Lazy Gardener's Little Town Farm

henless

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I was at Atwoods last week. They had a few chicks, but not as many as they usually have. I didn't look to see what kinds or price. I was afraid to get too close since they might have what I like.

There's a bunch of chicks on our local fb poultry pages. They all seem to sell pretty fast.
 

Lazy Gardener

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First experience herding ducks today. I've been carrying the (6) 6 week old ducklings back and forth from the garage to their "day" tractor. Tonight, I carried the 3 ducks, then... let the 3 drakes out and "herded" them back. It actually went pretty good! Next step... put the most vocal duck in the tractor, and see if the other 5 can be herded out to meet her. I have 5 babies that are about 10 days old. Working on integrating them with the older ones. For now, I'm only allowing supervised contact, and will be setting them up in side by side tractor situations until the babies are closer in size to the big ducks. Also working on integrating 6 week old chicks with 2 week old chicks. For some reason, these older chicks are more aggressive than past groups have been.
 

Lazy Gardener

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I'm getting such a charge out of these ducks. Tonight, when I put them to bed, I took the WH female into the garage first. Put her in their brooder/run space, then had Hubby let the rest out. She called them and they paddled along, making a bee line towards the garage. When they were almost there, WH came tearing out of the garage. She'd jumped over the 2' divider. She joined the other 5, then they all turned and continued into the garage! Tomorrow, I hope to be able to herd all 6 at once to/from their tractor. As soon as I put the big ducks up, the babies were frantic, calling for them. They desperately want to join them, but... the big ducks are not yet ready to play nice with them.

Temps for the week: 78 tomorrow, highest we'll see this week will be 88. So, I hope to get some peppers and tomatoes in the ground this week. Today, I planted pre-sprouted Fortex pole beans. Have put a few zucchini in the ground, and planted my Suyo cukes. Available spots in garden are filling up fast.

Fiddle heads for supper tonight. Have enough left for one more meal, and froze enough for 3 meals.
 

Lazy Gardener

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buttery, mild. I eat them with a generous serving of vinegar, and salt... and I also poke the butter to them. But, they taste buttery even before I put the butter on them. They'd be good with a bit of bacon or chicken grease.
 

Lazy Gardener

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Finished planting tomatoes. Made an other raised bed. Will put coles and carrots there. Continue planting herbs. Rescued some cilantro seedlings from the paths, enough to make 6' of row. Will do the same with dill, which always pops up everywhere. Working out a system with the ducks. I'm having them work the front side of the garden fence (they are OUTSIDE the fence). I'm wetting down the soil/grass there, so they can "drill" the area. Hopefully, they'll destroy the grass along the fence line. Have to plant some melons, squash, peppers, onion and leek seedlings, and tuck some flowers here and there, more lettuce and other greens, then the garden will be finished. But... we all know that the garden is never REALLY finished, don't we!
 

Chic Rustler

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we have dill everywhere too. way more than we need.

you can never have enough carrots. I'm thinking about building another raised bed or two as well for things like carrots and beets
 
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