Jen Powell

Wonky Top

September 27, 2015September 26, 2015Jen Powell2 Comments

One of our roosters is Wonky Top – named because of his ridiculously huge floppy comb. He’s about 5 months old, so he has some growing to do – we are wondering if his comb will continue to get more hilarious as he matures. I will need to coat his comb and wattles in Vaseline all winter to protect them from frostbite. (I will need to do that with all three of my roosters, and maybe a couple of hens – larger combs don’t do well with our winters).

He’s a little skittish with us. If we need to pick him up for anything he is extremely hard to catch. But he seems to be a decent rooster. We still have all our boys separate from the hens for now, but we will be combining them before wintertime. He is mostly nice to the hens, besides trying to mount them all the time – I have seen him protect the hens from the other two roosters before, and I’ve seen him do a bit of a dance up to different hens – maybe he’s attempting to woo them a little.

We’re pretty sure he’s a Golden Cuckoo Maran rooster. Maran hens (at least a few different varieties) can lay dark brown, chocolate shelled eggs. I am hoping that in breeding him with my non-Maran hens, he may pass some of those genes down to a future hen. Otherwise I will eventually want to buy some Maran hens. I would love to get some multicolored eggs (chocolate, blue, olive) – The hens we currently have lay varying degrees of browns, whites, and cream colored eggs.

Artichokes & Tomatillos – in the U.P.

September 26, 2015September 26, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

I have been growing Artichokes this year. I love artichokes – especially whole ones steamed/boiled with Italian dressing, where you pull off the leaves and dip them in butter. Yum. I tried to grow them several years ago living in L.A., but with my work schedule they didn’t get watered enough and they didn’t do so well. I’d read that they can grow as annuals in northern climates, so I planted 9 plants. Two have produced fruit! (Actually a thistle, not a fruit). They are pretty small, but I’m still very excited.

Here's the nicest one of my two that I've gotten. — Here’s the nicest one of my two that I’ve gotten. You can see how small it is – my hands are not very big either.

Here's the second artichoke - it's a little skinny but still will be delicious. — Here’s the second artichoke – it’s a little skinny but still will be delicious.

I noticed that one of my plants is now growing another thistle off the stem where one of the above fruits was cut off.

I think one reason that only two of my nine plants produced fruit was that they ended up getting overcrowded by my nearby tomatillo plants. The tomatillo plants are very large and leggy, almost growing like an indeterminant tomato plant. My tomatillos got fruit this year also. Last year I planted some very late in the year, and didn’t get any fruits. This year I got them in early and I have a decent sized crop – some of them are a little small, but they were ready to pick. Here they are in a pot boiling up for Salsa Verde:

Tomatillos in a big soup pot - getting ready to be made into Salsa Verde. — Tomatillos in a big soup pot – getting ready to be made into Salsa Verde.

I will definitely be growing more artichokes next year (and giving them more space), and more tomatillos.

18 Chickens! and updates

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

We took three more roosters out this past weekend. It was hard choosing who to keep and who to cull, but we finally made the decision and did what we had to do. Now we still have three roosters left, and the plan is to keep them through the winter for breeding/protection purposes. If they all make it through the winter, we’ll have to see how they get along in the spring. For now, they all get to stay. So we now have 18 chickens: 3 roosters and 15 hens.

Here are Splash and Wonky, two of the boys who got to stay with us.

Here is Dorko, the Dorking, with a photobomb from one of the brahma hens.

We’ve had the hens and roosters separated for a few weeks. After removing the other 3 (older) roosters, we put these three back in with the hens, and things were mostly ok. I really noticed an issue at night when putting them in the coop though: the boys tended to get the most feisty then, going for any hen they could get ahold of. So for a couple nights we just put the roosters in their own room in the coop, and put them all together in the yard during the day. For the last couple days we’ve just kept them separate all the time; It was not as chaotic as it had been before, with all 6 roosters, but it was still kind of messy. My hens still are featherless on their backs. Some hens have had some of their feathers grow in, but not all of them. Some of them are also molting now (why they molt right before it will be getting cold, I have no idea). I think I may have to get some chicken sweaters for the winter. That may enable me to put the boys and girls together as well – at least the hens won’t get damaged from the boys (or as damaged) if they have sweaters on. We shall see.

A picture of some of my ladies at the fence.

My small black hen, who I have been thinking was a Sumatra, now has grown a huge comb. Her ear flap things are white. Which means she is most likely a Black Langshan, not a sumatra. She has been flying up to the rafters of our coop lately, which is what I’ve expected she’d do – she likes to sit up there and watch the chaos as everyone else comes into the coop at night. I would almost think she’s a rooster because of the comb, but the Black Langshan rooster that we did have matured extremely early. Her comb is gigantic but not like his was. She flew over to visit the boys today and they didn’t mess with her at all. I don’t know if it’s because she’s just not sexually mature yet, or why else.

Here's my little langshan / not-sumatra hen. — Here’s my little langshan / not-sumatra hen.

An update on our broody hen: She was sitting on 6 eggs that were due to start hatching last Thursday (that would have been day 21). I got home, moved the hen to check on the eggs, and somehow that day they got coated with mud or chicken poop or something. She may have had extremely dirty feet and turned the eggs and gotten them messy. But they were very dirty. I was torn about what to do, if anything. I wanted to clean the eggs off, but I worried that in cleaning them I would remove the bloom from them, which could help bacteria pass into the eggs. I tried wetting a paper towel and wiping a bit off just to see, but it was caked on there. My husband said I should just let nature take its course, so that’s what I did. She sat on those eggs faithfully, but we never heard any peeps or anything, and nobody hatched. I took the eggs out on Saturday and tossed them. I don’t know if they contained dead chicks, but by that point I don’t think they would have hatched. It’s so late in the year also, that if they had hatched and the hen wasn’t a good mom I would have had to bring them inside and then I would have chickens in my house for most of the winter. So it’s probably better that it didn’t happen now. We are planning on making a brooder box out in the coop for next spring, so we don’t have chickens in the house again (except for very tiny babies for a day or two after hatching), but we haven’t built that yet.

A peek in the garden – Early September

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

We’ve been having some hot days lately, and last night we had a crazy thunderstorm. This morning my yard is very wet – I had plans for some yardwork jobs, but it’s just too wet. My garden is still going strong. I’ve been getting some nice corn cobs, despite the early visit from some raccoons.

I had a few tomatoes fall off the vines while I was picking suckers, and my son also decided to pick a few that were starting to ripen. I didn’t realize I grew an orange tomato, but I did grow a couple new varieties so I guess this one was orange.

We have these tomatoes in the window to ripen.

I’m growing indeterminate varieties – I had been cutting off suckers and new flowers, but I got impatient. We don’t have the longest growing season, and I don’t want a repeat of last year – because of frost warnings we had to pull all the tomatoes in so they could ripen inside (none started to ripen on the vine last year). Luckily we’ve had a lot more heat this year. I went at my tomato plants last week and cut off the tops of the plants, extra leaves that were shading the fruit, and any extra branches that didn’t have fruit on them. That has seemed to help speed things along.

My tomatoes waiting to ripen. This is after I went to town trimming them.

Here is one that my son didn't pick! — Here is one that my son didn’t pick! This one looks like it will be red (the picture makes it look orange).

I also have a bunch of tomatillos – they are still small, but they are getting there. Last year I grew some but I added them really late, and they didn’t start forming fruit till mid September. These ones have been growing for about a month now.

Tomatillos. I have lots of hummingbirds that like these flowers as well, so they are helping to pollinate them.

I am attempting artichokes this year – I read that they can be grown as an annual. I haven’t seen any sign of any fruit, and really didn’t know what to expect. This morning I found this:

I looked on another plant and have at least one other one forming as well. Very exciting, even if they are very tiny.

I’m growing Evening Primrose this year, I didn’t realize they’d take so long to bloom. They started this week:

Here are some marigolds that I planted, they are doing extremely well, but they are really easy to grow:

My sunflowers are going strong. The bees and hummingbirds are enjoying them now. They should start going to seed soon, and then we’ll have the chickadees and other birds, and chipmunks and squirrels, eating them.

My sunflowers - some are about 8-9 feet tall now. — My sunflowers – some are about 8-9 feet tall now.

Harvesting and Freezing

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

I’ve gotten a lot of vegetables so far this year. I’m still waiting on my tomatoes to ripen, but they are coming along. I’ve been picking suckers and new flowers left and right, and I can see the tomatoes are starting to get a pinkish tint to them. We’ve had 80-90 degree temps this week, and it’s expected to continue – I think that will help with the ripening.

In the winter we were buying a lot of kale, so I grew a bunch of it, and we haven’t used a whole lot yet. So this weekend I decided to pick as much as I could, and freeze it. I left the plants, with new baby leaves in the centers, so I will still have fresh kale until we have snow (it supposedly can survive frost, and gets better after a frost, so we’ll see how that goes). I ended up with a giant basket of kale:

My big basket of kale. This basket is about 2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and just under a foot tall. That's a whole lot of kale. — My big basket of kale. This basket is about 2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and just under a foot tall. That’s a whole lot of kale.

I took the leaves off the stems, blanched them for 2 minutes, and then froze them up. I ended up with about 10 cups of frozen kale.

This year I decided to grow lemon balm. I picked some to dry for tea. It smells so good!

I have had tons of zucchini and yellow squash, and I have frozen a lot of it. I read online that you can get away with not blanching it first, so I am trying that this year. Last year I blanched it, and it worked fine but it was more labor intensive; Also, since it was wet when I put it in freezer bags, I ended up with blocks of frozen zucchini. I don’t know if the slice/freeze method will still produce this result; I’ll have to wait and see.

I also grew acorn squash for the first time this year. I had four plants; most produced only one fruit – I did have two forming on one plant, but when I went out this weekend I realized that one of the fruits was rotting on the vine. The other four seemed ready to pick. The plants still have flowers so it may produce more, I will have to wait and find out.

Acorn squash. Yum! We love eating them roasted with cinnamon sugar and butter.

My corn is getting close to being ready. The silks are turning brown on the cobs. Last year I read that you wait 10 days after the silks turn brown – I checked a few cobs and I think by this next weekend they may be ready. I noticed today though that I must have raccoons or something attacking the corn. It must be raccoons – they are notorious for getting into corn in this area – I found a half eaten cob in my garden on the ground. I hope they give me time to get at least a few ears before they get them all. I’m not sure how to deter them – they climbed my fence. I’ll have to figure out some kind of raccoon deterrent – maybe putting a lip on the top of the fence so they can’t come over the top of the fence.

Broody Hens and Spoiled Chickens

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

One of my Black Australorp hens (a one-year old) is broody. She started sitting in a nest box a few days ago. For the first couple of days we kept moving her to get the eggs out – there was one egg the first day and none the second day. The third day, I put four eggs under her that I found in the other boxes – I’m going to give her a chance and see what she can do. I don’t think she’s laying eggs at this point, since she’s broody, and she hasn’t come out much for others to lay their eggs in there. I’m a little worried because we are getting into late august – if she can hatch them, the chicks would be born in mid September. We sometimes get snow by Halloween, so I may have to have a contingency plan for chicks if we do get any from this. We’ll see.

I was in the coop earlier and my Speckled Sussex hen was really upset that this broody hen wouldn’t come out of the box, because she wanted to lay an egg. She kept squawking at the broody hen. There are three other nest boxes. I showed the Sussex hen the other boxes, and I think she laid an egg in one of those.

I like spoiling my chickens with occasional yummy treats – they get a lot of vegetable scraps and some bits of bread sometimes. Yesterday it was hot outside, so I gave my chickens some watermelon as a treat. They really love it – they will pick it till there’s just a thin bit of rind left.

I have separated out the roosters from the hens again. The boys wouldn’t leave the ladies alone. I have two Production Red hens that wouldn’t even come out of the coop. I’d go to pick them up and they’d duck down like they do when they’re about to be mounted by a rooster. The 6 remaining roosters were just too much for the 15 hens. We are planning to cull some of those 6, we are still not sure which ones.

My Sumatra hen flew up on my shoulder today when I was in the coop. That was a little weird. She’s smaller than the other hens, and probably always will be – they are a smaller breed. But it was funny that she flew up and sat there.

Sunflowers!

August 16, 2015August 16, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

I love sunflowers. They are my favorite flower – I even chose them as my wedding flowers. I have about 7 or 8 sunflower plants that are growing very well. Last week, one of them bloomed.

My first sunflower bloom of the season (sorry for the fuzzy picture).

The funny thing about this one, is that it is not very tall:

Here is a picture of the above sunflower, along with my son to show the scale. My son is just under 4 ft tall. I think this bloom was about 2 to 2.5 feet off the ground.

This morning I woke up to find this flower bloomed:

My tall orange sunflower. This one is taller than me, it's maybe about 6 ft tall. — My tall orange sunflower. This one is taller than me, it’s maybe about 6 ft tall.

I planted a bunch of different kinds: some orange, some lemon yellow, and some giant mammoth sunflowers. The rest of the plants are on their way, they all have flower heads forming. It will be interesting to see what they all look like when they bloom.

The harvest season begins

August 11, 2015August 11, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

This is my favorite time of year. I love when I can just go to the garden to pick dinner. My vegetable plants are really starting to produce for me. I had some chard and kale already this season, but the last few days my zucchini and yellow squash have started to have large enough squashes to pick. Yum. I have a lot of plants so I know I will eventually be overrun.

This year I have 5 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, and I think 4 acorn squash plants. Last year I had 3 or 4 zucchini plants, and by mid September I was very tired of zucchini. I froze what we had left and didn’t eat any for a couple months. They were very delicious in the middle of winter when I wasn’t sick of zucchini any more. This year I received a pressure canner for my birthday, so I’m planning on using that to can a lot of our harvest. I also plan on freezing some things.

I have gotten some pea pods, but not enough to do more than just eat the peas straight out of the pods. My son has been enjoying that. I worried my peas wouldn’t like the heat we’ve been having but they are doing well. Next year I will have to have more plants.

My beans have been producing well. I actually got enough from my first harvesting of them to use for a side dish for tonight’s dinner:

I started with some green bean plants, but they didn’t do very well at first. I wanted more plants, so I bought a packet of purple beans. They really took off, and I’ve been getting more purple beans so far than green. The green plants are growing taller than the purple, and I can tell they are going to produce well – there are a lot of flowers and baby beans growing along the vine where they’ve climbed up my string support system. They are even climbing one of my sunflowers. Last year I had a few bean plants, but I never got enough beans at one time to cook on their own; it was always just enough to cook up with something else. I’m hoping to can or freeze some this year – hopefully I have enough to do that.

I have a lot of green tomatoes forming. I’m growing three varieties of indeterminate tomatoes, and the plants are going crazy. I have been consistently pulling off suckers from the plants, and now because there are so many baby tomatoes, I’m pulling off extra flowers too, in an effort to let the forming tomatoes get bigger faster, and possibly ripen on the vine. I worry that they may take too long if I don’t do that – last year I had to let my tomatoes ripen in the house. Our growing season isn’t very long – we may get frost by mid September.

It’s an exciting time of year.

Grown up chickens

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015Jen Powell1 Comment

Our youngest chickens are (mostly) grown up now – They are just over 3.5 months old. They are still a bit smaller than everyone else, but they are getting there. I have finally figured out for sure what we have – Out of all the chicks we received this spring that lived (14 chicks, in two batches) we got 6 hens and 8 roosters. We still have 6 of those roosters, and of course all the hens. Our oldest young hen, a Speckled Sussex, laid her first egg a couple of weeks ago. Her eggs have been about 1/2 the size of everyone else’s. The first egg was small, and I thought they’d get bigger but so far they haven’t. They are still good eggs so that is fine.

The small egg is from our speckled sussex. The larger one is a typical one from our adult 1 year old hens.

Here is our Speckled Sussex – she does not like to pose for pictures, and she’s been mostly hiding inside the coop to stay away from the roosters.

Our hen - I had to hold her to get her picture. — Our hen – I had to hold her to get her picture.

Our other hens are getting close to adulthood:

Here is one of our Brahma "twin" hens. — Here is one of our Brahma “twin” hens.

Our young roosters are growing too, and getting into mischief.

Here's our Splash rooster - I thought he was a Brahma because he has feathered legs. But I read that Splash Marans can have feathered legs as well. I am 99% sure he's a rooster, but I have seen another rooster try to mount him... — Here’s our Splash rooster – I thought he was a Brahma because he has feathered legs. But I read that Splash Marans can have feathered legs as well. I am 99% sure he’s a rooster, but I have seen another rooster try to mount him… He tries to mount the hens as well, but he’s not very successful.

Here is Wonky top - he is probably a Cuckoo Maran. He's ruffling his feathers in this picture. — Here is Wonky top – he is probably a Cuckoo Maran. He’s ruffling his feathers in this picture. He lost a lot of his tail feathers from getting picked on by the bigger roosters a few weeks ago when we tried to put all the roosters in their own pen. He didn’t do very well – he’s doing really great now with everyone together.

Here is our Dorking rooster. His feathers are getting really pretty. He's pretty calm, it could be because he's at the bottom of the rooster pecking order though. — Here is our Dorking rooster. His feathers are getting really pretty. He’s mostly pretty calm, it could be because he’s at the bottom of the rooster pecking order though.

Here is our Delaware rooster. He is one of the older batch.

Here is Big Red, he's a Buckeye. He was getting a tiny bit aggressive for awhile, but he's toned it down. — Here is Big Red, he’s a Buckeye. He was getting a tiny bit aggressive for awhile, but he’s toned it down.

Here is our big beautiful Brahma rooster. I really want to keep him, but he has lately become a bit aggressive with me. I'm trying to break that out of him (just showing him I won't take his attitude) but we'll have to see. I can't keep a really aggressive rooster. I'm hoping he comes around. — Here is our big beautiful Brahma rooster. I really want to keep him, but he has lately become a bit aggressive with me. I’m trying to break that out of him (just showing him I won’t take his attitude) but we’ll have to see. I can’t keep a really aggressive rooster. I’m hoping he comes around.

I haven’t taken that many pictures of my older ladies lately – I need to get some chicken saddles. They have a bit of feather loss from the roosters, and a little from molting, I believe. Here are a few of them:

Here are some of the older ladies out in the pen.

Here's my bare-backed Barred Rock hen. — Here’s my bare-backed Barred Rock hen.

Here's one of my white hens - she likes to reach through the fence for grass even though they have grass in their pen. — Here’s one of my white hens – she likes to reach through the fence for grass even though they have grass in their pen. You can see he head has a bald spot from the roosters’ antics.

Overall, the chickens are doing well. I need to cull at least a couple more roosters though. And get some chicken saddles for the ladies.

Farm updates Early August

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015Jen Powell2 Comments

I haven’t posted in over a week, because I went to California to meet my new niece. Before I left, this was my garden (taken on 7/23/15):

Here was my garden just before I left for vacation.

I came back less than 7 days later and my garden had exploded:

There is a pathway here, somewhere. The calendula has fallen over into it, because the squash plants are pushing it over, I believe.

My tomato plants were separated by the aisle, and they have decided to join hands. I had to re-separate them (it didn't work very well - I'll have to tie them up more). — My tomato plants were separated by the aisle, and they have decided to join hands. I had to re-separate them (it didn’t work very well – I’ll have to tie them up more).

I have tomatoes! They are getting pretty big, I didn't even see any fruit starting before I left. — I have tomatoes! They are getting pretty big, I didn’t even see any fruit starting before I left.

My tinier tomatillo plants are getting large now, and one has flowers. That gives me hope that I will have fruit this year. The largest plant has had flowers for awhile, and just keeps growing.

My Black Eyed Susan Thunbergia through the corn/sunflower jungle. I have some regular Black Eyed Susans and calendula planted between the corn, and those are getting very tall also.

One of my tall sunflowers. Just taller than me right now, and starting to form a flower.

I have peas! These need a couple more days and then I will pick them, there are several on the plant so I'm excited for a decent pea crop this year. I only got a few pods last year - the plants really faltered. — I have peas! These need a couple more days and then I will pick them, there are several on the plants so I’m excited for a decent pea crop this year. I only got a few pods last year – the plants really faltered.

My cucumbers are getting flowers, and growing well. I hoped for more, but not all my plants took - I ended up with three plants. I love making pickles. — My cucumbers are getting flowers, and growing well. I hoped for more, but not all my plants took – I ended up with three plants. I love making pickles.

My beans are going crazy, climbing to the top of my tree-poles. I wonder how tall they would get if they had all the room they wanted. I have tiny beans forming all over my plants.

The chickens are doing well. We had planned on starting to cull some roosters when I got home. A couple on the shortlist have redeemed themselves for now. We culled two on Sunday – one was getting very aggressive and had pecked my son, and the other was picking on the rest of the big roosters. We will need to take out a couple more before winter, but the ones we still have are behaving better. One of our youngest roosters, Wonky Top:

Here is Wonky Top. My husband named him, because of his goofy comb.

Wonky’s comb has been straightening out. He has straightened out too – he was going to be one of the first we took out, because he didn’t get along with anyone – he was really skittish, and he fought with everyone. We had separated the roosters from the hens for awhile, and he would get picked on by the bigger guys, and then escape. Each time we caught him and put him back with the roosters, he would escape again, and then evade capture for most of the day. I finally put him in with the hens. He stayed there while I was on vacation. When I got back I thought my roosters were bored being over in their side (we had them in the grassless side because it was easier to get them in at night), so I put them with everyone again. Wonky then asserted himself, pretty much saying “you’re on MY side now!” and he wouldn’t take any flack from the big guys. Now he doesn’t seem so skittish, and he’s getting along with everyone better. So we have decided he can stay, for now. I suspect he’s a Cuckoo Maran – I really wanted some Marans (the hens can lay darker brown eggs ) so if possible we may keep him for breeding. We will see.

I was planning on keeping certain roosters based on looks, for breeding purposes, but we are starting to cull based mostly on their behavior, especially toward us. Our big Black Langshan rooster was one that we took out this weekend, since he flew up on my son and pecked him in the chest. That was the deciding factor for him. We were planning on keeping at least two – I read that if you have 3 or 4 they can get along better than having just two. We’ll just have to play it by ear with them.

The chickens are enjoying their outdoor shelter – we allow them in the coop anyway, but this shelter was already in the part of the run that I have them in right now, so we left it (it’s a little large so we’d have to disassemble it to remove it) – they have learned they can go on top of it. That puts their heads only about 6 inches from the top of the fence. They have not seemed to figure that part out yet though – I was worried they would jump out but nobody has so far.

My chickens having fun sitting on their outdoor shelter. — My chickens having fun sitting on (and in) their outdoor shelter.

My tiny u.p. farm

Attempting to live off the land in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Author: Jen Powell