The Chicken Saga

It seems as though when ever updating our laying hens, comes into conversation there is a soft hearted 7 year old that bursts into tears and says "Not Cricket."   He has a special bond with this one.  She was one of the first and fell asleep in Adin's hands as a chick.  :(

You see our girls are getting older and not producing they way they used to... they didn't produce a single thing for months this fall.  Then I started talking about butchering all the girls but the 2 youngest and now, with the cold and everything I have eggs.

 I don't think all of them are laying, but it is so hard to figure out which egg goes with which lady.  I know Lucy's egg, she is a Leghorn = white egg.  But then there are Lady Cluck and Red who are Buffs, Cricket who is a Dominique, Fancy Nancy who is an Australop and Cinnamon who we think is a Rhode Island Red (she was an "oops" in the first meat chick batch last summer - she was not a Cornish Cross).  All of these ladies lay brown eggs.  Miss Cricket has always laid these petite perfect eggs and we just haven't gotten one in a while and Cinnamon is just now starting, I think they are her's, giant eggs (we have only had 3 so far.)

In the winter we have only one of our two coops running as we only winter over 6-7 birds (Swamp the roo included) and use the 2nd in the summer for our meat chickens.  But I am thinking of firing up the 2nd one a separating some out to see which lady is laying what or not at all.  Then I can do some selective butchering and maybe get a few new pullets from a co-worker of my hubby and get some more egg production going.

We'll have to see.  I keep telling the kids that this is what raising chickens is all about: food.  It is it too much for him, I may have to seek retirement housing for Cricket at my sister's coop.  Sis had a hard time putting any of her girls down and seeing as I took Swamp off her hands, maybe that will work.  Hmmmm.

A New Boy

A couple of weeks ago we received a new face around these parts and boy is he a beauty.  At least I think so, our feathery girls not so much at first.  "Swampy" is our newest coop resident, who came to us by way of my Sis.  Seeing as he is very talkative she figured country life was better suited for him.  Swamp or Swampy is a Golden Laced Wyandotte who is very "gabby." 

Until this point there had never been an "intruder" enter into this now flock of two until Swampy came along, so we never had any chicken fights.  Boy did we find out who was the queen of the roost.  Cricket was not happy about this new boy, but Lucy was very intrigued and follow the new Mr. Swamp everywhere he went.  The first morning as I went to check on them, all 3 residents had feathers out of place, but seemed to be getting along much better.

Now that it has been a few weeks, the girls are getting used to the new resident (he and Lucy hang out all the time) and Cricket is at least being civil.

Moving Day

Big day for the chickies... it was moving day!  What a circus that was. 

Now if you know my hubby, you will know that when he builds or makes anything, he does a great job and it is built to last (Forever!), but it usually gets pretty big.  The Chicken Tractors are no exception.  We knew moving them was going to be hard, especially when we knew we wanted to move them to the top of the hill from in front of the barn.  

Anyway,  Scott braced them up and built a wheel carriage, that we hoisted and pushed to get it under the tractor, then we used the winch connected to a chain to lift the other end.  The original plan was to pull the tractor with the 4-wheeler, this would require driving backwards.  That worked to a small degree, but the 4-wheeler just didn't have enough oomph to pull it up the hill, so I said we should try and push it up the hill.  YIKES! This was a bit scary.  I do have to say that I became a pretty good "Tractor" driver if I do say so myself.  Scott directed and watched so it didn't tip and up the hill we went, twice, one with each tractor.  The second was much lighter because it didn't have the siding on it yet. 

All braced up and ready to go.

Uphill progress.  We did have to stop once to re-position the wheels.

Set in it's spot before bracing was removed.

They are now parked next to each other on the other side of the playground.  Let me tell you, I do not know who was more excited about the move, Adin or the chicks.  I just couldn't get them in there fast enough.

Adin giving them the tour.  He even pointed out the nest boxes and told them that was were they were to lay their eggs.

Babies checking things out.

Dora stopping to say Hola!

On one of the many walking trips up and down the hill this evening, I did discover a small blueberry plant that actually had 2 ripe berries, one for Adin and one for me.  I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning, hiking in the woods to check out the wild blueberry plants.  :)  They are about 2 weeks later this year than last year.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  Now to go and put the babies to bed in there new home and then to hit the pillow myself. 

Girls Day Out & Coop Updates

This weekend the girls (and a boy) enjoyed their first time exploring the yard. They are all growing so fast and changing everyday.  Their fluff feathers are disappearing and their big girl feathers are coming in beautifully.  We are going to have some pretty girls (and one boy).

L to R: Honey, Cricket and Lucy enjoying their first adventure outside.

Cricket and her favorite Adin.

 Cricket and Adin are buddies. She loves being held and is always looking for her Adin.  Most days when he is holding her, she snuggles up in his hands and falls asleep.

Coop update: We are hoping to finish them today.  Cross our fingers.

Adin and Daddy working on the nest boxes.

The Tractor:  we are going to finish putting the cedar siding on it. 

Roost poles and a poo shoot for easy cleaning

Flap lifts open to clean under the roosts

Adin helping me put down the flooring for more easy cleaning.  More recycling.

Nice new floor.

I am so looking forward to getting this done so we can get the kids outside and out of my sun room.  They need more space to play and be able to get in the grass without me sitting there with them.  They are still to small in my eyes to be running free without adult supervision.  Call me a protective mommy. 

Off to finish some baking then outside to work on coops and garden projects.  Enjoy your day, I hope it is as beautiful where ever you are as it is here.  :)

Chicken Coop ~ A Reality

This weekend my dream of having a chicken coop and chickens started to become a reality.  Once again plans changed and instead of building the coop in conjunction with the green house and dog kennels we decided to make chicken tractors.  This way we can move them around and help out our lawn and other areas with good fertilization.

Scott has been looking online for ideas and found a fun looking one on craig's list I believe, so that is what we are building.  We are trying to recycle materials we have and that some friends have also.  We are getting some old ceder siding from one of Scott's co-workers and we have a ton of fencing that was around the back yard when we moved in, to make the run.  We also have some shingles that we found in the old "out building" that we got rid of last year. 

Yesterday I ordered my first batch of 7 babies from My Pet Chicken which is where my sister orders her chicks from.  I wanted chickens that were winter hardy and good layers so I chose Red Stars, Buff Orpingtons, Leghorns, and Dominiques.  They should be here the week of June 13.  There are a few other breeds that I want but they were not available until later in the summer.  Those are Australorp, Wyandotte, Easter Eggers and Salmon Faverolles.  I'll get those later on.   

We are building 2 tractors and each will hold 8 chickens.  We plan on having layers and fryers so I also tried to choose breeds that are dual purpose.  The Red Stars are great layers and the roosters make good fryers so I ordered more of them and also did a straight run (which is cheaper) that way if we get some boys we can use them for meat.  I know for some people that is a hard concept, eating your pets, but I'm not getting chickens for just pets.  We are getting chickens to be more self sustaining and also we know how and where the chickens were raised.  Being a hunting/fishing family our kids are used to that process and can see animals for their beauty and for their food possibilities. 

So far in the building process we have the bottom run areas framed in and stained.  Next we are going to put the fencing on them and work up.  We have spent a lot of time on the layout of the tractors, trying to make them efficient and easy to maintain.  Seeing as how we did not have any green treated wood on hand, we used the 2x4's that we had and stained them the same dark brown as our garden fence frame.  That way the wood that will be exposed to the elements and the ground for the run will be protected.  I'll try and get some "Progress" pics posted soon.  Now I need to start looking for chicken feeding/watering supplies and a heat lamp to keep the babies warm.

Dreaming BIG!

So as summer work project season draws closer....who am I kidding, it is still many months away. I am at least going to start planning and dreaming about the summer work project season. Much better. Hubby and I have started to toss around the possibility of building that green house and chicken coop this summer/fall.

Chicken coop: We are for sure going to have layers as we go through tons of eggs and we LOVE fresh eggs. We are also tossing around the idea of adding fryers or as combo meat-eggs breed to the mix, obviously keeping the two separate for different feeding needs. Scott sees that as a good reason to get a plucker "for the chickens" that will also work on ducks and other game birds. For any of you out there who may be reading this and who have or are raising chickens, I would love to hear suggestions for coop ideas and breed ideas. We are in Zone 3 so we need hardy hens.

Green House: Just dreaming big on this one as I have no idea what is possible or even in the budget as of yet, but if I could have anything, these are some of the things I would want.
* Raised growing tables where I could grow some fresh veggies year round (provided we have this hooked up to our wood boiler.)
* lots of work space for potting and starting seeds.
* Soil bins that tip out like my Grandmother's flour bin. One for soil and one for completed compost.
* A lighting and watering system.
* A system to collect & store rain water.
I would love to hear other's dream green house components, things that are must-haves and can't live with outs.

I figure I might as well dream big and then pair it down from there to reality.

Garbage Can Potatoes: Part 2

Just wanted to update on the potato in the garbage can process... they are doing great! I have three 55 gal. cans (one for each of my kids) that the potatoes are growing like weeds. Elle's can (pictured) is doing the best, the plants are very tall and the flowers a beautiful. I never knew that the flowers were so pretty. Adin's can is next, with plants just peeking over the rim and Lizzy's can is getting close to the top. For some reason hers were a little slower to start in the growing, but they'll get there.

Now I just hope that there are potatoes growing under the soil that we have been so carefully tending too, watering, adding compost and more soil. Everything this year is an experiment for me as this is my first official vegetable garden, so we'll see how things go and we'll tweak things for the future. In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy these beautiful potato flowers.


Update on other aspects of life around our 20 ac. It is official... we are going to be putting in an outdoor wood furnace in the next month and a half. We are just waiting for the estimate from the company and digging up 2 double stumps next to out shed. I know that when we started this project we were going to build a new structure behind our house, change of plans. We now know that the shed is not to far away from the house, so we are going to put the stove next to the shed, utilize the lean to off of the shed for wood storage and build the chicken coop and green house off of the back of the shed. That way, less structure to build and we can heat the shed also. Love this idea. Right now we probably have almost 2 years of wood ready to be split. In the end this is going to be such a more cost effective way of heating our home and everything else. I am looking forward to finishing my flower garden next to the deck also once these water and heating lines go in. Right now it looks a bit funny with 4 feet of nothing in the middle of the flower bed. Soon oh very soon! Scott finished freezing the last 3 cases of corn the other night before I got home from work, so that was wonderful. Thanks hun! :)