Category: Homesteading

First Outdoor Adventure

Our little girls had their first adventure outdoors. One advantage of getting chicks late in the year like this ? 90 degree days. Plenty warm enough for these little ones to enjoy exploring. We’ve got a fence around the hazelnut bushes, so Anya brought them into that grassy area. At first, they stayed close to one of “their people”.

But, as they spent a little time checking out grass and dirt near us, they started venturing around the yard.

Real Chickens!

We picked up our little babies yesterday — had a little confusion because the order hadn’t gotten marked as ready for pickup, and the office staff is working from home so they couldn’t just pop out to the hatchery and see. But they eventually confirmed all five little guys were hatched and ready to come home.

We’ve got Sunshine, the Buff Orpington, who is undoubtedly Anya’s fav.

We’ve got Joyce, the Austra White, who Anya says is Sunshine’s best friend (and she is).

And Moonlight, the Black Jersey Giant … well, I’m about 90% sure about that. She’s got dark legs

And then we’ve got … well, I don’t know. And totally understand why they put leg bands on the ‘rare breed’ birds. There are a whole lot of gray and yellow balls of fluff. I think this is the Green Queen, Queenington.

Which would make this our Columbian Wyandotte, Tilly. Anya says we cannot call them by their names until their feathers come in and we actually know who is who. Which makes sense — I’d be awfully confused if I was called one name for a few years and then my family randomly started calling me some other name.

 

 

Chicken Tractor Design

I want to build a secure run for our chickens — something we can move around the yard. I’ve seen a lot of A-frame chicken tractors — I assume people use the triangular shape instead of a rectangle because there’s less material for a given footprint and, thus, the tractor is lighter and easier to move. Chickens aren’t that tall, so they can use most of the “knee wall” section of the tractor. But I thing it will be nicer to be able to use 100% of the footprint. Since 5′ hardware cloth seems quite rare, and there’s no reason to have a run that’s higher than 3′ … I’m designing this around 3′ sections. The vertical walls will use one length of 3′ hardware cloth. The top will have two “sections” of 3′ hardware cloth.

The run will be a wooden frame covered in 1/2″ mesh hardware cloth. The frame is put together as shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSvpYh5OBYU. I plan on using 2×4’s to build the frame, stapling the hardware cloth to the frame, and then using 1×2’s over the edge of the hardware cloth to ensure sharp edges won’t snag or cut anything. The screws holding the 1×2’s onto the 2×4’s will provide additional security.

On each corner, I need two 3″ long screws and another two screws for the board along the top. That’s 28 3″ long screws. I’ll need a bunch of fencing staples to hold the hardware cloth and some eighty 1.5″ long screws to hold the 1×2 to the 2×4’s

I need just over 50′ of three-foot-wide hardware cloth (10′ + 10′ + (2 x 10′) + 6′ + 6′ = 52′). Since I’ll need some to secure the coop too, I’ll probably just get a 50′ roll and a 20′ roll. I need 5x 10′ long 2×4’s, 4x 6′ long 2×4’s, 4x 3′ long 2×4’s (cut from 4x 10′ long 2×4’s) … which is nine 10′ long 2×4’s. I also need nine 10′ long 1×2’s to cover the ends of the hardware cloth. And maybe some handles on the top 6′ board to make carrying the thing easier.

I need to research a non-toxic paint or sealant, and we’ll have a chicken tractor.

Chicken Brooder Setup – Water and Heat

The heater that I ordered from Amazon for the baby chickens was a dud — I’ve got to send it back tomorrow. I ordered a different heater — both are like heating pads on legs to allow the chickens to huddle under it like a mommy hen.

We got the first bag of starter food along with a feeder and water container. While the water container is designed to prevent drowning, Anya read about putting rocks into the water tray in her chicken keeping book … so we gathered too-big-for-a-chicken-to-swallow stones, washed them, and have them in the water tray for extra safety.

2020 Garden Update – Late July

It’s almost time to plant the broccoli, brussle sprouts, and kale! We’ve gotten a few harvests from the bush beans (and I planted more seeds a few weeks ago), and the wall of pole beans is covered in flowers. Anya and I have been snacking on pea leaf microgreens (and macrogreens!) — and rabbits apparently love pea plants above any other plant. The little bed of microgreens seems to have saved the rest of my garden from nibbles. The corn is almost as tall as I am, and the cucumber plants are covering the A-frame. Tiny peppers are starting to form on the plans

And I’ve got dozens of green tomatoes

It looks like moving the garden to a sunnier spot has been a huge improvement in production.

Next year,I want to adjust the planting schedule:

March: Start the peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, squash, and cantaloupe indoors. Plant snow peas outdoors.

Late April: Start the corn indoors.

Mid/late May: Plant the plants that have been growing since March. Sprinkle carrot seeds around the tomato plants — that worked quite well as I’ve never had carrots grow before. Plant the bush and pole beans outdoors.

June: Plant the corn outside. Start the broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower indoors.

July: Plant second round of bush beans outdoors.

August: Plant broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower

First Harvest – 2020

There are green tomatoes ripening, the beans are growing on the bush beans … and we’ve got cucumbers! I knew there were flowers with little proto-cucumbers growing. Anya and I were grilling dinner tonight, and I noticed a large diameter end of a cucumber nestled in the center of the plant. Pushed aside a few leaves and wow, that’s a large cucumber. I held Anya’s hand so she could lean over into the center of the plant and she found four more! There are still a lot of flowers and cucumbers starting too.