We have been taken by surprise once again by mother nature... Spring is MONTHS ahead of schedule, and my usual schedule for this time of year has gone into overdrive. I have most of the varietals of tomatoes up about a foot in the greenhouse, and will have to transplant them once again before I can start taking cuttings to clone. Spinach is up outside, as are beets and peas. Basil and various other herbs are doing well in the greenhouse too, and I've been able to propagate cuttings of my African Blue basil already, so I'm well ahead of schedule on that.
The earlier loss of several of our laying hens and all of our large ducks to a neighbor's dog set us back significantly in terms of egg production, so I decided that a few more housing installations were in order. We had a full above-ground pool that had been sitting with no purpose for years behind the barn, so I took to the pile and repurposed and recycled it into a brooder house and an A-frame duck house. 30 chicks later, and I'm much closer to the numbers I should have been at to start with. I won't get any eggs out of these babies until August, but I'm hoping I can make up for it at market with mallard eggs.
I picked up some Barred Rocks and Ameraucanas for chickens so far, and am still looking for Cochin and Brahma pullets as well. For ducks, I lucked out and picked up 6 Ancona ducklings for a steal, and 6 Pekins to begin replacing the flock that was decimated. I'm still looking for Cayugas and Rouens to finish out the ducks. I'm waiting on my order of 8 Bourbon Red turkey poults, and have been working on remodeling the barn coop, and putting up fencing, getting them set up for brooding.
I really love this time of year.
-Anthony
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