Farm and Garden Weekly - week of June 27

Beginning with this week's bulletin, I'm going to note how many eggs the chickens lay each week. This week's count: 44.

Tom brings them in to his school, and they fly off the shelves. He charges $2 per dozen. These are definitely free-range chickens; very healthy birds who eat bugs as well as their feed - layer pellets. The Dominiques are a long-lived breed and at Windy Poplars Farm, over time they die their own natural deaths.

However, the feed is not organic. We tried some, even though it was twice the price. But the hens didn't lay nearly as many eggs. Tom talked to the folks at the feed store and they have heard the same complaint from other chicken owners. That is so very strange to both of us. I wonder if the feed is lacking some essential mineral? Who knows? We really should look into this further, and I'll report on any results.

I keep forgetting to mention our dear, dear brown rabbit who appears each evening. If you've read Watership Down, you know this evening feeding time is called 'silflay.' The rabbit never comes into the vegetable garden, nor do any other of the wildlife around here. Must be the big black dogs! Oh, how I love rabbits, ever since reading the book back in the mid-seventies.

For my warm-weather friends who may have been amazed at lighting the woodstove in the early days of June, I lit it again on the evening of June 30. The temp in the house was in the low-60s, and there was quite a breeze outdoors with the temp just about the same as indoors.

I saw the solitary male bluebird on the wire this week. We just can't figure out what's going on.

I've meant to note that the snakes have been back for a while. Their numbers are definitely decreased from a few years ago.

The stars of the early July garden are most definitely the orange daylilies.

And the first of the 'non-orange' daylilies opened today!

Last week I mentioned the milkweed, and I just wanted to say today that to me, there is just something so old-fashioned about having it in the garden.