The Broody Hens

This chicken will be the death of me yet. She has been broody for almost 3 months now.  This is her third clutch of eggs she is attempting to hatch.  As you can see she eats an egg every morning for breakfast.  I'm not sure whether this is an egg gone bad that she is eating or one of the fresh ones that her sister lays for her everyday.  Usually when we are in the last week before hatching she bails on the nest and starts a new one.  This is her last chance.  Period.  The rooster is headed to the stock pot in two weeks so no more fertile eggs.    If the rooster was a little nicer to me and my kids weren't scared to go near the chicken coop he could stay, but alas this is not a perfect world and I am going to enjoy eating him. 

 Just this evening when I went out to check for anymore eggs this stinkin' chicken was off the nest and starting a new one.  So I picked her up and put her back on the eggs.  We'll see what happens but I'm not feeling very positive.

At the same time that my seasoned broody hen began sitting on her third nest my Gold Laced Wyandotte decided to give it a try too.  This was the breed of chicken I initially invested in to keep my flock going.  I read that they were good layers, good mothers, and docile roosters.  Whom ever said that about the roosters never met a rooster that came to live at my house.  Every rooster I've had, minus one, has been mean.  The one that wasn't was a Turken and the ugliest rooster you've ever seen.  Unfortunately he died of unknown causes.  This year my son got two new Turkens at the feed store that I believe are both roosters. (YAY!...NOT!)  So anyway we have two chickens trying to make a go at hatching eggs and all of the other hens think they should lay their eggs on one of the already started nests.  It's very frustrating because I don't like interfering with the hen and her eggs but I need to fish out the fresh eggs.

 

  

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While checking on the chickens I found someone had been successful at hatching an egg.  The tiny sparrow that lives in the butterfly bush in the corner of the coop had a baby.  I know  you shouldn't encourage other birds to live near  your chickens but they have been more helpful than a hindrance.  Every year a pair of mocking birds ( I was going to say mocking jays, yes I've read Hunger Games too many times) takes up residence in the bush and protects the chickens from hawks and any other birds that get to close that they don't like.  Today they were even trying to protect the baby sparrow from me.

Garden Tour 7/9/13

 Last fall my husband built raised beds to put in our garden.  The one big plot of land wasn't working for us.  This year I've had a much easier time keeping up with weeds.  Everything is growing wonderfully, which probably has something to do with putting a couple inches of cow manure in the bottom of each box.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Two kinds of beets, one red and one golden.  This is the first year that beets are actually growing for me.  Before our soil was just not loose enough.

Borage

Sweet Potatoes, they got the only small box, in hind sight they should of probably gotten a big one.

Holstein Cowpeas

Baby Butternut Squash

A part of our garden is fenced in to grow things that chickens typically like to eat.  One of which is tomatoes.    I experimented with a few different type of cages and trellises this year but nothing has seemed to be able to tame these monstrous plants. I'm not even sure how I'm going to pick the ripe fruit because I can hardly reach half of the plants.

Purple Peppers, I have 25 pepper plants in total, which is a little much seeing as I don't even like to eat peppers.  I love to make stuffed peppers, but I only ever eat the stuffing.  A raw pepper will never cross my lips.  And forget about hot peppers, so not happening.  But I do like peppers in my chili, and I really like chili, so 25 pepper plants it is.

Cayenne Peppers, I like spicy chili.

Dill, this just popped up and is the biggest dill I've ever had. As soon as the cucumbers are ready watch out it will be a dill pickle party.

Caraway, I've never grown this before and I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it's pretty and it's taking over, so let it grow I say.

Plant Haul

It's that time of year again where all the local nurseries are trying to beat the summer heat and clear out the last of their annuals and dwindle their perennial supply. My mother and I have a "circuit" we do.  We try to hit at least three of our favorite nurseries on any given day, but have been known to go to at least 4 or 5.  Lucky for us we live in an area where there are a lot of hard working people who enjoy growing and selling plants.

This year I got a whole flat of herbs for free! It's mostly sage, lemon balm and oregano.  I did get some thyme and pineapple mint too.  It will all be going towards my edible landscaping.

I did get a couple of annuals even though I swore I wouldn't, they were so pretty I just couldn't help it.  They will all be going in pots instead of in the ground where the summer sun will fry them.

I picked up a few perennials at 50% off .  I've always wanted a Russian sage so I finally got one.  I got a pink bee balm for the bees and for tea for me.  Now I have bee balm in red, blue and pink. I also got a few blooming shade plants for around the back of our house. I found a new kind of aloe I didn't have so I grabbed that up because it was free!

I've lived in this house for seven years now and I'm still working on the landscaping.  These end of the season sales are a blessing.