A lot of things in our yard are in bloom right now – we have many different wildflowers, and I planted some flowers in the garden that are currently in bloom. Here is a tour of the flowers in our yard this month:
Thanks for checking out some of my flowers.
For the last couple of months I’ve been planning on adding a second run to our chicken coop. Here’s the way it was:
For the last few weeks, my five “teenage” roosters have been terrorizing my hens. They actually gang up on them – one mounts a hen and another runs up and bites her head while the first one mounts her – once it’s over she runs away and is chased by another one who was waiting for his turn. It’s gotten so ridiculous the last few days that some of my hens have been hiding in their nest boxes. Just hiding in there, all day long.
Today, we fixed the problem. We added a new fenced run, but partitioned it so that the roosters are separated from the hens. We also are going to separate them inside the coop – The back part was the hens and teenagers (roosters and one hen), and the front was my chicks (3 months old now). Since we have to separate the roosters, they will have the back room of the coop, and the ladies and chicks will have the front part. We are integrating the babies in with the hens – I figure everything is new for everyone, so it may cut back on the drama as they get to know each other. I have at least a couple roosters in the chick batch, so if I see any mounting they will get moved in with the roosters.
We made a fence “door” that closes off either the rooster or hen side for when we are moving them in and out – this means that the roosters will be stuck outside during the day, so we made them a makeshift shelter in case it rains or they want some cover. The hens / chicks can get in the coop if they want.
The rooster’s shelter should protect them from rain for the most part, but it’s a little flimsy on top, which is good – I’m hoping that because it is, they won’t jump on top and try to fly over to the hens. We’ll have to see how this all works out.
My next step is to plant some chicken forage into the old run – I have some organic chicken forage mix seed ready to go.
Hopefully everyone likes their new run. The roosters probably aren’t so happy, but they get nice grass to wander through/peck at. My hens seem a lot happier already.
What a difference two weeks makes! I love watching my plants grow – it’s nice to look back at pictures of what it looked like a few weeks ago.
My plants are doing really well in the garden.
I really enjoy seeing my plants get bigger. Thanks for taking a look.
I LOVE garlic. I had never grown it before, and last year I decided to give it a try. In the early fall, I bought some organic garlic heads at the grocery store, pulled the bulbs out and put them into the garden. This spring I saw them growing, and they’ve grown really well. I read that you dig the garlic heads up when the leaves start yellowing. I noticed the last few days that they were yellowing, so I pulled them up today.
They were a decent size, I believe most of them were the same size as the heads I grew them from. I cleaned off the dirt with a paper towel:
I read that you should leave them to cure for a few weeks with the roots and stems still attached. I put them all together in a bunch and they are sitting outside in a shady spot on my porch, where they’ll get good airflow but not get any sun at all. I have them hung up; I wasn’t sure if my friendly neighborhood squirrels and chipmunks would try to eat them. I’ll have to keep an eye out and make sure nobody tries to steal them. Once the leaves dry out completely you can cut the leaves and roots off. Then you can store them for later use, and save more of the bulbs to grow new garlic for next year. That’s my plan, at least right now. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see how they taste. If they are good, I’ll grow them again. The original heads I bought had a good flavor, so hopefully these will too.
One of my young roosters is very goofy – he’s kind of aggressive. More in-your-face every time we’re in the coop. He has been very friendly since he was small, but now he’s always underfoot. It’s like he always needs to follow me to see what I’m up to – as if he’s worried I’ll do something to hurt the hens or him. He likes to peck my pant legs. He bit me the other day, but that was because I was trying to pick him up, because he wouldn’t go in the coop at night. He seemed to be helping me round up everyone else to get them in, but then he wanted to stay outside. I went to grab him and he bit my hand. I got mad and just picked him up and put him inside. I’m not sure what we’ll do with him yet. I need to let him mature a bit and see how this personality of his develops. If he gets more aggressive, he’ll have to go.
For a while I was hoping he was just a very assertive hen, but he’s massive, and the other day he started mounting some of the hens, so it’s now confirmed. I believe he’s a Buckeye, and they are a rare breed from Ohio. We’ll see. I just have so many roosters! I have confirmed that three of my six “teenage” chickens are roosters. There are two more that I’m pretty sure are but they haven’t mounted anyone yet – they are just starting to get long tail feathers now though, so I’m 99% sure. I have one hen out of that batch, my little Speckled Sussex. Then in the smaller chicks I have at least one, possibly 3 or 4 roosters (out of 8 chicks). We are planning on keeping 2 or three roosters through the winter, and we’ll have to decide what to do with the rest. We haven’t picked the keepers yet; I want to see them in all their pretty rooster glory first, once all their feathers have come.
I discovered Lamb’s Quarters were edible last year. I have seen them as weeds in my gardens throughout the years. They are delicious, with a spinach-like flavor. I liked them so much last year that I bought seeds for this year so I’d have more. I didn’t end up needing to plant them. I have a ton growing all over my back garden plot this year.
They typically grow in open spots in cultivated gardens. They were brought over to the U.S. by European settlers many years ago and have naturalized – they are supposed to be found throughout the country now. They are related to spinach. They were very popular throughout Europe, and then in the 1600s Spinach was introduced from Asia; People started growing spinach instead. My guess is that they found the spinach a lot less labor intensive. I like them but they do take awhile to get ready – I pull the leaves off the stems, rinse very well, and then steam them so they wilt, like you’d do with spinach.
While picking the leaves I tend to be selective, because bugs also like to eat them. I don’t want to eat bugs. That adds to the time-intensiveness of cleaning. They cook down a lot, so if you harvest, pick double what you think you’ll need.
* As a caution, please always be 100% sure of what you are picking when eating wild plants. I first confirmed with several websites and pictures before eating these, just to make sure I was picking actual Lamb’s Quarters – better to be extra safe. I don’t believe there are any dangerous look-a-likes for these, but I may be wrong, depending on what part of the country or world you are in.
My tiny u.p. farm 