Weekly Gardening Outlook - Empty Nest Syndrome, Indian Summer, and Transitioning into Fall

We apologize for the brief interruption in egg laying...

Empty nest boxes and feathers strewn about means it's molting season

The girls are not looking their best

See the new feathers growing in on this chicken's chest and throat

The chickens have been molting for the last two weeks.  This is a normal process where the chickens lose and replace their feathers.  It takes a lot of protein and energy to replace the feathers, so unfortunately for us the hen's body shuts down egg production to compensate.  It usually occurs once a year in the fall and lasts for 2-4 months.  Our chickens began their first year of production last December and this is their first molt.  That is 10 full months of production.  Because Black Australorps are known to be prolific layers and the fact that our flock produced for 10 straight months, we are hopeful they will be back into production by mid December.  Our flock of 6 hens has produced 1,500 eggs for us over the last 10 months.  I think they have earned a rest.

Eggs!

Update:  While this post was still under construction, I made my rounds checking on the garden, dogs, and chickens and checked the nest boxes just in case.  Look what I found!  It seems a couple of the girls are coming back into production after two weeks off.  This isn't unheard of as commercial egg laying operations are able to force molt their flocks in two weeks.  We have chosen not to do this though as it requires confinement and starving the birds for an extended period of time.  However our girls are doing it, we are thankful for some eggs!

Indian summer:

A bounty of green tomatoes in late October

Frost, frost, stay away

An unusual warm period is extending the summer crops a few weeks past the average first killing frost date.  As you can see, our tomatoes are loaded with fruit.  With the lowest predicted temperature in the next 10 days at 38 degrees, it looks like we are going to get an unexpected bounty!

Swiss chard, beautiful as always

Lettuce mix is growing well

Pink Beauty radishes are ready to eat

The Serrano peppers haven't handled the cooler weather well

The jalapeño peppers are doing a little better 

The bean pods saved for seed are drying out

The green onions are winding down

Prepping for fall gardening:

Trellises put away for winter

Being prepped for fall gardening

It's getting to be time to either put your summer garden to bed for the winter or begin making preparations for fall gardening.  I recently helped a customer harvest their sweet potatoes (look for a post on that soon).  While I was there, we removed the trellises, cleaned up the garden, and built a straw bale cold frame (also look for a post on that soon). They are going to grow kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, and turnips in the cold frame.

Weather outlook:

-Wild temperature swings from a high of 63 degrees today to a high of 81 degrees on Thursday.  It has been raining today and there is a good chance of rain as we approach the weekend.

-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Radishes

-Lettuce

-Peppers

-Tomatoes (Loaded with full sized fruit.  We are closely watching the overnight low temperatures)

-Chard

-Basil, mint, and other herbs (enjoying them while they last)