As if I needed more women in my life I had a moment of weakness last weekend and returned home from Coldwater with 8 new chicks… At least I hope they are all babes… I did peek at each before loading them up…  The wing thing only works on breeds specifically bred for that trait… Not sure this breed fits that bill.

You don’t often see Gold Laced Wyandottes but the local farm supply had a whole brooder full and my existing flock is approaching late middle age… I figured it was time to start some fresh meat to ensure adequate egg production.  The fact that they are a bit off of the beaten track as far as breed was nice also.  I like a diversified flock, even though it does result in some stress… Chickens are very racist creatures…

So once again we’ve drug the trough out from storage, broken out the chick feeder and turned on the heat lamp.  Now we’ll just watch them grow… They will be pretty birds once mature.

On another note, potatoes and swiss chard are in the ground.  Or have been since last weekend.  1 row of Red Pontiac, 2 rows of Yukon Gold and 1 Row (43 plants) of rainbow swiss chard.  Tomatoes and peppers are up and growing as well as 3 replications of broccoli, cauliflower (white, violet and green), egg plant, cabbage and lettuce.

With the weather forcast being promising I also decided to think out of the box and started 15 dozen sweet corn seeds which we will give an attempt at transplanting.  Hopefully yielding sweet corn by July 4th.  At the current outlook we very well may be planting sweet corn by the 20th of April.  It is going to depend upon ground temperature and moisture at this point.

A variety of herbs have also been started in the greenhouse but are slow emerging.  They should be poking through the vermiculite any day now.  I’ll be constructing a raised bed on the South side of the greenhouse to transplant these into.  Filled, of course with the finest of composted dairy manure.

All in all it looks as though we are in the midst of an early spring and I need to get on the ball with machinery and planting.  At this rate a May farmer’s market start is quite possible with quite a bit of variety.  Especially if temperatures remain above freezing at night as the extended forcast is predicting.

J.A.Root