The Donkey Boys

 The darling little Donkey Boys are now 11 months old and full of vim and vigor. They hit the 10 month mark and decided they hated to be next to each other, and really hated to be apart. Very sad to hear donkeys cry.

The testosterone everyone told me would flow heavily in the spring finally kicked in a while back and I had to make the decision to make them less manly with the help of the Vet, Bruce. I love Bruce. Thank Goodness for Bruce. Of course, Doyle was gone to Alaska by this point. So it was all me (and my awesome In-Laws who knew that I would have a hard time seeing them hurting even if they were out cold).

Poncho still remains the most photogenic miniature donkey ever created. He likes the camera and stands still for me to take his picture. Paco, not so much! Word to the wise if you ever have the vet come out to geld your donkeys....... don't let the chickens out that day, just sayin'. With the first toss of no longer useful boy parts, the chicks came running. All twenty four of them. They vet was spooked. Guess he's never been around such friendly chickens who always think you have a treat for them.

It seems funny now but it really wasn't so funny then. I am sure Dr. Gardener was feeling a little bit like Dr. Doolittle. Poor man.

The testosterone took fourteen days to clear their system and now they love each other again. I think watching mini-donks fight was like watching kindergartners duke it out in the school yard.  Not a pleasant sight. All is well again on my little farm. I am hoping to till a few things and start planting the garden this weekend. Progress reports to come..... stay tuned.

A Sunny Winter Day

 Today was a good day in animal land. The sun finally came out for the afternoon and I must say the farm pets enjoyed it thoroughly.  In this picture the mother goat is nearly asleep. The goats are so fair weather that they won't go out of the barn for water when the wind blows, let along when it's snowing. The chickens love the goats for some reason and the goats don't seem to mind the chicken ladies too much either.

 The donkey boys like the sun to shine too! They were caught several times throughout the day laying down and just soaking it all in. That is, when the mother goat isn't chasing them and stomping her feet in their direction. Funniest thing I have ever seen as that darn goat is afraid of her own shadow but acts very tough when the donkeys are around. You should see a pygmy goat put the sneak on a pair of miniature donkeys. It's almost sad. It really seems to empower her, nutty goat.

 And here is Ollie and the mother goat hanging out in the snow. It seems humorous to me that they won't go out into the snow in the barnyard which they have access to all day but put them out in the orchard area and snow doesn't seem to bother them at all.

All of The Sudden It's Winter

Winter has finally come to my neck of the woods and I can honestly tell you that Jack Frost is not high on my list of faves right now. Dang it, I forgot how cold winter is. I thought I was ready but maybe not quite yet. My raised bed garden is looking pretty sad right about now. Part of my heart sings about that and the other part is in a schizophrenic depression. It changes hour by hour.

The chickens weren't totally sure the first time they came out into the snow. Funny thing was I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the chickens. Silly us. We were all having a brain malfunction!

We added this little shelf and mini fridge to the chicken house this morning. We figured that with both of us working we would not always be available for egg dispersal. Now we have serve yourself. This also solves the problem of having too many dozen in the fridge inside the house. This will easily hold more than I care to stock. I thought I would let my daughter make a money can for the folks that want to pick up eggs this way.

This ought to work like a dream. There are actually some folks in my town who live rurally and have a full size refrigerator out by the highway. People are welcome to just help themselves. I have always wondered if everyone pays or if they get stiffed with any regularity. I haven't had the nerve to ask them yet. I figure this will be somewhat more controlled. Only those we want to know about it will.

And just for fun a cute picture of one of the boys! They are so darn sweet! We play with them every day and every day shows strides in what they learn. No buyer's remorse here~

A Major Milestone!

Today marks a major milestone on our little farm. We got our first egg! This means many things to me. First, it means I am not a failure at chicken rearing. That's a huge relief! Second, it means that my chickens are progressing as planned and that winter is not going to impede their ability to earn their keep. And third, homegrown breakfast is right around the corner. I am so excited. This picture shows the freshly layed egg in front of a fake egg placed there to teach them where to lay.

I have absolutely no idea who layed the first egg. It could be one of many. About half of the girls show signs of being ready and only one has been singing the 'egg' song that I have heard. They are 21 weeks old today.

I honestly believe it to be this one or one who looks just like her. The Black Austalorps have been the first to vocalize their rediness!

It could also be one of the Barred Rocks, they seem to show the most interest in the nesting boxes. Maybe I need a nursery camera in the hen house to tell me for sure. But that would be what a chicken crazy person would do.  I am not ready for you all to know that about me just yet.

Isn't it a pretty little thing? Perfect, if not a touch on the petite side. But I can't expect huge ones from a brand new layer can I? Poor girl, this must have been startling. I would freak if I all of the sudden layed an egg.

Natural Pest Control

Not three weeks ago we had a day where it was 94F in the afternoon and 34F the next morning. The bugs and critters never know what to think when it happens overnight like that. Everything goes into survival mode and anything can happen.

Here is my newest form of bug control. These ladies can eat their weight in bugs everyday. And tomatoes, but that is another story. I love to watch them forage for good stuff to eat. They eat weed seeds, and probably anything I plant in seed form in the spring. We will have to see how that goes. I may need to fence them out of certain areas.  But for bugs they have been amazing. We finally let them out to free range when they were 11 weeks old and fortunately that has worked well for us. When we finally have eggs they ought to be fantastic and the color of gold.

Having had such crazy and extreme changes in weather has meant gross things like gnats hatched out again when the weather went from 27F to 60F. I would have rather had 40F and kept the gnats at bay. Hard to be outside cleaning things up when you breath those gross little things in. But the chickens have found them and are doing their best to get rid of  them. The gnats coat the trunks of certain trees in my yard and the girls have figured out which ones. Thank goodness. Prizes for the chick who eats the most.

This is not the best picture but you can see strings of the gnats hanging from it. The bark is completely covered in blue bottle gnats and it looks like the tree is crawling. Once is freezes solid and stays that way for a few days again this will all be over. Sad to say I am ready for it to freeze again. Yuck!

Chickens' Grand Adventure - The Search For Bugs and Worms

Last night we decided to let the chicks out of their run. We have always planned to allow them free range but they needed some size to live through it first. None of our animals are vicious but cats will be cats and bird dogs will be spanked. Just kidding!

Yes, you see shade cloth on the west wall of the chicken run. It also wraps around to the south for about six feet. It just got too hot for my little peeps so I created a sun block. Clever, huh? Here they are wondering why I left the door open for them.

In this photo you can see the ones in the back wondering what the hold up is. "Run for it, would ya?"

Here they are actually realizing there are bugs in that grass! Grasshoppers be gone! Gone I say~

And of course the goats have to come check things out! They didn't stay long as they really weren't sure what the heck the chickens were. Ollie could not have cared less, he used to live in a coop with the chickens in his last home. I think he was staying away so we didn't put him back in. Maybe he likes other goats more now.

And of course, Monica is still the only photogenic bird we have. She poses for pictures and then jumps in your lap. She isn't shy. Love her!

So all in all, I think they girls (and two boys) had a wonderful time on their first adventure. Shooing them back in wasn't too difficult but it helped to have two of us. We were even rewarded with the sound of a rooster crowing this morning. Anyone want a rooster? Free to good home!

Feeding Frenzy!

 

We have been having some fun giving the chicks treats for the last two weeks. They have tried lettuce, dandelions, grasshoppers, corn and today they got to try watermellon. Good times! They love things they deem smaller than themselves. If it is too big they won't go near it for quite a while. This pretty fruit they didn't have any trouble attacking. They just jumped right in.

 

Another thing we have done to amuse them is to hang a suet feeder and fill it with lettuce and strawberries. They were afraid of this basket for a little while and now they devour the treats inside in record time. We want to bribe them into being our friends. We are not too proud.

 

This beauty is one of the Ross'. Could be Ross-a or Ross-b. I still can't tell the difference. Monica and Rachel still reign as the nicest ones but the two Ross' are pretty excited to fly onto a shoulder if the opportunity presents itself too.

 

And this is an updated picture of the chicken house. I still have to finish painting the trim on  the eaves on the east and west and the window up high above the  run but had some difficulties with the ladder. And the fact that the run roof is slick. I decided to wait for Doyle to get home from work to help me. Then the ambulance is only a phone call away and not a long crawl to the house first. I don't enjoy heights very much. I have also started the flower beds around the coop. They will be outlined in river rock and raised up with dirt a little. I still haven't figured out if there is any such thing as chicken proof plantings but the main goal is to keep mud off the walls in the rain. Plus it will finish the whole look nicely.  This project has been fun but I am so ready to be completely done and onto something else. It has consumed me and I need a change of focus.

Chickens as Pals

 

Here's my girl, Monica. My favorite chicken. I sure hope this one is a girl because I am keeping her either way. She is the sweetest and most trusting of all the chicks so far.  I am naming them in the order they become my pals. Oh yeah, and I have to be able to pick them out. This one has white lines on both of her eyes, kind of like eyeliner. She also comes running when I come out to play with them. Rachel is the second one to become friendly and she just has white cheeks. So far these ones have been easy. All of the nice chicks are barred rocks and I am not sure why that is. I am happy to get what they are willing to give me though. Ross is the third friendly one and he has a twin. So we have Ross-a and Ross-b. They both are equally happy to be held so I am never sure which one I have. All the other chickens are wild for the time being.

 

And here are some of the standoffish chicks up on the roost like big kids. Too funny. They don't sleep up here yet but they will before we know it. They are 4 weeks old now and a kick to watch. I do a lot of just sitting and watching their antics. These critters are also a great way to get rid of extra lettuce which in truth is probably why several like me now. I am not too proud to bribe my friends but don't tell them that.

Toads ~ Just Kidding!

The meat chickens are growing into toads. They are huge! They are a White Cornish Cross and they are bred to be super fast growers and holy sh*&, they aren't lying! These soon to be dinner chickens (I am still struggling to be OK with this) are six weeks old and giants already. We actually take their food away from them at night, which a lot of people don't do, and they are still amazing growers. Imagine if we left food out for them 24/7. Taking the food at night slows down their growth a little so that they don't tip over for no apparent reason. This kind of chicken does that a lot. I am happy and proud to report that none of ours have. Yeah us!

 

Hard to believe they were just tiny little fuzzy guys (and girls) a mere month and a half ago. Nuts. Thank goodness people don't grown like this:-D

 

On a happier note, the laying chicks are 17 days old now and were starting to fly around the brooder so we let them out of it tonight. I think they love it. They run around and try to fly and bump chests. Sheesh, I hope that isn't the male trait coming out in my female ordered chicks. They better all be girls, that is what the hatchery was supposed to send. Roosters are currently out of my league and I don't want to have to find homes for roosters, that seems an unlikely to succeed task.

 

We had to put them into the run for a few minutes while we took the brooder out of the chicken house. They weren't sure what the heck was going on. It will probably be at least another week before they go out again, I want to make sure they are feathered properly for temperature control reasons. They have grown a lot already and still seem so small. 

Good news is that I have one very friendly chick. All the others are afraid of me. She comes right up to me and sits down in my hand. It is pretty cute. I named her Monica. She is also the smallest chick we have, kind of a runt. The next 5 friendly ones I can pick out of the bunch will become Rachel, Ross, Joey, Chandler and Phoebe. Can you tell what my all time favorite show was?

Wood Shaving By The Yard

Our friend, Dolan, asked Doyle if he would like a truckload of wood shavings from the mill in town. We were needing to get some for the chicken house so the timing could not have been more perfect. Dolan said he would bring them early the next morning and he was right on the money. I thought he was bringing a dump truck load. He brought a humongous truckload. 44 yards to be exact. That was much larger than a dump truck, it was like 4+ dump trucks. He put it way in the back of the coral and it is a monster pile. We filled as many bags as we could find places for and stored them in the loft of the barn. We had to lock the cows out of this area until we could finish. It was scheduled to rain so time was of the essence.

We finally let the cows back into this area. The cows love to be up on any hill they can climb. Doyle says this will "enrich" the future compost these shavings will become. This is basically how we got the last mountain of compost. We made it with a similar pile of sawdust. It took about 3 years and lots of stirring with the tractor but it made some very good stuff. It is wonderful to have a huge pile of pretty compost at my disposal.

The pile has been smooshed down considerably since is first arrived. The cows went ape-crazy over this fun stuff. It liken it to ball pits at Chuck-E-Cheese. Except for cows and not children.

Even the bull had his turn in it. I wish I could have seen this sight first hand but Doyle got the pictures while I was away at the dental conference. I would rather watch cows frolic in the wood shavings pile.

We added more to the chick brooder too. They love this stuff! We waited until they were here for about 5 days before we uncovered the shavings and removed the overlying newspaper. I didn't want them eating it and not the food we put out. Once they know where the food is, that isn't a problem anymore. This little one thought she was hidden from sight. Pretty close but not completely.

Here you can see just how far down she burrowed into the fluff. I thought that was cute. They are still afraid but I do have a friendly one, a little barred rock that comes right up and isn't fearful at all. She lets me pick her up and comes back for more when I walk in. I wish the rest of them would get over their fear of the new mommy (me). I think that looking down at them makes them feel like prey, it should get much better when they are out of the brooder. I hope.

They Are Finally Here!

The laying hen chicks that I can finally become attached to and they won't become dinner, soon or ever, are finally here and I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!! Can you tell? My dad would have a stroke if he knew I used that kind of a run on sentence. He doesn't read this blog so I am safe. Don't tell him:-D

 

It really is still amazing to me that chicks can ship the day they are hatched and arrive in good shape. Ours came from a hatchery in Texas and all arrived alive and are still that way. The USPS called at 8:45 this morning and told us to come get them. We were ready for them. I had to work so Doyle picked them up and unloaded them into the stock tank that will be home for the next couple weeks. The big brooder is in the chicken house so all our overtime to finish it is for a  good cause.

 

I will say that I ordered 30 girl chicks and only 27 showed up. Someone working in the hatchery can't count. Kind of ticked me off but it is what it is. At least the ones I got are all safe and sound. The other gripe I have is that I am pretty sure they also shorted me some Gold Laced Wyandottes and added more Black Australorps but didn't mark any of that on the incorrect packing slip. Of course I called to express my feelings. But I was nice and they promised to refund the price of 3 chicks. I am anxious to see what I actually got over the next couple weeks. I may be calling again. It wouldn't irritate me if they took ownership of the problem but I had to wait 3 months to get them as it was and now the order is wrong. I also paid extra, almost double to get pullets, which are girl chickens, and the packing slip says that straight run was shipped on at least one breed. That means I will likely have roosters and I don't want roosters. But maybe the roosters will be the life of the party!

 

Aren't they cute? They seem so small after you look at the 4 week old meat chicks. They are not housed in the same place but I still feed and water the others and they look like Baby Hueys, as my friend Brenda calls them.  So I thought I would share what has completely consumed all of our time of late. Seems kind of anti-climactic after all the preparations that took place but their new home is a palace and I am so excited for them to get big enough to check it all out.

The Final Touches

 

Are you all tired of reading a garden blog solely dedicated to the preparations for chickens? I promise plants are coming but this is currently what takes up all of our time. Our son-in-law layed the linoleum for the coop floor this past weekend. Ryan actually does this for a living so expert help is always appreciated! I must admit he lays tile and hardwood more but that wasn't in this chicken house's budget. Maybe the next coop:-D

After the flooring was in we started the 'droppings table'. This is a handy dandy little bench below the roosts that will catch all the night time droppings. That way they won't foul the wood shavings on the floor so fast. It will also make it easier to use a large putty knife to scrape the droppings into a bucket to add to the compost pile. I had planned to paint the OSB on the inside but we used the smooth side out and I am now out of time. I don't really think the chicks will know the difference. 

 

And finally a picture of the roosts in place above the droppings board which Doyle added linoleum to for ease of cleaning. He is really a thoughtful guy. I still need to rub the roosts with used motor oil to combat possible leg mites but that can wait until I have some used motor oil. The chicks won't be needing the roosts for at least 3 weeks so I think I have a little time. The big old feeder is ready and the light will be plugged in first thing in the morning. The chicks should be here via USPS by 8:45 a.m. tomorrow. I have to work but Doyle promises to take lots of pictures. I hate to miss out on all the fun stuff. We have 30 pullets on their way and I will update you all as to how well they survived their trip. I hope as well as the meat chicks did. My fingers are crossed.

The final question I still have to find the answer to is what to landscape around the coop with. Is there any such thing as chicken proof flowers and shrubs? They will free-range on the days I am home and I want them to keep the bug population down but I don't want to spend time planting things they will likely eat. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. The chicken house is located on the edge of the little orchard we have been planting for a few years so I thought foundation plantings might be nice.

Chicken House Update

Progress on the chicken house has been great! I feel like we are almost done now and that is a huge relief. We began trimming it and have two sides done, two to go. We still have to build the pop doors but the holes are framed and ready. We also have to put gravel in the run on top of the hardware cloth bottom. And then we need to lay the linoleum and build the roosts and droppings table. The coop is wired for electricity and so close to done. I will still need to paint but the siding came pre-primed and the fresh milled trim and battons can wait a while too.

 

My husband has admitted daily that he hates to build things of this magnitude. I suppose we won't be building a new home anytime soon. But I must say that for folks with no building experience at all, we have done a decent job and it should stand for a long time.

 

This is the enclosed run. The winters here can be pretty snowy so we wanted a place they could stay outside without slogging through the snow. We will add gravel over the hardware cloth bottom. Nothing should ever be able to dig into this coop or run. I am still thinking some kind of playground would be fun for them too!

 

And finally- an update photo on the meat chicks. They were 3 weeks old this past Tuesday and they are at least 6x bigger than when we got them. They eat a ton but we take their food at night so that they don't eat themselves to death. Very gluttonous birds. I am still hoping they become less cute so that eating them isn't so awful. All 50 are still alive and kicking and so far no spontaneous deaths have occurred. Thank goodness. I don't want to be the one to find one in the morning.  The laying hen chicks will be here on Wednesday and I am happy to say we will be totally ready for them. It was a race but Doyle has been a building fool for the last few weeks and so much progress has been made.

We're Getting There!

We are finally getting there! Whoohoo! Some things on this building project seem to not make much difference, but getting the framework up for the enclosed covered run helped. There will be a door to access the run here too, but I took pictures before we framed it in. On the main roof we were short one 12'6" piece of tin and will need to reorder all the tin for the run. Somehow what we got was only 6'3" and we need 8'3". Not knowing who's mistake it was, we will just order more and have some extra for the next old roof that needs repair. I was already trying to figure out what we could build next. I think Doyle is on builder's vacation after this project is complete. He is not a fan of the construction gambit.

I think this will look remarkably better when it is all trimmed out. Right now the windows look funny and it just looks incomplete. I suppose that makes sense since it is not done. The wiring will be completed this weekend which will include a BBQ to pay the boys for the work. I think I got the better end of the deal on that one. We also only had one roll of 1/2" hardware cloth so we will need more (lots more) to finish enclosing the run.The whole floor of the run will have the wire bottom and we will pile gravel and then dirt on top of that. This way nothing can burrow in from any angle. I hear weasels are heck on chickens. This thing really ought to be Fort Knox as far as critter control goes. So, I just thought I would share our progress to date. The chicks for this house should be here on June 3rd. It would be so nice to have them in the coop instead of the house.

It Won't Win the County Fair

As the title of this post implies, my newly canned pickled asparagus will not be winning any County Fair prizes. Which is fine as the County Fair is two months away. I have plenty of time to pickle some prettier stuff. There is tons of this stuff grown semi-locally that can be picked up on the day it is cut. This particular harvest was "Starting At $.75/ lb". I should have known there was a reason it was so cheap and not just because they cut out the middle man. When I arrived at the packing plant, this was the stuff they couldn't sell to the stores. Still nice looking but not completely uniform. I had planned to can 75 lbs and a friend was to help us and split the bounty. After I saw the "sale" stuff, I settled on 30 lbs. and will do more later. My husband can't stand the idea of tossing out so much good stuff and used the tender stems too. I don't eat a ton of pickled asparagus but he does. If he is willing to eat the stems too, then stems it is. I have to agree, there is an amazing amount of waste if you only go for the pretty tops. We added lots of sliced jalepeno and fresh garlic cloves to the bottom of each jar before we filled them with asparagus spears (and stems). I obviously wasn't the one filling the jars with brine or the one on the right would be full to the proper level. I think my husband was on that duty. It took 3 of us about 2.5 hours to can 18 quarts of this stuff. I sure hope it tastes good.

CHICKEN HOUSE UPDATE

Our chicken house is coming along. Not as quickly as I would like but then nothing ever does. We put up the siding last weekend and still need to trim it out and build the attached enclosed and roofed run. That will be the length of this side you see now. The roof for it will begin below the window at the top. This side faces the south and should get some extra sunlight in the morning. Chickens need 14 hours of sunlight per day to lay in the winter. I will need to augment this as our days are short in the winter. The third pop door on the left will not be used initially as it opens to the ante room where I will store the food and supplies. I just wanted to plan for the possibility of a brooder if we ever hatch out our own chicks. Pre-planning for things makes implementing them easier later. We will add batons and trim, then paint it. I haven't fully figured out the color yet but something will come to me. I would like it to blend in so maybe the same color as the house. We will see, I just figured the lighter the color... the cooler it will stay in the summer. My brother will be wiring it for electricity this next weekend. I love my brother he always does this kind of nice stuff for us.