Three Little Hens Go To Summer Camp

For various reasons I came to the decision to try and find a home for my 3 hens. They have been laying sporadically and I was really counting on high production this summer. Eggs were the main reason I originally wanted chickens. The entertainment and the manure for the compost were just gravy, so to speak.

And they have become very noisy, especially Queenie the Barred Rock. She starts squawking as soon as the sun came up and has taught herself how to crow like a rooster. And I've been thinking about redesigning the coop to be more accessible and easier for my neighbors to manage whenever I go out of town.

So I decided to take a break from chicken keeping and maybe start again next year with a new coop and some new chicks. I wasn't sure how difficult it might be to place 3 adult hens. They are 2.5 years old. So I posted an ad on the chicken board for my area and I had an offer within 24 hours from a specialty poultry farm called C & L Farms.

So now it was time for me to take them to their new home. I figured I could take them in separate boxes, hoping the darkness might keep them calm. Queenie and Scarlet went happily into their chicken carriers, aka cardboard boxes, excited about their new adventure no doubt. But The Fonz, my Black Australorp took me 5 tries and we were both the worse for wear afterward.

When I got to C&L I was certain I had found a good 2nd home for them. Exotic roosters strutted around the front yard and I could see all sorts of fancy birds in pens, Quail, Guinea Hens, Ducks, etc. They also raise goats and pigs at C & L.

Curtis, the owner took each of my hens out of their boxes, told them they were pretty birds and assured each of them that he had just the boyfriend for them. He intends to breed them for a while and then keep them for laying, unless he finds a customer who wants to keep grown chickens.

Now my girls are country girls instead of city girls and they have already outlived most of the chicken population in this country, since most battery hens are butchered after just one year of intensive egg laying, stimulated by round the clock daylight.

I thought I'd be more sentimental about parting with them, since they really were like pets for a while. But for me a chicken is really more like an employee than a pet, and if I stick with this analogy, I guess I had to let them go on to pursue other opportunities. Not exactly fired, since I found them a new gig.

We Were Promised Tomatoes

Well, maybe not promised, but lead to expect maybe. It seems that most years, by this time we are smacking our lips and wiping tomato juice form our chins. Feasting on Caprese salads every night and hanging over the sink eating tomato sandwiches, on homemade bread, with homemade mayonnaise.

But no. All we have so far are gigantic, leafy, overachieving tomato PLANTS.
Okay, I can't honestly say there are no tomatoes, here are some Sungold cherry tomatoes on tone of the plants. They are currently the size of peas.










The beans are playing the same game. Lots of lush, healthy, leafy growth, but no beans, no flowers even. It won't be long though, and just like every year, we probably won't be able to keep up with the abundance.











Until then at least I've got theses lovelies.
Calendula and Crocosmia.

I'm Not Complaining, But...

So after a what seemed an interminably cold, wet / wet, cold, spring we now have a heat wave. From Monday morning low temp in the 60s we have swung to highs in the 90s for the next few days. It feels great, but I worry that the sudden heat may be a little hard on the plants.

I gave everything a good soak yesterday morning, and I'll be monitoring soil moisture closely for the next few days. Today we may hit 100 degrees and break a record.

The hens don't seem to mind the heat at all. 2 eggs yesterday, and 2 more today. I made sure they have full food and water feeders, and I set up another big dish of water outside of the coop, in the shade so they have plenty to drink. And for a treat today I gave them some frozen corn.

Poor Pearl , my black cat, is not enjoying the heat as much. She's doing a lot of laying around on the cool kitchen floor and looking at me as if to say, "turn off the heater, why doncha".

Hot again tomorrow, they say, then cooling as we head into the weekend.

Grow Some Grains For The Girls

What a great idea to add greens to to the mix of treats for the chickens, and keep them busy. It also helps keep the run from becoming dry hard pan in the summer and a muddy bog in the wet months. I am definitely going to give this a try.

Greens for Hens

I Never Learn

The tomatoes aren't even ripe yet and I'm already inundated with zucchini. I made 4 loaves of zucchini bread and serve it at every meal, well not at breakfast. Why don't I just plant 1 plant instead of 3. They start off so small and then take over the garden.

les poulets sont arrivés!

I got my chicks! Here they are inspecting the wall of their new home for the next 6 weeks.






Left to right they are:
Rhode Island Red
Black Australorp
Barred Rock

They spend most of their time, eating, sleeping and chirping contentedly.

More chix pics soon.