April Showers

     Hopefully, the April showers of today will bring the May flowers.  Today is a bit cooler than yesterday, but definitely feeling more spring-like, though the Friday forecast is for a wintery mix again.  We ventured into town with a list of errands and purchased the fencing wire and posts for the chicken run, the spool of electric wire to attach to the charger and enclose the orchard, resupply of chick feed and bedding and the flats to start the garden veggies.

     Nestled on the warming mat, under the grow light are seed starts for 2 types of tomatoes, 2 types of peppers, spacemaster cucumbers, winter squash, pumpkins, chard, 4 types of flowers and a row left for the globe basil that I seemed to have failed to order with my seed order.  Guess I'll have to pick them up next time I'm in town.  I want to plant fennel seed too, but still have to figure where it can go in the garden without killing off its companion plants.  It may be time to go to the indie grower in town and look for some kale, spinach, salad mix, and bok choy seedlings.  They should do fine under the row covers now.
     If the rain stops tomorrow, the chick pen will be established and they will get to start spending warm days in the sun looking for bugs and seeds.  It is definitely time.  I'm toying with moving them to the coop and putting their heat lamp out there with an outdoor extension cord just to get them out of the house.

     The cute little chicks are now gangly teenagers and the two big white guys on the right of the picture weigh several pounds each (that is a gallon water jug for comparison).  They are the two remaining meat birds that convert feed to meat so quickly that they can hardly stand up.  Their lifespan is measured in weeks where the leaner smaller birds live years, if we let them.  It looks like at least two of the silver laced Wyandottes, which I hoped to keep may be cockrells, so they won't stay around.  I can't tell on the Rhode Island Reds yet and I have decided not to keep the Red Rock crosses for eggs, so it doesn't matter as they will fill the freezer in about 13 or 14 more weeks.  When we were in Tractor Supply, they had Buff Orphingtons which are one of the heritage birds I wanted to raise, but I am not buying any more chicks this year.  If I can get through the year with a handful of egg layers, I may consider some heritage birds next year and may even let one of the heritage varieties breed.
     It is exciting to be readying the garden and chicks for a summer of homegrown delights.  I am hopeful that the blueberries that I purchased last year and the raspberries that I divided last year all survived the winter and will start providing us with fruit soon.  The garlic and walking onions are up and looking strong.  It will be a good year.