The Almost Quarterly Egg Report

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven-
All's right with the world!
-R. Browning

Yes, we made it to the Vernal Equinox - finally. But outside hardly resembles Browning's words here. The piles of snow are still very high. It will take quite a few warm days to get rid of this solid layer of white. The six sheep and the various members of the fowl family all seem to be doing well. But the hens' egg production seems to be pathetically low...yesterday only four eggs for about 30 ladies. The second year hens seem to have given up egg-laying altogether. And the first year hens are only pitching in about every 2-3 days. Very unimpressive and definitely worse than last year. I wonder if we need either another or a different rooster? In another month, many day-old chicks will begin to arrive - meat birds, more layers, great white turkeys for Thanksgiving and more ducks and geese.

Last year over eighty chicks arrived in a week - all housed in plastic swimming pools in the garage. The place was covered with a thick layer of poultry dust by the time they all went outdoors. It was gross. This year the chicks will be arriving in smaller batches every two weeks or so. Somehow I am hoping that the place will be not so messy this way.

We'll see... Will be planting my first flats of seeds this week - tomatoes and onions. There is still no greenhouse, but some kind of temporary rig is going to be set up in the next few weeks to house seedlings through April and May.

Had a fabulous vacation last week in Provence, France. C'etait merveilleux de parler francais tout le temps, de manger la delicieuse nourriture francaise, de voir le beau paysage provencal, de visiter les villages medievals aux falaises.et plus encore.

"Il faut se contenter de decouvrir, mais se garder d'expliquer" -Georges Braque Eh bien, mes amis, a la prochaine fois!