February is such a funny month isn't it? It continues to snow daily and we try our best to take advantage of the snow before it's gone but we also know that it's time to begin organizing for spring. It does seem funny though to be planning a family snowboard trip and a vegetable garden at the same time!
Even though our garden looks like this right now (underneath that bump is the cold frame with lettuce) we're sorting through seeds, taking inventory, and ordering any that are missing. Believe it or not in the next week we'll start our seeds indoors to give them that head start that they need in our climate.
This past week I assembled and painted our bee boxes, purchased my equipment, and ordered bees.
And even though the back yard is full of snow and we're still sprouting greens indoors for the chickens to eat, there's been much discussion over the "situation" of chicks this spring.
You see we usually get chicks every other year, which would make this year "chick year". The problem is that we're having a major renovation done to the main floor of our house this spring and that will make it difficult to raise the chicks (they need to be indoors for a few weeks before they're strong enough to deal with the outdoor weather on their own).
Our choices, as we see them so far, are – we skip chicks this year (but then we'll be short on eggs); we purchase ready-to-lays (but it's been our experience that they're usually more flighty, not a desired trait for city chicks); or we let our broody hen raise them (but then take the chance of having some, or all, of the babies be roosters – again, not a good thing in the city).
I had a dream the other night that I woke up one spring morning and there were six pullets in our yard. I had no idea where they came from but there they were, having appeared out of thin air, pecking around the yard alongside our other hens and they were all female and as gentle as could be.
Ha! At least in my dream the problem of chicks was solved!
