Happenings this week

Ok so i put out a call to my forum buddies for eggs to be donated to our schools gardening program.
The kids are going to hatch and sell any left over chicks and use the money to buy plants for their gardens.
Im pleased to say that i was FLOODED with offers of eggs :) and im stoked.
The first lot should arrive today 2dz crossbred eggs and a doz mixed.
The kids will be very happy im sure.
The idea is for me to hatch them at home (ditching any bad egsgs) then take the chickies to the school when they are a few days old to hopefully help get past that delicate "dropped dead for no reason" stage and save tears all round.
A huge thankyou to those who donated eggs :)

Some new chickies arrived over the week.
We now have australorps,australorpx,australorpxwelsummer,australorpxsussex,light sussex(1),chinese silkie(1),pekin(1) and 2 of the cutest little jap bantams bubs in the world calling my brooder box home, plus "Ranger" the lone chickie.

I fitted a pc fan to my still air incubator and after a sleepless night getting up to make sure i wasnt burning the house down, im please to say its running like a champ! Temp is steady and im getting excited that i might actually get a decent hatch rate this time round.Its a wonder what folks can do with an old mobile phone charger and a pc fan :)

The 3 boys went camping to "Cascades" on the Tuross River and had a blast, a natural water slide forming the highlight of their weekend.
They are heading back next weekend and taking the 2 older girls, so its will be just me and Miss Lolli for the long weekend.

Not much in the way of gardening going on, my leeks are up and look wonderful and i can see cabbages poking their leaves up.
And my silverbeet in the foam box is looking good too.
More tomatoe seeds to plant.
Second raised bed will be finsihed this week in time for the tomato seedlings to go in.

School holidays are a mixed blessing with no early morning starts but as the week wears on the kids start to get bored and fight.Keeping them busy is the key and the boys love to do gardening so its a win win situation.

Its all happening

Wow the past few days have been hectic!

I have tracked down some Indian Game hens and some fertile eggs through some people one of my favourite forums "Gourmet Backyard" Its a great local forum based here in the ACT,promoting organic gardening,livestock keeping and gourmet cooking using homegrown produce.
A friendly bunch inhabit the forum and i never fail to get a giggle form their musings.
I have learnt quite a bit on the site and made some friends too :)

We had 2 chicks hatch out of 8 on Friday, not a very good result but I'm having trouble stabilizing humidity.
Unfortunately one has since died due to a birth defect, he was born without an anus.
Quite a strange thing to happen.

So we have one chick left, his/her name is "Ranger" as in the lone ranger (hehehehe)
Ranger has been given a teddy to snuggle up to and get plenty of cuddles throughout the day.
From what i have read i expected to have a nightmare on my hands with constant chirping but Ranger seems quite happy with the teddy

We also had an outbreak of cocci which is a parasite of the gut, go through all our chicks.
We lost all but 2 of our older chickens :(
Everyone in the pen is now on sulphaquin.

We had some more tomato seeds arrive from eBay and even more have sprouted in the their pots.

I planted some zucchini plants,some cucumbers,cabbages and sage.

After watching my new favourite show "Return to River Cottage" i decided to build a poly tunnel.
Hugh seems to be able to grow anything in his poly tunnel so we will see what ours lets us grow.

Musings

Yesterday we welcomed 2 beautiful white call duck ladies to our flock :)
They are super cute!
I have put the this link in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Duck so you can see all about this breed.
They have settled in nicely and we even splashing in their little pond half an hour after they got here.I love having ducks again :)

My 3 quail chicks are growing like weeds and are little eating machines.
All the info i ahve read on quails says they are scared of humans from about 3 days after hatching...no one told mine that lol they actually come over to me when im feeding them and dont mind being picked up and handled as i try to figure out if they are males or females.

The chickens in the brooder are growing well and im turning the light off on them for the day it seems warm enough to me.
They should be ready to go to their new home down the coast when the new owners come for them, bringing my new bantams :)

We have switched over to multigrain bread this week,on a whole it has been a smooth change with only one of the kids jacking up that he didnt like it. But with no other choice, its that or nothing.

We have been enjoying cake made from our fresh eggs and of course yummy curried egg sandwices on multigrain bread.

The coriander,mint and parsley are going gangbusters now that the chooks are confined to their pen.
I feel kinda mean but they have desimated the grass and weeds with absoultly nothing left but bare dirt and chick poo at the back door.
And we dont want them getting into the new vegie garden.
But i have been weeding the front gardens so they have heaps of green stuff to keep them busy, i sprinkle their feed amongst the weeds and they spend the day scratching through it.