Merge

So the merging of two flocks begins.................... I wouldn't be so worried except with my unlucky chicken history, I could write a book about how to handle rare situations that almost never occur when raising chickens. Seriously. 


The little girls(Bridget and Monica) have been out for almost a week now. I think they were shocked going from a nice breezy 73 degrees in the laundry room to a scorching, melting, make you wanna move out of Austin 107 degree heat. It took them a few days to adjust to the heat, but with a box fan and daily ice downs they are doing well. 

2 little chilled chicken booties

The big girls are super skeptical. The pecking order does indeed exist in chicken life and the big girls aren't letting the little ones off the hook. I am merging slowly as all the literature advises. I have a small chicken hutch within the coop where the little ones reside. The older girls see them and interact with them, but the little ones are safe from the occasional peck that flies at them. So far Penny seems to be the biggest bully. She likes to walk up to the hutch, throw a few pecks around and act tough. As soon as the little ones are big enough to defend themselves(a month and a half or so) I will let them free range with the older girls and then merge them as one flock. Seems easy enough, but ya'll know me, the more complicated route is more my style. 

Hutch in the coop

Bridget

Monica

Dry Dry Dry..................Parched

Texas is dry. A drought they say could last for years.
I read a good opinion piece in The Times a few days ago that sums up what we here in Texas are going through and have to look forward too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/opinion/sunday/as-texas-dries-out-life-falters-and-fades.html

Sigh

Mulch, Mulch, Mulch..............

I have been lagging with the mulching. 

Mulch  does a variety of good things for plants, veggies, and trees. With this heat it really isn't something I should have been ignoring.  Did I mention I just rotted in the box(Job) for 11 days straight? Yeah, I said 11. Yowser. Anyway I have four days off (yay!) and today I was able to snag some pine needle mulch. I went with pine needles because at the end of the season, I will be able to just till it in and use it in a good organic matter kind of way. 

I fertilized today and will every two weeks with good ole stinky John's Recipe. Im tellin you, after I use this stuff(and spill it all over myself), the dogs go crazy around me and I'm not allowed to sit on the couch until I shower. P U. It keeps the plants strong, growing, and is super simple to use. 

I am spraying the leaves also every week with NEEM oil. I have a little bit of an ant problem and also have noticed a few little slimy worm patterns on a few of the tomato leaves. So, I am keeping ahead of a potential problem(remember spring) and spraying every week. It's safe, organic, and wont hurt the plants or us, even if we harvest and eat on the same day. 

Pepper plant with the new mulch. Drip Irrigation is underneath

On a happy note, the little girls Bridget and Monica are thriving. They love to go outside in their backyard hutch, scratch around, and take dust baths. I can't believe they are already almost three weeks old. 

Bridget and Monica

Heats Killer. 


 I started seeds last week indoors for Chard, Broccoli, and brussel sprouts.

Shade Cloth Savior

Remember when I said my fall garden was going to kick ass. Well it's gonna, if the heat lets up and if it ever rains. Did I mention we here in central Texas are in a serious drought. It literally hasn't rained since May. 

The last good day to plant tomatoes and peppers in Austin was around July 25th from what I have been reading and from what the good folks at the garden store told me. So, I planted mine. Round two. Here we go. I swear if I don't grow at least three good tomatoes this fall, I'm going to..................... yell and hell I don't know keep trying I guess. 

Since it's so hot and sunny, the mid day sun is killer on the tomatoes, peppers, and squash. My savior is a 40% shade cloth I set up. Because it's 40% it's supposed to cover all of the boxes for the full day and allow 60% of the UV rays to soak through, enough for ample plant growth. So far everything looks good. By the end of the day the peppers look a little sluggish, but I give them a little water and they perk right up. 

I really just want this to work. 

Btw, the black around the boxes are weed barrier. My next project is to edge the garden area off and add some gravel. Soon. 

whew............................

It's hot. 


I know I complain about the heat a bit but seriously this is no joke. Another record today....... 106 degrees. The real feel with humidity was 115 degrees. Uh Uh. No thanks. I'm super ready for Fall. Or hell, even a day in the 90's would be nice. 

Chickens don't like temps in the high 90's or 100's. It literally is like a part time job keeping these girls alive in this ridiculous heat. It is easier to lose one of the girls to heat than cold weather, so here are the steps I'm taking to keep them chilled:


-box fan in the coop running at hottest part of the day
-mister on a timer that runs twice a day for an hour and a half
-frozen watermelon or cantaloupe at lunchtime
-electrolytes in their water
-when its record breaking heat, I put ice in a pan in the coop. They like to sit by it or walk on it. The ice is also placed in front of the fan, so if it's not too humid, the fan + the ice acts like a swamp cooler
-The coop and run is in shade with lots of trees


If you have chickens and its hot, try these. They really work. 

I wanted a happy ending......................

But it didn't end that way.  It's been a crazy, bummer kind of a week.  

First off, I got kind of worried that the eggs I slipped under Little shit weren't going to hatch. I did the float test and the eggs floated, but they didn't move much in the water. I knew then that there was around a 50/50 chance that the egg (btw I say egg because somehow the other one ended up a dud and wasn't fertilized) was still viable and would hatch at that point. Because its been so hot (103-105 daily) my thoughts were less hopeful, leaning more to the 50% failure rate. Incubated eggs do best with 40-50% humidity and a 99.5-100 degree temperature range from what I've been reading. I started to worry. 

On Saturday, I decided that I wanted to try to slip two chicks under Little shit so she could mother them and hopefully break her broody behavior, just in case the egg didn't hatch. This is a technique that is used with success many times. In theory, the mother thinks she hatches the chicks and immediately switches to mother mode. Saturday morning I headed to the feed store, it was National Cowboy Day there that day, to buy two chicks. They had an excellent selection and I ended up picking out a Light Brahma and a Salmon Favorelle, both two days old. The man in the chick room, who I happen to chat up frequently really wanted to give me a chick because of my "valued customer" status. Love those boys at the feedstore.  So, I ended up taking home three. I told myself and Claire that I would only get two while I was there, but was secretly happy I had an excuse to bring home three. He gave me a beautiful little Ancona on the house. YeeeeHawww.


Saturday Night at around 10:00 pm we headed out to slip the new girls under their sleeping, waiting mother. Little shit fussed a little but settled back down after the little ones were slipped under. As I strategically placed the two under, I took out two eggs. We left her alone and after about an hour, I went back to check on her. The girls and their independent spirits had jumped out of the nesting box. I put them back in and they settled in nicely. I reluctantly went back to bed and hoped for the best in the am. I wanted to watch them all night. 


Unfortunately, sometimes this technique does not work and in this case it did not. When I checked on them at sun up, the little Ancona had been killed and the other two were hiding in a crack were the big girls couldn't get to them. I was devastated. I couldn't believe it didn't work. I worry now, big time that I didn't check on them enough and I wish I would have gone at sunrise to make sure she would not kill them. I honestly thought she would take them as her own. Ugh. I regret doing it for the sake of that little one. I talked to some people from the poultry forum and was reassured I did everything ok. It's just sometimes some chickens, even though they are broody, don't want to be a mother. She obviously doesn't.  Much to the dismay of Claire, we now have two little chicks brooding in the laundry room again. We will have to raise them and integrate them with the flock later.  They still don't have names, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. 


Ya'll are probably wondering what ever happened to the fertilized egg? The answer to that is another big let down. I did the float test again this morning and no movement. I made the decision to crack the egg open and see what was in it.  Little shit had done her job of setting well.  I'm pretty sure the heat was working against her because inside was a dead fully formed little chick. Ugh. Seriously. 

So now I have to figure out a way to break little shit. Surprisingly, today she was out and about with the rest of the crew. I noticed she made a beeline to the coop a few times, but for the most part she hung with the other girls. I think taking away that one little egg and 30+ days may have finally snapped her out of it. 


I hate that a month later Little shit wasn't able to become a mother (even though in reality she didn't really want to be) and that this situation wasn't able to have a different ending but at least I ended up with two things that make me smile............................

Once again, chicks are really hard to photograph. These are the best I could get