Turns out, it was actually a tornado.

We did get hit with intense storm winds a week and a bit ago. I was actually watching it hit, out the house windows, with Eleanor. To me it looked like a "downburst"; very high straight-line storm winds. We saw big trees breaking; and it left our woods-road blocked with several big oaks down across it.

Now it turns out, it was indeed a documented tornado, that worked its way across much of Fillmore county. Pretty exciting.

What hit us was clearly not the horrific circulating winds of a tight "finger"; but it was some part of a tornado, nonetheless.

We lost 3 big apple trees that were uprooted. But the damage to the hazels, chestnuts, and hickories, was really extremely slight. That part, at least, is encouraging.

LIMITED TIME: Survivor Butternuts ready to ship!

Hello folks,

Even with the tornado last week and missing staff this week, we are working through the shipping queue for standard hazel tubelings– this week we should be getting to ship hazel orders paid last December and January. Chestnut and hickory shipping is still a few weeks off, however.

Also, our new secretary is starting to get up to speed and should be able to handle some of your more urgent customer service inquiries tomorrow.

---->>> This note is about Butternuts, ready to ship this week! These are our Survivor butternuts, see the Butternut catalog page and Badgersett Bulletin 8 for details, but NOT for current pricing, which is below.

We were able to dig most of our remaining bare-root butternut nursery stock this spring. This is 6-0 and some 7-0 stock, which was coppiced last year and has grown back. Although there may be a very few available next spring, this may be the last time we ship butternuts for five years or more.

Rather than sell by age this year we are selling by size:

Normal, 30-40 available: tops about 12-24", at the old 5-0 prices:

1–5: $14.60 ea; 6-15: $11.20 ea; >15: $8.50 ea

Magnum, 15 available: tops generally 24" or over, with particularly robust root systems.

$18 ea.

Shipping and handling is $18 for orders under $100, or 15% for orders over $100. This is higher than for our other plants, because they are substantially larger and it takes more work to get them from our field to your forest.

These will ship "as soon as possible", this week and early next week; we'll try to do particularly quick turn-arounds on the butternut orders because there are only a couple of weeks left before they start getting too delicate to ship safely.

To place an order, use the prices above and the email form linked here.

Free Range Chicken & Guinea Hatching Eggs For Sale

Ameraucana and Brahma eggs

If you're not already aware, we're now keeping/growing both chickens and guinea fowl at Badgersett Farm, as an integrated part of growing the nut crops.

The birds provide multiple services, and produce multiple products. They eat grass (way more than expected, particularly the guineas) and reduce our mowing costs; they eat bugs constantly, we hope including nut weevils, they provide substantial rapid fertility to the plants, and they adjust the soil pH upward, again, more than expected. Besides which, we get eggs and meat.

We are keeping records of costs/expenses and our expectation at this point is that the birds contribute far more positives than they cost.

Right now- we are able to offer both chicken and guinea "hatching eggs" for sale; specifically these are eggs from selected parents, and from birds that have proven to be survivors in a complex true free range environment.

Virtually all the chickens available commercially have been selected for only 1 of several factors; maximum meat, OR maximum egg production, OR "beauty". Finding stock that is selected for multiple traits is extremely difficult; and finding chicks or eggs from long-term free range flocks is likewise difficult.

Our chickens will be: hybrids! Big surprise! But not random mutts. Inevitably, I am unable to prevent myself from working on improving the genetics of our birds. The pure strains we've tested have always been strong on one or two characteristics, and weak on others. We need birds that fit our situation; so we're breeding for what we need.

Chicken eggs available are from a pen with two roosters; a pure Partridge Cochin

and a rooster hatched here last year, 1/2 Buff Orpington 1/2 Ameraucana.

The hens in this particular chicken tractor are 6 Ameraucanas, 3 Brahmas, and 1 Blue Cochin. The Ameraucanas are 2 years old, the others 1; all surviving as total free range during the day, and enclosed at night (our big predator problem is owls).

The list of characters we are selecting/breeding for is too long for this post; but includes large adult size (less hawk problems) and good potential for going "broody" - the ability to hatch their own eggs, and mother the chicks.

The guinea hatching eggs we have at the moment are much less well defined; but include survival as free range birds as the largest factor.

We can ship eggs to you; or you can pick them up here (always best). We can not guarantee your eggs will hatch (no one in the business can or does) - but what we DO guarantee is that they are fresh and fertile when we deliver them to you or the post office.

We haven't done this before! (selling hatching eggs) so we'll be feeling our way into it. Please ask your questions here on the blog, that will help.

PRICES: Chicken hatching eggs: $4.00 each; guinea hatching eggs; $3.00 each; plus shipping, of course.

Email or give us a call to arrange it– orders@badgersett.com; 888-557-4211

Hickory buds

Every once in a while, we do try to grab just a bit of the beauty that is zooming past us. Yesterday I ran out for a few minutes to take just a few pictures of the hybrid hickory buds. I wanted to send them to Denise, who did such a spectacular job with her illustrations of the hazels. (Incidentally; she was awarded the Silver Gilt Medal at the Royal Horticultural Society art show; which means she now has the very great honor that she may show any of her art at that show for the next 5 years, without submitting it for preliminary approval; a very big deal!)

In spite of these being very hurried pics, a couple of them turned out not awful anyway. So I thought I would let you see another benefit to growing these hybrids; a brief gorgeous bit of nature that few know exists; the slow blossoming-opening of the apical buds of hickories. Click on any of these for a bigger view; and then magnify to see full size images.

Above is what the swollen buds look like just before they break open- furry gold. This one is really worth the click and magnify process to fully appreciate.

These are showing their shagbark and shellbark ancestors; buds of pecans and other hickories are not this showy. At the right stage, some of these trees can look like flowering magnolias; gorgeous, and startling.

Shipping Status Etc., and BUTTERNUTS

We expect to start shipping standard hazel tubelings on Wednesday, pretty much right on time! - 5/15 is our earliest possible ship date, and we usually ship standard tubelings Wed-Thurs of each week so that they arrive for the weekend ready to plant.

PRETTY PLEASE keep in mind that there are 155 orders on the shipping queue- and the first one placed in 2011 is number 76 in line. Not all the plants are ready, and we don't currently have the capacity to ship that many orders in a day anyway.

Also- much to our dismay, the personnel disruptions we had in February-March mean that our first CHESTNUTS WON'T SHIP UNTIL MID-JUNE. We apologize for this; if you had both hazels and chestnuts in your order you can either opt to wait until both are ready, or have us ship them separately when ready, at no further cost to you.

Most of the rest of our bare-root dormant tubeling orders will ship this week. If you ordered XL or Select bare-root hazels and specified no substitutions, we don't have it and most likely will not next year either. We will be contacting you regarding options for back-order, substitution, or refund.

GOOD NEWS! We DO have about 70 of our Survivor butternuts dug and ready to ship– these are 6-0 and 7-0, coppiced last spring with the summers' re-growth. We have mostly "normal sized" plants, about 12-24" tops, at the old 5-0 prices, and about 16 "magnum" plants, with tops generally 24" or over, and particularly robust roots– these are $18 apiece. I'll be sending out an email with the details as soon as I can- THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME WE SHIP THESE at least for the next 5 years.