Scotch Bonnets-to-be!
The five year old “Jean”
The new kid on the block.
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Tomatoes are slowing down here. I pulled out a couple of plants last night. Have frozen some roasted and milled sauce, ratatouille, milled raw tomatoes and the rest in sandwiches and salads. Also made the corn, tofu and tomato stir fry from Dinner yesterday. Temperature is going below 10C at night but we are expecting temperatures above 30C all next week.
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I can relate:
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Awwwww! Are those your chickens? What’s it like having them?
My cherry tomato plants, both the desired one and the undesired one, have found a previously-unknown fifth gear and are almost literally throwing tomatoes at me from across the yard.
The single slicer, which I believe is a purple cherokee (but could be a black krim), had an initial burst of enormous fruit, then took a breather, and is now about to produce a second round of more reasonably-sized tomatoes.
The San Marzano continues to both die and produce fruit at the same time, so I do micro-batches of canned chopped SM’s to handle the flow.
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Peppers! I am hoping to get enough ripe poblanos at once to make some jelly, but I think I may have to freeze some, or use some red Italian frying peppers.
Espelette; drying.
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Upstate gardening graciously provided us with enough lettuce, cucumber, carrot and basil for one salad. Keep up the good work, garden!
But the future looks bright!
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It’s not too much trouble. Just have to keep them fed and they seem happy.
Fresh eggs are always a nice treat.
Can you describe the community? My old supervisor kept some, and some farms nearby.
Around here they need protection from fire and predators. So far that’s given me pause. And husband; he gives me pause too.
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Well, raising chickens in your backyard is not hard.
You need (1) space (2) patience (3) time and (4) money.
To start.
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Check with your city or municipality to make sure you are permitted, or more precisely not unauthorized from doing so.
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Find enough space. About 10 sq/ft per chicken, so for 6-8 chickens plan for a coup of at least 12’ x 20’ – this is especially true if you don’t plan on regularly having your chickens roaming your backyard (which we generally don’t but we do let them roam occasionally).
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Nesting boxes (a place for them to lay eggs). You’ll need about 1 for every 3 chickens.
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Put aside enough money. Raising chickens are not cheap. Aside from the cost of building the coop, you need to buy the bird, and buy feed for the bird (roughly $15/month) and then regular maintenance costs.
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Water. You’ll need a water dispenser of some sort, and come to grips that chickens are thirsty creatures.
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Shit. Your responsible for cleaning it. Even if you have a droppings board (which you should) or hemp bedding. It’s a chore. Enjoy.
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Compost. You can put that shit to good use, as mixture into your compost and essentially use it to fertilize your garden.
Other than than, chickens are relatively low maintenance. They don’t need to be walked, they don’t need petting, they don’t really get sick, per se, and they are relatively quiet creatures (at least so far).
Plus they are too dumb to become attached to you, reciprocate appropriately.
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My brother’s neighbor has a tiny bush that is always loaded with pomegranates, I don’t understand how. (Our bush was tragically unproductive — it grew a few, but they were anorexic).
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Most likely lack of irrigation and/or fertilizer.
They thrive in a soil pH of 5.5-7 and as is common with most plants, will benefit from a layer of organic mulch. Twice a year, you need to add fertilizer to your soil to give your pomegranate trees the nutrients they need. While they can survive in poor soil, they’ll thrive in soil that is amended. By adding fertilizer to the soil during these periods, you can replenish the nutrients that the pomegranate trees have absorbed and even change the pH of the soil to make it more acidic for the trees.
Checking the moisture level of your soil. Use a soil probe to check the moisture or just dig down 6 to 12 inches and check how moist the soil is by hand. If its dry, your tree needs more and more consistent irrigation. Do you have a drip or sprinkler system?
Honestly, without playing arborist on HO (I only play one in real life), it looks like your tree is thirsty, and as you rightly note, anorexic. So feed them a good meal or two!
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It was irrigated and fertilized, problem was it was in a small pot and couldn’t be replanted until the yard was redone which was impending for way longer than expected because of COVID.
Btw that’s the neighbor’s bush, which looks sad in my pic, but at the size of a small person was loaded with as much plump fruit as a farmers market 
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I know someone who was quite connected to her chickens, geese and ducks. She seemed to think they laid more eggs jf she talked to them sweetly and patted them.
I don’t know if chickens are too dumb to get attached.
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Nice write up! If I may add, SUFFICIENT protected enclosures, coverings, and housing. Birds of prey (owls and hawks in our neighborhood) and four legged hunters (fox, racoons, bears) are pretty crafty in getting into the hen house. Protection from the elements, also. Some clean, hopefully rotating outdoor running space for peck and scratch. Raising chickens and other small fowl can be a valuable family learning experience. Spoken from my time at the coop.
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This! Folks find “parts” around here, and that would freak me out. My son had many of his killed, but that was in Turkey , and it was by a dog. 
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Those who have chickens, do you do anything different when it gets really hot? Say 95+?
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