First Freeze

As predicted, the temps here fell to 32 degrees the night before last. The day before the freeze, all of the peppers and tomatoes still in the garden were harvested. This included a lot of unripe tomatoes. So, along with some of the green tomatoes given us by Jeff's parents, we used our green maters plus our onions and apples to make a green tomato chutney. We canned 12 half-pints. Today, we are pickling the rest of the green tomatoes and canning tomato soup with the red ones. Our apple trees produced an abundance of fruit this year - sometimes breaking the branches. We've made lots of apple sauce and apple butter. Hopefully, we can try making an Indian chutney this weekend, using more of the apples. Here's our stash of preserves in storage down in the cellar:


The new goat barn is still under construction, but the goats are still able to seek shelter from the cold in another small barn. However, the goats used to sleep in a space beside the chicken house, but that got turned into the outdoor chicken brooder. A big heat lamp in the brooder keeps the chicks warm.


All 13 chicks appear to be thriving. In one last attempt to have one of our hens hatch and raise some chicks, David procured a dozen Barred Rock hatching eggs via the internet, which we placed underneath a hen who was setting at the time. The hen and eggs were given a private room in one of the old rabbit cages. Although she seemed to be setting on the eggs well, when we candled the eggs a few days ago, only a couple appeared viable. The next day, the hen gave up; she was off the nest and squawking to be let loose. Perhaps we will have better luck in the spring.

First days in the outdoor brooder at 2 weeks old

Four weeks old - growing so fast!



In other chicken news, two of our older roosters died in the last week or two. Both roosters started looking really depressed in the days/weeks before they died. It was sad to see them moping around. Hopefully, it was just old age and not some contagious disease. I guess this makes more room for the newbie roos, though. We still don't know for sure how many of the chicks are male. The older Wyandotte chick, that we've been calling Dottie, seems to be developing more male characteristics than the other two Wyandotte chicks, Wyatt and Annabelle. Dottie may turn out to be Wyatt. We shall see. However, we are in the process of integrating Dottie into the flock, following his/her stint in the infirmary. Being smaller than the other chickens and having only one good eye, I've been a worried mama hen. The poor thing hides in corners or under the chicken house most of the time. She also tends to seek safety, when we are around, by flying up on our shoulders and nestling down there. It's tough to be the new kid. Lastly, egg production is going back up now that they are almost done molting. We're getting 1-3 eggs per day now.

-Annie