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Gapeys Grub

Paula Thomas's homestead and food adventures

Category: Chickens

Brinsea Maxi II Advance Hatch

My first incubator was the Brinsea Mini Advance. It is a great incubator and have used it for a few hatches but it only holds 7 eggs. I ended up borrowing a Hovabator last Fall for a hatch because they didn’t all fit in the Brinsea. I was not a big fan of the Hovabator… Read More Brinsea Maxi II Advance Hatch

March 26, 2017May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Hatching Shipped Eggs

Hatching shipped eggs is not nearly as successful as local eggs even if you are lucky enough to get the shipped eggs to your door without them breaking. I would recommend buying local if at all possible to get a better success rate. The most common problem with shipped eggs is a detached or displaced… Read More Hatching Shipped Eggs

April 27, 2016May 14, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Olive Egger Chickens

I wanted to post some information on olive egger chickens and the Isbar x Marans cross in particular because there is not a lot of information out there about this cross. Olive Eggers and Easter Eggers are considered colored egg laying mutts of the chicken world. They are made up by crossing various chicken breeds… Read More Olive Egger Chickens

February 26, 2016May 14, 2020 gapey8 Comments

2015 Chicken Additions

Over the past 4 months my flock of chickens has grown by 6 so I thought I would give an introduction now that they are nearly all grown up. This is Agnes, a silver laced wyandotte. I always thought wyandottes were one of the prettiest breeds and they are also known to be one of… Read More 2015 Chicken Additions

December 2, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Seattle Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour

Seattle Tilth put on an urban farm tour that consisted of 25 different farms to visit in 6 hours. I don’t think there’s any way to have done them all in that amount of time. We studied the various farms and decided to stick to the 15 located in North Seattle and we made it… Read More Seattle Chicken Coop and Urban Farm Tour

July 26, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Meet my Chickens

I currently have 9 hens in my flock of chickens and each one of them has their own personality so I wanted to introduce them and provide a little bit of info about each one. I have four different breeds. The buff orpington and production reds came with the house I bought last summer and… Read More Meet my Chickens

March 19, 2015May 14, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Christmas Wreath Treat for Chickens Recipe

  This is a recipe I made for my chickens for Christmas. I have been hanging it up for them every day while they are free ranging and bring it in at night to keep the rats away from it. It’s a quick and easy recipe I found via Fresh Eggs Daily which is a… Read More Christmas Wreath Treat for Chickens Recipe

December 30, 2014May 14, 2020 gapey2 Comments

Instagram

These violas are everywhere in the front yard. They spread super easy and for the most part we let them go where they want. They’re easy enough to pull out if they encroach on other plants. It’s a great ground cover and so beautiful when in bloom. The foliage isn’t bad looking either. What’s your favorite ground cover?
Has anyone grown Korean Dark Green peppers? The seeds were from @bakercreekseeds and 2 of the 3 plants have some variegation but far as I know they aren't supposed to be variegated but this is my first time growing them. 🤔 Have you grown them?
We were falling behind when things were blooming last year. But we got a heat wave over the weekend that got us caught up. Last two days we’ve had highs in the 80s which is very unusual for Western Washington this time of year. This pulmonaria is one of many flowers that just opened up from the heat wave. Just love the foliage on this shade loving plant and it’s deer and rabbit resistant!
The bees are filling up their boxes fast this year and this nice weather has them bringing in nectar earlier than usual. No one seems to know what they’re foraging on since big leaf maple isn’t quite in bloom yet. I put honey supers on the 2 front yard hives and one of the backyard hives so we’ll see what they bring in this spring. Got a new mated queen from @snohobeeco since the one I split a few weeks ago didn’t appear to raise one themselves. The challenge now is to not let any swarm and hopefully not split any until after maple is done. Splits during a main honey flow reduces the amount they make so I avoid it if possible.
Happy #flowerfriday! The fritillaria (checkered lily) are blooming. Glad I saw them before the slugs got to them all. They had already taken out a few of the blooms. Such a unique flower! 😍 What’s your favorite spring flower?
I’ve been working on a grow tent makeover. @official_marshydro gifted me a TSL 2000 to replace my old blurple Maxsisun to finish it off. You’ll be seeing more of this light in upcoming grow room videos. The unboxing and assembly is up now on my channel. Do you use LED grow lights?
I’ve been working on getting the annuum peppers potted up into larger containers. Only 18 more to go! This variety I got from Timothy Moltrup. He calls it Chloe’s sweet tangerine.
I decided to do an experiment after pruning some of my fig trees. Several of them did not fully lignify for the winter and were still somewhat green. I couldn’t find any info on if these type of cuttings would root so I gave it a try and this white madeira looks very happy so I guess it can be done. I like rooting in these clear cups so I can see the root development to help determine when to pot up into a bigger container. I keep the roots from light by keeping in a solid cup which also allows for bottom watering.
This white seeded samara lettuce is so pretty and is cold hardy too which I learned by mistake. The starts I shared yesterday all spent the night outside and got hit with a low of 26 degrees. Everything was pretty frosty in the morning but everything survived! I’d say they’re ready to go in the ground.
Been working on hardening off the first trays of starts this week and will be having a small plant sale. The summer starts will be available next month. I’ve got lettuces, kales, broccoli, celery, thyme and calendulas in this batch. I still need to get some of these potted up into 3.5” pots. Who wants some?
@maginashun found a cute potting bench at @secondusebuildingmaterials for my grow room! Just finished filling it up and getting ready to pot up some more peppers. Love it!
Look at how beautifully red this anemone is? @haldengarden sent me a great collection of them last year to try out and I get excited for each to bloom because they’re all different. Do you grow anemones?

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