Isn’t it just amazing how garden plants can grow in just one month? In June, I reported that my urban backyard garden had shoulder-height tomato plants – now they're eight feet tall and threatening to cascade down the side of their five-foot wire cages. Never have I had tomato plants this tall in July. I’m finally beginning to believe the topsoil I thought was just nasty clay is actually a super-soil! I did add some homemade fertilizer to the soil when I planted and a month later doused each plant with a fish-fertilizer mixture. Twice I added a thin layer of fresh grass clippings. So, I really don’t know which was most effective! But the bottom line is the garden is growing well and the veggies are rolling into the kitchen.

That over-sized red roasting pepper I told about in How Does the Garden Grow finally stopped growing at 10 inches and turned a lovely shade of red. Last weekend, I cut it into four long slices and roasted them over the grill. I was quite pleased with the results - a bit charred for that great roasted flavor but not over done. I shared a slice with my pepper-loving neighbor – he wants to grow them in his garden next year.

We experienced some 100 degree Fahrenheit weather in June that kept the tomatoes from setting fruit. So there is a space of about two feet on each plant where there are no tomatoes. But the early set fruit is ripening and we have enjoyed a lovely Cherokee purple tomato, my very favorite, sweet-not-acidic heirloom tomato. Now, the top of the tall hybrid tomato plants and the shorter heirloom ones are filling out nicely with fruit that should be ripe in a few weeks. It's so hard to wait to eat warm tomatoes, straight from the patch.

Our local farmers’ market has had some wonderful new potatoes. Oh – their taste can’t be compared to grocery store russets. My potato plants have grown well, but I don’t know yet what's hiding under the straw mulch. Usually I dig into the soil to clip off a few new potatoes that are close to the surface. But I’ve decided to wait to dig this year until the plants die down, allowing the potatoes to grow as big as they can. The new house has a basement and I’m hoping the spuds will keep well down there.

On the south side of the house, next to the driveway, I planted lavender, thyme, sage, tarragon and oregano. The oregano gave up the ghost in just a few weeks, but the rest of the herbs have done exceptionally well. I planted three varieties of lavender and the Goodwin Creek variety (Lavendula heterophylla) is just gorgeous! It has deep cut, silvery leaves. I plan to buy more, if this plant makes it through the winter and comes out OK next spring.

There are just so many veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers to tempt a gardener. It's hard to know when to stop planting and just enjoy the spectacle.

Photo by Heidi Hunt

In my previous post, you were introduced to my new adventures in quail raising. To catch you up, I now have three coturnix (also known as Japanese) quails, one male and two females (Bebee, Doug and Skeeter, respectively).

Unlike chickens, which can take as long as six months to begin laying, quails will lay, at the earliest, at six weeks of age. One of my females, Skeeter, began laying at six weeks one day and has steadily produced an egg a day since. The other female, Doug, has not yet begun, but this isn’t unusual for seven weeks.

This fast-laying nature, and the normally calm disposition of the quail coupled with its relatively small need for space, makes it ideal for raising in an urban environment. Plus, they produce more eggs per/amount of feed than any chicken.

Quails are also a great urban addition, because it's easy to quickly determine their sex, which is helpful if you want fertile eggs to hatch, or if you want as many layers (females) as possible. While chicken roosters would be a nuisance (and maybe a citation) in any urban environment, quail roosters are much calmer and, outside of some coloring variations and a unique “call,” are relatively similar to the females.

These images show the differences in coloration between the male and the female, the females being the birds on either end in the photo above (Left image, left quail: female), (right image, right quail: female). Females have spotted, light-colored breasts, while the male's breast lacks spots (for the most part) and has a rusty color, similar to a robin. The males also have a darker, rusty coloration to their face, around the eyes.

To read more about my quail-raising adventures, visit part one in my series, "Meet my Pet Quails."

Photos by Taylor Miller 

Bob Berry owns Bob’s Biddies, a small hatchery that specializes in Rhode Island Red and Dominique chickens in Ray City, Ga. Berry hatches 1,000 Rhode Island Red chicks and 500 Dominique chicks each month throughout the year. About 85 percent of the eggs he incubates hatch. We talked with Berry to ask his advice on incubating eggs.

How did you get started in the hatchery business?

When I was a youngster, we always raised a lot of chickens. Some were sold as grown chickens, and we sold eggs, too. I’ve always had a love for chickens. Taking care of them was part of my daily chores.

My professional career took me a different route. When I had to retire, my wife Diane and I tried to come up with something that I could do while she’s at work. I decided to start working with poultry again .Because I have physical limitations, the hatchery venture seemed to make sense.

Why did you choose to specialize in Rhode Island Reds and Dominiques?

We tried other breeds. But the Rhode Island Reds and Dominiques are old breeds that most people are familiar with. Both breeds are great egg-layers.

What are the most important things to remember when incubating eggs?

Other than temperature, humidity is the most important thing. Keep it between 58 and 62 percent for the first 18 days of incubation. Increase humidity the three days prior to hatching.

Turning of the eggs frequently is also important.

There's no need to turn eggs while they're in storage prior to putting them in the incubator, but store them at 52 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

Don't wash eggs if you plan to incubate them.

Keep good records and calendar reminders, too. I move hatching eggs from the incubator to a hatcher unit a few days before they hatch. If you keep eggs in the incubator too long and they hatch while it is still in the rotation mode, you end up with a big mess. I’ve miscalculated days and speak from experience.

Do have any advice for starting chicks that come in the mail?

Just before a chick hatches, it absorbs the last part of the egg yoke, which allows the chick to survive the first three days without water or food. So, there’s only a small window of time to work with. I tell all of my customers to start the chicks on sugar water as soon as the chicks arrive — and keep them on this for the first two weeks. I have used this method for a long time, and it has proved itself. I also advise customers to get a good chick starter feed or a combination starter/grower.

As I went out with a bucket to feed my Australian Emus, there arose a raucous ruckus in the nearby, freshly hayed field. Cheee-cheee-cheeeeee! This is the alert of the guineas. Being a dutiful poultry keeper, I investigated and there it was ... poor thing! A small red fox was being routed by my guineas. Snatching up my digital camera, I ran out into the field to snap some shots of this common chicken predator. It’s one thing to say that guineas are the first alert system on any poultry operation; it’s another to see it. The photo shows the sad little fox making a dash home with no chicken dinner.

The first line of defense against poultry predators is well-constructed housing. I have no protected run for my chickens, as all my birds are free-ranging. In more restricted areas, you’ll need a run or portable coop for your birds during the day. High chicken-wire sides and netting on the top are adequate to curb birds of prey and rascally dogs in your neighborhood. At night, all poultry should be in a locked and secure roosting area, winter or summer. This is a necessity. Most predators visit at night — just at sunset and prior to sunrise. Leave no food or scraps around that would attract predators of chickens to a free meal. It’s best to feed your birds inside their enclosures, as they are also vulnerable when gathered at feeders.

Elevate your buildings. A coop constructed on stilts or a truss, such as those decks are built on, will prevent problems with mice and rats. Elevated structures also provide shelter for hens to run under in the case of a storm or high-speed flyby by a Red-tailed Hawk!

Guineas are a good first line of defense, as they fearlessly chase off dreaded squirrels, deer, stealthy cats, and — as of 20 minutes ago around here — a fox. Unfortunately, they also sound the alarm when they see the mail carrier, a new car, or their owner walking out of a side door to sip coffee in the morning sun! Their reputation as the noisiest barnyard residents is well earned. In exchange, they eat every imaginable bug.

This leads to a related topic ... snakes. Some perceive snakes as pests, or threats to their chickens: the dreaded egg-eaters, chick-snatchers or hen-stranglers. I understand that it’s easy to give a snake a thwack and appear the hero of the neighborhood. But consider what sort of snakes are actually in your area. Are they truly a threat to your livestock or to you?

Unless you live in Africa or Australia, chances are good that most snakes in your part of the country are helpful rather than detrimental. Consider the common garter snake (there are many sub-species). It eats slugs, worms, tiny amphibians and other creepy crawlers that most people want to eradicate. They don’t eat warm-blooded anything and cannot swallow a chicken egg. So, if you choose to be a meanie, then do what you will.

I say, “Save the snakes!” I leave you with an image of a little brown snake (also known as DeKay’s snake). It was under a water bucket, and I decided to photograph it for your viewing pleasure. It’s fat with slug supper, garnished with a worm or two. I picked it up and parked it neatly on this moss. Please focus on real pests and let nature benefit us with species already in place designed to do so.

If you'd like to learn more about raising chickens, check out the DVD, Regarding Chickens.

Photos by Frederick J. Dunn

In Life on the Homestead, an excerpt from Jenna Woginrich’s book, Made from Scratch, Jenna recounts sitting on a friend’s porch watching the “farm channel.” Her friend comes out of the house to look and says, “I’ve seen that episode.” A TV on the porch? Nope, just the daily antics of the farm residents — chickens, goats, pigs, horses …

If you have animals, you know how funny, endearing and frustrating they can be on occasion — great fodder for sitting-on-the-porch storytelling opportunities.

For instance, in a previous life I owned a pot-bellied pig that would get lonesome and walk about an eighth of a mile into the field to hang out with the horses. She could have come up to the porch and hung with the dogs, but she seemed to prefer horses. This was fine, except she never was aware when it was getting to be dusk. There she would be, stuck in the field. Alone. In the dark, snuffling and complaining. I would walk into the field calling her name, shine a flash light in front of her and we would walk, very slowly, with her following the little pool of light all the way back to her cozy pen.

Whether you have city dogs, cats or birds, or a farm full of livestock, you have some great stories to tell. Please share your favorite in the comments section below.

Photo by Vasyl Aleksuyk/Fotolia

In Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch, I wrote that there are pros and cons to both natural incubation (broody hens) and artificial incubation (using electric incubators). One of my broody hens left a nest of eggs, and the electricity was out for a while. But there’s good news, too.

Although the temperature in the electric incubator dropped to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 12 of the 35 pheasant eggs still hatched. That’s a 34 percent hatch rate. It wasn’t a total loss.

After the broody hen left the nest, I put them under a different broody and none of them hatched. (OK, that’s not good news.) But another broody did a great job and hatched seven of the nine eggs she was sitting on — a 78 percent hatch rate. Even if you average the two hens, that’s still a 39 percent hatch rate.

Of the 214 pheasant eggs we were incubating in the GQF 1202A incubator, 86 chicks hatched (40 percent). Because we wanted to set all the eggs at one time, we stored 152 of the hatching eggs for four days before them in the incubator. About 44 percent of the fresh eggs hatched. Only 39 percent of the eggs hatched from the group that was stored longer. All the eggs were shipped to us through the mail, so none were perfectly fresh.

We also didn’t turn 42 of the eggs for the first six days of incubation. This was a test to see how not turning the eggs would affect hatch rates. About 42 percent of the eggs that were turned more frequently hatched. They were turned automatically every four hours from the second day of incubation through the fifteenth day of incubation. Only 33 percent of the eggs that weren’t turned as frequently hatched. I stopped turning all the eggs about eight days before they hatched because I was going to be out of the office. Normally, I’d stop turning the eggs only three days before they’re supposed to hatch.

This was a limited test, but the advice of most experts to turn eggs frequently and not store them before incubation seems to be accurate. If you store eggs or don’t turn them, you can expect lower hatch rates. We also noticed several chicks with leg problems. Although this could be genetic, most likely the problems were due to infrequent turning of the eggs and storing the eggs too long.

Helen and Scott Nearing lived, celebrated and wrote about the good life. Their definition of the good life might not be everyone’s, but the Nearing's simple, well-ordered life of work, reading and writing, and involvement in the community, has inspired generations of homesteaders to emulate the results. For seven decades, the Nearings developed their New England homesteads by hand, building stone buildings and garden fences one rock at a time, earning cash from maple syrup and blueberries, and educating younger generations on the virtues of simplicity, hard work and self-sufficiency.

Helen and Scott said, "We maintain that a couple, of any age ... with a minimum of health, intelligence and capital, can adapt themselves to country living, learn its crafts, overcome its difficulties, and build up a life pattern rich in simple values and productive of personal and social good."

The Forest Farm, the Nearing’s home near Harborside, Maine, is now an educational facility, The Good Life Center. It is open year round for tours of the property, and in the summer sponsors Monday evening lectures on important topics of the day. They also offer workshops and classes on growing food, building low impact shelters and care of the natural world.

If your travel plans include a visit to New England, you might want to include a visit to The Good Life Center. It’s located right on the coast, on the beautiful Blue Hill peninsula, just south of Acadia National Park. If you go there, you can also visit the nearby farm stand of Mother Earth News contributors, Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. Sometimes the road taken can be life changing.

Photo by Jennifer Smith-Mayo

Thinking you might need a new mower this year?

Be sure to try out the zero-turn mowers that are now widely available, especially if you have lots of trees or other obstacles to steer around. The “zero-turn” steering mechanism is so quick and nimble that it actually makes mowing around stuff fun instead of a hassle.

You’ll find a full report and a list of manufacturers at: Zero-turn Mowers: Faster, Easier Mowing. And there’s even a brand-new all-electric Z-turn available — you can read all about Hustler Turf’s Zeon at Three Great Tools: Rogue Hoe, NRG Trowel and Zeon Electric Riding Mower.

Here at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we have chickens on the brain. First, we’re hatching dozens of eggs as part of our Community Chickens project, and there’s also our recent feature,  Raising Chickens for Meat, a fantastic how-to article on broiler chickens by SARE communications specialist Gwen Roland. In it, Roland discusses the benefits of raising your own table birds: lower price, better flavor and the satisfaction of avoiding factory-farmed meat. 

We know a lot of you raise chickens for superior eggs, but how many of you raise broilers? Is the thought of butchering your own birds too macabre? Let us know by posting a comment below.

Photo by iStockphoto/Eric Delmar

Meet Porkchop the coturnix quail (also known as Japanese quail). At the time this photo was taken, she was two weeks old. I think I should tell you, I have a colorful personality, a heart of gold when it comes to my animals and a knack for listing priorities others might call … off. So, when the team at MOTHER EARTH NEWS entrusted me with the care of four baby quails to participate in the Community Chickens project, the first thing I did was to name them: Doug, Beebe, Skeeter and Porkchop — all characters in the ’90s Nick cartoon, Doug (whose superhero alter-ego was, Quailman).

Each is identifiable by characteristic markings and personalities: Doug is the outcast who likes to be held. Skeeter is the squeeky one who hates being held. Beebe is the non-descript one who is afraid of being without Skeeter. And Porkchop is the fat, lazy one who plops down in the center of the food to eat and falls asleep on her back.

Having said all that, let’s not front: I know nothing about raising poultry; I never even had a cockatiel. But that’s the beauty of this project: People of all skill levels can come together to "new-fashion" sustainability and learn from each other. And for me, that starts with eggs. Tiny, speckled eggs.

Of 24 such quail hatching eggs sent by Purely Poultry, only four cracked open, and so they all came home with me. The night before they hatched, I set up a circular brooder with an infrared heat lamp, newspaper shreds, a water dish filled with rocks (so they wouldn’t drown), and game-bird starter food.

I had heard that quails are the wildest birds this side of Hitchcock, so my greatest determination was to have the calmest quails known to man. And because I take photos for a living, I was afraid these quails would be camera-shy. So, you can imagine my surprise when they were not only tame during the photo shoot, but downright "posey." Again, these shots were taken when they were two weeks old.

Can’t you just read their personalities through the pictures? Try to guess which is which, and find the answers by clicking the "comments" link below. And while you’re there, let me know what you think!

Click here for Part II in my series, Quail Keeping: Gender Differentiation.

Update: I lost poor Porkchop three weeks into the project when her leg was caught on the brooder cage and snapped. It was a great tragedy, a terrible accident, and I was devastated, to say the least. As I held my bleeding bird, wrapped in a warm towel, a few of my friends tried to find me a vet, and although I live in a somewhat metropolitan area, no clinics were prepared to handle a quail, and Porkchop had to suffer because of it. I did not want Porkchop to be in pain, however, and so my vet offered to put her down. She died on the way to the clinic. 

Shake your quail feathers, she will be missed. <3

Photos by Taylor Miller 

Who can resist estimating or daydreaming about how many of the eggs in the incubator or under a broody hen will hatch? Hatching eggs is certainly exciting and fun.

For the Community Chickens project, we have 152 pheasant eggs from MacFarlane Pheasants and 62 from Oakwood Game Farm (a total of 214 eggs) in the GQF 1202A incubator. As a little experiment, I didn’t turn 42 of the eggs for the first six days. They were in the hatching tray instead of the trays that are turned automatically.

Most books recommend turning the eggs at least three times per day from the second day of incubation until about three days before the expected hatch date. Turning the eggs prevents the embryos from sticking to the shells and makes chicks stronger by giving them exercise. Some people I’ve spoken with say that turning eggs doesn’t increase hatch rates or health of chicks at all. The pheasant eggs should hatch late next week. I’ll share the results with you.

So that we don’t have all our pheasant eggs in one incubator, I also have 35 eggs in the Brinsea Octogon 20 Eco in my basement. Yesterday when I came home from work, an electrical breaker had flipped, and the incubator wasn’t getting electricity. The eggs had cooled below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m not sure how long they were chilled, but I hope the eggs were far enough into the incubation (two weeks) that some of the embryos will still survive.

I also have two broody chicken hens setting on nine eggs each. This morning when I opened the crate to water one of them, she left the nest. Sometimes a broody hen will do this just to stretch, eat and defecate. Other times she’ll leave for good. She didn’t return to the nest after about 15 minutes, so I put her eggs under another broody hen that was setting on two infertile eggs. I left the infertile eggs for the hen that left the nest, just in case she returns.

Between an electricity outage and an unreliable broody hen, I many not get any chicks or pheasant chicks at home. Then again, you never know. There’s no point in trying to count them now — until they’ve hatched.