Chicken aprons and tomato cages

It seemed like a good idea when I read about it on the Internet. We’ve had trouble with some of the hens pecking the others. Four of the hens, Nadia and Gracie among them, have featherless backsides, sometimes with wounds.  This is bad because chickens are cannibals and can peck a hen to death once they see blood.  I looked on a couple of chicken websites and found that there are chicken aprons that cover the back and prevent damage. They are designed for rooster-related injuries, but will also work with pecking problems. They were also very cheap. Hilda ordered some.

The chicken apron is a rectangle of a sturdy but lightweight fabric with two slits. The concept is to slide the wings into the slits and position the apron over the back. We figured our best chance of catching the hens was in the morning. Chickens don’t see well in the dark, and I preferred going out early to staying up late.

On Saturday, we went out at 5:45. We caught the chickens that didn’t need aprons one at a time and put them in the run. We got an apron on Nadia without too much trouble and tossed her over the fence. Gracie is usually pretty friendly. We did her second. When I put her in the run, she couldn’t stand. She is such a spaz. The 2-ounce apron was enough to throw her off balance, and there she flopped on her side.

Nadia and Gracie in their (white) aprons.

Charity is not part of the chicken world view. As soon as the hens sensed Gracie’s predicament, they surrounded her and went in for the kill. I rushed into the run, shooed away the bystanders, and adjusted the apron so Gracie could stay upright.

I caught Chloe next. She was having none of this apron stuff. I finally put one hand over her eyes, which settled her enough for Hilda to get one wing through the apron. She took over holding Chloe’s head while I did the other side. And she went into the run.

We gave up then, leaving Cleopatra with a bare backside. Chloe spent the better part of the day in the coop. On Sunday, I found her apron in a nest box. Gracie had wriggled out of hers by this morning. We are going to cut off Nadia’s apron if she still has it on tomorrow. The new plan is to let the chickens out of the coop sooner in the morning, based on the hypothesis that the pecking occurs while the hens are awake and cooped up, so to speak, from sunrise until 7:00, when we have been letting them out.

It’s been a hot week here in the country. We have finally gotten the garden planted. Every year is the same. First, you put in the plants you want. Then you spend a month pulling out the plants you don’t want. After that, the harvest begins, and you spend more time standing at the kitchen sink than playing in the dirt. I enjoy surrendering to this seasonal rhythm.

There are many things about getting the garden planted that are a literal pain in the butt, as well as the hamstrings, knees, shoulders, and hands. The extra effort on the front end pays off generously as the summer progresses. We lay down landscape cloth between the rows to block the weeds. The tomatoes get a landscape cloth grid followed by newspaper around the plant. Then there’s the drip irrigation. I whined extensively about that last year, so I won’t repeat it. I will say that the hot weather made getting the air out of the lines less unpleasant, although unpredictable squirts of water in the face are never on the list of the Top 10 Things That Are Fun. With all that done, we put the tomato cages on. We planted all 36 tomatoes in a day, which was brutal. The tomato cages have a foot of chicken wire at the bottom, and I feared that if we didn’t get all the way to the tomato cage installation, the rabbits would eat every plant by morning.  I did the first three rows and laid out the fourth row while Hilda had lunch with a friend.  Hilda finished planting the last row.

Tomatoes in their cages

The next day, we put in the peppers. In the course of the morning, Hilda casually mentioned that she had planted 4 Supersweet 100’s and only 2 Sun Golds, which she thought was peculiar since we preferred Sun Golds.

“That’s not right,” I said. “I’m sure I laid out 4 Sun Golds and only two Supersweet 100’s.”

“I didn’t look at the map,” Hilda replied. “I should have asked. “

Sure enough, the map showed 4 Sun Golds and two Supersweet 100’s. The tags showed one Sun Gold, 2 Supersweet 100’s, another Sun Gold, and two more Supersweet 100’s. How does this happen?? I looked right at those tomato labels and put the wrong ones in the tray to bring to the garden. I got the two Sun Golds from the green house, took off the cages, drippers, and newspapers, dug up the wrong plants, and replaced them with the right ones. And the newspapers, and the drippers, and the cages. Grrrr. I hate it when I make extra work for myself.

Putting news papers between the peppers for weed control

We planted 7 rows of various seeds and two rows of Coles (kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts). I couldn’t for the life of me make sense of the drip lines I had left and had to completely refigure one of them.

Kale, Brussels sprouts, and cabbages with newly configured drip lines

The final step, completed this morning when the breeze was relatively low, was row cover over the Coles and the beans. High winds earlier in the week made the task impossible. The row cover decreases predation quite a bit. If the bugs can’t see the plants, they don’t bother them.

Row cover to hide the plants from things that would otherwise eat them

And then we started weeding.