Ready To Launch

Spring is busting out all over at Dun Hagan these last couple of weeks. Everything on the place that can is growing. I'm going to have a busy weekend getting the fertilizing, watering, and last minute pruning done. The daylillies aren't waiting for me, they're already getting down to work. Two of the three bare root pecan trees I planted several weeks ago have broken bud and are beginning to leaf out. I'm hoping the third will soon as well.

I spent much of this week getting ready for the arrival of our newest batch of chicks. Rebuilding the brooder hover, cleaning up the brooder box, filling it with bedding, cleaning the waterers and the feeders. The hover still is not really the way I want it. The parts that I bought to do the improvements with turned out to be the wrong size and by the time I discovered the error I didn't have time to go get the correct ones so I settled for replacing some of the wood and the one bulb socket that had gone bad. Maybe I'll get the rest finished after the current batch of chicks are outside.

The birds in the established flock originated from Ideal out of Texas. The new chicks are from Privett Hatchery located in New Mexico. They have a good reputation for the type of utility breeds I favor. Between the two flocks I should now have a good genetic base to work with. Not all of the birds in this batch are for me though, eight of the thirty six chicks are for the father of a friend of mine who wants to start keeping hens himself. Between the two of us we ordered Americaunas, Rhode Island Reds, Production Reds, Plymouth Barred Rocks, White Leghorns, Black Sex Links, and New Hampshire Reds so we have quite a variety as you can see from the two photos. I was only able to catch a few of them with the camera though, most of them wouldn't come out from under the hover.

There's a really nice website by the name of Feather Site where you can see photos of what each breed looks like both as chicks and as grown birds. Very handy when you're trying to tell one chick from another.

The established flock has gotten that good Spring energy as well with every hen and her sister laying for all they're worth. The refrigerator is full of eggs and I've taken to giving free samples in an effort to drum up new customers which I'll need come August when the new birds begin to lay.

Now that the chicks are in the brooder I can give some attention to other matters, notably fertilizing everything that needs it and maybe playing chicken with the late frosts by planting the garden a week early.

The bedding plants are ready and waiting. Mostly peppers with a few tomatos and eggplants and the marigolds as you can see. Florida Cracker relates that he plants cosmos in his garden as well as marigolds and I think I may give them a try myself. I've done nasturtiums several times before which did OK until about late July or so if I kept them well mulched and watered. I'll be visiting family the weekend of April first which is when I'd ordinarily be planting the frost tender stuff in the garden so I'm debating with myself about whether to take the chance of planting this weekend and gaining two weeks growth or playing it safe by waiting until the seventh. Come Sunday I'll study the long-range forecast and come to a decision.

The container plants in the greenhouse don't care about late frosts. The weather is warm, the days are growing longer and they are getting down to business. The lemon trees are full of blossoms, green fruit, and the last few ripe fruit that we haven't used yet.

I have two of these Eureka lemons (the common grocery store lemon), the other is blossoming too, but I haven't repotted it yet. That's on my to-do-soon list along with the Buddha's Hand citron that I bought the other day. It's dangerous to walk through a nice selection of plants on a nice spring day. Very dangerous.

I'm sorry about the photos being a bit fuzzy. For some reason the camera and I could not get it together no matter what I did.

The Key Limes are not about to be shown up by a mere lemon. They're all full of blossoms and new growth coming on too. There's a bunch of green fruit in there as well as some remaining ripening fruit that we'll soon pick and use.

You can't see them very clearly for being the same color as the leaves but behind the Key Lime is a Tahiti Lime (the big grocery store lime) that has green fruit and blossoms of its own. The geranium is one that my grandmother gave to the Kinder Major year before last. She has a nice flower collection given to her by my grandmother and aunts all kept that way by her daddy.












Last for this post is mystery for the reader. What is it?

I'll give you a clue. It's a common container plant that is often grown in the ground in frost-free areas.












If I can get something done this weekend maybe I'll get another post up come Sunday or Monday night.

For you folks up there in the Frozen North, we're sending our winter birds back. We've painstakingly tied a bit of spring to each of their legs. Y'all look sharp for them.

.....Alan.