Third Box Notes

Sad news on the chicken front this week.
The hen that recently hatched out eggs was living in a temporary brooder/shelter with her chicks. I went out there Wednesday morning to check on them and found their set-up completely ripped apart (like, literally ripped apart). I’m certain this was an attack orchestrated by raccoons. Their water and food dishes were strewn about and the chicken wire was totally mangled. The hen lost some feathers but is otherwise O.K. Sadly five of the baby chicks are missing and presumed eaten. The remaining chick survived the attack only because is got trapped in a ball of chicken wire rubble and apparently the coons were unable to extract it. I’ve put the hen and chick in a dog crate which is not really the best because it’s kind of small but a better deal then being savagely murdered by a raccoon.
Once the chick is bigger, I’ll be able to release these two into the chicken coop. It would be nice if I could just put them in the coop now, but if I did that the other chickens would probably attack the chick (chickens are weird that way). Anyway, the chicken coop isn’t exactly the safest place for chickens either. Last summer our coop was hijacked by raccoons who gained access by breaking a window.
It’s really amazing how many predators chickens have. Over the years we’ve lost our fair share of chickens. Here is a list of bad ends that some of our chickens have come to: eaten by raccoons, attacked by an owl, attacked by a hawk, hit by a car, drowned in a stock tank, attacked by a sheep, attacked by a goose, attacked by a weasel. Other predators of chickens include: foxes, dogs, cats, fishers, pigs and other chickens.
Predators are one of the main reasons that chickens on factory farms are raised in cages. If my chickens were all caged I’d still have all those that have been killed by predators. But I’d rather expose my chickens to their predators and take the gamble; I think they like their lives a lot better this way, even though they have an increased chance of living a shorter life.

Actual Garden News
Now that I’ve talked your ear off about chickens, here is some garden news. Everyone is probably thoroughly tired of green onions, it looks as though we’ll be seeing more variety in the boxes next week. I’m thinking we could see the first of the spuds and perhaps beets will make their debut. This is no guarantee since my garden seems to cleverly evade me every time I try and make a prediction about it.
Other new developments in the garden include; I spotted two little tiny green peppers today, all of the cherry tomatoes are blooming and some of the big tomatoes are blooming. Expect the very first peppers and tomatoes in late July. Then expect the majority through August and into September. Approximately 1/3 of the spuds are blooming and maybe ¼ of the peas are blooming.