Hope you find the little guy, and no snake finds a snack!

Yes, cold temps are suppose to return to our area also, thunderstorms tonight. I went ahead and planted three kinds of lettuce seed, Romaine starts, endive and beet seed and onion sets. I think the Romaine will be ok if we get light frost. My peach trees are ready to bloom - just our luck if we don't get fruit again this year, huh Annie?

A friend showed me her flock of Barred Rocks the other day - so pretty, my favorite. She said the rooster is mean. Plus, when he is..um..."amorous"..he grips the hens on their backs with his beak and is tearing all the feathers out. Their poor little backs look so red and sore! Margie said she got rid of the other rooster who behaved this way, now this one is doing the same thing.

Take it easy, girl.

Annie- put one of the other little chicks in a bucket and bring it out where the miscreant is hiding. When he hears his buddy peeping, he will probably come running. They hate being alone.

I hate roosters. I hope your friend decides to make him into soup, schoolhouse.

Renee

Yes, I had Barred Rocks for several years, if you remember me posting about Honk & Bonk, my first two hens.
All my Barred Rock roosters did that. They mounted me a time or two as well. I had to beat 'em back with a stick! They flogged my grand kids. Mean ole tings. No more roosters for me! All pullets this time.
Barred Rocks are great layers, though and so beautiful.

This time I got 6 Buff Orpingtons (very gentle birds) and 4 Black Sex Links (never had them and may wish I hadn't, but I wanted a some little black hens (Higglety Pigglety) to lay eggs for gentlemen. (hehehe). They are very flighty. I may rue the day I got them. We shall see.

Well, I better go out and see if I can catch her. Oh boy, what fun.

Oh my. I have always wanted chickens. But living in a tipical suburban neighborhood, I doubt my neighbors would appreciate them. Maybe if I figgured out a way to keep them here, but my yard is not fenced. One neighbor has a very cute little dog and I just bet she would love to chase chickens! I hope you catch the little guy.

UPDATE: I just took the dog for a walk around and saw that the groundhog has eaten four of my Romaine plants already - I just planted them!! grrrrrrr.

Oh my goodness!
That quick???
That is one pesky critter we don't have here at least.

I bought some Romaine seed to try this year. I am going to plant it soon. Never grew it before, but we love it.
Poor you. After all that work of grow them and then planting them.

I cleaned all the pots and flats out of the greenhouse and moved the tools over. Then I moved the bench that the tub is on and looked back where it had been. No chick. No peeping. It is getting colder by the minute out and I knew he couldn't last long without a light for warmth. I did turn on the greenhouse heater.
So I looked behind the basket stack where I keep little items. No chick. Then, she peeped, a very sad peep and I found her. She was under the bench. So I put a pot in front of her and put my hand under there behind her and she went slowly into the pot. Yeah! I put her back into the tub and she was peeping like I was going to eat her. I held her up to my face and talked softly to her and she calmed down. Now she is safely back in with her sisters, warm and cozy and safe from snakes.
What a relief.

I left the junk outside for tomorrow. Some of it may blow away, but oh well.
Put up "Little Girl", my one remaining Wyandotte hen from the brood I bought two springs ago, in her cage and in I came to turn the furnace back on. Brrr.

My knees hurt and my everything else besides.
I do not like cold weather!

Annie- You are a good "mom" to those little ones :)

How does this posting pretain to cottage gardening?

Chickens eat bugs in the cottage garden...haven't you seen them in the old cottage garden pictures? Chickens and geese are great for keeping bugs out of the garden...very organic...not to mention the fertilizer possibilities :)

I watched Jamie Oliver's show and he has chickens loose in the garden. They eat leaves and some fruits too.

We had guard geese when I was a kid. They make the most noise when approached and also are very territorial when guarding their nest. They were particularly effective against trespassers.

I just came in from hunting and gathering today's bounty of Morel Mushrooms, Asparagus and Leeks. Tonight we feast!

I don't know if you are asking this in earnest or just being a pill, but here is my response to your question:

I AM a COUNTRY COTTAGE GARDENER...like my grandmother and her mother and her mother and her mother...

It's not a style for me - it's a way of life.

I live is a small country cottage with intensely grown gardens all around my home, including herbs, vegetables, fruit trees and vines and yes, small livestock like chickens and a fish pond. Cats and dogs are family, but they do their part too.

Although it is not a necessity for us to live this way, we do so because we love it and feel the urge to continue our family traditions. It's the only life for us.

I am originally from Southern California (6th generation Native 49er and before that), and although I now live in Oklahoma, due to my DH's aerospace business, I still carry on the family tradition that dates back to Ireland, Scotland and England. My DH is a 100% Scotsman. His mother & grandfather were born there and lived in a small village in the Highlands near Lock Ness where Granda was the chief deputy inspector. They grew and raised much the same as we do, including raising pigeons which Granda sold for meat, However, Granda's cottage and fences were made of stone and stucco, whereas our home is brick & stucco (not brick veneer) and we use wire fences to keep out the neighbor's cattle and horses. We do have a 4ft tall white picket fence around the front yard to keep our dogs in the yard and to protect the grandkids.

Chickens are very much a part of the age-old tradition of Cottage Gardening for meat, eggs and as was mentioned, pest control. They are also great for turning over your compost for you and ridding it of insects and chicken poop, composted, is great for the garden.

I have spring 2010 photos soon to be posted of our Country Cottage & Garden, chicks included.

Hope this answers your query.

I have chores to do.
~Annie

Rosalind Creasy has chickens in her garden. I saw them on HGTV not too long ago. She's a big believer in organic gardening and chicken manure is supposed to be one of the best fertilizers. Her chickens were running around in the garden and taking care of bugs for her during the interview :)

Annie, I am happy to see you posting again. Your posts always make me feel glad to live in the country!

Speaking of snakes, DH permanently removed a 48 inch one from our back porch yesterday evening. It could easily have held/stolen a dozen eggs, which by the way, we are now getting from our mostly Buff Orpingtons. Bless his heart my cross-bred rooster (BuffxAuracana) is still a sweetheart. He pays us no attention at all. I am scared to death of the mean ones.

Have you every shown us pictures of the greenhouse or are they on you website? I must have missed that.

We missed a bad frost last night and I have my fingers crossed for tonight. The apricot tree is loaded, and the peaches have dropped most petals, and the pear trees are in full bloom. The apples aren't showing any color yet nor the strawberries.

Blasted Ozark Mountain weather anyway!

P.S. I agree with you about what Cottage Gardening means.

Well, Pippi: it doesn't "pretain" to ANYTHING. It does "pertain" to cottage gardens. I too have had chickens wandering in my veg garden - not my chickens, mind you. I didn't mind till they started putting one peck, just one, in every tomato. If they had eaten a whole one, what the heck, but they darn near ruined the whole crop. I had a herder dog, a corgi, at the time, I had trained him to herd them back home. lol. It kept him entertained, and away from the Holsteins.

Sorry, just had to get my "itch" out!!!

In the Greater Area of Ottawa, they are talking about allowing chickens within the city limits. Yea. They also repealed HOA rules against laundry lines. The whole world is goin' country!!

Nancy - who could say more, but with shut up now!!!

Annie, I've never tasted Morel Mushrooms but DS2 has White Chanterelles on his property which he harvests. I'm so glad you found your little chick. Back in the 70's we had chickens, in fact one was so tame she used to fly up on my shoulder and nuzzle into my neck. Little Peep was a sickly runt bantam which I nursed back to health. Henny Penny was another mongrel bantam that would go instantly broody when I showed her several eggs, she not only hatched and raised Black East Indian Ducks (very pretty and small) she also hatched out a Peking, rather large for her to cover at night when it started to grow, We called it Sam until it started to lay eggs, I had a kiddie's wading pool that I used to fill up for Samantha, name changed for obvious reasons. She'd dive in, do a few laps, then she'd hunt me down to fill the pool up again.
Yes, chickens, ducks, geese, even goats and pigs as well as other animals were kept by Cottagers in the past, and with the push to go green your going to see a return of this way of life in the near future, not soon enough for me.

Annette

Annie, I'm so glad to hear you found your little 'lost' chick. They need warmth and food at this tender age, as you know.

We had chickens before we moved here to hawk/owl/eagle land. We'd have to keep them in a run here with mesh overhead which is not what I want to do. When we lived on 10 acres they had free run during the day and mostly stayed around in my garden and flower beds. Did little or no damage and we never lost one to predators. Of course they all came back to their house at dusk and were locked in safely for the night. I had Buff OrpingtonXBantams which laid well and were hardy but calm. I miss having chickens. Definitely a nice part of a cottage garden.

wish you'd post photos of your foraging areas. I love the idea of collecting food from the forest.

Perfectly said, Midnightsmum!!! :)

Now, now, now ladies!
Calm your feathers.
Ianna was just asking a question.
It was not an attack on your poor little defenseless Annie. :[ (wink)

ianna,
I took pictures of the morels I found today, but I cannot reveal the exact location of where I found them for fear of having people come stomping through my property and me having to get out old Betsy to warn them off with a few rounds over their heads. JK, but it is serious business around here and someone would come onto my property when I am gone and rob my shrooms. As it is, I am in competition with the wildlife to find them first.
Where I find them every year though, is unprecedented according to some "experts". What can I say? I guess I am lucky.

A few tips:
When I rinse the morels before cooking them, I do so in a dishpan. Then I take the rinse water out to the exact spot I found them and throw it out there. I hope that any Morel spores that get rinsed off get returned to the wild and will make more next Spring. It seems to work. When I collect them, I use a mesh bag so the spores can fall out and thereby go back into the woodland soil to grow more next year. It would be a shame if people end up harvesting them out of existence. We have to be responsible stewards of the earth.

Morels like to grow at the edge of trees (the drip line) where soil is rich and moist. I find them in grass or in leaves. Around here, they grow under the native Cedars (Juniper trees) and under Elm trees, at least where I have found them, but where the soil is rich & moist.

You can do a GOOGLE search to read all about Morel hunting - when, where, how and all that. You can find images of them and lots of recipes. They only come up in the Spring - no fear of getting poison mushrooms because nothing else looks like them.

I will also post the photos I took of the Morels I found today as soon as I get them uploaded. I'll post a special topic about it so you can see.

Tomorrow I will go out again and see if there are new ones to be found. At $80 per lb, they are a real treasure and luscious eating.

~Annie

Annie good to have you back! Glad you found your little chick! I got 6 new baby chicks March 30th to add to my small flock of three I've had for three years. Boy they sure do grow fast. We had to move them into a large dog kennel a couple of days ago. I just love them to pieces! I have 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Americanas, 2 R.I.reds, and the 3 Red Stars (sex linked). My favorite of the new chicks are the americanas so sweet and pretty too.

I encourage anyone who has wanted chickens to look into getting them. I live in a regular neighborhood and though I'm not "zoned" for it when I said I just wanted some as pets they had no problem with it just no roosters which I didn't want anyway. I had always wanted chickens but never thought I could because I didn't have any "land". I saw a book about the urban backyard chickens and saw that it was indeed very possible for me to have some. Did my research, sweet talked my husband into it, built a small 5x8 ft coop and got me three chickens. Nw we love them so much we built a bigger and better coop and got 6 more chickens! lol :O)~Meghan

Today,
for the first time, the chicks hopped on my hands when I lifted the screens off the top of the tub to give them fresh water. They were not afraid of me. Finally. It was so cute.

Happy Mom of yellow and black fuzzy girls ~Annie

Hi Annie,

There must be some mistake as I don't think the ladies were reacting to me. :-) and I see no problem about having chicks and other creatures in the cottage garden. Absolutely not one bit. Most especially since I too had little chicks in the yard when I was growing up. Plus I've trouble with the concept that we get pigeon holed into a stiff idea of what a cottage garden should be.

However I do think the poster who did question why was just being curious and nothing more...I believe it was a purely innocent question....and I do hope we didn't chase her away..

Thanks for the information you provide on the morels. I didn't mean for you to reveal your hiding sites but thought of close-up photos of your efforts. Anything to do with foraging is exciting to me. Just earlier this week a lady who is a First Nations person, brought me delicious ginger tea from wild ginger. and she was describing ramps and berries in the forest. All very exciting to me. Love the idea of it.