Category: Homesteading

Fence Options

We’re planning out a pasture for the chickens and turkeys — mostly back in the woods so they’ve got plenty of cover, lots of tree detritus to scratch at, and shade on these hot summer days. There are plenty of options for fencing — and a big jump in prices between 5′ and 6′ high fences. We’re thinking about overlapping two rolls of fence to create a cheaper version of 6+ foot high fencing — it’s $120 for two 3′ rolls v/s $160 for a single 6′ roll. Even a 3′ and a 4′ roll, creating a higher fence with maybe 6″ of overlap, is $140. Securing the two pieces along the entire fence line will be increased effort, but rolling out 6′ of fencing seems like it might be a lot of effort compared to rolling out a 4′ and a 3′ roll.

Trail Expansion

We’ve created a beautiful wood-chip covered trail in our woods — this has transformed the mucky maple harvest path into a usable trail and made collecting sap a lot quicker/easier (and less muddy!). This year, we’re working on extending the trail along the east side of our property. This will provide easier access to the maples in the back woods as well as the apiary. So far, I’ve cleared a bunch of honey suckle, multi-flora rose, wild raspberries, and general forest undergrowth. There’s a path angled off of the original path, a right hand turn, and a winding path along the eastern side of our property. Once we get it cleared, we collected a huge pile of wood chips from the Metro Parks this year that we’ll use to cover the trail.

(Mostly) Fits In a Volt

Harbor Freight had one of their 20% off coupon sales for Fathers Day. We’ve been wanting to buy the 10×12 greenhouse for a while, and 20% off was the perfect opportunity to do so. There’s a site where someone details all of the tweaks they used to enhance the structure — we’ll be making a lot of these enhancements as we build the thing.

One of these days, we’ll have an electric farm truck running … but, until then, a 10×12 greenhouse in its box #FitsInAVolt … at least sufficiently to transport it a short distance home!

Poultry Brooding Options

We’re working on building up an outdoor brooding area to hatch and raise chickens and turkeys. The current coop — which seemed so large when we got our first five hens — is too small for raising more birds.

Option #1 is to get a larger coop — we’re looking at a metal shed — that will give us space to frame out two rectangles, cover them with hardware cloth, and have both a nursery with the chicken toaster and a brooder for slightly order birds who are still getting acclimated to the flock. To save floor space, I would make PVC tube feeders and waterers. The brooder could be brought outside into the pasture to serve as a baby bird tractor, too.

Option #2 is to build out a nursery and brooder on the side of the existing coop. This could even be insulated to ensure the baby guys are extra toasty. This probably would have a hinged roof so we could access the baby guys from outside of the coop.

Turkeys in the Coop

We have turkeys in the coop! Anya put the little guys in the coop by themselves, and then she brought our friendliest hens in (one at a time) and hung out in the coop as a referee. Then she brought the Bresse hens in without problem. And finally our least friendly older hens and then each of the roosters. Everyone was fine. And, when I opened the coop this morning, the little turkey guys were out on the floor with the chickens — eating their food and ready for a refill on their water.

Adventure chicken

One of our Bresse hens went for a walkabout last night. We were going shopping, so had to get them cooped up earlier than normal. Normally, it’s sunset when we’re taking them to the coop. And we don’t put more food into the tractor in the evening, so the chickens are ready to head in for a meal. When we’re leaving early, I like to carry the chickens and deliver them into the coop. And have someone opening/closing the door to avoid escapees. Anya evidently just opened the tractor and let them run. Some ran into the coop. Some ran to the compost. And one? She ran for the woods.

She was roosting in a tree last night, but Scott and Anya weren’t able to coax her down. Then she was nowhere to be found this morning. Luckily it was a light misty rain all day and not the rain showers I was expecting. We put the dozen remaining chickens into the tractor and left them do chicken things. By late afternoon, our missing girl was hanging out by the tractor. Anya picked her up and gave her some snuggles, then popped her into the tractor for some food and water. Her adventure seems to have tired her out — she was quiet and snuggly.

We also tried putting the poults in with the chickens today. We’d had them in the baby poultry tractor next to the big chicken tractor for a week so they’d get used to seeing each other. Well — that didn’t work out so well. Introducing the Bresse to the egg layers went pretty well — the egg layers were selected for their chill personalities. The Bresse rooster, however, went after the first poult Anya put into the tractor. So they’re back in the baby tractor for some more introduction time. We’ll have to do some supervised interaction on a nice, warm, sunny day.