Here is a little update on what's going on around here this week. I read other blogs and I'm jealous that harvests are going, but we're getting closer...
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| The greens are almost big enough to steal some of the outer leaves, my lettuce doesn't bolt too often, so I harvest the outer leaves as long as I can leaving it to grow until I think it's getting close to bolting. Next year I'm going to start my lettuce a few weeks earlier than I did this year, to get an earlier start. |
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| The shelling peas are blooming, still waiting for the snap peas to bloom. |
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| We finally fixed up the existing flowerbed around a large birch tree next to the garden. The bed was impossibly weedy and the brich trees used to hold in the dirt were degrading. We put down a weed barrier, new dirt and new birch for the sides. I finally got my stunted, root bound Echinacea, callendula, and camomile, and chives in the ground, also added some non edible flowers cosmos and columbine. (not sure why I can't get it out of italics!) |
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| Several weeks back we finally got the future meat and replacement layers out of the garage. We have a chicken tractor, but it wasn't predator proof, so my husband attached it to the existing yard, and fenced off part for them, and put railroad ties around the bottom to keep predators out, which so far has worked. |
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| Here are some of our two batches of chickens (apologize for the poor Iphone pic, it doesn't do motion well and those little buggers are fast moving). We are attempting heritage breeds for meat this year, we have a mix of Australorp, Barred Rock, Buff Orphington and Ameraucana (not heritage), our rooster is Barred rock, apparently those are strong genes, every chicken looks like Barred Rock! It's an experiment, but I'd rather have small chicken, than raise the icky Cornish Cross again. Not sure when exactly we should butcher them. Any advice? |
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| We had a deck/balcony that was rotting to the point of being dangerous, (it sits over the oil tank and my husband was afraid it would fall on the delivery guy) at the back of our house. My husband took it down, next year we hope to replace it with a nice, safe, new two level deck. |
Well thats what's going on around here this week, what's going on around yours?
We're doing a similar heritage chicken broiler experiment. I plan to kill some at 12 weeks and decide whether they're heavy enough to make it worth our while. (I'm aiming for at least two pounds each.) If not, we'll try again at 16 weeks. I don't want to go much beyond that, because they'll start getting tough.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking great! You will have lots of chickens to butcher it seems. Some of our hens just hatched some eggs and we will be butchering all the roosters come Fall. I noticed your temps at the top of your blog. It must feel wonderful there. We are probably around 98 degrees here (Southern state). Hope you have a great day.
ReplyDeleteMany Blessings,
Cary Ann
Anna, I'm interested in hearing how your chickens turn out. How old are they now? I did some online research today and found an article about heritage breeds and when to butcher and how to cook. I saved it to my computer at work and can't find it now, but I'll make a post when I find it.
ReplyDeleteCary Ann, We have 44 chicks I think from our 2 hatchings, some will replace older layers, and the rest will be to eat. I'm not sure how many for each yet. It's really nice today, too bad I was indoors all day :(, we start to melt when we get over 80, none of us have air conditioning!
Ours are 11.5 weeks. You'll hear next week how they turn out!
ReplyDelete