Perfect Breakfast

Fresh eggs, deer and pork sausage and picked fresh spinach and parsley on the way in.

Busy Day

It is supposed to rain today so I tried to finish as much outside as I could today:

• Built raised beds along the east side of the garden and broke up the soil and pulled weeds


• cleaned the chicken coop and the brood box inside the shed


• pulled the old tires off the coop and put the ice chest tires back on and retrofitted longer shaft and pvc pipe


• painted roof of the coop


• added piece of wood that was missing to the coop, it had a few tricky angles but worked out ok


• added some corner pieces to act like little shelves in 2 corners of the garden


• turned the compost and added chicken waste


• used the new tires to move coop, worked pretty good. Need to all rope and pvc to make a handle so you don't have to bend down so far.


• ripped 2 pieces of the front doors on the coop so we can open them after it rains


• painted the insides of those 2 doors so they don't swell


• removed one of the dividers in the laying boxes and made the favorite one larger

2 eggs, wait your turn!

2 eggs today. I was working around the garden this morning and could here one of the cochin hens up in the coop laying an egg. All the other chickens were peking and scratching around the garden for bugs and weeds. After a few minutes I saw, what I thought was the laying hen coming down from the coop and out into the garden. I didn't think anything of it and continued working on what I was doing. After a few minutes i noticed there was still a hen at the top of the coop. A couple of minutes passed and here comes then 2nd hen again, into the chicken tractor and up the later into the coop, and then a minute later, down she comes again.

Then I realized what was going on. I had read how chickens will share nesting boxes and will sometimes line up to lay their eggs and that is exactly what was happening. The second hen was running up and down the ladder to check and see if the laying box was available..... lol After a 15 minutes of this, she finally got her turn.

1 egg

One today also

1 egg

Solar Heater, Part II

Built the box to put the cans in. Insulated it, vaults and painted. Need to find Plexiglas to put over front, but will try huts setting in window for now. Need to get fan working with solar cell.

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Began Solar Heater project

Plan to build a box to fit in the window in my shed an insulate inside box with thin aluminum foil like insulation. Build tubes from soda cans with holes drilled in bottom for air circulation . Use Hightower temp caulking to glue cans together. Place on window seal so window acts as a front barrier trapping the heat in. Small 12 v fan powered by solar cell to full hot air our

Drilled out 15 cans tonight, need high temp caulking and silver-insulation. Will pull fan from old PC

1 egg today

Still having to put 2 silkies and polish upstairs on the roost at night, but checked on them later and they were all roosted, 1st time. Think it's starting to sink in.

Silkie Pictures and hopefully sexes

Below are the new Silkies we got:
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Seeds 1 week started

Seeds after 1 week, really taking off.

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2 eggs

My ranch hand told me that we had 2 eggs today!

0 Eggs

No eggs today, may be all the commotion with adding the new hens? Also, rained non stopped today. Had to show silkies down the coop ladder to make sure they got food and water this evening when i got home. Went back later and the silkies and polish were huddled up at the bottom of the pin. Picked them up and set them on the roost inside the coop. they were so tired they were zonked out as soon as I set them down.

I also noticed one of the cochin hens is roosting each night and the other is just standing next to her on the floor.

8 eggs

8 eggs this week, just from 2 Cochins. Still waiting for Polish hen to start laying.

Garden Gate and Fence

Installed new latch and handle and started adding slates around the garden.

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Changed Water Filter

Changed water filter today

Garlic and Purple Onions Planted

From left to right:
Purple Onions, Elephant Garlic, White Garlic

Seed sprouts

And 1st up:

Lettuce
Okra
Cucumber

1st night all together

1st night for all hens together in coop.

2 - Cochin
2 - Sikies (4 months old)
1 - Polish

1- rooster (banned to the shed)

60 watt heat lamp

last night it was 29 degrees and I had the heat lamp with the 60 watt bulb in the coop. checked it this morning and the temp was 50 degrees. Also had raised the ramp and put a blanket over the coop to help keep in the heat.

Pulled the Rooster!

Well had enough of the rooster hounding the Polish and terrorizing the silkies so I waited for them to roost in the coop and I bird napped him and put him in the dog kennel in the shed, and put an add in Craigslist.
With the rooster out of the picture I put the Polish and the 2 oldest silkies in the coop with the 2 cochin hens. Me and Chaz will check on them a few times tonight.

Other 4 silkies are still in their run in the shed with the wood burning stove going to keep them warm

PVC Chicken feeder

Used 2" PVC to build chicken feeder:

Materials:

• 2" PVC Pipe 5'


• 2 - 2" PVC Caps


• 1 - 2" PVC Elbow

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2 eggs this am

got 2 eggs this am. Was 29 degrees this am, checked the coop with a 60 watt light bulb and the temp gauge read 50 degrees. Also had a sheet over the top of the coop the help keep the heat in.

2 eggs today

1st day we got an egg from each chicken. The older Cochin hen lays a longer egg and the younger one lays a fatter egg. No egg from the new polish yet. Still trying to work her into the group.

1st coat of paint on chicken tractor

1st coat of paint

2011 Spring Summer Raised Bed Garden Layout

Planting layout for spring\summer 2011

Planted seeds

Chaz and I planted seeds. Each row is six plants:

- sugar snap
- lettuce
- lettuce
- cantelope
- cucumber
- cucumber
- California 300 bell pepper
- beefsteak tomatoes
- beefsteak tomatoes
- okra
- egg plant
- okra

Solar Hen House

Picked up a $3 solar yard light at walmart to try on the chicken tractor coop. Works good and the Cochin hen is laying.

Will add another one to the run area later.

Sikies and Polish Chickend

Picked up 6 silkies and 1 polish hen tonight

Easy Stir Fry

• Onion


• Garlic


• Bell Pepper


• Carrot


• Cabbage


• Broccoli


• Cauliflower


• Onion Top


• 2 bags ramen noodles


• Teriyaki Sauce

Break up noodles in bowl and microwave for 2.25 minutes or until done, then drain, add seasoning packets and set aside. Cut up everything else except onion tops and stir fry until onions start to get translucent, then add noodles and teriyaki sauce and cook for about another 2 minutes. Remove from heat, top with onion tops and eat.

Feeding Mustard Greens to Compost Bin

Cut down a lot of the mustard greens to feed the compost bin. Also using the water from the rain barrels to moisten the compost.

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1st night in coop

It's been in the 20 last 2 nights and put a heat lamp in the top of the coop to try and get chickens to go in by them self a night, and it worked!

Chicken Scratch

1st time giving chicken scratch

Dehydrating onion tops and parslet

Nice rainy day so decided to dehydrate onion tops and parsley

Finished Chicken Tractor

Finished the Chicken Tractor today, have not added wheels yet. Lite enough for Eva to help me carry it from inside the shed to the garden. May need to lengthen the latter?
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1st Chickens

Well Chaz and I hit the chicken sale hard. Sale barn had been closed for 2 weeks during the holidays and there were a ton of rabbits and chickens to sell. The chicken sale started at 7 pm and the 1 chicken did not sell until 9:30 pm. We ended up with 1 bantam rooster and 2 cochin blue bantam hens (beauties). total $33. We left at 1o:30 pm and they were only 1/4 way through the chicken sale, i'm betting it did not end until 1 am

Chicken Tractor Build

Ok I finally figured out how to work chickens into the gardening, composting, etc... I have already started building raised beds for the garden and i came across a video that shows the gardengirltv.com moving her animals from raised bed to raised bed to fertilize them....

So, i found a few chicken tractor designes that i liked and started building in the shed, with a little help from Chaz.

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Raised bed Greenhouse

Spent new years day setting up our first raised bed in the garden with a cold frame on top. Used 5/8" cedar fence boards from Lowes.

Planted:
Radish
Carrots
Gourmet lettuce
Butter crunch lettuce
Sugar snap peas
Jalapeno plants should start producing again

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