Prepping

We got the playhouse-coop done! Well, almost. We just have to attach the first 'level' of mesh to the second one, and attach the top netting to the mesh. Oh, and make a door.

We also got started on the hutch-coop today. It shouldn't take too much more work before it's ready for the 4 laying hens that we can pick up tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out what kind of material to put on the floors of the coops - it sounds like straw, pine shavings and sand all have their pros and cons.

The chicks are still sniffling but original sick-y sounds better so hopefully they'll all get through it. Zebra Head sounds the worst right now.

Yesterday after we finished mulching we went and picked up Nathan's aquaponics tank from the hatchery. They gave us 3 smaller tanks too - they were so nice to give them to us! Today we got the rest of the supplies (clay for the growing medium, a shelving unit, polypipe, etc.) - just need some fish!

The new tank and the bathtub.

None of the seeds that we planted outside or in the greenhouse seem to have germinated yet...but the seedlings all look good. They seem to be doing ok even though it's been getting down to 3 degrees at night.

Crunch Time

I can't believe we move in 3 days! March has gone by so fast.

The chicks are a lot of fun to watch. Because I've never really been around chickens, everything they do is interesting to me - scratching around with their feet to look for food, wiping their beaks off, grabbing worms from your hand and taking off at full speed with them (it looks like chick tag football)...I like how they stretch their legs so carefully after they wake up and how they sometimes fall over on their sides because they get so tired, and then just go to sleep like that. 

I've been offering them tiny bits of sunflower seeds with grit once a day for treats and today I started associating that with a bell. Step one of chicken recall! It's all an experiment, really, so we'll see what happens.

The meat birds are growing way faster than the egg birds already. Little black one with the yellow face is my favourite - she (please!) sits on my hand all the time and falls asleep there.

Gulping down the worm treasure in the corner.

Gaining weight quickly!

Smallest next to biggest.

This adventure is going to turn us into vegetarians...good thing they don't stay this cute for long.

 The seedlings are all looking good - I've been putting the tomatoes, melons, kale and broccoli out in the sun for the past few beautiful days. The broccoli leaves got a little sun burnt..or else affected by the cold or the recent transplanting to bigger pots. They have some whitish spots on them but I think they'll recover. Five cucumbers sprouted and so did five 'gold nugget' tomatoes and two eggplants. Oh, and the parsley. Still waiting on thyme and sage and the rest of the eggplants. I fertilized the bigger seedlings today for the first time with a seaweed fertilizer. They were looking a little droopy and since they're still in the original seed starting soil I thought it couldn't hurt. We're going to have an intense few weeks of planting ahead of us! 

The Chicks Are Coming!!!

I pick them up tomorrow. Eeeeeee! 

I have to stop at a feed store to get a red 250 watt heat lamp (buying the reflector for $12 off craigslist), some chick starter feed, pine shavings and food and water dispensers. 

The first few days they'll be on paper towels on top of newspaper (with just newspaper they can slip and get something called spraddle leg). For the first week the temperature should be 32 C (90 F), but apparently you can tell if the temperature is right pretty easily by how the chicks are behaving - huddled together under the lamp, they're too cold. Huddled as far away from the lamp as possible, they're too hot. 

I made a brooder out of the bottom half of a vari kennel. I zap strapped the door into place and then zap strapped cardboard on the inside of that to stop shavings from flying out. The top is a sheet of hardware cloth. I didn't want to cut it in case we use it for something else later so I just folded it over the edges of the kennel. I think the heat lamp will be fine sitting on top but if that's too warm I'll clamp it onto something else. 

On a less exciting note (still exciting for me - I sit and look at the seedlings alll the time), here are the replanted kale, broccoli and arugula seedlings! Ready to go straight into the greenhouse.

Growing On Up

Today I transplanted the 5 melon plants (3 cantaloupe, 2 watermelon) and 4 of the tomato plants into bigger pots. I would have done all of the tomatoes but I ran out of pots...I'll find some more tomorrow. I'm hoping that the other seedlings will be ok in their little 1" pots until the move (tons of pots/soil on the farm - and the arugula, broccoli and kale will be good to go into the greenhouse asap). 

The seedlings are so pretty...they deserve SLR photos :) 

(also I should document them now, while they look this healthy. I'm kind of shocked I've managed to get them this far and I'm worried they'll suddenly die...especially after transplanting!)

Melons

New cucumber

Basil

Bell Peppers

Sweet Million Tomatoes

Two Weeks to GO!

The furniture essentials are all bought and ready to go, the uhaul is rented (luckily there was a one way deal being offered or we would have been on 3 ferries in one day...), the chicks are ordered and the seeds have all sprouted! Oh, and all of our friends now know the big news (or they will soon enough with the speed of gossip). 

I've already learned a lesson that you don't need to sow as many seeds as the packet recommends. Maybe these seeds just did especially well but they pretty much all germinated and I had to do a lot of thinning. I ate most of the seedlings that I thinned so that they weren't wasted :D Baby arugula is already delicious!

Sappy

I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to feel sad when I thin out the seedlings, but I do...good luck to me when it's time for the chickens to become dinner!

Speaking of which, six chicks have been ordered! They hatch on March 28th and they're a 'heavy cross' that the woman at the heritage hatchery says will be good for growing fast but also good for free ranging (still not sure about whether we'll have the chickens free ranging or in one of the fenced in areas). We also reserved 4 laying hens (Isa Browns - a cross between Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites) that are a year old to pick up mid April so that we don't have to wait 5-6 months to have fresh eggs.