I will plant a fall garden, I will plant a fall garden, I will plant a fall garden. I may have to get someone to help. I am canceling a few experiments so I have more room. DH said something about "when you're not using all these beds this winter..." what makes you think that?

There was a hummer visiting the Penny Rile cow peas today. Gotta find my feeder.

I can't decide whether the melon plants are sick or the wind broke them, but they may have to go. There are 2 melons developing, anything I can do to hurry them along?

All the tomatoes have new blooms, the question is what will ripen before frost and how valuable is the real estate. I keep looking at those dumb determinates thinking I could plant brassica there.

The Seminole and Futsu did not like being transplanted, but seem to be recovering.

The chickens keep escaping and ranging farther and farther. Stupid, stupid birds.

Carlol, Most of my melons went in late but we've been getting melons for a couple of weeks now. I figured better late than never. A friend of mine is growing Crane this year and gave me one a couple of weeks ago. It's so yummy that I wonder why I haven't planted it the last couple of years. Oh, I know why. Too many tomatoes. I need to grow less tomatoes and more melons.

This is the Year of the Squash for you, and for me it has been the Year of the Cucumber, although the summer squash also have been very prolific. I probably planted the winter squash too late and they didn't do much in the heat, but there's still a chance they'll do well in the autumn.

jen, If your plants are making yellow flowers they likely are squash and if they are making white flowers they probably are gourds. Hope that little tidbit of info helps.

Lisa, I agree horse radish will hurt you...just like hot peppers will. I normally don't think of food preservation as dangerous, but some veggies produce fumes that are so strong they're practically toxic!

Amy, Once melons are developing, all that really helps them is heat and sunlight. You have to be careful to avoid excess nitrogen and excess moisture as both can ruin the melons' flavor, texture and color. I may push melon plants along with fertilizer or moisture or both before they start forming fruit, but once I have watermelons that are sizing up, I cut back on both to avoid whiteheart, mushiness and watered down flavor. It your melons are not watermelons, whiteheart is less likely, but you still can get mushiness and watered down flavor. It is hard to just let the plants take their time, but that's what you need to do once they've formed fruit.

Our chickens are ranging further and further too. I believe it is a reaction to having milder weather and not feeling like they have to hide in the shade all day long. They're going further from the house than any chickens we've ever have had ever done.

Something odd is going on here. The huge summer racket from the crickets, locusts ,etc. stopped abruptly around mid-July, so that was odd. Then the bunnies disappeared completely (which usually means too many coyotes, but also could mean too many bobcats). Then the coyotes disappeared. Except for the one old, thin and sickly-looking one who comes skulking by our bay window once every couple of weeks, we aren't seeing any. We aren't even hearing any howling at night. That is incredibly odd, and it normally only happens when something is roaming that is a threat to the coyotes and, at least here most years, there isn't much that is a threat to the coyotes. With less coyote racket, the chickens are getting either braver or more stupid. I've tried chasing them back to the civilized, mowed area around the house and outbuildings. It will take me forever to get them to walk 100 yards, and then the minute we get back to civilization and I turn my head, they run right back to where they were before I began herding them. I'm thinking that by Thanksgiving we'll only have a few really smart chickens left because all the others will have roamed off far enough to make themselves vulnerable to a predator that will have eaten them.

For the last week or so there's not much going on and it is quiet, so the deer come slinking into the yard in the daylight hours, often between noon and about 4 pm, hoping to feast on the cracked corn I put out for the mourning doves. It is unusual for the deer to be out in the middle of the day. Usually the deer are out at twlight or at dawn (no pun intended). I'm starting to feel like Alice in Wonderland and everything is getting curiouser and curiouser. I don't know if we chalk it up to all the wacky weather or what.

Dawn

Dawn, that is what happens when a larger predator is in the area. Have you heard a mountain lion scream? It is odd the deer are still around. If you have a Mountain Lion the deer should be gone also?

i know when ours is around we hear nothing, It gets very quiet and creepy!!!!!

stockergal, Yes, I have. Up close and personal. In the dark. In the dead of winter. While searching for a cat named Emmitt Smith who had failed to come inside before dark. The scream of the mountain lion is like no other animal, and our neighbors heard it 3/4s of a mile away from us that night and stopped by our house the next morning to see if the ML had scared me into moving back to Texas. Emmitt Smith came home about 3 days later with a big spot on his back like something had nipped him. He still has a scar. I'm not saying the cougar did it, because I don't think Emmitt could have gotten away, but something got him. Later on, a few years later....I had two visit me at the garden fence about 6 weeks apart. Not the same one because the second one was smaller. It was a horrifying summer, and the deer did go into hiding. Before the deer disappeared though, they were coming to eat in the middle of the day because they didn't feel safe, obviously, at night, just like they are now. I haven't heard a cougar in years, haven't seen one in years. Two neighbors have seen them more recently than I have (and one of them saw it on our property crossing over into her property), but even those two sightings are a few years back. We don't see them as often as we hear them, and we don't hear them often. They were seen/heard in northern parts of our county 2 years ago.

I'm not saying one is prowling around here now, but I do know that when the coyotes go silent, something is really wrong. It would be different if we hadn't been having much coyote activity, but we've had plenty all year.

When a doe brings a fawn to our yard to hunt for the doves' cracked corn to eat in the middle of the day, something is wrong. Something just feels "off" or "wrong" and I do not want for that something to be the presence of a large predator. The river hasn't flooded in weeks and weeks now, so I don't think the river is flushing the deer up out of the bottom lands. If the deer had started coming to the yard in June or earliest July, that could have been caused by the flooding. But why now?

We do have tons of feral hogs. I'm not sure what happens when feral hogs meet up with coyotes or who would win that battle and I don't want to know. I've encountered one feral hog up close and personal, way back in 2005 or 2006, and don't want to have that happen again. I see them or hear them nowadays, but from a distance.

Even the snakes have been lying low lately. I was blaming it on the extreme heat, but they aren't out even though it now has been significantly cooler. I don't know what it means, but when the wildlife change their behavior or patterns, it's always a clue. In this case, I just don't know where the clue leads.

Dawn

That goofy Early Girl has started setting fruit like that's it's job. Oh, wait... that IS it's job Finally.

Sungold and Super Sweet 100 are starting to set, too. And Fourth of July has flowers (thought it was Arkansas Traveler, but it's July).

Just hanging out and watching stuff grow.

Thanks, Lisa and Dawn, for the horseradish info. I did plant mine in a giant pot...because I read somewhere that it is a "thug". Maybe I read it here. Normally, I just chop the root and add to my fire cider (along with ginger, onion, garlic, and cayenne) to soak for a few weeks before draining it, adding honey and refrigerating. I really miss my fire cider--keep having sinus issues without it. I'll put the pot next to my potatoes next year.

It's funny that you mentioned not hearing coyotes. We haven't either in a long while except maybe once. And we sit outside until after dark every night because we do not have a functional living room right now. To me, something seems off--really off, but I don't know what. And a friend who also lives in the "country" but not near us, has said the same thing about the lack of coyote noise.

Ya'll don't have to worry about the coyotes because they're all at my house every night. I had 2 watermelon plants that were making watermelons until the coyotes started coming to the garden, which is right in back of my house, they have eaten every melon no mater the size even the small green ones. Usually they only eat the ripe ones. My neighbor down the road has a very large patch said they were getting his too. I used to have 5 Rat/Jack Russell terrier dogs until the coyotes developed a taste for them now I have 1 old one that I have to keep up so they don't get him. We can't keep a cat or chickens any more either. I don't know how the Cotton Tail rabbit that eats my garden manages to evade them but has so far. I'm just glad the wild hogs stay down in the timber and don't come closer than they do.

I realize this activity is probably a predator, but animals act strangely before earthquakes, too. My dog and cat get real "needy" and follow me around. Then there will be an earthquake (that I won't feel, but I check the website and see they've happened.) I find it odd that insects would be quiet and snakes? Is the end of the world coming? You have a firebreathing dragon down there? I suppose if one preditor relationship changes it trickles down.

I looked out the window and "Speckles" was STANDING on the Cherokee Purple 3 feet off the ground. They don't know how to get out of the fence once they get in. I don't know what Speckes is, roo or pullet. Used to look like a roo, but tail feathers have changed. I'm trying to pound rebar for fence posts around some beds and I'm not strong enough to pound them past bed height. The ground below the beds is like rock. the soil in the beds is too loose to hold the stakes. I think this means I need rain. Also this bed is new this year and hasn't had the benefit of roots breaking up the soil there. (Gripe, gripe, gripe)

What is positive? Okra is blooming (I didn't plant enough). Penny riles are making lots of pods. Cucumbers aren't producing, but between them and Lady Peas I have all kinds of bugs, good and bad. It has become kind of a science experiment. I saw lacewing eggs and ladybug larva yesterday. They just took their sweet time arriving. I am working on flower beds, but they are not looking that great right now, so I guess the beneficials have been down the block.

Rain!!! Rain!!! RAAAAAIIIINNNN!!!! We have rain!!! Ok, well we had rain and then some sprinkles but now it's getting brighter. Oh rain, why must you come in and excite us then leave so abruptly!!! I haven't even checked my tomato and pepper plants today. I know there's nothing to harvest on the tomato plants yet. There are a ton of blooms and I am hoping this cooler weather brings on a small mountain of tomatoes. At least give me enough to can some spaghetti sauce. I might have a few sweet banana peppers that are ready but they can wait till tomorrow. Nothing will get them unless Lilo decides she wants to run around the yard like a mad doggie with one in her mouth. She's funny like that. Her and I were working a raised bed the other day and I was clipping leaves from the bottom of a pepper plant and I turned to look at what she was doing then clipped. The second I clipped I KNEW I had clipped the whole dang pepper plant. RIP sweet yellow bell.

Dawn---I did it!! I refrained from buying anymore seeds from Renee's although it was mighty, mighty tempting. I did see several I'd like to add to my collection but I had more pressing things come up. I might venture over and look again.

So this happened......... The dh mentioned that once the old carpet and pool box is cleaned out of the garage and I picked a few other things up I could make a space to grow seeds. I said, "well, I would have to buy shelves and grow lights." To which he responded, "so." Um...........did he REALLY just say so as in, ok so buy some?!?!! Why YES, YES HE DID!!!! Oh gosh I am so stoked right now!!! I bought some shelves from Sam's for about $50 that are really pretty sturdy and A LOT bigger than I originally thought. They will be PERFECT!!! Now I just need to study on grow lights. It's been so many years since I've had some. The shelf is just over 7' tall with 6 shelves and is about 3' wide. This girl is head over heels excited to have a grow space in her garage!!! Wooohooo!!!

Thanks for the tip about squash and gourds, Dawn. I have both colors, so I guess I planted both.

Rebecca, Hanging out and watching stuff grow is one of my favorite pastimes.

Hazel, I know we were hearing plenty of the coyotes in June. Sometime in July it tapered off, which is odd because often that's when the coyote activity picks up and the bunnies start disappearing. Instead, they've both disappeared.

authereray, I'm sorry to hear the coyotes are such a problem there. It sure was a long walk for them to get to your place from ours, so your melons up there must be attracting them from far and wide.

The only way we can keep animals alive---cats, dogs or poultry---is to keep them on a pretty tight rein. The dogs are only allowed out in a fenced dog yard with woven wire fencing 8' tall, and even then, we only let them outside if we're home. If we leave to go somewhere, the dogs are indoors before we leave. If we take them for a walk, they are on leashes because a coyote or bobcat can pop out of the tall grass or trees and grab a small dog (or a cat, though we don't walk the cats) right out from under your nose while you're out walking them. The cats just go out for a few hours a day, well after sunrise and well before sunset, and only 1 of them really roams. The others stick close to home. It's been a long time since we lost a cat to a predator. We used to lose them regularly when we let them stay out all day and roam far and wide. With poultry, the smart ones that free-range close to the house and outbuildings live a long time, but the dumb ones that go off great distances usually don't last very long. All the poultry is securely locked up in predator-proof coops before sunset, and it has been years and years (knock on wood) since anything (meaning raccoons) managed to find a way into a coop and kill a chicken or two overnight. Otherwise, our animals are just fodder for the common predators---foxes, coons, bobcats and coyotes. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep them all safe, but I'd rather just have our domestic animals put up and safe at night as opposed to hearing a commotion outside and then having to run outside and shoot a varmint to save a pet.

We haven't lost a melon of any kind to any large animal since we put up the 8' tall garden fence, but when the fence was 4' tall we used to lose the melons a lot.

I agree about the wild hogs staying in the timber (most of the time they do!) but one year they were in the creek bed near our house, about 100' from the house, and I was a nervous wreck until they moved on. That's just too close! For a couple of years they ran up and down the fencerows here, and a person could encounter them occasionally while out walking or jogging, but usually the feral hogs were on the inside of a fenced pasture (thankfully) and the folks walking or jogging were outside the fenced pasture. When they built the WinStar Casino at Thackerville, they had an immense problem in the early years with the feral hogs just demolishing the golf course. I guess they've finally managed to put an end to that.

Amy, Oh that's it. We have a fire-breathing dragon. lol. I don't know what is going on down here, but I've never had a year in which the incessant drone of the grasshoppers, locusts, etc. was normal and the same thing every day for days on end and then abruptly ended. Usually it tapers off, and much later in the season. Why it just stopped one day I have no idea, but I did notice it and started listening and heard nothing the next day/night or the next or the next. It is just bizarre. And, when am I ever not having major snake encounters in late July and all of August? I don't even remember the last time I ran into a copperhead. Maybe about a month ago? That's a long time for me to be snake-free in the middle of summer. I don't even understand it at all. Not complaining. Just not understanding why it has happened.

Speckles need to learn some manners! One of the first things my chickens learn is to stay away from the tomato plants or I will chase them with a broom. They do not want to see me coming their way with the broom. I don't have to whack them with the broom, I only have to make them thick that I will whack them.

Melissa, Hooray for the rain! Any rain at all is better than no rain.

I don't know how you resisted Renee's. I cannot even go there or I'll order something, even if I lie to myself and say I am "just looking". There is no such thing as just looking when I go to the websites of Renee's Seeds or Botanical Interests. The seed packets alone entice me to buy.

For grow lights I just use ordinary old light fixtures with fluorescent tubes. I don't spend money for fancy grow bulbs or anything because they aren't needed. If there is any chance you will have mice in the garage, either now or in the winter, develop a plan to trap and kill them before you start growing seedlings in there. Otherwise, garage seedlings tend to become food for rodents.

Jen, You're welcome. Since you planted both, you'll probably have some wonderful autumn decor. I have both winter squash and gourds growing in what remains of the summer garden, which is looking better and more likely to survive since rain fell here.

Dawn

One of the chickens laid an egg. I think it was one of the brown ones. Speckles was there holding her hand. They had been in the coop earlier, but we didn't find an egg. Later they were making a strange ruckus. Never heard them carry on like that. And there was an egg in the box. A little egg, the most expensive, tomato fed little egg ever. I think it might have been "Miss independence", because she didn't sneak out of the yard today.

Mellissa, very cool deal on seedling shelves. I have the shelves, just have to get lights, and move stuff off the shelves because, you know no flat surface can go uncovered. Like weeds in the garden, clutter in the house.

This is Speckles. Does it look like a rooster? Would a rooster hang out with a pullet laying here first egg, like a protector? Early on, it seemed to have the rooster saddle feathers and pointed tail feathers. Now those saddle feathers aren't visable and the tail feather ends are more rounded. I've never heard it crow. I always thought it was low girl on the pecking order, but it's not. 18 weeks old.

It's hard to tell at this stage and especially from a picture, but I am guessing rooster from the neck feathers.

I lost count at 15 tomatoes on the Early Girl, now that she's decided to get her act together. Sungold has a bunch set too. All of the other tomatoes (10? 11? I should count again...) have flowers in various stages of development, except the Black Cherry, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose. I should probably just yank it and plant some beans in that pot. The tomatoes in the grow bags and the amended ground are way happier than any I've ever had in hard pots. I'll be investing in more grow bags over the winter, unless I can get some raised beds built. Or along with raised beds. I think the herbs and flowers I'll do will be happy in the hard pots.

Dawn, I love just hanging out and watching things grow, but it is SUCH a test of patience, which I have never had much of. I'm sure there's some type of lesson behind this, but darned if I'll ever find out what it is, lol.

Some of the mini sunflowers I planted earlier this summer finally bloomed, and immediately something ate the petals off the flowers. Huh. That's new.

I think I'm going to winter sow a bunch of flowers for my front flowerbeds next spring, and for pots in the back yard to attract more pollinators to the veggies. I might try a few veggies that I can't get in stores or from TMD too. I've been on the WS forum here, but it seems deceptively simple. Shouldn't it be more complicated?

Thanks. I keep expectomg it to crow, but no sign of that.

Rebecca, winter sowing it IS simple. Keeping jugs from drying out or blowing away is the hardest part. I found if I used the containers strawberries came in (preventilated) they dried out too quick. But a potato salad container, with no pre done holes would be fine with a few small holes punched. Milk jugs at least 1/3 full of dirt. Really, soil at least 3" deep in any container has worked best for me. There's always SOMETHING that never comes up. Pay attention to things that need light to germinate. I don't start on the winter soltice, because Oklahoma has such variable temps, I only start perennials early. Anything else at a later time closer to last frost.

Amy, I'm having a heck of a time collecting things other than strawberry containers to plant in. The milk I buy comes in cardboard containers. I don't buy large sizes of anything, being just one person. Small cottage cheese containers, single servings from the deli, that kind of thing. I really don't buy that much stuff pre-made, I make things myself. I don't buy anything in gallon jugs, ever. I just buy lots of berries, lol. I'm afraid I'll just have to use Solo cups inside some other kind of container. You do perennials in January-ish, veggies in February-ish, and annuals in March-ish? I read something about WSing in the pots the plants will grow in, but wrapping them in clear plastic wrap with holes punched in it, and gradually making the holes larger until it's safe to unwrap them. Intriguing, and would work well for my lettuces and some flowers.

Rebecca, I am WS this year too with the same intentions in mind. I want to make a few flower beds and honestly it's cheaper (and gives me more pleasure) to grow my own from seed. It may take longer, but that's ok. I started collecting things and have only gotten 2 milk jugs. I did keep a container which I got tomatoes in from Sam's but it's pre-ventilated so I don't know how well it will work. I am thinking I might just try it and put some duct tape over a few of the holes. I was thinking about checking out the dollar store to see what they have that I can use. I have been watching the WS forum but it's not as active as it is here.

Amy----what exactly is a flat cleared space?!?! lol

Love the pic of the rooster? We'd like to have chickens but our HOA doesn't allow for it although we are technically out in the country. Maybe we will persuade them at some point. My youngest dd would have every animal on this earth if she could, bless her heart.

I see storms out west that are headed through the metro eventually.......hopefully. I guess I will have to mow again soon because, you know, that rain is like magic.

i want to WS partly out of economy, but also to get some plants that I can't buy as seedlings around here. Like, Heidi tomatoes, or Texas bluebonnets. And, seeing stuff grow from seed is just so darn gratifying. I don't have money, time, or space for an indoor grow setup, or time to harden off seedlings, so learning how to WS could be the answer to all the problems. If I can get it to work.

Amy, my hens often accompany the others when laying eggs. And, for some annoying reason, they've all decided to stop using the nesting box and instead use a corner of the coop.

She, Hazel, don't let mine hear that.

Well, you know that women always go to the ladies' room in groups...

The winter sowers get more active in winter. There is the website where you can explore. There is also a face book group. Ask people to save things for you. Kids, neighbors, etc. Covering the strawberry containers holes would probably work. I have seen cups in rubbermaid tubs. I have seen margarine tubs with the lids cut out and covered with plastic. Just think about the mechanics. Keeping things consistantly moist, opening containers after sprouting. Closing if weather gets cold. Different plants may need different amounts of water. Smaller containers dry out quicker. How often do you want to have to water them.

Annuals, warm season veggies I would start a month to six weeks from when you want to plant them, much like indoors. This is because we have such variable temps in winter, they might sprout in Feb and then we could have a blizzard in March. That is not the instructions you will hear for further north. I grew broccoli one year, but that year they didn't sprout early enough to plant out on schedule. I prefer to start cool season plants indoors.

We had a brown egg this morning. Last night was white. I have brown sexlink, white rocks and the speckled campine. What I read on line is white rocks lay brown eggs, campine lay white and sexlinks are supposed to lay brown eggs, too. So the campine must have laid yesterdays egg?

hazelinok, If your hens don't want to lay in the nest try putting a golf ball in the nest and they will start using the nest. This is what I used to do and it seems to work as they like to lay where they think another hen has layed and they can't tell the difference between a golf and an egg. Also after a hen has set on a golf ball the chicken snakes can't tell the difference either and will commit suicide by swallowing the golf ball which you will have to replace because the ball will have disappeared.

You & Chickens (1) - Chicken Snakes (0)

Amy, Your speckled campine is a fine-looking chicken, and I hesitate to guess whether it is a cockerel or not. The trouble with campines is that the males have a very, very similar body shape to that of the females and generally lack the hackles and saddle feathers so often used to identify cockerels of other breeds. Some male campines never develop much in the way of long tail feathers either, but some do. We haven't had silver campines but we have had the golden ones and they didn't have particularly long tail feathers, though I think their tail feathers got a bit longer as they got older. Look at the male and female in this photo and you can see how much alike they look:

Photo of Silver Campines

Often, with young males, I can tell by their behavior that they are male long before it becomes apparent physically as they continue to feather out and as they develop their larger combs and often much larger/longer tail feathers. Watch how they act, especially around other chickens. The males normally stalk around, chest out, very confident (unless they're already afraid of an older, larger rooster who already has shown them who's the boss), almost strutting........like Mick Jagger stomping around onstage in the 1970s. Male roosters just seem like they have that male ego gene---they aren't afraid of much (except bigger, more aggressive roosters) and each one of them seems to think he is the center of the universe. Some of the males will chest bump other males or will hover around their favorite female or females in a very protective manner. Or, they will sidle around other males, trying to push them away from favorite females but not necesarily challenging them head on. Instead, they sort of side step around other males and try to intimidate the other males into going away without having an actual face-to-face fight with their hackles raised. We have a middle-aged banty rooster who circles "his" females constantly to keep the other roosters away. Younger males do seem to hang out a bit with their chosen hens as she lays her eggs, but generally they lose interest in that pretty young in life, so that protectiveness fades a great deal unless their female squawks and then the roosters come running to see what is wrong.

Also, there are some females that are very masculine not only in appearance but also in behavior. It shocked me the first time I encountered it, but I'm used to it now. These almost seem like trans-gendered chickens---they hang out with the roosters, not with the hens, they are very aggressive, sometimes they try (and fail) to crow, and often they will take over the leadership of a single-rooster flock if the rooster dies. They will shepherd the females around, protecting them and warning them of danger, just like a male rooster does. We went a couple of years without a rooster once, and a dominate, masculine hen managed/protected the flock all that time, and the other hens seemed to easily accept her in that leadship role.

Rebecca, Well, gardening will teach you patience! I am not patient either, but I've learned that the plants operate on their time schedule, not mine, so I've learned to let go of the things I cannot control and to just not worry about them. However, I do try to maintain a certain level of control. For example, since I cannot make tomatoes set fruit well in the heat, I just plant as early as I can and push them pretty hard early in their lives because that is the way I can influence their fruit set. It isn't much, but it beats sitting and worrying and fretting that they aren't going to set enough fruit before the heat sets in.

Lots of things eat sunflowers. Back when we had a shorter garden fence, I had deer jump the fence and eat all of the sunflowers---the flower heads (whether they had bloomed yet or not), the leaves and the stalks.....now that we have sunflowers naturalized all over the place, the deer don't eat those! It is aggravating.

Hazel, Chickens do that a lot. I try to train them by putting plastic eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage the young hens to lay eggs there when they start laying. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Since ours free-range, not all the hens even will return to the coop to lay their eggs inside. Some do, some don't. The ones that don't usually pick the same spot and return to it over and over again, so once I figure out what their spot is, I know where to look for the eggs. Sometimes my phony eggs disappear from the nesting boxes and I have to search the yard, garden and pastures for them. Usually what happens is that a chicken snake, rat snake or some other snake that likes eggs will swallow the phony eggs and then, later on, when they cannot digest them they will regurgitate them. The very first time this happened, it freaked me out as I could not figure out initially how the fake eggs left the chicken coop, traveled about 25 yards, and hid themselves underneath one of our vehicles. Then I had a light bulb "Aha!" moment and realized that some snake didn't get the meal he thought he was going to enjoy.

What you read about the egg colors normally laid by each breed is true most of the time. However, like everything else in the animal world, there are anomalies that can occur. Sometimes, with some hens (not all the time, just some times), there can be an abnormality that occurs where eggs that should be white come out brown, tan, or off-white because something malfunctions at the shell-forming stage and the brown color doesn't develop. I don't know why. There are other malfunctions---like occasionally you get an egg that failed to form a shell at all, or you get double yolked eggs. So, I'd just keep an eye on the hens and see if you keep getting white eggs or if it was an anomaly. When you buy a sex-link, all you really know is that it is hybrid chicken developed by crossing specific breeds (different breeders use different crosses and some of them won't even say what breeds they cross to get their sex-links because they consider it proprietary data) and you know that the chicks can be sexed at hatch, and you know that they generally lay brown eggs. Generally doesn't mean always though.

authereray, The snakes don't always committ suicide. Sometimes they just regurgitate the fake egg or golfball. I don't know if they can regurgitate it deliberately on purpose or if their body does it in an involuntary way.

Dawn

The reason I said what I did was after a chicken snake swallows a golf ball they will circle a post or anything they can and try to crush the 'egg" that they have swallowed which causes the ball to set and stay, they then will crawl off and die. I used to find them in my hay barn under hay bales all the time where they had crawled up under and died and you could still see the golf ball swelled up inside them.

Well, authereray, my chickens did use their nesting boxes until this week...for some reason. When they were still pullets, I purchased some of those fake eggs (in brown) and used white golf balls in their boxes. I'm not sure what they're doing now. Why all the sudden they can't use the nesting box??? Maybe I'll go find those fake eggs and try again. I have a feeling that it's something else. Everything feels weird right now....so it's not surprising to me that they're being strange and out-of-sorts.

I don't particularly like snakes, but for some reason the swallowing of a golf ball that causes death disturbs me. I'm a weirdo though. And if I dealt with snakes in my coop, I might feel differently. I'm so weird that I still apologize to the squash bugs when I squash them or drown them.

My sex links (one red and one black) both lay brown eggs. The red is a darker brown. The cochin lays a brown egg and Stella (no idea what she is, other than she's very small and blonde) lays a white egg.

Tah-da! First two Eariy Girls! Success! Proof! Lol

Anyone have an idea what's on my eggplant?

authereray, I am sure some of them do die, but I've never found a dead one with a phony egg in it....just have found phony eggs on the ground a great distance away from the coop. I like it better that we as we can recover and reuse our phony eggs, which usually are a lightweight plastic (I have had some wooden ones in the past), and maybe the lighter weight makes it positive for a snake to regurgitate the plastic eggs.

Hazel, You have to think like a chicken. I assume you are collecting the eggs for your family's use. So, as far as the chicken goes, she is figuring out that if she lays the eggs in her nesting box, then her eggs disappear. So, she likely is searching for a place to lay the eggs where they won't keep disappearing. There's not much you can do about that other than keep an eye on her and keep track of new egg-laying areas as she moves around like a gypsy. One of our chickens likes to go lay her eggs in the turkey coop. Why? I have no idea. Just because she can I guess.

It also is possible a snake is coming into the coop and scaring her. Even a little garter snake can really upset a hen. Or perhaps there's mites in the nesting box. Changing out the bedding and dusting the area with food-grade D.E. might take care of that if it is the issue. Once when we had a nervous hen, we found a possum living underneath the coop. I expect it might have occasionally ventured into the coop and upset the poultry.

When our chickens are truly upset, they make a racket. While our cats don't bother them, when our silver tabby, Casper, walks through the area, all the chickens get hysterical. You'd think there was a bobcat or coyote out there. Nope, just a little silver tabby cat. Our best guess is that his markings, faint as they are, remind the chickens of bobcats, because Casper doesn't bother the chickens at all. He totally ignores them and doesn't even look at them. Once chickens get an idea in their head, you cannot change their mind, so they continue to have a fit every time Casper walks across the yard even though he's never been a threat to them. I guess maybe that will never change.

Our chickens tend to share a nesting box pretty well, and sometimes two hens will be sitting side by side laying eggs together in the same nest at the same time. Some chickens, though, are loners and don't appreciate the company, and they tend to be the ones who go off and lay eggs in odd places where they must feel like they have more privacy.

Rebecca,

Congrats on the two tomatoes.

Are those black things on the plant leaves some kind of insect? Or just insect frass. The photo is sort of blurry (or maybe it is my old eyes that are blurry), so it is hard to tell.

Dawn

Congratulations on the tomatoes, Rebecca! Yay! I don't know what the things are on your eggplant.

Dawn, their coop is dirty right now. Maybe they're tired of it and trying to get my attention. Stella started laying in the corner and now they all are. I'm hoping to be able to give the coop a good scrub down either tonight, tomorrow night, or Saturday morning--depending on how the days go. Good news! The kitchen cabinets are sitting in my floor now, so at least they are home--just need to be installed.

I have an over abundance of tomatoes--never thought I would be in this situation. I think I'll go to my Mom's after work and freeze them. Does anyone have any suggestions on an easy way to do this? I read somewhere that putting them in boiling water and then ice water helps the skins to fall off easily.

Freeze them whole with the skins on. The skins will come off easily when they thaw.

Stupid chickens are eating my peppers! The California wonder had walls that were pretty thick. The paparikas I had to cut the yellow ones, since they were eating them and the almost red anneheim! Mutter mutter, going out to build the fence.

Fence is up. Blood blister on right index finger. FYI you can't use a lot of tools with a sore index finger.

Speckles laid an egg. That settles that. One of the white ones threw a fit this morning. A squirrel had been scolding a cat from the power line. The cat had been outside the fence under the wisteria, so I think the white one was sounding the alarm. I never thought of her as one of the dominant birds, but the pecking order seems to be evolving.

I had a taste of the Anneheim the chickens pecked. I liked it a lot. Mildly hot, but very sweet. Definately growing more next year. The peppers on the east side of a north to south lengthwise bed are doing the best. There is an Anneheim on south side of an east/west bed that is not as happy. Also a banana pepper in that E/W bed not doing as well as the other bed. It surprises me a little, hut maybe it's because the E/W bed has tomatoes in it and they're competing. (Things that make you go hmmmmmmm).

Rebecca, The black things look like worm pills.

Okiedawn, May be the plastic eggs are light enough for a chickensnake to spit up, I wouldn't know about that. All I know is that I never found any golf balls laying around. But I did find dead swelled up chickensnakes with golf balls in them. I would rather eliminate a chickensnake than to let it keep getting my eggs and baby chicks. Once in my chicken house I found a chicken almost dead with it head in the snakes mouth, I guess she was picking and trying to fight the snake, so it grabbed her head and tried to smother her. I killed the snake and it took a while but the chicken finally recovered. Chickensnakes will swallow baby chicks just like an egg.

Hazel, Congrats on the kitchen cabinets. I bet the kitchen will be looking more and more like a kitchen every day now. It sounds like y'all are on the home stretch.

Chickens often do copy one another. Often, if you can figure out who the dominant hen is and get her to do what you want, the others will follow. It sounds in this case like they are following whoever first laid the eggs in the corner of the coop. Mine go off into corners like that when they are getting broody and want to hatch out some chicks. If I leave the egs alone for a few days and enough eggs accumulate, at least one hen (sometimes two, who will sit contentedly side by side) will begin setting on them in an effort to hatch them out.

When I'm in a hurry with too many tomatoes, I freeze them whole in gallon-sized ziplocks like Amy mentioned and use them to make sauce, stews, soups, etc. in winter. Or you can easily remove the skin by dropping the tomatoes in boiling water, then removing them, then dropping them in cool water. I just think that freezing them whole is easier and quicker.

Amy, The chickens are trying to tell you something, and that something is "if you don't build a fence, we will just keep eating whatever we choose". So, I'm glad the fence is done,

At least now you know Speckles is a girl. Oh wait, she laid an egg, so I guess she's ovultating, so that means she is a woman now. (grin)

authereray, I hate chicken snakes and rat snakes with a passion. We had one rat snake eat 4 half-grown guinea keets once in one sitting. Caught him right in the guinea coop trying to make it 5. We killed him. We kill every snake we find in the coop or chicken run, period. No exceptions, no excuses. If they are in the coop, they're either eating or attempting to eat eggs and/or chicks and both are unacceptable. We hate a lot more rat snakes here than chicken snakes, but the rat snakes prey on the poultry just as much as the chicken snakes do. I don't have sympathy for anything that's trying to kill/eat any of our animals. We share our acreage with all sorts of wild things, but they cross a line when they start killing our animals

Dawn

Alrighty. I just threw the tomatoes in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. Easy and Done.

I would kill snakes in my coop too. I get it. It's just something seems torturous about swallowing a golf ball. I TOTALLY realize I'm weird about things like this. I just feel a little every time I kill something even if it's necessary. I don't think this feeling is good or normal, but it's just how I am. I do kill stuff, but I do "feel" about it.

It's almost September! What?! How?!

authereray - Please explain worm pills? Worm poop?

Hazel, I don't like killing things either, and I do feel bad when I do it, but sometimes it is necessary. The longer I have lived in a rural area, the more I have come to realize just how necessary it is. I prefer to leave the ecosystem alone and let it function the way it is meant to operate, but that preference comes to a screeching halt when something is trying to kill one of our pets or our farm animals. (I try to think of the poultry as farm animals, don't name them, and try not to make pets out of them, and at least half-way fail at all three.)

I am so ready for September, especially for the part of September that brings cooler air temperatures. It is easy to see the slow changing of the seasons as September approaches---we are reaching the high temperature each day earlier than we were a month ago, the sunrise is a bit later each day and the sunset a bit earlier. Our poultry feel/see the changes and are responding accordingly. Based on the number of loose feathers flying around, some of them are molting, and almost all of them are going and putting themselves up in their coops voluntarily from 30 to 60 minutes earlier each evening than they were even just 3 weeks ago. Now when we go out to put them up, we basically just tell the last few to "go home" and they run for the coops and we follow them and close up the chicken run gates and close and latch all the coop doors. It is so much easier than trying to herd chickens towards their coops when they aren't ready to go. I think that, in the milder weather, they have ranged around and eaten all they want whereas in the hotter weather they would lie low in the late afternoons just trying to stay cool and then wanted to eat late, late, late when it was time to go into the coops.

The days are still too hot, but the nights are getting noticeably cooler and they're doing it earlier. We'll take whatever little improvements in the weather we can get.

Dawn

Rebecca, Yes worm poop. Check closely and some times you can find a worm in the vicinity.

Hazelinok, Okiedawn may be right about the chickens having mites, When they have mites for some reason they don't like to set in the nest and also when they start to molt they will behave strangely. If you turn a hen up side down and examine their vent you can see if they have mites, the pin feather quill part that sticks in their skin will have thick mats of mite eggs on them. Also, I sympathize with you about killing things but you have to decide on whither it is "them or you" that get the produce of your toil and sweat. People who grow up in the country are raised understanding this is accentual to whither you eat or not.

Dawn, I am so ready for September, too. Some how that cool spell reset my thermostat and I absolutely can't put up with the higher temps and humidity. Just walking from store to car was getting to me.

I think I will pull the melons. I was hoping to get the big one to maturity. It is dark green with some netting on it. I don't know what it would look like at maturity. I think we got one to about this stage last year, but it was a winter melon. I'm about to decide melons have too big a footprint and are too fussy.

I will plant peas on that trellis and see if THEY do anything. Sigh. Yeah, next year more okra less melons. More peppers. And dad gum bunching onions. I had to buy scallions today. They were growing in the asparagus bed and the chickens totally scratched them up. I have a smaller bed, 3 x 6 that currently has parsnips and root parsley in it. Next year all the perennial onions get planted there. None of this $.99 for scallions!!! Weren't even organic!

Why don't I have cucumbers? I have vines, the don't look great, but they don't look diseased or dead. There are lots of male flowers. What we have gotten have been mis-shapen and not fully pollinated. I have PLENTY of pollinators.

Next year, I should give DH a bed and he can grow eggplant and zuchinni and peas. I only grow them for him, maybe if he fought with them I could scratch them off the list. Gosh I'm sorry I'm so cranky. I hate August. It should rain or dry up, humidity is so bad I can't breath.

Hazelinok,

I must apologize to you:

After much thought and soul searching I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong in saying that you should kill the bugs & worms that eat on your garden. If you can live with them living in your garden then who am I to say what you should do with them. So live as you want. Happy Gardening.

Oh goodness, authereray. You must have misunderstood me (or are joking and in that case--haha!). If you did misunderstand, I am simply confessing here that I have a problem with killing bad bugs, animals, etc. It's a problem I have--not you or anyone else here. I do kill bad bugs (as you can read above) but I don't like that *I* feel when I kill them. It's stupid (of me) to feel bad about a snake or spider or squash bug or grasshopper or a flea. I've always been wired oddly in that way. My friends and family still make fun of me for letting a spider live in the baseboard of my half-bath at my old house. I had a deal with him: as long as he stayed in that room near the baseboard, he could carry on with his life. My friends and family even took pictures of the spider and splashed them around social media. I don't even like spiders. I'm very scared of them.

Sometimes talking about feelings helps me work through them. And I know this isn't a counseling forum either. And if you really aren't joking with me, I hope you know that I appreciate your opinion on the subjects that we discuss here at this forum.

Well...and if you are joking, I still value your opinions. haha. ;)

After being married for 45 years I have learned that it is the best for me not to have an opinion on any thing, unless it is (Amish Apple Fritter Bread), which I like very much. If I do it is usually the wrong one. My life much simpler this way.

Smart man, Authereray. I've been married nearly 40 years, can't say my DH is that good, LOL, in fact he I think he chooses the opposite of me on purpose ;)

I think my cukes are toast. I'm guessing they have some disease like the melons. Considering a trip some place to get pickling cukes. Can you grow them in a greenhouse in winter? Too cold here?

I think I got a meals worth of okra today. Picked a mess of Penny Rile cow peas to have with dinner. I was looking at the Anneheims at the store, thinking of pickling some of them for winter.

I have to get my behind in gear or there will be no winter garden.

Well, I now have a true identification of the worms that I have been killing on my tomato plants. Thanks to Lisa for identifying for me, I have army worms *sigh*. I never thought they were anything other than hornworms and some that I have killed were hornworms. Found three of these guys in different stages yesterday. Two of them were on my tomato plant and one bigger one on my pepper plant. Why oh why do they have to be so interesting looking and yet so destructive?!?! I was going to do a soap spray but then I read Amy's post about soap spray and how it actually can be a bit destructive to the plants as far as messing up their natural abilities to fight off insects. I left the worms on there last night, but as soon as the sun is up and I can see better I will be going on a hunt.

I will be harvesting most of my basil today as well. The storms we got the other night were a bit harsh on the basil and bent them over completely. I was going to dry them in the oven but I don't want to heat up the house as we had our a/c freeze up the other day, I think due to the weather fluctuation. AC guy was out and couldn't find a thing. Anyhow, I haven't ever dried herbs by hanging them upside down. I've always just used a dehydrator but mine broke in the move a couple years ago. So, I will cut them and tie them together then hang them in pantry. Do you think that's a good spot or should I go to the garage?

I still have just blooms on my beefsteak and the other tomato plant that I forget what it is. I still hold hope that I will get a slight bumper crop before a freeze wipes them out. I will be jumping for joy as I've waited for homegrown tomatoes all summer long. I am tired of the cardboard tomatoes at the store.

So around March I bought these two window panes from my neighbor who used them hanging on her wall as a sort of headboard. However, I was going to paint on them and hang in my kitchen. The other day a light bulb went off. I am going to build a cold frame and use one of them as the top that I can lift on and off. I am so excited. I just need to get measurements now and get some wood. I only paid $20 for both of them and they are pretty decent sized; I believe 3' x 4', so big enough for a small cold frame for lettuce, spinach, and kale....maybe some broccoli.

Oh.....one last thing...I had to go to Home Depot yesterday to get some paint samples. I had a bit of time to waste and how dare I step out into the gardening section. There were no cold season veggies, but they had stocked up on fall plants. I saw one thing that I have been wanting for years and it just escalated from there........an oakleaf hydrangea. I could NOT help myself. I can't wait to plant it and watch it grow. I also got some hen and chicks, ornamental grass for around my mailbox, and some other ground cover for the front bed. Oh and I got snake plant that is supposed to be really good at cleaning the air. Hoping that it will help with DH allergies.

The internet just ate my post!

Melissa, get some BT, Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk).

I'm sorry, army worms are so destructive. Here's a link about BT.

Amy, I agree. Give him his own bed and let him try to grow the things he wants. Nothing else will work nearly as well as letting him try to baby along those plants through our often uncooperative growing conditions. If he succeeds, great! If he doesn't, then at least he'll understand the challenges involved in growing them.

I've never heard of anyone growing pickling cukes in a greenhouse here in winter. They need heat (though not excessive heat) to produce well here. Everything I've ever grown in the greenhouse in winter, at least in terms of warm-season crops, grow slowly (excrutiatingly slow) in winter's lower temperatures and less intense light. Tomatoes and peppers, for example, even if they set in autumn's relatively warm air, stay very small and mature very slowly as the temperatures cool and the sunlight weakens. On top of that, their flavor and texture aren't great. That's why I don't bother trying to grow warm-season veggies in the greenhouse in winter. I wouldn't bother trying pickling cukes for the same reason. I think it is an issue with the light more so than the temperatures because the greenhouse still can reach great daytime highs (even with cool nighttime lows) but the sunlight is very weak and for a significantly smaller portion of the 24-hour cycle and the plants grow slowly accordingly. Even with cool-season crops in the greenhouse, they produce best if they make most of the growth in early thru mid-autumn so that all you're mainly doing in the cold winter months is just keeping them alive, growing slowly, and then harvesting them.

As for why your cukes aren't producing now, it is hard to guess, but normally with cucumbers, poor productivity/low productivity relates to temperatures (too high or too low), poor sunlight, lack of pollination, lack of adequate water (takes a lot of water to produce a lot of cukes) and/or lack of nutrition (it also takes very nutrient rich soil or fertilizer to produce a lot of cukes). Occasionally it might be because of a certain pest interfering with pollination---perhaps western flower thrips, for example, but that seems fairly rare here. Disease can cause poor productivity if it is severe enough.

Hazel, There is nothing wrong with having a reverence for all life, but....it it is a dog eat dog world, or a bug eat plant world, so sometimes the bugs have to go. I was bothered by spiders in my younger days, but I guess I outgrew that somewhere along the way as I got older. Most spiders won't hurt a person, and they are very beneficial in the yard and garden. One thing to remember about a spider in the house is that it is there for a reason, so when I see a spider indoors, I know it is looking for insects to eat, which might be a clue for us humans that there's some sort of food source indoors attracting spiders. The only spiders I now kill are brown recluses and black widows. I sometimes see brown recluses indoors (I found several dead ones while cleaning out the pantry underneath the staircase in advance of the kitchen remodel, but didn't find any live ones) but I only see black widows in the garage or shed. My garden, yard and our acreage are full of spiders (it is estimated that an average acre of grassland can contains up to 1,000,000 spiders, though many areas have less, depending on habitat and available food source) and I love their many different kinds of webs. It brings me great joy to see spider webs where other insects (the kind that damage garden plants) have become ensnared in the web and are being stored away for future meals.

Don't get me wrong. I still jump (pretty much jump out of my skin, and sometimes squeal) if a spider lands on me out of nowhere, but it's me and my perception of the spiders, (left over from my younger days of hating them/being afraid of them) that is the problem. It isn't the spiders. They're just trying to find something to eat, and trying to survive.

Melissa, Army worms, like any other caterpillar, don't really have a place in the garden. (Well, I try to feed the good caterpillars that turn into monarchs, swallowtails, and other butterflies, but you know what I mean.) Bt 'kurstaki' is the solution. One common product on store shelves that contains it in a liquid form is Thuricide and a common powdered form is Dipel dust. The problem with Army worms is that they generally appear in large numbers and devour plants.

You can hang and dry basil anywhere you please, preferably in a cool, dry location out of direct sunlight. I prefer to not dry herbs in a garage if cars are parked in it because of vehicle exhaust that would be in the air, but the world probably won't end if you dry them there. I often hang them right in the kitchen or in the pantry itself. It's not too late to sow more basil seed in the garden for fresh basil if you wish. There's still a lot of growing season left.

Fall is a great time to plant. I already have some bulbs ready and waiting for cooler air so I can plant them, and of course, we always plant garlic in the fall. Autumn is just around the corner, if only the summer weather would just go away and leave us alone already.

Dawn