Bon's Garden Compound

Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Hubs said yesterday there was a turkey hen setting eggs in my strawberry patch that is blooming. Sigh. Today he said there are 3-4 chicks under her! At this point it may be too late to catch them. 2 hens are laying right outside the garden fence as well. Always fun on the farm... Hatched some turkeyberries...
Turkey hen and chicks.jpg
 
flowerbug

flowerbug

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the wild turkey's here don't come close to the house and gardens very often, but some friends have had them lay eggs and nest right next to their door, so those turkeys were much more used to people than the ones that come around here. the closest they come to the house is usually about 100+ feet.
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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flowerbug said:
the wild turkey's here don't come close to the house and gardens very often, but some friends have had them lay eggs and nest right next to their door, so those turkeys were much more used to people than the ones that come around here. the closest they come to the house is usually 100+ feet.
Click to expand...
The wild ones would come in but my toms won't let them. I was down to 2 hens and no tom when the neighbor's released domestics (they thought they would stay home and populate their woods) came drifting in to breed my hens. They stayed. I let my friends know they were here and I'd help get them back down here and they said let them stay, so now I have the Narragansett flock bred back up. This is the most hens here at one time. My hen has 6-7 chicks today. Hopefully they can learn to eat the feed I put out and stay healthy and survive in the garden....
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Vanalpaca said:
The wild ones would come in but my toms won't let them. I was down to 2 hens and no tom when the neighbor's released domestics (they thought they would stay home and populate their woods) came drifting in to breed my hens. They stayed. I let my friends know they were here and I'd help get them back down here and they said let them stay, so now I have the Narragansett flock bred back up. This is the most hens here at one time. My hen has 6-7 chicks today. Hopefully they can learn to eat the feed I put out and stay healthy and survive in the garden....
Click to expand...
Hubs just came in and said the turkey hen setting in the burn pit has a chick. We call turkey chicks 'poults.' I also have a hen nesting under the globe arborvitae that is about 10x10x10 round ball. Soon we should have poults a poppin. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the pole beans to produce the most pods...
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Well, the turkey under the globe arb is finally off her nest and nothing there. Don't know if they hatched and she absconded with them or what happened. The nest in the firepit now has 3 eggs. That hen will lay up to 20 eggs then set them for 4 weeks. I'm thinking their nutrition isn't as high as usual because we are letting them free forage instead of giving them buckets and buckets of feed. They just get fed to report in and free range. It's enough to maintain weight and survival but it may not be enough to get the chicks in the eggs to thrive. Those are my thoughts.
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Husband moved the beehive out of the greenhouse this morning. It was 52 degrees, sunny, at 7:30 am. Still missed a lot of the early forages. So now those are coming back to the original hive spot. I set up a nuc box for them, put frames in it and 'queen bee scent' lemongrass vial. They are landing and entering. I opened the top and they are crawling all over the frames inside. Usually housebees/nurse bees are inside to 'receive' the pollen and nectar the foragers bring back and they build the wax comb and put the 'goods' away. I'm hoping the foragers will remain and sleep there tonight and I can put them into the box at the new location and rejoin the two groups. Fingers crossed.
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Garden is still really wet. Pulled a few weeds. I put catnip and yerba mate mint alongside the bottom of the nuc in the greenhouse because I found a huge nest of ants where the hive had been. Mint is supposed to chase off ants...???
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Vanalpaca said:
Husband moved the beehive out of the greenhouse this morning. It was 52 degrees, sunny, at 7:30 am. Still missed a lot of the early forages. So now those are coming back to the original hive spot. I set up a nuc box for them, put frames in it and 'queen bee scent' lemongrass vial. They are landing and entering. I opened the top and they are crawling all over the frames inside. Usually housebees/nurse bees are inside to 'receive' the pollen and nectar the foragers bring back and they build the wax comb and put the 'goods' away. I'm hoping the foragers will remain and sleep there tonight and I can put them into the box at the new location and rejoin the two groups. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
Update, traffic of foragers was pretty heavy at the greenhouse old hive area and very light at the new hive. Sigh. Hope the foragers huddle in the nuc I set up tonight and I can join them to the new hive after dark...
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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I did some weeding while keeping an eye on the resident turkey hen and poults. They seem to be doing fine. I saved all the wandering jew plants I found, they are succulent, branch, have tiny blue flowers. I sold a bunch of comfrey this spring so I figured to plant up a bunch of pots with the wandering jew since it volunteers so well here. One customer even went home with a large catnip plant which also volunteers here and I sometimes pot it up. Meanwhile, I checked on the Monte Gusto beans and found a few of them that are germinating so covered them back up. Fingers crossed that the limas and scarlet/magic runners sprout soon as well...
 
Vanalpaca

Vanalpaca

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Here's a photo of most of the garden looking east. My profile shot is looking west. It is 35x90 with a 20x 40 additional section where we took back some of the chicken run. Plan on planting corn/beans in most of the chicken run and closing it off from the hens. This is 2023 with corn back left, tomatoes back right, peppers and bush beans front left and onions front right....
Bon garden with onions.jpg
 
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