch and let it decompose there. So, armed with an old (sharp) kitchen knife, I went hacking. It wasn't very hard, but I did have to take several breaks because of the heat. I need to buy a scythe!
I cut about half the garden today, and I'll have to do the rest another day.
I did some planting, too. The pic below shows the spinach (poor germination).
Below are the turnips (R) and the beets I seeded today. I plan on harvesting both as greens, and maybe a few roots. I'd rather eat the greens!
Below there's a narrow row of short sunflowers, then cabbage seedlings, and then onions.
The weather this spring has been so odd, I'm not sure how the onions will do. It was rainy and cold for the longest time! Now we've suddenly gone to summer. We totally skipped over the 70's and I'm pretty bummed about that. It was nice to get out and work in the garden though, even if it was hot.
The honey bees are LOVING the clover, and I took a few pictures before I cut half of it down.
