Baby Chicks Are Here!

I ordered 12 day old baby chickens from a hatchery a couple of months ago and they've finally arrived! I got 3 Welsummers, 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Rhode Island Reds, and 3 Delawares.  I ordered all hens.  There is a 90% chance of the hatchery having sexed them correctly.  So I could end up with a rooster in the mix.  They're currently in a cardboard box with a clip light to keep them warm.  During the first week the temperature in the box must be kept at 95 degrees.  You decrease 5 degrees each week.  So far they're all eating and drinking just fine.  Although when chicks are only a few days old they're extremely fragile and many times not all of them live.  So far, so good here!  Below are a few photos!  I'll try to take photos each week so you can see how fast they grow!

More Garden Photos

Here are a few more garden photos.  First one is Potatoes.

Carrots

Corn

Giant Chard

Watermelon

Pie Pumpkins

UPDATE:  The baby chicks will be here between the 26th and 28th of June depending on when they hatch!!

Garden Photos June 2012

Here are a few photos of the garden.  There are actually 4 separate plots.  Here is what we'll call the "corn plot". I have sweet corn, Indian corn, cucumbers, gourds, watermelon, pumpkins and a variety of winter squash planted back here.

The next 2 photos are of the next plot.  I have Swiss Chard, Kale, Collard Greens, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Sunflowers, Peppers, Carrots, Radishes, Turnips, Beets, Butternut Squash and 1 watermelon that came up on its own!

The next plot is the lower garden plot.  This plot has onions, kale, and several rows of green beans.  This is also where all of the lettuce came up on its own.

The fourth plot is the Zucchini garden.  This plot has Yellow Squash, Patty Pan Squash, Zucchini, onions, a few tomatoes and a couple of extra cucumbers.  We planted things in several locations to determine which space worked best for each vegetable.

How to Make a Cheap Rain Barrel System

Here are some photos of my rain barrels.  I have 3 55 gallon plastic food grade barrels that I got from a guy in the classifieds.  I bought the barrels for $15 each.  Most of the rain barrels you see already made start around $100 and go on up into the hundreds of dollars.  You can search on Craigslist, newspaper and check into bottling companies.  Often times they get syrup in large containers.  I've also heard of people who have gotten olive and pickle barrels.   In order to make these, we used a variety of PVC and ABS fittings.  Its really simple to just piece together something out of a bunch of parts.  We connected all of them at the top, so that when the first barrel fills it overflows into the next and so forth. We put plastic hose bibb valves at the bottom of each of the barrels so we could get water from any of them.  If you do not put a valve on each, then you'll need to have the barrels set up on a higher platform, the next one being lower and the last one being even lower.  This is so gravity will make the water flow out.  Below are the pictures!  Thats my dad filling up a watering can.