THE TURKEY HOUSE MESS
TODAY I am going to relocate the ducklings to the floor of the turkey house. Ducklings grow fast – they are only just a week old. But already they are too big for that tub. They need lots of room to grow and make a mess in.
I am only barely keeping up with the housekeeping in the tub. If I take my eye off them they spray all their water all over the floor turning it into a sloppy mess. The ducklings will do better on the floor now. Time to leave their bassinette behind them. The chicks (Rhode Island Reds) are tiny in comparison so they will stay in their own box with the ducks running around below them. They will still both have a heat lamp available for a while yet but even now the ducklings are sleeping away from it. It will be a circus but only a temporary one.
On warm days I can take them in a tray of water to play in. That should be fun to see.
Last evening John finished seeding the new two acres and as he finished it began to rain. The timing was perfect. Nice gentle rain too.
So today, I will fill the bin of the seeder with my cocktail of pig pasture seeds. We have a few cold mornings ahead of us and after that, I will begin to seed the smaller fields whenever I have the perfect conditions. I will sow two variety of oats, clovers, two variety of hardy field peas, beans, brassicas, barley and wheat, corn and sunflowers, etc. I love my flowering wild garden fields. The pigs will love them too!
According to the powers that be this is our last frost date. But the nights are still getting very close to freezing. (Which has not stopped John from planting the first of his tomatoes out!). However, the ground is slowly warming up. We are beginning to wind into the season.
The asparagus will have loved last nights soft rain. I have already spent hours down there yesterday and the day before with my digger, my dogs and the BOOM speaker. Listening to my latest book and weeding. The weeds in the asparagus patch are generally terrible due to the need to let it go to fern for the last half of the summer.
If we do not get a nasty frost, I hope to be selling within 10 days or so. Fingers crossed.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
One Year Ago. Gardening.
WEATHER: Cloudy.
Tuesday 04/24 10% / 0 in
Generally cloudy. High 64F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.
Tuesday Night 04/24 10% / 0 in
Mainly clear. Low near 40F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.
Sun
6:00 am 7:42 pm
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 67% visible 2:02 pm 3:17 am
22 Comments on “THE TURKEY HOUSE MESS”
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thekitchensgarden 
It looks like it is all happening very quickly now 🙂 I am looking forward to seeing your yellow Magnolia (?) in bloom, last year a nasty storm took it all out just as it was starting. Laura
oh yes! Fingers crossed!
Wow – you already had flowers and tiny tomatoes last year! It was a warm spring last year and the opposite this year, but it seems impossible to consider tomatoes when it’s so cold. I was complaining about the near lack of spring and my coworker told me – ‘It will happen. It always does.’ I find that very comforting. It always does. Seasons happen. Whatever else is going off kilter – the seasons do happen, perhaps not on our schedule, but they do eventually show up.
Yes – eventually – I see tractors in the fields today so I think the soil is warming up. Like your co worker says – it always does..
I was also in the asparagus bed weeding for several hours yesterday, carefully around the babies coming up there. And the weeds! So many, and with long tuberous roots!!! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for John’s tomato plants! Jack put in our peppers yesterday, but will wait a day or two more before planting the tomatoes. They are ready though, as they are already flowering in the greenhouse!
He has so many more in the glasshouse there are plenty of replacements!
My mouth is watering for that asparagus spear! I swear I could eat my weight in them!
Yes – me too! They are a super food!
The ticks don’t know it’s cold. 😦 I found one behind my ear already and my furnace is still running.
When I had ducks I bought a big, green turtle sandbox and filled it with water, but they had to have a step up to get out. Really fun to watch them playing in the water although they are messy little creatures, they love to eat japanese beetles and they are great walking fertilizers. 🙂
Anything that eats those Japanese beetles is good with me – c
My family did the same when we had ducks – used a turtle sandbox as their “pool.” Ducklings in water – just about the cutest thing to watch!
Good luck with the warmer nights. I’m sure those little dinosaurs will love a larger space and an outside paddle.
They are loving the extra space but I Know by morning it will be awash!
sooooooooooo jealous….asparagus and a circus of ducks!
A little bit of everything.
Yes, it’s almost impossible to keep up with duckling growth!
I am only now seeing my garden seeds sprouting, so tomatoes will be late this year, I suppose.
I actually think it is better to put them out when it is warmer – at this time of year they have to deal with cold nights and windy days – the last ones to be planted do better –
Look how fat and delicious that little green spear is…
Delicious!
Definite harbingers of spring…rhubarb and asparagus!
I was just talking to someone about cooking yucca flower shoots like humongous asparagus. We had a native yucca near San Luis Obispo, (Hesperoyucca whipplei). However, I never bothered to grow asparagus. I would like to grow a variety of yuccas here as ‘asparagus’, but it takes space.
Beautiful images Celi .. your duckling pics make me smile 😀 I have never grown asparagus, too mean to dedicate a bed to it