Winter readiness

 We continue to make preparations for winter. Saturday evening, we moved the girls from their beloved summer pasture in the orchard to the chicken run up by the house. Soon Terry will have to shut off the water to the outside spigots, and Hilda and I will have to carry water from the kitchen to the coop. Perhaps even more importantly, the hens will not lay eggs with less than 14 hours of light. Now that we are down to less than 12, egg production in the orchard had already dropped from 4 to 6 eggs per day to 0 to 3.  The pullets are not laying yet

The move to winter quarters worried me a little. The pullets are not yet integrated into the flock. We had to put the morning treats of scratch grains in 3 different spots for the pullets to get any. The hens chased them off but were only able to cover 2 places at once. When I shut the coop at night while they were in the orchard, I saw that they cowered in the corner instead of roosting on the perch with the big girls. I hoped there would not be problems when they were confined to the smaller run. On that account, so far, so good. I haven’t noticed anyone missing feathers. Yet.

This is also the first time the pullets have been cold. Between the cold and the bullying, all the pullets were hunkered down on the windbreak yesterday morning. The hens patrolled the ground underneath.

Pullets hunkered down on the windbreak; hens on the ground

I’m loving the high tunnel.  I had to order seeds, which finally came on Saturday. I planted spinach, onions, two more kinds of lettuce, beets, and carrots. The beets and carrots are a long shot, but it’s supposed to be warmer than average for the next 10 days or so. We’ll see if they can grow enough to be edible before the days get too short.

While I was out there, I noticed that the tomatoes were infested with tomato hornworms and that the hornworms had in turn been infested with parasitoid wasps, just like the worm on Terry’s peppers. I found 6 hornworms altogether, 5 covered with cocoons. I left the infested ones to produce more wasps that would infect any worms I didn’t find. I threw the sixth worm to the chickens and watched the game of Keep Away that happened afterward.

Two of five tomato hornworms with white parasitoid wasp cocoons on their backs 

My friend Margaret K. tagged me of Facebook with a recipe for Brussels sprouts with bacon and cheese in a cream sauce. What’s not to like? I had to try it. I rounded out the meal with roast chicken and baked potatoes.

Brussels sprouts with bacon and cheese

Roasted chicken

Hilda, Terry, and I enjoyed a proper Sunday lunch as well as a quick Monday supper of leftovers. Life is good.