Loss of Our Girls

It's a very sad day around The Patch. Some kind of wild vermin managed to get into our chicken tractor and slaughter all of our girls! The trouble began Saturday morning when I found one of them dead in the corner of the run area with minimal trauma signs that looked more like cannibalism by the others. Since there were no signs of foul play or forced entry, I chalked it up to a natural death followed by cannibalism by the other three. I had just picked them all up the night before and there were no signs of sickness. Vents were clean and heads, eyes and combs were bright and clear. Although one of them had occasionally laid a shell-less egg ever since we got them; a sign of internal reproductive abnormality that had gotten worse over the last few weeks.

This morning was bad. Two were dead outright, and the third, Nugget, was crouched in the corner hurting and barely alive. There were no morning eggs in the nest boxes or empty shells. I picked her up and a big chunk of her lower abdomen was missing. I had to euthanize her straight off as she was suffering and there was no way she would recover from that type of trauma. I can only imagine the commotion that must have transpired sometime during the night or early this morning as well as the pain and agony that followed.

The asshole that did this must have managed to wiggle through the lattice work of either the end or top hatches. All of the poultry fence was secure and there were no signs of anything digging in under the tractor frame. However, the culprit did manage to take a dump inside the run area. This scat had no visible hair but there were obvious seeds most likely from our own raspberry patch. The ultimate indignity; taking a dump at the scene of the crime after eating some of our own berry crop.

I WILL HUNT YOUR ASS DOWN AND THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!

We'll miss you girls and the dozens of eggs you made for us over the last sixteen months.

Early Summer Status

 Things are filling in nicely even after two series of multi-day heat waves. We've been harvesting kale, chard, boc-choy, spring onions, cauliflower, brocolli, and various lettuce greens.  I still need to finsish up the straw mulching, but the critical things are covered and we've been lucky to have had sufficient rain over the last two weeks. The electric fence seems to be working too. No sign of rabbit damage since it went up about a month ago.

 Soon the peppers will need caging.

 And the raspberries are just starting to turn. I've been able to pick a few and it looks like a good crop for jam and wine. No sign yet of Japanese beetles!

I've also made sure to keep a closer eye this year on the yarrow and lavender so I can cut it for drying while it is in its prime.

Late Spring Update; Greens Edition

We've been getting ample chard, kale and lettuce for over a month now. Today we cut some of the first cauliflower and broccoli. A few weeks back we had a series of 90-degree days and I was a bit worried about these especially since the best brassicas are grown in the cool temps of the fall. But it looks like we will have a few heads to wet the appetite in preparation for the fall crop.

I've also trialed a new lettuce this year (on left). It is a mini romaine from Johnny's and so far appears to be a winner. I normally stick with leaf lettuce preferring the Johnny's Allstar Gourmet Mix. Of course I will continue with that. But this mini romaine is excellent as it is much easier to clean, harvest and store a compact head. I suspect it will find a prominent place in the weekly lettuce harvest.