March 2021 – Marie's Preps

Chickens, Part One

So you’ve always wanted to raise chickens. Check your municipality’s regulations, and go for it! Now for the down and dirty.

Obtaining the chicks

There are several ways to obtain chicks. You can order them through a hatchery such as www.mypetchicken.com, which I have used successfully a number of times. The chicks come in the mail, and the post office calls to let you know to come pick up your birds. Yes! Funny story: many years ago, when I received the call to pick up the birds, the call came while I was at work. I could hear the chicks peeping away in the background. I explained I couldn’t come right then, and the postal worker said, loudly, “Would you PLEASE come pick up your birds!” You can also buy chicks at local feed stores, and you can hatch your own with an incubator. The best way to obtain chicks, of course, is to have a rooster and several hens producing fertile eggs, and a Mama hen raises the chicks herself, but that can only happen once you’ve gotten started.

Caring for the newborns

Be prepared, though, to be caring for tiny, newborn babies. Tiny. Loud. Messy. You will want to have the chicks in a location that can stand to get dusty, like an unfinished basement. Here’s what I do.

First, I get a large container to put them in, such as a big cardboard box with a sheet of plastic under it or a large plastic tote. They grow quickly, so plan ahead for the room you’re going to need. The bottom of the container is covered with three or so inches of litter; I purchase a bale of pine shavings from a feed store. In the corner, I hang a heat lamp and adjust it as needed. If it gets too warm for the chicks because the lamp is too close, they will crowd to the corners, too cold because the lamp is not close enough, and they will be bunched together right under the lamp.

Then I place sheets of newspaper on top of the shavings and sprinkle chick feed over the newspaper. I don’t want the chicks eating the shavings. Once they know what their feed is, I will put in a chick-size feeder and take out the newspaper. I purchase non-medicated chick feed and have never had a problem, and I include a small amount of chick grit. The grit is for them to break down their food. Chickens are one of many birds that “eat” tiny pebbles that go to their crop, which is part of the their digestive system. The crop, or gizzard, is a muscular organ that uses the grit or pebbles to grind the food, like our teeth do for us.

As soon as they are in their little home, I put water in a chick-size waterer and take each chick in turn and gently dip its beak in the water so it gets the idea. The waterer goes in a corner, but be prepared. The chicks will make a mess, and the litter under the waterer WILL get wet and need to be changed regularly. If the chicks seem to be doing poorly, I will mix a little sugar into the water to give them a little boost to get them started.

Timing for the next step

The chicks will get their feathers in a very specific pattern, starting with the primary flight feathers. Once they are almost fully feathered, they can go into the barn or chicken coop, although you will need to monitor the night time temps since you don’t want them to get a chill. I keep the heat lamp on in the barn until the night time temps are over 60 degrees or so.

Once the babies aren’t babies anymore, they will need different care. More on that next time.

These are chicks I purchased in the spring of 2020. The one with the bump on its nose is actually not a chick but a turkey poult. You can see the shavings beneath them and the cardboard box that is the housing.

Starting the Seeds

The great thing about a garden is if you get super involved with it, it can become a three- if not a four-season project. You can grow food for your family almost the entire year. Look up the growing season for your area (I use garden.org/app/calendar) and think about trying to extend it.

Be aware, though, that as we slide further into the grand solar minimum, the growing seasons for many areas will be getting shorter with frost lingering later into the spring and beginning earlier in the autumn. This has already begun to happen, by the way. The last several springs in the northern Midwest have been a disaster for planting corn and other crops because the weather was simply too cold and wet. At the other end of the season, many farmers weren’t able to get their crops in before the snow began, especially sugar beets and other crops in Canada. Plan for cooler temperatures, not warmer.

Start Your Seeds. Now.

On Thursday at our homestead, we started the seeds for plants that will be transplanted into the garden. It’s still too cold for the seeds that will be direct sown, but the transplants will be kept indoors for several weeks. Since I’m starting over, I had to start some perennial herbs as well as the annual vegetables.

You want to give your plants as much of a head start as possible to get them a big as possible before the insect pests hatch. I try always to start all my seeds as soon as the growing season allows, whether I am starting transplants or direct sowing into the beds.

How to Start

I use seed starting flats with varying number of cells, depending on the size of the seedling: larger cells for plants like tomatoes, smaller ones for cabbage and broccoli, even smaller for onions and leeks. These flats can be purchased at many garden centers and through catalogs. The cells are filled with a soil-less seed starting mix, which is sterile. If at all possible, do not use soil to start the seeds since the chance of root rot or other difficulties is greater. The flats go on a grow table under fluorescent lights. I got the table for free when a school no longer wanted it. You can use regular fluorescent lights rather than the more expensive grow lights. Just purchase a combination of warm and cool fluorescent bulbs to approximate a grow light.

What to start

First, we planted seeds for the vegetables that will be transplanted out around the third week of April. In my area, that means we could still see frost, but brassicas, like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage, can stand a frost. German thyme went into the same flat, as well as valerian and anise hyssop. The last two are medicinal herbs.

In another flat went the seeds for the plants that will be transplanted out around the third week of May, tomatoes and an early Jalapeno, that can’t take a frost. We like Burbank and Brandywine for slicing tomatoes, San Marenzo for sauce, and Principe for sun-dried tomatoes (and to use as a cherry-type).

Leeks (giant Musselburgh) and celery went into a third flat. We planted a boatload of leeks because to save seed because, for genetic strength, seeds need to be saved from 20 to 50 plants. Yup. And because they are biennials, we need to get them through the winter. We’ll see!

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing wrong with buying bedding plants from a local garden center or big-box store. What’s great about starting your own, though, is that you get to pick the exact varieties you want, which you may or may not be able to purchase locally. And if you save your own seed, the seeds will begin to develop genetic strength to survive in your area.

It’s a mess, but a fun mess. The seed flat on the left has the leeks, while the one on the right has the brassica. In the middle is a bowl with the soil-less seed starting mix. Yes, there are two glasses of wine on the table, blueberry wine we made two years ago from the blueberries that grew at the old farm. Starting the seeds for the new growing season is worthy of a celebration.

The seedlings you see are globe artichokes. They are an extravagance but so worth it if you have the room in your garden.

The New Farm

Things are degrading quickly. Whatever your political persuasion may be, you must have noticed the steep increase in gasoline prices across the nation. Prices at the pump by me have gone from $2.69 to $2.99 in two months, from late December to the end of February. Such increases aren’t going to stop what with the new administration insisting that we drop carbon emissions to levels that WILL mean our way of life must change. Be prepared to give up things you have always taken for granted. I am.

For example, air conditioning, a way of life in the warmer areas of the US, will get more expensive as electric rates go up with the push for green energy, as has happened in Europe. 25% of households in the UK and 15% in Germany now live in what is called energy poverty; they must choose between heating and eating. No joke. As for air conditioning, the rule in my house is that the A/C goes on once the temperature reaches 90 degrees INSIDE the house. Yes. So we can do without it, but depending on where you live, it will be a very different, very expensive existence.

I thought time was short when I put my place on the market last August. But after the November election, it’s very short now. There’s a great deal to do and not much time left to do it in, and I’m not talking just about me and my farm. Any of you who are thinking of getting a garden started, of getting some chickens or other animals, of beginning a home-based business, do it now. Do not wait one more week. Time is short.

Planning the Garden

Once I had a contract on my old place, so I knew for sure I would be moving, I ordered seeds and some bedding plants to start fresh at the new farm. Why not bring mature perennials with me? The soil at my old place has several pathogens that I was constantly fighting, in particular pythium, which is a genus of oomycetes that lives in soil, and root nematodes. After consulting with two plant experts, one at Territorial Seeds and one at Nourse Farms, two of my main go-to seed and plant supply companies, I decided that I would leave all of my plants behind rather than run the risk of bringing any diseases or pests with me.

Both of the plant experts I spoke with also urged me to order early since they were anticipating selling out quickly, so I placed my orders late November. Now, in early March, seed companies are already sold out of many varieties. Some companies were already sold out in late January. If you haven’t purchased seeds yet, do so now. Get over to your local garden center or big box store, if necessary, and purchase seeds.

I have also already purchased most of the materials we will need to build the garden. Think about what you will need to build or improve your garden and purchase those materials now. NOW. As the price of fuel increases, so will the price of the goods being transported. Buy the things you need NOW because prices will be going up. They already are.

The new garden will be much the same as at the old one only larger, with raised beds and an eight-foot fence. I have, all ready to go once the snow melts, the deer netting, the chicken wire to go along the bottom (so I can’t cut holes in the deer netting when I weed whack), the 10 foot 4x4s for the supporting posts, the 12 foot 2x12s for the raised beds, and three-inch deck screws to screw the raised beds together. I still need U-posts that will go between the 4x4s and the hardware to make the gates.

The snow this winter has been off the charts, around 60 inches so far, a decent amount for the Northeast, and I’m waiting impatiently for the field to clear so we can begin the work. Because we are entering a grand solar minimum and the planet IS getting colder, take a cooling climate into consideration as you make your purchases, especially for perennials.