Chicken wrangling

Nothing like chicken wrangling! This morning I found my smallest chick has somehow or other gotten out. She was happily rooting through the manure piles in the adjacent horse pen and chasing insects.

Yes, yes, I know it's good for them. And yes I don't really like having my chickens penned in the first place. The alternative would be to completely fence in my garden area (and several other beds too, plus block off the doors to my greenhouse) and somehow get netting over all of it. Which would have to be tall enough that a person could work in there too. There is just no feasible way to do this.

So I dropped the dog lead, asking him to stay, and attempted to herd the errant bird towards the gate. She was having nothing doing, of course, and allow me to state that chicks can be quick, very quick! I gave up after a few minutes, and returned to the house. She was caught by my son using our largest fishing net, and put back inside. Then we spent a few minutes attempting to figure out where she'd gotten out. Near as I can figure, she must have launched herself from the roof of the nest boxes mounted inside the chicken coop and right up and over the netting. We hastily made repairs and then we were off and running for the day. Bet you all know what I'll be doing over the weekend, right? Ayep, battening down the netting! Chickens are not that dumb, I don't think, lol

Yesterday evening we had some sun (yay!) and then today we have partly cloudy skies (yay yay!!) so this should help kick the garden and green house into gear. I may even have a cucumber to eat this weekend-over a foot long, I have been waiting for it to plump up. The lettuces have really taken off with this type of weather, so there is plenty to eat. My raspberries are just astounding this year. I have never seen so many buds and fruits (most still green of course) and you can readily hear the buzz of bees from six or eight feet away. Last night I saw easily three or four dozen, busily working the blossoms there.

Thanks to my talented SIL, I no longer have bees nests inside my greenhouse! Yippee! My SIL was a beekeeper in years past, so she knows behavior and habits pretty well. Anyhow, while I winced and ducked, she squashed the small nests for me. Two were empty and one had one single bee in it. We disposed of the papery remains, and so far, no new construction going on. She informed me that bees are typically absent during the daylight hours and its much safer to take the nests down when they are very small. The method won't work on a large nest, or when its cold and/or raining hard.

This upcoming three day weekend will mean extra time to get outside chores done. For example, weeding the vegetables. I have a bumper crop erupting from the holes in the black plastic mulch, so that is first on the list. The chickens will be thrilled to have the greens, I am sure-I've been giving them chick weed from around the lettuce, and they sure squabble over it :) The hardest part will be trying to figure out what is a beet, and what isn't....the carrots are pretty easy but the beets? I had to wait until they were a bit bigger first!

I have some baby zucchini coming along, the cabbage leaves have started to lay down, the cauliflower is about ready to head up, and the broccoli is getting taller every day. So despite this long string of cloudy and rainy skies, the garden is growing!