Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, celery, cucumber, zucchini, onions, garlic, carrots, melon, basil and parsley Filed Notes.  Ken is always thinking ahead! Monday he started moving chicks and chickens.  He has several batches of chicks at varying ages.  He is making room for the newer hens in one of the portable coops.  The young roosters – cockerels – will go in the north coop.  He has moved the larger …

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Here a Chick, There a Chick…

Ken has been perfecting his broody hen management this season.  The result has been several hatches of chicks.  At first he put them together, but it seemed the older ones were picking on the younger ones.  So now he has several small outside enclosures with chicken wire and fiberglass fence posts.     There are the tiny chicks               There are the chicks that a renegade hen hatched out …

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Here a Chick, There a Chick…

Ken has always encouraged broody hens to hatch chicks.  A few years back when the price of day old chicks went to $4 each, Ken got serious about hatching out chickens to replace older laying hens.  A chick grows into either a pullet (female) or cockerel (male), and then as adult they are hens or roosters.  Pullets grow for about six months before they lay eggs.  Their first eggs are small and people call them …

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Ken’s Fourth Batch of Chicks This Season

We have hens for eggs.  In the past we did a combination of buying day old chicks and encouraging broody hens to hatch out a clutch of chicks.  A few years back the price of day old chicks straight run (a mixture of male and females – it’s cheaper) rose to nearly $4 per chick!  Ken got serious about setting up a successful breeding situation.  Last summer he had a series of batches of chicks …

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Moving Day

Well actually two.  Thursday after midday meal Ken was ready to move the pigs, so we did!  They had dug up their area and gladly moved to the next.        Ken chose a woodsy location so they can stay cool in the summer heat.     The geese range through the former pig area – they are gleaning any stray grain along with the wild birds   The next morning before letting the …

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Happy Solstice!

Here we are at the solstice, the longest day of 2016.  Then the days slowly shorten, and the crops grow; their goal is to set seed before the season ends or in the case of biennials, store enough energy in the root for seeds next season.  Ken has moved a step ladder to the mobile high tunnel and has begun the regular task of trimming and tying up tomatoes so they continue to grow and …

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Chicks, Chicks, and More Chicks

Ken encourages broody hens.  A broody hen is one who wants to sit on a clutch of eggs and hatch out chicks.  Many modern breeds of egg layers have this trait bred out of them.  Most egg producers think of production of eggs, and a broody hen sits for three weeks and cares for chicks a couple more after they hatch.  She isn’t laying eggs while she does that. We like broody hens that hatch …

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Ken’s New Chicks

Ken encourages broody hens. Broody hens want to sit on eggs and hatch out chicks. In our experience chicks with good mothers have a head start – someone to care for them, teach them chicken skills, and protect them. Once a hen continues to sit in a nest box over night, Ken starts to watch for a couple days. Then he moves her to a quiet, undisturbed area, places some eggs under her, and she …

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