Another Seed Offering and Chicken (Mis)Adventures!

Greetings Folks,

I want to pass on to you, my subscribers, a special seed offering, but before I do I have to relate an extraordinary occurrence that happened to me a couple of days ago.

I had finished my morning chores and was enjoying breakfast when I heard our chickens going crazy! The rooster was super loud, calling out, warning of danger, and even the hens were making a louder-than-usual ruckus. At first I thought it was our neighbour— who also has chickens— but with a jump up I remembered that he doesn’t own a rooster. Plus, our two dogs were barking and eager to get out, a sure sign that something was up.

We ran to the back of our property (about 600 ft.) where the chickens are being housed in the big greenhouse. They really like it, as it is warm and dry and there is lots to pick at in there, being 20’ by 100’ long. The greenhouses work pretty well for housing chickens in the winter, as they clean up crop leftovers and fertilize at the same time. But occasionally a raven or raccoon slips in.

I thought it was a brazen raccoon, come to hunt during the day, but no, I could see from afar something flying in the greenhouse and dropping like a rock every few seconds. “Damn those ravens!” I thought. They are a constant threat to our birds, and we have had to actually cage them in a mobile chicken tractor during the warmer months or we lose one every couple of weeks. Chicken tractors are okay— they are safe and we move them every other day, but I do prefer for them to be completely free range. However, in my area of Gabriola, nobody free ranges their chickens. The predation is too intense.

When I entered the greenhouse I was shocked to see of all things, a massive Red-Tailed Hawk in full pursuit of whatever chicken it could get. Of course it was chaos. The dogs went ballistic, the chickens continued their screaming and squawking with feathers flying, and the hawk, after a few more unsuccessful dive bombs, tried to escape by flying through the greenhouse covering. When that didn’t work it decided to go on the offensive and swoop by me (being the tallest I suppose) with talons fully extended.

Now I don’t know where you all stand with respect to dealing with “pests” on the farm. Many farmers have the “SSSH” approach. Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up. Me, I try to avoid that if possible, and in any case I could not imagine hurting this magnificent bird.

As you can see he is absolutely beautiful— and really pissed off at me for ruining his morning! I was in a quandary though: How to get this bird out of the greenhouse and on its way without getting hurt myself (or my dogs), and without damaging him.

Luckily, on the way down to the greenhouse I had grabbed a leaf rake and was using it as a shield as the hawk flew by. I saw my chance as it bounced off the plastic again and jumped up—trying to be as gentle as I could— and used the fan part of the rake to force it to the ground. ( As an aside, the wingspan on this hawk was 2-3 feet and those talons and beak are big and sharp. It was pretty scary! He moved very fast and it had no problem with hurting me.)

Once it was on the ground it stopped moving and just lay there with its talons pointing up, daring me to get close. I reversed the rake and slowly, gently, slid him out of greenhouse over the next few minutes. Interestingly, once he was on his back he didn’t move at all, and allowed me to slide him forty feet and out the door. The picture is just after he got back up, and a few seconds before he took off. Unhurt, I believe.

The chickens were all fine too. Whew! Now, to the seed offering.

Last year I did a grow out of several kinds of sweet Italian frying peppers. I mixed them up in the bed and let any bees cross them. Peppers are self-pollinating, but they can be crossed by bees moving the pollen from flower to flower. So some of the seeds would be just like in the picture— the ones that weren’t crossed— and some will be mixes of what you see above. Why do this?

I do this this because it is fun, and this is how new varieties have come down to us over the last ten thousand years. Also, in a time when diversity is decreasing, in favour of bland supermarket varieties, I say we should create more varieties. I offer this to you because I want to encourage more people to be comfortable with diversity in their garden, when growing a pepper, or a tomato, or whatever, and get away from the monotony of hybrids. It may also embolden some of you to become seed savers yourselves.

Who know what kind of crosses might come from this? If something unique comes out, just save the seeds! This is a first come, first serve deal that wont last long because I only have a small amount of stock. You can find it below.

Until the next time, “keep calm and farm on”.