New brooder

The girls are growing up fast!  They've already outgrown their original brooder, so we set up our old dog crate to give them more space.  Here's their new setup:

As soon as we put them in the dog crate, the girls immediately started hopping over each other and scratching around, and they made a mess of the place fast!  We came back to check on them and they had kicked half of the bedding out onto the floor.  So my mom put some cardboard up on the sides, which seems to have fixed that problem so far.  The top of the cardboard also made a great spot to prop up a new perch (pruned from our fig tree).  I know they can jump that high, but I have yet to see them jump up to the perch by themselves.  They are some messy girls, so when my mom added the cardboard siding, she also hung up the waterer so they can't kick bedding or poo into the water as easily.  Here's a better picture of their setup from inside:

Last week, I said that Oneita was my favorite, and that's because she would step into my hand by herself and let me hold her for a while.  Well apparently Oneita has developed a superiority complex and now she thinks she's top bird!  She's developing quite a brave and bossy personality!  Many of the chicks scatter when you put your hand in the brooder, but not Oneita.  She stands her ground and stares you right in the face.  For example:

Oneita's not afraid of anything.  When the Silver-laced chicks were still fresh, little poofballs, we weren't sure how we were going to tell them apart as they got older.  But just in the last few days, Oneita and Grace's coloring has changed a lot.  Oneita (above) has a more orange beak, and Grace (below) has a much lighter chest and lighter overall coloring.

Oneita and Grace are starting to look very different, but Bernice and Viola look even more alike now.  With their adult feathers coming in, it's much harder to see the dark spot on Viola's head, if it's even still there.  The only way I can really tell them apart now is by their legs and feet.  Viola (left) has normal orange legs.  Bernice (right) has weird dinosaur legs that are light yellow and are almost scaly looking (no offense, Bernice).

Mary Lou has always been the smallest of our flock, but her adult feathers are coming in and they look really beautiful.

Look at Mary Lou modeling her fuzzy boots!  She's been doing a lot better about socializing with us instead of just running and hiding in the corner.  But I think she just tolerates being held instead of actually enjoying it like Oneita and the Ambers.

Helen keeps to herself a lot, so she hasn't really shown us much of her personality yet.  She was originally one of the most social chicks.  She was one of the first to trust my hand when I put it down into the brooder, she allowed us to pick her up, and she liked to perch on the wall of the brooder.  Hopefully she opens back up to us and we get to know her better as she continues growing.

Meet the chicks

SAY CHEESE!!!

We've had our chicks for close to 2 weeks now, and we've gotten to know them a lot better.  Each one has her own personality and individual markings that help us tell them apart.  We thought we would instill some Southern charm on our chicks, so we've named them Bernice, Viola, Oneita, Grace, Helen, and Mary Lou.  Allow me to introduce you to...

Grace (front) and Oneita (back):

These are our two Silver-Laced Wyandottes.  Grace is very shy and is still warming up to us.  She will eat out of your hand, but she's very nervous when you try to pick her up.  Oneita is quite the opposite, though.  She runs straight to your hand instead of away from it and she loves being picked up and held.  She loves to lay down in my hand and I bet she could stay there all day if I would let her.  When I try to set her back down, she backs up onto my arm and lays down again.  (She's my favorite so far, but don't tell the other girls!)

Viola (top left) & Bernice (top right):

These little yellow Amber Links look sweet, but they are really feisty and have big personalities!  Viola has a dark spot on the top of her head, which you can see in this picture because she's leaning down on the left.  This picture is also very representative of their personalities because Viola and Bernice both think they're top bird!  As soon as you take the screen off the top of the brooder, they hop up to the side and perch.  They have the biggest wings and the most gusto, so they are the best jumpers and balancers so far.

Mary Lou:

Mary Lou is our only Dark Brahma and I like to call her Fuzzy Foot.  Her wispy fuzz will turn into fabulous feather boots when she's full grown.  Mary Lou, like Grace, is quite shy.  She will eat out of your hand occasionally, but usually when I stick my hand down into the brooder, the other chicks come running and she just tries to hide behind the waterer.  I've almost given up on trying to pick her up because she turns into a nervous wreck.  What a chicken!  Apparently this type of chicken is known to have a less sociable personality, so I expect her to be a quiet beauty rather than a bossy, in-your-face gal like Viola and Bernice.

Helen (back):

Helen would not cooperate when I was trying to get pictures, so this is the best one I have of her so far, but it gives a great view of the comb forming on the top of her beak.  Helen is our only Partridge Rock and she has more red in her fuzzy feathers than the other girls.  She likes perching on the side of the brooder, but she's not a strong enough jumper yet to get up there by herself.

If you compare these pictures to the originals I posted last week, you can see that the girls have definitely gotten bigger.  When we got them, they were just tiny little poof-balls.  Now they're a little scraggly looking, but that's because their adult feathers are starting to come in.

You can see on Bernice here that she's got some new feathers on her neck and on her back, and her tail feathers and her wings are longer.  The girls are still chicks now, but they will be pullets in a few weeks when they have most of their adult feathers but are still not fully grown.  I've heard that pullets are pretty silly looking, but I guess that's true of most teenagers... (did I just insult my teenage self?).

We got chickens!

Over the last two summers, I've experimented with growing different kinds of vegetables and building my little backyard garden.  It was really enjoyable and I hope I get to fill up my hanging planters again this summer.  But this spring, I have a new experiment: I'm raising different kinds of chickens and building a backyard coop!  I would never attempt this on my own, though.  My mom has been wanting chickens for years, and since my brother went ahead and got himself a dozen baby chicks last week, we refused to be left out and we got ourselves half a dozen.

We got all our supplies from Southern States, including the baby chicks.  These are the items we bought to get started:
  - brooder (which is basically just a big plastic box with sides at least a foot or a foot and a half tall)
  - heat lamp and red-tinted bulb
  - waterer
  - packets of electrolyte and vitamin supplements to mix with water
  - feeder
  - poultry starter feed
  - litter (no - not cat litter!  Litter is what you call the bedding at the bottom of the brooder.  We put pine wood shavings over a couple paper towels.)

Here is their current setup:

Those supplies, along with the six chicks, cost less than $70 from Southern States.  They were selling four different types of chickens: Partridge Rock, Silver-laced Wyandotte, Dark Brahma, and Amber Link.  We got two each of the Silver-laced and the Amber Link, and one each of the Partridge Rock and Dark Brahma.  In the picture, the little yellow ones are the Ambers, the one on the fig branch and the one hiding behind the water are the Silver-laced, the reddish-brown one next to the branch is our Partridge Rock, and the smallest one on the right side is the Brahma (she has fuzzy feet!).

We got the chicks home without incident, but our cat was VERY interested in the strange noises coming from that little cardboard box.  We have frequent checks to make sure the cat hasn't slipped in behind us into the room where the chicks are living.  We also have a screen over the top of the brooder to make sure the chicks can't hop out.  Even though they're still small, they're feisty and they can jump pretty high!  Especially Bernice.  She's the troublemaker.

Here's Bernice:

Look at how she stares at me.  We know she's plotting something.

We're still working on our chicken coop, but they won't move outside for another few weeks.  Until then, we'll all just be getting to know each other.

Empty Nest

Noooo!!!  My baby birds are gone!!!  They finally left the nest today and I didn't even get to say goodbye.  I can hear them chirping in the trees outside the fence, but they won't show their little faces.  I saw mama bird, but she yelled at me to go away.  I hope they all survive their flight training and come back to visit us.  I left out the last of the mealworms so they can have a snack for the road.  Now the only baby I have left is my loud-mouthed beagle.

Here are the last couple pictures I took of the babies, and they don't really look like babies anymore.  They've inherited their mother's evil glare.

Bird Food

We bought some mealworms for the wrens to eat.  They're pretty gross.

We've spotted some other birds trying to steal the worms and I've had to run outside and yell at them.  I'm not trying to feed all the neighborhood birds!  But I think mama and daddy bird are getting most of them, especially since the babies don't really look like babies anymore.  They look like that dancing penguin from Happy Feet... they're almost full grown but they've still got a lot of baby fuzz.

Every time I go out on my porch, mama and daddy bird pop out and start chirping at me, like I'm not allowed on my own porch!  It's not like I'm the reason their babies have a home and free food...

The birds have opened their eyes

The baby birds are getting so fuzzy and cute!  They've finally opened their eyes and they're begging for food.  You can clearly see four hungry little beaks in there!  I'm glad all of the eggs hatched and have made it so far.

Veggie Soup

Something has been getting into my tomatoes!  It doesn't look like worms and I never see squirrels or chipmunks back here, so I think it's a bird pecking into the ripe tomatoes.  That bird has already ruined at least half a dozen perfectly good tomatoes!

My two pepper plants are growing crazy slow, but the green peppers and banana peppers that have been growing one or two at a time have been getting huge!  I finally picked my first green pepper today and it's way more impressive than the little ones I was growing last summer.

I'm going to slice it up with some of my tomatoes and cook a homemade pizza.  BEST way to eat homegrown green peppers!  We cooked about a dozen little roma tomatoes today in a vegetable soup with a zucchini, a squash, a sweet onion, a bunch of little creamer potatoes, and carrots in beef broth.  We boiled the tomatoes for 30 seconds, then threw them in some icy water, and the peels came right off!  We had never done that before and it was really cool.  Todd even started the soup with a roux!  (Paisley pronounces it aahhhrrooooooo!!)

So the tomatoes are growing great and the plant is as tall as I am!  Well, technically it's only as tall as me when I hold the tallest branch up, but it's still impressive.

Baby Birds: Day 4

The Wrens Hatched!

The baby wrens hatched over the weekend!  I peeked into the nest today when mama and daddy bird were out finding food.  They're super fresh, so they look pretty gross right now, but they should be big enough to leave the nest in the next two weeks.

I didn't get the greatest picture, but I was scared that mama bird was going to come back and get mad.  Maybe I should buy them a container of worms as a late baby shower gift, haha.

Mama bird gave me the evil eye

This bird is terrifying.  She was so mad at me for trying to take her picture.  I felt like she was staring into my soul... and I was scared.  I don't want to disturb her, but I want to see her babies!  How long will I have to wait before they hatch?!

I dare you to look into these eyes and not be scared too.

First banana peppers!

I resisted as long as I could, but I went ahead and cut my first two banana peppers off the plant today.  I wanted to see if they would get any larger, but I think they're making it hard for my other banana pepper buds to grow.  Here are all my peppers before:

And here are my banana peppers after:

It took about a month for them to grow to 4" and 5" long (or 5" and 6" if you measure along the outside curve).  My bell pepper is not quite 3" yet, so I'm going to let that one keep growing a bit longer.  Some of my tomatoes don't have that much longer to grow - I'm going to be able to pick 2 or 3 of them in the next day or so!  There are a lot more that size, so I'm sure a bunch will start ripening up soon.

Who's garden is this anyway?

For the past couple weeks, I've been keeping an eye out for my little lizard friend to return.  He was the best garden tenant!  But I found a different tenant living in my garden today.

First of all, let me remind you of my fabric hanging planter that I made earlier this summer:

This morning, I went to water the flowers in this fabric planter and a bird flew out!  I thought it was going to fly right into my face, but instead, it landed on one of the fence posts and proceeded to CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP at me.  I was about to go on and continue my mission of watering the flowers, but then I realized that this furious bird must be a mama bird, and I was right.  That crazy mama made a nest out of my flowers!  Even though she was chirping and yelling and throwing a fit, I had to peak into the fabric planter just long enough to make sure there were some eggs in there (and get a picture, of course).  This is what I saw:

She had 4 speckled eggs in there!  Good thing I heard her chirping at me before I went ahead and watered the flowers.  That would have been a sad, soggy nest.  I might have to sacrifice these flowers since this bird family has obviously settled in good.  That's fine as long as that mama bird stops flying at my face and yelling at me!  I never had these problems with my lizard friend...

I didn't mean to grow a snowman

My tomato plant is getting huge!  Look at how tall it is now:

And it's covered in tomatoes from top to bottom:

This is the oldest bunch, the largest of which is about 1 and a half inches long:

Look at that tomato on the left.  It's a snowman!  Or maybe a tomato-man.  Either way, it's weird.

The tomato-man isn't the problem, though.  The problem is that a couple of the tomatoes in this bunch had blossom-end rot.  Lame!  I need to start giving them tomato food and make sure I water them on a more regular basis.  I blame grad school.

I grew my first banana pepper!

I went away for the weekend and my two largest banana peppers blew up!

This is the oldest banana pepper.  It's hard to tell the difference between the bell pepper buds and banana pepper buds in my older pictures, but I believe this banana pepper first opened its flower and started growing about 3 weeks ago.  Now it's about 3 and a half or 4 inches long.

 Since I've never grown banana peppers before, I'm not sure how long I should wait before I pick them.  Anyone know?

And here are my bell peppers!  They're still only about 2 inches long and the bottom one is growing crazy shaped.

Hanging Planter Labels

I just made the cutest labels for my hanging planters!!  Last summer, we wrote the name of each plant in sharpie on the front side of the milk container and it lasted for the entire growing season.  But this summer, for some reason, the sharpie washed off after only a few days.  I decided to make some labels that are cute and hopefully durable and weatherproof.  Check them out:

What I did was take one of those 9 by 13 aluminum baking pans and write/engrave the name of each plant with a pen.  I took a box cutter and cut a square around each plant name, and then I took some pliers and folded the edges back so no one could get cut.  I went over the engraved names with sharpie so they stood out more and covered the front in a layer of packing tape to protect the sharpie from washing away again.  The last thing I did was use a single-hole punch, thread some twine, and tie them to my hanging planters.  They look so good!  I hope they last all season.  (Also, see the end of this post for an update on how my plants are doing!)

Baby fruit update:
     - I have at least 9 baby tomatoes and the biggest is already the size of a grape!
     - I have 1 baby bell pepper, but it's so tiny, the flower petals are still around it.
     - I have 1 open flower on the banana pepper plant that should show fruit soon.
     - I have 3 baby zucchinis!  The largest is only about an inch long.

Red, White, and Blue

I made a beautiful arrangement in my window box!  I didn't mean for it to be so patriotic, but I guess it is heading toward that time of year.

I reused my little yellow bucket from last summer for some of the extra flowers.

I sat outside and read for a couple hours this morning and I was surrounded by flowers near my veggies, flowers on the table, and flowers hanging in my fabric planter.  It was so nice!

Planting SEads for the Second Summer

I'm back in business for my second attempt at growing a mini vegetable garden!  Last summer, I grew 2 roma tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato plant, 2 bell pepper plants, 1 jalapeno plant, and 1 unsuccessful zucchini plant.  That was a lot for me to keep up with, so this summer, I'm taking a step down and only growing 4 plants.  I'm growing the bell peppers again, but this time I only have 1 plant so none of them go to waste.  I'm doing the same thing with my roma tomatoes, but this time I'm growing it in a planter on the ground instead of in a hanger.  I was most excited about my zucchini plant last year, so I'm trying again in hopes that it will properly fruit this time.  The last one is a banana pepper plant (sweet and mild rather than spicy), which I'm trying instead of jalapenos this year.  The jalapenos grew the easiest out of all my plants last summer, but I just couldn't keep up with it and I hate to let any of my veggies go to waste.

I got the plants 3 weekends ago, and once I brought them home and put them in the planters, here's what the set-up looked like.  The tomato plant is in the planter on the ground, and the hanging planters from left to right are the zucchini plant, the bell pepper plant, and the banana pepper plant.

And here's a close-up of my baby roma tomato plant:

3 weeks later, here's what the plants look like:

And this is what my cute little roma tomato plant has grown into:

I finally had a break from homework today and was able to go pick up a tomato cage from Lowes.  I know I should have done it a couple weeks ago (before my tomato plant turned into a monster!), but I'll get it to work.

This is the most exciting part... I have baby zucchinis growing already!!  They're pretty tiny, but you can definitely see a couple thick stems that are definitely the beginning of a little fruit.  I'm so excited!  Check out these zucchini babies:

Maybe that only excites me, but you have no idea how badly I wanted some homegrown zucchinis last year!  It better work this time.

I'm also growing flowers!  I just got my window box and my little yellow bucket set up today after my trip to Lowes, so I'll get pics of that tomorrow.