The chickens are growing like crazy and recently I decided it was time to start sharing some kitchen scraps with them. A is kind of a finicky eater, so we have many perfectly good kitchen scraps to share, but I've been waiting until their digestive systems got a little bit more mature. Then, last weekend, I ran out of chicken feed on Sunday morning. Being a city slicker, it never occurred to me that this could not be allowed to happen...farm supply stores are not open on Sunday! So, the chickens got a little treat - whey, cooked up with corn flour and quick oats. I got the suggestion from a book, and thought, "Jeez, I think I actually have whey!"
They loved it! (All except for the meat chicks, who seemed to feel it was too messy to eat. But they changed their tune when they realized that was all there was going to be.) They are also particularly fond of old bread endies. Not so crazy about half-soggy Cheerios, but they'll eat them eventually, too. I also occasionally pick weeds from around the yard and feed them to the chicks, which the meat chicks snub but the others all go crazy for.
In other news, I recently planted a currant bush, a raspberry start, and a cherry tree in my yard. The raspberry came from gardening friend M, who dug it up from near his own plant last fall. The cherry tree is an edible tart cherry that we will probably not live here long enough to pick from, but I said that about the asparagus I planted three years ago, and tonight as I was rooting around the shed for potting soil I came across the first asparagus shoots of my first picking year!
My first batch of seedlings went into the garden yesterday. I planted onions, broccoli, pac choi, and two kinds of lettuce. More seedlings are still under the lights, waiting for the next dry spell.
As I wrote in my gardening journal after noting all the work done and still waiting to be done, "Suddenly, spring."
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