Chicks are outside!

The chicks have enough feathers that I can discontinue the supplemental heat and let them out into the run. It’s a process, as is everything. First, Terry and I had to put up the chick fence. In spite of buying what I thought was a lifetime supply of metal fence posts a few years ago, we ended up short. An emergency run to Tractor Supply was needed. Like everything, the price had gone up substantially, or so it seemed to my vague memory of paying about a dollar per post. They are now in excess of $5, but I must disclaim that there was no time to shop around for a better price.

I put the feeder and a larger waterer out in the run, hoping to entice them out of their first cozy home. I opened the door at 11:00 a.m. A Wyandotte and a meat chick stuck out their heads and sampled the grass.

Sampling the grass

The Wyandotte hopped out, turned tail and went right back in.

Brief foray outside

The meat chicken went next.

Out....

And back in. 

...And back in

An hour later, many of the chicks were out, following their jungle fowl instincts and sticking to the shaded areas.

Lots of chicks outside, but few will brave full sun, even for food

By 4:30, they were all over the place, exploring, pecking at the grass, digging a dust bath by the door, and having a grand time. In the background of this photo you can see a chick trying out its wings. 

Chicks, wild and free

It’s the funniest thing to watch. A chick will be minding his/her own business, when suddenly zoom, it takes off running and flapping across the turf with all the speed it can muster. It gets to another chick and stops dead. They stare at each other for a moment, and then calmly resume scratching and pecking. What was that about?

The difference between male and female meat chicks is starting to manifest. In this photo, the chick on the left is a female, as evidenced by her smaller comb and no wattle. The one on the right has a larger comb and wattle under his chin. Chickens don’t really seem to have chins, but you know what I mean.

A female meat chicken (brown) on the left with small comb and no wattle next to male (right) with developing comb and wattle. The black chick is a Wyandotte.

We are poised to have a great apple year. Lots of fruit has set on the trees. It looks so lovely and perfect now, before the apple maggots, wasps, and any number of other insects, fungi, etc. have their way with it. Still, there will be apple sauce, apple butter, apple juice, and dried apples aplenty for the winter.

Developing apples

With the fruit trees done blooming, the bees don’t have enough nectar around. I have to feed them a 1:2 sugar:water solution using a bee feeder. There’s not much to it. A quart jar with a tight-fitting lid sits in a frame with a slot just big enough for bees. The lid has pinholes that let the sugar water out one drop at a time. They empty the quart jar every day. Through trial and error, I have discovered that 3 cups of water and 1.5 cups of sugar makes just enough volume for the jar. Ten pounds of sugar doesn’t last long at this rate.

Bee feeder

We’ve had a bit of rain and could use more. Putting in an order does not seem to help. We also know to be careful what we wish for. “The trouble with June,” Terry remarked the other day, “is that 4 inches of rain can come in one day.” In any case, the soil moisture under the patio was just right for the ants to build some elaborate volcano structures instead of the usual mounds.

Ant volcanoes

The columbine are blooming.

Columbine

I have planted more poppies as most of them got crowded out by dandelions. A few survived along the margins of the garden. The first one bloomed yesterday. It is the usual size, with the flower 2 or 3 inches across. Also note the prodigious mass of leaves and stem below the flower.

Full size poppy on large plant at the edge of the garden

I found this one this morning, poor little thing. It is so cute, less than an inch in diameter, and has one spindly little stalk supporting it. Here’s the fascinating part—it came from the same genetic material as the full sized one. It is either a mutant or has been miniaturized by its environment (or some combination). Wow!

Mini-poppy on a single thin stalk, struggling among the grasses and weeds

The first tomatoes have set in the high tunnel. There’s so much growth going on around me that I just can’t keep up with it all! I do love summer!

The first New Girl tomatoes