The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 10

The birds continue to grow everyday, and I continue to enjoy their entertaining personalities. I have such a full understanding of the term now, if I were to call someone a chicken! They still thoroughly enjoy it if I whistle to them, sometimes they sing a bit back. Another rooster (one of the indistinguishable purebred Buff Orpington roosters) is challenging Bernie's well mastered cock-a-doodle-doo with a long drawn out squawk. Bernie continues to lead the flock in bravery and boldness. His newest trick is to sit on my shoulder and peer down at everyone else. But I guess if you give them an inch they'll take a mile... The other day when I bent down to get the water pail, Bernie proceeded to perch atop my head! Id say that is taking it a little far. With all the summer chores starting in the garden ie. weeding, weeding, weeding - I don't have much time to watch the birds, but I listen to them every morning, and Im completely satisfied knowing that theyre there!

The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 9

Now that the chickens are on their "grower" feed - I have been noticing that they are eating a lot more. Theyre getting about 2kg of food per day, and that means Im going through a 20kg bag in 10 days. Its popular stuff! Theyre also getting a pile of grass every morning and weeds from the garden. Ive converted them from the auto feed waterers to 4L pails. Its so much simpler to fill the pails and much easier to keep clean. As far as growth goes, the birds have definitely grown in the last two weeks. Bernie is still the solo crower, none of the other roosters have started. Racingstripe and Rob's tail feathers are turning a beautiful dark emerald shade - probably the biggest chicken dream come true for me (especially since that isn't apt to happen). Their temperament continues to be good, Rob gets quite jealous if I have another chicken sitting on my knee, and he has to jump up on my other knee. They haven't been too impressed with the rain lately, and far prefer to be inside than out those days. Every day I change my mind on whose male and whose female - its incredibly hard to tell. Based on the comparison from Google images, Ive only got 3 males... wouldn't that be an anomaly of nature! And that would mean no Sunday fried chicken in the winter. Good thing Im getting 15 meat birds as insurance.

 <-- Rob the Rooster

When a Cow Gets Dandruff...

Just yesterday Holly (the Jersey heifer) had a couple patches of hair missing on her neck. There was a lot of flaking skin around the areas too. I wasn't too concerned about it until I looked up why a cow would be loosing hair in patches. I found things like, mange, lice, ringworm, photosensitivity etc. Then I got nervous. I tried to rule out ringworm - the enemy of the cattle farmer - because it is very dry here and the fungus thrives in a damp dark environment. I couldn't rule out lice because I hadn't taken a close enough look to see if there were any bugs. Well my worrying was in vain, the vet came out to castrate some other cows on the farm and he took a look at Holly. He said that it was only dry skin, and that she should be brushed an hour everyday. I don't mind the extra chore time I have to put in, its an easy remedy compared to the cost and effort to rid the entire herd of ringworm or lice! (Chances are that if one cow has symptoms, more than just one would be affected). In retrospect it makes sense that Holly's loosing hair. She has a very thick coat for a Jersey - probably because she was kept in a very cold barn before we had her. Now she shedding that winter coat. No doubt mosquito and black fly bites caused her to rub on posts, making the patches of hair come out. Fortunately Holly doesn't mind being brushed, and today she stood still for the majority of the hour, so I could brush her. Im going to look into getting a natural moisturizer for her skin, because its just like a bad case of dandruff, flaking everywhere! 

Not One, Not Two But Seven Rabbits!!

A very unorganized evening produced the increase of my "flock" of critters, with rabbits! I got seven rabbits at 5 and 7 dollars apiece (depending on size) and brought them home in a laundry hamper. There are 4 black ones that are a California/Chinchilla cross, 2 brown ones that are New Zealand/Californian cross and one white one that is pure Californian. The ride home was uneventful, and I decided they would stay in the garage for the first couple of days while I introduce grass into their diets. They are on pellets right now, so if I put the grass right to them they would get diarrhea. I had a dog crate that's bars were about 2"x4" that I thought I would use for keeping them until they were ready to go out, but I clearly underestimated their size, based on their fur. I got them all in then took a count and I was one short, one had escaped right through the bars! So some temporary  modifications were made until we got a proper rabbit cage (fortunately that was within an hour of getting the rabbits). They settled in just fine, playing together, snuggling and eating hay like its going out of style. They have two small animal water bottles that they were already used to drinking from. Oh, I forgot to mention, these are all meat rabbits - and destined for dinner (in 3 months)!

Putting in the Garden

As soon as the weather is nice, the rush is on to start planting. Early this week I started planting and every day I planted some more. Now Im all done and I couldn't be more satisfied (that is, until I can watch the plants start popping up!). This year I planted my salad bowl (greens/radishes etc). I planted some onions, dill, turnip, carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, green and yellow beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, zucchini, pumpkins, popcorn, regular corn, 4 types of squash and Im sure Ive forgotten something. My biggest challenge was hardening my tomato plants, who got sunburnt and wind tossed the second I put them out. Next year I will harden them in the shade for the first little while. I worked so hard to get everything planted and then for a whole week we hadn't got rain, and nothing except some faithful turnips popped up. After a seemingly long wait, it finally started raining, and I don't have to be worried. Im looking forward to the days ahead where I can watch my plants start growing!

The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 7

In two weeks, so much has gone on and been developed in the chicken house! This week we accomplished lots of things that should have been done a while ago - but alas they are finally done. We spent a whole day building the outdoor chicken pen. Now they can go outside as they please and rip and tear as much as they like. We made the chicken run 10'x15'. We dug holes and used cedar posts every 5 feet. Then we made a frame at the top to affix the chicken wire to. We used 2"x4" corn crib fencing around the bottom 4 feet of the chicken run and 1" chicken wire on the remaining area above. We used chicken wire across the top of the run making it completely fenced in, so no turkey vultures can snatch up one of my birdies. Last we put cedar posts split in half along the bottom of the entire chicken run, so nothing can really dig in or out. When we let the chickens out the first time, they were entirely thrilled! The second structural improvement we did was install roosts for the birds. We notched lengths of a tree that we took down - cut in the width of the building, and braced them with a block of wood to the coop wall. We did one at 5ft high, 3 1/2 ft high and 1 ft high, staggered like steps. At first the birds were hesitant to go near the roosts but that night, here they were all lined up on the highest roost! And a very exciting development with the birds is that Bernie the rooster is proudly crowing from 6:30AM to 11:30AM in the mornings. And the last addition we made was putting cage wire (1"x1") over the windows. The birds were starting to fly up to the window sills to perch up there.
Heres some pictures of the rapidly growing birds!

Letting the Cows Out!

Now that the weather is warmer and the grass is green, most of the cows stay outside all the time. That left the barnyard empty yesterday. So, we let my little Holly outside for a rip. She was pretty tentative at first, but then she absolutely loved it! She raced around and around the barnyard, happy as a lark. She held her little tail high up in the air! She hadn't been allowed outside before now because her horn wounds are still quite sensitive and healing. But the yard was empty, we closed the gates so she couldn't get out anywhere. After about 5 minutes of just running, she slowed her pace and started snooping around everywhere! She was so curious. I think the poor thing was getting bored in her pen. This doesn't mean that she will go outside every day now, but at least we know she loves it (who doesn't love it outside?)!

To Work The Dirt Beneath Your Feet

Its lovely that the earth has dried out enough that I can accomplish some work now. It was so wet for the longest time, but after a week of sunny weather, the garden was finally ready to be tilled. Planting indoors has slipped by me slightly, and today I got caught up. Indoors, I started some cucumbers, zuchinnis, melons, squash, herbs (for the 3rd try) and my popcorn. I didn't plant a lot of the first bit of the list, as most will be directly sown after the end of May. But I was antsy and decided to try started some indoors. Outdoors, I also did some planting. I put in a small "salad bowl" patch, with onions, early carrots, dill, radish, kohlrabi, turnip, kale, spinach, chard, lettuce and spinach. These are all early plants that can take the colder ground and a light frost. Actually most of them thrive in the cooler temperatures. All those fresh veggies just make me sooo hungry. I get so sick of the hydroponic vegetables from the store, theres nothing like eating from your own garden! Last week I planted my strawberry plants and my cherry trees. The strawberry plants went in a foot away from each other. For the cherry trees, I dug a circle, fairly bigger than the size of the tree, loosened the earth and put some well rotted manure in the hole. I try to water the trees every second day. I just have to keep an eye on the weather for frost, so I can cover them if need be. In about three weeks the real planting push will be on!

The Great Chicken Adventure: 5 Weeks Old

Grow. Eat. Drink. Poop.

This is the stage that my chickens are currently at - along with a "terrible twos" - type curiosity. The chickens were beginning to fight a lot at feeding time a couple of days ago. I either needed to buy a larger feeder, which is about $40, or be creative a make one, and of course, the latter was my preferred option. We had some old wood kicking around, and I used that to create a basic trough, and centered on top I nailed a 1 1/2" wide sapling (to prevent them from sitting inside the feeder. The trough I made is about 6 feet long and will last them until it rots. Making a waterer isn't so simple, so I believe a purchase may be necessary. Some other coop developments include a heat lamp reduction - there is only one going at night now. I have also painted some planters for flowers out front of the chicken coop. In one week the chickens will be eating a 2:1 ratio of the starter feed they are currently on, and the grower feed which must be introduced into their diet. I have put more time into trying to socialize the chickens. Most of them don't mind me picking them up, Rob the Rooster is still my preferred bird. I think my rooster count is up to 6, with possibly more coming. Its incredible how some are so definitely roosters, while others take so long to make their gender known.
See for yourself how much they have grown!

The Great Chicken Adventure: 1 Month Old

Well time flies, and that's a fact. My chickens are already a whole month old - and you can tell their age by how much they've grown. Ive spent several hours the past week engaging them. They've become friendly and curious. I have one chicken that is completely comfortable sitting on my knee. He likes his chin being rubbed and his feathers stroked. He's the bravest, and he shows it off to his coop-mates by the way he stands up so proudly on my knee and makes these cluck/peeping noises. The roosters are by far more bold than the hens, from what I can see. The males are making themselves known by the lovely red combs that they are developing on the tops of their heads, and by the red beards that are starting in on the bottom of their chins. They all get quite excited when you twirl heads of hay between your fingers, they all come and chase it till they can get it from me. Then they take off running, with the others chasing trying to steal the hay from whoever has it. Its like a game of football! (If Ive said it once, Ive said it a hundred times - "who needs tv?"). Some more developments have been made within the coop. I have one heat lamp completely off and the temperature is fine for them. I will have to upgrade to a larger feeder by next week - as they are getting so large they really crowd around it. I have painted the outside of the coop, a nice grey blue, because that was what I found in the garage. I have to paint the trim still and that will be white. The poor chickens will be put to the back burner as soon as the planting begins - then it will be morning and night chores, and that's it!

This is my friendly rooster (he might stick around to service the coop in the fall)

Family photo

Playing with the seed heads on the hay

Here you can see the beard and comb growing in - and that makes him a rooster!