Life on the farm - It's kinda layed back

A few more photos of the new additions. I call them 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Sure was nice to get home from work and find this in the coop.

I put the eggs in the pile, but none were broken which is a big plus.  I'm sure the girls will love having more space and nesting boxes in the new coop.

And Christa went out last night to put up the chickens and found our old timer like this...

I have no idea how she found her way up there.  She's at least blind in one eye and perpetually confused.  We decided to put her in the coop last night and she did fine.  All the new girls left her alone and ended up sleeping outside in the run on the roost.  We'll see how they are doing when I get home tonight.

New additions

Well it finally is starting to feel like Spring in Alaska. Even though last Saturday I woke up to this.

But  most of the snow is gone in my yard and I'm finally starting to see green grass start to poke out.

We ended  up picking up 5 new chickens a few days ago.  More than I really wanted, but the lady was giving them away so we took them all.  I'll have some happy friends once out stockpile of fresh eggs is replenished and I start giving them away.

All five girls are Plymouth Rock Barred Hens, about a year old, and established layers.  As a matter of fact yesterday was their second day on the farm and we got 3 eggs.  We are slowly trying to integrate our last remaining legacy chicken, Nascar to the bunch.  And speaking of her, she started laying again as well once the weather finally warmed up.  I have her in the greenhouse quarantined from the other girls for now, but I've been letting them all roam the yard together and so far so good. All the new girls were excited about the treat block and fresh ground to scratch.  They are all nice sized birds and in a few years will make nice stew chickens.  We haven't named them and I don't know if we are going too.  It's not as hard to tell them apart as you think, but to be honest I'd never be able to keep 5 names straight with these girls.



 I also realized that the coop is now too small for 5 chickens let alone 6 if and when I can get Nascar in the new flock, so I'm working on a new coop.

I ordered some very large caster tires to help make the coop a little more portable and easier to move around the yard.  I'll post on that progress once I get it a little more done.  I finished the base frame last night and my wheels shipped from Amazon so maybe by this weekend I'll be able to really start building.

 The one main addition I want is to add nesting boxes and I've increased the overall inside dimensions of the coop by over a foot in each direction.  My goal is to build a coop one person can move and my hope is the nesting boxes prevent egg breakage.

That's all from the farm for now.

At Miller Park.

And loving it. Hoping they can make it six in a row! Cb out

Getting to be about that time and another death in the family

Well first off some sad news.  We lost another chicken last night.  After doing some research I think it was sour crop that got her.  The worst part other than we are technically just chicken sitting is she was my last layer.  Nascar our last survivor we think suffered a stroke a few months back and is blind at least in one eye and isn't laying and I think she's pretty old too.  Our plans are to pick up three or four pullets this spring after we get back from our vacation.  Live and learn.  Apocalypse was fine on Saturday and by Monday morning she had a badly distended crop that felt like a water balloon. By the time I figured out what was wrong and how to help she was gone.  So far we lost one chicken, Chica, to what we think was being egg bound and now Apocalypse to sour crop.  Sorry Steve and Abby.  We are turning out to be terrible chicken sitters.

On a brighter note the days are slowly getting longer and warmer here in the 49th State.  And that means it's time for us to put in our annual seed order.  We get a few staples here locally, but last year we started a seed co-op and decided to order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  One because they have a great selection of rare and oddball varities to try and two their shipping is super cheap.  This year our order is slightly smaller as a lot of people still had seeds left over, but we still put in quite an order.  Last year we also did a bunch of seed swapping, but this year  we opted for smaller individual packets.  Poor Christa spent hours dividing up all those seeds last year.

I was just looking at Baker Creek's website and they ran out of this year's printed catalog this year.  You can still see an online version on there website HERE.  I love the pictures and descriptions they provide.  It's totally garden porn.

I think I'm most excited to try the Boston Pickling Cucumbers (pg 39-40).  Last year was a pretty miserable year for the garden being cold and rainy most of the summer.  But we did have a good crop of the colder weather stuff, like potatoes, lettuce, peas, and carrots and our greenhouse green beans produced well again and we even got a few tomatoes.  As the snow is slowly starting to go away I'm getting excited for this coming growing season and being able to share it with everyone.

The green house.

When we bought our house it came with a great shed.  Love my shed.  It's  12x20 feet and has a lot of storage and a great work bench.  It also had a covered lean too next to it.  I'm not sure what the previous owners used it for, maybe to park a boat or 4 wheels.  We decided to make it a green house.  The only draw back was it was facing the wrong direction  and was on the wrong side of the shed to take full advantage of the sun, but it still gets plenty hot and has plenty of light.  

I wish I had taken more photos of the building of the green house to show the progression, but I didn't.

I had made the tables in the greenhouse a few years ago for various purposes and they worked great for the green house

The only draw back to the tables was that they were too tall.  So for our second year of growing I cut them all in half.

I even got a little more plant space out of it.  We also had a left over small piece of counter top that I put in here for a planting table. And I added a few planter boxes to the the front and back.

The coop!

Earlier this summer we became chicken sitters.  We wanted to get chickens and had hemmed and hawed for quite a while. Finally some friends that live in the neighborhood who were about to embark on a year of travel asked if we'd like to watch their chickens for them.  And of course we jumped at the chance.  We ended up with a ready made coop, run, three friendly (mostly) layers and all the other accutromond that comes with raising chickens.  I already posted about the storage shed I built in preparation for said chickens and here we have the coop that came along with them.

This is the winter placement for the coop.  This is right where I had my potato boxes the last couple years and I'm not sure if the coop will stay here next year or we'll find a new place for it.  It was originally over behind the shed, but part of it was in the electrical easement and we decided to move it after the utility was snooping around.  They never told me I had to move it, but I'd rather them not have too.  We had moved it to a nook behind the house and our small addition, but moved it because it was right under the eaves  and I'd rather not have to worry  about a huge chunk of snow coming down on top of it.

The run is 4x8 and has a nice door on it.  The top is clear corrugated roofing.  I was going to improve it by raising it up so that water would drain off of it, but it was well secured on top so I just left it.  You can see the food tray and heated water fount.  The best thing about getting a whole set up like this is I realize if Steve and Abby come back to get their chickens and coop what I would build and improve upon.  Over all though the girls have a nice large space to scratch and bath and come spring the run detaches pretty easily and we'll clean it out really good.

Here we have a side view.  The coop is an old repurposed dog house.  The girls have a little ramp from the bottom into the coop.

The inside space is about 4x3x3.5 with a nice little loft.  More than enough room for just three chickens, now sadly only two right now.  You can see Apocalypse in the background out exploring.  When we're home we let the girls have the whole back yard since they don't try to escape.  I'm doing my monthly coop cleaning.  All that good compost.

Here we have a good look on the inside with fresh bedding.  The girls really like to lay up in the loft so I make sure to have lots of bedding up there so they can make a nice little nest.

I had made a nice nesting box for them but they didn't like it and never used it so I just took it out.

 I have since added a Thermocube plug to the heat lamp and a timer to the full spectrum light.  We had a very long cold snap where temperature we dipping into the negative teens so the heat lamp was on pretty much all the time and the girls didn't mind, however it's warmed up into the 20's and now the coop is way to hot for them, it's very well insulated..  As a matter of fact the last few nights Apocalypse has chosen to roost outside and sleep.

Here you can see the Thermocube and the light with timer.  I still think at our current temperatures the coops too hot with just the laying light. I've toyed with putting in a full spectrum fluorescent bulb in the light and let the Thermocube and heat lamp do their thing.

And of course this is what makes it all worth it.

Building a Barn or a shed

Alright not quite a barn.  I decided when we were first talking about getting some chickens that I might need an outside space to store chicken stuff, ie feed, grit, oystershells, bedding, ect ect.  So back in May 2012 I started planning on added a small lean too shed to the back our main shed.

I've been pretty lucky finding a great free source of quality non treated wood to build with.  It just takes a little time to clean the boards and pull out staples and you have a nice 1x4 piece of pine of varying lengths.

Anyways I had worked up my design, which sadly I've disposed of and decided on a one large door side and a two door multilevel side.

Started off building the base and side walls. I wasn't too concerened about gaps. I just wanted a water tight, sturdy shed.

Next I added the front frame.  See I've got my big door side and two smaller door side.

Here's a straight on shot of the front.  And my trusty Dewalt 18v cordless. One of the best investments I've ever made.

Next I added the floors and shelf

Then slowly added the outside planking for the walls.

Next I added the frame from the roof.  You can see by this time I've moved my composters too. We ended up putting the chicken coop where the composters were.  We have since moved them since they were in the utility right of way and the power company was snooping around.  But that's another post.

Next I added some old fiberglass roofing I had laying around from when I built the greenhouse and added the first door.

Here's a look at the door construction.

Here's a look at the completed project. Taken just a few minutes ago.

And inside. Room for a bucket of feed, oyster shell, grit and some bedding.

The best part about this shed is that almost everything was repurposed.  Except for the screws and the door latches everything was pretty much free or really cheap, not counting the gas it took to pick stuff up or the time it took to tear apart all those window crates. I got all the hinges from the Habitat for Humanity Restore in town.