Sunday Snow Report

We never did get a snowfall total for the March 1 storm. By the time the snow slowed down, it was 40°F and the snow had significantly compacted into a sodden, heavy mass. It snowed all day, though, slowing considerably late in the day, but flakes were still drifting down when our friends Bill and Michelle headed home post-pizza a little after 9 pm.

We shoveled in the afternoon Saturday, enough to get by, and today in the sunshine, batted clean-up. There was a chilly breeze, but the March sun really warmed things up. Spring is clearly on the way, snowstorms be damned.

The girls were very happy to have the snow removed from the yard around Henbogle coop, and even happier to see the big plate of leftover pasta, fried rice, and aging spinach we brought.

We have a LOT of snow. Temps today and yesterday were in the high 30°-40° F and the snow is melting quickly but it is still amazingly deep even in the yard. We've given up shoveling the deck off, we have no where to put the snow. We just keep a path to the door cleared.

In the photos on the left above and to the right, this is the path between the 2 new garden beds I planted last summer. Hard to imagine now, isn't it?

In the front yard, Dan is atop the snow filling the front yard feeder, which normally is level with his head. The snow he is standing on is another lovely perennial garden, buried under 3 feet of snow.

We noticed that the heavy snowbanks have snapped several of the lower branches off the spruce in the front yard (you can see a few of the branches framing Dan in the photo). That tree gives the front yard some privacy, and more importantly, shields the house from the glare of the streetlight. I hope that we don't lose too many more branches from this poor tree. I sure hope this is the last big snow of the season.

In like a lion

Here's hoping the old adage about March is true, in like a lion, out like a lamb, as here at Henbogle it is snowing hard at 8:50 am, and the NWS forecast is calling for 5-9 additional inches today atop the 3" or so that fell overnight. Sigh. I am so DONE with winter and snow, but apparently the message has yet to be received by the weather gods. The snowy winter is really feeding my unreasonable longing for a greenhouse.

The girls are out in the hendome. They weren't too happy about the snow on the ground, but the lure of treats was too strong to resist. The other day Dan came upon a bale of hay fallen from a truck, and stopped to bring it home for the girls. He threw the bale in the dome and they are in hen heaven. We'd intended to stop by the feed store and buy a bale Sunday, but mis-timed it and the store was closed, so the girls had to do without. Scratching through the bale and eating the seeds gives them something to do and keeps them happy. This morning I threw a couple of handfuls of scratch into the hay and they'll be occupied happily for some time.

On my way back to the house I refilled all the bird feeders. I'd say at this point we've gone through about 125 lbs of sunflower seed, and 15 lbs of thistle seed. It is money well spent, feeder bird watching is more entertaining than cable tv anyday. I find the upside down finch feeder especially amusing. Some of the finches, and even a few chickadees, figure it out right away, but there are always a few who never do get the idea.

Well, time to make some pizza dough, I think tonight will be an excellent night for a big pizza feed. As I nearly always manage to set the smoke detectors off when I make pizza, it's time to test out the new microhood and see how good a job of smoke removal it does. Once I get the dough made, it will be time to buckle down and make some decisions about what seeds I will be ordering. I've been a quivering blob of indecision, but it is more than time to get off the pot, as they say, or I'll be SOL when order fulfillment time comes around!

Chickens caught sneezing by papparazi

Meg over at FutureHouse Farm posted the funniest photos of one of her hen's sneezing that I had to link to it. BTW, Meg's chickens are a similar cross to our Hubbards Golden Comet Chickens, notice how similar they look.

Snowed In

Hyacinth, Poppy and Iris (who should know better!) spent the night snowed-in their snowdome last night. Apparently, they were too freaked out by the snow to make the scary trip (all 5 yards) to Henbogle Coop.

Dan reported when he went out to shovel and secure the coop for the night that 2 of the girls were standing in the snow halfway between the snow dome and the coop, clearly attempting to fire a neuron and recall the way to the coop through the darkness and snow. Fortunately, Dan came along just in time to shoo them into the coop, but the other three were not departing the security of the snow dome.

All were were fine this morning. When they heard me coming with treats they came out to greet me. Poppy and Iris had a few beakfuls of treat then made a beeline for the preferred nestbox. Iris got there first, so Poppy stood on the edge of the box crowding Iris until I picked Poppy up and placed her in the next box. 10 minutes later, I had 3 additional fresh eggs, nice and warm.

Silly chickens. They are cute, but clearly have some challenges in the brain department.

Another 8 inches...and where will we put it?

The snowbank at this point is nearly over my head.

Our Adirondack chairs are reminding me that it will be a long time before we are using them.

I can hardly believe that is garden in front of the grape vine arbor. This summer it looked like this.

The snow is pretty....
The garden shed.


The hen's snow dome is holding up, but looking a bit strained under all this snow. I hope it makes it through the winter!

Popping out of the oven

Amazingly, given the generosity of the Henbogle girls, I had never made popovers until tonight. They were scrumptious!

I served them with a lovely pan seared steak, cooked with some of our shallots, and roasted pole beans from our garden. It was a yummy dinner.

Popovers
Makes 6

1 cup sifted bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 xl eggs
1 cup milk
unsalted butter for brushing the custard cups

Preheat oven to 450°F Warm the eggs and milk to room temperature

Stir flour and salt together a medium bowl. Stir together the eggs and the milk, and add to the flour mixture. Stir the batter until it is smooth. In oven, heat six custard cups until hot (5+ minutes). Remove from oven, brush with the butter, and fill them half full with the batter. Bake the popovers in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°F, and bake the popovers for 20+/- minutes more, or until they are browned and crisp. I had about a tablespoon of leftover asiago cheese all grated, which I stirred in to the flour mixture -- I could taste a hint of it, I'd try that again.

Winter arrived early this year

Here at Henbogle, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We had our first big snowstorm last week on Monday, December 3. In a classic nor'easter, we received about 10" of snow, followed by a cold snap and wind. Since then, we've received a couple more inches, 2 of them this morning.

The chickens were NOT happy with the change in weather. Monday they refused to exit Henbogle coop. There was much discussion about the weather, lots of squawking and wing flapping, but NO ONE was going outside. (I'm almost positive I heard Iris say "Oh no, I'm not going, you can't make me go outside.")

Tuesday, ditto. Again on Wednesday they refused to exit. Dan had shoveled an area around the coop, and a nice path from the coop to the snow dome, just a few feet away, but no dice, they were having none of it. Finally, on Thursday, I reached in and grabbed Sophie, then Iris, then Poppy, then Pippi, and deposited them one at a time in the snowdome. With a nice roost, snow free ground (and a dust bath!), straw, some oyster shell, and plenty of scratch, the dome is a big treat for them -- but they had to traverse the scary snow-covered path to get there. It might as well have been the Continental Divide.

Once I put a few of them outside, and gave them some treats, the rest of the girls followed, and now they head out to the 'dome every day as soon as we open the coop in the morning. Silly chickens.

Why are there no photos of the snow-covered snow dome and the girls? I've misplaced the cord to my camera, and cannot download them until I find it. Grrr.

A moveable coop

In addition to all the chores listed below, today we moved Henbogle coop closer to the house. When we built the chicken coop, we imagined our backyard biddies would be relocated every winter, much closer to the house, to make it easier to care for them, heat the water, etc. We added small wheels and had fantasies of blithely trundling the coop hither and yon throughout the seasons, giving the girls fresh grass and a change of scenery.

Well, were we in for a change of tune. Our cadillac of coops weighs a ton. In future, we will be be sure to remember that coop housing doesn't require the same standards as home construction. Those puny little wheels did allow us to get it to the designated location, but it was a challenge. Still, we thought in the fall we'd move it closer, but didn't take into account a soggy fall, with the ground too wet to haul a chicken coop across it. So it stayed at the end of the vegetable garden, until today.

From our old dead lawnmower, Dan salvaged some larger wheels, and this morning attached them, and a 2x4 for a handle, and we moved the coop about 20 feelt closer to the house. Not that much closer, but every little bit counts (in the photos, the coop used to be just behind the back fence post of the vegetable garden). Once we had it in position, we put it up on blocks, and removed the 2x4 handle. She's good to go for the winter.

In addition to the coop we also put away all the deck furniture, brought out our old wooden sleds and skis as Christmas decor, put the riding lawn mower away for the winter, and weighted down our cardboard with branches. More on that later.

Hen Dome v.2

Whew, it has been busy here at Henbogle, and I've been a blog slacker. I need to get back in the groove of an almost daily post. I don't know where the time goes, but I sure don't feel like there's enough to go around.

This weekend was cold but clear after a particularly rainy week --perfect weather to try and finish up some outdoor chores and the pressing fall chores, like storm windows and preparing the hen dome for the winter.

The hen dome is basically our simple, portable hoop house set up in the chicken yard for the hens to use during the winter. It gives them a covered place to hang out that is free of snow and out of the rain. We set one up last year and it worked great until the big April snow storm
collapsed it and tore the plastic.

We made some modifications this year, making the sides more vertical and banking the sides with straw bales to (we hope) prevent the plastic from blowing out in the wind, and maybe even providing a little insulation for the chooks.

Naturally, we had a team of hengineers consulting on every aspect of construction.

A wee little egg

There's another hen in the coop! (I think it is Pippi but can't say for sure.)

Dan came home from work Friday and found this cute little egg, seen here next to an egg from Sophie and an egg from one of the experienced hens. This egg is much tinier than even Sophie's first egg, which was smaller than Hyacinth's first egg. I think now that Ayla is the only one who has yet to lay an egg, she's a late bloomer that one! Maybe she's waiting for a cute rooster name Jondalar....

The girls are getting along better these days. All 8 are roosting together, there seems to be less harassment from Iris and Hyacinth over treats, and the new girls are becoming more savvy. This morning from the breakfast window I saw a hawk after a delicious meal of tender free-range chicken. I ran out and startled the hawk, which at first settled on a nearby tree, then flew begrudgingly off as I approached. Six of the hens were hiding in the shrubbery, and Iris and Poppy were in the coop. They are learning how and where to hide. I'm glad I chased the hawk off, though, he can find some other food-source than my girls, and maybe he'll give up if he continues to be unsuccessful.

Not much other news here at Henbogle. It was a super busy week at work with a lecture by Madeleine Albright on Thursday, and another big panel discussion looming on Monday on a hot development topic here in Maine. I've also been getting ready for a trip to Massachusetts for my best friend Holly's wedding next Saturday. I am working on a longer post about the new garden bed and a review of the flower gardens, when I get to it.

No wonder they died young....

The home-preserved tally thus far:
* 16 pints of Dilly Beans, + ? lbs. processed wax & green beans in the freezer
* 28 quarts of grape juice
*13 1/2 pints grape jelly
* 5 pints pickled pepper rings
* 7 pints of roasted tomato sauce
*8 quarts of roasted tomato sauce

Frankly, I'm pooped. It's no wonder earlier generations of Americans died early. If they did not succumb from childbirth or improperly processed tomatoes, no doubt they died of exhaustion.

Still on my list: 2 batches of pepper jelly with my gorgeous lemon drop peppers. I have a sinking feeling I'll see that hope flash by given the speed of events these days. Over the weekend, I processed another 5 quarts of roasted tomato sauce. I roasted the tomatoes Friday evening, then refrigerated them until this morning, when Dan helped me run them through the tomato mill to remove seeds and skins, then put it on the stove to simmer for the day while we attended to other items on the list.
The above tally does not include the large tubs of potatoes, carrots, and (yikes!) a few more tomatoes in the barn, nor the remaining leeks in the garden.

I picked the last of the Swiss Chard early last week, after realizing the hens love Swiss Chard, and any left in the garden would be reprocessed into eggs. The few remaining heads of broccoli are already eggs, sigh. I need to remember that next year. Still, the girls are doing a wonderful job cleaning up the garden, and they are so happy while they do it, what a treat to watch them at work.


As the sauce gently bubbled away, we loaded the truck with the mildew-riddled squash and pumpkin vines, and trundled off to the town transfer/composting station. As we pulled in to the yard waste area, we gleefully spied a fresh load of pine needles --just the thing for mulching the blueberry hedge, which Dan had weeded last week. I hope the pine needles are less conducive to the insidious creeping Charlie, (aka ground ivy, gill-over-the-ground and one hundred other names), since it thrives in compost and doesn't blink at shredded bark mulch.

Once we dumped the squash plants, we loaded the truck up with armloads of gorgeous pine needles and headed home. Within a matter of minutes the blueberries were mulched for the winter. I hope that in addition to the preventing charlie encroachment, the pine needles will add to the acidity of the soil as they break down, making our blueberries happy and productive. I still need to add 2 plants to the row, I've got to remember to look up the variety I need. All told, it was a pleasant and productive day in the garden.

Wild chickens

After crowing about our success in finally integrating the new chicks with the old, we have a few strange behaviors cropping up.

Roaming in the vegetable garden, the old hens have begun laying their eggs amidst the remaining plants, mostly herbs at this point since we had a killing frost on Tuesday night. Whichever new chick(s) is laying (2 eggs now) is using the nest boxes.

And to top off this weird behavior, now the old chickens have taken to sleeping in the rough in the vegetable garden. Last night three of them were in there, with Iris (Iris!) happily roosting with the new chicks.

How weird is that?!

Sunday's Harvest

As usual, I don't have time enough to accomplish all the things on my list, including a comprehensive post on the veggie garden. For now, here's what we harvested on Sunday:

Potatoes (Carola, Austrian Crescent, Rose Apple Finn, Red Norland), Carrots (Atomic Red, Mokum, and Rainbow Mix), some Beets, with more awaiting us (Detroit Dark Red and Burpee's Golden), Pole Beans for seed saving (Gold of Bacau and Michael's strain), and more Tomatoes for a final batch of sauce. I also cut large bunches of thyme, parsley, and catnip for drying. I have oregano and rosemary to cut and then once the ground is frozen, I'll heavily mulch the rosemary in hopes it will overwinter.

One of the Carola potatoes is the largest potato I've ever seen, it was huge, with many other 1-plus pound taters. We had some that night and they were yummy! The garden sink again proved its worth, providing a great spot to pre-wash all the taters and carrots.

Frost hardy plants still producing: Swiss Chard Bright Lights), Leeks (King Richard), and the aforementioned Beets.

With most everything harvested, we decided it was time to turn the chickens loose in the garden to help put it to bed. We were able to rig the gate into the chicken run in such a way that it could serve as the garden and chicken run gate and allow the hens free access to the garden.

The big girls were thrilled to get in, they made a beeline for the potato patch and went to town digging and worm hunting. In no time, they'll have done most of our weeding, cleaned up a lot of bugs, left some fertilizer, and scratched up the mulch, encouraging it to break down into the soil. They are like deluxe rototillers, but way better.

One of these eggs is not like the others...

It's smaller!

One of the new chicks laid an egg! Was it Dorothy, Pippi, Sophie, or Ayla? Based on her behavior of late, I think it was Sophie.

Over the past 2 weeks, we successfully integrated old and new chicks. We began by removing the fence that divided the chicken run in half. Iris and Hyacinth occasionally harassed the new chicks, but the little chicks had plenty of escape routes and spots to hide, so only a few squawks ensued.

At night the little chicks were secured in their baby pen. After two weeks of this, it was time to complete the integration process, so one night after dark, when all the chickens were sleepy and roosting, we removed the little chicks from their pen, and placed them in Henbogle coop. A few squawks were heard, but not many, and the next morning, there appeared to be little in the way of physical damage to the little chicks.

After 2 nights of the midnight transfers, we closed off the little coop, and at dusk, we went out to make sure they were in Henbogle Coop, and they were. The first few nights the little chicks huddled together in the nest boxes, but now seem to be making themselves comfortable on the roost. We managed the transition just in time, I'm sure more eggs will soon be following.

Building the chicken coop part 2

Saturday we finished the majority of the framing, installed the nest boxes, covered the window opening with hardware cloth, and put on the main fixed roof. We covered the roof with roofing asphalt, and will eventually roof it with the stainless steel sheet metal discussed in an earlier post (A real old-time Mainer).

Here's Hyacinth enjoying her new nest boxes.

The next step is to install the roof section over the nest boxes, which will lift open for egg retrieval and food and water maintenance. After that, we will be ready to put on the siding and build the clean-out and chicken entrance doors, and add the wheels. We'll keep it near the house until the girls are living in it and are old enough to move away from home, then we'll move it to the summer location by the garden.

The forecast today is calling for rain later on, so I'm planning on planting more spinach, lettuce, and radishes in the garden. I don't think we'll get much construction done today. Tomorrow it is back to work for both of us, so today we have to take care of the more mundane chores, such as providing sustenance for the week ahead.

Backyard flocks and avian flu

This article, Backyard Flocks are Victims, Not Vectors of Avian Flu, appeared in the Barre, VT Times-Argus on April 21. Makes a lot of sense to me, especially in light of Rumsfeld's close ties to Tamiflu.

Baby Pictures

Here are the girls' baby pictures, taken on their second day at home, (3 days old).

Hyacinth


Iris


Zinnia


Poppy


Daisy


Marigold

Peeps!

Peeps!
We have peeps!

We brought our girls home today, they are adorable! The settled in to their new home right away. After a quick snack and some scratching and stretching, they are dozing off, and the chirping has quieted to a more contented occasional quiet "peep."

We have yet to decide on names for all, but Hyacinth's bossy behavior made it clear the name fit. Here she is lording it over Marigold, who is currently a very showy, pretty honey color.

And again, Hyacinth, setled in for a snooze and looking very cute.

Peep prep

A cool and damp April day today, the Monday of April school vacation here, and vacation for me too. We have been scurrying about spring cleaning, gardening and after a big clutter patrol, readying a trip to the local recycling center and swap shop. We also finalized the plans (which doesn't mean they won't change) for the chicken palace and today priced out materials -- I think we can build a 4'x5' moveable coop for less than $200, including the stainless steel roof.

The peeps will be here tomorrow or Wednesday, so tonight we readied the chick brooder -- more complicated than it sounds. We've read the chicks need to be housed at 90F for the first week, with the temperature dropping 5 degrees a week. We set up the plastic bin, lining it with pine shavings and a layer of paper towels, setting the food and water into place, and then setting up the warming lamp. First, using a 75 watt bulb, it was too cold -- then with the infrared heat lamp, it was too hot, 112F (we don't want fried peeps, we want fried eggs later). Finally, we got it just right, a little over 90F under the lamp, cooling to 85F in the corners behind the feeder and waterer. If the peeps arrive tomorrow, we are as ready as we will ever be. Next -- pick-up the materials and get to work on constructing the chicken palace. And planting peas. And a row of mixed nasturtium, calendula, and marigold flowers next to the chicken run. With some spinach. And spinach for us, too..... And so it goes...