The Merry Month of May
This May has been incredibly busy, crazy spring season for us. Here's some highlights from the past week or so.
May 23rd, I bought 3 Pekin ducklings to grow out for meat.
When I got rid of my Muscovy flock last year, I knew at some point I'd try Pekin, since they have much faster growth rate. Even though the meat is totally different than Muscovy, I thought it'd be worth a try.
Plus, who can resist cute little ducklings?
I had bought two sets of 3 stacked cages recently, for the purpose of growing out chicks or when customers came to buy chickens, it'd be easy to separate them.
And since ducklings are notorious for being messy, I thought raising them in one of the cages would be a much cleaner alternative.
And once they're a little older, they'll go out of grass. So, don't worry, they're not going to spend their whole life in a rabbit cage!
Even though I have a trio of turkeys, for some unknown reason, I'm having a very hard time hatching their eggs.
Out of dozens of eggs, I've only gotten 1 poult to hatch and survive.
So, while at Frog Pond, I also got a few turkey poults, with the hope of growing them out for meat and/or future breeders.
But in the 6 days I've had them, I've lost 2 of the original 6. Certainly turkey poults aren't the easiest to raise!
Then, Saturday, a group of us from Backyardchickens.com forum gather together once a year for Chickenstock. We talk about our poultry, eat, bring things for a raffle, and buy/sell extra poultry and hatching eggs we have. This year's host was in the Fingerlakes, which was about a 3 1/2 hr drive for me. But other years, there's been ladies who've driven 4-5 hours to Chickenstock.
I brought some pullets and ~4 week old chicks, plus some hatching eggs "just in case". But, I knew that most likely, I'd return home with them. But one pullet and 1 dozen eggs found new homes, so that was great!
My joke is that at Chickenstock, I usually go home with more than I come with! This year wasn't any different. Several years ago, I fell in love with the Spitzhauben breed. Even though I don't breed them pure, I just love their looks and personality. Plus they're winter-hardy and lay white eggs, which I don't have any other chickens that do. Long story short, I came home with these two gorgeous pullets - a Silver Spangled & a Splash (project BBS, so crests are small).
For the raffle, there wasn't much I was interested in, except someone had brought hatching eggs. They were divided up into 3 groups - for a total of 4 dozen. I put multiple raffle tickets in each.
To my surprise, I ended up winning all 4 dozen!
The fun part will be seeing what hatches, as they're from the lady's "colorful egg pen", which consists of Black Copper Marans, Legbar, Welsummer, Olive egger and 2 frizzle tolbunt polish hens in with a BCM and Legbar roo. So, I could end up with "Chocolate" eggs, "Olive" eggs, plus more blue, green and brown And what I'm really looking forward to are what the Tolbunt Polish chicks look like! If the Legbar is the "papa" they should be very pretty "eye candy", plus lay blue eggs!
And if you don't know what Frizzle Tolbunt Polish chickens look like, here's one I found from a Google image search:
Aren't they crazy? And I'd love if some turned out like this, but who knows?
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I told myself this past winter that I was going to start my plants in the greenhouse we'd built last fall.
But, that never happened, as the time I should have been, I was organizing a seed swap and then went on a two day vacation to Lancaster. Then, every single week, many things came up, and I just never got the time to sow seeds. Therefore, I ended up buying some started plants to get a jump start on certain plants. Then sow the rest with the abundance of seeds I do have.
Memorial Day, my parents came over and we planted 2/3 of the garden.
Despite putting cardboard and wood mulch (wasn't thick enough!) on the garden last fall, the nettles, dandelions and crack grass still came up through. So, we had to weed some of the garden beds before we could plant.
The benefit is that some of the nettles we cut and will use for nettle pesto spaghetti, and freeze the rest for future meals. Nettles may sting and be "invasive", but it's also a very healthy green that's super easy to grow! Just tricky to harvest.
Last year, I had Swiss Chard ("Perpetual Spinach" I believe) that went to seed, and this spring, there's lots of baby Chard seedlings - none of which we sowed!
I'd also planted carrot seeds last year, but they never came up. Until this spring. So, I think I better start sowing carrot seeds in the fall, because they germinate much better after going through winter, I guess!
The chickens also got lots of "weeds" from the garden, and what they don't eat, will turn into more compost.
We've had days of sunshine and rain intermixed, so the grass and "weeds" in the grass paddocks have grown so fast, it's like a forest for the chickens!
My plan is to weed-wack the paddocks today, since the tall grass ends up getting trampled & not eaten. Though, they did seem to enjoy the "forest"! 😆
Last, but not least, here's the current flowers that are blooming in the garden!
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#catskillhomesteaderchickens #landracechickens#locallyadapted #locallyadaptedchickens #eyecandychickens #paradiseindisguisehobbyfarm #backyardpoultry #gardening #backtoedengarden #backtoedengardening #woodmulch #woodchips #woodchipsarethebest #growyourownfood #homegrown #flowers #ducks #pekinducks #heritageturkeys #turkeys
May 23rd, I bought 3 Pekin ducklings to grow out for meat.
When I got rid of my Muscovy flock last year, I knew at some point I'd try Pekin, since they have much faster growth rate. Even though the meat is totally different than Muscovy, I thought it'd be worth a try.
Plus, who can resist cute little ducklings?
I had bought two sets of 3 stacked cages recently, for the purpose of growing out chicks or when customers came to buy chickens, it'd be easy to separate them.And since ducklings are notorious for being messy, I thought raising them in one of the cages would be a much cleaner alternative.
And once they're a little older, they'll go out of grass. So, don't worry, they're not going to spend their whole life in a rabbit cage!
Even though I have a trio of turkeys, for some unknown reason, I'm having a very hard time hatching their eggs.
Out of dozens of eggs, I've only gotten 1 poult to hatch and survive.
So, while at Frog Pond, I also got a few turkey poults, with the hope of growing them out for meat and/or future breeders.
But in the 6 days I've had them, I've lost 2 of the original 6. Certainly turkey poults aren't the easiest to raise!
Then, Saturday, a group of us from Backyardchickens.com forum gather together once a year for Chickenstock. We talk about our poultry, eat, bring things for a raffle, and buy/sell extra poultry and hatching eggs we have. This year's host was in the Fingerlakes, which was about a 3 1/2 hr drive for me. But other years, there's been ladies who've driven 4-5 hours to Chickenstock.
I brought some pullets and ~4 week old chicks, plus some hatching eggs "just in case". But, I knew that most likely, I'd return home with them. But one pullet and 1 dozen eggs found new homes, so that was great!
For the raffle, there wasn't much I was interested in, except someone had brought hatching eggs. They were divided up into 3 groups - for a total of 4 dozen. I put multiple raffle tickets in each.
To my surprise, I ended up winning all 4 dozen!
And if you don't know what Frizzle Tolbunt Polish chickens look like, here's one I found from a Google image search:
Aren't they crazy? And I'd love if some turned out like this, but who knows?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Now, about the garden ...
I told myself this past winter that I was going to start my plants in the greenhouse we'd built last fall.
But, that never happened, as the time I should have been, I was organizing a seed swap and then went on a two day vacation to Lancaster. Then, every single week, many things came up, and I just never got the time to sow seeds. Therefore, I ended up buying some started plants to get a jump start on certain plants. Then sow the rest with the abundance of seeds I do have.
Memorial Day, my parents came over and we planted 2/3 of the garden.
Despite putting cardboard and wood mulch (wasn't thick enough!) on the garden last fall, the nettles, dandelions and crack grass still came up through. So, we had to weed some of the garden beds before we could plant.
The benefit is that some of the nettles we cut and will use for nettle pesto spaghetti, and freeze the rest for future meals. Nettles may sting and be "invasive", but it's also a very healthy green that's super easy to grow! Just tricky to harvest.
In the midst of the weeds, I found several beautiful fennel plants, right where one was growing last year and had also gone to seed! I love these pleasant surprises!
The chickens also got lots of "weeds" from the garden, and what they don't eat, will turn into more compost.
We've had days of sunshine and rain intermixed, so the grass and "weeds" in the grass paddocks have grown so fast, it's like a forest for the chickens!
My plan is to weed-wack the paddocks today, since the tall grass ends up getting trampled & not eaten. Though, they did seem to enjoy the "forest"! 😆
Last, but not least, here's the current flowers that are blooming in the garden!
.
.
.
.
#catskillhomesteaderchickens #landracechickens#locallyadapted #locallyadaptedchickens #eyecandychickens #paradiseindisguisehobbyfarm #backyardpoultry #gardening #backtoedengarden #backtoedengardening #woodmulch #woodchips #woodchipsarethebest #growyourownfood #homegrown #flowers #ducks #pekinducks #heritageturkeys #turkeys
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