More Raised Beds & Chicken Changes: Part 2

Today we finished building the two new raised beds like our other two.  I still need to get soil and lining before I can plant but after that it is on!  I may have to buy a little bit different soil this time unless I want to wait about a week for a the other stuff to arrive in the store.  That's okay, though.  It might be good to try different soils and see what works best.  I will decide soon, of course.... because I can hardly wait to get things growing!!!

I also worked on the frames that I am adding to our chicken coop.  I had a little run in with a tiny rooster that is about to become part of a soup.  He ran up behind me and started spurring my legs.  Thankfully, I had on water boots and long pants... and, he is a little squirt.  Our tom turkey has always been a gently guy but he has decided he is the protector of this little tiny rooster.  My tom actually spurred me in the leg leaving a hole a couple a of weeks ago.  Tom started after me today after I took after that tiny rooster.  It was on!  I grabbed a big plastic barrel and guarded myself and then, made Tom and that tiny rooster feel intimidated.  Tom went in the coop and we locked him in while we worked on our project.  Seriously, this little guy's life is about to end soon.   Sierra was in the coop yesterday and dropped her new eye glasses.  She bent over to pick them up and Tiny jumped up and spurred her in the face and left big scratches all across her face. 

Anyway, I veered off track... Sierra and I got those two old raised bed frames situated in their new location and they are ready for their new life.  I will need to chop up the soil a bit in the one, scatter the wheat, and cover it with wire.  Wheat grows really well and really fast even in hot climates.  I am still deciding if I want to use both frames for this or if I want to make one a dust bath area partially filled with sand.  I am thinking that if I have two like this I could rotate planting times.  I could easily find a different little area in the run to make a dust bath area.  I am still deciding, though. 

More Raised Beds & Chicken Changes: Part 1

We made the decision to add more raised beds to our garden.  We will be building two more the same size and width near our others that we recently made.  We purchased more tin screws and more metal flashing and that is all we needed.  All is left is to assemble them, fill them with compost, and plant in them.  This is very exciting to me.  This year I will have a full out garden.  I did not get to do that last year with it being our first year here.  My husband is being such a good sport about it.  This is really not his thing but he knows it is a good thing.

We also carried our old recycled wood raised beds out to the chicken coop.  They are each about a foot deep and I plan to plant wheat in one of them and cover the bed with chicken wire.  As the wheat grows up through the chicken wire the chickens can eat the tops off the wheat and supplement them with some extra nutrition.  The other raised bed could be the same way or I might put some sand in it for a dust bath area.  Any thoughts or other ideas on that would be greatly appreciated.  I could always make a different area a dust bath area. 

Other things we will be doing this season will be building a bigger coop.  Our chickens have lots of changes in their little world right now.  A few weeks ago I cut old limbs from a tree and built a long climbing and perching area for them.  I also plan to do something creative with an old basketball hoop in their coop... maybe make it a nest. We have turkeys and added quail to our flock this year.  We have the quail in our old rabbit caging right now inside our chicken run.  We will be assessing whether this setup works for them and changing as needed.  What are you doing new for your chickens and other flock this year?

Crazy Chicken Lady Season! Indoor Brooder Setup Options

So, this is the setup that we have found works best for NEW chicks.  We have outdoor brooder cages but those work best for Summer time.  When getting new chicks during the cooler season we keep them inside our house for awhile.  It kind of drives me crazy but the chicks have a better survival rate this way.  

1.  Brooder Container-- 

We have tried a variety of cages and containers for indoor brooders.  

A. Cardboard boxes-- This gets messy.  Once that water drips onto the bottom or spills you start to have a mess.  A cardboard box can work short term until you get something better in place.  A day or three is doable.  Beyond that and you are going to have a mess.  

B.  Cages-- If you use a cage you need to make sure tiny new chicks cannot escape.  You would be surprised what they can get out of.  Another drawback is that chicks "scratch" and feed and poo go out of the boundaries of the cage.  This obviously gets messy and requires sweeping and bleaching the surrounding floor areas often.  (*Move chicks away from the area when bleaching due to toxic fumes.)

C.  SHALLOW Container-- Little birds learn to fly pretty quickly.  Before you know it you have chicks flying out of the container.  A shallow container can work but you want to make sure you have a covering (with air holes).  

D.  DEEP Container-- This is my choice option.  A large, deep storage container works well.  A deep container keeps the chicks from flying out.  It may become necessary at some point to provide a covering but not always.

  

2. Liner--

Many people use a deep litter method like shredded newspaper or wood shavings of some sort.  We use what we have on hand.  If that is newspaper we sometimes rip that up or use the folded newspapers to cover the bottom of the tub.  We have used empty cereal boxes or any other cardboard we have on hand.  We change this once or twice a day depending on how messy it gets. 

3.  Waterer--

A. A Poultry Waterer--  I started with these and I lost a lot of chicks to drownings or to getting wet and cold.  Many people put marbles in the water area to help this situation.  That seems more complicated to me.  

B.  A Small Dish or Lid-- This comes with the same issues as the poultry waterer. 

C.  Rabbit Water Bottle-- Lifesaver!!... Literally!  The chicks can't drown in the water.  They can't splash in it and get all wet.  The water bottle also holds plenty of water to last many chicks the whole day.  I also used a free wire clothes hanger to wrap around the bottle and hook on the end of the storage container.  

4.  Feeder-- Many things work well but you just want to make sure they can't "scratch" in it much.  This will keep the area cleaner.  

The top pic is of the first four chicks I got.  The bottom pic is all twenty new chicks.  Half are quail and this will be our "new adventure" this year.  I just cleaned it all but you can not tell.

Who Rules The Roost?

Chicco does!  Chicco is the ruler of the roost around here.  I like to think he is a little Mexican guy.  He is the tiny little guy with feathers on his feet and a little fluff on his head and he always has his chest puffed way out. We named him Chicco because he reminds me of the colors of a Chicco candy stick.  And, Chicco just sounds like a little Mexican dude.  He fights off the much larger Buff Orpington rooster and keeps his ladies safe.  When we moved him over to our new house and let him out in the run for the first time he walked around stomping his little feathered feet and guarding his ladies.  He is the true picture if chivalry.  

Temporary Chicken Housing

Under the circumstances of our move we did not have to move everything right away since we own both houses.  Since my husband drives near the other house everyday we made the decision to leave the turkeys, chickens, and dogs until we could get their housing worked out at the new place.  The only thing we brought with us was the momma cat and her six kittens because they needed constant care.  Everyday my husband would just go by the other house and tend to the animals and we were also there throughout the weekends working on getting our stuff moved out a little at a time.  

So, we have been in our new house for over two months now.  We had much work to do to settle in here.  A friend was selling her small portable chicken coop so I was able to get that for $75.  I thought this would be a great option to keep us from having build a coop.  So, the thinking is that we would build a removable chicken tractor as a chicken run but it is going to be a while before we can get that done.  Instead we decided to temporarily use the dog kennel.  We added some chicken wire and a couple of boards across the top for security.  Little by little we began to move the hens and roosters over.  Now, they are all settled in.  

And now, my ladies have rewarded me with a few eggs!  

We have much more work to do in the coming months to get everything the way we want it but this will do for now.  The next step is to get our turkeys over here. I am not sure this temporary housing will work for them, so we may have to build the new chicken run beforehand.  We will just keep figuring it out as we go.  

Wild Turkey Feathers... Oooops!

Wild Turkey feathers from our turkeys.

Again, this is not my picture and I borrowed this because it looks just like our feathers.

I am really missing having a working camera.

And really thankful that the internet has a picture of everything on the planet.

Pictures do make things more interesting!

We have a Tom and two hen Wild Turkeys.  And no, they are not "wild"... well, they are not tame either ;)  ... but rather that is the variety.  They are the same that you find in the wild.  They are quite beautiful birds..... which is why I feel so bad about removing the beautiful feathers....

Note to self:  Don't grab a turkey by the tail feathers even if you have a large handful.

So here's the story:  I was going to let the chickens and ducks free range, but we are told that if the turkeys get out we will never see them again.  We have been told they will fly away and never come back.  I am not sure I believe this.  I tend to think that just like the hens, roosters, and ducks they would come back to their home.  I could be wrong.  Either way, we were trying to prevent losing them, so for their SAFETY I was trying to catch them to put them in our smaller inner pen that is in the chicken yard.  This area has a separate door that can be closed to keep them locked away while allowing us to leave the chicken yard open so the hens can come in and out and lay their eggs.  Let me just say that the turkey hens are HARD.TO.CATCH.  As in... we have never touched them other than the day we brought them home over three weeks ago.  I did catch them, but now they are missing a lot of feathers.  As I reached out and grabbed the first hen I grabbed all of her tail feathers and she tried to run.  As she jerked away I felt all her feathers gently release into my hands.  Ugghhh!  That was not supposed to happen.  Now we have a bird with a naked rear end.  Poor girl.  And now, she thinks I was trying to torture her.  I was merely trying to keep her safe.  After capturing her and releasing her into the inner pen we went after the second turkey hen.  Sadly, we jerked out some of her feathers, also.  The next day we free ranged the hens, rooster, and ducks, but we did NOT torture the turkey hens again.  We just left the chicken yard door open less than a foot wide, so the hens could get in and out, but the turkeys could not. 

Another adventure to learn from.  I find there is always much to learn from all these creatures.  This day it was:  Do not grab a turkey by it's tail feathers! 

Hopefully, they will grow back fairly quickly. 

Roland the Rooster

Roland is our rooster.  He is a Buff Orpington.  And no, we do not usually name all our critters, but this fella came to use with a name already.  The kids name the rabbits and the critters that are special to their heart in some way.  We had a duck that was club footed named Flicka at one time.  He was our first duck hatchling.  They have named one of the ducks Zebra since she has some strange stripes on her chest, but mostly we do not name everything.  With so many I am certain we would never be able to remember.

Since we have never had a rooster this has been another interesting experience.  Roland crows two hours before the sun comes up.  I don't know what makes a rooster crow, but I always thought it was so those first tiny glimmers of dawn on the horizon.  Apparently, not.  It does not bother me since I am not used to getting full nights of sleep and really he does not awaken me.  I hear the crowing because I am already awake.

He is quite a bit larger than the Buff Orpington hens that we have.  I did not realize there was such a difference in the size of males and females.  He is wider, as well.

Spurring is not something I had ever seen.  Roland attacked Cody's boots one day and then, he chased after Caden another day,  It is quite interesting how the rooster jumped up and down and used his spur claws to do just what it is called... "spur".  He is quite the "ladies man"... every hen that passes by is at risk of being "spurred"... ahem... uh... mated.  We keep him confined with our two Buff Orpington hens, but one of the Aracaunas kept finding a way to get into that area  for the first few days we had him.  We are likely to have some mix breed chickens thanks to him.  The last couple of days I have let all the hens and Roland free range.  I am not sure that was the best of ideas.  He has been mating my whole flock it seems.  I think he will be missing out on future free ranging days.

 This is NOT Roland, but he looks identical to this.  

I am still without a camera so I borrowed this photo off the internet. 

 He is fast.  We are not able to catch him, but we are able to "herd" him where we want him to go.  He also comes back to roost if he is let out.  I don't think I will ever stop being amazed at home chickens come home to roost shortly before dusk and put themselves to bed.  Ohhhhh... if only children did that life would be simpler. 

Plans for Our Little Acre for Spring 2013

We are more of the hobby farmer/gardener/homesteader types.   I just want to be clear about that.  Sometimes what we are doing here might sound big, but really we are just beginners going through a lot of trial and error.  I would love to produce all our food right here on this little one acre in the middle of town and I know it can be done, but we are not doing that, yet.  In fact, I am pretty sure we would starve.  I grew up in the country.  All around me were corn fields and cattle grazing, but I did not grow up that way....  none of that sort of thing was going on at my home.  My daddy worked, my momma went the grocery store and bought what we needed.  End of story.  I can remember a small garden one time, but we were not really a part of it.  I don't remember that being a shared venture for the family.  My daddy bought three cows once to raise to eat.  He kept them a few months and sold them after deciding not to mess with that any longer.  I had a horse for a couple of years strictly for fun.  I lived on 11 acres.

Do you see the irony here?  Pretty funny because now I live on one acre in the middle of town and have limited space and now I want to do those things that I grew up with endless space for.  Ironic.  So, now without having any experience we are trying to figure it out.  Well, I have been.  Cody is just getting on board.  Last year he started taking part in more of it even though his interest is not really in it.  This year he seems to be interested.  I think it was good for him to realize how much we benefited from the harvest over the past several months.  I think he had to see some of the rewards to appreciate the journey.  So, this year we are plowing up more dirt and looking at it from a different perspective.  It is more about sustainability.  What would we need to be able to do if we ever had to provide for ourselves.  All the creatures we have now have to have more purpose than just ""science" for our kids and a bunch of eggs.  That's all fun, but I told my husband it is too much work and we are spending too much money on it.  This is the sort of discussion that led to the first culling of the duck flock.

All that being said, I will try to detail what we have going on:

I will start with the garden areas. 

• We are using what we learned last year about where the sun falls on our property and trying to plan with that in mind.  We have a small garden patch by our house that is currently planted with two types of potatoes, two types of onions, and a wheat patch.  The wheat is an experiment from some wheat that spilled and got dirty.  It is growing well and is already about 6 inches high after only two weeks.  
• We will be tilling up a bigger garden in our back quarter (that is the back of our lot that is a 1/4 acre that we purchased a few years back).  This will be a variety of vegetables.  
• I will be putting in a long narrow garden, as well.  
• I am considering doing a raised bed corn method that I saw at a local Expo.  
• For fun I am considering planting a long row of sunflowers that will also provide a natural boundary on one portion of our property.  We have some neighbors that are bothered by our chickens (and everything else we do), so we might add a simple fence. 
• I am trying to use all organic methods and heirloom varieties, as well.

 I will refer to this part as "Orchard Items".  That does not mean we are planting an actual orchard.  We just have one acre and it is heavily shaded and orchard items like sunshine. 

• Currently, we are working on adding various fruit trees.  I have seven blueberries (four different varieties), two apple trees (two varieties) , a plum tree, two pear trees (two varieties), three grape bushes (3 varieties), a peach trees, a nectarine tree, mayhaw, satsuma, and navel orange. Some of this should have some production the first year I am told, but much of it will require waiting for the second or third year.  

We are considering selling off all of our rabbits as our children seem to have lost interest in them and they were really just for pets for us.  We are not rabbit eaters. If we were hungry, yes... but we are not, so they are our pets.  We usually sell the baby rabbits, but this has never actually been a profitable thing considering all the feed that the rabbits use.


The "birds":

• We currently have nine ducks left in our flock.  They are messy and eat a lot of feed.  Overall, they are not the best choice for raising for meat.  We have enjoyed the experience, but we are going to cull the flock.  We might keep one or two, but likely they will all go, so we do not have to deal with their messes.  They house nicely with all the other birds, but they make messes by trying to swim in anything they can which keeps the chickens water nasty all the time.  
• We have nineteen chickens for the purpose of laying eggs.  Really, we were not ever supposed to have this many, but my husband was not ready to kill the chickens for meat.  Our hens are "our ladies" and we have grown quite fond of them around here.  I am considering isolating some of them for a few days and seeing which ones are laying and which are not to consider culling some of them because we really do not need this many.  The feed bill needs to be lowered and I am not really one for selling the eggs because I would rather bless others with them.  I am uncertain of our plan for "our ladies".  They are not a bother, so it is not urgent to decide either.
• We recently added turkeys to our flock.  We have a Tom and two gals.  They are all full grown and about three years old.  I thought we were getting them to butcher, but Cody is the one that got them.  He says we are raising turkeys now.... so we are raising turkeys now.  Once they start laying we will let them hatch out their eggs and raise the babies for the meat.  The Tom is beautiful I must say.  It is quite interesting to watch him protect and guard his ladies with his feathers all spread in the air.  
• I have been trying to convince Cody that we should be raising chickens for meat, but he has not been easy to convince.  Our most popular meat in our home is chicken.  It makes sense that we should raise our own for meat if we are raising chickens.  So, I was sitting here one night and just for kicks I was looking at Murray McMurray's website and IDEAL Chicken Hatchery's website and IDEAL had a sale on Straight Run Black Broiler chicks for 90 cents a chick.  I told Cody and he said to order them... REALLY?... really.... so I ordered 30 and shipped and everything was $34.  That was just too good of a price to pass on.  We received 31 chicks, but have lost four... still a bargain.  They are about two weeks old and are growing really fast.  We will plan to butcher them in May when they reach full size.  They are supposed to be ready within 7-8 weeks, but I have heard that they take a little longer and I am okay with it take a little longer.  I also am considering keeping one rooster and a couple of hens from this flock to use for raising our own broilers without having to order.  We will determine that after seeing how well these birds do for meat chickens in the end.
• Our most recent addition was quite accidental really.  A lady in my Sunday School class mentioned that she had three roosters to give away and I made a mental note of it, but told her that since we live in town we were not going to have a rooster that would make noise and bother our neighbors.  One of my neighbors sent me a message wanting to know if I knew someone that had a rooster and I told her I would check for her.  I contacted the lady with the roosters and she said she had one and he was a friendly Buff Orpington.  Hmmmm... I have two female Buff Orpingtons and so now we have a rooster.  I have separate area in our chicken coop and so I have put the three Buff Orpingtons in there to mate and hopefully hatch out their own eggs.  I must admit I am considering pulling the eggs and putting them in the incubator because the hens have over a dozen eggs in there and they are not sitting.  These chicks will be raised for meat or sold as hatchlings.  

I think that sums up our Spring 2013 plans.  

Eggs and Blessing Others

 

Eggs

 

I never knew I would think an egg was so pretty.

 

There is just something delicate and dainty.

 

And I when I see them I think of the marvelous creation they are created by my God.

 

He is so clever... all the different sizes and colors that He designed... and the layers.

 

The layers intrigue me... odd, I guess, but it is so neat when you look at the layers of an egg.

 

And the last thing to go on the egg is the color and protective coating. 

 

Amazing stuff.... these simple little eggs.

 

 

 

The eggs pictured here are eggs I shared with a friend.  I never wash off the protective coating until I am using my eggs, so I sent these dirty eggs home with my friend in a cardboard box stuff with plastic grocery bags.  When she got home she washed them up and put them in this pretty basket and took a picture.  It is a blessing to share the bounty that God sends our way.  These eggs are a small way I can bless others, so I try to share any that I can.  We are never short on eggs here with 19 chickens! 

Egg-strodinary!!

Over the last month we have gottne some unusual eggs around here and I thought I would talk about them and what I have learned (or think I have learned... LOL). 

Before I get started I want to talk about the latest change I have made because I know you are likely to notice in the picture and wonder.  I have started dating my eggs with a "grease pencil" with the month/date to make sure I do not get the eggs mixed up and use up the fresher eggs first.  You could use a common crayon and if you do I would use a brand like Crayola that is American made and states that it is "non-toxic".  If you notice on the egg below I also made a question mark because I was not sure what we had here.  It was too early to be getting duck eggs, but this egg was quite a bit larger than the others.  My guess was:

A DOUBLE YOKER !!!

 ~~Sierra modeling the eggs~~

 ~~And this is a stovetop comparison because I think you can tell more about the size this way.~~

~~And YES, my guess was right.  We had a DOUBLE YOKER!~~

What I learned:  That there is really no certainty about why some hens will lay a double yoker.  For some reason as the egg is develop in the hen two eggs come down at the same time and get encased within one egg.  I am not worried about this except that if it continues I would be concerned that it might be exhaustive to the hen and harder for her to lay.  But hey!... twins are born everyday, right!?

 ~~This one is an EGG WITHOUT A SHELL.~~

What I have learned:  Well, there is a lot of information about this and some people think this is a deficiency in the hen, such as, lack of calcium or other issue.  I read beyond that and found information that said that it is not likely to be a health issue, but rather that the hen could have been traumatized during the process of the egg development.  Look at those sweet children at the very top of my blog.  I bet you wouldn't guess they would EVER traumatize a chicken.  LOL!  Oh yes, I am certain that any such defect in an egg is more likely to be a traumatized hen than any other possibility.  They are not supposed to chase the chickens, but they do and catch them and love on the and throw them in the air to see them fly (all when they don't think anyone is watching, of course).  Fortunately, they mostly listen and don't do these things, except when they get caught up in a moment of excitement and forget the rules. 

No Pic because you could not tell by looking and the only other thing is to include a pic of a cracked egg on the ground.  :)

~~The last thing I will talk about is THIN SHELLED EGGS....~~

What I have learned:  These eggs are so thin that they crazk in your hands when you try to pick them up.  I have a few of these, but still nothing excessive.  Thin shelled eggs are a calcium deficiency.  The cure is to provide more calcium for the chickens.  This can be done several ways, but the one that seems easiest is to provide the chickens with a dish of Oyster Shell.  I think you could save money by allowing your empty egg shells to dry out and crush them to tiny bits for the hens.  Also, it is wise to make sure you are providing your hens with enough protein (use Laying Pellets, etc.).

 Before I close I also want to state that I track my egg counts on my calendar.  From this I can tell if our production changes... or if I need to go an egg hunt.  In general we get one egg per chicken a day.  Sometimes on or two of them do not lay an egg.  When we are short more than two for more than one day I know that I need to search for a hidden nest.  Recently, we have moved our chickens and ducks around a lot and I am getting very inconsistent egg counts.  At first the hens were hiding their eggs.  Now they are in their coop/run more and this trains them to lay in their nest.  Still our egg counts are down and I think it is due to the trauma of the moving. 

That's all for now!

Death on Our Little Acre

Warning: This post may be too disturbing for some readers.

You may have noticed I made some changes to my blog.  I am by no means a real homesteader, but I seem to be posting a lot lately about life here growing things through gardening and raising rabbits, ducks, and chickens.  I would love to fill this acre of land and truly use it.  It is not enough to merely own a piece of property if it has no real purpose.  For us it's main purpose is to provide a great place for our kids to grow up.  We started with 3/4 of an acre that we purchased with our home, but added a 1/4 acre so our kids would have a bigger backyard to enjoy.  That is our MAIN PURPOSE.  Included in that main purpose is the idea that learning to use that acre for the benefit of our family just goes along with our original plan.  In the future we may have a chance to add to our property and, if so, we will.  Anyway, I decided it would be fitting to add "on Our Little Acre" to my blog header.  So, off to my real topic....

About a week ago we had another "round of death" here.  It can be so depressing which is why I started not to blog about it all.  The reality is that it comes with the territory of raising animals.  And it seems to come in surges or "rounds of death".  It started one Saturday with me spotting two young pre-teen boys wandering around behind our house.  They looked suspicious, but I was did not want to overreact.  Oddly, they quickly ran off into the tiny patch of woods behind our house (and by tiny I mean less than 4/10 of an acre..... you have to keep in mind we live in town).  Later that evening we discovered a gun dart in one of our mid-sized chicks.  Fortunately, it survived even though the dart went in about three inches.  One of our laying hens was missing, though.  Two days later we found remnants of her body and it is safe to assume that the boys probably killed her and an animal of some sort found the carcass.  I was beyond aggravated that something so senseless happened to my chickens.  Parents need to really think about what they are doing when they buy their children these type of "toys" (weapons!) without teaching them to have a healthy respect for said "toy"... and a respect for others and their animals/pets. 

The second thing was our little rescued wild rabbit.  Oh, he was doing so well!  I had feed this little guy with a dropper 3 times a day.  He was precious and he had just started eating rabbit food and I had weaned him from his dropper feedings.  Because of this he was not wanting to be held as he had before.  I was started to question how wild he actually would be since it is not a normally domesticated animal.  One day Savannah notice something was wrong with our little guy, Easter.  Easter had been attacked it appeared through his cage and his back leg appeared to have a puncture wound and appeared crippled.  I was hoping it would heal, but it looked bad.  That night he was attacked again and I am in awe of how anything could get to him in his cage with such small hole openings.  He was completely mutilated and we suspect a cat did it.  I am so glad my husband found it first because it was awful and he was able to clean up the area some.  The kids were heartbroken.

The next thing a tiny baby bird... probably a day old that my husband was given at his school.  His students called him "their hero" for his willingness to attempt to save it.  It had to have only been hours old when they found it and he brought it home to me to save.  I made it a little nest with a nightlight as a warming light and set to feeding it raw eggs with a dropper.  It did not make it throught the night.

And the most devastating thing.... Patch... THE rabbit that started it all around here.  After buying two California rabbits and realizing that was a mistake (one died due to heat stroke & we returned the other), we had some friends offer to give us their pet rabbit.  They had not been ready for the responsibility of the rabbit, but knew Savannah and Sierra were.  Patch was their first rabbit and she gave birth to many babies that the kids cuddled and adored.  It was a big deal here to have "a rabbit that looked like Patch" because they really just had a love for her that they did not have for some of the other rabbits.  One Sunday morning we were heading out for church and the kids went out to feed the rabbits before we left.  Patch sits on top of her nesting box a lot, so she jump off, but landed wrong.  She landed on her back and died right away.  Apparently, she broke her neck/back.  What a crazy freak thing to happen.  Savannah was beside herself with grief. 

For the most part that was it... the "round of death", but we really have had some more, also.  You kind of get used to some of it even though it is still unsettling.  We had a litter of baby rabbits born a few days ago to our momma rabbit, Mary.  She had 7 living and one dead.  For some reason one baby was still in it's embryonic sac.  This seem to happen a lot.  I don't know if the momma gets tires or if they don't realized they have missed one.  Maybe they mistake it for the placenta.  Sometimes one or two do not make it due to this.  After realizing we had a new litter I began checking the other female rabbits cages.  We had bred 5 females at one time... allowing them several days to mate.  I discovered another horrifying scene in Miracles cage.  Miracle is the rabbit that was dropped twice as a baby rabbit.  It damaged her and clearly she will never be "whole".  We have tried to let her have babies three times now, I think.  The first time the babies all died and we thought it was due to heat or something.  Her second litter did not make it, either.  It was as if she did not know how to care for them.  We started to not ever try again with her.  We decided we would give her one last chance.  And it must be said that she is the sweetest rabbit.  I feel so bad for her.  This time whe resorted to cannibalism.... sorry, I just do not know how to say it any milder.  I don't know if she thought she was eating away the embryonic sac or the placenta.  I truly hope that is the case.  She is partially blind due to her falls.  All that was left behind were the heads of three babies.  (Sorry)  I disposed of them and told the kids about it later and we discussed that she will not ever be bred again. 

And that is how it is when you raise animals I guess.  A month or so ago we lost all three of our bantam hens.... each in a different way, but by predator attacks.  We also had a new chick drown in her water dish and another chick smother under the wait of her little flock of six.  It seems to just happen in "rounds of deaths", I guess.  It makes you very melacholy, but life does go on and you have to just keep doing what you are doing.  It is hard, but it teaches us many things, as well.  I think my kids are developing a better understanding of death than I ever did.  And death is part of living.  Everything that lives will one day die. 

Buff Orpington Bullies

I think my tiny little Buff Orpingtons are bullies!  I find it so interesting that they are so small and look so sweet.  The seem mild tempered.  They don't fret when I reach into to their cage, but today I inspected all the chicks in that cage and those two little Buff Orpingtons (BOs) are the only ones that do not have chewed up, bloody backs.  Hmmmm.... I am thinking the BOs are the ones causing the problem.  Okay, so I just posted about all this and detailed out how we changed all the chicks and ducks around to provide safety for the ducks. 

So, today... I decided to inspect the Aracaunas that are in with the BOs.  All of the Aracaunas have missing feathers all down the middle of their backs and sores and some had fresh blood which indicates that the pecking has taking place since the seperation of the wounded ducks.  So, this evening I put all the Aracaunas back in with the ducks.  That leaves the two BOs all alone in one cage.  I am a bit concerned about the arrangement.  If I am wrong and it is the Aracaunas pecking on each other I will probably have bloody tailed ducks again in the morning.  I just do not have enough cages to put every chick/duck in their own cage.  Time will tell....

Frugal Farming Solutions

Well, I was about to write a post about my little feeder I made and when I started looking for a pic I needed I realized I had quite a few "frugal farming solutions".  Wow!  I am even more frugal than I realized!  Ha!  ;)

First, I want to start with heat lamps and such.  My husband purchased a few large heat lamp bulbs for

 about $5 each and I grimace with pain at the very thought.  Especially, since all you have to do is bump those things and they blow out.  Yikes!  A simple cheap light bulb will do the trick in most circumstances and you can pick a 4-pack up at Wal-Mart for under $1.  And while I am on that topic a simple clamp style shop light for about $5 will do the trick to screw that ligt bulb into.  We use these indoors and out, but do take precautions regarding safety.  Don't let cords dangle unsafely on the ground or in water.  Point the shop light downward, so water does not go into it. 

 It was cool and flooding when we got these little gals, so they got to live in our house for a couple of weeks.  I am sure it stunk a bit, but nothing some bleach and a mop couldn't fix.  Again I say, thank God for tile floors!  ;)  If you look closely you will see three baby food jars in the bottom left corner of the cage.  At this time we had an older set of chicks outdoors that had our chick feeder and waterer occupied.  These little baby food jars work perfect for holding feed.  Do NOT use them for water, though.  I learned the hard way after we found a drown chick that a baby chick can drown itself quite easily.  After losing one of my sweet little Aracaunas I used a plastic peanut butter jar lid for their water dish.

As these gals began to grow they became more and more MESSY... and for some reason this little flock liked to EAT their newspaper.  I think it was because the newspaper was getting wet with the Chick Starter on it and they started eating the paper and all.  I had to come up with a solution to keep them from making as big of a mess.  I did not really succeed fully, but I did come up with the idea to use a milk jug as a feeder (shown in pic) and that is what they are using now still (about 3 week old).  Also, the bottom of plastic soda bottles, juice bottles, etc. can be cut off and used as water dishes.  If you look closely in this pic you will see one and a red peanut butter jar lid as well.  It is not glamorous, but it has saved us money and been a great way to re-purpose some garbage. 

Milk jugs can serve as great little baskets for gathering eggs or holding feed.  Simply cut away the top as shown in this pic:

As we empty a milk carton instead of putting it in the trash I do a quick rinse and cut the top off.  If I have one in the kitchen I also collect scraps from mealtime in these sometimes.  When we head outdoors we have a nice way to carry our scraps to the chickens.  We mostly use them for carrying feed or gathering eggs, though.  When working in the garden they are perfect for using as a little carry-along to hold set packets and tagging supplies.  And I am certaion they are going to be great for harvesting food from the garden.  You can see where there are endless uses for these little milk jug totes. 

And I am not done with those milk jugs just yet... They can be used as scoopers, also. Simply cut away the bottom as shown in this pic (leave the cap ON):

Flip it over and you have a milk jug Scooper !  This works pretty well for scooping feed from our large feed containers into smaller feed containers.  They are kind of flimsy, but useable.  The best homemade scooper I have made has been from a plastic vinegar bottle because it is sturdier plastic.

Cutting at an angle makes a wonderful little vinegar jug Scooper.  And my latest discovery is large Vegetable Oil jug Scoopers!  You cut away at an angle just like the vingar jugs:

I also made our chicken feeders from potting pots that plants come in.  You know... the black plastic temporary pots.  We had some that are probably about three gallon size.  They originally look like this:

Ours were like the larger ones, but about twice the depth.  I used a jigsaw to make the drain holes on the sides about three times as wide and they need to be about 1 1/4 inches in heighth, also.  I purchased galvanized dog feeding pans at Wal-Mart.  Yikes!  I actually spent some money on this project.  Ha!  But spending under $3 a piece on 2 pans for each feeder is way less than buying a commercially made feeder at over $50.  After you have your planter pot ready set it into one galvanaized dog pan and fill with feed.  The other pan will be your lid.  You may have to use your jigsaw to cut away the edge of the planter pot to make the "lid"(pan) fit.  The only other thing to note is that this feeder needs to be set somewhere that stays dry.  If it is in a henhouse you will have no problems.  Ours sits on the ground in the chicken yard and I had to add a concrete pad under it to keep water out during super heavy rain.  If anyone needs better instructions on the feeders, let me know.  I can take some more pics if this does not make sense. 

Also, I use empty plastic ice cream buckets in my refrigerator for egg storage.  The rectangular ones work well.  Other plastic containers are great for this.  I do not use egg cartons because they take up way too much space. 

For tagging my plants and seeds I use large yogurt containers.  I cut down the container in strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and cut across the bottom.  I just trash the bottom piece and sometimes use the lids for paint pallettes.  On the unprinted side of my plastic plant tag I write the name of the plant and date with a permanent marker.  I am uncertain how well the marker holds up and I will try to update that later.

 For now that is all I can think of.  Being frugal comes quite natural to me, so I do not even realize I do this stuff.  I also keep the little containers my tomato plants and such come in and re-use those.  Old cups and yogurt containers make great shoveling cups for dirt. 

Introducing My Adult Hen Varieties

Golden Sex Link

We have two Golden Sex Link hens and they are almost as dark as our Rhode Island Red hens.  When you buy them you do not know what color they will turn out to be.  I think they are quite pretty gals!  They kind of look like they are wearing a petticoat under their dress and they have a pretty pattern around their necks.  Actually, one has this pattern around the neck and the other does not and is a little lighter in color.  One of our rat terriers got out and chased one of our ladies (the one pictured above) with us screaming a chasing behind them.  The dog did get the chicken, but she survived and is missing all but three tail feathers that look like one poking out.  I checked on her today and there is a puncture wound from the dog's teeth and she jerked, so I know it must hurt her.  Dumb dog.  Really, I love rat terriers, but they are hunters.  I was hoping this would not be a problem.  They have also killed two of our bantam hens but I thought that was because the hens flew in the dog yard.  Looks like those two rat terriers will be staying in their yard with the electric fencing wire turned ON.  Sad, but that's just how its gotta be!

 Barred Rock

We also have two Barred Rock hens and I love the color of these ladies.  Walking about they look almost as big as our other hens, but when you pick them up they are considerably lighter and smaller than the rest of our flock. 

Rhode Island Red

We have two Rhode Island Red hens and they are dark reddish in color. 

Black Australian

Again we have two Black Australian hens and they are our heaviest gals.  I think they are our dominant hens, but all of these ladies mingle well together and are not aggressive.  These are solid black with a green sheen to their feathers.  I have truly been surprised at how pretty I think chickens are now. 

I can hardly wait to see what our other hens will mature to look like.  Our older chicks are in that ugly stage right now.  They are New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks, and Silver Wyanndotte hens.  Yes, I got two of each.  I just like them to have a buddy.  ;)  Or rather a "gal"friend.  Our younger chicks are just past that tiny cute and fluffy stage, but are still quite cute.  They are Buff Orpingtons (two) and Aracaunas... five of those because a lot of colored eggs.. had six, but one drowned in it's water. 

So, that's our little flock!  This could get addictive.  Today I discovered Cuckoo Marans and now I want a couple of those so we can have chocolate colored eggs! 

Watching Things Grow

I love watching things grow!   Yesterday I discovered a birds nest in our backyard with 4-5 tiny little eggs in it.  So, today we had little "field trips" in the backyard.  Sienna was content playing in the dining room, so I told the older four that I would take them out in pairs for a little backyard field trip.  This would leave one older child watching over Sienna while we were outside.  I took them out and showed them the little nest and eggs and also, I took this time to show them the progress of some seeds I planted on March 19th.  It is so neat to see things springing to life and pushing through the dirt.  I am not sharing pics at this point because really you would be looking a little patches of dirt with tiny specks of green.  It is not quite photo worthy in my opinion at this point.  The most remarkable growth (and this one is actually photo worthy to some degree) is the Morning Glory seeds I planted.  Those seedlings are actually already 3-4 inches in heighth and the leaves are about one inch long.  I had no idea they are such fast growers, so if you are wanting your kids to see some action in a hurry I would highly recommend planting some morning glories.  It might be a long time before blooming and full maturity, but you do see quick growth early on.  In addition to that I have dill, oregano, basil, and chives sprouting up.  All of those are super tiny, but definitely pushing there way into the world.  I also have a pot that I planted a full packet of Cosmo seeds in and they are sprouting up quickly, as well. 

Each day we are going to continue to watch for growth in the backyard.  I can not wait to see those little baby birds hatch out.  And the kids are so excited to take our daily little backyard field trips.
 
This Saturday I think we will try to do some planting of our veggie garden items.  I tend to get ahead of myself and buy lots of seeds, so I am all ready to go.  I really want to get out of my box and just start planting things and taking a chance on how they do.  Sometimes I think I need a well planned garden, but I am starting to think that I need to just start marking off some little areas and poking seeds in the ground.  I need to take that chance and see what will just grow easily here.  I think we tend to make it more complicated sometimes.  I would love to look up one day and have growth all over out little acre here in town.  I want to use this acre... really use it.  I am thankful in many ways that I do not have several acres to manage, because let's face it.  Most of us aren't even "using" the acre we have.  If I can learn to manage this one little acre well, then one day I hope to add more.  I grew up on land.  My parents had eleven acres... and for the most part we were the only things growing on it.  I loved the large piece of land, but honestly I think I can grow as much right here where I am at.  Of course, I am not going to have any livestock that would have odor issues here in town, but we can choose other things to do.  I want to continue with raising chickens for eggs.  I would like to raise ducks for eggs and hatchlings.  The rabbits will always be just a fun project for our kids, I think.  Selling the babies is not profitable for us, but we never meant for it to be.  I would like to raise chickens for meat, but first I have to convince my husband to kill them.  He likes them.  I do, too.  He does not like the idea of killing them... so, I guess I need to find some ugly chickens for the cause.  I want to learn to garden.  I can grow flowers well.  Surely, I can manage to improve with the veggies and fruits.  The first step is getting it in the ground.  Then, we can watch it grow.

Preparing Animal Housing

Everytime we add another creature to our little acre around here we have to give it great thought.  We have to consider it's affect on our small area and on our neighbors.  What we don't really do well is plan ahead too much.  We get the "creature" and then, worry about it's future housing.  We always have and immediate housing plan like small cages, but not the long term housing ready.  Part of this that if we get a creature that is not a wise choice we have not invested a lot of time and money for something we are going to get rid of. 

So, this is kind of how it has gone....

We had three rabbits and two small cages (3' X 3' X 3').  That worked until we had our first baby rabbits born and suddenly we had to put daddy rabbit in our old dog kennel temporarily.  The search and planning HAD TO begin.  I was making calls to check wiring prices and surfing the internet to plan making our cages.  Ultimately, I got an "easy button" on that one.  I found someone locally that was selling cages for cheaper than I could build homemade ones.  We were able to purchase two sections of caging with five caging areas in each (also referred to as a "five hole").  Rabbit caging problem solved.  Also, at some point we have adopted some lop rabbits (one for free and then, added the other three for $30 complete with cages, etc.), so we also have some other small cages here.

We decided to try out having chickens and we ventured off to the feed supply store with no idea how many we were coming home with.  I thought a couple chicks would be good.  I asked my husband and he said a dozen.  With little thought I basically just got two of each breed that was available that day and that made it ten little chicks.  We brought them home and put them in ONE of our first cages we had used for the rabbits (3x3x3).  We knew we needed a coop, but we did not have one ready, yet.  As the chicks started growing they were getting very crowded, so we put the two cages together to form one cage.  I went to planning, again.  And I want to share a link with you that is great for seeing a huge variety of options and plans for housing chickens.  It is www.backyarchickens.com .  Being that we live in town I wanted to go simple.  I did not want to build a big coop and find that we had to get rid of the chickens later.  I decided on building more of a temporary chicken run that we could later add to.  So, I had my little plan all sketched out until I ran an errand one night and drove past a furniture store that had some large wooden frames (used for shipping couches, etc.) out by their dumpster.  I told Cody and he hitched up the utility trailer to the van and went to look.  He agreed that we could make it work and brought it home.  We were able to attach the frame pieces together and cover it all with wire for a very simply, but efective chicken run with a nesting area.  Now that we know that chickens work well for us we are planning to build a better coop this summer.  Meanwhile, they are continuing to enjoy their chicken run (approximate size is 6' X 10').  They free range during the day and spend their nights in their run. 

So, as Spring approached we decided to add a few more chicks.  I went to see what was available and came home with six more chicks and four ducklings.  Again, we used the little cages (3x3x3).  One has the six chicks and the other has the 4 ducklings.   And this is why I am writing this post.  Those four ducklings are growing very fast!!!  And guess who did not plan on that?!!!  I am trying to figure out what the solution is for them.  I was thinking that we would give them the chicken run and the chickens would have their new coop, but it is not going to be able to wait until Summer.  And the six chicks will be needed room soon as well.  I think we will end up having to make another smaller temporary pen of some sort for the ducklings. 

And I must add that I have tiny chicks in a smaller cage in the house.  I wanted to add Aracaunas to our flock, so I was thinking of ordering those until I found out our feed store had some scheduled to arrive. We anxiously awaited those and when they were in we got six Aracaunas (one drowned in the water, so we have five) and two other chicks.  So, we have stages of fowl that need proper caging and no definite plan.  LOL!  It will all work out, but I have got to get on it! 

My thoughts are mainly on the ducklings.  I have no idea really what is the best solution for them.  Maybe once they are grown they won't even need their own caging.  They might be able to just join the chickens in their housing.  I mean, now that I think about it I have never heard anyone talk about their "duck coop".  LOL!  It is all a learning process and I really did not consider too much about it on the day we bought the ducks.  I'm smart like that!  ;) 

Since this post is about Animal Housing and not just the feathered friends we have, I want to include that this past Fall (2011) we were given two male goats.  We had the idea that they would just join in with our two dogs (rat terriers) in their pen.  That pen is very large... I am guessing that it is 12' X 20' and has three dog houses in it.  That space was fine.  I would suggest having more space for goats, but they would have been fine in that much space.  We decided to get rid of them because they made it stinky.  We could walk out the back door and it smelled like a livestock barn.  I asked the neighbors and they said they did not smell it, but I am sure it was just a matte of time before they would have.  It was yuck!  I don't think this would have been an issue with females, but once the males hit maturity the odor began. 

These are our "bigger chicks".  They are approximately 4 weeks old.  We took them out to have a chance to free range a bit under our close watch.   We won't do that much as they hard to catch. 

These are the "baby chicks"... Buff Orpingtons are the yellow.... Aracaunas are the brown.

These are the "baby chicks" in their caging in our house.  They almost made it one week in here, but today I moved them out.  The weather is forecasted to be in the 80s with no rain.  We were having flood situations when these little gals came home with us, so in the interest of their survival I put them indoors.

Our ducklings in the 3x3x3 caging and under a tarp due to flash flood weather.  They like this little nesting box, but they outgrew it within a week.

The nesting box also proved to be a place that there poop could accumulate.  Yuk!  These birds are super messy and they require that their cage be washed down about every other day.

Stinking birds... I mean, sweet little ducklings...

These are the 3x3x3 cages on the simple stands we made out of 2x4 boards.  These cages are not glamorous, but they were $10 each and we had the lumber to build the stands.  These cages have served us well and have been very useful for muliple purposes.  We even had a rescued squirrel in one for a while.  Also, the flooding issue has made a fine mess and quite a stinky situation.  This is not normal, so it usually looks a little better than this.  The tarps were necessary for the excessive rain even though the rain still got these poor little birds.  They look pretty sad after that storm.  They are all better now.  If you look close you can see one of our adult Barred Rocks under the cage. 

This has nothing to do with "housing", but this is the first time our ducks got to play in the water.  We had a "pond-like backyard" due to the flooding. 

These are the "Bigger Chicks".  We had placed them in this cage to carry them to an area that was suitable to test them out with free ranging.  The orange ones are New Hampshire Reds.  The two speckled ones toward the bottom are Barred Rocks.  We already have two adult Barred Rocks and I liked them so much that I added two more to our flock.  Not sure this was wise, though.  One of these little ones keeps trying to peck me!  The two other black chicks pictures are Silver Wyandottes. 

Adding To Our Flock & Feeding The Flock

So, I added 6 Aracauna chicks and 2 Buff Orpington chicks to our flock today.  I am not sure we really should, but we wanted some "Easter Eggs".  {Grin}.  We are seriously getting way more eggs than we need, but getting those colored eggs from the Aracaunas in a about five months will be so much fun!!!  And since there were some other choices I decided to pick up a couple of the Buff Orpingtons.  We are going to have eggs running out our ears!  Maybe we will start selling some to offset the cost of feeding and housing our ladies.  I originally thought we would do that anyway to teach the kids and let them run the business part; however, after the hens starting laying I have really enjoyed sharing with others.  There is just something wonderful about knowing that you have something to give and share with others.  It blesses the heart so!  I love knowing that my friends have left my home with something healthier than the store bought alternative. 

And on that note, I want to say that I am so THANKFUL that I can drive to the store and pick up the things I need when I need them.  I just wish that we could rely on those things being the best they can be.  Simply put... I know what is going in my chickens.

• Our chickens are fed on Chick Starter for the first few weeks of their lives. 
• As they get older we mix Chick Starter and Hen Scratch and they feed on that until they are can eat the Hen Scratch.
• We switch them to Hen Scratch only until they are near laying age.  This is also around the time they have almost reached their full size and we allow them to "free range".  We keep them in up to this time to protect them from predators.  Once they begin to free range, they show little interest in any of the feed.  They will only eat it when they are closed up. 
• After that we mix Hen Scratch and Lay Mash Pellets for them to feed on as they wish.
• ***We also give our hens scraps of all sorts.  They LOVE leftover pasta.  I am pretty sure they think a shell noodle is a nice juicy bug.  ;)

I am looking forward to a little bit of this.  So pretty!

Our Little Acre

We started out here on this little lot of land in the middle of our small town with 3/4 of an acre of land.  Being that we live just a few blocks from the old town square 3/4 of an acre is actually a pretty large piece of land.  Now, I grew up on 11 acres, so to me it is not large, but for town life it is a nice size lot.  There was a 1/4 acre vacant lot behind our property that was not being maintained, so after some research I found out that there were debts owed to the city for a house demolition and several years of back taxes owed on the property.  After a couple of years I called the owner and offered to pay his debts and an additional $2, 000 to him for the property.  This was a generous offer since I could have pushed the city to confiscate his property and I would have probably gotten his property for much less.  Mostly, my husband wanted the property and I knew that this was the best approach to assure we got the land.  So, we did it and now we have 1 full acre making us the only ones in this area of town to own half a city block.  Seriously, it is a big deal and we are quite in love with it. 

The only problem is.... I fear we are gonna get thrown out of town for all the creatures we have started keeping in the last couple of years.  Hahahaha!  It was a big joke when we moved here over ten years ago that I had come from the country and might dare to have chickens here.  I honestly thought I would NEVER have chickens.  Fast forward to the present... and we do have chickens.  And more creatures.

We started with dogs.  Pretty simple... pretty normal.  We had four, but have had some deaths, so now we have two dogs... rat terriers.  They have such sweet personalities.

Over a year ago we added rabbits.  In the Fall of 2010 we got two California Rabbits and one died right away of heat stroke.  We returned the other for fear of it dying.  A friend gave us another rabbit her kids did not want anymore.  Within a month or so we purchased two more rabbits.  By the early Spring of 2011 we had over 30 rabbits!!!  Oh my the way they multiply!  We upgraded to a 10 cage system  and we now have lops and regular rabbits. 

In the Spring of 2011 we also added eight chickens for the purpose of laying eggs.  In the Fall of 2011 a friend gave us 3 bantam chicks and we have one that has survived.  Actually, we found her first two eggs today!  Woo hoo!  They are so cute little tiny eggs.  Anyhow, this Spring (2012) we have added six more chicks and four ducklings and we intend to add a few more chicks next week. 

Last Fall (2011) we were given two male goats that we were going to raise with our dogs, but that did not work out because once the goats hit maturity they began to have a strong scent.  It smelled like a livestock barn here.  Stinky!  They had to go. 

So, right now on our little acre we have:
8 laying hens (2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Golden Sex Links, 2 Black Australians
1 bantam hen (Duck Wing Bantam).... Ooops!  Update:  It seems our banty got in the dog yard... It's a gonner!  :(
6 chicks (2 Barred Rocks, 2 New Hampshire Reds, 2 Silver Wynndotte)
4 ducklings (Uncertain of breed)
4 lop rabbits (1 baby)
16 mix rabbits (9 babies)
2 rat terrier dogs.

LOTS OF FUN on our little one acre!!!!