Update Part 2 - Indoor Lab

In addition to the outdoor planting we have a few things going on in the indoor lab.... growing tomato starts, pepper starts, water melon starts, and...... chickens.

Grow rack for the tomato and pepper starts.

I started the tomatoes(Celebrity, Comstock Slice and Serve, Amish Paste, and Sweet 100's) and peppers(Anahiem, Jalapeno, Scottish Bonnet, Chinese 5 Color, Ghost Pepper, Hungarian Hot Wax, Habanero, Lilac Bell, and California Wonder)  starts back in the last week on March and they are growing good.  We have added a small greenhouse that we transfer the starts to when they are done with the grow rack. A couple of days ago I just started the watermelons(Crimson Sweet. Moon and Starts, Navajo Winter Melon, and Blacktail Mountain)

We got 10 chickens and they are around 4 and half weeks old. They grow up fast. Listed below is the breeds and names(the ones that have names at least). If anybody has any suggestions for names for the other chickens, I am all ears.

• 1 x Barred Rock(Amelia)
• 2 x Red Sex Links
• 1 x Copper Maran(Skittles)
• 2 x Easter Eggers(Bunny, Twila Juna-Fire)
• 2 x California Whites(Minnie, Melanie)
• 2 x Australorp

1 Week

3 Weeks

4 and half weeks

Needless to say a chicken coop in in order and I will be working on that here very shortly. The coop that I am designing is more of a chicken "sled". It is a cross between a chicken tractor and a more permanent structure. After a lot of thought about the design, I wanted something that conveyed a aura of permanence yet allowed it the coop to be moved during the season as I see fit. I.E. the spring, summer, and fall it could be placed in the pasture and in the winter it could be brought up near the house to allow me to run electricity for coop heat and to keep the water from freezing, etc....  The coop should be started here in the next couple of days and I will post updates as it progresses.