Summer Around The Patch (Rain Forest Edition)

It certainly has been an interesting season. We've averaged roughly an inch of rain a week for the last two months! And lots of cloudy days. Two previous mini-heat waves and just today, a third. We have been grateful not to have to water, but it has made high quality ripening difficult. The tomatoes ripened on schedule but the taste and texture are suboptimal. The weeds have been a constant chore and for some reason this has been the longest and most severe Japanese beetle season in the history of The Patch. And of course the grass has yet to go dormant meaning the weekly mowing chore has gone on unabated. But we've had ample chard, beets, squash, cucs and tomatoes to keep us well fed. Soon it will be time to start fall crops; how the time flies by!

One other thing I've tried to keep up with more this season is the herb harvest. Last year's basil has been savored and I'm making sure to have enough dried down to get us through another winter. The chamomile also has been doing well. Not exactly Brother Cadfael's operation but our own little version of it.

CHICKEN UPDATE: The tractor has been hardened up with additional wire so that only a very large and determined predator could now get in there. Except for some paint touch ups it should be ready to go for the the late August pullets. So far we have trapped one possum, one ground hog, and one skunk (don't ask!). The ground hog was purely a precaution for the garden whereas the possum and skunk were small enough to be possible suspects in the hen murder. We will continue trapping to see what we get although I would prefer not to have to handle any more skunks.

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.

Memorial Day Weekend 2015

Memorial day weekend is a time to reflect on past sacrifices as well as finishing up on springtime yard and garden chores like mulching and setting up tomato cages.

Even after two very tough winters in a row it looks like a bumper crop of raspberries by mid-June.

The chickens are really enjoying the mini-pasture rotation we are doing in the back forty.

And what is May/June without the narcotic aroma of honeysuckle?

A Slow Spring But Things Are Popping!

Its been a long slow spring but things are finally settling down. Some seedlings to get in the ground in the next day or so:

 The tomatoes are coming along. We are going with Romas for drying and juice and the rest are various grape varieties; Golden Sweet, two different varieties of red and Black Cherry. This should be an interesting combination for salads this year.

 And the raspberries are just now starting to bloom (preserves and a new batch of melomel is in the works).

For some reason the girls are hanging out in the hutch area of the tractor today:

But they seem to be enjoying the wonderful weather today too:

Been getting some early harvest from the mustard greens, kale, boc choi  and Swiss chard that was started inside back in the winter.

COOP Thoughts And More Quick Fix Engineering

You could almost hear the chicken equivalent of a sigh this week as the grass came in fully and I now can move the tractor to a fresh patch every other day. We can tell the difference in the eggs. The yokes are back to their deep yellow-orange color from the added carotenoid content.

Another smoldering issue we've been dealing with started last summer. One of the hens insists on sitting in her nesting box at some point during the night and filling it with crap. At first this was just an annoyance as we could shake out the nest pad in the morning before they lay. But now it seems that at least two others are doing it too. The odd thing is that they don't seem to stay in there all night long because we can hear them jump down from the roost pole when we let them out in the mornings. This doesn't seem to be tied in with broodiness either as they don't linger on the eggs once they lay. More QFE to the rescue. We now slip in a blocker panel in the evening before they go in. This keeps them out of the boxes at night. It is much easier to go out in the morning and take this panel out than having to shake pads and play with poop first thing in the morning.

And speaking of nest pads, those commercial grade pads we got in last month are really working well. Much better than the homemade variety.