[Ag-eq] garden, chicks, horses

[Susan Roe]

Hi Nella,

Your tomatoes are far ahead of anything around here.  Even the commercial 
growers don't have plants in the ground yet.  Our tomatoes don't ripen until 
early July.  That is when we have our anual Hanover Tomato Festival!

Your chicks are at a real fun age.  You can go in their run, sit on their 
crate if it is not too poopie (LOL) and they will be all over you checking 
you out.  When my second flock of black austrolorps from Austrailia were 
about that age, I had 15 hens, they just walked all over me.  I would have 
to be careful not to step on any of them because I always seemed to have 2 
or 3 on my shoes after my shoe strings.  "Oh boy, big fat white worms!" 
They would even run up the latters to the outdoor perches and try and stand 
on my arm holding their scratch bucket up.  You will see them quickly 
develop their own personalities from here on.

Your older hen that wants to set her eggs is what we call a broody hen. 
This is very common whether you have a rooster or not.  She'll snap out of 
it and not be such a fussy layer.  Sometimes I think those hens are trying 
to glue their bottoms on top of the eggs.  I have found that sometimes 
scooting up under their bottoms from the back end makes it easier to sort of 
tip them forward and scoop up the eggs from between their feet.  That coop 
has hen box access from the back of their hen boxes and you do not have to 
go inside their coop.  Of course this does not help when you have a hen or 2 
that insist on laying on the floor in the corner under all the nest boxes.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nfoster at extremezone.com>
To: <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 10:26 PM
Subject: [Ag-eq] garden, chicks, horses


Yesterday while watering my cherry  tomato plants I found several tiny green
tomatoes. The rest of the plants are growing and look healthy.  I'm always 
so
excited about the progress in the garden.

The little chicks are now 7 weeks old and no longer little.  They are 
growing as
fast as weeds!  They have their own 6 by 12 dog run to chicken around in. 
They
also have a big wooden crate, which they like to get on top of.

One of the big hens has decided that she wants to hatch out some eggs.  She 
sits
in the nest box most of the time and complains when I gather the eggs.  We 
no
longer have a rooster, so she's wasting her time!  I wonder how long she 
will
keep this up?

On Sunday I rode Cruiser in a 3 hour, horse and rider communication clinic. 
I
was really nervous because there were more people than I like in the arena.
Horses and riders kept stopping in front of us and I was worried that we 
would
get kicked.  Cruiser wasn't relaxed because I wasn't relaxed.  The 
instructor
spent a lot of time yelling at us; she's known me for a long time and has no
problems pushing me when I'm being wimpy.  Half way through I relaxed and
everything got better.  We spent a lot of time practicing smooth turns at
different speeds and transitioning between gaits.

One of the horses in the clinic was an 18.1 hand warm blood.  He is probably 
the
biggest horse I've ever seen.  His owner had to use the mounting block with 
3
steps instead of the 2 step one.  I was so worried about him kicking us, but 
he
seemed like a big sweetie.  There were also 2 Tennessee Walkers, a Quarter 
Horse
and a Thoroughbred.

As usual I loved Cruiser even more by the end of the clinic.  He has come so 
far
in the 2 years that Mike and I have owned him.  He would be an even better 
horse
if I were a more confident rider, but we are learning and becoming more
confident together.

Well I got all the electric fence up, with the help of my wonderful 
neighbor.
Monty hasn't been out of the yard since the installation.  Yesterday I 
walked
down the street and he stayed in the yard; usually this is more than he can
handle.  I will try it again tomorrow.  On Friday we will start obedience
classes.  Hopefully Monty can be turned into a law abiding citizen!

What is everyone else up to?

Nella



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