New chickens

My oldest daughter is a first grade teacher and this spring they hatched baby chicks in the classroom. Of course, after they were hatched she had to find homes for them so 10 of them came out here with her this weekend. They are Rhode Island Reds and a mixture of hens and roosters. We think 4 of them are hens for sure but it is really too early to tell as they are only about a month old. They seem quite happy in their pen. This is one of the "chicken tractors" that we move from place to place in the garden, letting the chickens scratch up the soil, eat bugs and fertilize for us. It also keeps them safe from owls, hawks, and eagles. And our visiting eagle was here at 5:45 this morning checking them out.

We started planting the warm weather crops today. Plants like corn, beans, and squash all need the soil to be at least 60 degrees before you plant them or the seeds rot in the soil. We planted the first corn today, 4 varieties with different maturity dates to give us a crop stretched over several weeks next fall. I also put the first zinnias in the ground. This is another plant that wants warm soil. Hopefully in the next few days we can get the first beans in the ground. We always start with brown seeded varieties as they are more tolerant of cool soil than white seeded ones.