Rancho Chico Days

Well, our tenure at the St. Helena property came to an end back in June. It's against my personal policy to make any negative comments in this blog, so I'll simply say that the whole arrangement was rather lopsided to begin with and was just a downward spiral from there, with constant expectations of "more more more" for nothing in return. The work we put into the property far exceeded the value of living there. In addition to that, and more importantly, we have been called to duty in Chico.

Christine's grandfather recently passed away at the age of 96 and we have come here to deal with his estate and the home/ranchito he built in '71. Gramps as he was affectionately referred to, was quite an amazing and admirable man. He was born in 1913 on a ship ten days out to sea, to parents emigrating from Spain to Hawaii. As such, he saw the two World Wars, the Great Depression, and everything else between then and now. He rode to work with his brothers on the back of a horse, then later drove a Model T. He became an electrician and during WWII, repaired war-damaged airplanes in Oakland so they could be returned to service. In '46, following the war, he moved to Chico. He worked hard, played hard, had fun and never stopped giving to his friends, family and community. Gramps was quite an extraordinary gentleman and left quite a legacy to all who were fortunate enough to have known him.

So here we are...Christine has her work cut out for her in dealing with his estate and I have come to help get the landscape in order. I like to think of the property as a microfarm, with an emphasis on the "micro". It's a cute little Spanish style home on about a third of an acre with several varieties of fruit trees: cherry, apricot, peach and orange as well as grape, kiwi and raspberry vines. At the moment, it's all quite neglected and overgrown, as well as cluttered with stuff. We may or may not wind up staying here and renting this house. That will be determined in due time.

So without further ado...I'll catch up on our adventures in Chico thus far...

We were fortunate enough to be able to bring our 14 hens (Marans, Easter Eggers and a "Trader Joe's" Leghorn) from St. Helena because I had built a coop here last year when I bought Gramps some banty chickens for his 95th birthday. For biosecurity purposes, we gave those away and disinfected the coop prior to our girls' arrival.



As you can see, everything is very overgrown. The grapes are all over the ground and the weeds are knee high...



Although the coop was designed only for a few banties, it does a fine job of accommodating the 14 big girls. It will just need a little reworking of the roosts and nest boxes inside to be ideal, but it is more than adequate. The attached pen is too small for them, so for now they're just free ranging in the backyard, which is nice. Better pictures of the coop to follow soon...





This is a local stray cat which had been hanging around. We were unable to locate an owner and several neighbors have speculated that she likely was abandoned by somebody around the corner who recently moved. Luckily, she and the chickens are totally cool with each other. Another lucky bonus: she's pregnant! haha



She also gets along just fine with Dolly and Dolly gets along with everybody...



Now, on to the yard work. Lots and lots of yard work. I began with the area where Gramps used to grow vegetables, which for the past several years has been overgrown with weeds. I went ahead and planted a small vegetable garden there. It's a little late in the season, but I'm sure it will still be plenty productive. We've also gone organic with everything on the property, using the Dr. Earth line of fertilizer and Safer Insecticidal Soap.

Cleared of weeds...



I no longer have the luxury of a 118-year-old barn full of cool stuff to make use of, but I was able to piece together some adequate support structures with the limited materials on hand. Here are some Roma tomatoes growing vertically...



This is the metal part of an old wagon wheel belonging to Christine. I used it as a support for some cherry tomatoes...



Here is the garden, partially completed for the time being with basil, eggplant and tomatoes. I also have tomatillos, jalapenos and corno de toro peppers waiting to go into the ground, but I'm not sure it's feasible to plant them this late in the season. The tomatoes and eggplants were started from seed a month prior. At this point, perhaps I should just focus on preparing for the Fall planting.



That's all I have for now...I need to get some current photos of the progress made and Marilyn's (the stray cat) baby kitten. Little by little...

Raised Planting Beds

With the main veggie garden planted, I'm moving on to the raised beds.

I'm a bit embarrassed by the condition of this one, but in years past it has been used as a cutting garden so there are miscellaneous seeds all over the place in there.



Step 1: Propane torch (organic weed killer)...





After raking out the now dead weeds and smoothing out the soil, I applied some corn gluten, an organic pre-emergent weed blocker.





A nice neighbor gave us a seedling tomato plant of her favorite variety, Hungarian Pink, so I've placed that in the middle...



It will be flanked on each side by cantaloupe, which I'm starting from seed. Since I've already applied the pre-emergent weed control and I don't want that to interfere with my cantaloupe seeds, I've used untreated soil to build the mounds and placed the seeds themselves in Jiffy Pots. This will allow them to get a good start, unimpeded by the corn gluten.



I'll be growing peas on the backdrop, so I've built this support structure out of bamboo, zip ties, and jute twine. The peas are starting indoors and should be ready to plant next week.



On to the next raised bed. This one will have zucchini, started from seed in the same manner as the cantaloupe.









More to come!

Solving the Mystery of Chicken Egg Incubation

After the first few attempts at incubating chicken eggs resulted in less than stellar hatches due to humidity issues, I spent countless hours and sleepless nights researching on the internet and settled on the following modified version of the "dry method", which has produced two consecutive 90% hatches! There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding the ideal humidity for incubation and I credit Buddy Henry of Backwoods Poultry Farm for setting me on the path to success.

Below is a step-by-step tutorial of this technique.

Days 1-17: Maintain relative humidity (RH) at 35-40%, allowing it to drop to 25% before adding water and boosting it back up to 35-40%. All vent plugs are removed during this period to maximize air flow and facilitate evaporation. The eggs also need to be turned at this stage...more on that below.

Days 18-21: Maintain RH at 55-60%. 58% is most ideal. I've found that I need to plug the top front vent in order to maintain a stable humidity at this stage. The RH will rise as the peeps hatch. This is of no consequence and no action needs to be taken. During this stage, the hatch phase, the eggs are no longer turned.

Humidity is a very important aspect of incubation. If the humidity is kept too high, the air sac cannot grow large enough and the peep will drown in fluid when it pips through the membrane, prior to pipping the shell. Too low, the peep will be shrink-wrapped inside the membrane and will simply struggle until it dies. During days 1-17, too low is better than too high. My problem was that I was keeping it too low during the hatch and my peeps were being shrink-wrapped.

As the peep develops, the egg needs to lose approximately 12-14% of its weight through evaporation. Humidity is the tool by which you accomplish this goal, so it's important to keep an accurate watch and keep track of your humidity and egg weight so you can adjust your techniques as needed for subsequent hatches.

This is the incubator I'm using. It's an old Hova-Bator from GQF Mfg.



Here are the eggs from Groups 7 & 8, numbered and ready to go into the 'bator...



The brown eggs are a Rhode Island Red/Barred Rock cross and they are fresh off a farm in Santa Rosa. The white eggs are from Trader Joe's and they are seven days old at this point.

Next, each egg is weighed on a gram scale and the weights are recorded and averaged.



Day 1 average Santa Rosa egg weight: 58.3 grams
Day 1 average Trader Joe's egg weight: 59.8 grams

Finally, the eggs are placed into the turning rack, pointy end down...



If you don't have an auto-turner, you can either lay them on their sides and turn them by hand or leave them in a carton with a block under one side and switch that to the other side a few times a day. If turning by hand, turn them an odd number of times each day (3-5) so they don't spend consecutive nights on the same side.

On day 10, I candle all the eggs and weigh them again. You can candle them at Day 7, but I often work with dark eggs so I wait until Day 10 to make it easier. This is what you want to see...



If the egg is clear with no veining, it's not viable.

Day 10 average Santa Rosa egg weight: 55.7 g. (-4.4%)
Day 10 average Trader Joe's egg weight: 56.6 g. (-5.4%) They have thinner shells.

At this point, I have 10 of 12 Santa Rosa eggs developing and 9 of 12 Trader Joe's. Only viable eggs are calculated into the average weights, so I've gone back to my Day 1 weights and removed the duds from the average.

Day 18...time to prepare for the hatch! The eggs are weighed, candled and removed from the auto-turner and the humidity is increased to 58%. I'm using the carton hatch method for the first time here rather than have eggs rolling all over the incubator floor. I'm now sold on this method. The water dishes with sponges help to increase and stabilize the humidity. In this climate, the water troughs which are built into the bottom of the incubator are not sufficient.



Day 18 average Santa Rosa egg weight: 52.7 g (-9.6%)
Day 18 average Trader Joe's egg weight: 53 g (-11.4%)

I've missed my target weight loss of 12% by a bit.

Now, the number one rule of hatching is DON'T OPEN THE 'BATOR! No matter what happens, no matter what justification you dream up, DON'T OPEN THE 'BATOR! If you open the 'bator while an egg is pipped, the membrane is going to instantly shrink-wrap that peep. You cannot open and close it fast enough to avoid this. You cannot overcome this by pouring hot water into the dishes, nor by misting the eggs with water. Simply DO NOT OPEN THE 'BATOR unless you're absolutely certain that there are no pips.

Here we go...they started pipping on Day 20 and the hatch went into Day 22...









Final result: 9 of 10 Santa Rosa peeps and 5 of 9 Trader Joe's (one of which soon died).

I'm claiming a 90% hatch rate on this because I'm not counting the Trader Joe's eggs, they were somewhat of a fluke.

Here are some of the peeps...







The Trader Joe's peeps turned out to be White Leghorns and the roosters quickly become very obvious...









Want to see it again? Here's Group 9; 36 Cuckoo Marans eggs from Crazy Flower Wines.

Day 1...





Day 18...


These eggs had lost an average of 11.4% of their weight at Day 18. Six of them were duds, but I left them in because they weren't stinky and because Marans eggs are difficult to candle.

Day 21...


27/30 = 90% hatch rate!

Into the holding cell...



Marek's vaccine...



Into the brooder...

Summer Veggie Garden '09

Here is the freshly-planted Summer '09 veggie garden!

Walking through the entry gate, we have cherry tomatoes which will grow up each side of the arch...


Christine found this arch tucked away in a hidden place, over an abandoned/sealed gate on the chicken coop, so we put it to better use.

To the left of the arch, I've planted fava beans, the seeds of which came from the Winter/Spring garden.


It's not much to look at just yet, but fava beans sure are delicious. Here is an awesome recipe for fava bean pesto courtesy of foodnetwork.com

Next to the fava beans, we have "Mammoth Melting" snow peas on a support structure I pieced together with bamboo, zip ties and jute twine...



At the far left end of the garden, we have Blue Lake green beans which will grow right up the twine...


Each length of twine is secured to the soil via a 6" long drip tube staple.

To the right of the garden entrance, we have a nice mixture of greens (pak choi, red and yellow chard, spinach) and beets and bell peppers.



This is the other end of that row, bell peppers in the foreground...



To the right of the arch, we have eggplant, bush beans, peppers (pasilla, serrano and bell) and tomatillos.


Speaking of serrano chillies and tomatillos, I had an amazing recipe for chicken enchiladas suiza, but it's on my former, now dead, computer. Note to self: never again risk losing such critical information...print it!

Further down to the right, we have the main tomato bed. I say "main" because there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more. Lots and lots of 'maters...




In the rear are several different varieties of indeterminate tomatoes which will grow onto the vertical trellis which I've pieced together from miscellaneous scraps found in the barn. Growing tomatoes in this manner requires a bit more attention and training, but the yield can be increased tremendously. Indeterminate tomatoes, also known as vining tomatoes, continue to grow and flower until killed by frost or replaced by the Fall garden. Determinate tomatoes grow to a set size and produce all their fruit within a short period of time. Our determinates, in this case 6 Roma tomato plants, are in the front row in the cages.

Adjacent to the main tomato bed are the artichokes. These are the "Green Globe"variety, a quick-finishing type. Here are 18 of them planted 24" on center...



Lastly, we have cucumbers...


We're growing the cucumbers vertically, which not only maximizes floor space in the garden, but also helps to reduce pest issues and facilitates easier picking. I built this trellis system with items I found in the barn. I've also planted bush bean seeds between each cucumber vine. I like to maximize the garden's yield as much as is practical.

All of the credit for the garden design goes to Christine. I did make some changes in the execution of that design due to logistical issues.