...on our little farm

[KimChick]

Lately, on our little farm, this is what's been happening:
There are eggs in the incubator (1st time in 2 yrs), and they will go into lockdown soon.
The kale in the vegetable garden survived the winter, and I picked a lot today to thin out each plant, leaving one shoot on each plant.
I also picked rhubarb and got it simmering on the stove, with some candied ginger and lime juice (and sugar).
Went out to gather eggs, found a dead hen in the barn & removed it, then went to get the mail.
Got in the house to a pot of rhubarb overflowing the pot. I had put it on the lowest simmer, too. Good thing we have a glass top stove, and the rhubarb didn't burn.
Re: the hen - I did not notice it waddling, but it had a swollen belly. I think it had ascites (or fatty liver syndrome?) or it layed internally. The hen was very heavy.

[labradors]

So sorry about your hen KimChick .
Leaving rhubarb simmering on the stove is something that I would do too! Good job that mine isn't big enough to pick yet :).
I'm getting a few spears of asparagus in my very overgrown asparagus garden which is impossible to weed. Hubby offered to mow it for me! Not at this time of the year!!!!!!

[thegawd]

Sounds like our homestead Kim! We had a very nice patch of rhubarb, that 2 escaped rabbits seemingly destroyed. I didn't think they would cause any harm, but they did. They also ate all the Kale down to the woody stalks, that wasn't that bad as we have a greenhouse full.

Man those rabbits were the biggest and fattest rabbits we ever processed and ate. My wife was able to make a lot of rabbit stock from them and guess what? They didn't kill the rhubarb! But we sure thought they did well we won't be having rhubarb for dessert this year. LOL

Only one question? Where's the pics? Haha

Cheers!

[Killerbunny]

Couple of years ago I had rhubard that suddenly disappeared. Looked like a sudden die back?

[ross]

Rhubarb flavoured rabbit , cool with ice cream for dessert

[thegawd]

Mmmmmhmmmmm the best roast rabbit we ever had. They were like 7 lbs cleaned. And that was without most of the fat.

[Jaye]

I didn't know that rabbits ate rhubarb ... I also didn't know they would ring bark the young fruit trees that we planted last year over the winter. It looks like only one apple planted two years ago, one cherry, and one plum tree will survive.
Our rhubarb was spared.

[KimChick]

I would never have known that rabbits eat rhubarb either.
As it turns out, the kale that came up from last year is going straight into bloom. Good thing I picked a bunch of new little leaves because we won't be keeping those kale plants.
I just finished incubating some chicken eggs and got an 80% hatch. I can live with that. The chicks are from a RIR rooster; hens are Barred Rocks, RSL, and RIR.
Question: What type of red chick has a couple of stripes down its back? One chick has stripes and all the others don't.

[Ontario Chick]

Either it's a chipmunk or it will be "laced" something.

Your comment about the kale reminded me of my Parsley that survived the winter and my joy at that lovely green bunch turned to realization that of course it's going to seed in the second year :)
Darn I thought I will just have parsley without any work this year.

[labradors]

Both the parsley and the kale will go to seed. Assuming they aren't hybrids, that could be a plus - if you can stand looking at an ugly plant for months! I have some parsnips that over-wintered and I plan to save the seeds as I know they will be fresh. Parsnip seeds are only good for one year (although I managed to stretch it to two :))