BeccaOH: Update of just STUFF

[BeccaOH]

NO, NO, NO
I don't need more geese.

 

[keljonma]

How did Betty work out with hatching eggs?

 

[BeccaOH]

She hung around and even shared a box for a while. She was around when they hatched. I took a cochin hen out with the chicks and set her up in a rabbit hutch to mother them. Betty seemed to want to keep tending some eggs, so I gave her 6 marked eggs (mostly mixed breed). She abandoned them about 3 days later. A cochin had some interest for a while, but I ended up having to throw those eggs away.

 

[BeccaOH]

I still don't have a garden in, but at least now the chickens and ducks are locked out of the garden. I set up a section of straw bale beds that are ready to plant in. I need to add some potting soil to my raised beds. The chickens had been using them to dust bath. I hope to get that all done this weekend.

I had my first predator attack of the year. I knew there was a coon around. My dog treed it and didn't let it out of the apple tree for around 9 days until I moved the dog for a night. I thought that would teach the coon a lesson, and it did seem to work for a while. I kept the trap set until the canned cat food evaporated (or was ate by bugs).

Yesterday I found a Saxony duck had been killed and something tried awfully hard to pull it by the neck under the fence. I can't see that the coon got any meal for its work, though. I reset the trap last night near the secne of the crime using a partially opened can of sardines this time. Got my coon this morning!

I figure it was the first loss of waterfowl to a predator that I've had in 3 years of raising ducks and geese. Though I tend to lose a couple chicken or turkey every year to a coon or dog or such.

 

[Farmfresh]

Is the coon going to be supper?

 

[BeccaOH]

Is the coon going to be supper?

UGH, no. But it will not be back. I just hope he doesn't have friends who he told about my place. :/

 

[Farmfresh]

I am not to fond of coon meat either. But it would make nice revenge!

 

[BeccaOH]

NO, NO, NO
I don't need more geese.

Oh, dear! I bought her geese and now have 3 pairs!

 

[BeccaOH]

So, I'm trying a straw bale garden bed this year. I'm finding it holds a lot of plants in a little space. I think I counted 14 bales that I set in a big rectangle shape with a bale width of space in the middle that I filled with rabbit poo, straw, compost, and bagged soil.

So far I have this in there with space for more.
9 tomato
4 pepper
4 eggplant
8 broccoli
2 bales worth of green beans (two rows on each)
3 zucchini
1 basil
6 or so randomly placed marigolds and petunias

(I'll work at getting pictures taken.)

I also will be filling my old raised beds with beets, more peppers, more beans, etc. Dug out 2 duck eggs from a bed the other day that were probably a week old. My chickens had been using the beds to dust bath.

I need to cut rows for the okra and maybe some corn. But I really need a lighter, more easily manageable tiller.

I'm really behind on planting this year. Usually it is all in around Memorial Day.

Last night I scored 7 locust posts 4"x4"x7' for $18 for fenceposts in the new poultry pasture that is slowly coming along. They will be hard to nail into but will last a very long time.

I've got baby chicks and ducks EVERYWHERE. Cages, totes, and swimming pool full. But I hate to sell many of them until I see them grow up and know what I should keep. I think I have decided to let 2 of my chicken breeds go so I can focus on the others I have (plus the Orloffs I added this year). Now to figure out how to sell them without practically giving them away too cheap.

 

[keljonma]

waiting for pics of your straw bale garden...

Don't feel bad about the garden. We finally got 90% of it done yesterday.