Ten Little Peepers

We finally had our first hatch of 2010 last Monday. This was done the old fashioned way, stick a bunch of eggs under a hen and let her do the work. Sounds easy enough but with the fiasco of the broody hen who wasn't, I've learned that easy comes tough sometimes. This Partridge Chantecler hen was broody and did a great job, I put 10 eggs under her and she hatched out 10 chicks, all are thriving. We've never had a complete 100% hatch rate before. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard of it, books and websites generally say anything over 60% is good.

So I'm thinking back trying to figure out what was different in this hatch.

• It was a great time of year, with the exception of one, all of last years' were in the winter.
• Very little wait time for the eggs. Usually I gather eggs for a few days, this time I stuck three under her the first day and the remaining seven the next. No wait time.
• I did not muck about with the eggs half as much. They say you should be checking the eggs every couple of days, making sure there was no broken or cracked ones. ("They" don't seem to give the hen a whole lot of credit here.) I was very apprehensive of disturbing this hen, I did not want her to stop being broody, one broody fiasco a year is plenty. I gently picked her up a couple of times later in the incubation, to take a gander at the eggs but that was it.

I don't know if any of this made a difference but I think I will definitely keep up the habit of the occasional visual check of the eggs, unless a problem arises. And I will aim for less wait time when it comes to collecting the eggs.

Enough of the pondering! I'm just going to enjoy these sweet little puffballs and their antics. I love watching a hen in mom-mode, they are so gentle and mellow with their little ones.

Here's Mama teaching a few of her chicks how to scratch and pick out good things to eat.

Garden Works (but sometimes it doesn't)

The tomato plants I started from seed did very well. They did so well that they have really out-grown their little flats. Which leaves me in a quandary. It's way too early to transplant them into the garden but I'd rather not transplant them into bigger containers only to transplant them again in a couple (well, more like three or four) weeks. I figure the less transplanting, the better for the plant. So I've been experimenting with various forms of row covers. I can buy row covers easily enough at the garden store but that's not half as much fun and it costs money. Where as if I try myself, it's a lot more interesting, I might learn a bit and it keeps the neighbours amused.

Not surprisingly, my first attempt was dismal but I did find yet another used for the frame of that silly portable green house of mine. That thing is becoming invaluable. I put it on its side to be the frame work and simply covered it with plastic and weighed it down with rocks. I planted 6 tomato plants. It looked ok but the wind played havoc with it and I lost all the plants except for the two closest to the frame. Well, I have lots of extra plants so it let's try something different....










The first not-so-great attempt. Those patches green you see in the garden are not weeds, but clover. I try to leave some clumps in because I think it is good for the overall health of the garden and the rabbits love their fresh clover!

I decided to put the frame down on its front and cover it and the two surviving plants with plastic. The wind can't easily grab hold of it this way. I can hear the wind try, the plastic flaps and the frame rattles but it holds steady and the wind is defeated. That solves the problem of keeping the two surviving plants alive (I hope) but I still have a flat of tomatoes that need transplanting.

I have a lot of discarded tomato cages. They never worked for me. They were fine for a few weeks then the tomato plants basically took over and the cages collapsed in defeat. That's why I switched to teepees. As it turns out, the tomato cages came in pretty handy as temporary mini green houses.

Saturday morning, P, teenage son, and I cut down the largest hoop leaving the two top hoops. We left 2 - 3 inches of wire from where we cut to poke into the ground. If I ever make more, I'll leave 5 - 6 inches just to make it a little more secure. Then we bent the top wires, which originally the ones that get stuck in the ground down, so they wouldn't pierce the plastic or poke an unsuspecting person in the eye. Now we have our frame to put an extra large freezer bag over and Ta-Dah! instant protective cover for the tomato plants. I might weigh down the bottom with little rocks to protect the frames from high winds. One thing I've learned is the winds around here never give up. I hope it works, I think I could get years of use out of the frames, I just might have to change the plastic ever now and then though the years.