1. I did not post a garden update last week. On Sunday, we went to the movies with friends and so I was not home most of the day. I did have pictures, but this week has shown a lot of growth and change so I will just share an update this Sunday. I did start 42 ish marigold last weekend and have been amazed that we have over 50% germination even before the 7 days.
2. The weather continues to be on the improving side. We had a frost on Wednesday night/ Thursday morning. And the high today is supposed to be 78*
3. My chicken math! Over the last 6 months, we gave away a rooster, lost one chicken to a predator and lost another to natural causes. That leaves us with 5 total hens. We are getting 3 eggs a day but honestly, I would like to be getting at least 6 a day with more in order to store. So we need at least 4 if not 6 additional chickens this spring/summer to keep us happy with eggs! I also think this is the best time to get chicks as our older 3 chickens are 3 years old, the younger 2 are 2 years old so this should be a good time to add so that our egg production stays steady. So yeap we need 6 chicks!
4.. Zach is currently taking an Agriculture Class in which they are incubating and raising chickens. They keep the chicks at school until they are ready to be outside without heat lamps! This is the perfect time for us to get these as we can work on integrating into our flock. We are picking up 2 chicks today and likely another 2 in a month! We made a run to Tractor Supply to purchase some chick starter and a new watering container as we can’t seem to locate ours!
5.Last Fall we lost a chicken due to a failure in the wire cage. I decided last night that we would go ahead and add a layer of poultry netting around the bottom of our existing chicken run. In the past when we have had smaller chicks, we have added cardboard because the current wire has a large enough opening that smaller chicks could escape. By adding the poultry netting this will eliminate the need to add cardboard when we get additional chicks as well as a layer of protection! We are planning on installing the netting as well as finishing up the deck this weekend!