Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spring starts for the garden -- plants and animals

We lose our breakfast nook in certain seasons. Spring is a big one -- it's a nice south-facing 3-windowed space, practically a greenhouse. T. does his starts there and begins the hardening process, and this year we have chicks too.

The starts in the picture are too numerous to name -- but a good mix of veggies and flowers.

The wee ones are a mix of Australorps, a very pretty black chicken with green iridescence in the feathers, very steady laying breed; Silver-laced Wyandottes, a hearty laying hen with amazingly beautiful plumage; and the special rare-breed, Delawares. Looks like the new generational theme in the flock is black and white formal.

Whenever we raise chicks, we raise many more than we'll ever need because there are always folks looking for pullets later in the season. Plus, our friends up on the mountain have a ravening band of mutt chickens in a big forest enclosure, and any new breed to add to the mix just makes their flock hybrids stronger. There's always room for more up there.

And we have the roughest chore too -- to pick up and play with the chicks a lot as they're growing up. It's a tough one, but we suck it up and do it. We've found that the adult chickens are so much easier to deal with if the chicks get handled and talked to a lot. Jobs like catching them to clip wings and check feet are much less noisy and dramatic.





Enjoy bad photography of lovely spring garden tasks,

Bp

6 comments:

msherm said...

I think I need some chick videos. I'm just not sure the still images do them justice.

Completely adorable though.

Bpaul said...

I'll tell you, it's the audio that will kill you.

I'll see what I can do with this phone, even a little bit will slay.

Good idea.

Catherine Just said...

yes yes I want to HEAR them too. Can you work on that while nesting?

Openly Guarded said...

I like that the chicks are shitting on the business section of the Oregonian, strangely fitting.

Bpaul said...

Well noted sir.

Anonymous said...

Baby chicks are awesome, though I had no idea they were anti-business!