Friday, April 16, 2010

Chicks, Chickens, Gaint Eggs, & Gardening

The Chicks are growing and becoming out going little ones. They run around with their little wings flapping. One will start and then the others will follow. So sweet. They jump up and lay on Lil Bantis back and she clucks a calming motherly cluck. So sweet. She is loving being a Mama. Yesterday was the first day they went out and into the grass. They pecked, scratched and ran around. Lil Banti took her first dust bath in a can't tell you how long. Actually she decided to take it in the only bare spot she could find... The chick feed... I know crap picture. She laid there flopping he feathers in the dirt & chick feed and I think she was actually teaching her babies while enjoying it herself. They starter trying. They would lay and copy her. The lil white chick fell over on her back and had to use her little wings to put her self back on her feet. But they laid and basked in the sun. They loved it. To bad it rained and was cool out today. They never came out. But they are very healthy. They are feathering so fast. It is hard to believe. We have had them for a little over a week now and they are even starting to get tail feathers. Their food intake is steadily increasing. They are a joy to watch. Just like the other chickens. I love watching them all. They still are not out around the other chickens. Gaia & Mabon especially look at them like they are walking meals. So it will be a good while before they are allowed out with them. But they are being raised right beside them so they can get used to each other.

Two of the chickens are laying huge eggs ever so often. Except in the last 8 or 9 days I have seen 4 of these giant eggs and I have brought them in to weigh them. Regular Eggs are between 2.0 and 2.3 grams. The big eggs are 2.8-3.2 grams. So a whole gram bigger than normal. I think it is Gaia definitely lays some big eggs. The light colored huge egg I have no clue who laid them because we only get that color sometimes... Not very often. Some of the eggs are shaped weird, a weird color, or uneven colored. I am not sure what to think about these eggs. The Vet said not to worry if it wasn't frequent. But when one chicken lays 2 in a week that is kinda frequent. Am I doing something wrong? I don't know... But I hope I can figure this out.

Regular Size Top. Bigger Bottom. Size Comparative. Uneven color. Mis-shapen egg

I did finally figure out who the most of the different egg colors belong to though. From Left to right. Gaia, Ivy, Mabon, Big Red, And Isis.

Started working on the garden beds yesterday too. Cleaned out 2 of them with Johns help. I didn't use them last year so they had totally over grown with dandelions and weeds. So I cleaned them out and fed the weeds to the chickens. They really enjoyed them. Then we covered the beds with black garden bed covering until we add more organic soil and straight sow or plant starters. So no more weeds... Still need to cover the other place we are starting a garden bed..

Grass is starting to grow on the little hills of dirt we have been leaving there to spread out. So we better get to it. I am also going to put a garden bed in front of the front porch but I am not sure that is going to get done while the growing season is still realistic. I hope so though. I am still so excited about this growing season. I hope it turns out great. But so far I am not having luck with my starters. I have very few plants starting. I think that first rain storm did my plants in by moving the seed out and around. Starting plants in containers seems to be much harder than starting them in the ground. I have never really found any info about it either. Luckily I checked out a book from the library yesterday. Its called Good Garden Magic. This book has a lot of good, basic info that I am finding useful. It is understandable and is almost like having someone there to tell you basic gardening techniques. Its not a large book but to me its very useful. I plan on ordering a copy soon. We did a couple other things too. When we went to the library we walked. That was the first time we have walked to town in years like 6 or so years. But I enjoyed the walk and John did too. We hung out at the library for an hour and then came home.

The day before we went to Books- A- Million and sat for a few hours looking through books. I haven't done that in a couple years either. I miss just going and having a laid back day with John. It was so nice!

This 4 day weekend has been really, really great! :)

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