Chickens

circling around the feeding station

settling in for the night

Chickens

Filling up the Garden

Rouse put in new end posts to support the string trellis for the pole beans. I promptly planted two rows of rattlesnake pole bean seeds, saved from last year's crop.

Also, directly seeded:
2 rows of jade bush beans
4 hills of delicata squash

Transplanted:
10 basil plants
4 fennel plants
4 pickling cucumber plants
2 shishito pepper plants
2 black cherry tomato plants
2 types of thyme
1 stevia plant
oregano thinned from Betty's garden

Chicks In and Out

Fresh water and food before settling in for the night.
The heat lamp provides warmth. The tarp will cover all.

Outside play time. The chicks enjoy having a stick
to climb on and plenty of greens to eat.

Spring Garden

garlic

beds full of lettuce and kale

curly and flatleaf parsley, rosemary behind

sugar snap peas and beets

potatoes

shallots and salad turnips

mustard bouquet

Chicks Move to New Habitat

Chicks grow fast! They were getting ready to jump out of that shallow kiddy pool. So we pulled out the old hardware-wire quonset hut built years ago to house chicks. It needed a little scrubbing and some repair, but soon it was ready for habitation.

The nice thing about this cage is we can easily move it FROM the protected screened-in porch, where there is electricity for the heat lamp on these cold spring nights, TO the beautiful sun-shiny, leafy green outside yard. The contented peeping of chicks is such a sweet sound.

We were reminded of the dangers of the outdoor world when a local hawk discovered the peeps and swooped down to investigate. Of course, they were safe behind the wire, but still, I ran wildly out of the house, waving my arms and hollering like a crazy woman.  Meanwhile the chicks huddled together, and stayed that way long enough for me to snap this picture.

Life is what happens while you're making other plans ...

Oh, we had grand, exotic plans! International travel plans ... Casablanca to Marakesh plans ... all cancelled due to the Covid-19 coronavirus. Well, there's nothing to be done about a global pandemic, except shelter in place at home ... and raise a flock of chickens!

April 1, we picked up our chicks from our local seed and feed store ... 10 biddies and 1 little rooster (the one with the green head). These are Dominiques (aka Dominickers), America's oldest breed of chicken, and the same type of chicken I had in my first flock.

We got them all set up on the screened-in porch, in a kiddy pool, under a tarp. Rouse made them a little "house" in which to take shelter. They were cozy under a heat lamp.

This is my little rooster, designated as such with the green mark on his head.

Is there anything as cute as a little peep?

Looks like tabouli on the menu!

parsley and mint, little green shallots