Spring Chickens

I was not necessarily planning on adding to our laying hens this spring, but Mr. Rooster (still technically a cockerel,a beautiful silver Ameraucana)has risen to the top of the pecking order and become rather aggressive. He has grown so aggressive that I cannot let our chickens out of the coop for their usual forging because Mr. Rooster will chase down any child within 100 feet and an occasional adult as well. Anyhow...His days are numbered. In the meantime, our girls and Mr Rooster have loads of grass delivered fresh to their table daily. Our birds LOVE their greens!

Problem is the rooster was my son's pet chicken. So we are easing this impending loss with 3 new chicks.
Last week we purchased 3 Buff Orpington pullets (young females)from a local hatchery, they will be joining our laying flock in a few months. My boys adore them and have named the girls Rosy, Daisy, and Lady. Buff Orpington chicks do not generally have purple stripes on their heads, (as you see in the photos) that was a quick dye job on my part so my boys would not fight over which bird was which. 1stripe= Rosy, 2stripes= Daisy, and 3stripes= Lady.



The addition of 3 newbies will bring us to a total laying flock of 9 hens and pullets; 4 Plymouth Barred Rocks, 2 Ameraucanas, and 3 Buff Orpingtons.
I also have a couple of Ameraucana eggs, and one Ameraucana-Barred Rock egg under a friend's hen who is setting. Mr Rooster has been very busy and all of our eggs (Ameraucana and Barred Rock) have been fertile for the past few weeks, so we're waiting to see what happens with those three eggs.
Joy

Spring is Springing Soon!

Technically Spring does not begin for nearly 2 more weeks, but in Southern California it really is already here. I should have started seeds for our vegetable garden weeks ago, but finally managed to get them going this weekend.
4 varieties of beans, 2 types of peas (really probably too late), 4 varieties tomatoes, 2 kinds of sweet peppers, 2 hot pepper plants (Jalapeno, and Anaheim), both long and fat eggplant varieties, 3 kinds of summer squash, Swiss chard, 2 varieties of watermelon, 2 types of musk melon, honeydew, and a LOT of certified organic non-GMO corn.
We will finish prepping the garden area this coming weekend. I have had good luck with a variation of 'lasagna' gardening so we are planing to do that again. Once the ground is ready I will direct seed (and likely tent for a while just in case we get another frost or two) a mix of loose lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions, and herbs. I also have strawberry plants ready to set out, and buckets of very loose soil ready for some carrots and potatoes.
I'm saving up to buy a deep freezer this summer, I'd like to be able to stock it up with the majority of our garden's abundance. I don't think I will really have the energy for canning very much since our baby is due in late July, but I am still planing on putting up tomatoes and various jams since those are pretty easy.