Not the Post I Wanted to Make

Yesterday afternoon, I worked a lot on this: 

That's the henspa, and normally, I simply rake the straw shavings out the door into the henyard. 

This time, I wanted to recover them. 

I had to lock the goats up first, because Kelly would LOVE to get in there to eat chicken feed. 

The straw, which was bought at our regular feed store, smelled okay but was particularly DARK. 

I'm wondering how old it is.  It did not smell moldy, though. 

Some of the smaller birds rarely go outside, and they were spazzing while I worked.  Then they calmed down. 

I got a lot of eggs from here yesterday, eleven of them.  I used to get twenty, but I have old birds in here now. 

The cart load was shoveled into the new bed.  If you look at the far end, you can see the darker cleanings from the old henhouse.  These were lighter, I had just re-bedded it a month or so ago, but they were full of chicken poop.  It will all compost over the course of the winter.   We'll come back to this picture in a minute. 

Our gorgeous sunset last night. 

I dug the potatoes nearly 2 months ago.  Keith insisted there were more, and I knew that some plants had started growing again. 

He was right. 

And we found at least ten baby pumpkins (and one big one) on our vines that we didn't plant until mid-July.  I'm hoping we get a few in time for Halloween! 

Look who was hiding behind the ammo box/nest in the old henhouse!  Mr. T!  

I honestly thought the snakes had gone underground already, but these last few days of heat have brought them out for sure. 

It was very dark in that corner, and the flash lit him up. 

Kelly is trying his best to eat all the porch decorations! 

Okay, back to that flower bed picture.  If you make it a little bigger, you will see that the yarrow patch has become badly overgrown with grass.  I planned to dig it all up, pull out the grass, and divide it today. 

I got about three spades in, and realized I was totally pooped out.  It was 85 degrees out, and I just.could.not.break the ground. 

I'm either going to have to get Chris up here or wait until it rains tomorrow. 

Today we receieved the Liebster Award from Stella Rose, Maggie, and Gussie at The Three Little Pugs.  Thank you, friends!  We will comply with the "rules" tomorrow. 

Also, we read two bits of sad news.  

S and J at Cranky Puppy have lost their 17 year old Pomeranian girl, Foster... we are so sorry to read of this, and for your loss.  She was a beauty. 

And Ian, at Life on an Acreage, has found out that his wife Elaine has Parkinson's... our hearts go out to you, along with lots of prayers.  They will be moving from their home on acreage, back into town. 

We have enjoyed so much Ian's pictures of the beautiful Canadian bush where they live. 

Resting up this evening in hopes of getting those plants out tomorrow! 

The Difference in Henhouses Addendum

The differences in the old henhouses and the new is dramatic.  I swear to you that the hens in the new henspa are happier, though I can't put my finger on why.  Maybe it's the fact that they have light, air, and clean surroundings???

Hmmmm there's a ghost in that picture

Rooster Moe and Bitsy, one of the Naughty Girls who are almost two years old now! 

They are getting whiter with age. 

This is Folly, who has just come into lay.  The flash made the box look bright, but it is actually very dark.  The hens love the lower level of boxes that Keith built, they love the privacy.  She was on five eggs. (before I took them!) 

Someone checked to see if I needed help.  You know we still have to clean the front room out... it has been too cold to carry things back and forth. 

Contrast it with the old big henhouse...this is the feed room I had cleaned out a month ago.  Now there are hens who hang out in there daily with Butch.  I keep food and water down for them.  The orange wire is the jerry-rigged line going over to the little henhouse, to run the light.  We have GOT to get the whole henhouse re-wired this year, and the nasty drywall down and out.  

There are my only two Old English Gamebirds left, the rooster Speedy, and little Suzy, who was about to go up to the rafters to roost.  I ran about 20 starlings out of there today, and they emptied the outside waterers twice again. 

The streaks you see all over everything are from past starling depredations.  But.... they need to eat too. 

I keep food up on the top of the closet so the little ones can eat if it's too cold for them to go out. 

I have been looking at chicken and hatchery websites... I want to get about 10 more layers... and I'd like to try something different, like brown leghorns.  Has anyone reading this ever ordered from MyPetChicken.com?  Supposedly you can order smaller numbers from them.  I'm a little hesitant to do it, but I am close to the Post Office and can get there immediately when they come in.  Keith is going to build a brooder for me... and it's time to start thinking about it. 

I have a plan for this evening... I'm going to go out in a few minutes and try to put the game cam on top of one of the posts in the big henyard, to try to catch the owl coming and going.  

If I can get video, I'll share it with you tomorrow! 

I took this picture at 5:30 tonight, I happened to peek out to see if Lilly wanted to come in... and look who was sitting on the fence by the gate to the henyards.  He really likes the mice there, I think. 

I finally figured out how to take a picture at NIGHT :-). 

Unbelieveable!
Isn't he gorgeous? 

Some Small Explanations

I talk a lot about things here at Calamity Acres, and forget there are some people who do not understand the things to which I refer.

 

I thought today I would take a little time to show some things to which I refer repeatedly, so you understand what I mean when I name a building or a location.

 

First, the chicken yards. 

This somewhat grainy photo shows you the two chicken yards.  Well, the first two.  The one on the right was the very first thing Keith built here at our place.  We had   no... I HAD bought two pairs of chickens before we ever moved in, and they were boarded with a friend.  Keith intends to re-build these pens at some point, because they are all leaning now and the gates don't work very well anymore. 

 

On the right is the "Big Henhouse", the one that has been invaded so many times by the starlings in the winter.  It was a small building with a closet and air conditioning that was used to watch children of the people who came to the strawberry farm to pick.  We find debris all the time, coming up to the top of the ground, so we think the back of it was used as a dump at one time.

 

It has been a very serviceable henhouse.

 

The one on the left, we refer to as the "Little Henhouse", and you will see it's up on stilts.  It provides shelter for the birds in the summer... and from snow and rain in bad weather.  We used to make a wall of straw bales around it we called "Fort Apache" to protect our ducks and geese in the winter.

 

I backed off into the pasture to take this picture this morning.

 

Looking north, to the right, you can see some other buildings.

 

 

Now you can look past the fenceline and see the pasture pen, a dog pen that I have used for some birds the past two summers... and the little horsebarn behind it, with it's corral, that I call the "horseyard" or the "llamayard", when we had our llamas.  This was a serviceable three sided shed for winter cover.  The little red barn is for hay, it sits outside the pasture fence.

 

The framework to the front of the picture was for another shed Keith was going to build, that never really got started.  The poles are still so straight and true that the pond man did not want to tear them down, as he uprooted the three you see in cement.  This weekend, we are moving the little flock from the pasture pen, over to the new henhouse.  Also... you can see a fence brace to the right... that was a pad that Keith made for a proper barn.  Because of making that pad, we had a tiny little pond that I loved, and our ducks and geese loved... but when we tried to make a big, regular pond... we hit limestone and could not do so.  Our little pond was filled in, and that created the weedy area in the middle that you can just see.

 

I am going to take the pasture pen down, and we will move it into the yard to use as a pen for the dogs on days we have company and need to pen them up for a bit.

 

 

This is the "new" henhouse, or the henspa... built in the yard.  That's the garden area in front of it, and the firepit. 

 

 

Yes, there's still construction debris around it...

but it's just about ready.  The framework you see in the picture will hold the shadecloth which will cover the run.  The poor chickens who are now used to running at will in the pasture will be kept in this smaller run so that the layers can lay where I can find the eggs.  They will have access to underneath the house too, hence the steps you see at the east end and the south end.  We'll be cleaning up this weekend, and hope to move the chickens on Saturday and Sunday and Monday.  We are expecting temps to drop from the 70's today to the low 40's by Sunday.

 

Looking north from here...

 

 

We look into the garden bed area, and the area where this year's hoop house stood, but where we will set up a small greenhouse next spring.  We are thinking of putting a small gazebo near the chicken yard, where we can sit and watch the hens.  The porch you see will also have a railing around it, and a deck bench on it, so we can sit there.  Keith has also bought flower boxes to put under the windows on the north side. 

 

(And I'm praying I won't have to crawl under the henhouse to find eggs!)

 

 

 



An Old Farm and Someone's Chickens

I had to run to Garnett to get Nathan this afternoon, and stopped on my way back through the countryside to take picture of an old farm I often see when going that way.  I always wondered how many families lived there... the kids who played in the yard... the animals who lived in the barns.  The land is still farmed, but no one lives in the old home place.  Behind the white barn are three big machine sheds, empty.  There is a nice old red barn to the left of the white barn, and both are not in too bad of shape yet. 

 

I suspect the farmer who owns it is cutting part of the yard so he can get in and out of the fields, because it is not totally wild.

 

I love to slow down if no one is coming up behind me, to look at the farm and yard. 

 

While on the way home, I stopped at a place I had also seen often... open only from 3-7 PM daily... they are a family that sells vegetables and eggs.  The place is neatly kept.  A man came down from the garden to talk to me... he had a lot of tomatos for sale, but they were very small, NOT San Marzanos.  They were in good shape, and he said he had made three plantings and watered, and I looked up to his garden and it was VERY impressive.

 

I asked if I could see his chickens.

My pictures of the inside of the coop did not come out, but here is the outside, I thought it was cleverly done.

 

 

He actually has 4 coops, and here, as you see, adapted a machine shed as his fourth coop... it is divided in the middle.  The hens are White Rocks, and there is a Rhode Island Red rooster in with them (there are a couple of Rhody hens).  These breed sex link chicks, and he just hatched out a batch.

 

 

He took a big wooden box from work, and converted it into a brooder to start his chicks off.  Someone was supposed to come buy the white chicks you see here... his hatch was almost 50-50, pullets and cockerels.  I asked what he did with his cockerels, and he grimaced.  He told me this time he was throwing them over the fence into the woods if the guy didn't come buy them tomorrow.  He said he wasn't going to feed them when he couldn't get rid of them.  Hard-hearted, I know.  He was at least embarassed about it. 

 

He moves them from this box into another, bigger box to grow them on, then has a special yard and hut to put them into.  He had the same trouble with an owl that we did.

 

 

The bigger box they go into next... I think this is a great system.

 

I am trying to break the juvenile replacement layers of sleeping in their outside 4 x 4 pen, so have closed it tonight to get them to go inside the big henhouse, where they commonly go during the day.  I'm going to run out there now and see what's going on!  Keith is going to load into the haybarn the twelve bales we had delivered today, decent horse hay and heavy square bales!

 

 

 

Sunday Thoughts

At church this morning, our pastor apologized because he could not leave the altar as usual, since his lapel mike was broken. Instead, he was stationary at the altar, speaking at the podium that the lector normally uses.  He aplogized for the inconvenience, and in the course of the sermon, talked about someone who  had to use "email" instead of Twitter or Facebook to communicate something rapidly.  Hasn't our world changed?  I remember when there was no such thing on your desk as a "PC"... and not dreamed of by the normal person. Dating me, I guess, but there's still life in the old girl yet, and this proves it:

Here I am trying to get out the pophole of the little henhouse this afternoon. Keith was laughing and took the picture... and no, I don't ALWAYS wear that blue blouse for chores.  I'm pretty dirty, as you can see.

I had to go roust these three:

I am telling you, silkie and silkie crosses are the broodiest hens on earth!

Before gathering the eggs, I had been working on this:

Part of that is a straw bale left out to decompose, and part of it is from here:

This was taken before I started to excavate with the pitchfork. The llamas use the barn during the summer during rainfall, otherwise they are outside.  I filled the larger of our two yardcarts, and then pulled it across the yard to the new garden bed.  I also worked in the current garden bed, and cut down spent monarda flowers... they smelled so good as I chopped.  I am going to dig the monarda up as soon as I have prepared the new bed.  It got WAYYY too big for it's place in the current bed. 

While I was doing that, Keith was doing this:

Yes, as you can see, the walls are going up.  We were up very late after his daughter's wedding reception last night, (for us) and I don't know where we found the strength... oh, wait a sec... while waiting for pictures to load in this post, I FELL ASLEEP IN THE OFFICE CHAIR.  I'll be working on that garden bed all week!

After I worked for a while (and then sat and talked to Keith for a while as he worked), I went over to the chicken yards to do chores. 

Here is what we have decided about the chicken houses. 

The little henhouse on stilts is needing modification.  It does not have an easy way to get eggs... and as you saw from picture one, I have to crawl in there when I can't roust the hens out with the every-handy mop.  We want to open the sides and make nest boxes that can be added to it, and checked from the outside, thereby freeing me from having to crawl in unless there is an emergency.  Today I got "stuck" in there and it is NOT pleasant. I had to call Keith on my cell from my pocket to come and rescue me.  It is also hard to heat in winter, we have to run a line from the big henhouse to it, and prop it up to keep a heat lamp going.  Last winter we did not have a base waterer for the water fountain, because I got shocked the year before and I admit it, I'm scared.

So.... what we will do is this:

The flock from the little henhouse will move to the new henhouse INCLUDING the roosters, when it is ready.  For the time being, it will be a regular henhouse with hens and roosters, instead of the laying house I envisioned.  That will come.

Second step:  fix the big henhouse.  We adapted that building from a living quarters/babysitting nursery for the pickers who used to work on the strawberry farm.  The eaves have rotted and we are invaded every winter by starlings, who poop over everything, not to mention bringing disease into the henhouse. It needs re-wiring and a thorough cleaning.  The current flock will stay in there for the winter, or move to the little henhouse while we work on it, we aren't sure yet.  Anyway, we envision (and Keith admitted this) that we are going to have three henhouses in action.  The little henhouse will either end up a breeding yard, or be the rooster yard, we aren't sure yet.  I am going to be busy in my retirement.

I had fun finally, just sitting for a while and watching the birds.  The ninety degree heat turned to windy with clouds, and a few sprinkles, so it was nice to sit relax.  I realized I was way too tired to go back to the garden.  In fact, I still need to go out and get the loppers.

Here is one of the two golden cochin pullets... isn't she pretty?

Boots and Baldy, the little Mille Fleur pullet who was attacked by the three Brahma roosters in the spring. Her feathers have grown back in spottily on her head.

This is the lesser of the two Partridge Cochin roos that I ended up with in the spring hatch that I bought. The sturdier of the pair is in the other henyard.  He's still a very beautiful boy, and Rambo does not beat up on these little roosters, so I am content to leave them be.

While Keith was working, I came in to take a breather at one point.  As I looked out the door, I saw hummingbirds on the re-blooming butterfly bushes.  I moved the hummingbird feeder out to the garden after re-filling it.  I don't think they like this feeder, however, as I have never seen them use it this year.  I am going back to the old ones.  Along with the hummers, I saw many beautiful large butterflies.  Here is one that wandered over to the large henyard.

 I am not sure what it is, but it's GORGEOUS.

And last but not least, here is Teeny, with her babies who are getting huge!

And that, my friends, is a heckuva post for the beginning of a four day week for me.

Yee HA!

More Chicken Stories

The little brassy back is still in the nursing cage, but still breathing hard, though he is perky and eating and drinking.  I need to get him out of the big henhouse and re-sanitize the cage, but just can't bear to put him down.  Maybe I won't have to, as I don't think his lungs will last much longer.  Keith has been so busy with evacuation planning that I think he has forgotten the poor little boy. 

I don't know what I did before I met Keith and married him, because I kept chickens then.  I don't remember ever having to put one down, though I had plenty killed by predators and several sicken and die on me.  I have grown to rely on him to do the one last job that sometimes must be done for the chicken's sake. 

Theresa, I will look into the QVC... the feed store we use does not have it, but I may be able to get it at Tractor Supply or from Smith Poultry Supply, where I got the Ozine. 

Speaking of feed stores, we have traded at this one long before we were married... I have used them for years.  They mix their own feeds, and I have always been satisfied, but they just went from a pelleted sheep feed to a sheep feed that resembles sweet feed.  Our llamas will not touch it, it has sat in the sun for two and a half days now.  If it ain't broke, don't screw with it, I say.  So there's a bag of feed wasted, and I'll have to find a use for it.  Then I'll have to find a pelleted sheep feed for the three llamas.  I tried alpaca "nuts" on them, and they stuck their noses up. 

Here is the little flock tonight, having a treat of cottage cheese... they love it, as you can tell!  It was a little cooler today, thank heavens. 

I love the colors of this flock, with it's mixtures.  Too many roosters, though.  I'm going to have to Craigslist them for chicken dinners, I'm afraid. The partridge Rocks and the Welsummers are right in there, having a treat with the adults. 

The big bird is one of the Rocks.

I started doing water, and then realized the "little girls" were having a treat by themselves... in one bowl I had poured the cottage cheese on top of some feed.

I have three Welsummer pullets, and three Partridge Rock pullets, and a cockerel (of course) of each.

These two did not come out for treats.  They have been "setting" for 3 weeks... but every night I get pecked to death stealing their eggs.  Biddy, the silkie on the left, is blue, but has a black head.  I have three blue silkie pullets, and (of course) a blue silky rooster.  That's a cochin/brahma cross hen next to her.

And here's Silka, my last purebred buff silky hen, thinking SHE's going to set.  I had to disabuse her of this idea. 

Here is the back of the little henhouse.  Everytime I open one of the two popholes at the back, feed falls out.  It turns to stinking muck on the ground when it rains, which is why you see boards on the ground.  I have to step on them or I sink into the muck.  There is a little stepladder under the henhouse, and I stand on that, use the mop you see in the picture, to pull the eggs toward me. Silka was in the farthest corner in the previous picture.  When we built this henhouse, it was the second year we were here, and we did not think to put popholes on the sides.  There is one at the front, and two cleanout doors at the back, but you cannot reach the eggs.  Keith is going to pour a cement pad later this summer so that I don't sink down when it's wet, and I'm cleaning this henhouse out probably this weekend, and rebedding it with wood shavings.  All of the sudden there is NO straw available here.  We are letting the two saplings grow that you see here, because they provide such good shade and they are holding the sloping ground. 

There have been no sick birds yet in this henhouse.

And lastly...

The porcelains are out of the big henhouse and in the yard of the little henhouse.  They are in the old rabbit hutch for the time being, they are the littlest of all the birds, and though I put them in with the juveniles one day, they were picked on the worst.  They are nice birds two pullets and (need I say it?) a COCKEREL.  As I have Angel already with Butch, I was glad to get the little porcelain cockerel. 

I'm scheming to make a pen for them in the little henyard where they can get down in the pen but live in the hutch at night.  I thought I had a line on another Ware chicken hutch with an attached pen on Craigslist, but it was sold before I could get to it.

I see Blogger has put the uploading tool back on, so you can see how fast your picture is loading, so that's good.

And here's my little blind Hannah waiting for me on the steps as I finished doing chores:

A Few Thoughts for A Sunday Evening

A very, very quiet Sunday here at Calamity Acres.  I went to church yesterday evening so that I could sleep in this morning, and did.  Normally, I wake up at light, but it was so cold and I was so warm... I slept until 8:30!  The first time I had done that in months!  Even the pugs were snuggled under the covers, and neither Lil or Ranger tried to get us up to get outside.  Finally, Keith got up and filled the first buckets, and it was his coming and going that finally woke me up.  I am always worried about the birds in the little henhouse, they have a warm light to keep warm, but their water freezes up during the night.  They are the first ones I "do" in the mornings, but by the time I got to the door, Keith was already coming from their direction. 

Today, I checked on them frequently, as it was very cold, only 17 or 18 degrees, and blowing snow for an hour or so.  We did not get any additional accumulation, though, so were grateful for that. 

I spent the morning and afternoon cleaning house, and working on the ever-present bill and correspondence pile, and answering some Christmas letters we had received and set aside for lengthy answers.  Yes, real snail mail! 

It was very peaceful, with the pugs snoring, Lilly Ann under the table, and Ranger on his pad.  The kitties slept away most of the day.  Keith went to church and to a golf equipment sale, which was poorly attended both by sellers and buyers, so came home empty-handed. 

We had some more discussion about our new henhouse, which will be built out near the garden beds.  Remember that we are going to do layered-bed gardening this year, because of the success I had with my flower bed last summer.  It was built on the ground without digging, with a layer of horse-manure-laden straw from the horse stable of last winter... our little garage building.... and with other straw and dirt and manure that we layered on it.  This henhouse will house standard size hens, and they will help do the composting right next to the garden.  The yard will be fenced with six foot high fence (because of Lilly Ann) and the henhouse will look like this:

One reason for that size is we have some new windows in the workshop that will fit, and provide great ventilation for the hens.

We have also learned that "If we build it, they will come".

Here is the first plan for the interior:

We have already decided I told Keith we are not putting a roost over a pophole, so that will be re-located.

This is the first design, after all.  There are two doors, because one will go into the henyard, and the other, out the front where the chicken-herding pugs can come in and out.  They will have a ventilation thingy on the front and back, and the door we go in and out will face east. 

Our idea here, is to ramp up egg production with our current large egg-layers (Ruby, Rosemary, Libby, and Birdy) and get about six to eight more hens to lay big eggs, as opposed to the smaller bantam eggs.  We are undecided as to Rambo's fate as this point. We do not necessarily want to move him over, but he IS a good caretaker for his girls.  There will only be one rooster, and NO ONE will be allowed to go broody in this henhouse (said by the Chicken Keeper in a stentorian voice).  We are thinking that a few of the smaller hens... Rosewitha and Dovey, the gray sisters, and the two tiny Japs, and the pretty black cochin, Lady, will move with them.

The really small birds, the cochin/silkie crosses will stay in the

little henhouse.

Eventually, the large henhouse will be converted again into the goat house, and when I am retired, we will use it to house our three (3) goats, their feed, and a small milkstand where the Goatherdess can milk out of the cold winter wind. 

I close tonight with a couple of pictures of grandson Nathan, who was kind enough to crawl into the henhouse yesterday to roust the THREE hens off their eggs... he took this picture:

Flicka herself, on the left, was born on Super Bowl Sunday last year.

Silka, on the right, has sat the last four clutches of eggs... and Fluffy, the girl in the middle, was born in June, 2010, herself, and started this whole thing.  I am NOT letting them brood... I managed to get two eggs out from under them today, after Nathan got six yesterday. 

Nathan ( my bread baking grandson) resembles Justin Bieber... and I call him "Biebs" as a nickname... here he is as his look-a-like:

and as of yesterday, he went from Justin Bieber to Justin Timberlake, equally as handsome:

Here's to another new week!